In the previous post I mentioned brownness. For me its something that I perceive in the surrounding area around Tamworth. Other brownness towns are Measham, Moira, Burton upon Trent. The greenery is often talked about and applauded when talking about the english countryside, and its true that around here especially now greenery is everywhere. Brownness though is something deeper, it’s the light, its something you feel when you come back after being away for a long time. I can’t put my finger on it so I call it brownness. It’s the colour of its beers, bitters, ales, milds, its industrial past, the colour of the bricks, canals, factories, it’s the colour of its farms, buildings,even that most famous Tamworth export the Tamworth pig is brown. Most of all its the colour of its earth, in winter you can really appreciate it, it’s that heavy clay soil that pervades everything, absorbs the surroundings sometime even suffocating thought. Maybe its responsible for that characteristic down to earth nature that is sometimes so refreshing after living away but at the same time constrictive and suffocating. Anyway there’s my case for brownness in words but when talking about colour I should really make my case through images so here goes:
Above is a Tamworth colour chart I’ve done, Its been created through photoshop and the colours samples all come from photos of Tamworth
Tamworth camouflage: I’ve reworked the soldiers camouflage with the Tamworth colour scheme, notice how well camouflaged he is on Tamworth´s Market street.
Tamworth pig, embassador of Tamworths brownness
Notice guy in centre in photo above, he knows what I´m talking about and you know what it works.
Tamworth Time Hikes 
Fascinating stuff.
For some reason, I do associate towns and cities with particular colours. Birmingham a bluey-grey, Manchester a fiery orange-red, Paris a rich, deep purple and Rome a sandy, decaying shade of grey (apologies for the shameless name-dropping).
How much physical, social and industrial geography plays its part in these colours is worthy of greater debate. Is architecture the main the driving force, or are things like civic logos, tourist branding and even the strips of the local football team influential on (or reflective of) the colours too?
Or is the choice of colour simply formed from personal, subjective associations one has with a particular place eg. Paris with romance, Rome with the ancient empire etc.
And if this is the case, does the mind automatically filter out other colours when visiting or imagining the locale, and instead simply zone in on the colour that matches its own unique preconceptions?
However, I’m straying way beyond my field of expertise and knowledge! Whatever the answer, I’d like to see a more detailed study on the psychological effects of ‘brownness’ on the inhabitants of the Tamworth area.
Which brings me to one more archaeological find in the town, in addition to the Seckington earthwork you mentioned later in your blog. Apparently there is a burial mound somewhere on the Lichfield Rd Industrial Estate, where victims of the 20th century slave labour trade, inflicted by local employment agencies, are rumoured to be buried.
In keeping with the Anglo-Saxon heritage of the town, the victims were entombed with items they could take with them into the afterlife. But it’s not jewellery, personal mementos or keepsakes.
Instead, it’s their own mobile phones, so Darren and Dave from First Personnel can still call them every morning at 6am with promises of amazing career opportunities…..
[…] Finally going as deep as possible now. From looking at arch reports for area, there existed an excavated roman site in the area, probably a romano-briton farmstead or military post complete with a sandal some roman left behind, right next to Wigginton park, so it’s totally feasible to speculate that the area was farmed and inhabited in Roman times. It’s now underneath Lichfield Industrial estate together with those hapless agency workers. […]