Mystery on Hill Street

Today, one of those mysteries which has been puzzling me for a long time, and while my investigations in the library have cast some light on it I still don't fully have the history at my fingertips.
The picture which illustrates this post is of the remains of a building in a car park on Hill Street (B5) next to the former Crown Inn. I have been passing it for yonks and wondered what that stump of a building could be. Appearances would suggest a rather grand-ish building: I haven't gone close enough to see but it looks as if it was faced with terracotta on a brick structure, so the only thing which stopped me imagining that it was another gin palace was the close proximity of The Crown.
The Crown next door, and the fact St Jude's church used to be just over the road, should have made it relatively easy to find images of the area, but I have completely failed to find any pictures of that part of Hill Street as it was before my mystery building was demolished. Or rather before the owners of the land had someone in who thankfully left a bit of the building as a boundary, leaving a mystery for the Hound to look into years later. My own Kelly's Directory of 1967-8 was no use at all, showing nothing at all in that gap. So a trip to the library was indicated to look back through the street directories, so this post will go back in time rather than forward, because even in Kelly's the trail vanishes.
The last indication of a building in use I have found on that spot (it's number 23-25 Hill Street), is 1962, Harry J Evans was running his motor car dealers business from there. I would therefore theorise that it was after that the building was demolished. Mr Evans seems to have begun his business (at least at that address) after the Second World War, and the property was empty through the war years.
A previous motor sales business at this address was run by Henry Garner Ltd (his earliest appearance is 1914) - but in the 1930s the address was shared by Frederick Marsh Ltd, mantle manufacturers. This both suggests that business wasn't brisk enough to take up the whole building, and also shows the distance in time - I imagine Marsh Ltd manufactured gas mantles, surely an industry which has completely died out now.
In fact the site has a long connection with motor dealerships because in 1912 is the first record of Burn and Gould, motor car agents, operating from the address. However the site further shows industry evolving in the area because from 1909 to 1910 (with again no entry in 1911) the site was occupied by Millington and Sheldrick Ltd, paper manufacturers. I imagine the relatively grand building was constructed with a showroom space on the ground floor (which was obviously adapted to showing different goods over the years) and manufacturing rooms above. Sadly unless a picture appears we will now never know.
My hypothetical showroom had yet another previous use, since from 1900 the property was occupied by C. H. Price and Sons, house furnishers.
And I'm afraid 1900 is as far back as I can go - the directories further back never show anything at this address. As for what was there before, I really do have to guess, although since the whole of that area was redeveloped and gentrified through the 19th century, it could have been slum dwellings. So it looks as if the history of my stump will never be completely elucidated, but appears to be the remains of a building built around 1900 and used for a bare sixty-something years before being demolished, until the neighbourhood witch wandered past another fifty-five years later and wondered what was there before.

Never Alone: Divine as Spirit Companion

'A Witch Alone' and 'Wicca - A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner' are two of the better-known titles of books for people learning my sort of witchcraft. I have read both of them, and learned things from them, before developing on using the skills I learned, into my own sort of witch. Of course the titles of those books and all others of their ilk are a bit of a misnomer - they actually mean to address witches who are not members of covens. I have a feeling that the authors of both would agree with my own bold assertion that it is impossible ever to be alone as a witch.
As magical people one of the foundational principles we live is the interconnectedness of all things. Yes, of course it is possible for me to be disconnected from another person or thing, but that has to be a conscious disconnection, and much of the work of magic is deciding which connections we make. As soon as anyone starts the practice of magic, any nearby beings of any description sit up and pay attention, and that is why so many magical traditions so strongly emphasise cleansing and stilling rituals.
Nor are we alone on our own plane. Witches instinctually know each other and are drawn to each other. Even not in a formal coven the witch will find herself with other pagical practitioners around her, and this can sometimes cause some weirdness in events, since not all planes are functioning at the same time.
In my last post I said that I was going to get some supplies to cast a spell and get rid of my supervisor. I have decided not to, because two of my magical companions have already commented that she is as good as gone. For one thing I wouldn't want to slap the universe's gift of liberation, in the face.
For another thing, I can instinctually feel when magic is working and the way I always know is that I get a feeling of ecstasy. I mean this word literally in the sense of standing outside of normal reality and I JUST KNOW. The initial irritation has also left me completely, so I know that the problem has been dealt with and it has left  me to go home to roost. For another the universe always ushers new paths, resources, and people into my way when this happens. I have several unconventional magical companions, who are mostly dead, but a couple are more like egregores. Yes, he's dead, but older readers will remember in the lovely Grant Morrison's Invisibles when King Mob invoked the spirit of John Lennon as of a god. I'm very fond of the egregore of Patsy Stone from Absolutely Fabulous, personally, but I have remade the acquaintance of someone who has appeared on the edges of my world now and then for years. 'You will dance, sing, feast, make music and love, all in my praise,' says the Goddess in Aradia, and I'm delighted that I can provide an ecstatic song sung by one of my inspirations/magicl companions, egregores, below.

My Destiny, Will, and Bliss

I haven't had to post about my work life here for some time. Regular readers will remember that I literally walked out of my last but one employers without notice. I am delighted to announce that they have recently been inspected by the body which regulates our industry and the report is, frankly, abysmal. I knew for a fact it was bad, but if they can't even get it together for an inspection, it's falling apart even faster than I thought it was. I will also leave it to the gentle reader to wonder whether The Hound can claim any credit for their tumbling down the league tables.
My new employer is much better. One of the strangest things is that the boss is extraordinarily able to handle me, much the best manager I have ever had in that respect. And we all know that if an INFJ likes you we'll happily throw the rule book out of the window and eat out of your hand, so he's onto a good thing.
Unfortunately he's made a bit of a mistake in employing the woman who is my immediate supervisor. She's not actually bad (see, here is a rare opportunity for the Hound to be a model of reasonableness and restraint), but she's been promoted beyond her ability. The team is fortunately made up of very able and very young people, so that it leads itself, because her ability to lead isn't that good and she's very keen on telling other people what to do when she isn't performing that well herself. When it came to her appraisal, the feedback from the team was overwhelmingly bad about the way she speaks to people and her attitude generally. Apparently this has dented her confidence to the extent that she's having difficulty going on - as you can see she is what I believe is called in army sarcastic slang, a 'born leader of men'. As a result of this loss of confidence she has become even more hands off than she already was and in fact even sits away from the rest of the team, facing into a corner. I have limited sympathy for her because she took the job thinking that it would be a stepping stone to something else that she thinks she wants to do.
The reason any of this is appearing on this blog is as a preface to the fact that I do feel witches have a purpose. I had a go at witchcraft many years ago and returned during a difficult period of my life. I had some people who owed me (how familiar) and would not sit with them having wronged me, but didn't know what to do because I had read a lot of fluffy literature about sweetness and light. A friend put me right by telling me that the witch's function is to hold up a mirror to people so that they can then get on with their own life's work, lightened of whatever rubbish they've got going on. This is the reason I'm perpetually surrounded by conflict (which I don't start) and idiots (whom I abhor): the universe sends them to me because I can deal with them, so that I end up attracting the same nonsense repeatedly.
But this time I'm in a markedly different place. I've decided what I'm going to do on a very simple principle, which is to ask myself whether I want this idiot to be in my life at all. The answer is of course, no, and tomorrow I'll be popping to the market because there are some things I want to attain this end. She'll learn her lesson if she hasn't already and I won't have her in my life at all.