I cannot quite recall the smell of sugar beet. I really should be able to... it was without doubt one of the most distinctive smells of my childhood in Kidderminster. It permeated throughout the town on hot, sticky days in early Autumn. I remember playing football for the KD8 Cub Scout team, and the smell from the nearby sugar beet factory would be heavy in the air. It was a potent odour, but I always found it to be a pleasant one. It conjures happy memories for me now, of sugar-sweet childhood innocence and exuberance. It was a rich, thick, treacle-like smell, or at least that is what my brain tells me, for I am no longer sure how it smelt. In 2002 the factory closed down forever. The demolition job meanwhile has only just begun, with the chimney tower being pulled down last week. All that remains is a ghost in my mind of that syrupy fragrance which was once the perfume of Kidderminster...

Kidderminster is changing. Towns always change, but I have never really appreciated before how much Kidderminster has altered within my lifetime. The closing down of the sugar beet factory and decline of the carpeting industry obviously had a massive impact on what made Kidderminster what it was. It left physical environments awaiting redevelopment, and people's lives awaiting some kind of renaissance. The beginning of the new millennium seemed to bug our bittersweet town with uncertainty. The Ghost of Kidderminster Present haunted our derelict shops and deserted streets. It hung like some sinister black storm cloud above the decaying factories of our industrial town in decline, with the distant scent of the sugar beet driftng away on its ethereal breeze...

Perhaps I am guilty of being somewhat melodramatic, but clearly there has been a transformation in Kidderminster over the past few decades. Just before Christmas I wrote a blog called The Ghost of Kidderminster Past, in which I examined old postcards of our town (Click here to view this blog). I commented then how little some things have changed over the past hundred years, Vicar Street for example looked particularly unaltered by the passing of time. Reconsidering this though, it is obvious that actually a great deal of redevelopment has taken place.

Before I was birthed into this mortal coil, Kidderminster saw the opening of the Glades Leisure Centre, the creation of the ring road and the building of both the Swan and Rowland Hill shopping centres. Meanwhile within my relatively ephemeral existence, there have been the developments of Crossley Retail Park and Weavers Wharf. The redundant factories and dilapidated car parks have been replaced with vibrant commercial centres, which bring new life and fresh opportunity to our town centre.

It can be argued that all this has destroyed our entire heritage, that it has removed the very thing that gave Kidderminster its own unique character. It can be argued that Kidderminster is simply turning into a clone of every other town, with sixteen Subways and an obligatory Wetherspoons. Perhaps all of this is true, but towns have to adapt to the changing times or face falling into economic decline. As a result of the developments in recent years Kidderminster is not a town in recession as it easily could be. I believe that we are expanding and exorcising The Ghost of Kidderminster Present once and for all. Aye, Kidderminster is a-changin’, but I feel the change has the potential to be as sweet as that once-smelt sugar beet...

I invite your comments and opinions as many of you readers will have been in these parts a lot longer than I. In any case, please join me again later in the week when I will be looking at what the future holds for our town. I will consider the redevelopment of the piano building, the proposed Debenhams at Slingfield Mill and the impact the market is having on our hometown. The question is, do we really have anything to fear from The Ghost of Kidderminster Yet to Come?

Once again, tak Kiddy!