Apologies that the blog has been quiet the last couple of weeks or so but thanks to all the responses to thew last edition about Fellows Park. Good to know that there is still a lot of love for the proper home of Walsall FC. If you missed it, you can catch it here

Reports have surfaced on local Facebook groups of late saying that Walsall Leather Museum is under threat again with the neighbouring college wanting to buy the building to flatten it to extend their premises. I don’t know if it’s true or not but why would anyone make this up? I’ll admit I’ve only ever been once but on these posts were a list of events this week and one was make your own clay Easter bunny. I thought this might be fun for Josh’s kids so I mentioned it to him. I fessed up that I wanted to create clay goodness in rabbit form also. He’d never been so was up for it.

This morning Josh called me, then turned up and whisked me off to his to provide breakfast then myself, him and his eldest daughter Maizie headed there.

The museum was opened in 1988 by Princess Anne and has been a popular tourist attraction ever since. We arrived and headed straight through to the exhibits. In the first part I explained to Josh the phrase “I’ve not got a pot to piss in” came from the leather industry as urine used to be used in the production and people would sell it to the manufactures but the poor couldn’t as they hadn’t a pot to piss in. I don’t think he believed it and to be fair it may be rubbish but somebody told it me in the pub once, and like I said earlier why would you make that up?

The museum is set up as display cabinets and actual workshop recreations, the best of the former being the Walsall FC one featuring the actual matchball from our best ever FA Cup victory against Arsenal in 1933.

We headed downstairs and paid up for the bunny making activity and also grabbed drinks. Two coffee’s and a Pepsi Max came out at £2.80. Well, I’m pretty sure it was £2.80. I can’t quite remember and I wasn’t really paying attention to be perfectly honest. I was thinking of a name for my creation and came up with Dougie Bunny just as my change was being handed back to me.

We went into the craft room which was very busy. Initially just Maizie was given a lump of clay, me and Josh exchanged glances, he read my mind yet again and went up and asked questions and soon we all had clay.

Maizie started on her bunny and Josh created a clay WFC, which as far as I was concerned was good enough for The Turner Award. My start was delayed as I was looking around on the off chance that there might be a pottery wheel and wondering if any of the ladies would be up for recreating the scene from Ghost. I had Unchained Melody in my head as I started work on Dougie Bunny. It felt like something out of The Generation Game with both me and Maizie making bunnies out of clay. I would have liked to have heard Bruce Forsyth’s comments on my work. Dougie in truth looked more like a snowman with big ears. In rabbit terms he was more akin to the one out of Donnie Darko or maybe Watership Down than the elegance of the Cadbury Caramel one. Maizie’s looked good though and I think her points would have got us through to the final.

Josh rushed off to get the car and Maizie wrapped up our models. By the time we got to the car though she reported that one of Dougie’s ears had fallen off. Typical. I’d created something that was going to be out injured a lot.

This was a great visit though. Josh and I have been mates for 15 years and don’t do cultural stuff like this, so it was a nice change. The Leather Museum is a great place to visit and free to enter. It’s future is unclear so please support if you can.