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It is 42 years since Star Wars first came out. Not being much of a film fan, I only ever saw the original of the whole saga in a cinema. However, I have never forgotten the event as it was the first and only time I've ever known applause to break out in a cinema at the end of the film.
Fast forward to 2019 and who would have expected such an interesting United special livery to promote the latest episode "Star Wars : The Rise of Skywalker" The United aircraft is a B737 (N36272) and is photographed here on departure from Houston to San Francisco. The details are more visible on large size.
I'm sure it must have happened before but the inside of the aircraft is also themed and can be seen in this link that also explains some of the details of the livery www.insider.com/photos-inside-united-airlines-star-wars-b...
Thanks to Kim for making the diptych!
BITHBOX # 078
Midnight, August 14th 2017, is the 50th anniversary of the UK Marine Broadcasting (Offences) Act 1967 becoming law. Whilst other offshore stations succumbed, Caroline famously continued broadcasting...
...and still broadcasts today, a remarkable achievement! You can listen to their live anniversary programming via this link. Some, if not all, is coming from their final vessel, MV Ross Revenge, currently moored along the River Blackwater.
www.radiocaroline.co.uk/#home.html
Jimmy McGriff's evocative track has been chosen partly for its title; partly because other tracks intimately associated with Caroline have already featured on this flickr stream and partly because I remember it from Radio Caroline North anchored off Ramsey, Isle of Man. For a time, Caroline North used to close down during the evening hours, but re-open broadcasting from midnight until 2 a.m. then closing down again with 'Round Midnight.
The photo above features the MV Caroline, Radio Caroline North's ship. It is on the front cover of my Radio Caroline Club booklet, sent to you along with other goodies when you joined.
Note : The photo of the booklet was taken today. However, for old times' sake, I've put the geotag at the approximate location from where Caroline North broadcast during the mid-sixties.
A most unexpected item for this week's Saturday Timewatch. I came across this poster yesterday. It is displayed at Staverton Station on the South Devon Railway, a heritage railway that runs from Buckfastleigh to Totnes. Previously I had no idea GWR ever operated an airline!
For overseas readers, GWR stands for Great Western Railway, a name that is still in use today. Their own website has this to say about a short-lived foray into air transport.
"The GWR formed its own air service in 1933 but operated independently for only a year before the Railway Air Service was formed by the Big Four railway companies (including GWR) in collaboration with Imperial Airways to provide internal services to connect with Imperial’s international flights. One of the most important routes was Cardiff to Plymouth and Cardiff to Liverpool and Birmingham. The RAS was absorbed into the nationalised company British European Airways in 1947"
Now, where were we with fossil hunting.....
These items are what we found at Charmouth last week.
Top left : Three broken pieces of belemnite. They are extinct marine creatures closely related to modern day squids and octopuses. What you see here are examples of their guard, their hard internal skeleton.
Top right : Fossilised shell, probably a bivalve shell.
Around the edge : Three complete and three broken pieces of ammonite, all in rather poor condition. They are extinct marine molluscs, again related to squids and octopuses.
Centre : Either the most or the least interesting item is in the centre. We think there are three possibilities i.e. fossil wood; fossil bone or rock without any fossil interest. We gave AI a go and it came up with the same three possibilities. Unfortunately, the local Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre was closed on the day of our visit so we weren't able to ask a volunteer expert for their opinion. We hope to get an opinion later in the year on another visit.
Southern Pacific Railroad advertising poster, circa 1950.
Interesting to note that some 67 years later, Amtrak's service on the same route takes 44 hours 35 minutes.
This weekend's gala at Swanage Railway features no less than FIVE Bulleid locomotives to mark 2017 as the 50th Anniversary of the final operation of steam hauled services on the Southern Region of British Railways.
In the above photo, Battle of Britain Class 34081 92 Squadron is about to depart Swanage Station with another nearly full load of passengers. She is named after the famous Spitfire squadron based at various airfields but most revered for their operations from Biggin Hill during the Battle of Britain in 1940. Entering service from Brighton works in 1948, her mainline career ended when she was withdrawn from Eastleigh shed in 1964. Finally restored, she spent 10 years on the heritage circuit from 1998-2008. After major work she has just re-entered service for a third time earlier this year, now wearing the British Railways malachite-and-sunshine livery.
In the background, Battle of Britain Class 34053 Sir Keith Park awaits her turn.
Why "Bullied"?? Southern Railway's Chief Mechanical Engineer Oliver Bulleid designed SR's West Country and Battle of Britain classes, collectively known as 4-6-2 Light Pacifics or informally as Spam Cans.
I'd put money on that most of my UK contacts will have owned at least one Observer's Book in their childhood, often given to them as a Xmas or birthday present. First published in 1937, the last, numbered 100 in the series, came out in 2003 entitled "Wayside and woodland".
I don't know if there were similar publications in other countries?
One for the aircraft fans that frequent my stream. You know who you are! As you know I'm not a fan of planes on poles, much preferring them either in the air or undercover in a hangar museum so they are not rusting away. However, this was an unexpected "discovery" at Texas City. So this week's Saturday Timewatch goes back a century.
The historical claim by Texas City, though open to different interpretations, has some validity. Previously the U.S. Signal Corps possessed a small number of balloons and a dirigible. They also tested an airplane at Fort Myer, Va. in Aug 1908. Within a month, Lt. Thomas E. Selfridge, flying with Orville Wright, was killed when the plane crashed thus becoming the first military aviation casualty. After more testing with an improved Wright Flyer, the U.S. Army Signal Corps formally accepted this airplane, identified as "Airplane No. 1," on Aug. 2, 1909. By October 1912 they had 9 active aircraft.
This is where the story moves to Texas City. The 2nd Division of the United States Army deployed from Augusta, Georgia to Texas City in 1913 to guard the Gulf Coast from incursions during the Mexican Revolution. Nearly half of the nation's land military personnel set up camp! This was due to the perceived double threat that the Mexican Revolution might spill over across the border or that the neighboring country might become a German ally in the incipient World War. It was from within their ranks that the 1st Aero Division was formed, the Wright brothers trained over a dozen soldiers as military pilots. It is this official formation of an airborne unit upon which Texas City claims its place as "the birthplace of the U.S. Air Force".
However, it wasn't until 1947 that the U.S Air Force became a separate military service.
The fully loaded steam powered coal barge “Minx” broke her moorings one night during November 1927. She drifted unnoticed without her crew through Portland Harbour and across Weymouth Bay, finally coming to rest on Frenchman’s Ledge where she was wrecked. The following morning apparently produced frantic activity from the locals, as the Minx’s cargo of coal started to wash ashore.
Taken during a very low spring tide, this photo shows her remains towards the bottom left corner of the photo. The Isle of Portland is in the distance.
This photo shows the station staff who worked at Sturminster Newton station on the old Somerset & Dorset line. The original image features on an interpretation board where the station used to be. I don't know the name of the photographer or the exact date. However, from the board I do know that the gentleman in the middle of the front row (with the dog) was William Henry Owen, Station Master there for 41 years until his retirement in 1921.
John Constable is best known for his landscape paintings around Dedham Vale, Suffolk. Less well known are a series of paintings from October and November 1816 when he and his bride took a 6 week honeymoon in Osmington, Dorset. Several of those paintings are featuring here during November, with comparison photos taken 200 years later.
This is the third of the series to be posted and the most recognisable location today. His painting shows the tiny 'harbour' at Osmington Mills with a protective outcrop of cliff and a natural barrier of rocks out to sea. The Isle of Portland is in the distance. You can see the modern view below.
Continuing the Isle of Portland then and now series, this really is the same place as in the modern scene shown below. To confirm that, look at the hill top in both photos.
Taken by an unknown photographer late in the 19th century, this shows quarried stone blocks being loaded onto carts for onward transfer down to the port in Castletown. Note the supervisor's cottage behind the cart!
The Moody Blues played Houston last week as part of their 50th Anniversary Tour celebrating the release of their second album "Days of Future Passed" In fact they played the album in its entirety. I must be getting passed it as well, failing to get the camera through security. So this is the best that could be done with a phone shot from up in the gods.
You'll already know that most audience-based footage of concerts is rubbish. Poor sound, but worst of all people seem incapable of holding their phones steady and can't resist constant panning and zooming in and out. The video below is a very honourable exception and shows the band line-up pretty much as it was in Houston.
Bithbox # 085
A midweek "Timewatch"!
This is one of c60 pages in a school exercise book entitled "North and Mid Wales" dating from around 1960. It is my hand drawn map of parts of Caernarfonshire and Snowdonia, North Wales.
The circumstances of such a big school project have frankly been lost in the mists of time. However, during most school and bank holidays, my parents would take me to this area where they owned a small caravan. Therefore, even at a tender age I knew the area quite well. I also loved maps!
My best guesses are that it was either a summer holiday assignment or one that was set for me to do at home after coming out of hospital. I'll never know. By the way, whoever marked the assignment clearly didn't give it that much attention. There are quite a few pencil ticks but no comments until on the last and 59th page there is a single '70 Good' !
This week's Saturday Timewatch features Amersfoort, Holland. It was not a city that I knew much about. What a revelation! It surely has to be one of the best preserved medieval 'old towns' in northern Europe. In fact you could easily take a photo of the above 1580 plan and use it as a modern-day map to get around. Lots of the old buildings also still survive.
Highly recommended should you get the chance to visit.
This week's "Saturday Timewatch" goes way back to long before homo sapiens ever walked the Earth. The overall alligator family goes back some 37 million years. More recently, this American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) shown above is well represented in the Pleistocene fossil record going back 2.5 million years. However, in 2016, a nearly identical fossil skull to the above animal was discovered in Florida. That 'sister' species discovery, means that the American Alligator can now be traced back 8 million years to a near-identical but as far as i know 'unnamed' species.
By comparison, humans evolved comparatively recently from earlier hominids, around 200,000 - 300,000 years ago.
A Southern Pacific Lines train leaves Houston Union Station circa 1950. The number '2' on the front of the locomotive denotes that it is a Sunset Limited service eastbound to New Orleans.
If I've understood the literature correctly, Alco built the 2,000 horsepower diesel PA-1 locomotive # 205 sometime between September 1946 and June 1950. The carriages, built by a different company were also state of the art at that time. Part of a much longer Pacific to Gulf Coast timetable, the journey time in 1950 between Houston and New Orleans was 7 hours. The same route in 2017 takes 9 hours 30 minutes!
This weekend's Saturday Timewatch features the American Airlines' livery that pays homage to Reno Air.
Reno Air was a short-lived but reasonably successful low-cost start-up that operated its first flight in 1992. Using new aircraft and quickly establishing a reputation for reliability, its selling point was to be a cut above the competition whilst still offering low fares. The company was acquired by American in 1999.
The B737-800 above (N916NN) was delivered to AA in 2013 and given the "Reno Air Heritage" special paint scheme in 2015. On this flight the aircraft is seen arriving at Houston George Bush Intercontinental from Chicago.
A bit of a theme has developed this trip with Texas 'institutions' such as bbq, Buc-ee's and Shiner already featuring. Next up for this week's Saturday Timewatch is Blue Bell ice cream.
Painted by TX artist Benjamin Knox, the painting displayed at Blue Bell's museum celebrated the company's centenary in 2007.
Ahem : Yes, I did get my $1 tub of triple chocolate ice cream.
This week's Saturday Timewatch visits the cockpit of a Lockheed C-60A delivered to the USAAF Dec 22 1942. As N31G is still airworthy I tried to persuade the powers-that-be to let me take her up. They didn't seem too keen............
Sometimes it takes an expert's eye to highlight what is around you. That was the case here.
We had walked along this length of pedestrian pavement on several occasions but had never noticed the unusual make-up of the stone wall. Whilst on a Portland archaeological walk with Andrea Frankham-Hughes, she pointed out the huge boulders in the wall of which there were more than just these two. Rather than being left over from quarry workings, they are believed to have come from a nearby, no longer existing, stone circle on a site destined for development.
We could certainly see that they could easily have been standing stones in the distant past.
This week's Saturday Timewatch features a slogan synonymous with Texas. Now commonly used by Texans as an an identity statement, a declaration of Texas independence and pride in the state, the phrase started out over 35 years ago as an anti-litter slogan www.dontmesswithtexas.org/about/history/
Hugely successful, it is still used as that to this day. All sorts of well-known Texans have been involved in promoting the campaign over the decades including musicians Stevie Ray Vaughan, Lyle Lovatt, George Strait, LeAnn Rimes, Joe Ely and of course Willie and his son Lukas Nelson.
Here is one of Willie's campaign adverts www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6aAX1X8ho0
Now renamed the Commemorative Air Force, here is an older one featuring a CAF B-17.
This week's Saturday Timewatch features the Showboat Pavilion, Texas City, another in my Last Picture Show series. It opened in 2002 on the site of the original Showboat Theater that was finally demolished in 2000 after years of neglect. Several features of the original building were recreated, retained or re-used including. The facade is similar to the the original and the tower is a replica. A large part of the original terrazzo floor, featuring a steamboat, was salvaged and now forms the centrepiece of the lobby floor. Architect Joe Hoover said "I tried to preserve the integrity of an historical icon"
You can see more of The Last Picture Show here
A whole new meaning is given to the phrase "rolling stock" in this gravity siding. Not my original but a photo of one displayed at Maiden Newton Station, Dorset. No date is given.
Those who know a lot more about the operation of railways than myself may well be familiar with the concept of a "gravity siding". I certainly wasn't! So this is what I understand to be happening here.
Arriving from the direction of the bridge, the steam locomotive has already pulled the two carriages into the platform at the extreme left. Once the passengers have departed, the engine has then pushed the carriages up the slope of the siding to the left of the water tower. Once uncoupled, the loco has returned into the platform and subsequently moved out of the way to its present position. Under the control of the guard, the carriages are then rolled back down the incline to the platform so that the engine can rejoin the set for the return journey out of Maiden Newton Station.
The Maiden Newton to Bridport (and eventually West Bay) branch line ran for about 10 miles off the still operational Yeovil Pen Mill to Weymouth route. Remarkably it survived the infamous Beeching "axe" but eventually bit the dust some 10 years later in 1975. It is still easy to see various bridges along the branch line and some sections of trackbed though most are very heavily overgrown. By the way, that property is still also standing and occupied.
I am not a Liverpool supporter. However, this weekend is the 25th Anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster when 96 Liverpool football fans died due to the total incompetence and prejudice of Yorkshire's police. All matches in the top five levels of English football kick off 7 minutes late, 6 minutes representing the time that passed before the game was stopped with people already dead on the terraces and the seventh minute being that of silence. All of football will join together in memory of those who died (and the hundreds who were injured) in Britain's worst stadium disaster. For those abroad who may not know, the music below is Liverpool's anthem, sung by the crowd before every home game.
BITHBOX#033
GERRY AND THE PACEMAKERS "YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE"
"What shall we do with a drunken sailor?"
Following on from flic.kr/p/2rbqgsN this display indicated the typical sailor's diet in the time of the Mary Rose during first half of the 16th century. Remember that beer was a much safer drink than water in those days!
Today, Sunday 24th March 2024, is just 4 years and two days after the day before Britain's full lockdown in 2020. That also was a Sunday. In fact it was also Mother's Day.
Everyone knew at least the gist if not the detail of what was coming on Monday 23rd March 2020 when the Prime Minister was scheduled to broadcast to the nation. So it is no surprise that we, like so many others, took our last chance to get out and about. In beautiful spring weather, we chose a walk in deepest Dorset. It was a bittersweet day for obvious reasons.
Next day, Boris Johnson announced "From this evening I must give the British people a very simple instruction - you must stay at home"
Four years later, with the benefit of hindsight, reading his full speech is very interesting. You can do so here www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-address-to-the-nation-o...
This qualifies as a 'Saturday Timewatch' because Ray Benson's Asleep at the Wheel have now been rollin' along the musical highway venues for 55 years. They are yet another hard working band who pretty much single-handedly have kept western swing alive. A couple of nights ago, we were delighted to see them perform live for the second time in a small theatre at Brenham, TX.
Below is the title track off their new and 63rd album (including compilations). Whilst Ray still leads on many tracks, fiddler Ian Stewart takes the strain off Ray for vocals on this one.
jukebox # 521
www.starnow.co.uk/christopherw33618
2020 Reel youtu.be/fXhm5se6H3c
2017 Reel www.starnow.com/media/778224
2016 Reel www.starnow.co.uk/media/623368
2015 Reel www.starnow.co.uk/media/500618
Crew CV crew.mandy.com/uk/crew/profile/chris-christopher-wilson
wartimeproductions.co.uk/index.html
In Film and Television
Bletchley Park and its tremendous story have featured regularly in film and television over the past few years. From the BBC’s Antiques’ Roadshow to Operation Mincemeat, the Timewatch Special, Codebreakers: Bletchley Park’s Lost Heroes and the blockbuster film The Imitation Game, all filmed on location at Bletchley Park.
The Imitation Game
The Oscar-nominated movie, The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley, was screened in cinemas around the world in 2014 and 2015. Filmed partly on location at Bletchley Park, the behind-the-scenes video can be viewed here.
Bletchley Park: Code-Breaking’s Forgotten Genius
In September 2015, BBC2 broadcast its documentary about Gordon Welchman, Bletchley Park: Code-breaking’s Forgotten Genius, filmed extensively on location at Bletchley Park.
The Bletchley Circle
The hugely popular ITV drama, The Bletchley Circle Series One and Two, was broadcast in the UK and the US and in the UK attracted an average of 5 million viewers per episode. Both series were filmed on location at Bletchley Park.
From an unknown date and an unknown photographer, this is a photo of Jesty's at 1, Straits, Easton, Isle of Portland. Compare and contrast to the photo of the same address today and you can see that the only external feature that survives is the first floor window.
At some point, a building extension has been added filling in the gap where the gate behind the cart used to be. This must have happened in relatively recent times as the gates were still there when "Portland Spice", a business previous to todays' Chinese takeaway occupied the site.
EDIT : Note that things have moved on and my comparison building immediately below is incorrect. It is across the street from "Flavour of Asia" correctly identified by David!
Taken from the narrow, very narrow, dead-end lane to West Chelborough, this week's Sunday Landscape features Castle Hill, East Chelborough.
It dates to the 11th-13th centuries and features a motte and bailey design introduced by the Normans. Whether it was used as a fortification, an aristocratic residence, an administrative centre or a combination of all three is not known.
I can't find any suggestion that there was an earlier hillfort here on top of which the 'castle' was built centuries later. However, I do wonder if that was the case given how many hillforts there are across Dorset.
Thanks to Mark Evans for inspiring this post of a photo taken 9 years ago at Manchester. You can see Mark's original below.
The main purpose is to share the Hale and Pace comedy sketch from which Mark captured a couple of frames. I'll readily admit I'd never heard of this clip let alone seen it. Apologies to those of you with White Rose heritage. It is just a bit of fun, though I fear if you are from across the Atlantic, you might not totally understand the humour! Fortunately one of the best traits of being English is the ability to laugh at ourselves and not take things too seriously. Enjoy the video.
...with a remarkable zero comments...
jukebox # 522
With the long-term decline in traditional AM radio stations continuing, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find radio towers. They are disappearing just like gas holders in the UK! This tower in Bellville was originally used by KACO, a country station. Numerous owners and station idents came and went culminating in KULF. That finally closed down in 2022. The tower is now used by an amateur radio club.
Joe Ely's track is one of my favourites, so evocative of place and time. So permit me a memory.
It was back in the 1960s when most European stations closed down at midnight. At that time it was quite possible to pick up American AM stations that 'skipped' the Atlantic at night. One that regularly drifted in was clear-channel 50,000 watt WOWO out of Fort Wayne, Indiana. On my first ever US visit using the Greyhound to travel around, imagine my delight when the bus unexpectedly rolled past WOWO's massive tower situated on a hill outside of town!
BA operates a dozen Airbus A380 aircraft with eighteen A350 on order. However, this photo features all three of the airline's current long-haul Boeing aircraft.
Taken from inside Heathrow's T5 on a murky afternoon, an unidentified B777 stands in the foreground. Parked alongside is B787-8 Dreamliner G-ZBJI due to depart later for Durban, South Africa. In the distance B747 Jumbo G-CIVO, sporting a One World livery, is seen at the moment of rotation en route to Phoenix, Arizona. The fourth visible BA aircraft is an unidentified short-haul flight taxiing out for take-off.
This week's Saturday Timewatch goes back to the era of Roman Britain. When the Romans developed Bath's already existing warm water spring area into a fully-fledged bath complex, there was so much water flowing that they had to build an overflow and also a culvert to channel the excess water into the nearby river. It still exists and still flows to this very day.
Remaining derricks on the Isle of Portland, Dorset, haven't loaded Portland stone onto small vessels waiting alongside the cliff for many decades, probably a century. Nevertheless, they remain a fascinating reminder of Portland's industrial heritage as a modern-day cargo vessel heads into Portland Harbour.
This week's Saturday Timewatch visits Grey Mare and her Colts, a long barrow megalithic tomb in deepest Dorset dating from between 3400-2400 BC i.e. a rather long time ago.
A replay for this track which is about the ancient site.
John Constable is best known for his landscape paintings around Dedham Vale, Suffolk. Less well known are a series of paintings from October and November 1816 when he and his bride took a 6 week honeymoon in Osmington, Dorset. Several of those paintings will feature here in the coming weeks, with comparison photos taken 200 years later.
First up is Constable's painting of Weymouth Bay, looking from the shore of Osmington Mills some 15-20 minutes walk from where he was staying. Note that the view today is essentially the same although the small fishing boats no longer use the tiny harbour.
This week's Saturday Timewatch features a $1 coin found a few weeks ago in the washetaria / laundrette. Apparently they are not uncommon but I am pretty damn sure I've never seen one before.
This one is known as a Susan B. Anthony one dollar coin, minted from 1979-81 and again in 1999. You can read the Wiki here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_B._Anthony_dollar
As can seen from the photo below it dates from 1979. This coin has had quite a lot of use so the mint stamp is hard to read but is probably a 'P' for Philadelphia.
Long wave, medium wave or short wave?
No, nothing to do with radio stations but a malt extract used in the 20th century en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Malt Personally I don't remember this at all though I would just about be in an age group for which it was sold. As it is still available, I certainly know of Soreen, a type of malt bread loaf.
The photo was taken in the chemist 'shop' that is installed in Bradford-on-Avon Museum, using artefacts from the actual local chemists when it closed.
New title courtesy of Mark!!
Another totally unexpected 'discovery'. Born in Dinant, Belgium, where this photo was taken, Adolphe Sax invented the saxophone which he patented in 1846. Bought for £5 in a junk shop some 50 years ago, a saxophone is the only instrument I have ever owned. Frankly, cats howling made a more tuneful sound than I could manage and my enthusiasm quickly faded.
However, this is a perfect opportunity to add a 1954 tune to the jukebox by my favourite sax player of all time.
BITHBOX # 102
Coleman Hawkins "Time on my Hands"
The sound of NYC, after dark, plumes of steam rising from the city streets in a black and white film..........
This week's Saturday Timewatch goes back approximately 75 years to the short-lived steam era on Norway's Flam Railway. The line only opened in 1940 but by 1944 electric traction was already being introduced. So this is probably one of the few steam photographs taken in that era.
My photo is that of an old photo shown on the tv screen of the modern day service. The tv programme features interpretative material about the railway.
Given the circumstances, the photographic quality of this post cannot be good. However, what is particularly fascinating is that purely by chance, the location is almost identical to my previously posted photo taken just a few weeks ago....see below!
(...translates as Public Holiday for those who live offshore)
Today, the tradition of a wet Bank Holiday Monday continued. It has chucked it down all day. So here is a celebration of one of the very few interesting shops in Weymouth "Rude Not To".
Who remembers Mods and Rockers and their traditional Bank Holiday Monday punch-ups at the seaside resorts? For those who live abroad, the rockers (motorcycles) and mods (scooters) created the moral panic of the day in the red-top press. As always the youth sub-cultures of the day were demonised and most teens were supposed to belong to one or the other. That was rubbish.
Personally, I was never a 'rocker' even though I bought a motorcycle to be able to drive 30 miles to/from an early job. Likewise, even though I was heavily into soul and Jamaican sounds, I was never a mod! It was all great fun though. So it is a delight to have such a retro clothes shop in town. I never go in. However, I do like to loiter outside listening to the music emanating from within.
Representing the rockers, Gene Vincent has featured here before flic.kr/p/9mnLvc
So here is a classic tune representing the mods and yes, I do have the Island Records 45rpm : )
bithbox # 218