View allAll Photos Tagged Timewatch
It is uncommon to find really good fossil specimens along our local Ringstead Beach, Dorset. These ammonite remains were the best of the bunch during a winter walk yesterday.
In the foreground, there is a nicely preserved compressed ammonite about the size of a 5 pence / 10 cent coin that is placed for comparison behind. The there is in a much larger rock full of unidentified micro fossils. Two larger fragments were also found. The partial ammonite to the right is the size of your middle finger. It was just visible jutting out from clay washed down off the cliffs during winter storms, but easy enough to carefully extract. The chunk further back is much larger again but poorly preserved. They are all approximately 150 million years old from the Jurassic era.
Lyle's Golden Syrup has been a British staple for well over a century. The logo and contents have been unchanged for 140 years whilst the classic tins have also been an ever-present for over a century, only changing into metric some decades ago..
Personally I was horrified when a plastic squeezy version of the product appeared in more recent times but fortunately the metal tin tradition has carried on. Interesting fact : Capt. Scott took a supply of Lyle's Golden Syrup on the ill-fated Antarctica expedition of 1910. Scott's stores were rediscovered in 1956 and guess what, the tins and contents were still in good condition!
I wonder how many of you were brought up on what in my family was always known as 'treacle' and still enjoy the occasional tin?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YQomR5xJ_Y
It amazes but pleases that 44 years after the release of "The Last Picture Show" small town theatres / cinemas in America still hang on.
Desert Theatre, Burns, Oregon, is one of them. Two more are shown below.
This week's Saturday Timewatch features two swing bridges that are adjacent to each other at Banavie, near Fort William. They cross the Caledonian Canal.
On the right as you look at the photo, the swing bridge on the A830 is opening to allow boat traffic through. That has been in operation since 1971.
To the left, the rail swing bridge is opening at the same time. This listed building dates from 1901 though various operational improvements have been made over time.
A very recent landslip on the cliffs at Ringstead Bay has revealed what must surely be a WW2 pillbox....or maybe not, as John has pointed out! Previously it was totally hidden by the growth of vegetation. This is a telephoto from the beach and it is far too difficult for us to venture up there to investigate further to see if there are any gun slits and where they are. There are other anti-invasion defences further down the beach but no-one we have spoken seems to know about this one.
The chances are that it will crash down onto the beach in the not-too-distant future at which point investigations will continue!.
I don't have an exact date for this week's Saturday Flashback. It is an old petrol pump discovered behind a shed. Founded in 1917, I have found one reference to E.P Barrus Ltd at it's 37, Upper Thames Street, London E.C.A address dated 1937. The company still exists, though now on an industrial estate in Oxfordshire manufacturing assorted generators and pumps, garden products, marine engines etc etc.
I wonder how much petrol cost when pumped from this machine??
This tower is all that is left of the "old church" on Alderney. The other side has a functioning clock, and a vertical Sundial. The gravestones are all still in the yard, ut most are weathered beyond reading, The tomb in this photo can be read if you view the original size.
Funny thing is that the BBC "Timewatch" people have been on the Island documenting the Elizabethan wreck, and in one of their online videos, the presenter is standing right where I took this shot ;-) The video his HERE
Now there's old-style, old-fashioned farming but there is also sheer bloody hard work like this!
There are still many rural areas in Spain where the farming practices are more reminiscent of the UK half a century or more ago. There are small-scale, non-intensive, family-owned farms. The crops grown are highly varied, even within a single field. For example, a main crop of maize might be mixed with a patch of lettuces, a patch of potatoes or onions and an edge of vines. There seems to be little use of herbicides or pesticides and any machinary used belongs to a bygone age. Quite a bit of work is still done by hand. At least this gentleman had a petrol-driven scyth to take a hay meadow cut. The meadow was herb rich and full of wild flowers as well as the grasses, great animal feed.
About an hour later I saw that the machine had turned over on a very steep slope and was stuck in a ditch. I assume it was this man's father who had been summoned with a beat-up old Land Rover. With much swearing and gesticulating, they were trying to drag the cutter out of the ditch and get it back upright. By the end of the day, the meadow had been cut and the hay laid out to dry.
Today's Saturday Flashback marks the 50th anniversary of the closure of the Atlantic Coast Express.
From 1926 to 1964 the service ran from London Waterloo to Ilfracombe, Bude, Padstow and Plymouth. It bit the dust as a result of the infamous "Beeching Axe" when the government culled numerous rail lines in the UK en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beeching_cuts
This week's service could not retrace the 20th century route due to those line closures. Instead it ran from London to Penzance. The first leg from London Victoria to Exeter was hauled by Tangmere 34067, a Battle of Britain class locomotive en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SR_West_Country_and_Battle_of_Brita...
This photograph is from ten days ago. She was on one of her runs down from London to Weymouth, Dorset.
Richard commented on the previous post that he hoped there were instructions. There ya go!
(PS : You'll probably have to click on the photo top bring up the larger size to be able to read them)
This gem was hiding in the vinyl vaults from 1975. The main photo is Side A, with the flip side shown below. I have no information on V.Jones. However Jack Rubie is a legend in reggae circles. Despite the infamous Jack Ruby of Lee Harvey Oswald fame, Jack Ruby the reggae producer often spelt his name with a "y". He was also known as L.Lindo.
It was no surprise that YouTube have a great big blank hole concerning this record. However here is a clip of Jack Ruby's Soundsystem in live action. Producers often ran record shops and mobile soundsystems to supplement their income. Note the copious amounts of Red Stripe and the classic lovers rock track at 5.20!!
*swoon* what's not to love!!!!
BITHBOX#021
JACK RUBY HI POWER SOUND SYSTEM
A couple of days ago I posted a photo of the Myra trestles, near Kelowna BC www.flickr.com/photos/99303089@N00/15502089041/
I then discovered there was a small 6 mile section of the Kettle Valley Railway preserved and still in operation further down the old line at Summerland. here are two photos from a great little steam railway.
This week's Saturday Flashback pays another tribute to a great film, The Last Picture Show. Remarkably, Ganado Cinema is still up and running, apparently with state of the art technology inside www.ganadocinema.com/about.html . Ganado is a tiny town in the middle of nowhere, population 2027.
If you are not familiar with The Last Picture Show, here is the trailer.
"Sir. Passengers by the Furness and Whitehaven lines who have the misfortune to be detained at Foxfield (a by no means unusual occurrence) in rainy weather with a little wind, and it is rarely calm there, are speedily convinced that if it was the intention of the management to contrive a station including the greatest amount of discomfort to passengers in general, and ladies in particular, it has succeeded to a miracle. Then there is a good roof, ditto wall, but let the wind blow from what part of the compass it chooses, it brings the rain in with it more than half way across the platform, damping at once the clothes and spirits of those exposed to it by anything other than homeopathic doses.
Yours & c, J.B. Thursday 18th May 1865.
The unexpected things you learn! Little did I know until I stumbled upon this sign on a building that Amersfoort was apparently the first and reputedly one of the best places in Holland for grinding tobacco to use as snuff. The building in question was not a windmill, so assume the sign has been moved from elsewhere in the city....though perhaps the building was some sort of warehouse? I cannot be certain as to when this business actually started. One article says 1560. That seems incredibly early. However, whenever it was, sufficient was produced by mills throughout Holland to export to other west European countries.
Pictorial signs such as this indicating what business or craft was being carried out at a particular location are quite common and a delight to see in Holland.
This is the road out off Cardenden leading to Kirkcaldy.
The former mining town of Cardenden lies on the South bank of the River Ore in the parish of Auchterderran, Fife, Scotland. It is approximately 4 miles North-West of Kirkcaldy. It was given its name in 1848 by the Edinburgh and Northern Railway for its new railway station.It was home to the poet Joe Corrie (1894 - 1968) who gives his name to the Corrie Centre. Bowhill by Cardenden was the home to Celtic goalkeeper John Thomson (1909 - 1931) who died aged 22 as a result of injuries sustained in a match against Rangers. He lies buried at Bowhill.
Cardenden is also the birthplace in 1960 of award-winning crime writer Ian Rankin.Carden Tower was built in the 16th Century by the Mertyne family of Medhope.The last duel in Scotland was fought on 2nd August 1826 in a field at Cardenbarns to the south of Cardenden. David Landale, a Kirkcaldy merchant fought George Morgan, a Kirkcaldy banker and retired professional soldier. Morgan retired as a Lieutenant from the 77th Regiment of Foot. Morgan was killed by wounds received from a pistol ball. Landale was tried and susequently cleared of his murder at Perth Sherrif Court.
The original pistols that David Landale used in the duel are housed in the Kirkcaldy Museum and Art Gallery. The duel itself was the subject of an episode of Timewatch on BBC television, broadcast on 9th February 2007 entitled "The Last Duel". The site is now the location of the Fife Community Off Road Motorcycle Club. The BBC News 24 chief political correspondent, James Lansdale, is a direct descendent of David Landale.
The Bridge on the River Kwai is a 1957 World War II film based on the novel The Bridge over the River Kwai by French writer Pierre Boulle. The film is a work of fiction but borrows the construction of the Burma Railway in 1942-43 for its historical setting. It was directed by David Lean and stars Alec Guinness, Sessue Hayakawa, Jack Hawkins and William Holden.
The largely fictitious film plot is based on the building in 1943 of one of the railway bridges over the Mae Klong - renamed Khwae Yai in the 1960s - at a place called Tha Ma Kham, five kilometers from the Thai town of Kanchanaburi. This was part of a project to link existing Thai and Burmese railway lines to create a route from Bangkok, Thailand to Rangoon, Burma (now Myanmar) to support the Japanese occupation of Burma. About a hundred thousand conscripted Asian labourers and 12,000 prisoners of war died on the whole project.
Although the suffering caused by the building of the Burma Railway and its bridges is true, the incidents portrayed in the film are mostly fictional. Historically the conditions were much worse. The real senior Allied officer at the bridge was Lieutenant Colonel Philip Toosey. Some consider the film to be an insulting parody of Toosey. On a BBC Timewatch programme, a former prisoner at the camp states that it is unlikely that a man like the fictional Nicholson could have risen to the rank of lieutenant colonel; and if he had, he would have been "quietly eliminated" by the other prisoners. Julie Summers, in her book The Colonel of Tamarkan, writes that Pierre Boulle, who had been a prisoner of war in Thailand, created the fictional Nicholson character as an amalgam of his memories of collaborating French officers.
Toosey was very different from Nicholson and was certainly not a collaborator who felt obliged to work with the Japanese. Toosey in fact did as much to delay the building of the bridge as possible. Whereas Nicholson disapproves of acts of sabotage and other deliberate attempts to delay progress, Toosey encouraged this: white ants were collected in large numbers to eat the wooden structures, and the concrete was badly mixed.
Some of the characters in the film have the names of real people who were involved in the Burma Railway. Neither their roles nor their characters appear to be portrayed accurately. For example, historically a Sergeant-Major Saito was second in command at the camp. In the film a colonel of the same name is camp commandant. In reality, Saito was respected by his prisoners for being comparatively merciful and fair towards them; Toosey later defended him in his war crimes trial after the war, and the two became friends.
The destruction of the bridge as depicted in the film is entirely fictional. In fact, two bridges were built: a temporary wooden bridge and a permanent steel/concrete bridge a few months later. Both bridges were used for two years, until they were destroyed by Allied aerial bombing. The steel bridge was repaired and is still in use today.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Saturday Flashback! This won't mean anything to anyone outside the UK, but what a delight to see a now rare Grauniad misprunt. Back in the day, The Guardian, methinks often on purpose, used to regularly have great misprints before the era of automatic spell checkers. You even awarded the paper a bonus point when they occurred in the crossword!
So last night was a good night for Portugal, scoring 33 goals in the second half of their World Cup 2014 qualifier.
Not my original photo. The b&w photo was taken by John Piper on an unknown date . My best guess is around the 1930s.
As always, if someone wants this removed due to copyright reasons I will do so..
Next Tuesday UK ITV channel is to test the theory of Guy Fawkes gunpowder plot..
The Gunpowder Plot: Exploding the Legend
Richard Hammond introduces an investigation into Guy Fawkes' treasonous scheme, which was attempted 400 years ago. To discover the repercussions had the plot been successful, an exact replica of the House of Lords is built, 17th-century gunpowder is sourced, and the fuse is lit. A dramatic reconstruction follows events as King James I and his government are assassinated, and Fawkes and his cohorts make their escape
the test if carried out would have changed the course of history
..and then the BBC Timewatch Programme did this research..
Transhumance is the seasonal movement of people with their livestock between fixed summer and winter pastures. In the montane regions of northern Spain movement is between the lower valleys in winter and the high pastures in summer. The system of transhumance has existed since at least the Middle Ages and is very much alive and well in the Picos de Europa.
The first flocks of sheep appeared last Saturday evening, whilst a few stragglers went through as late as Monday morning. However the main movement around Carmeleno commenced before dawn last Sunday, herd after herd of cows going steadily upwards until late morning, all finally converging on the high pasture of Aliva.
This was no tourist show. This was a way of life that has existed for centuries.
(PS : If you are running the flickr hack or the Spanish version of flickr, you'll be able to clearly see three additional photos associated with this story. If you are running the new version of flickr, you'll have to search through the right-hand side bar and click on the photos to see them at a sensible size!)
Fancy staying in Ranters' Lodge, Chiswell, isle of Portland? You can as it is a holiday let.
I'm not sure that I really understand the history of division between different 'Methodist' sects. However, given that there are two other ex-chapels within less than a five minute walk, it seems that division was indeed very much the name of the game in the 19th century. One of the other buildings was a Primitive Methodist Chapel from 1838 and the other a Congregational Church inspired by Methodist preaching. Coming back to this building, it was used by The Ranters who followed one version of the Wesleyan tradition, apparently so named because of their rowdy preaching and singing.
You don't fancy Ranters' Lodge? Perhaps you fancy the Dead House? Not usually available for rent, it is the smaller building behind. Probably used for boat storage in later years, I've read somewhere (not sure where) that it was used for temporarily storing the bodies of sailors and fishermen who perished and washed up on Chesil Beach. Wiki describes "Dead House" as follows "A dead house, deadhouse or mort house, is a structure used for the temporary storage of a human corpse before burial or transportation, usually located within or near a cemetery"
But wait...there is more (see below).
This week's Saturday Flashback is a rather intriguing photo taken during World War 2 by the father of a friend.
It shows General Patton leaving a mansion for his transport. When I first saw it, I thought "that is Tatton Hall!" in Cheshire. Before the D-Day invasion Patton spent some time in the area where his Third Army were training. He stayed at Peover Hall, about 5 miles from Tatton. Indeed Eisenhower visited him there to plan the invasion.....and have lunch at the adjacent Bells Of Peover pub! However, having looked again at photos I don't think it is Tatton Hall in the photo, nor indeed Peover Hall.
The conundrum is that my friend thinks the photo was taken in Germany and that may well be the case. However, for all the world, that building looks like a Cheshire stately home. So, do any Cheshire locals recognise it?????
This weekend's post is a combined historical Saturday Timewatch and Sunday Landscape, showing the view to west Dorset from a height of approximately 800' or 250 metres.
Although less well known than nearby Maiden Castle, this Iron Age hill fort is just as well preserved. The people on the slope give scale to the photo. Apparently Eggardon has never been seriously excavated by archaeologists. However it is thought to be defended settlement dating from around 300 BC. According to Wiki the name derives from an Old English place name, meaning "the hill belonging to Eohhere".
By the way, the flat hill on the horizon (just left of centre) is another hill fort known as Pilsdon Pen.
Oooooops......someone left the door open!
So it was a quick sneak inside and a couple of photos before security invited me to leave.
Today's Saturday Flashback is taken inside the large bottle kiln at Price and Kensington National Teapot Works, Longport, Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent. It was originally the Top Bridge Pottery. I am unsure of the oven's date of construction. However Top Bridge Works, with 7 bottle ovens, shows on the 1851 Ordnance Survey map. This bottle oven has been a Grade 2 Listed Building since 1979. Although presumably sufficiently protected by English Heritage, the surrounding site was sold in September 2012 though what its future usage will be remains unclear.
In this photo the 'hovel' (outer skin) can clearly be seen as well as the inner kiln (oven). The hovel acts as a chimney, taking away the smoke, creating air flow and protecting the kiln from the weather and uneven draughts. The iron bands are known as 'bonts' and go round the kiln to strengthen it as it expands and contracts during the firing.
This week's Saturday Flashback dates from sometime between 1910 and 1936, when George V was on the throne. This rather rare post box is known as a "Ludlow Wall Box", made by the now-defunct James Ludlow and son, Birmingham.
Now that the Royal Mail has been privatised, how long will it be before such post boxes go the way of so many red telephone boxes?
It is not so easy for people to find where a photo has been taken on the flippin' new flickr. This was taken in Moreton, Dorset, England.
What a delight it was to listen to astronaut Buzz Aldrin on Series 5 of BBC's "Stargazing Live" last night. He really opened up with stories that I had not heard before, although I will readily admit what he said is included in Wikipedia's account of Apollo 11's mission to land the first human ever onto the Moon. One tale that stood out for me was the moment when he discovered the circuit breaker that would arm the main engine for lift off from the Moon was on the floor by the hatch and broken. Fortunately a felt-tip pen was sufficient to activate the switch. "So you had a spare felt-tip pen on board?" "No, we had A felt-tip pen!" Another moment was when the scientist from Jodrell Bank Observatory, which hosts "Stargazing Live", produced a sheet of paper showing how they had tracked the lander down to the Moon's surface, clearly showing the moment when Neil Armstrong had taken manual control and several subsequent manoeuvres as he attempted to successfully find a safe landing place. Apparently this information was only released in 2009, on the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11. Buzz Aldrin was clearly fascinated to see something about the historic mission that he had never seen before.
The photo above was taken in 2010 at NASA'a Space Centre in Houston showing the badge of Apollo 11 (the Eagle has landed) and the staff in Mission Control.
This is the entrance to local woodland
taken in the thick of winter.
The former mining town of Cardenden lies on the South bank of the River Ore in the parish of Auchterderran, Fife, Scotland. It is approximately 4 miles North-West of Kirkcaldy. It was given its name in 1848 by the Edinburgh and Northern Railway for its new railway station.It was home to the poet Joe Corrie (1894 - 1968) who gives his name to the Corrie Centre. Bowhill by Cardenden was the home to Celtic goalkeeper John Thomson (1909 - 1931) who died aged 22 as a result of injuries sustained in a match against Rangers. He lies buried at Bowhill.
Cardenden is also the birthplace in 1960 of award-winning crime writer Ian Rankin.Carden Tower was built in the 16th Century by the Mertyne family of Medhope.The last duel in Scotland was fought on 2nd August 1826 in a field at Cardenbarns to the south of Cardenden. David Landale, a Kirkcaldy merchant fought George Morgan, a Kirkcaldy banker and retired professional soldier. Morgan retired as a Lieutenant from the 77th Regiment of Foot. Morgan was killed by wounds received from a pistol ball. Landale was tried and susequently cleared of his murder at Perth Sherrif Court.
The original pistols that David Landale used in the duel are housed in the Kirkcaldy Museum and Art Gallery. The duel itself was the subject of an episode of Timewatch on BBC television, broadcast on 9th February 2007 entitled "The Last Duel". The site is now the location of the Fife Community Off Road Motorcycle Club. The BBC News 24 chief political correspondent, James Lansdale, is a direct descendent of David Landale.
An open air museum operated by the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust, built on the former industrial complex located in the Madeley area of Telford
On my return trip to Ironbridge - found out that this was made in 2002 for BBC Timewatch - recreating the Iron Bridge scaffolding as seen in a painting from the time the Iron Bridge was being built. (info at the Toll House at the Iron Bridge)
Purely by coincidence, yesterday involved my one and only visit to Dallas on the 50th Anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination. I was on a very long drive so there was no time to stop, merely gaze out across a dull and rainy downtown whilst driving by on the freeway.
JFK's assassination was one of those moments in history when the world stopped turning. Like most people of my age I remember where I was, in the living room with my parents, tea finished, watching BBC which was just about the only channel on the old b+w tele when the news broke.