Kitty and Rebecca, aka Two Crooked Ladies, made these traditional rural Corn Dollies for an exhibition in the window of Sherborne Museum. A very ancient craft, the dolly symbolically carried the Corn Spirit through winter after which it was committed back to the earth at the first ploughing of spring.

This third look at Swanage Railway's recent Strictly Bullied 11 event features City of Wells (34092) running tender first up the bank from the River Frome to Norden Jct. On an earlier post, Richard wondered about the lack of evidence that dirty old coal was being burned. There ya' go Richard!

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.

Built at Doncaster in1888. Saw both GNR and LNER passenger service.

BR departmental No ‘DE940281E’.

Withdrawn 1966 and preserved by the Vintage Carriage Trust.

Seen in the workshop area of the VCT operated Museum of Rail Travel.

Ingrow Station, Keighley & Worth Valley Railway

06-08-2015

The following details are from the VCT website:-

This coach was built in Doncaster by the Great Northern Railway. Its interior would have been quite comfortable, compared with other Third Class carriages of the same period. The four compartments had buttoned, upholstered seats (not yet restored), lit by gas, and the Guard's compartment had "ducketts" by which means he could view down the length of the train.

The London & North Eastern Railway, which absorbed both the GNR and the NER in 1923, kept old carriages like this in service for most of their existence, with this vehicle becoming a Civil Engineer's Department Stores Van at some time before 1942. Having suffered damage to one of the Guard's doors, it was sent to York in 1966 for repair, but was then condemned. Members of the Vintage Carriages Trust then purchased the coach and it was delivered to Keighley on 25 May 1966, having travelled from York to Bradford as part of a parcels train on the previous day.

The Trust has brought it back to its original external condition as far as research presently allows, but what is immediately striking is the varnished teak exterior panelling, for which products of the Doncaster Works were famous. Further detailed investigation has revealed the original running number, 589. This appears on the back of a number of components - including on the back of the door ventilator cover

The acquisition of GNR 2856 has provided accurate information regarding the colour of the Guard's Brake compartment roof lining and the size and spacing of the timber slats on the floor of the brake compartment. These have now been modified accordingly. Full restoration (including of the interior) is planned for this carriage, with research and costing now in hand.

Filming credits for this carriage:

Testament of Youth (2014 version); North and South; He Knew He Was Right; Sons and Lovers; The Way We Live Now; Possession; Timewatch; The Woman In White; Jude; The Secret Agent (1995 cinema version); Tomorrow's World; The Feast of July; The Secret Agent (1992 BBCTV version); I've Been here Before; Trains from the Arc; The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - The Final Problem ; A Testament of Youth; Raffles: The First Step; Country Matters - The Black Dog ; The Railway Children (1970 EMI version); The Railway Children (1968 BBCTV version).

"All rise. The court is now in session. The Honourable Billy Bragg is presiding"

The very courtroom in which the Tolpuddle Martyrs were tried and convicted in 1834 for their actions as members of a trade union was the most unusual venue I've ever been in for a concert. Billy Bragg's "A Short History of Protest Songs" was a fund-raising benefit show for Dorchester's Shire Hall.

We were seated in the public gallery. The dock is the small area between us and the judge's bench. Defendants were brought up to the dock from the cells below. The jury will have sat to the right.

I don't often stray into Mr. Finch's dot-spotting territory. However, I'll make an exception on this occasion.

AIRCRAFT INTEREST :

This is American Airlines B777 (N735AT) coasting into London Heathrow from Miami at 27,000' (about 5 miles high) over Dorset. Although the underwing clearly shows 'AA' I was puzzled by the livery.

A bit of sleuthing revealed it to be the 'Flagship' retro livery, marking the 100th anniversary of a predecessor airline, Robertson Aircraft Corporation. It is a modern tribute to a DC3 which first carried the 'flagship' name some 90 years ago.

AI INTEREST :

Thanks go to Mr. Evans, our expat in Florida, for alerting me to the possibility of using AI to enhance the image. It is certainly true that our bridge cameras can't compete with those of higher-specs in the dot-spotting stakes. However, I ran the original through an AI programme a couple of times and reckon the end result is not too shabby.

This week's Saturday Flashback features Warrington Transporter Bridge (aka Bank Quay or Crosfield Transporter Bridge). This is what WikiWhoKnowsAlmostEverything has to say :

"The Warrington Transporter Bridge across the River Mersey is a structural steel transporter bridge with a span of 200 feet. It is 30 feet wide and 76 feet above high water level, with an overall length of 339 feet. It was built in 1915 and although it has been out of use since about 1964, it is still standing. It was designed by William Henry Hunter and built by William Arrol.

It was originally one of two such bridges across the Mersey at Warrington, the other having been erected in 1905 slightly to the north of the existing bridge, and described in The Engineer in 1908. A third transporter bridge over the Mersey was the Widnes-Runcorn Transporter Bridge built in 1905 and dismantled in 1961.

The bridge is privately owned and was built to connect the two parts of the large chemical and soap works of Joseph Crosfield and Sons. It was originally used to carry rail vehicles up to 18 tons in weight, and was converted for road vehicles in 1940. In 1953 it was modified to carry loads of up to 30 tons.

The bridge is designated by English Heritage as a Grade II* listed building and because of its poor condition it is on their Buildings at Risk Register. The bridge is protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument"

Thanks to tarboat www.flickr.com/photos/93173492@N00/8490008464/in/photostream for another good day out. Amazingly, as I only live 10 miles away, I had never heard of let alone visited this remarkable structure. Perhaps that is due to the access being on a legal public right of way that actually runs straight through an active chemical works, where access in practice is heavily discouraged. "Your presence on site is being monitored by security" said a loudspeaker voice as we passed through a gate. No, we didn't get arrested!

.

.

Corfe Castle.

This week's Saturday Flashback goes back to Amsterdam circa 1725. I've always liked old maps and certainly from this one you can fairly easily pick out the structure of the old city as it still is today. One major change is that the course of the Amstel River was changed and it no longer flows down what is shown as Dam Rak to approximately where Centraal Station is today. Also note the ring of windmills around the outer ring of the city. This map is on show at The Hidden Church.

The unexpected is what American road trips are all about. This required a u-turn.

At a height of 19 1/2 feet and weighing 500 lbs, Howard Huge was made sometime in the 1960s by International Fibreglass of Lawndale, CA. Although Roadside Giants were a common sight along US highways 50 years ago, all the original molds were destroyed so only approximately 185 remain.

Howard was stored in Maine for over 30 years. The Fat Ass Ranch and Brewery, near Fredericksburg, won a nationwide auction in 2017 and Howard arrived on site in December 2018.

Crowdfunded by the people of Sturminster Newton, Geoffrey the Bull (named by Oliver Currie aged 7) commemorates the town's livestock market that closed on 30th June 1997 ending a 700 year old existence in this small rural market town.

Kenney, TX, has never had a large population. I've seen a figure of just 200 at the start of this century. With the towns of Brenham to the north and Bellville not far to the south, it is perhaps not too surprising that another classic old country store has bit the dust.

Note the two horse hitching posts out front. There were 6 in total giving an indication of the clientele.

(I don't know about the rest of the world but flickr has been out of action all day in Texas. Someone must have chucked another lump of coal in the boiler as it is just getting going again!)

Mosses are an incredibly old genus that have been around on Earth for some 450 million years. This sphagnum moss (one of c30 sphagnum moss species in the UK) is found on wet boggy areas of Dorset's lowland heaths as well as elsewhere around the British Isles and also the world.

As always with fossils, I stress that we are very much amateurs on the subject and welcome alternative identification suggestions .

Found by Kim on Charmouth beach, we had no clue as to what this was. So, as you do, we asked a man who clearly knew a lot more than we did. We can only take his word but straight away he said it is in chert rock so therefore from the Cretaceous period, approximately 145 to 66 million years ago and was a sponge.

Even on large size it is hard to see numerous tiny pits. However, they can be clearly seen through a hand lens. The diameter of the central ring is c10mm / around half and inch. The coin is a British 5p piece.

We think the central 'depression' might be where the water used to flow out through what is known as the osculum.

The fossil record shows that American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) has been around for at least 8 million years. Some suggest much longer as the family of alligators seems to have evolved quite slowly. The fossil record shows many quite similar species going back at least 100 million years.

They are reasonably common in Texas. This individual was photographed at Sheldon Lake State Park, some 17 miles east of downtown Houston.

.

Sutton Mill, Sutton Poyntz.

As mentioned in previous posts, so long as a water source existed, almost every village in Dorset (and elsewhere) used to have a water mill for grinding grain. Sutton Poyntz was no exception having three along the grandly named River Jordan that is little more than a stream. What is now the village duck pond originated as the 'reservoir' for the mill to provide a sufficient and regular flow of water.

Originally built around 1820, it is now a Grade 11 Listed Building that was converted to residential use in the 1980s after being derelict for some years.

I wish it was! However, this is not my photo, just my photo of a photo (or painting?) by K. Walden, date unknown.

The associated caption reads "Nickel Plate Road ; Berkshire ; 2-8-4 ; circa 1940". As I understand it 779 was photographed somewhere along the Trinity and Brazos Valley Railway that connected Fort Worth and Dallas with Houston and Galveston.

Apparently, close relative Nickel Plate Road # 765 is still running at Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society, Ohio. Another close relative is under restoration, also in Ohio.

They must have been a sight to see and a sound to hear.

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"

Gerry and The Pacemakers "You'll Never Walk Alone"</

Taken from a school arithmetic poster, copyright by the Caxton Co. 1894.

This week's Saturday Flashback goes back c150 million years to show what is definitely the footprint of a dinosaur, thought to be an Allosaurus, a meat eater that could run upto 30mph. The three toes / claws are especially noticeable in this photo. The creature was crossing the sandbar of a river and left its imprint.

The photo below shows at least 8 footprints of a large Sauropod (possibly a Camarasaurus) as it made tracks across the same sandbar. This large dinosaur was a plant eater that probably weighed around 18 tons!

I love sites like this. Not a National, State or even Local Park, just a two-mile drive down a very rough track and then a walk to a single interpretation board.

Less well known than Portland Rock, Purbeck Stone has been quarried in the vicinity of Swanage for hundreds of years and that practice carries on today in several opencast quarries. The material has been used in buildings, both structurally and decoratively, in the local area as well as further afield in places such as London.

This abandoned mine can be found on the south-facing slopes of the Purbeck Ridge. The stone was likely brought to the surface by a horse or donkey turning a capstan at the shaft entrance.

City of Wells (34092) departs Swanage Station during this long weekend's Strictly Bullied 11 event. In all the heritage line has managed to get eight Bulleid Pacifics together in steam for the first time since 1967. City of Wells, built in 1949 is one of them.

This week's Saturday Timewatch goes back to 1879 and a list of items coming into or out of the small harbour at Lyme Regis. You'll have to look on large size to see the fascinating detail and how much was charged on each item. The sign hangs on one of the Cobb buildings.

Alongside and in little or no conflict with all the electronic neon of modern Japan, deep layers of history, tradition and culture lie intact.

You see lots of people in traditional dress. However, I had about two seconds to grab this instant and single flash of a photo. It shows two maiko walking quickly to their next appointment and they don't hang around in any way for tourists who happen to cross their path.

For a foreigner, trying to distinguish between a geisha aka geiko in Kyoto Gion and a maiko (apprentice) is full of pitfalls. Apologies if any of the information is wrong. However, if I've understood at least some of the intricacies, there are several clues in their dress. In no particular order :

#1 Their hair looks to be their own, not a wig.

#2 The girls have numerous ornaments in their hair, including "November" kanzashi featuring autumnal leaf colours

#3 They are wearing long rectangular obi, the belts around the waist. A geisha's would be square.

#4 The girl on the right is possibly more senior as she appears to have at least thin red lines of lipstick on both lips. Also her kimono is edged with white around the neck, which I admit thought signified a geisha but then as I wrote above, trying to understand the minutiae of Japanese society is really quite difficult.

So just how far back do some of these traditions go? The kanzashi hair ornaments were first recorded about 14,000 years ago. The general concept of a "serving girl" is about 1500 years old, whilst the actual word "geisha" seems to be about 250 years old. Nowadays the girls are hired to attend parties and gatherings, at tea houses or traditional Japanese restaurants. The customer is usually a top-hierarchy businessman showing off to clients as this is all to do with high status and wealth.

With so many old rural buildings now redeveloped as second homes and holiday lets, it is increasingly difficult to find scenes like this. In deepest Dorset, the location is Looke Farmhouse, Puncknowle. The farmhouse itself has been a listed building since 1952 and looks in reasonable condition, despite dating from around 1700.

What intrigued me was round the back where this bridge crossed a small tributary to the River Bride to a doorway suitable for pedestrians but nothing more. My best guess is this was a workers' entrance, perhaps for the gardeners. I am also guessing that the bridge dates from a similar period to the main house.

The photo features the sluice gates related to the building in the distance which is Fiddleford Mill, Calf Close Lane, near Sturminster Newton. Despite being a Grade 11 listed building, the old water mill that probably dates from the 18th century is not in good condition.

It is just one of many in Dorset. In fact there is another historic water mill in much better condition just a mile upstream

Of course, it is each to their own tipple. However, I do remember the time when you simply asked for a pint of best or half a mild.

This week's Saturday Timewatch compares that to the modern way with a myriad of alcoholic choices. These are courtesy of an Asda promotional flyer that came through the door. Thanks but no thanks. I'll just stick to my glass of Spanish red wine.

EDIT : August 25th 2012 : I've just heard that Neil Armstrong has passed away. RIP Neil Armstrong - you inspired generations to look beyond Earth.

My picture was taken at Space Center Houston in November 2010, during my first ever visit there. However today's "Saturday Flashback" is to July 20 1969 and the moment Apollo 11 touched down on the surface of the Moon as the whole world, including myself, watched and listened and held it's collective breath.

The "Earthrise" photo was taken on a different date but to me it remains one of "the" photographs of the 20th century.

In the distance is the mighty Hambledon Hillfort taken from Shillingstone heritage railway station on the defunct Somerset & Dorset Railway. The hill is not as well known as Maiden Castle but is just as impressive and you can be assured it is one heck of a lot harder to climb to the top than the main tourist hillfort close to Dorchester. I can just imagine defending forces chanting "come and have a go if you think you're hard enough" !

Note : Not being anything like an expert on the subject, I have gone with the traditional view of this and other hillforts being from the Iron Age. I am aware that other theories are gaining ground that they were even more ancient trading centres and that the ditches and ramparts were more to do with water management than defence.

You may remember that last year three posts were uploaded comparing Constable paintings then and now? John Constable is best known for his landscape paintings around Dedham Vale, Suffolk. Less well known are the series of paintings from October and November 1816 when he and his bride took a 6 week honeymoon in Osmington, Dorset.

This is the last in the series. Although recognisable in the photo below, the village of Osmington has expanded sufficiently to make a modern comparison difficult. However by waiting until a sunny winter morning, the lack of foliage on the trees at least made a 'then and now' comparison possible....which it wasn't in the summer!

Here is one of the earlier posts www.flickr.com/photos/99303089@N00/30310655723/in/datepos...

Saturday Timewatch features an old photo of the railway station and Front St, Palestine, Texas. I don't know the exact date of this and am tempted to say around the turn of the 19th to 20th century. However, on the far side of the street, directly above the nearest point of the rail carriages, are those two cars parked up?? If so, the date moves forward to around a century ago.

I've always found photos that show the same place from very different eras of interest. The main photo here was taken in the small town of Potes, Spain. I do not have an accurate date but would guess the 1920s or 1930s. It could easily have been taken in the Forties or Fifties. I recall a friend of mine telling his tale of cycling back to the UK from Gibraltar after World War 2 and hardly encountering a tarmac road the whole way across Spain. Even today, this northern part of Spain remains something of a welcome backwater compared to the rest of Europe.

The photo below shows the same location in 2014!

There are variations on the flatbread theme right around the world for those who need to eat but don't have much money.

Oatcakes are the Potteries' (Stoke-on-Trent) version. They have been around since the 18th century and there are still several dozen shops that sell nothing else in the region.

But what a surprise! I rarely go in Sainsbury's so was amazed to find the genuine article on sale and even yellow-stickered. When living in the Potteries I did eat rather a lot of them as there was an oatcake shop just around the corner. However, they are so uncommon down south that when a neighbour used to visit up north, she always brought me a pack back down to Dorset. As far as i am concerned there is only one *proper* filling.......bacon and cheese!

Here is a post, with typically great comments, from 2010 showing an actual oatcake shop flic.kr/p/7Ay8GT

This week's late-running Timewatch features bluesman Lightnin' Hopkins en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightnin%27_Hopkins

The short version is that he was born in Centerville, TX, about 30 miles west of Crockett where this sculpture by Jim Jeffries is to be found along Camp Street. It commemorates the fact that Lightnin' Hopkins often played there, both on the street and in the street's establishments when it was the center of the Black Business District in Houston County (circa 1940). The bluesman died in Houston, aged 69, in 1982.

bithbox # 227 Lightnin' Hopkins "Baby Please Don't Go"

Before you ask, yes, Crockett was named after Davy. Apparently he camped nearby on his way to the Alamo.

Time has a way of moving forward whether it is counted in months, weeks, hours, or plancks -- make the most of your Time.

Most often people destroy, neglect, or completely abuse the time they have and hardly notice as it flutters silently past. Some fill their time wisely with earnest intent while others fill their time plotting the downfall of someone. I've had people plot against me and use their time to fulfill their fantasies and pleasures while stealing my time and sealing it with pain and fear.

The time that has been taken from me can never be given back; that is one of the worst things that you can do to a person, steal their Time.

Photographs are © Copyright Galactic Dreams (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on blogs, websites, or in other media without advance written permission from Galactic Dreams.

.

Window hanging in the rain. Just like old times!

.

United's A320 N475UA "Friend Ship" retro livery dates from the airline's 85th anniversary in 2011. A contender for Rob's netflicks album, Kim managed a phone photo arriving at Houston George Bush Intercontinental. My Lumix simply wouldn't catch focus through some sort of terminal security glass.

Meanwhile, back at London Heathrow, I've now seen British Airways A319 G-EUPJ on several occasions and still only have a photo of the front end of the aircraft that features as a BEA (British European Airways) retro livery. The photo was taken whilst taxiing out from Terminal 2. It was a choice between a nose-on shot or this angle with the aircraft partly obscured by another BA plane on hold whilst waiting ATC permission to proceed.

(Thanks again to Kim for the diptych. I've geotagged as LHR)

.

The 17th century Bridge House was built over Stock Beck in Ambleside. Rumour has it that it was sited there to avoid any Land Tax though I really don't know whether that is true or not. It has had a number of commercial uses as well as being a dwelling house for a family of eight people. It is now owned by the National Trust.

.

Others may have more success. However, I can't find any information about a series of large paintings displayed high up in what must have been the old ticket booking hall of Portsmouth and Southsea Station. I was particularly taken with this one with the prominent 35 sign in the bottom corner.

Any information on either the series of paintings or the locomotive depicted here would be welcome.

The regulars will know that I'm not much of a pub person partly because I don't drink and drive but also because a night out at a pub now costs rather a lot. Even a couple of pints or two glasses of can cost up to £10, an insane price that has spelt the end for many pubs across Britain.

However, Saturday Timewatch seems a suitable place to record the closure of Portland Bill's Pulpit Inn, a place we have been to a couple of times for b-side's annual music and history events. Like so many pubs it has clearly struggled in recent years and from chatting to several locals, didn't have the best reputation for either food or drink. They also claimed it was much more loved in past decades.

Originally The Devenish Arms, supplied by Weymouth's Devenish Brewery, the mid 1950's building is now likely to be demolished and rebuilt to become holiday homes with some sort of bar and restaurant on the ground floor. I would imagine that with sea views all around, the cost of staying there will be very high.

NOTE : During a short break away from Dorset, internet access is likely to be sporadic for the next few days.

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 was rather more difficult than last week's Constable painting to compare with the modern day. The agriculture has changed in the foreground. Likewise, a large Pontin's holiday camp was built after World War 2 and is now the private land of PGL, a children's activity holiday centre that is just visible in the post below to the right of the photo. The comparison isn't helped by totally different cloudscapes.

Nevertheless, John Constable clearly did his painting somewhere quite close to the spot where I took the recent photo shown below of Weymouth Bay and the Isle of Portland.

This week's Saturday Flashback was only taken a few weeks ago. However, the American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) really is a flashback to another age. The species has survived everything that can be thrown at it since at least the Pleistocene, where it is well represented in fossil records. The Pleistocene age started approximately 2 1/2 million years ago. So 2 1/2 million years without doubt though some scientists suggest 14 million years whilst National Geographic, no less, reckons it has been around for 160 million years, avoiding extinction when their prehistoric contemporaries, dinosaurs, died out. Whichever way you look at it and however ancient it actually is, to me the American Alligator definitely looks prehistoric.

This survivor was photographed at Brazos Bend State Park, TX, which is towards the western end of its current range.

This week's Saturday Timewatch features another artefact from the vaults. I'm not going to show the other side of the document which has all the family "names and numbers". However, this is something my granny bought in 1934 with the beneficiary named as my mum.