Star Wars - The Weather Strikes Back

Saturday 10 October 1981. Blackpool was experiencing some rather heavy gales. And that means hefty! Mostly when the weather forecasters say "There will be 70mph winds" Blackpool folks say "Yeah? So...?"

The second (now the 5th) Star Wars episode - The Empire Strikes Back - had just been released and the Illuminations featured a fabulous full-sized X-Wing fighter along with a fairly decent R2D2 and a downright dubious C3PO!

The wind had broken the fighter craft in two and had also torn a laser gun from one of the wings.

Because the film had just been released this was newsworthy stuff. There would be no daily papers the following day as it was Sunday and so, like the prepared boy scout that I never was, I found the number of the news desk at the News of the World and told them what had happened and that I'd got some pictures if they wanted to buy them.

I could sense a definite interest and as the chap was about to tell me the local address to take the film I heard a commotion in the background and then he said in a shocked, excited voice "Sorry lad, we've got our front page spread now - a bomb's gone off..." The phone immediately went down.

The IRA had exploded a bomb in Ebury Bridge Road next to Chelsea Barracks. Two people died and 39 others were injured. I may have been the first person outside London to hear of it.

Large versions of the photos: top photo, bottom photo

There are also two more photos of this event at Flickr.

Cap-Firing Bombs and Rockets

Just a swift diversion from the holiday for a moment! I'm not sure what made me think of these things, but anyway...

(Photo by Sarky)

Come on lads - you remember these don't you? A favourite toy during the 1950s right through to the 70s was the cap bomb. Firing paper caps - they had a paper backing with a blister that was filled with a tiny amount of gunpowder and were used in toy guns, either singly or you could buy rolls of 50.

In these bombs you had to either use the single ones or rip a cap off the roll and put it under a spring-loaded plate attached to a rod that made the nose of the bomb. You then threw it upwards as high as you could and - if it hit the pavement when it came down - the cap fired with a bang. But not a big one...

I had an older lead bomb that had a nose that came totally off. You placed a cap against the body of the bomb, put the nose against the body and then tied a piece of string around from front to back in a groove that ran up the bomb. The deep groove ensured that the string didn't have a cushioning effect when the bomb hit.

I had a piece of string tied as a lasso. All I had to do was place the cap and tighten the lasso then I could twirl the string like a slingshot and send the lead bomb high into the sky. It made a far better bang when it landed than these very light plastic bombs, but it was absolutely essential not to be standing underneath when it fell!

Some of the bigger rocket type bombs came with a catapult to send them up.

Ahhhhh... I want to play now!

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Memories of Manchester

The photos today are from 9 April 1998 and we were visiting Manchester.

We came originally from Rochdale so Manchester, being the nearest large city, was very familiar to us. We grew up with it, although it had changed hugely in the 1980s with the creation of the Arndale Centre down Market Street.

With the 1990s trams came back to Manchester, running between the two railway stations of Victoria and Piccadilly. The Metro Link also connects Manchester with surrounding towns.

Eighteen months previously to these photos the IRA had exploded a huge bomb here which destroyed the Marks and Spencers store on Corporation Street and badly damaged the Arndale Centre, seen on the right shrouded in corrugated iron and the historic Royal Exchange, which here has a sign telling shoppers that 30 shops are now open again.

Also destroyed were the offices of British Engine, where my Dad worked for almost twenty years before moving to Blackpool.

The night before the explosion, Fran and I were in Manchester with a party from work, visiting the theatre.

I walked down to Deansgate to visit the cathedral.

Manchester's cathedral is of the Perpendicular period (15th Century), though it was badly damaged by bombing in the Second World War. The 130ft tower was rebuilt in 1867.

As I entered, I was accosted by an elderly lady who was acting as a Cathedral Guide. "Most of us are in our 80s," she confided, "...but I'm only 72!"
"Still too old for me, love..." I thought.

Manchester's cathedral is somewhat gloomy inside. Dark stone, made darker by the smoke of Victorian factories gives it this feeling although it can be dramatically enlivened by a shaft of sunlight through a window. But then... this is Manchester...! Happily however, it did happen during my visit and the change was worth the seeing.

There was a service going on so I had no chance to view the carvings of the choir stalls.

I have some earlier photos of Manchester, showing a very different Market Street before the Arndale Centre. But you'll have to wait until I scan them!

Blackpool Town Centre Rejuvenation

The Council have announced (ages ago actually) that the area from the railway station into town was going to have a massive redevelopment.

It's started by finishing a job that Hitler started in the Second World War. One of his bombers got a bit lost during the blitz on Liverpool and unloaded its bombs over Blackpool, destroying houses in Seed Street. In the event the row of terraced properties was demolished and the area has been in use ever since as a car park. The properties facing, the houses on Buchanan Street, have now been demolished. The plans for the new development as shown in the local paper several months ago looked very grand. There seems little point to me in putting up loads of shops and offices whose rent will eat up every bit of profit - that's the problem with all the market stalls we have in grand buildings like the old Woolworths building Pricebusters etc.

More to come...

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