View to a Building, Myerscough College Jan-Apr 2002

Following on from the previous article in which I described the transplanting of a maple tree, the site it occupied is to be prepared and subsequently built on as a new laboratories and classroom block arises from the er... leaf mould...

11 January 2002. The same day that the tree is moved, work begins on the site for the new building. First the plot is levelled. Mud is relocated from the rise to the right of the photograph and some is used to fill the hole where the tree came from.

By 15 January 2002 the site is flattened ready for cables, utility and I.T. network to be re-routed. Two days later some heavier machinery comes along to spread gravel to strengthen and dry out the mud and on 21 January, seen above, work begins on sinking piles to support the building.

28 January 2002. Having spent so much time and effort in flattening the site, more diggers arrive to dig trenches through the whole shebang. The foundations will go in these. The piles have had concrete poured down them - a handy hint for any sufferers out there... On second thoughts let me make it clear that the last suggestion was a JOKE!

7 February 2002. Framework is being laid down into the trenches for the concrete foundations. Plastic liners are filled with steel cages that are made from rods on-site. Trying to concentrate on complicated programming and writing code is not made easier by the many flashes of light from welding equipment...

8 February 2002. Concrete is poured from overhead into the foundations, being pumped from the side of the site. A large hole is left for the lift shaft for the building. Smoothing off is done by hand.

22 February 2002. The building framework starts to go up. Once it starts the building takes shape very quickly.

March 2002. As the new building comes closer to the I.T. office we see girders and concrete hoppers flying close by the window!

10 March 2002. The metal base for the flooring goes in. At ground floor level internal walls are started.

21 March 2002. What on earth is that man... ah... he's just holding the hose that pours the concrete onto the floor! The other end is attached to a mixer at ground level and as a crane lifts the mid section of the long hose up, liquid concrete is pumped through.

9 April 2002. The walls are starting to be built on the inside and protective sheeting is put up - effectively blocking our view of the proceedings! 25 April 2002 just over a fortnight later, the sheeting comes off.

Work Index

Blackpool Town Index Page

A series of articles looking back at the town of Blackpool away from the seafront and tourist attractions.

Each article can be accessed by clicking or tapping the photographs below. A link at the end of each article will bring you back to this index page.

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Third Blackpool 1977 Album 3 - The Pleasure Beach

Back to 1977 yet again and a mash-up of several visits that year to Blackpool Pleasure Beach from the latest photo album to make it out of the attic!

Taken on the 21st of May 1977, the Pleasure Beach were in the middle of building a new ride. To be called the Steeplechase, this was the first such ride to be built where riders sat on horses, very like those on The Derby Racer but instead of a round-a-bout, these raced up to three abreast over a course with jumps and hills and dips like a cross-country ride! The sign advertises that the new ride will open later during the year. Later we will see it in action.

Overseeing the action is this fellow... Two such giant figures held up portions of the Monorail track - this was a double-faced clown and the other was a model of Gulliver as seen by the inhabitants of Lilliput.

The Casino Building and tower, seen from the tramway turning loop. I remember once around this time going to an exhibition in the Horseshoe Bar and coming across several members of the George Formby Appreciation Society on a stand. They were all, rather ominously, clutching ukuleles or banjoleles and one asked if we would like a song. Without waiting for an answer, one lady burst (burst??? exploded!!!) into song and one by one the others all picked a different note and joined in. As a musician myself I'm at a loss as to how anyone could join in with a song in several different keys at the same time and not feel the need to stop and maintain a dignified silence... They were all very enthusiastic and great fun though and I resisted the urge to say "Aha! Never touched me!" as my eyes uncrossed and I walked dazedly away.

One of my favourite spots near the south entrance to the park for catching the Big Dipper curving down the third dip before soaring up onto the loop that would start its return journey to the station.

The chain-driven climb of the Big Dipper with its tear-drop finial that had replaced a spherical ball only a few years previously. The sign that the train has just passed says "Do not Stand up" - passengers on the wooden roller coasters at this time were trusted to hold on rather than be strapped in. In those days if you fell off a bridge you were deemed stupid rather than due compensation from the bridge builder. When this stopped being the case people became far more stupid...

A close-up shot of one of the rockets on the Hiram Maxim Flying Machine. Whatever happened to blue skies like that...?

A couple of shots of the Cheshire Cat carriages on the Alice In Wonderland ride. I can't look at photos of this ride without hearing the tune of The Cuckoo Waltz going through my head.

And to finish, I can confirm that the Pleasure Beach did indeed open The Steeplechase in 1977. Lap straps kept you secure on the ride, although the braking system had to be adjusted after a couple of incidents caused minor injuries due to sudden stops. I liked the ride though, the impression of speed with not being enclosed in some sort of vehicle was exhilarating.

In the next visit to Blackpool we'll be wandering about at night again.

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Blackpool Gateway Progress

The last time I had a look at the Blackpool Gateway building work was way back in April. So I thought it was time for another look!

I'm up on top of Wilkinsons car park on Talbot Road. We're looking at Cookson Street, as it joins Talbot Road. New council offices are being built on the left, on the site of the Your Father's Moustache club and a couple of car parks. On the right is what used to be the bus station.

The old bus station hasn't been a bus station for quite a bit really. It was a dark, dangerous place to be where buses came in at one side, maneuvered to orientate them to the right place and left via a second exit. The stands were completely uncluttered by pavement, so would-be passengers had to cross a large expanse of what was virtually an indoor road where queues often had to move to allow another bus into an adjoining space.

It had a number of years of use as a car park and the plans now are to turn the upper storeys into a multi-storey car park - it did have that function before... and introduce retail outlets on the ground floor.

A little further inland, a supermarket is being built on what used to be Seed Street car park and before that Blackpool's only WWII bomb site. It was hard to tell the difference...

Shifting the lens to telephoto, here is the Ramsden Arms hotel and beyond the tower blocks of Queen's Park, themselves scheduled to come down before too long. They are to be taken down a floor at a time, rather than dropped with explosives. Takes all the fun out of it from a spectator point of view...

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Blackpool Gateway Construction

A set of photographs from Saturday 30 March of the current construction on and adjacent to Talbot Road. This is the area being described as the Blackpool Gateway.

This is the soon-to-be Sainsburys store. This is going up over the site of Seed Street, recently cleared of housing and the only bomb site in Blackpool from World War II. The Luftwaffe managed to knock down several houses resulting in deaths and injuries to residents. The housing was never rebuilt and the site had been a car park for years.

This heap of steelwork will be new council offices. It replaces a number of buildings including a nightclub, shops and a car showroom. In the more recent past an indoor bowling establishment had been put up where a road (extreme left) now runs, but had not lasted long before being closed and now demolished.

This view looks from Talbot Road down Topping Street towards the junction with Church Street where the old Regent Cinema is just discernable as the white building with a tower visible (well it is on my larger version!) through the steel structure of the soon-to-be Council Buildings. The multi-storey car park over the old bus station has also been getting attention and new cladding is being added to the exterior.

Looking down Talbot Road towards the seafront, the open space of the passenger entrance and bus exit of the bus station is hidden from view from street level by a large fence. Whilst the work is done buses are terminating at different stopping places all around the town centre streets. Confusing for local as well as visiting passengers, although the bus station, whilst being home to most buses, entailed passengers standing in a large dark area, shaded by the ceiling and building above with buses passing either side of most stands which were not particularly well signposted anyway. At the time of expanding this article (ten years later in 2023) the situation is still the same with no bus station and buses operating from stops around the town centre.

The street and pavements are being laid with cobbles. Attractive once laid but a mess once dug up and patched. Roman roads were cobbled and long lasting, but they seldom had to lay new pipes or power cables under them...

The photos were taken from the top of the car park above Wilkinsons store.

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