One Out Of Three Ain't Bad...

What a weekend we have just had!!! After the summer we have (not) had, I suppose we couldn't have expected anything else, particularly with England's ability to pour water from the sky on Bank Holidays anyway.

We should have played three gigs this weekend but only managed the one.

Saturday and Monday should have seen us at Garstang's Music and Arts Festival. But on Saturday morning as it came time to pack the gear into the car, the rain was just coming down like stair rods. The car in the corner of the cul-de-sac was up to its wheel trims in water as the drains refused to cope. A couple of streets away, the residents made the local paper, wading knee deep in the street. I called our contact in Garstang and we agreed to cancel for the day and keep fingers crossed for Monday.

It did no good. On Monday morning we watched the rain lashing down and the phone rang to cancel the gig.

At least our Sunday night gig went ahead. This was out at Over Wyre Football Club in Stalmine and was for a 70th birthday party. We were safely indoors. But the weather, perhaps somewhat infuriatingly, was gorgeous anyway!

This was a record event - we played 6 full hours! Oh... my fingers...!

T'was a Dark and Stormy Night...

...and the following morning I ventured out with the camera to take photos of the aftermath. This was early February 1983 and Blackpool had been treated to a combination of high winds and a high tide. Whilst lots of people think this is fun to walk up to the railings to see if they can dodge the waves, these photos show what power there really is in the sea...

The old Open Air Baths were still down at South Shore Promenade where the Sandcastle is now. The car park below Promenade level had filled with seawater overnight.

To give this some meaning, here's another view looking back to where I was standing to take the first shot. The entrance to the Baths was reached from a footbridge over the car park. There was 15 feet of clearance beneath the bridge...

A little further north, the ice cream, fancy hat and rock stalls that flanked the South Pier had not fared all that well. One lies on its front to the left of the photo and another has been knocked over by a combination of wind and sea and left stranded on the tram tracks.

Just next to where it used to be the sea has torn huge chunks out of the sea wall and Promenade and collapsed the iron railings.

Closer to the Central Pier and there is more damage. The cast iron bench has been tossed about from its place at the side of the Promenade shelter as though by a giant, the cast iron legs and feet in broken pieces over the pavement. For company the sea has left it a cast iron manhole cover, lifted from its place and swept here by the weight of water swirling about on the Promenade. The shelter's own seating and internal structure has been broken and swept into the sea.

Respect the sea. When it is rough and backed by high tides and wind the sea has no respect for you. At all...

Large versions of the photos: baths landscape, baths portrait, broken stalls, promenade damage, shelters

Ship Shape and Bristol Fashion

Tuesday 28 May 1998. In the previous entry Fran and I visited the S.S. Great Britain in Bristol Docks. The well-known saying that is the title of this entry was stamped onto the ship's bell.

In its ship-building days, Bristol had a reputation second to none and that led to the saying becoming part of Britain's folklore. Along with such gems as "Red sky at morning - shepherd's warning" which meant that if the clouds were low enough to be tinged red by the rising sun it was likely to rain. Its sister saying is "Red sky at night - shepherd's lass is a bit o' alright!" or something like that...

Anyway this has nothing to do with our entry here except to pad it out as, although I took plenty of photos, I don't have plenty of tales to tell!

The Great Britain is a fair bit away from the city centre so we took a ferry through the old docks. Bristol has a history not only of ship-building but as a port, where not all the goods are to the city's credit. Slavers used Bristol with over 2000 slave ships setting out in the 110 years from 1697 to 1807.

It was an important wine port also. England's best known sherry, Harveys Bristol Cream, is so called because the Harvey family were based in Bristol.

We came to the city centre and immediately noted the sky. "Dark sky in afternoon - makes it hard to play the bassoon".

There being no such thing as mobile Internet in 1998 we went in search of a Tourist Information Office to find some accomodation for the night. The place was absolutely full. So was Cheddar, Wells, Weston... We spent two hours in the Tourist Information Office and didn't have any luck until we said we were going to head towards the Cotswolds and was there anything up that way?

We eventually secured a room in a guest house in Cirencester - the place we started this holiday with a brief stop at the Roman arena! It was an hour's run so we set off back towards the car which was parked near the Great Britain. The sky wasn't quite so threatening now. "Sky turning fair - don't put Domestos on your hair" so we walked back down the docks instead of taking the ferry. Well ok - the ferry was nowhere in bloody sight actually, but the walk was ok.

This wasn't a ferry, but a pleasure cruise around the docks where they tell you things like the dockside Post Office had to have the cellars excavated and when they did, the skeletons of scores of people were found. Must have been hellish working for the Post Office in those days...

Now I remember that story because I had been to Bristol for a conference a few weeks previously and they had taken delegates on such a trip and it's the only story I remember! Oh the days of hospitality...!

As we neared the car we came across this little fellow, quite unperturbed that his home was bobbing up and down as the wind got up and the sky was definitely going dark again! "Daytime street lighting - tomcats start fighting!"

Look, alright, I'm making these up as I go along, ok? I have visions of folks in other countries going, "Here! Look at what they say in England!" I could start a national trend in Mozambique or somewhere where folk gather and intone solemnly "Daytime street lighting..."

So we head north to Cirencester where we find our guest house is managed by a very friendly Chinese couple. We walked into the town centre to eat in a pub and found just one customer with a dog and a pint and no-one behind the bar.

"If you serve yerself, can yer pour me a pint?" said the customer, nodding sagely whilst the dog stared at me with a look that clearly said "When the sun's done shinin' on that hillock - take no notice, he's a pillock..."

Return to Wiltshire, Cotswolds and Avon 1998 Index

Illuminations Trams and Buses

Just a week ago tonight we braved the howling gales and rain (I'm not kidding...) and went for a walk along the Illuminations on the cliffs at Bispham. The night started with David and Jeannie coming round and we drove to within half a mile of the sea front and parked. Any closer and roads were gridlocked.

We had tea in the Middle Chippy on Red Bank Road and then walked up to the Illuminations.

Blackpool's surviving Coronation tram was stopped at Bispham Station. These trams came out in 1953, hence the name as it was the year of the Queen's coronation. They were very heavy trams and caused damage to the track in places and were not kept in service as long as some of the other old vehicles. You can easily tell them from the similar looking Twin Cars that sometimes operate without trailers as the lights are side by side on the Coronation but the Twin Cars have the white light above the red one.

This one is a bit more modern - an illuminated tram conversion from a 1930s tram. This is one of the staples of Blackpool's illuminated fleet these days.

Whereas this was one of the 1960s set of illuminated trams - quite possibly the most-loved of them. Restored last year using lottery funding, the Wild West train with calaboose has been kept in its original 1960s livery and even has the long-disappeared ABC TV advertising that it carried when brand new!

We reached the end of the cliff tableaux and turned our backs to the wind to be blown back up the hill to Bispham.

As we got close to Red Bank Road again we saw an open-topped bus with a few wind-swept and rather damp passengers huddled on the top deck.

Despite the red colour and the London destination blinds, this is not one of the famous London Routemasters. But even so, it looked quite good inching down the Promenade in the long line of traffic heading south towards Blackpool.

Return to Blackpool Illuminations Index Page

Pheasant Feeding

By heck, 2010 has started with some cold weather! Fran was on a 10:00pm finish last night and when I set off to pick her up it was already -6 degrees and who knows what it went down to? A low of -18 was reported somewhere near Manchester. Show offs...

The last few days a pheasant has added itself to our usual assortment of birds that come to feed on the bits of bread we throw out every day.

It's a bit different to our normal collection of blackbirds, sparrows and the odd robin. Normally the biggest bird we get coming down is a magpie.

It does have a bloody good appetite though... I had wondered whether we might throw out a bit of sage and onion - might save us a job later... A few friends had suggested getting it on the roast, or plucking it (it didn't seem to like that...) Anyway plucking it would be cruel - do you know how cold it is out here in the garden?!? Having naked pheasants wandering about the place wouldn't add to the atmosphere any...

So this morning it was sitting on the fence as I came out with a couple of crusts and I chucked a couple of bits towards it and it fluttered down straight away for a nibble. For a bird that is a prime target for posh folk with armament, it shows a great deal of trust - or foolishness!

Meanwhile I'm keeping an eye on the snow and ice as I'm due to go down to London later today. As long as I can get back tomorrow...!

Snow Memories

A couple of postcard images today. That means no large versions, sorry!

We don't get such extreme weather as we used to these days. Global warming and, more personally, living close to the coast where there's lots of salt in the air all seem to be having the effect of keeping snow at bay.

I remember as a lad regularly seeing snow above my head up on the moors near Rochdale and even in drifts in the garden.

It only takes a few flakes in the air now and drivers particularly here in Blackpool feel they must stay in second gear and not venture above ten miles and hour. It makes me laugh.

We used to think nothing of putting a few coal sacks - now that dates me - and a spade in the boot and setting off knowing that at some point we'd have to dig snow out from under the wheels and use the sacks to give the tyres something to grip to get out of a hole the car had sunken into.

Mind you, there was a hole in the dry stone wall over Owd Betts Moors that my Grandad's Ford Prefect made...

Happy days...

Another Good Summer's Day

The top ten sights and sounds of this summer in England...

1. Lightning


2. Thunder


3. Rain


4. Clouds


5. Floods


6. Puddles


7. Hail


8. Storms


9. Umbrellas


10. Headlights

Storm on the Motorway

Tuesday saw me coming back from Newcastle after attending a workshop given by one of the other JISC Advisory Services to the staff from my own advisory service, JISC infoNet.

The journey was fairly uneventful and easy - down the A1 to Scotch Corner, along the A66 to Brough then onto the cross country small roads through Kirkby Stephen and then onto the B roads to Sedbergh and from there to join the M6 heading south from Kendal.

The sky had changed from blue to grey and now almost to black as I pulled into the services at Killington Lake for a spot of tea. I sat at a table with an older couple at the other side of a low and very narrow partition. We could almost have been sitting at the same table really.

"My word, look at that rainbow!" he said suddenly. I had my back to the window and felt it impolite to just turn round in case they thought I was listening to them (no choice actually!)

Anyway when I did turn round it was a rewarding sight. I have never seen such vivid colours in a rainbow and this against a very dark sky. There was just the one patch of sunlight on the far side of the lake that gives the services their name.

And wouldn't you know it - I had no camera with me. Sorry. To be honest, I had a half unfinished plate of food in front of me anyway so you may have lost out in the priority stakes even if I had have had a camera!

I know... I'm tough on my readers. Sometimes I have to be!

A Wet Day at Myerscough

Well we've been playing Myerscough College's open day events for years but yesterday was the wettest one since our very first in 2002!

Despite that a phenomenal number of people braved the weather to come out to see everything that was going on, but understandably not a lot chose to sit on the row of chairs that had been placed in front of our spot! Some brave souls stood and listened, danced, sang and cheered and we thank you for that.

We played The Kink's Sunny Afternoon, but it failed to do the trick and so we resorted to Creedence Clearwater Revival's Have You Ever Seen the Rain which gave us a certain amount of audience participation...

We played it again several hours after the first playing and David related how someone had yelled "Sod off!" as they passed. Then he did a quick "oops!" and apologised for swearing but was then faced by a very indignant 5-year-old who tore him off a strip to the amusement of everyone around us. "There's lots of children here, you know!" she said, hands on hips. I promised to wash his mouth out with soap and she nodded and, with a final stern look, walked off back to her parents who were killing themselves.

The previous night we played out at Heskin Hall for a steam fair in a large marquee. It was good to hear Fran and Jeannie relate that they had heard someone at the entrance saying to his mates "Oh, great! They were here last year and they're fabulous!" A man of taste!

And yes, I know I'm supposed to be taking it easy because of the old ticker, but we cut down the set at Heskin from our usual 4+ hours and David keeps giving me dire threats if I start to set up or carry anything heavy before he's got there to help.

And finally, our thanks to Peter and Shelagh Cooney who came to Myerscough to do a set and give us a bit of a break. I appreciated it as I'd got a huge blister on one finger which burst and needed to dry up a bit before I could carry on. "Can you still play keyboards?" asked David. Relentless...

There's No Business Like Snow Business

Far too long since I mentioned the Ladies-Over-The-Water.

Evy, who lives in Mississauga (which isn't even anywhere near the Mississippi) sent this photo of her street after shovelling solidly for three days and nights with just a knife and fork to clear her drive.

Now the last time I saw snow like this I was:

a) just a kid
b) in a bright white room and imagining
c) in a cinema watching Scott of the Antarctic

Mississauga is somewhere near Toronto in Canada. Evy writes: "Okay, the drive is cleaned out. It's very narrow at the end of it though but we should be able to get the cars out. When we are more refreshed, we'll go out and see if we can widen it. It sure would be nice to have the double drive back one of these days. With this photo, I think you'll get a pretty good idea with the car in the driveway. You might also take note of the car driving down the street and compare the snowbank next to it. Yesterday's storm is wild."

Marlene, who lives just a snowfall away in Brampton had said yesterday; "We had more snow and don't know where to put it any more - I should send an updated shot of what our street looks like now, since the one taken on Feb. 23 - and we were told to expect another 30 cm / 2 ft (eeek!) this weekend!"

Sheesh. We had a bit of snow falling the other weekend for ten minutes. Didn't stick...

The Radio Says...

It was early morning. About the time when conciousness struggles to overcome unconciousness even though the radio alarm has started a rather annoying yet persistant Scissor Sisters noise.

Thankfully the Scissors snipped and were replaced by the drone of the news. I had groped around enough to switch the lamp on but now as the music faded, darkness once more started to take over. I let it do its thing, gratefully.

I was then rudely erupted by Fran bursting out laughing.
"The radio says your school is closed!"

Perhaps I should have said "my sleep was interrupted" rather than "I was erupted" but to be honest that's what it felt like a bit anyway...

So I've been at work today from my own desk and computer, through the wonders of modern technology, as able to access files in Newcastle from Blackpool as I would be from an office in Bilsborrow.

Meanwhile homes all around me were having power cuts and water cuts. I could have had to swap my dedicated slog for standing in a queue with a bucket and I'm just as pleased not to have had to resort to that. Selfish I know.

The college is open again tomorrow. The tide's gone out.

Evacuated!

Ooh, a bit of excitement at the office today.

I live in Blackpool and work for the University of Northumbria so I rent a room at a local college and am a "remote" worker.

This morning we had our usual Monday morning telconference meeting and when I looked out of the window afterwards, this was the sight that greeted me.

The road had turned into a river and there was quite a spectacular waterfall over the sleeping policeman! I popped into the next office to find we were being evacuated as the water was coming from the river that had burst its banks and water was rising rapidly at the main entrance.

In fact there were only 2 minutes separating these photographs which show the same view.

We went out the fire exit and waded out to dry land. Then it was a case of find the shallowest route to the car and hope I could get home wihtout any problems! The A6 and the West Coast railway line were closed nearby but I was heading for Blackpool and managed with a few slowdowns for flooded areas, one being a bit longer than the others whilst a tractor dragged an eejit out of the middle. See, making all that spray wasn't a good idea then!

Addendum

The Ladies Over The Water are killing themselves laughing at the "sleeping policeman". It's what we Brits call speed humps... This one is missing, presumed lost at sea...

Rain? In Manchester???

Well it goes without saying doesn't it?

This was the view from my hotel window, first thing on Thursday as we prepared to introduce another set of delegates to the delights of Risk Management. The drive from London had been a tad prolongued the night before - it took us three hours to get from around Euston to the M1 motorway and we didn't reach our hotel until a quarter to midnight.

It was nice therefore to be staying in the same hotel that was the venue for the workshop as it meant we didn't have to be up at the very crack of dawn and we could have a leisurely breakfast. The conference centre was in the basement and the lift had a strange habit of immediately answering the call of a pressed button - which meant when you reached the basement the voice announced where you were but the doors didn't open and you went back up again to pick up the next set of passengers...

Funny the first time...

Anyway the day went well and it was a thankfully shorter journey back to Blackpool and home to my own bed!

Floods and Aftermaths

No, in this case I'm not referring to the current weather, but rather to the subject of a few photos of Blackpool I've taken in past.

Yesterday I uploaded a couple of photographs of flooding to my Flickr account (no longer active). Almost immediately someone commented asking if I had any similar photographs. Whilst the answer is 'yes', as the photos were taken in the late 1970s or early 1980s, they are on film negative and the only scans I have are somewhat more modest in size. The negatives are up in the attic and I will definitely dig some out over the weekend, but for now I had a small scan of lumps of seaweed, left all over the Promenade roadway by a high tide in or around 1979.

The Promenade tends to be closed to traffic when weather like this is forecast with any certainty but every now and then a high wind (and there are plenty of those in Blackpool!) whips the tide up an extra ten feet or so and can wash over the Promenade. At the moment the sea defences are being made a little more effective in an attempt to reduce the probability of this happening. Although with the sort of rain we've been having over the past few days the flooding need not necessarily come from the sea...!

Return to Blackpool Promenade and Beach Index Page

Weird Weather

A spot of strangeness last night. We were sitting in the living room all nice and quiet when Fran, who was sitting facing the curtains, suddenly said "What was that?!?"

Next moment a huge clap of thunder outside closely followed by a hailstorm that was so loud against the windows that both cats were spooked and we were peering out into the dark trying to see what was going on.

I was in the middle of my brain-age test too on Fran's Nintendo... Consequently I now have an aged brain age, despite having had it down into the thirties consistantly for days! Fran thought this was quite funny until I reminded her about her 70-year-old brain a few days ago...

I'm hoping to be let back into the house today at some point...

Misty Christmas Day

It's a misty Christmas Day in Blackpool this year!

But there's a chance of it burning off in time for us to nip out for Christmas Dinner with the family at my brother's house.

Gill and Eddie have been round to say hello before going on to their Christmas Dinner at Eddie's parents'.

I must remember to set up the video recorder for Dr Who...

A Healthy Walk

Having just got back from an invigorating walk along the Promenade at Cleveleys, I can honestly say it's a bit chilly out there!

We had to drive all the way up to Anchorsholme to get across the hole where the tram tracks used to be. They are re-doing all the tram tracks at the moment in Blackpool and to stop people from falling down the hole they've created they've blocked off all the crossing points between Bispham and Anchorsholme.

The sun is low in the sky, blinding you, the wind whistles around your lugs and the cold was making my nose and eyes stream constantly.

It does feel good to get some exercise...

Frozen But Not Yog-Hurt...

I think some of our fears about the yoghurt going bad as it was out of the fridge may come to nothing.

This morning I spotted him stuck tight to the back window of my hired Volkswagen Golf!

I think he may have had enough wandering as when I got home tonight he hopped out of the boot where he had obviously stowed away and legged it down the road before I could apprehend him.

The librarian may be relieved to know that he is back in our neck of the woods and appears (from the speed of his getaway) as active as ever...

Half a Tower Is Better Than None!

It's been one of those mornings when Blackpool Tower comes over all shy...

Return to Blackpool Town Index Page

Motorway Idiots

I spent yesterday evening driving back from Glasgow in a tropical rainstorm.

It never ceases to amaze me how suicidal some drivers are. I must drive 35,000-40,000 miles a year and doing that sort of mileage you see your fair share of smashes, upside-down cars and even cars/lorries on fire.

Unfortunately they are not always the ones who deserve it.

I'm not a slow driver but if you are driving fast then you have to look a long way ahead and react to what is happening. At one point 60-65 was as fast as it was safe to go in the weather conditions. The road was absolutely covered in water and anyone on worn tyres is straight away at more risk of aquaplaning.

Yet people were zooming past me, doing the odd thing like heading off to overtake a lorry who was in the centre lane then slamming on brakes when they suddenly couldn't see anything because of the spray from its wheels. Or driving up at 80-90 behind someone doing 60-70 overtaking in the fast lane and leaving it until the last minute to brake instead of slowing down gradually. Or forcing a driver in the central lane to suddenly brake down 20mph because they were unwilling to slow down 5mph themselves.

As far as I'm concerned if you're are doing more than 70, you should be watching for people needing to pull out into your lane and it should be you that slows down if necessary.

Consideration - that's what it's all about.

Still, all in all it was a quiet night. 193 miles and I only saw two accidents... There again, from those 4 cars that probably left at least 8-16 disgruntled or frightened or hurt people, counting occupants and immediate family at home wondering where someone was.