Old Fire Station

A voluntary fire brigade was started in Barrow in Furness in 1866 on the initiative of the churchwardens of St Georges Church and rather weirdly they were at first accountable to the Inspector of Lighting for the district. The initial complement was a superintendent, a sergeant and 10 firemen operating a manual engine (attached to horses when needed), the force gradually grew in size with the rapidly expanding town. 

This fine building was erected in 1911, a date which it proudly states above the door.  Opening for business the following year on the 12th December as that most modern of things a motorised fire service.  Their first machine had been proudly shown off  to the the public in the November with a demonstration of jets of water played in the air and up to the top of the Town Hall tower.  This terracotta and red brick building is now a Grade II listed building designated as such by English Heritage as the  "first generation of fire stations built specifically for motorised appliances".  The building is now occupied by the retailer  'Bed Brigade' which means you can buy a bed from here and sleep easy in it knowing that there is a fire brigade on hand to put out any fires  Since 1996 the main Fire Brigade have operated from a modern and bland building on the outskirts of town here.

The Old Fire Station (once known as Central Station) an entry to ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet this week sojourning  at O here

             

ABC Wednesday - Dry Dock

Berthed by the side of the resplendent rigging of  HMS Victory (Nelson's flagship) in the  Portsmouth Naval Dockyard this little ship in dry dock is often overlooked despite being painted in the dazzle anti-submarine camouflage she wore for most of 1918.  The HMS Monitor M33 is one of only two World War 1 warships to survive both war and time.  The Monitors were a shallow draft coastal bombardment vessels who steamed into 'enemy' waters to discharge their 6 inch guns.  The HMS Monitor had a long life under different names and guises but during that time many of the original features were removed, now located in Number 1 Dry Dock, Portsmouth these features are being replaced or reconstructed to restore the ship as near as possible to her 1915-1919 configuration.

The ship in the background is HMS Illustrious built in 1976 at Swan Hunter but due to be decommissioned in the next few years. She is an Invincible class light aircraft carrier, the first in class being built in 1973 in the shipyard of the town where I live, at some point the Invincible would also have been in a dry dock (used for construction, maintenance and repair of ships).

 I wonder if it was this large one in Devonshire Dock , maybe not for this photo is on a postcard from the 1920s.  The photographer has climbed the Vickers Crane which was very high and dominated the town, as did its replacement, both now gone, are as all the chimneys in the background which I think must be the old steelworks.

Dash over to ABC Wednesday where there are lots more words starting with D

Boats That Have Seen Better Days

Roa Island

Gently rotting away. I think it needs rather a lot of TLC.

Upside down on the channel at the bottom of the Slag Bank

A lost little boat. Reminds me of the one Emily Dickinson wrote about:

Twas such a little - little boat
That toddled down the bay!
Twas such a gallant - gallant sea
That beckoned it away!

Twas such a greedy, greedy wave
That licked it from the coast -
Nor ever guessed the stately sails
My little craft was lost

ABC Wednesday - Z

Z is for Zugzwang

A chess term for when a player whose turn it is to move has no move that does not worsen their position. From the German Zug (move) and Zwang (compulsion, obligation)

Whoever makes the next move will loose the pawn and cannot stop the opponent and will thus lose the game.

Should I continue the German language theme. These chess pieces are in a space called Coronation Gardens. They were created by Timothy Shutter in 2000-01, revamping the original gardens which came about because the Luftwaffe were targeting the shipyard, to disable the shipbuilding capabilities, in a two year period, 1940/41called the Barrow Blitz (blitzkrieg). I don't think much damage was done to the shipyard but they hit quite a lot of the town, including this space where a Baptist Church and a Temperance Hotel stood. The garden, I presume, was created in 1953, as that is the year Queen Elizabeth came to the throne

And here is a chess piece outside which is the Queen. In the background are the Law Courts where the Crown prosecutes and so at the moment (until the Queen pops off) it is Regina versus the defendant. (A nice link between the two spaces). The defendants who are found guilty are in a bit of an end game so perhaps they are Zugzwang also.

Now you may have noticed that although there is lots of green grass in this garden, no flowers. This is because two years ago United Utilities dug the whole place up to put in drainage shafts, storm drains and tanks. A huge project covering a large area of the town which seemed to go on for ever. People got cross when the project finished but no sign of the garden reappearing but now it has been replaced, but only with shrubs. It used to be a Kaleidoscope of colour in the summer complete with banks of flowers on a slope. A pale shadow now but those minute empty beds promise something might happen.

Here is part of the wall of Coronation Garden made of St Bees Sandstone with stone cushions to sit on while you wait for the bus. Ah that decision when you have just missed a bus and you think, I wonder if it will be quicker to walk. Is this compulsion a Zugzwang. Yes if you set off and the next bus overtakes, but perhaps Zugzwang would not be the first word to cross my lips.

Zip over to ABC Wednesday to be amaZed at the different interpretations of the letter Z.

Home Truths - John Duffin Exhibition

Dalton Road snow

John Duffin's small exhibition at the Dock Museum consisting of paintings for sale of his home town of Barrow-in-Furness but you will not be able to buy any of these as they were all snapped up on the day it opened. A very popular local artist who interprets the local landscape. He says he comes home to recharge his batteries and "The availability of heavily built up areas, wide open spaces, vast skies and the beaches are a cocktail that continually moves me"

Duffin splits his time between London and his home town, his work is dominated by the urban landscape and influenced by cinema and comic books. It is said his work processes a noirish quality and he does like scenes dominated by shadows and lamplight with architecture overpowering the tiny figures. In some of his paintings there is an Atkinson Grimshaw, vibe although of course the style is very different. He spent some time as a draughtsman in the local shipyard before studying at Goldsmiths College and the draughies love of straight lines certainly evident in his drawings.

The exhibition has something for everyone and covers aspects and the atmosphere of local scenes. There is also a nice display of some of his black and white sketches of the paintings on show. Duffin also seems to have a liking for dogs as there is usually a small one present somewhere in his paintings however not in the one on this page so if you wish to see more pop along to the Dock Museum this month.