Notice

I haven't walked past here since last year so it was a nice surprise to see this 'Open' notice with its promise of things like tea, cakes and pizza.  This was once the Hodbarrow Mines Offices (built in 1873) and it is the only building that remains of the enterprise.  In more recent times it was the Commodore Club (a bar and restaurant) which closed a long time ago and was eventually put up for sale.  We've noticed a lot of building work over the last couple of year and then managed to miss the actual opening of the Hotel and Bistro which I now discover was back in December.  

Its new name is Herdwicks (the name of the local breed of sheep) and their Facebook page says this door, kindly donated, is from the original Hodbarrow Mines offices, still with the 'Hodbarrow' lettering in place, although of course the paint is sparklingly new..  It always surprises me the amount of historical 'stuff' that people have squirreled away locally.  As it was late in the day we didn't go inside but anticipate it will be a nice end to our circular amble in future.

Here is the other side of the building as seen from the sea wall over Hodbarrow Lagoon.  I've had to dive into my archives for this photo which was taken in February 2016, a colder winter than this year's warm one when we have only had the occasional fine dusting of snow on the hills which soon melted away.  

An entry to ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet, this week sojourning at N here 

       

Windows on Life

A beautiful aspect of the of hills and woodland is glanced through the window's of St Bega's Church in Eskdale Green. Originally built as a chapel of ease in the 19th Century generations will have gazed on the seasons changing from the church seats.

At Colton Church (Holy Trinity) the words of the Psalm 150 greet one coming though the door, which urges the congregation to praise God with singing and dancing.

Windows of a more practical nature in a Signal Box when alert eyes are needed to keep the trains safe and I'm taking the picture through the train window as it slowed down.

Even more windows at the Bluecoat Art Centre, originally built as a school in 1717.

I've got a double here as there are not only window but also a yellow poster advert for WT Windowstore in one of them. I think they were doing some renovation at the this, the old British and Foreign Marine Insurance building in Liverpool. To be honest I was more interested in the building's mosaics which can be seen in more detail here 

An entry to ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet, this week sojourning at W here

Saltaire

Walk along the towpath of the Leeds-Liverpool Canal (celebrating its 200th birthday in 2016) from Shipley in Yorkshire this marvelous edifice comes into view around a bend at Saltaire.  It is New Mill or the North Block of Salts Mill and built in an Italianate style; the chimney is based on the Campanile of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in Venice. Once a wool mill today it houses the National Health Trust who must have lovely window views of canal

and to the side, the River Aire.  Built by Titus Salt as a wool mill when be bought farm land here because of the ideal transport links of both canal and railway but also because he had a vision of building a model village for his workers.  A man of great religious faith he also built

the Congregationalist Church directly opposite the mills. The conditions in the slums of Bradford were dire at this time with high infant mortality and even an outbreak of cholera so when the workers came here to neat housing and open green spaces it must have been a revelation.  The village, by combining his name and river name, became Saltaire. 

No wonder when in 1876 Titus Salt died 100,000 people lined the street for his funeral cortege. The Salt family mausoleum is at the rear of the church on the right. 

In the grounds by the entrance are also what was the office house and stables.  Titus Salt had made the bulk of his fortune by the chance of finding Alpaca wool in a Liverpool docks warehouse which was being used as  packing material in imported goods.  He discovered that by combining it with Angora sheep wool it made a fine and desirable material.  When in recent times ideas for a sculptures alongside the River Aire were imagined and drawn by the local school

it is no surprise one of them was of an Alpaca.

As well as housing, schools and churches Salt also built Saltaire Institute as a 'centre for recreation, culture and learning’ consisting of  library, gymnasium and rifle drill-room, fencing room, armoury, chess room, laboratory and lecture theatre, bagatelle and billiards room, a school of art, and a large dance hall with a fully sprung floor.  Wow there was a whole lot going on in there.  Today owned by the Salt Foundation charity trust and renamed Victoria Hall it is still a centre for recreational use with the addition of weddings and film locations.

Saltaire was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site as an "exceptionally well preserved industrial village that had a profound influence" on similar model villages built as a result of philanthropic paternalism (such as Port Sunlight which I pictured in a previous round of ABC Wednesday here) 

Although I am quite fond of taking photographs of vernacular housing my brief time in Saltaire meant I couldn't didn't get to amble along it planned streets and parks but by chance I did take a photo of one of the lions outside Victoria Hall

which were designed by sculptor Thomas Milnes and originally destined for the bottom of Nelson’s column in Trafalgar Square in London.  Guess the capital decided they wanted something a whole lot bigger.  Of course the housing is evident in the background and what is even better is that the road sign says Lockwood Street.  Titus Salt's architects who designed the whole village and mills were Lockwood and Mawson and this is one of the streets, as thanks, he named after them.

An entry to ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet, this week sojourning at S here

 

John Laird Centre

I took this photograph some time ago for two reason, I love Victorian buildings and the added bonus was it started with the letter J and I knew it would could in handy for ABC Wednesday, however I kept forgetting my intent and diverted into other Js as the rounds past by but eventually it now makes an appearance.

This was originally the Laird School of Arts, the first public art school outside London, and the first ever purpose built college of art and science in England which opened in September 1871.  John Laird not only financed its construction but the also running costs and it was given to the town of Birkenhead.  Laird is most famous as part of the shipbuilding company Cammell Laird but he was also a great philanthropist and endowed many of the fine buildings in Birkenhead, would become its first mayor of and then retire from shipbuilding to become Birkenhead's first Member of Parliament.     

The school closed in 1979 and the building was purchased by Stanton Marine to use as their headquarters when it was extensively renovated and renamed The John Laird Centre.  Stanton Marine later became part of the British East India Company who now use the building as their headquarters which is rather appropriate, and perhaps the building has come full circle, because Cammell Laird built most of their ships in the 19th Century.
 

 An entry to ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet, this week sojourning at J here

  

Isle of Dogs

Taking the water bus down the Thames I passed the Isle of Dogs and the new waterside developments between Burrell's Wharf and Millwall Dock

Burrell's Wharf

This place has a long history of change and is located in the meander of the river surrounded on three sides by the Thames and the old East Indies Dock on the other.

It was such a beautiful day that once we were on dry land decided to take a stroll and idle along the riverside and with no destination in mind we enjoyed the skyline views while passing

through little parks (this one complete with what looks like a scouting group), residential properties and somehow ended up on the Isle of Dogs

where I imagine you could take your small boat down this slipway.

We wondered if we would come across the docks coming away from the river and down the road passing by the parish church of Christ and St John with St Luke.  (They were certainly covering all the bases rounding up a spiritual trio). We did walk further along but got lost in a maze of streets and with no map to guide us retraced our steps

past the post office and its post box

and the Great Eastern pub in Tower Hamlets.  I was not aware at the time but since learnt that the vast iron sailing ship imagined and built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel in 1858 (at the time the largest ship ever built), was constructed nearby at the shipyard of John Scott Russell in Millwall. I believe there are remnants of the launch ramp at Canary Wharf.   A missed opportunity there!  The Great Eastern is always referred to as 'the ill-fated', for despite Brunel's vision of it journeying to the far east carrying 4000 passengers, the boiler exploded on her maiden voyage, J Scott Russell went bankrupt and Brunel had a stroke. It did eventually sail across the Atlantic but it was not a success and was later modified into a cable laying vessel. Eventually she was beached at Rock Ferry, Liverpool and broken up just thirty years after her launch.

Great Eastern harboured at Milford Haven by Unknown - Licensed under Public Domain via Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org

A little bit of her still stands proud in Liverpool as the flag pole at the kop end of Liverpool's Anfield ground once was one of Great Eastern's topmasts (Source: From Millwall to the Kop).

Meanwhile we left the Great Eastern pub behind to continue our walk back and stopped for refreshment at the

Island Gardens Café in its peaceful surroundings with a tea pot and cup embellished in the buildings brickwork before going back to the other side of the river via the foot tunnel.

An entry to ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet, this week sojourning at I here 

 

Drigg Dawdle

The name Drigg is probably Old Norse, drag or draga meaning 'watercourse down a valley', the village lies north of the River Irt as it makes its way from Wasdale Water to the Irish Sea .  On some old maps it gets called Dregg but that is probably the result of someone writing down the sound, the Cumberland dialect has a propensity for making two vowels sounds for one vowel. The parish of Drigg's population number has not changed much since 1688 when it was 560 even with the coming of the railways.

On the left are the old railway buildings now the 'Spindle Crafts' tea room and crafts shop. Straight ahead is the Victoria Hotel pub.  So much choice in a small area for a drink.  If we had been at the end of a walk the choice would have been the tea room but as it was the middle of the day

we choice the Victoria to slake our thirst with Jennings beer.

The gate by the pub leads to the railway station which originally opened in 1849 when the rolling stock was a step away, rather than a large step up as today, hence the portable steps for those who require them.

Any sign of a train?  This is a request stop only, a raised raised from the platform and the train will stop, although the drivers are always alert to passenger.  When a family with children took them from outside the pub just to watch the train coming we joined them so there was quite a crowd on the platform and the train

stopped.  I hope the driver was not too disappointed because nobody was boarding.  In its brief stop I managed to get part of the mural on the side (only a few of the local trains have these). It is advertising the National Railway Museum in York with a picture of the Mallard, holder of the world speed record for a Steam Train.  So much prettier than the sprinter train it appears on.

 As it turned out this was the perfectly themed headgear for this particular hot sunny day.

The signal man's duty over he comes down the steps, I'm going to take you over the crossing, through the gate and down the lane.

Passing the lazy bull, happily on the other side of the fence

And past the site of what was the Royal Ordnance Factory in World War Two, which  produced TNT.  Today it is a Low Level Waste Repository for the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority while they wonder what to do with it, there is a few million years to decide.

Through the path's new gate with is wonderfully rounded sandstone weight to ensure it closes after walkers pass through

Eventually reaching the beach which on this day seemed to be popular with sea fishermen, as this remote corner has been for centuries, and noted in times past for its fisheries and mussel beds. We stopped by the sand dunes to have lunch before walking further up the coast to Seascale where we would take the train back home passing, but not stopping, at Drigg.

An  entry to ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet this week sojourning at D here

High Rises

Portsmouth

The sun starting to set on a high-rise building in Portsmouth.   This occupants of this building must have seen some stunning sunsets across the city.  We, however, were side on in our hotel so could just appreciating the light as it illuminated the building.

Hands steady, click.  Yes we often find ourselves photographing the same thing but in this case I have been quicker so now photograph the other happy snapper

Liverpool

Heading north and nearer home, another city skyline from old to modern where nearby in the Tate there was a high-rise

stack of plates.   This is "No Title (Stacked Plates)" by the American Sculptor Robert Therrien who likes to super-size household items and trigger memories of childhood. These huge plates tower over you  and when walking around the shiny curves make it seem as though it is smoothly moving.  Quite discombobulating but mesmerising.

An entry to ABC Wednesday - a hop from letter to letter through the alphabet