I wonder if there will be as many zebra crossings as there were yurts last week ABC Wednesday. Well here goes, here are some of my local crossings. They are actually all in one place, Ramsden Square, Barrow, a square with a roundabout. In the summer it is beautifully planted with flowers but on this day there is only snow. The statue in the middle is of James Ramsden, who arrived in Barrow as a young man aged 23 in 1846 to manage the engineering department of the Furness Railway and was destined to eventually become the director of the the whole enterprise. An engineer and industrialist he was a man with a vision to build a town for 100,000, which actually never happened, but he raised finance and backed by local capitalists financed dock extensions and iron and steel works, but his lasting legacy was his ambitious planned town with wide tree lined streets and ample space for development. There are few planned towns in England and fewer still in the 19th Century.
He became mayor, elected five times to that position and was knighted in 1878 the same year this bronze statue was erected.
But lets turn left now and
here is another zebra crossing. St Mary's Church in the background, and underneath the land to the left is a recently completed 30m (98 ft) deep storm water drain, part of a two year project to upgrade the victorian sewer network. Made a more interesting engineering problem because the ground water alters with tidal variations.Continuing to walk clockwise
another zebra crossing leading to the main library (opened in 1922). This has just had a new roof fitted so it has lasted well. Continue past
and here is yet another zebra crossing complete with community police pounding, or perhaps ambling their beat.So there it is a square roundabout with two zebra crossings at each four points. Loved by pedestrians but possibly not as much by car drivers in a hurry.
Zoom over to the ABC Wednesday meme for more interpretations of the letter Z.
