ABC Wednesday:B is for Brewer's Dray

A Brewer's Dray is a waggon used by breweries to transport barrels of beer to their pubs. At one time they were drawn by horses but later motorised drays came to be used.


This one belongs to Stockport brewers, Frederic Robinson Ltd., and these photographs were taken in 2010 when Stockport was celebrating the 750th anniversary of its market.


The two and a half ton, 27 horse power vehicle was manufactured by Thorneycroft and first registered in Somerset in 1927. It had an average speed of 20-25 mph and fuel consumption was 6 mpg.


Robinson's acquired the vehicle in 1980 from the Irwell Street Metal Co.Ltd. of Ramsbottom and had it restored by Ollerton Engineering Services of Salmesbury Bottoms and painted in the livery carried by similar waggons owned by Robinson's at the beginning of the 20th century.


Back in the 1950s the vehicle was still down in Somerset. It belonged then to Mr A E Chedzoy from Martock, whose business was that of mobile ironmonger-cum-oil-merchant. The photograph above is used here courtesy of David Gibbs. Read about its earlier life in his article Mr Chedzoy's Oil Boy first published in A Miscellany of Merriott Memories (1989) and now available on the Merriot Local History Group website.

For more "B" posts visit ABC Wednesday

ABC Wednesday:A is for Ashton under Lyne Tram Terminus

This was the scene yesterday next to Ashton bus station where the terminus of the Metrolink extension is under construction.


This is how it looked in August 2011.


This is how it looked in November 2010.

For more "A" posts visit ABC Wednesday.

Shadow Shot Sunday: Bridge over the River Goyt

I was taking some photographs yesterday afternoon of the Carrington Road bridge over the River Goyt at Stockport. My vantage point was a footbridge that runs almost parellel to the road bridge.

It wasn't until later that I realised how the low afternoon sun had cast a shadow of the footbridge and myself onto the parapet of the road bridge.

In case you are wondering, that's my shopping trolley by my side.

Posted as a contribution to Shadow Shot Sunday and also Sunday Bridges.

Vote for Best of Hyde 2011

The time has come to vote for the best of Hyde DP 2011.

View the twelve contenders at Best of Hyde 2011 and vote for your favourite three photographs.

Voting closes 12 noon GMT, Friday 30th December 2011.

My best birthday ever

It is less than a week since I had my gall bladder removed. Although I'm not feeling anywhere near 100% yet, I am getting there. Wednesday was my birthday and I had a big party for around 50 people. Steve and Steph from our local butty shop "The Hot Crumpet" provided individual beef hotpots and my friend Mary Goodliffe made me a cake.


Mary also took these two photographs. I think I've had about three real birthday parties in my life. Usually I get only two or three cards as most people are just too busy to bother about someone's birthday when it is so near Christmas.


This year was therefore very special as I now live in a community full of friendly folk who'll lay on a party at the drop of a hat. Not since I was teenager (and maybe not even then) have I had as many as 27 birthday cards to blue-tack to the wall. Now I can start to look forward to Christmas and the New Year.

Shadow Shot Sunday: Gall stone

Following my admission to hospital in October I was due to go in to have my gall bladder removed on 1st December. However because of the public sector strike over pensions on November 30th the op was put back to the 15th. Having cut out biscuits and pies and cream and stuff from my diet, I was doing OK (pigged a little on toast).

So Wednesday I had a glass of milk at 11.10pm and in the morning got a taxi to Tameside hospital for 8 am on Thursday. I answered various questions and had blood taken but then lay on a trolley watching others who had not arrived until 10.30 am go down for surgery come back and go home until 5 pm when I was eventually taken down to theatre. I woke up back in the unit about 9pm and was shown a gall stone the size of a walnut.


See it here with a penny for comparison casting a shadow on the kitchen table.

At midnight I was given some tea and toast. There were only three of us staying overnight but I had a drain in me which was uncomfortable so I rested but didn't sleep. I had more tea and toast at 4.30 am and at 6.30 am the drain was taken out and at 7.15 am I was sent home in a taxi, getting home just before it started snowing.

I discovered that a carer had give my wife her breakfast at 9.15 am on Thursday but then nobody had been at lunch time. A carer had finally turned at 7.30 pm by which time Christine was hungry and shaking (possibly having a hypo). She was given four large sandwiches! Whether she took her correct medication I can't tell for sure. I'm glad to be home but am in quite some pain as yet - have been told to take it easy for the next three or four days by which time I should be feeling better.

Our freezer and fridge are nicely stocked and a neighbour is kindly getting us some more bread and cooked meat later so we should be OK till early next week.

For more shadows visit Shadow Shot Sunday

Another Week - Another Hospital

over Ridge Hill
the sun rises slowly
from my hospital bed

gerald england

I was getting back towards normal after my operation at Stepping Hill and on the Saturday we went down town with Craig as usual. Later I developed what I thought was indigestion but there was no relief so an ambulance was called which took me to Tameside Hospital. By about 3am the doctors had got the blood results which indicated everything OK with my kidneys and liver. The ECG showed nothing wrong with my heart. I was sent home with a bottle of Gaviscon to help with trapped wind.

I took it easy on Sunday but my appetite was poor and I still felt in pain. Around 2am Monday morning I took some paracodol and was immediately sick. The same paramedics who'd seen me the previous night arrived again and carted me back to hospital.

It was "nil-by-mouth" until Thursday and the discomfort was considerable. An ultrasound scan revealed the problem as an inflammed gall-bladder and some stones. At my lowest ebb on Friday morning I was feeling very lonely indeed having had little rest and no visitors from outside.

The patient in the next bed loaned me his mobile and I was able to finally get through to Christine. It was fortuitous that we had booked an appointment for Christine's Social Worker to call and discuss her recent respite care. She arrived to find Christine alone and wondering about my fate. She set up an immediate arrangement for people to come in and assist her three times a day.

Christine's hairdresser came to see her on Friday and she arranged for David, her husband, who is a taxi-driver to bring her up to see me on Friday afternoon. He had a scooter meet Christine on arrival at the hospital. He then came back later with a wheelchair to take her back down.

Just after she arrived the doctors came on their rounds and explained that I needed to stay a few more days in order for the gall bladder to start calming down. After that they would send me home and call me back in about six weeks when they would remove the gall bladder under keyhole surgery.

I'm home now thankfully. The support for Christine is continuing. I'll contine to blog spasmodically as and when I feel up to it.

Weekend Reflections/Sunday Bridges:Marsland Bridge

A double contribution to Weekend Reflections and Sunday Bridges.

Marsland Bridge spans the Bridgewater Canal at Brooklands, Sale, Greater Manchester.

Often considered to be the first "true" canal, the Bridgewater Canal was commissioned by Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, to transport coal from his mines in Worsley. The section from Worsley to Manchester opened on 17th July 1761; it was later extended from Manchester to Runcorn, and then from Worsley to Leigh. Coal was needed in large quantities to fuel the industrial revolution and the canal enabled coal and other goods to be transported efficiently and cheaply to the rapidly expanding towns and cities. Its success helped inspire a period of intense canal building although it later faced intense competition from the Liverpool and Manchester Railway and the Macclesfield Canal.

The canal is connected to the Rochdale Canal in Manchester, the Trent and Mersey Canal at Preston Brook, south-east of Runcorn, and to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal at Leigh. It once connected with the River Mersey at Runcorn but has since been cut off by a slip road to the Silver Jubilee Bridge.

Navigable throughout its history, it is one of the few canals in Britain not to have been nationalised, and remains privately owned. Commercial traffic continued on the canal until 1974. By this time, canals were becoming more important as a leisure facility and pleasure craft now use the canal which forms part of the Cheshire Ring circular canal route.

The Bridgewater Canal is owned and operated by the Manchester Ship Canal Company in conjunction with the Bridgewater Canal Trust.

For more information see the Bridgewater Canal website.