ABC Wednesday:O is for the Orion

After I'd taken some photographs the other week near Christie Hospital, I walked towards Withington looking for further photo opportunites and came across The Orion.


From its sign it would appear to have been named after a ship.

If the uboat.net site is to be believed, "HMS Orion" was a light cruiser of the Leander class, launched in 1932 and scrapped in 1949.

According to another website it was part of the British West Indies squadron based in Kingston, Jamaica.

In trying to find out what the connection might be with this South Manchester pub, all I managed to come across was a posting on the Curious Fox website where someone asks

Any information or pictures sought on the ORION INN on Burton Road, Withington, a public house that is still standing today. The inn is still standing today, and my 2x Gt grandfather John Norbury was landlord there in the 1870s/1880s along with his father George Norbury. John was apparently also the parish clerk, and served in the navy on the HMS Orion, which is presumably how the inn first got its name. Would be interested in contact with anyone with a connection to the pub past and present, and especially of any old photos of the Orion Inn around the turn of the century (1900) or earlier. Would also like to talk to anyone who has a Norbury connection in Withington during this period as John and his wife Martha had a number of children.

which rather begs the question - was the pub still called the Orion in the 1870s?

Edit: Since first posting this I've been sent this link to the full history of HMS Orion on the Naval History website.

For more O posts visit ABC Wednesday.

Shadow Shot Sunday:for Brenda Wade

A shadow falls across the grass.


At the other end of the shadow there are branches and flowers that bloom.


Above the flowers are other shadows.

These three photographs are crops from one I took a few days ago of the flower beds across the road from The Christie in Manchester.

Below is the whole picture.


I didn't venture to The Christie last week with any intention other than taking some photographs in the area. It was only later that I decided this photograph was capable of providing some interesting shadow shots for today's post.

We went out as usual on Saturday and on our return were informed that our dear friend Brenda Wade had passed away in the night. We have known Brenda for just the last twelve months and were only speaking to her two days ago. It wasn't cancer that took her in the end, but nontheless I am dedicating this post to her.

For more Shadow Shots see Hey Harriet.

Weekend Reflections:Green Lane

These reflections are in a large puddle on Green Lane at Godley Green.

To see the whole puddle, visit Hyde Daily Photo.

Check out more weekend reflections at Newtown Area Photos.

ABC Wednesday:N is for Norwegian Rain

With apologies to Rune of Visual Norway.


It rains a lot in Norway - here we saw it arrive as we looked down on Bergen.


Back in the city it teemed down.


A year later and I was in Oslo, overlooking the quay.


The rain didn't stop me taking a boat trip up the fjord though.

That was in 2005 and 2006.

I am supposed to be away on holiday in Jersey right now but ... At least we not stuck somewhere trying to get home.

For more N posts visit ABC Wednesday.

Shadows Across My Path

I wasn't going to post a Shadow Shot this week. At around 8.30am on Saturday I expected to be on my way to Manchester airport to catch a flight to Jersey.

Instead I was walking along this section of the Trans Pennine Trail off to the shops to get some food in for the week.

You can see the full colour version of this on Geograph.

For more Shadow Shots see Hey Harriet.

Friday Bench (36):Holy Trinity Community Centre

These benches are in the grounds of Holy Trinity Community Centre.

Holy Trinity Church, Ashton under Lyne was built in 1876. It is a brick building in the early English style and consisted of chancel with aisles, nave, transepts, north and south porches and a belfry containing three bells. There were over 700 seatings.

In the late 1980s, Holy Trinity Church was considered to be a big barn of a building, empty for most of the week, cold and used by only a handful of mainly elderly local people. The majority of the local population were Muslims, mainly from Pakistan and Bangladesh. The church building, still dominated the locality, but the activity in it was increasingly marginal to community life.

The building now consists of a worship space in the eastern half of the building. The community rooms occupy the western half on two floors and are managed by St Peter's Youth (SPY) who are part of St Peter's Partnership.

It is part of the Parish of the Good Shepherd.

My favourite benches discovered recently include Rachel's in Torquay, Celine's in Stayton, Steff's in Handen, Inverness Daily Photo's on Whin Island and Rafael's in Cascais.

ABC Wednesday:M is for Millbrook

This is Huddersfield Road, the main road through the village of Millbrook near Stalybridge, Cheshire. The first four of these photographs were taken about a year ago.


Near the bottom of the road is the Post Office, a survivor when many other village post offices have been closed.


From Millbrook are footpaths that lead into the Brushes Country Park.


Just higher up Huddersfield Road is the now derelict former Millbrook School. A new modern school was built a few years ago not far away.


Here is how it looked in 1991 when it was one of the stops on the Whit Friday Band Contest circuit.

I recall reading in the local paper a few months back that the building had been bought and was to be transformed into a medical centre, but my recent research on the internet has not revealed any information about this so I don't really know.

You can see the general state of the building and more of the area on Streetview. I think they visited the area around June last year.

For more M posts visit ABC Wednesday.

ABC Wednesday:L is for Leeds Centenary Bridge

The Leeds Centenary footbridge is a suspension bridge, with a single support tower on the southern bank of the river. It was opened in 1992 and was the first bridge to be built over the river in the city centre for over 100 years.

This is the approach from "The Calls" area.


The bridge spans the river Aire and here we are looking upstream towards the city.


Looking downstream here towards Crown Point Bridge.


In the opposite direction looking from Crown Point Bridge back towards the Centenary Bridge.

For nighttime views of the bridge see Leeds Daily Photo.

For the view downstream from Crown Point Bridge see sithenah.

For more L posts visit ABC Wednesday.

Shadow Shot Sunday:Pole Bank Hall

Two days ago my Friday Bench was from Pole Bank Hall.

Behind it was this large tree casting a huge shadow.

Blogger has done its occasional trick of rotating the image.

I usually circumvent this problem either by waiting for blogger to get its act together and eliminate the glitch or post the photographs in some other space.

Here however it looks quite fetching so I've left it as it is. You can see the whole tree and shadow the right way up on Hyde Daily Photo.

For more shadows visit Hey Harriet

A vintage view of Pole Bank Hall can be found on Old Hyde.

Friday Bench (35):Pole Bank Hall

This week's bench is from Pole Bank Hall, Hyde.

In 2008 I took you on a Perambulation of Pole Bank.

Once the home of the Ashton family, prominent mill-owners, the hall is now a private nursing home. The grounds, however are a public open space.

This bench overlooks Pole Bank Pond and you can see how it looks now on Hyde Daily Photo.

A vintage view of Pole Bank Hall can be found on Old Hyde.

My favourite benches discovered recently include Imac's by the Llangollen Canal, Jenny's at the Denso Marston Nature Reserve, Dimple's in Idahoe and Eric's in Paris.