Weekend Reflections:The Canal at Woodley

A couple of days ago I had a short walk around Woodley and took some photographs of the Peak Forest Canal.

This was taken from Bridge #12 looking across to what was originally an iron foundry.

You can see the reduced but uncropped full colour original on Geograph where you'll also find more information about the canal.

The opposite view looking towards Bridge #12 from Springlynn's factory can be seen on sithenah.

Check out more weekend reflections at Newtown Area Photos.

ABC Wednesday:S is for St Anne's Pier

Some more photographs now from our recent visit to St Anne's on the Sea.

A conventional promenade pier constructed of iron columns with lattice girder work, St Anne's Pier was a relatively modest affair built to a length of 914ft (277m) at a cost of £18,000. Designed by A Mawson and commissioned by the Land and Building Company Ltd, St Anne's Pier was opened by Lord Stanley on June 15th 1885. In 1904 further, much more ornate, work was carried out with the construction of a fabulous 1000 seat 'Moorish' pavilion as well as various kiosks along the pier neck. This was complimented by a red brick mock-Tudor entrance building, complete with imitation wooden beams and gables, at the shoreward end. The whole complex was finally completed in 1910 with the construction at the pier-head of the 'Floral Hall', which provided facilities for concerts, opera's and vaudeville acts.

So let us take a walk on the sand.


Through the pier we can see the lifeboat station near Arnold's bench.

An amusement arcade was added to the entrance buildings in 1954 and in 1960 a restaurant was added along with the re-planking of the main deck. 1962 saw St Anne's Pier purchased by the Amalgamated Investment & Property Company for the sum of £240,000 and renovation of large areas of the pier commenced. The work included the entrance buildings, the Floral Hall, a landing Jetty and a children's area that had been damaged by fire in 1959.

We had better heed the warning and walk around the end of the pier - the tide is out and the sand not too soft.

In 1974 a serious fire completely destroyed the recently refurbished 'Moorish' Pavilion and a building of considerable architectural merit was sadly lost. The fire also damaged the Floral Hall, jetty and pier substructure but an application to demolish the damaged seaward section was refused by Flyde District Council in 1975. The pier owners subsequently went into liquidation.

Successive owners carried out further restoration works but the bulk of the seaward end structure was finally destroyed in another blaze in July 1982. The Floral Hall was burnt down and St Anne's Pier seaward end was so badly damaged that this time it had to be demolished, reducing the pier's length to a mere 600ft (182m). Further refurbishment was carried out on the shoreward end buildings during the 1990s

Thus remains this little stump from which we are being watched.


Looking back now under the pier.

As I turned towards the South side of the pier to head back to shore I cast a long shadow which can be seen on Shadow Shot Sunday.

The information on the pier is from The Heritage Trail website.

See more S posts at ABC Wednesday.

Global Astronomy Month 2010

The latest anthology page from our friends at SARM is Global Astronomy Month.

Valentin Grigore writes

Many people wanted another international year of astronomy because they felt that astronomy is not only a simple science and the sky is not only a simple study object, so the Global Astronomy Month came naturally.

GAM meant a special living under the starry canopy connected to the coming of the spring, when the sap of the Earth meets the sap of the Sky, and this union arouses all and gives life.

We had a month with many celestial events:
a splendid lunar circuit
(begun and ended with the full moon),
the planet Saturn like a "planet with handles"
(just as Galileo Galilei had seen it four centuries ago),
beautiful conjunctions,
and a supplementary sky gift,
the Lyrid meteor shower.

And sky lovers also organized a solar week, a lunar week, star parties and even remote astronomy programs.

We felt more,
although we had to confront
the barrier of light pollution,
a measure of human ignorance.

Our souls should reflect the light of the stars
just as it really is,
because astronomy is not only a simple science,
and the sky is not only a simple study object.

The sky is all!

The website has hundreds of photographs of the events they organised plus contributions from around the world.

UK contributions include:

Pluto is turning red
they tell us. Warns us of what
force melts its cold face?

Steve Sneyd

My own haiga which first appeared on Spring Haiku 2010.

and

BENEATH THE ASH CLOUD

Across a clear sky
Unsullied by vapour trails,
A meteor streaks.

John Francis Haines

24th April 2010 was

INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMY DAY

Let's celebrate cosmology,
planetology and astrometry,
galactic and extragalactic astronomy,
astrophysics and astrochemisry,
stellar astronomy,
astrobiology and astrophilosophy.

Aesthetically,
this itemization of the profound branches
of the "queen of sciences"
appears like a succession of rhymes.

But only watching and feeling the sky
we can celebrate astronomy
through astropoetry.

Andrei Dorian Gheorghe

The Coordinator's Last Words are

SARMs Astropoetry Master Club tried successfully to release this project before May 18th and May 24th, the birthdays of Steliana Gheorghe (1934-2009) and Costica Gheorghe (1927-2007), in order to honour their decisive role in the existence of the international contemporary astropoetry movement.

SARM's Astropoetry Master Club and Friends tried to make in this project not only the largest-ever web page of astropoetry and astropoetic images, but also a record of beauty regarding the cosmic reflection in the human soul.

And after all Astropoetry to the Global Astronomy Month 2010 represented the most beautiful gift for when I turned 50 years.

Andrei Dorian Gheorghe,
2010 May 14th

See it all by visiting Global Astronomy Month

Shadow Shot Sunday:Paradiso 2002

I was looking through some archive photographs and came across these and thought they'd be ideal candidates for Shadow Shot Sunday.

They were taken in Paradiso, Switzerland overlooking Lake Lugano in 2002.


You can read about our nine-day coach tour on Europe 2002.

You can find more shadows at Hey Harriet.

Weekend Reflections:Matlock Bath

Here at Matlock Bath in Derbyshire, a small waterfall trickles into the river Derwent.

through the ripples
the dropping water
reflected.

Check out more weekend reflections at Newtown Area Photos.

ABC Wednesday:R is for Redruth 1985

This week I've been delving into the archives of my scanned prints and found these two from Redruth in Cornwall taken 3rd April 1985


And who were we all waiting to catch a glimpse of?

It was Princess Diana who was in the town to open an old folks' home.

See more R posts at ABC Wednesday.

Weekend Reflections:St Anne's on the Sea

So many reflections in the window of the YMCA Charity Shop at St Anne's on the Sea.

Check out more weekend reflections at Newtown Area Photos.

ABC Wednesday: Q is for the Queens Arms at Kirkham

For the third week in a row my contribution to ABC Wednesday is a pub and like last week we are in Kirkham.

Although I'm a teetotaller, it appears that I take more photos of Public Houses than anything else (but it is still only just under 4% of the subjects I photograph).

My excuse is that so many pubs are disappearing that I want to record as many as possible while they still remain. This one looks to be still open although seeking a new landlord.

It is on what was the main road from Preston to Blackpool and Fleetwood. Where the car is parked looks like the entrance to stables and so this was probably a coaching inn originally.

I've aged and tinkered slightly with the perspective to produce this image.

You can see the original photograph of Poulson Street with the Queens Arms lying next to Xtreme Dry Cleaning on Geograph.

For more Q posts visit ABC Wednesday.

Shadow Shot Sunday:St Anne's on the Sea

After the disappointment of our failed holiday to Jersey, we got away for the long Mayday weekend to St Anne's on the Sea. I took in excess of 150 photographs and am only slowly now going through them.

This is a late evening shot taken from the sands after I'd walked around the end of the pier. On the right you should be able to see the slipway for the Lifeboat Station (yes the sea does sometime cover this beach).

Just above that slipway is "Arnold's Bench" which I featured on Friday Bench. Go there to see the view out across the Ribble Estuary.

For more Shadow Shots see Hey Harriet.

Weekend Reflections:Canal at Apethorn

Reflections in the Peak Forest Canal viewed from the bridge at Apethorn Lane looking North towards Hyde and Ashton under Lyne.

See the view South on Hyde Daily Photo.

See how the canal looked in 1984 on Old Hyde.

Check out more weekend reflections at Newtown Area Photos.

Friday Bench (37): St Anne's on the Sea

After the disappointment of our failed holiday to Jersey, we got away for the long Mayday weekend to St Anne's on the Sea. I took in excess of 150 photographs and am only slowly now going through them.

So for starters here is a bench I found near the Lifeboat station. The plaque on the bench reads:
A DEAR DAD
ARNOLD S WRIGHT
1924 - 2006
WHILE I'M AWAY
OH PLEASE REMEMBER ME

Who placed the flowers there that day, I do not know.

This was the view from Arnold's bench over the beach past the dog walkers and across the Ribble estuary towards Southport.

ABC Wednesday:P is for the Post Office

This is the Post Office in Kirkham near Blackpool, Lancashire.

As you can see it is actually a Public House, which for the benefit of some of my foreign viewers, means it is place that serves alcoholic refreshments.

Whether the building was originally a Post Office or not I've no idea. Its architectural appearance suggests not. I suspect it was so-named due its proximity to this small town's main Post Office.


The inn sign showing a postman emptying a post box looks like a modern concoction.


It would appear that Post Office services in Kirkham are now based inside the Co-operative supermarket situated in a corner of Kirkham Market Square. Locating post offices within supermarkets is a common modern trend in many UK towns these days.


Back at the pub there is what appears to be an old gas lamp but on close inspection it looks as though the light is now supplied via a modern longlife halogen bulb.

For more P posts visit ABC Wednesday.