Sunday Bridges: Norbury Viaduct, Hazel Grove

(Click on image to view full-size version)
This bridge over Macclesfield Road leads on to the Norbury viaduct. Just beyond the bridge on the left is the terminus of the 192 bus service to Manchester. It carries over nine million passengers each year, and is considered by many to be the busiest bus route in the country - see Wikipedia.

(Click on image to view full-size version)
Established under the arches of the viaduct since 1982 is the used-car salerooms of the Midland Garage.

(Click on image to view full-size version)
The viaduct was built by the Midland Railway as part of the New Mills to Heaton Mersey line, which formed part of its main line between Manchester Central and London St Pancras.

(Click on image to view full-size version)
At the end of the viaduct is the bridge over the A6, Buxton Road.

(Click on image to view full-size version)
Like all railway bridges in the UK it carries a notice detailing who to contact in the event of any damage caused to the bridge by striking vehicles.

(Click on image to view full-size version)
A final look back at Buxton Road bridge from the other side.

An old view of the viaduct can be found on the Stockport Image Archive.

For more bridges, visit Sunday Bridges at San Francisco Bay Daily Photo.

ABC Wednesday: N is for New York New York

(Click on image to view full-size version)
The sign belongs to the Manchester public house now known as New York New York.

(Click on image to view full-size version)
On the corner of Bloom Street and Abingdon Street in Manchester's "Gay Village", the pub has a long tradition of being a "gay bar".

Back in the days when the "Village" didn't really exist, it was a Wilson's house called simply the "New York".

See this photograph from the 1950s

(Click on image to view full-size version)
Here is a detail of the Abingdon Street corner of the building. Across the street, Bloom Street has been reduced to "Loom Tree".

Compare with this photograph from the 1970s and another from 1986.

For more information visit the Pubs of Manchester website.

A contribution to ABC Wednesday.

Monday Murals: More in the Piccadilly Tunnel

Last week I showed you an official mural of the Manchester Rose in the Piccadilly Tunnel which carries the Rochdale Canal under this part of the city.

(Click on image to view full-size version)
Beyond the lovely official mural is Lock #85 where someone is about to the open the gate for their narrowboat to enter. On the opposite wall, away from the towpath, are a number of "unofficial" murals or street art.

One lies under a police notice and is likely to be temporary.

(Click on image to view full-size version)
Next week I'll show your more of the lock and a rather nicer "unofficial mural".

For contributions from other lovers of wall art visit Monday Murals.

Monday Murals: Manchester Rose 2002

(Click on image to view full-size version)
This is the centre panel of a mural inside the Piccadilly tunnel through which the Rochdale Canal passes.

(Click on image to view full-size version)
For many years, the tunnel below Piccadilly, which includes Lock 85, had been a neglected and menacing area. In 2002/3, in readiness for the re-opening of the whole Rochdale Canal, the tunnel area was improved, with better lighting, dark recesses blocked off by panelling and a new walkway avoiding the need to walk around the edge of the underground area. The new mural brightens the panelling.

(Click on image to view full-size version)
The mural celebrates in art the cultural heritage of Manchester, from the industrial revolution through to the Commonwealth Games. Its centrepieces are renditions of the Commonwealth Games 2002 logo and the canal boat 'Manchester Rose 2002', emphasising the importance that year played in rejuvenating the city's 20 mile waterway system.

More information on the Pennine Waterways website.

A contribution to Monday Murals.

ABC Wednesday: J is for Jigsaw

(Click on image to view full-size version)
This is a substantial wooden jigsaw made by Galt Toys. It features the "traditional/historic" counties of England & Wales. These are what is generally referred to as the pre-1971 configuration before the creation of the current local government administrative areas.

I took this photo after some friends on Facebook began discussing such a jigsaw. It seems there a number of different designs; their's had Denbigh and Flint as a single piece whereas my Flint is seperate, being bulked by the inclusion of the Dee estuary. In mine Rutland is joined on to Leicestershire, but some versions have a seperate Rutland piece.

Hungtingdon and Cambridge (under the light-flash in the photo) is other piece that contains two counties.

Yorkshire is divided into its Ridings and the Furness area of Lancashire is attached to Westmorland but distinguished by its colour. There is a county labelled "London" but no Middlesex.

Another things different with my jigsaw compared to those of my friends is that each county with the exception of Anglesey and Flint include one or more pictograms. Most are understandable although a few now seem somewhat anachronisitic.

A contribution to ABC Wednesday.

Pavement Art, Garden Street, St Annes on Sea

(Click on image to view full-size version)
Whilst we were in St Annes last week we came across these metal carvings set into the pavement along Garden Street in the centre of town.

(Click on image to view full-size version)
There is at least another one featuring Trees but a shopkeeper had placed a sandwich-board half over that one so I didn't get a photo.

I thought they may have been some kind of millennium artwork but when I asked in the local library they didn't seem to know much about them. The person I asked did say she thought they may be a recent school's project.

(Click on image to view full-size version)
If they were on a wall I'd call them "murals" but they are set into the pavement (that's the sidewalk for our American friends). Someone suggested they are perhaps "floorals" (note in Northern English speak "floor" rhymes with "moor" note "more")

A contribution to Monday Murals.

ABC Wednesday:H is for Hemingway

Gwyllam Williams wrote on his Poet in Residence blog

I don't imagine for two seconds that it'll be easy finding too much poetic phraseology in the works of Ernest Miller Hemingway. His work in general is without the ingredient we like to call poetic quality. Some have called it reportage. He has many imitators. Some good. Some bad.

I commented then

I've got a copy of a small booklet of poems by Hemingway somewhere - published (if I recall correctly) by Lawrence Ferlinghetti in California c.1966

I've since fished it out and see the date is actually 1960.

Al Filreis in his blog 1960 comments

Over the years there have been nine unauthorized editions of the poems. All or most of these editions contain 18 poems, which are most of the poems Hem wrote and published while he was living in Paris in the 1920s. The critical response to his verse is mostly based on the pirated editions, which are filled with errors.

One of these unauthorized editions was published by City Lights in San Francisco in 1960. It sold for 50 cents.

The pirated edition is advertised on Amazon at $45.99 (new) or 8 used from $4.99

My copy has 21p in pencil inside the front cover. I suspect I picked it up for that meagre sum, probably from a bookshop in the Shambles in York. It used to have a room full of little pamphlets that you could rummage through.

This poem is dated February 1925

THE AGE DEMANDED

The age demanded that we sing
And cut away our tongue.

The age demanded that we flow
And hammered in the bung.

The age demanded that we dance
And jammed us into iron pants.

And in the end the age has handed
The sort of shit that it demanded.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY

Hemingway aficionados might like to check out Paul E Stolle's blog Hemingway's Paris

For ABC Wednesday.

Monday Murals: Pontins, St Annes

(Click on image to view full-size version)
This delightful mural is on the side of the shop at the old Pontins Holiday Camp at St Annes on the Sea.

The old holiday camp closed in October 2009. It was well past its "sell-by-date" and rumour has it that the lease on the land was running out and updating the campsite was not a viable option. Pontins went into liquidiation and most of their existing operations were taken over by Brittania Hotels.

Northern Trust, a company based in Chorley, had plans (dating back to 2008 seemingly) to build houses on the site. Demolition of the site started in 2010 and some two thirds were cleared but some buildings including this one and a row of chalets alongside the main road still remain. It would seem demolition has stopped as there are now doubts over whether the housing plans will actually go ahead.

More insight into all this can be found on Counterbalance: Pontins Puzzle and a follow-up article Ten Grand.

(Click on image to view full-size version)
For now these murals remains but probably not for too much longer.

A contribution to Monday Murals.

ABC Wednesday: C is for Cheetham's Cattle

These two photo's were taken in 2000 at the Gee Cross Fete. Cheetham and sons farm on Werneth Low and used to deliver milk all around the Hyde area. These belong to the Longdendale Herd of Pedigree Red Poll cattle.

I thought that Mr Cheetham had retired from farming a few years ago, but have since learnt that although they no longer have a milk round they are still busy producing.

For more C posts visit ABC Wednesday.

More animals on Camera Critters.

ABC Wednesday: B is forBoulton's Bowlder

(Click on image to view full-size version)
A memorial in St Peter's churchyard, Ashton under Lyne.

The inscription reads:

This Bowlder
was placed here by
Alderman Issac Watt Boulton MP
of Stamford House Ashton under Lyme
in affectionate remembrance of
his eldest son
Thomas Boulton
who was for 9 years warden of this church
Born November 5th 1841
and died at sea February 5th 1880
on board the R.M.S.S Kinpauns Castle
wherest on a voyage to the Cape of Good Hope
to recruit his health
his remains were committed to the deep
in Lat.11.30 South Long.2.30 West, February 8th 1880
Lord have mercy on my soul
and take me to thee

Note the spelling Ashton under Lyme (not Lyne) was common in the 19th century.

For ABC Wednesday.

Port Street Mural

(Click on image to view full-size version)
En route to find last week's street art in Stevenson Square I came across this mural on the rear of the Hatter's Hotel on Port Street.

It was completed in November 2011. See David Seale's photograph on Geograph showing the artists putting the finishing touches to the work.

Chrissy Brand posted her own photo of the artwork on Mancunian Wave in April.

For Monday Murals

ABC Wednesday: A is for Archimedes under an arch through an arch

(Click on image to view full-size version)
Under an arch of the railway from Piccadilly to Oxford Road is a stone statue which shows a life sized Archimedes leaping naked from his bath whilst experiencing his "eureka moment". It was created by the artist Thomas W Dagnall and unveiled in September 1990.

The view here is through the Technology Arch, a sculpture by Axel Wolkenhauer. It consists of thick metal ropes set into a mobius strip, and passing upwards into an arch. It is set on a circular metal base. The work refers to spiral forms in time and space. The mobius or endless loop and the materials used create a dialogue between science and nature. A base plaque states "Made possible by North West Arts and British Ropes Ltd, 1989".

Early commentators have been asking for a front view of Archimedes so here it is

  © Copyright David Dixon and
licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

These sculptures are just a few of the interesting things I found on a walk following the railway arches from Piccadilly to Oxford Road. The whole walk can be visited on the Geograph blog.

Further A posts can be discovered at ABC Wednesday.

Monday Murals: Stevenson Square, Manchester

(Click on image to see the bigger picture)
Last week I thought it was time I ventured into Stevenson Square in Manchester to see the regularly changing street art there having heard of it via Chrissy Brand at Mancunian Wave. Her post this week shows one side of the latest artwork and a close-up of part thereof.

My photo shows one end which seems to compliment the advertisement on the back of the nearby bus. The street art is set around some closed underground toilets.

I found some other murals in the vicinity which I'll share in future posts.

A contribution to Monday Murals.

Monday Murals/Doorways: The Thirsty Scholar

The Thirsty Scholar is a bar and night club situated under one of the railway arches by Oxford Road station. The area around New Wakefield Street has a lot of graffiti/street art. The council are threatening to remove it, hence the "Save our Street Art" posters.

Chrissy Brand featured one of the New Wakefield Street murals last Monday on Mancunian Wave.

This is one of a series of photographs I took on a walk last Monday around the route of the viaduct linking Piccadilly to Oxford Road making some interesting discoveries along the way. An illustrated account of that walk can be found on the Geograph blog.

A contribution to Monday Murals.

Weekend in Black & White: Arch #42

(click on image for a larger view)
A look alongside the viaduct that carries the railway line from Oxford Road to Piccadilly in Manchester.

Arch 42 near Princess Street is roughly halfway between the two stations.

This is one of a series of photographs I took on a walk around the route of the viaduct making some interesting discoveries along the way. An illustrated account of that walk can be found on the Geograph blog.

This is a contribution to The Weekend in Black and White and Sunday Bridges at San Francisco Bay Daily Photo.

International Olympicosmpoetriada

EARTH AND SKY

This astro-photo-art-poem by Arlene Carol (USA, residing in Turkey) precedes my astrohaiku in the latest web production by SARM MASTER FESTIVAL (PART II OF MASTER OLYMPICOSMOPOETRIADA)

***

across light years
googols of radio waves
oscillate

Gerald England

The anthology of super photographs and poetry also includes

ESCAPING QUESTION

Whispers her dream snake
tongue licked up from pyramid
peak caught fly wise fall
of meteor swallowed spark
reawake mummy's goodbye smile

by Steve Sneyd

SIGNALS, DEDICATED FROM THE SKY

In the picture above, on the bottom left, you see the lunar disk. Ufo Analyzer software has classified the fireball as belonging to the class "J5_And" Andromenidi with estimated magnitude, but perhaps underestimated: - (minus) 4.5!
Latitude and Longitude of observing station:
Lat 46.933300 North
Long 26.366600 East
Date of sighting: 19th November 2011

image © Alfredo Caronia (Italy,
co-discoverer of 5 asteroids, established in Romania)

is followed by

3.3.12

I missed the fireball streak across the sky
That set alarm calls ringing across the land
As people thought a plane was crashing, or
A UFO had brought aliens from on high
(Their mission to invade had long been planned)
But, most likely it was just a meteor.

by John Francis Haines

Another contribution by Steve Sneyd is

TANKA

Twin suns death dancing
tear gobbets of hot flesh : shared
world pretends nothing
much just presents a gain who
hurl harmless lost meteor dreams


Valentin Grigore's VENUS AND JUPITER OVER TARGOVISTE, 15th March 2012

is followed by

twilight
an incoming jet flies by
Venus twinkles

Gerald England

All of this is just a minute part of the International Olympicosmpoetriada coordinated by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe and Valentin Grigore of the Romanian Society for Meteors and Astronomy.

Mellow Yellow Monday:A tram to Monsall

(Click on images to view full size)
Last Wednesday services began running on the Metrolink tramway extension from Manchester Victoria to Oldham Mumps. This Oldham-bound tram is just entering St Peter's Square from St Werburgh's Road. I caught it that afternoon and travelled as far as the first of the new stations on the line.


I alighted at Monsall and the tram continued on its journey to Mumps.


There is ramped access from the Oldham-bound platform up to Monsall Street.


Looking back at the station from near the top of the ramp.


Crossing over the line takes us into Rushwick Avenue and on to Ruislip Avenue where there is a disabled parking bay, five padlocked bicycle cages and some Sheffield stands.


As at many Metrolink stations a lift is provided to takes passengers from street level down to the platform. The lift wasn't in operation although I was informed it would ready for use in about half an hour. Fortuneatly I am still fit enough to use the stairs.


Looking from the end of the Manchester-bound platform. This section was built on the line of a former dismantled heavy rail line.


As the electronic screen tells us, a tram is approaching. We are also informed that the next tram to St Werburgh's Road will be along in 14 minutes. And if the time is correct then comparing it to the information in the photograph's EXIF data the clock in my camera is 12 minutes fast (less an hour slow as it's still set to GMT).

I took this tram to Shudehill where I changed for a tram to Piccadilly and there caught a Euston express to Stockport and a bus home.

A contribution to Mellow Yellow Monday.

Another account with some extra photographs can be viewed on the Geograph blog.

Weekend Reflections:Market Avenue, Ashton-under-Lynr

Reflections in the rainsodden pavement of Market Avenue, Ashton under Lyne.

In the foreground are two metal bollards which were erected in 2008 to celebrate the reopening of the market hall, rebuilt after being destroyed by fire in 2004.

On the right is a statue of a "street urchin" one of several dotted around the town.

More reflections too in the entrance to the market hall itself.


Market Avenue is a pedestrian walkway leading from Ashton market to Old Street. The amusement arcade on the right has a snack bar which is from where I took the first photograph.


This plaque on the left-hand bollard depicts a plan of Ashton Old Town as laid out in the 1740s by the 5th Earl of Stamford.


This is the plaque on the right-hand bollard.

For more bollards visit Bollards of Britain.

For more reflections visit Weekend Reflections.

Trans Pennine Trail: Green Pastures to East Didsbury

This is part of the Trans Pennine Trail leading out of Green Pastures, Heaton Mersey towards a tunnel under Parrs Wood Lane. The route is along a former railway line running from New Mills through Heaton Mersey and Chorlton-cum-Hardy to Manchester.

This is looking back under the tunnel. It looks better in monochrome.

  © Copyright Chris Wimbush and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

Chris Wimbush's photograph taken in January 2011 shows where the footpath used to continue along the line of the dismantled railway towards the bridge carrying Kingsway. The route has been diverted as the East Didsbury tram station at the end of the South Manchester Line is being built on the site.

Here is how it looks now with construction work ongoing. The station is due to open in Summer 2013 and according to the trammstop plan the line of the trail will be re-instated.

Plans were originally drawn up for a Metrolink tramway via East Didsbury to Stockport but the extended route was withdrawn in 2004 due to lack of funding. If they are ever revived then the path under the tunnel is unlikely to look anything like it does now.

A contribution to Sunday Bridges at San Francisco Bay Daily Photo.