Public Transport Christmas (5)

A Transport Stable ... ?

The town is often referred to informally as "Stabbo". It is not known when or where this colloquialism originated. The local newspaper, Nottingham Post, suggests that 'Stappo' might have been used once, and that this became 'Stabbo' over time.

Unashamedly, fbb will use this as a feeble excuse to rename the town Stableford! There are plenty of paces with Cow as the first three letters of their name ...

... but Cattle seemed absent from the annals of public transport. As did Stable, but not now fbb has slightly renamed hat town that lies on the border between Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.  

Stableford had a railway station on the Erewash Valley line, that runs due north from Trent Junction to Chesterfield.

It had buses by Barton ...

... but today's public transport is largely in the capable hands of Trentbarton.

The i4 is the main stopping service between Nottingham and Derby ...

... offering an excellent, frequent ...

... with smart branded buses ...

... erm, most of the time!

Running north south through Stableford is the fly15, operating between Ilkeston and East Midlands airport.

A few years back the service had a spectacular launch ...

... suggesting some interesting places you might visit using the fly15!

Pity the lads couldn't get fly15 on the blind display! But again, it offpers a good frequency both locally and all the way to East Midlands Airport.

Or A Transport Inn?

There are plenty of bus stops at pubs with Inn in their name, but places with Inn within are not "in" when it comes to full transport Inn information. Fortunately, fbb found two with "new"  to review with a view to using one of the few!

Here is one ...

... but a bit out in the sticks for an fbb blog. After all, he has mangled Nasareth and Bethlehem for a second year running! But hold fast there! Isn't there a railway station called Pontypool and New inn?

There it is on the "main" line between south and north wales (map below, lower right).

But at first glance this bastion of Transport for Wales goodness doesn't look like a source of goodness for an fbb investigative blog. 

It has an entrance via a subway ...

... lavish passenger facilities ...

... on a wide island platform.

Certainly it looks like a "blasted heath" style of unstaffed halt!

But things have been happening at Pontypool and New Inn. It has a new foot bridge with lifts

But once upon a time, the station was called Pontypool Road and once upon an earlier time it looked like this!

So what happened?

That is for a later post-festive blog. But now, another Inn with a problem.

Full On At A Full Inn

The bible tells us that ... 

... "they laid the baby in a manger because there was no room at the Inn."

And that is all we get. No innkeeper, no cattle lowing, no camels, sheep, giraffes and baby ocelots. Just a manger, Mary and Joseph!

It wasn't pretty ; it was pretty grim. But then nobody could accuse the Son of God of being so remote as to misunderstand the human condition. Where was the midwife; where was the gas and air machine; where were the doctors and where was the hospital bed?

Scary!

Stable Theory Unstable!

Again, the drawings can be so farcical as to make the whole story seem farce or fantasy. Which of these pictures is an accurate representation of what the Bible tells is?

A draughty cattle shed?

En plein  air?

Packed with some very weird visitors?

And loads of unhygienic animals!

Or maybe just mum and dad and the child?

In the cave?

The cave?

The most likely location for the birth of the Messiah, the Saviour, the Crucified and Risen Lord, was one of the caves that are still used for livestock at Bethlehem.

The caves were (and still are) not far from The Shepherds' Field.

That makes sense ...

  Next Public Transport Christmas blog : Weds 24 Dec 

Public Transport Christmas (4)

 A Long And Tiring Journey 1

From Nasareth (above) which has a bus stop ...

... and an occasional bus! It is south of Caernarfon, but

Frankly, there's not much to it as can be not seen on this old map.

It hasn't grown much since.

Back then it was spelled with a "Z"! There is no "Z" in the Welsh language, hence the "S"!

Bethlehem, is also not much of a place ...

... just a few cottages, a farm or two, a chapel of course ...

...and a few modern houses.

It also has a splendid recently replaced bus shelter ...

Again it is largely unchanged today.

The nearest town (certainly not a city) to Bethlehem is Llandeilo.

It is a picturesque little community ...

... and has buses which stop near St Teilo's Church ...

... after which the town is named.

You could get between Nasareth and Bethlehem by public transport, possibly with a walk at each end.

But it would be a long and tiring journey of about 100 miles.

It would be an even longer and more tiring journey if you had to walk!

A Long And Tiring Journey 2

Just over two millennia ago, a teenage girl was told by an angel that she would become pregnant. She was not married but her future husband stood by her much against the conventions of the day.

If an angel wasn't weird enough, hubby Joe was summoned to register with the Roman authorities at the town of his birth.

Nazareth was a small insignificant village ...

... 2000 years ago so the couple would have to walk the 100 miles (slightly less) to Bethlehem. 

Walk? What happened to the Donkey?

Drop the Dead Donkey? 

There was no donkey.

Isn't technology clever?

There was no donkey anywhere in the Bible texts. No one is quite sure who invented the donkey, but there wasn't one. It is highly unlikely that a jobbing builder could even afford the hire charge for a donkey for such a long journey!

So they walked to Bethlehem ...

... an insignificant hamlet not far from the 'city' of Jerusalem.

City? It was quite small, the dark shaded b8t in the map below.

The light area was added after AD43, long after Jesus' demise. The "city" was about three quarters of a mile north to south and a but less east to west - similar in size, broadly, to Llandeilo.

But it really was ...

A Long And Tiring Journey

... but their problems were not yet over ...

No, we did NOT book on line

  Next Public Transport Christmas blog : Tues 23 Dec