The One Part One

The One Show?

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But first ...

 Advent Alphabetical Almanac 

U is for Unction

What, pray, is "unction"? Answer: it is the action of anointing someone (with ceremonial oil) into an elated position. A monarch may receive "unction" at the coronation.

anointing spoon etc for UK coronation

So what connection is there with Christmas? Those of us who sing our hymns will doubtless remember these lines from "The King of Love my Shepherd is", a version of the 23rd Psalm.

In death's dark vale I fear no ill,

with thee, dear Lord, beside me;

thy rod and staff my comfort still,

thy cross before to guide me.

Thou spreadst a table in my sight;

thy unction grace bestoweth;

and oh, what transport of delight

from thy pure chalice floweth!

And so through all the length of days,

thy goodness faileth never;

Good Shepherd, may I sing thy praise

within thy house forever.

So "unction" is linked with dying and being ready to live "in God's house for ever". So we need Christmas, the gift of the Christ, to enable us to receive God's gracious forgiving "unction" and so live in His house for ever. Christmas is about eternity, life after death and where each one of us goes after that terminal trip to the undertaker! At least, it should be.

This is getting a bit "heavy" for Christmas. Maybe tomorrow's "V" will help?

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Let's take a breather in a Glasgow suburb, beside the River Kelvin.

At Killermont Bridge?

Thomas Somers (Glasgow City Engineers) and Considere Constructions Ltd. built a replacement bridge over the River Kelvin at Killermont in about 1927. It was a 2-span ( both 84ft 6in long) reinforced concrete beam bridge with segmental-arched beams.

It was built at a cost of £39,635 to replace an earlier masonry bridge ...

... as part of a programme of road improvement incorporating tramway extension from Garscube to Milngavie. This previous bridge replaced an old hump-backed stone construction carrying what was to become the A81.

At this point the river marked the boundary of the City of Glasgow. Thus it was that a youthful and love-struck fbb-to-be travelled on a shiny blue service 11 or 12 ...

... to the outskirts of Bearsden to woo the woman of his dreams. (And she did live just across the road from a bus depot!). Observed from the 11 via Mayhill, and lurking outside a little block of shops ...

... on the "country" side of Killermont Bridge was often parked a Corporation service 1 ready to set off to Carmyle.

By agreement, Corporation buses could not cross the border and thus failed to serve the worthy residents of the rapidly expanding Kessington Estate. Note the thick black "pecked" border line along the course of the river.

Later this useless bit of the 1 along an empty Maryhill Road was revised when the route was diverted to a small in-fill housing scheme on Acre Road.

Here a huge turning circle (below the blue "56") was built to cope with the massive loading and frequency.

Only there wasn't any. It is now unserved by any bus route!

So when fbb started spotting on-line pictures like this ...

... the elderly and chubby one started thinking. Is it a new brand for service 6? Are we being encouraged to travel on "the One" that is best? Or is the historic route from Killermont Bridge somehow reborn in a new form?

Answer: none of these as we shall see.

 Next Bus Blog : Saturday 22nd December