Balancing Britain (2) The Bus

Absolute Heaven** : Service Eleven?

Empirical examination of bus stops in Dunsop Bridge should reveal that this intriguing settlement, just over four miles from the very centre of Great Britain, is served by a route 11.

The gloriously rural 11 is run by minibuses ...

... and a close inspection of the vehicle(s) would reveal the operator as "North Yorkshire Council" ...

... indeed North Yorkshire tells us so.

Or, on-line, there is a timetable search for Dunsop Bridge.

But when we prod the blue blob, up comes ...

... what looks like a Lancashire Council timetable leaflet. The unhelpful on-line route map might explain this dual identity.

Actually it doesn't! Neither does the superb route map in the lovely Lancs leaflet.

Bang in the middle of the above page is the delightfully named Tosside.

The village marks the boundary between Lancashire ...

... and, fixe9d to the back of the above sign ...

... North Yorkshire.

The boundary runs along the side road (left) in front of the North Yotks sign or behind that for Lancs. The northbound stop is in Lancashire ...

... with the southbound, but unmarked, pick-up point being outside the village hall and over the border in North Yorks.

The service was resurrected in 2024 ...

... and later enjoyed by none other than blogging's Uncle Travelling Matte (Fraggle Rock character!) Roger French.

The bus pictures are his photographs - thanks, Roger!

The Lancs leaflet includes some rudimentary fares information ...

... BUT ...

... are these fares available over the border at Tosside?

Confusing, innit?

Here is the Saturday timetable; Mon to Fri is much the same.

One unexplained oddity is the link between Settle and Horton in Ribblessdale. A through passenger south from Horton is obliged to settle for 47 lengthy minutes in Settle before continuing towards Clitheroe.

Why? Surely the layover should be taken at the end of the route, i.e in Horton.

But note the hourly train connections at Clitheroe. Maybe a brave bus and rail enthusiast could plan a tour, out via Clitheroe, lavish lunch at Settle or Horton, and back via the Settle and Carlisle line to Leeds, then Manchester and back to Cliitheroe.

Sounds fun. If only Seaton were nearer to Manchester.

** Whilst the interpretation of visionary passages that describe heaven in The Bible can be difficult ...

... the joy of joining God outside of human space and time for an eternity of sin-free perfection and delight is surely even better than the Lancs/Yorks route 11.

Priestly king, enthroned for ever

high in heaven above!

sin and death and hell shall never

stifle hymns of love:

Yours the glory and the crown,
the high renown, the eternal name.

5o, our hearts and voices raising

through the ages long,

ceaselessly upon you gazing,

this shall be our song:

Yours the glory and the crown,
the high renown, the eternal name.

=====================

From The Sublime ...

fbb is currently turning a pair of "workers' cottages" ...

... into a row of four low relief residences. Parts of these card kits are  cut and ready to 'push out' - with the exception of one edge which has to be cut by the user. This stops the bits falling apart in the box, on the work bench, or, for fbb, on the dining table or onto the carpet!

... To The Ridiculous!

Thus it was than your elderly wobbly-handed and careless blogger-cum-kit-basher carefully cut out a required part and, equally carefully, sliced through two dormer window barge boards!

Amazingly he was able to repair them ....

... but you can see the join!

fbb's modelling mentors, Fred Fudge and Bill Bodge would be proud of their protege! (Memo mist work out how to add accents on laptop or tablet!)

=====================

 Next Beach But No Sea blog : Fri 6 Nov 

Balancing Britain (1)

 a telephone, a centroid, a bus and a hill walk

A Telephone ...

... so our tale does indeed begin with a phone box, a working phone box, no less. At least it was in use when StreetView toddled past. It is plonked in Dunsop Bridge, one of a collection of Northern place names than can sound made up for a comedy sketch show. Not far away, you will find Bashall Eaves, Cow Ark, Slaidburn, Tosside, Wigglesworth and Rathmell.

Dunsop Bridge (in Lancashire) ...

... is, sort of, near Clitheroe ...

... and has a bridge ...

... over the River Dunsop (there's original!) ...

... which joins the River Hodder near Thorneyholme, the 'big house' of the village.

The Best name on the map is "Knot of Sugar Loaf"! 

The village has a car park with toilets ...

... a shelter for bus passengers in one direction right next to an unofficial bike park ...

... and a bus stop pole and flag for travel in the opposite direction.

StreetView revealed no obvious timetable information at shelter or pole; but, on closer inspection there is a timetable frame directed at toilet and car park customers, not those waiting on the roadside.

This miniscule village has a post office ...

... and a cosy tea room.

Were the intrepid tourist to enter the phone box, there would be revealed a plaque.

This humble BT payphone, it claims, marks the "centre of Great Britain".

It isn't!

But it may be the nearest payphone to the centre of Great Britain.

fbb will dutifully return to whatever stops at those stops in tomorrow's expository eclectic episode; but, for the time being we must make our acquaintance with a Centroid.

No, not an android, but a  centroid.

A Centroid

A centroid is the point at which a two dimensional shape could, in theory, balance on the point of, say, a pencil.

You can even have a centroid which is in thin air, being the balance point of a shape you could never balance.

So the best way to find the "centre", (i.e. the centroid) of Great Britain would be to balance GB on a pencil. There are a number of problems with this plan, even assuming you had a big enough pencil.

The big problem is that GB is definitely very not flat.

But the sainted Ordnance Survey decided that the best they could do is find the centroid of GB assuming it was flat, technically a 'plane figure'.

We need a bit more geographical definition.

What IS Great Britain?  Yes, the creator of the above graphic has left out the flag of Northern Ireland. So here it is:-

And here is a graphic explaining the difference between the various names used for, well, our bits of world geography.

The British Isles is the whole lot. The United Kingdom includes Northern Ireland but not the Republic of. 

Great Britain is the big island, sometimes including it's accompanying little islands. The OS includes the little Island's in its sophisticated centroid calculation.

So where is the centroid of Great Britain, i.e. England, Scotland, Wales and their associated island appendages.

A Hill Walk

We can start at Dunsop Bridge ...

... striking north along a path on the western side of the bridge ...

... along the River Dunsop to Brennand Farm.

Then it is due horth across open moorland.

High on the hills of Brennand Fell you will find Whitedale Hanging Stones.

These picturesque lumps of rick mark, according to the OS, the true and accurate centroid of Great Britain.

To complete their growing knowledge of geometry and topology,, readers might like to explain how you can find the centroid of a simple triangle.

It is much easier than finding the centroid of Great Britain.

Tomorrow - A Bus. 

======================

Delay Repay Repaid

Readers my remember that the fbbs arrived back from their recent trip to the Isle of Wight TWO hours late.

The Ryde Esplanade to Axminster tickets were duly photographed and the long list of questions answered. 

So, after a frustration morning filling in the "easy-to-use" on-line form (!) fbb was told that the refund was on its way.

Yesterday afternoon note was received on-line.

fbb was expecting just the return half of the fare, but nice kind South Western Railway sent the full £161.60 for the two return fares.

Apparentry that is the correct procedure if your journey is delayed by two hours or more. fbb simply did not know.

A cheap holiday!

======================

 Next Balancing Britain's Bus : Thur 5 Nov  

Tuesday Variety

 Car Free Care Free Oxford Street

Although the number of buses along Oxford Street has been reduced over the years ...

... there were still buses nose to tail at busy times.  

Until recently, there were plenty of taxis and a few private cars willing to pay the congestion charge.

So, said Lord Khan, make a hearty chunk of this road traffic free (nearly, see below) and send buses round the back.

Westminster Council didn't want it. The shop keepers didn't want it. The bus companies didn't want it! So, in true democratic style (!) it happened just over a week ago.

Wigmore Street, the parallel route fot all diverted buses, certainly did not want it!

So, in true democratic style (!) It happened just over a week ago.

Artists' impressions suggest Oxford Street will look lovely when it is all beautifully landscaped ...

... but all we have at the moment is a picture of His Lordness proudly repelling anything on four wheels with an engine!

Oddly, in the first few days, most pedestrians stayed on the pavements.

In the picture above, those walking 'in the road' were mainly avoiding the narrow pavement blocked by barriers shielding some building  refurbishment work!

Vehicles can access most of the closed bit ...

... but only between midnight and 0700 via a complex series of back street access routes. That will be fun if the driver is not too sure where to deliver OR if he has multiple deliveries along the Street.

It will also increase delivery costs and imply a need for extra staff to receive their goodies at 'unsociable' hours. So yet another poke on the consumer nose on behalf of the cost of living crisis.

It will also be a challenge finding your bus stop!

But the ever resilient resident will get used to it. Visitors from UK and overseas often have no idea where they are, where they have come from and where they might be going next! So they will notice no change at all.

The environmentalists will be thrilled whilst they wander on Oxford Street, but infuriated with Wigmore Street. 

Many casual shoppers will give up and 'enjoy' East Westfield or West Westfield! At least once you have got there, the 'mall' is traffic free, packed to the rafters with escapees from Oxford Street, but traffic free.

Cheers!

Lumo-nescence? GROAN!

Grid Groans : What's Going On!

The press keeps reporting worrying snippets about the UK's lack of resilient power supplies. This may affect our  homes, our electrified railways, our electric buses, our electric cars , our industries and, most significantly, our Christmas lights.

Is there something "They" are not telling us?

Some will remember the 3 day week of the 1970s ...

... homework by candle light ...

... office work by Camping Gaz?

But nowadays ...

It could be much, much worse!

Never mind, Wes has all the answers ...

... buy a wind-up torch and stock up with cans. Wes has issued an encouraging picture of his own store cupboard at home.

But beware! Make sure you don't just have one of these!

The Government points out that there are low-low-tech alternatives for breaking into your can of beanz.

But ...

Is there something "They" are not telling us?

Tomorrow: a telephone, a centroid, a bus and a hill walk?

 Next Balancing Britain blog : Wed 4 Nov