Castles In The Air (4) - And Castles In The Square

That Castle Progresses

fbb makes no apologies for reporting on the development of his newly acquired model castle.

Realistically, there is very little happening in the field of public transport and the old bloke does need something to stimulate his brain cells - what is left of them! Plonking a lump of moulded "hard foam" plastic on top of the tunnel would always look intrusive; so landscaping was very necessary.

Sir Peregrine Hardulph, local "Lord Of The Manor" is well known for his distinctive entablature where the colour gules fills his escutcheon. Aparently treatmernt is now available for a toucvh of gules on your entablature!

It was therefore a natural decision to use that hue to paint the embellishments Perry added to make his castle safe for visitors.

Fencing discourages the over-enthusiastic visitor from dangerous mural expeditions ...

... and from potentially precipitous plunging within the main keep.

Note the smudges of red paint on the far wall. When fbb was much much younger he learned a bit of programing on his BBC Model B using "BASIC" a clever acronym for Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code. One useful bit of code was a "for next" loop. It allowed to you tell the computer to to things repetitively until you got the answer needed.

With stubby fingered painting it goes like this.

Pain the fence red
Smear red paint on the grey rocks
Dab grey paint on the rocks
Accidentally dab grey paint on the red fence
Touch up the fence with red paint
Smear red paint on the grey rocks
Repeat ad infinitum

For visitors to the castle, fbb recognised one deficiency. There was no door to the tower. Fortunately there was a walled up depression where one might have been.

Another bit of the terraced house kit, namely a side gate, was trimmed to fit.

See "for next" para above.

Note also that a good solid stone slab had to be used to cover the well. Now visitors can avoid falling sown the well and merely trip over the slab and break  a few limbs!

The final embellishment; a flag up a pole.

Hidden in the trees is a small visitor centre.

It is hidden in the trees because it is a poor quality "kit bashed" model made up of left over bits and pieces. But the main problem is that it doesn't have a doorway! You see, it used to be a model railway club room attached to the pub, with internal access only. Maybe one day fbb will add a small porch but, until then, the trees hide the uselessness of the building!

And those trees (bought cheap) are too green and the wrong green - more a deciduous spring green - but it will have to do for the time being.

Observant readers - i.e. those that are still awake - will notice another health and safety problem.

Visitors can innocently walk through a hole in the retaining wall and plunge to their death down the quarry face. That is because work is "in hand" rebuilding what are now known as "Castle Steps". The same observant readers may remember the steps leading up to the castle-less tunnel top.

The top half was pleasantly equipped with over-scale lattice work as recycled from an "O" level kit that fbb bought yonks ago in a fit of misplaced enthusiasm for modelling in 7mm scale.

It was so frustratingly fiddly to get the lattice glued to the steps that fbb gave up and "built" the lower section of ugly and unrealistic "concrete". But with the arrival of the castle something better was needed. So back to the frustrating lattice it is.

But it is happening (slo-o-o-o-wly); and a repaint is due as well after five years outside in the rain and snow.

Castles In The Square (1)
fbb suspect that were you to ask the majority of Sheffielders where Wetherpoons was in the city centre, or maybe Greggs ditto - "Spoons" is the older looking building far left ...

... they would say, "Does tha' mean Cassel Square?"; or they might suggest, "Topper rangel street." The latter is not wrong geographically but is most definitely a wrong address.

"Spoons" is located in the former Midland Bank premises at Nos 1/2 Market Place ....

... and Greggs is st No 21.

And Market Place used to have bus stops all of its own ...

... on both sides of the road as well. The bank cum pub is just of this shot on the left.

fbb has always been more interested in the social history of public transport; where it goes and why and the centre of Sheffield shows the city's interaction with tram and bus over the last 150 years approx.

Signs Of The Times
Hulleys of Baskow changed the timetable for their Sheffield to Derbyshire on April 20th. A few days ago this note appeared on the company web site.

So route 275 changes again from today as highlighted on the GoTimetable app and web site.

Will Travel South Yorkshire know? Will they care?

Also from today, Sheffield Supertram enters another phase of track replacement. No trams will run  between Birley Lane and the BLUE terminus at Halfway.

What is interesting this time is that Stagecoach will not be running any replacement buses - there are simply not enough passengers. But Tram tickets will be valid on parallel bus services.

More tomorrow.

 Next Castles blog : Tuesday 5th May