A Handful Of Happenings At Heartsease (2)

 fbb Gets It Wrong - AGAIN!

Above is a complete map of the Norwich tram system, showing each route in the colour used on its destination boards. On the basis of a cursory and ARMD eyeball problematic look, fbb wrote, positively, that there never were trams on Unthank Road itself.

Twaddle!

Thanks to correspondent Peter, fbb can now correct himself and his readers, hand in his lines to Peter this evening and go without supper and a bedtime drink.

Look closely and you will see that Unthank Road is partly shaded in grey. 

That is because the trams thereupon showed a white destination board as per the key to the map which fbb totally ignored.

So Peter has correctly identified the tram picture that fbb failed convincingly to identify - simple because he was looking on the wrong road for the wong tram route. Otherwise he was fine nd dandy!

Peter has also send a map of part of Unthank Road with the tram clearly marked "Tramway".

A second map shows the terminus outside a hospital (left hand map, right centre) and today's map for comparison.

The terminus would be very close to the current bus stop with a route 25 just passing.

Honest injun, says fbb, I really did not spot that grey shading!

Back to the Heartsease Handful.

4  Moving the Munitions : More Military

The extension to the summer green tram extension led to a small industrial estate associated with Mousehold Heath airfield. This old one inch map extract makes it all clear. (?) Click on the map for an enlargement.

The two sets of barracks referred to in yesterdays blog are bottom left. The summer green tram terminus is at the nearby junction of the orange roads, and the freight tramway ran across part of Mousehold Heath to terminate on the north side of the "Iron Works", later a munitions factory.

Here is another effort at showing the route.

"Trains" would take the boxes of big bangers via the tram route to Thorpe station for onward travel by train,

5. The Airport(s)

But the parallelogram of roads enclosing the word Norwich (see map above) became an airfield for the Royal Flying Corps that later became the RAF.

This video traces something of the airfield and goes on to include the history of todays Norwich Airport on a different site.

We can see the outline of the old airport overlaid on the Heartsease housing estate.

The new build followed the decay of the old airfield and the opening up of the new airport. The extent of Heartsease estate can be judged by a modern map.

The former green tram winter terminus just peeps in bottom left; the summer terminus is now at the junction of just two of the four former roads. Britannia Barracks has become H M Prison Norwich ...

... complete with a splendid clock tower.

The original Barracks HQ buildings still stand, but fairly well hidden round the back of His Majesty's high-walled hotel!

Guests had just arrived when Streetview passed quickly by!

So, tomorrow's task will be to compete the "handful' with a look at Heartsease buses in 1970 c/o Mr K and a review of today's operation c/o Mr First Bus.

Snippet

fbb has been a watcher of the various manifestations of Star Trek for many a long year. The latest in the "franchise" is "Start Trek Picard".

As well as reviving Admiral Jean-Luc Picard (retired but still saving the universe every so often!) the third series brings back most of the cast of Star Trek The Next Generation (TNG) which re-booted the current flood of spin offs and extensions. Patrick Stewart (from Huddersfield), who plays Picard, is now aged 83!

But episode 3 of the current series was a cracker. fbb so opined to No 3 son who also watches avidly but with a critical eye. Said son sent a tweet to Jonathan Frakes (Riker, Picard's "No 1" in TNG), reproduced below.

Do feel free to click on the image to read what No 3 son says.

Importantly, Mr Frakes (now a youthful 72!) "liked" the tweet. fbb has never really understood the science of Twittering, but he thinks "liked" means he read it and appreciated it.

For those who are interested in Ep 3, Picard is involved in escaping from a gravity pit using the emanations from a giant pregnant space jellyfish; he is battling an evil changeling in charge of a huge battle space ship who had just cut off her own arm; he is trying to make it up with his illegitimate son who he seems to have forgotten he had; his former chum Raffie is searching for the mysterious red lady and for whoever destroyed a whole cadet training centre; Oh yes, the changelings ...

... are trying to destroy his ship which he has hi-jacked from a gruff and bad tempered captain who has suddenly become his friend; he is also battling a really bad case of bunions.

Not all the above is 100% accurate.

It is the powerful realism that attracts fbb to the series; everything is so believable!

Episode 4 on Friday!

 Next Heartsease blog : Wednesday 15th March