Public Transport Christmas (2)

 Where Am I?

I had two stations, the above looking very different today!

It is a Tesco Extra innit?

The other station ...

.. was closed but re-opened in 1993.

It had trams and a canal ...

... and a tram depot ...

... which became a bus depot (now closed).

Until privatisation it was served by two very different bus operators ...

... with very different liveries.

It was the setting of a famous TV show ...

... but much more importantly, the first home of Mrs fbb, aged 0 to 2! 

Hew Hill, the Laird, of Gairbraid, had no male heir and so he left his estate to his daughter, Mary Hill (1730–1809). She married Robert Graham of Dawsholm in 1763, but they had no income from trade or commerce and had to make what they could from the estate. They founded coal mines on the estate but they proved to be wet and unprofitable.

Yes. Maryhill, Glasgow.

And So To London

And we are looking at the school above which has growed quite a bit!

There are bus stops nearby ...

There are four daytime bus routes that pass along Beulah Hill in West Norwood. For the record, they are:-

!96

249

468

But by far the most unusual is:-

SL6 ...

Or you could have it in brown!

... which used to be:- 

X68

The X68 and SL6 are unique in that they are "Express" with a long non-stop leg as shown in the current Robert Munster timetable ...

... non-stop between West Norwood and Waterloo.

Last journeys are 0850 from West Croydon and 1850 from Russell Square. It is therefore unique (???) in London Buses being a peak flow service with no running in the opposite direction.

It is also restricted in that passengers may not be set down until the second half of the journey.

The SL6 blind makes it Crystal (Place) clear!

Oh, yes! The School on Beulah Hill is St Josephs.

Mary and Joseph - gettit?

Mary and Joseph

Matthew's Gospel tells us, almost as an aside, that Joe was a carpenter. The Greek word, apparently, means a bit more than just a bit of carp; Joseph was the jobbing builder at Nazareth. in fact, Matthew's passing remark is the very last we hear of Joseph but tradition suggests that he had died before the crucifixion; which is why Mary is left alone to be cared for by John the Disciple.

It is utterly reasonable to speculate the Jesus (Yeshua Ben Yusuf) would have shared the work with 'dad'.

The significant things about Joe, however, was that he was related to King David.

There is no Biblical evidence that Mary was particularly beautiful She was most likely a teenager, as her role in the society of the day was to produce children to carry on the family line. Infant mortality was high so the wife needed to start early.

But NOT before marriage. Pre-marital sex would, usually, mean the woman was expelled from normal societal acceptance and would end up begging for her survival.

Very few pictures show Mary heavily pregnant, as she would have been for the tortuous journey to Bethlehem.

But things were really tough for Joe. 

A long journey to comply with yet another Roman burst of disruptive administration; the shame of having a pregnant wife-o-be and, to cap it all, those angels.

She was scared witless!

And who wouldn't be?

And his decision to stay with his betrothed?

That's another angel story.

 Next Public Transport Christmas blog : Sun 21 Dec