Mysteries Manifesting At Millsands (1)

Three Bridge Streets?

We are looking at the area below and east of "Kelham Island", the area with "Govt" and "Courts" highlighted.

If you drive, walk or use a passing rickshaw to make your way ...

 ... along West Bar past the courts (above map, just off bottom left) ...

... you come to a junction just before a city centre road called Snig Hill.

You will be turning into a road called Bridge Street.

Just a few yards further on there is a second left hand turn (white car) ...

... which is into Bridge Street!

... meanwhile, the main road - Bridge Street - goes straight on. Sounds odd.

And it is! 

There never was a direct link from Snig Hill into Bridge Street - there were just two narrow roads called Coulston Street and Newhall Street. Then the roads were re-jigged.

... (GREEN line) and the new wiggle became the third leg of Bridge Street.

Sheffield Transport used the remnants of those two narrow roads to build a little bus station called Bridge Street bus station.

The bus and the shelter on the left are actually standing in Coulston Street and the name board remained on a building just off left for many, many years. Here is a view from the bottom of the hill looking up. Coulston Street is now on the right.

Likewise the bus station remained well into PTE times ...

... with the buses on the right (edge only) standing in Coulston Street.

But if we pop back to 1851 we can see the two little roads that became Bridge Street and its bus station.

It we look at a larger area (including Bridge Street) we find there is something missing. Today's Corporation Street does not exist and is shown as an fbb added red line.

A brand new bridge over the river Don was needed ...

... a bridge crossed frequently by a student fbb on his way from Sheffield Uni to his digs at Pitsmoor courtesy of the 150 or 151 bus, later renumbered 47 and 48.

Of course, sixty years ago, it would have been a real bus, a bit like this one ...

... with a conductor, of course!

But before we come to Millsands proper, we need to visit Love Street.

It was a turn off Bridge Street and, amazingly the turn is still there ...

... but only just!

Love Street had two claims to fame. It was where Dixons made sweets!

The company was taken iver by Moxons but some of its favourites retained the Dixons name.

Not far from Dixons was a small yard, once some industrial building but later demolished ...

... and here Sheffield Transport parked a few buses between the peaks. fbb can find no pictures of the yard or identify it from old maps, so the above is just a vague suggestion of what it once looked line. 

Here is Love Street on a modern map with lots of white space.

But no matter - it has all gone as we shall see tomorrow.

The above map also shows Millsands.

Puzzle Pictures

Wagon No 3 is by Rapido at £32

Wagon No1 is by Bachmann at £24

Wagon No 2 is by Dapol at £13

Did you guess correctly?

Does it make sense?

 Next Millsands blog : Tuesday 16th April 

Dramatic Dudley Developments (1)

Nostalgia Nuggets?

An 1835 nap (above) shows the early Dudley next to a blob of parkland on top of which (a strip of red) is Dudley Castle. The castle was once a Motte and Bailey establishment (remember from school day history) which was later rebuilt, burnt down, rebuilt and left to become a ruin. 

And here is the castle hill in 1938.

We now have a few railway lines running to the east of the hill..

The Castle mound became the site of the celebrated Dudley Zoo with its skilled advertising slogan of the 1960s.

fbb remembers a huge poster to that effect clearly visible from Dudley's bus station. The zoo had a chair lift to assist folk up to the craggy summit ...

... and once up there you would find a whole range of entertainment including a miniature railway.

Todays chair lift looks a lot more secure but may be the original ...

... and the miniature railway ...

... has taken a leap onto modernity. There is also a land train.

But next to the castle and zoo excrescence was once Dudley Town station, not to be confused with Dudley Port station or Sandwell and Dudley station.

Even worse, do not confuse it with the orange line at Dudley Station ...

... because, as you all know what fbb didn't, namely that the orange Dudley is in Boston USA.

So what of Dudley's Town station?  Well it isn't there any more, but, as they say in all Romantic Dramas, it's complicated.

The Great Western arrived ex northwards from Wolverhampton, calling at Tipton. From the north east came the South Staffordshire Railway, (later the LMS) running from  Walsall via Dudley Port Low Level.

Even Wikipedia struggles to tell us much about Dudley Port.

Etymology

Originally the canal port 

for the town of Dudley.

Proper noun

Dudley Port

A suburban area in the

Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell,

West Midlands

And here ... tada! ... is the Port today!

Ane here it is on an aerial Streetview view.

But back to the Town station. 

South of the station the line, once again, splits into two.

The slightly more notable route for passengers was a shuttle to Old Hill.

(click to enkarge the timetable) whilst the other route, manly freight only, continued to Kidderminster and was used to get goods trains to Bescot yard without cluttering up central Birmingham.

The central Dudley station had two Island platforms, the one on the left being for GWR trains and then one, accessed via the over bridge in this north facing picture, was for the LMS. The LMS chimneys are disinc.tive!

It follows that Dudley Town was, in general, served by very local trains carrying few passengers. 

Here is a GWR train ...

... and an ex LMS "rail motor".

It is not at all surprising that these lines have been closed completely for passenger trains.

There was a freight development which, for a time, brought Dudley into an uncharacteristic burst of railway modernity. More tomorrow!

So lets look at buses.

Across Castle Hill (the road) from the Zoo/Castle mound is a road called Birmingham Street. It is a very tired and tatty thoroughfare ...

... which forms a back entrance to the current bus station in Dudley. It also led to the previous bus station once visited by fbb.

The original bus station was constructed along Birmingham Street on a steep hill overlooking Dudley Castle in about 1950. It was complemented by an additional line of shelters along neighbouring Fisher Street. However, a series on incidents of buses rolling back injuring passengers led to widespread local criticism of its design. This resulted in the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive rebuilding the bus station on a completely level site along Fisher Street.

Although there is little sign of the original bus station today, you can gauge the slope up from Birmingham Street.

fbb can find no pictures of the bus station as a whole, but these two buses are on the slope ...

... and there is the castle, faint but real, top right.

Construction of the new bus station began during 1985 and it was opened in 1986.

Here it is, the new one.

It is not the most gloriously luxurious bus station but it is level, so there is less chance of being squished by an out-of-control bus.

But back in January 2024 this event was happening at Dudley bus station ...

... as was this.

Look, there in the background is our old friend Dudley Castle!

More tomorrow!

 Next Dudley Development blog : Friday 1st March 

Saturday Variety

Manchester City into Manchester city

This footy stadium is located in the Etihad district of Manchester, (?) according to its official name. It is the home of big successful footy club, Manchester City. The club has just announced a massive network of footy match special buses to transport fans to stadium.

The new network is far-ranging.

Here is the detail for any readers who want to try out the new services, starting on 17th inst.

Greater Manchester East

North West

South West

In his excitement to record this news, fbb has missed off Macclesfield at the bottom of the above map. Sorry, Macclesfield.

There are no times given in the introductory asticle, but then times will vary week by week according to kick-off time. 

For an early evening KO you would leave Macclesfield at 1500. The services are (very) limited stop.

It is not a cheap ride!

Nostalgic Northampton Nuggets

Fancy A Holiday? Wellies Essential

When TV started up in earnest post WW2, classics academics immediately predicted its failure. "No word that combines Greek and Latin can ever be a success - television is doomed!"

Tele is Greek; Vision is Latin. Likewise Aqua is Latin and Drome is Greek.

fbb worked there as a schoolboy and student and became de-facto a sort of assistant to the boss. His work was mainly ordering, stocking and selling at the refreshment kiosks ...

... but occasionally he was allowed to drive the train.

Back then the park was served by York Btos bus to Cogenhoe and beyond.

The local owners sold the business to a national leisure outfit and it expanded dramatically with many mo caravans, assorted chalets and all-year-round residences. Actually they were technically not annually occupied; residents had to leave for six weeks each year.

Day visitors can still go by bus using Stagecoach 16 ...

... and a footpath from Fishponds Road. 

Not many people go by bus!

The Park is built around some worked out gravel pits and on the flood plain of the River Nene. So every few years chalet residents and caravan owners get a bit of a soggy surprise.

This winter was worse than usual ...

... with rescue being necessary.

Maybe not quite a perfect holiday destination.

See Uno Go, You Know ...

Registrations posted with the Traffic Commissioners recently included the cancellation of all UNO services in the town to be replaced by Stagecoach.

Did they jump or were they pushed?

The main service 19/19A, linking the new campus south of the town centre with Halls of Residence at the old site ...

... will be replaced by a rejig of Stagecoach's current service 4.

This would just need extending to the Uni campus ...

... and variations 4A and 4B are included in the plans which should make a lot of sense for all concerned.

Stagecoach has also registered the existing UNO Park and Ride route 18 ...

... but the competitive non-University 21 is not being replaced as such.

All parts of the 21 are covered by existing Stagecoach routes, so we can expect some minor re-jigs in the "Eastern District".

As many readers will know, published registrations tell you nothing about routes or timetables; they merely report that something will happen. To find the detail you have to go to the Traffic Commissioners' Offices, which, these days, are probably located on North Uist!

fbb awaits timetables with interest.

It Seemed A Good Idea At The Time

"You see," said Councillor Fred Twinge, "now we've demolished that horrible bus station that was big enough for all the services, we can build a new bus station which won't be big enough and make absolutely oodles of money by selling the Greyfriars site."

Which they did, but the developer walked away and nothing has happened since.

It would, of course, be an excellent site for a new bus station that was actually big enough for all the services!

"But," says Councillor Thrubley, "we can spend loadsmoney to create an urban open space which we will not be able to maintain and which will become a no-go area populated by the less desirable members of Northampton's youff."

"We can also turn the existing and very useful car park ...

... into pleasant greenery as well."

"Ah but," he said, "It won't be ALL park."

So that's all right then?

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

Buying An 8F - Or Buying An 8F

Hornby have just announced supplies of their new LMS 8F goods loco.

And it is ONLY (???!!!) £230. OUCH.

But when it was Hornby Dublo in the mid 1960s the company introduced a superb (for its day) model of an ...

... LMS 8F. Back then, fbb's modest pocket money made a purchase impossible but he could, and did, drool and dream.

It is, of course, a less detailed model than the 'new tooling" but is readily available for a modest price.

For more nostalgia, here is the 8F in a two-rail "heavy goods" set.

Another product which caused a youthful fbb to gaze lovingly at an impossible dream. And there was a three-rail set as well.

The huge cost of maintaining TWO electrical systems was one of the nails in the coffin for Hornby Dublo.

Production of the 8F continued from Wrenn until that company also went bust.

A real 8F would cost even more than the new Hornby model ...

... and probably wouldn't fit in the garden.

 Next Variety blog : Sunday 11th February