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 

Macclesfield Matters (2)

It's Complicated From 1972

In 1972, fbb was not watching the latest Hammer film, but he was getting engaged to the future Mrs fbb and working hard as Head of RE at a Sheffield comprehensive school. Meanwhile, across the Pennines, significant things were happening in Macclesfield.

North Western Road Car (according to Wikipedia) had depots all over the place.

Altrincham: Oakfield Street

Biddulph: Whalley Street

Buxton: Bridge Street

Castleton, Back Street

Glossop: York Street

 Macclesfield: Sunderland Street 

Manchester: Hulme Hall Road

Matlock: Bakewell Road

Northwich: Chester Way

Oldham: Clegg Street

Stockport: Charles Street

Urmston: Higher Road

Wilmslow: Church Street

The National Bus Company agreed to sell its depots and bus services at Altrincham, Glossop, Oldham, Stockport and Urmston to SELNEC (South East Lancashire North East Cheshire i.e. Manchester PTE). This was the trigger to obliterate NWRCC completely.

The depots at Buxton and Matlock transferred to Trent and the Manchester Base eventually became National Travel North West as a centre for coach operations.

So what to do with the rest?

Buses that went to SELNEC soon started appearing in orange and white ...

... with a SELNEC Cheshire logo.

Buses that went to Trent remained red, but in a different shade, which left the rest to be sorted.

Biddulph, Castleton, Northwich and Wilmslow were lumped on to the vast Crosville empire and went from red ...

... to green. fbb cheated yesterday with his green decker; he "painted out" the Crosville fleet name to annoy you all.

So by the time this video was filmed in 1988 Crosville privatisation Green has totally supplanted the traditional NWRCC red.

Note the profusion of bread van minibi AND wrong side loading still applies.

In the cut price bargain basement sell off of the National Bus Company, (and later the PTEs) the SELNEC south area went to Stagecoach; Trent remained (and still remains) with its management buyout; Crosville was split two ways both snaffled by Arriva with one chunk welshified as  Arriva Cymru.

So Macclesfield became an Arriva town. 

Meanwhile, and in no particular order, the Trent operation in Buxton became High Peak Buses and D & G expanded significantly.

So, we get to next month (Monday April 24th)  when Arriva disappears in a puff of exhaust smoke, and the Peddle owned Centrebus group (D & G plus High Peak) becomes the dominant operator in Macclesfield.

But before we look at service changes, there is a fascinating diversion to be enjoyed in the form if two apparently squashed Bedford VAL vehicles. 

One of these had a second life as a schools bus bus ...

... but the low roof height was replicated on replacement Bristol REs.

The vehicles subsequently appeared in Crosville green and later National Bus green.

As the green version indicates, they ran on bus route 37 which was routed via Dunham Massey. Dunham Massey is a village, and nearby is Dunham Massey House and Park.

Dunham Massey village is off the map on the left separated from House and Park by Dunham Woodhouses. But if you follow Woodhouse Lane (ORANGE) between the two it, unusually, goes UNDER the watercourse. The wet stuff is the Bridgwater Canal, famed for its aqueduct over the Manchester Ship Canal.

It swings, man!

Or it did when the Manchester Ship Canal carried real ships!

The bit if the Bridgwater Canal between Dunham Massey and Dunham Massey ...

... is raised up on a slight embankment and the road goes underneath. The bridge is low, although it looks as if the road has been deepened more recently than when the squashed buses were necessary.

The Dart seems to be managing! But there are now very noticeable kerbs which appear to give vehicles an extra foot or so in old money.

Today's service along the same road is the 280.

...which runs from Sale ...

... via Carrington and Partington ...

...then back on itself via Dunham Massey to Altrincham.

It is operated with minibuses from GoGoodwins using their brand "Little Gem".

It is a remarkably good service, hourly Monday to Saturday ...

... and a Sunday service from Altrincham to Dunham Massey only, operated by, guess who, Arriva!

And, yes, you do remember aright. "Little Gem" was a Manchester PTE small bus brand.

In the Mancunian days of minibus madness, there were lots of them.

Tomorrow fbb will try to unravel what is to happen to Arriva's services in Macclesfield - but don't expect too much in the way of success.

 Next Macclesfield blog : Wednesday 22nd March 

But Hungerford Is In Berkshire? (1)

It is actually in the Unitary Authority of West Berkshire and in the ceremonial County of Berkshire.

And in quite a few other paces as well!

So how come a bridge over the River Thames is called "Hungerford" Bridge?

Actually it isn't! To be pedantically accurate it, and its predecessor (of which more below) were officially known as the Charing Cross bridges. "Hungerford" was a bit of a nickname, applied after this guy ...,

... a certain Edward Hungerford.

Sir Edward Hungerford, KB, (20 October 1632 – 1711), was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1659 and 1702. He was famous for his profligate ways and sold thirty manors, including the family seat at Farleigh Hungerford, to fund his extravagant lifestyle.

He had a London home, called Hungerford House, and a large plot of land south of the Strand, London. There are no pictures or maps showing this edifice in detail, but it came with a fair parcel of land.

Today's Hungerford House is a trendy restaurant built in an old electricity substation on the Victoria Embankment.

It sells some very pretty food ...

... far too dainty for the excesses of Sir Ed and far too expensive for the likes of fbb!

But, on this land the bewigged spendthrift build his only commercial venture, a market selling fresh food.

In an act of uncharacteristic modesty (?) he placed his own bust in the upper wall of his market. When Hungerford House burnt down the market hall was badly damaged and, undaunted, his Lordship built a new and better one.

Note the spire of St Martin in the Fields Church (on todays Trafalgar Square) in the background  - and suitably over scale!

As befits Ted's profligacy and incompetence, the market was a total failure with Covent Garden and Billingsgate offering a greater range of produce at better prices. 

But to encourage the crowds to cross from the south of the river, a footbridge was constructed. and duly opened to the admiration of the crowds in 1845.

It was designed by a certain Mr Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

The bridge took pedestrians from Belvedere Road near Waterloo to where the Market stood.

Remember that the river was significantly wider than it is now in advance of the building of the Embankment.

Note the substantial brick piers below the footway deck.

We shall meet them in tomorrow's blog!

And one irrelevant snippet; here is the real Hungerford Bridge.

It is over the Kennet and Avon canal, surprisingly, at Hungerford!

Yesterday's Blog

It was a diaster, darling!

There were several hundred typing errors and a few non-sequiturs to add to the fun!

Something happened with "Blogger". 

Late on Monday night, a weary fbb added the picture of the tin tabernacle at Butterley and pressed "update". By Yesterday morning not only had that picture disappeared but it seems that Blogger had replaced the updated and correct version with the very rough first draft.

fbb would have had to make a whole string of mistakes to allow this to happen.

So blame Blogger!

For those that gave up in disgust yesterday (and who could blame them) the whole blog is repeated below.

Exmoor - A P.S.

Correspondent David, who lives Minehead way, has sent fbb a full and frank explanation of the moorland pictures posted yesterday. fbb will explain all tomorrow.

Illuminations - Final Phase!

Work has begun on he Cross, the final element of the fbb mansions CHRISTmas decorations; due for installation later today. Mr Tubbles is offering helpful advice, as ever!

The Easy Leaflet Quiz for Letter "V"

Mostly pitifully easy, but with a few teasers!

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 Advent Calendar Day 7 

Godly Guidance

If Abraham and his fellow Patriarchs were the key characters in the Bible book of Genesis., then Moses is the central character in half of the 40 chapters of the book of Exodus. Genesis ends with Joseph as No 2 Guy in Egypt and his family moving south to settle there. It matches a period when Egypt's economic expansion needed skilled labour and thus welcomed workers from neighbouring nations.

But the policy changed and the Habiru tribe (Abraham's extended family that we now call "Hebrews") became enslaved and down-trodden.

And Moses (modern "Moshe") was given his big job by an unlikely messenger, viz a non-burning burning bush!

The upshot of this was a battle of wits between Yahweh, the God of the Habiru, and the "god-king" (pharaoh) of Egypt which Yahweh won. The series of ten "plagues" nearly broke the king's refusal to let God's people go.

"I know all about their sufferings, 8 and so I have come down to rescue them from the Egyptians and to bring them out of Egypt to a spacious land, one which is rich and fertile."

In the end it was crossing the Yam Suph, (Reed Sea erroneously called "Red" in many translations) ...

Moses announced, “Don't be afraid! Stand your ground, and you will see what the Lord will do to save you today; you will never see these Egyptians again. The Lord will fight for you, and all you have to do is keep still.”

... leaving the Egyptian army is disarray, that effected the Hebrew's escape from slavery.

Some modern readers are uneasy about the "miraculous" in these stories and seek an "explanation" for, say, the pillar of smoke/pillar of fire which led the Hebrews on their way.

Such pointless searches seem to forget that a God can do stuff that humans or terrestrial nature cannot. That is what "God" means!

Explanation or not, the important conclusion is that this rabble of escaping slaves knew deep down they they were in God's hands and he was guiding their route to the land that he promised.

Abraham's life of Faith becomes Moses journey of Faith.

But the "rabble" needed a bit more help than a miraculous smoke and/or fire event, because they kept messing up!

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 Next Hungerford blog : Thursday 8th December 

REPEAT (corrected, hopefully) OF TUESDAY'S BLOG

(the original disastrous blog was corrected yesterday morning)

The Beauty from an Uber Bus

Imagine the joy and privilege of commuting daily (?)  between Barking Riverside and central London and, at this time of year, experiencing this!

Thames Barrier

St Pauls

Tower Bridge

Oxo Building

London Eye

And plenty more besides. Pictures twittered a few days ago.

The Beauty from a First Bus

Sadly, fbb thinks these snaps were twittered by a driver on his way back over Exmoor to base after a school run.

So such magnificence is unavailable to those of us who are beyond education.

The Beauty from a Stagecoach Bus

But we could all enjoy this!

How about a pleasant open top bus ride in the Lake District. The famous 599 was still running topless a few days ago.

Please dress appropriately ...

... or not!

The choice is yours!

Yesterday's Puzzle Picture

This will be revealed in tomorrow's blog. What started as a "Variety" blog item has now been developed into a fully bloggable topic. So you will have to wait.

Terrific Tin Tabernacle

This delightful model of the former Westhouses place of worship, now preserved at the Midland Railway, Butterley ...

... finally arrived at fbb mansions yesterday. Snapped in poor artificial light at least we can see something of this resin cast model's accuracy.

The little belfry (sans bats!) Has to be glued on.

fbb does wonder how long it will be before he knocks it off on to the floor and it disappears into the capacious and greedy maw of Mrs fbb's vacuum cleaner, never to bell again!

Christmas Good News

The fbb's car is busted. The clutch has deteriorated until changing gear is well-nigh impossible. Their local (and usually very helpful) garage cannot deal with it until 20th December!

This presented a problem for yesterday's Fellowship meeting with at least five to collect. "Ish" (No - neither fbb nor Mrs has any idea) collected three very elderly ladies from just along the road and took them back afterwards.

"Ish" declined payment as the work was "for a charity"! fbb insisted that he take £15 which was still a bargain. The meeting had a record attendance (14) and everybody appreciated their time at fbb mansions.

Praise the Lord for "Ish" and attendee Graham, who helped transport the other two.

Christmas Very Poor News

And it is from the BBC. In an on-line article giving five ways to beat the cost of living crisis the Christmas ...

... item five is ...

... which the Beeb helpfully explains.

Erm, no.

CHRISTmas (there's a clue in the name) is about celebrating the historic birth of Yeshua ben Yusuph (a k a Jesus) called the CHRIST, i.e. the Messiah, and His role as the Saviour of the world.

Those that celebrate CHRISTmas will have a far better time than those who don't. And celebrating CHRISTmas costs NOTHING!

 

Cheap Shopping in Guildford?

And free bus fares as well? Obviously not.

Yet more progress to a greener, cleaner society - NOT!

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 Advent Calendar Day 6 

Father of Faith

A song packed with theological principles - NOT. Many moons ago it even made the UK charts, sung by "Father Abraham", although not the one from the Bible!

In fact he only had eight sons. Ishmael from his slave girl, Isaac from Sarah his wife and six more from his second marriage to Keturah.

The key son was Isaac born in his parents' old age. When mum Sarah was told this by "an angel", she laughed ...,

... and who wouldn't?

Abraham was called by God to offer his precious son back to Him in a sacrifice.

Just before the sacrificial plunge, a ram caught in a bush was offered instead. The idea of a ram/lamb's blood being offered to save a human became a huge theme in the Bible. ("Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world").

It was God's thrice repeated promise made BEFORE Isaac was born that placed Abraham in real history.

God said, "I will give you many descendants, and some of them will be kings. You will have so many descendants that they will become nations.

"I will keep my promise to you and to your descendants in future generations as an everlasting covenant. I will be your God and the God of your descendants.

I will give to you and to your descendants this land in which you are now a foreigner. The whole land of Canaan will belong to your descendants forever, and I will be their God."

God said to Abraham, "You also must agree to keep the covenant with me, both you and your descendants in future generations."

The story of Abraham and his descendants Isaac, Jacob and Joseph is written from Genesis Chapter 12 to the end (Chapter 50) and it too vast to cover in any short bit of writing.

Suffice it to say that none of them was squeaky clean in the sight of God, yet their lengthy journey of faith eventually led to the nation of Israel and on to the CHRIST of CHRISTmas.

Thus "Father Abraham" had many "children" (i.e. descendants) and they  were - or should have been - powerfully guided by their FAITH ...

... except when they ignored God and his Guidance. Then ...

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 Next Londin blog : Wednesday 7th December