fbb Makes A Ghastly Mistake (1)

But it was NOT a mistake to go to church yesterday - far from it.

But first, a look at Kilmington Baptist Church "Car Park Service" as attended by the fbbs yesterday. The Newquay event featured on yesterday's Songs of Praise was very much a drive-in service in the style of drive-in cinemas, popular for a while in the USA.

It took place on part of the Mount Wise car park.

Fortunately the recently rebuilt Kilmington Baptist Church has its own car park, much of which became Sundays church non-building.

The service was also live-streamed via the the Church's YouTube channel ...

... so several zillions of pounds of electronic wizardry had been hired in/borrowed.

Happy Birthday was "sung" to the accompaniment of a choir of car horns - the fbbs beeping on the red PPY obediently!

Of course it rained; this is England and it is still almost summer; but not sufficiently precipitative to spoil things - except the kids drawing game. Memo : non-permanent felt tip pens are made non-visible by a wet whiteboard.

Minister Darrell did the sermon bit (it was a good 'un; a challenge in today's challenging environment) and having been punctiliously socially distanced and told to go home and not stay and chat, people stayed and chatted.

That was good. One of the challenges of Faith is to balance medical or statistical prudence with the ability of an omnipotent God to protect should He so choose. fbb will stick with God any day rather than gangster gear. Even if the virus does get him (remember, he is obese!) heaven is a whole lot better than East Devon, so it is up to Him in the end - literally!

Not all churches have their own car park, nor people who can ackle the technology, but it was good to meet up again after 25 weeks of electronic on-line stuff.

Car Park Services continue throughout September.

So To That Untypical Extreme Error

And the story begins with Sheffield Industrialist and philanthropist Marc Firth (1789 to 1850).

Firth was elected to the office of Master Cutler in 1867, which he held for the following two years. He was elected Mayor of Sheffield in 1874. In 1875, he bought Page Hall on the northern outskirts of the then town of Sheffield. He also built a mansion for himself on the outskirts of Sheffield at Oakbrook, Ranmoor, now part of Notre Dame High School. In 1879, he opened Firth College ...

... to teach arts and science subjects, which later became part of the University of Sheffield.

The original block of the University is now known as Firth Court.

It was in Firth Hall, within the curtilage of the above block, that fbb's University career nearly came to an ignominious end in 1964 as he failed his first year exams. Fortunately he passed the re-sits!

Page Hall opens up the background to the "Tale of Horror" for your elderly blogger.

Built 1773, in surroundings of great beauty by Thomas Broadbent founder of the Sheffield Bank. Other owners included George Bustard Greaves and James Dixon. The estate was then bought in 1874 by Marc Firth, part of which he donated by "deed of gift" to the Sheffield Corporation for the people of Sheffield for a Public Park" for ever". The Park was opened by Edward, Prince of Wales in 1875.

Here is an aerial view of Firth Park today ...

... with Page Hall lower left. The original building, now a nursing home, has been substantially extended ...

It is just about possible to match the reality with the rather stylised original engraving.

Soon, Marc's park became an attractor for more new housing . Here are the plans for the 1920s "Brushes" Estate ...

... with the Firth Park shopping centre to be developed at the bottom right. Here it is for real today.

We are now looking the right way round with the park itself on the right and the shopping centre upper right. Trams eventually arrived via Firth Park Road ...

... and soon the whole area, park plus houses plus shops, took on the name of Firth Park. With the demise of the trams in 1960 the replacement bus routes were 33 and 75.

75 will reappear in tomorrow's blog and re-reappear in the tale of fbb's ghastly mistake.

But we rush ahead of ourselves. Development northbound from Firth Park continued apace, and the Council, seeking to provide better quality housing than the slums of the East End, were eyeing up a swathe of hillside leading down to the boundary with Wortley Council, marked by the Hartley Brook.

The brook curves in from centre left and round the top to pass close by the long closed Grange Lane Station. In this swathe if open farmland were two small communities. Adjacent to Pismire Hill (a name which has disappeared from use in Sheffield) was Shire Green, a collection of cottages on Hatfield House Lane.

Half way down the hill was Lower (or Nether) Shire Green.

The new estate that developed from 1931 onwards would be known a Shiregreen and one of the main roads was given the name Nethershire Lane.

It is buses to these places that harboured fbb's ghastly mistake.

More tomorrow!

"70" plate P.S.

Just for the record, as well as a 70 plate for GoAhead North East ...

... Diamond Bus North West had one out on the road.

So the critical question has to be, "Which one was the first in service, the first to be available for paying passengers?"

Somebody "out there" may know.

But does anybody care?

 Next ghastly mistake blog : Tuesday 8th September 

Sir Brian Re-invents a "Train" ...

... Of Driverless Cars!

fbb has been sent this edited transcript of a meeting of the Stagecoach Bus and Rail Joint Development Committee. It is "hot off the ether" as it was only distributed internally at 0200 this morning.

Sir Brian address the committee:-

"I went to America recently and had great fun on the Heathrow Car Park Pod service. It was such fun I rode back and forwards for over an hour and missed my plane. But it started me thinking.

"Then these wee lads at Google are getting their driverless car going. I only wish I could have a go.

"It is true that not all my amazing ideas have worked. The Yellow TaxiBus was not one of my best ...

... but the idea of hanging a yellow label on your door to attract the driver seemed OK at the time.

"The amphibious bus was, maybe, a technology step too far.

"The people of Yoker (Glasgow) seemed unwilling to risk drowning on the way to work. Disappointing.

I did think my hovercraft across the Forth would be a winner ...

... but the Scottish Government meanies wouldn't shell out for the landing infrastructure. And now they've built an extra bridge!

"My Belles were surely a breath of fresh air, although some folk got themselves in a fankle about it being sexist and insulting to women.

"Anyway the lads down at Bristol have cut it back a bit. Pity. I did like the pictures.

"But my latest idea is a sure-fire winner. You see my chum Peter ...

"... gave me a top-notch Christmas present. A toy London train to play with complete with bus and taxi which ran on the same track.

"Peter used to run the buses in London but they've now sent him to sort out Network Rail. He'll never manage it. If Richard** failed and a couple of Peters** failed, young Hendy has no chance. I sent him a 'Sympathy' card when he was appointed!

"Anyway, my plan.

"Take a whole string of driverless cars and, as they converge on a central point, call it a "Station", they can all stick together like my magnetic underground train ...

"... and they could then whizz down a road, or some old branchline somewhere and when they get to another "Station", they could unhook and whizz along the side roads to wherever people wanted to go.

"All we need now is for you development lot to work out the practicalities.

"An article in Buses magazine tells me that driverless buses will be on our roads by 2020.

"We need to beat that. Stagecoach is always at the forefront of modern technology.

Stagecoach vehicle in service on Sidmouth sea front

"I've got a superb project name for you; we'll call it "Access for People Riding In Line 1".

"Snappy name, eh?"

Sir Brian was speaking, in typical Souter laid-back style, still clad in his Megabus overnight pyjamas, by video link from his room at the Auchenshuggle Home for Over-Stressed Bus Managers. His staff were simply agog in the Perth headquarters.

More news is expected in 12 months' time.

** Beeching and Parker Nos 1 and 2

 Next busway blog : Saturday 2nd April 

Consternation at Castell Cas-gwent [1]

It was all Henry VIII's Fault ...

It usually was!

Henry VIII did not see the need to reform the government of Wales at the beginning of his reign, but gradually he perceived a threat from some of the remaining Marcher lords and therefore instructed his chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, to seek a solution. His solution was the annexation or incorporation of Wales. Effectively he legislated for Wales to become part of England!

He didn't consult the Welsh! It would appear that the legislative draughtsmen missed Monmouthshire off the list, so until it was finally resolved in 1972, no one really knew whether it was part of Wales or not. The omission was irrelevant anyway as it was all intended to be part of "England". Hence, in fbb's youth, the Principality was always referred to as "Wales and Monmouthshire".

Chepstow's Castle, situated on a clifftop above the Wye and its bridge, is often cited as the oldest surviving stone castle in Britain. The castle was established, to quell the uruly Welsh, by William FitzOsbern immediately after the Norman conquest, and was extended in later centuries before becoming ruined after the Civil War. A Benedictine priory was also established within the walled town, which was the centre of the Marcher lordship of Striguil.

So it was that Paul, our Bristol correspondent, toddled off for a day trip last Sunday; and the ever-vigilant Paul kept his beady eye open for matters of omnibological interest.

Monmouthshire (Sir Fynwy) is quite a small rural county with Gloucestershire to the east, the River Severn to the south, the Welsh "Valleys"  (e.g. Torfaen)  and Newport (Casnewydd) on the western side and lots of sheep to the north. So it does not have a huge amount of bus information to contend with. (Click on the list to enlarge it)

17 are routes operating Monday to Saturday; four operate on occasional days leaving 3 Monouth locals (Ws), three Abargavenny locals (43, 45 and 46) and five Chepstow locals (C1 to C5). Service 1 is a Brynmawr (Blaenau Gwent) local that just creeps across the border.

Most services are Stagecoach with Phil Anslow as a recgnisable name among the "independents". First Bus creeps in with tendered Sunday journeys on service 34 between Monmouth and Ross-on-Wye with positioning journeys from a base in Hereford.

Approaching from Bristol, First also runs the X7 (Bristol - Newport) partial successor to a complex "X" service joint with Stagecoach running through to Cardiff. Contrary to expectations, this has a very presentable hourly Sunday frequency as far as Chepstow.

It was an X7 that correspondent Paul caught for his day out.

Chepstow does have what it calls a bus station, consisting of 5 chevron laybys outside the Co-op ...

... and blessed with one solitary shelter and not much else. The co-op and bus laybys are on Thomas Street (bottm left on the aerial view) ...

... and the Castle entrance is top right. So we trot off to the car park in Bridge Street and seek an answer to Paul's question. After a Castle visit, can I catch a us back to the co-op, or must I walk?

Guess what the answer is - on a Sunday!

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News announces last Monday is that Andrew Dyer, GM of Stagecoach South (Portsmouth, Chichester, Worthing, Aldershot etc. etc.) is to retire in July.

Andrew worked as a District Manager for the National Bus Company in Exeter and Cheltenham before joining Cheltenham & Gloucester Omnibus Co in 1986. He became Commercial Director and then Managing Director of the business, which was bought by Stagecoach in 1993.

After spending two years at South West Trains as General Manager, Wessex Division (in charge of the Weymouth and Exeter Lines) in the late 1990s, we was appointed managing Director of Stagecoach South in 1999, a post which he has held ever since.

He is also a regular participant in the annual Worthing-based Southdown running day and other such enthusiast events.

His successor is blog-reader Mike Watson, currently GM of Stagecoach Devon ...

... and recent generous donor of sausage, chips and a mugga to fbb!

Best wishes to both these splendid folk in their new roles!

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 Next bus blog : Friday 24th April