A-Z Challenger 2018 - British Rivers: 'H' Humber

Although recorded on many maps as a river the Humber is actually the tidal estuary formed by the River Ouse and the River Trent. At 59 km the Humber is quite small. It separates the counties of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire being 13 km across at its widest point,

It is spanned by the magnificent single span Humber Suspension Bridge.

Number Bridge panorama

And seen from the air - 

Aerial view - Humber Bridge

At 2220 metres long the bridge is one of the longest single span bridges in the world.

The output of freshwater from the Humber into the North Sea is the largest in Britain,

Hull is the largest city on the Humber and ferries leave there for Europe destinations like Zeebrugge.

Footpaths along the bank enable you to approach the bridge and watch the ships go by and to look out for seals,

Footpath (Wolds Way) North Ferriby, Yorkshire

Photo attributions:

• Humber Bridge panorama: 27 August 2011 by Yug08 - CC BY-SA 2,0 licence
• Aerial View: 1 July 2009 by Leo Jackson - Public Domain
• River Humber footpath: 7 April 2008 ex geograph.org.uk by Andy Beecroft - CC BY-SA 2.0 licence

A-Z Challenge 2017 - Houses, some real, some not -' B'

B - Burghley House

This is a house that I first saw as a boy at Stamford School. Our annual cross-country run was held in its park.

Burghley House, near Stamford, Lincolnshire

I was to get even closer when playing cricket next to the house against the Burghley estate team. 

However it was in the Burghley Park's cricket team pavilion were my live was changed for ever.

Burghley Park Cricket Club pavilion

Here I volunteered during one match to help the ladies wash up after tea. To cut a 60 year story short let me just say I married one of them.

William Cecil, Lord Burghley was the prime councillor to the Queen - Elizabeth I, that is.

His house built between 1555 and 1587 is one of England's largest mansions and was constructed in an enormous 'E' as a tribute to the Queen.

With the house still lived in by the Cecil family many of you may know that the Burghley Horse Trials, a 3 day event, are held in the each year in the park laid out by Capability Brown.

Photo attribution:

• Burghley House - 4 April 2011 - CC transferred ex ml.wikipedia by Sreejith K - in the public domain

Who/What is a BF? - Sepia Saturday

In these days of social media and texting you have to be careful interpreting abbreviations.

This week's image from Australia quickly reminded me of what BF once meant to me.

My first job in industry was at the Redbourn works of Richard Thomas & Baldwins integrated iron and steel plant in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire. 

As a graduate trainee I was expected to spend time on projects in each of the different departments. The first of these, in the Blast Furnace Departmet was to prepare trial mixes for the sinter plant that was being constructed. Sinter was to be used as input to the company's blast furnaces to improve their performance.

Iron ore,coke and limestone batches were mixed by hand (shovel) and subjected to heat using a gas-fired box. The resulting sinter was then subjected to a shatter test to determine which mix would stand up best to loads encountered in the blast furnaces themselves.

You could say that my small group often thought they were BFs while carrying out this work for the BF Department. 

The prompt photo of the Newcastle Blast Furnace Department doesn't actually show a furnace. It's difficult to make them out in this also.

Two blast furnaces at Newcastle

(NSW State Records)

The tops of the furnaces may be seen in the top left centre of the image to the right of what looks like three cylindrical vessels.

Redbourn blast furnaces - 1979

A hundred years of ironmaking at Redbourn ended in October 1979 when  the No 2 blast furnace made its last batch of 194.8 tonnes, watched by former production men, engineers and managers from other areas of the Scunthorpe works complex, chiefly Appleby- Frodingham and Normanby Park.

The furnace was built in 1951/2 to replace two hand-charged ones which had stood on the site since 1875.

Two sister furnaces had already closed. No 4, built in 1919, made its last iron in 1977; while No 3, dating from 1909, finished in September 1979.

The British Steel closure of Redbourn blast furnaces  was part of a rationalisation plan which included capital investment in the much larger Queen Victoria and Queen Anne furnaces, blown in by the Appleby-Frodingham company in 1954.

Scunthorpe blast furnaces
The four Queens - Mary, Victoria, Bess and Anne
(6 March 2009 ex geograph.co.uk, by Richard Croft - CC BY-SA 2.0)

These days if I wish to see a blast furnace I don't have far to go to see the one at Redcar near our North-East home.

Teesside's blast furnace at Redcar
(6 August 2005, ex geograph.co.uk by George Ford - CC BY-SA 2.0)

I left Redbourn in 1969 so never saw the demise of the works.

Finally I have dug out a video on Scunthorpe's Iron and Steel Heritage that shows scenes from the three steel works that existed while I worked there.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Also don't forget to visit other Sepians at Sepia-Saturday-279.

Kicking your heels on a wall - Sepia Saturday

This week's prompt with a damaged picture

made me look for photographs that have been hidden away for years.

During WWII a young girl had her photo taken. This had ghostly stripes where light had crept in.

After the war was over our little girl appears again on another shot that we can date to:

Pat, Mary and Margaret - 1947

But the meaning of the pencil numbers remains a mystery. Which one is our little blond.

That's for you to work out

She remembers where the picture was taken in Broad Street, Stamford, Lincolnshire - opposite the Central Cinema (definitely not the one known locally as the 'Flea Pit.'

The wall, she says, belonged to this old building,

Browne's Hospital
(by Andy 2/11/2011 - CC BY-NC-ND-2.0)

The hospital was founded in in 1475 by wealthy wool merchant, William Browne, to provide a home and a house of prayer for 12 poor men and 2 poor women.

But there's no sign of the wall the girls were kicking their heels against in that shot or in one from a different angle.

Browne's Hospital
(By Richard Croft - ex geograph.org,uk - CC BY-SA 2.0)

The hospital or Bedehouse was richly endowed with property and agricultural land in the vicinity. A bedesman or beadesman, a name derived from the beads of the rosary, was the title given to the poor men, 

Some of the hospital's funds were appropriated by Act of Parliament in in 1871 for the foundation of Stamford High School (where our blond girl was to become a pupil, much later of course) and for the further endowment of Stamford School (where a Sepians was to be educated in the 1940s/1950s)

The blond girl always insisted that the wall in the photo existed and was part of Browne's Hospital.

Now I know it's dangerous to doubt the word of a lady of any age. Francis Firth's photograph of Stamford's Browne's Hospital came to my aid. Copyright does not let me reproduce it.

Please look at the photo displayed by the link. It's taken in 1922 and there on the left is the illusive wall topped by steel railings. In 1947 the railings were no longer there as their metal had been required for the war effort in 1940-1945.

Study Firth's photo a little more and you will see behind the railings a stone urn which matches that in the top right of the picture of the three girls kicking their heels against the wall.

The lady's case is proved. Perhaps this is just as well because she is my wife of 57 years. I couldn't possibly contradict her!

For more stories derived from 'damage' pictures check out Sepia-Saturday-278.

British Conductors - Sunday Stamps

I can claim a faint connection to one of these four British conductors.

From left to right, they are - 

• Sir Henry Wood
• Sir Thomas Beecham
• Sir Malcolm Sargent
• John Barbirolli

I picked up the presentation set  recently, including a PHQ card for each of them.

Sir Henry Wood - PHQ

The four stamps below are in the same order as the first photo.

Great Britain - Music and Conductors
issued 10 September 1980

Sir Henry Wood founded the Promenade Concerts held in the Royal Albert Hall and which are named after him. Of course all four conducted concerts there.

Sir Thomas Beecham's fortune was based on those famous pills advertised as 'worth a guinea a box'. I may have taken a few in my time but that is not the 'connection' I claim.

Sir Malcolm Sargent was brought up in Stamford, Lincolnshire and won a scholarship to Stamford School. Much later so did I, but there the connection ends as no-one could say I am musical at all.

For more musical themes please follow the links at Viridian's Sunday-stamps-173.

Three of Us - Sepia Saturday

I've had a problem with this weeks prompt.

Each week I check out sites like creative commons to find appropriate shots, especially in those weeks when I'm short of photos of my own. This week I found such startling videos and photos, so much so that I re-titled this post 'Three of Us' rather than the 'Threesomes' I had intended.

I know the exact date that the first shot was taken, 55 years ago next week,

Bridesmaid, Claire, and the Happy Couple

On Stamford Station, Lincolnshire waiting for the train to whisk us off on our honeymoon.

Years later in the 1980s I'm with two ladies again, as the result of a liquid evening.

Can you spot the bride?

My final picture was taken at Yarm Tennis Club when the juniors had some lessons from the man who was then one of the best British players, 15th in the world.

Buster Mottram - Yarm Tennis Club (1970s?)

So these are my groups of three all of which will not make you blush as those videos and threesomes photos would,

For more groups of three visit the links at Sepia-saturday-191.

Jewellery Boxes - Sepia Saturday

I have never been a follower of bling although there was a time when I supported a medallion. Fortunately no photos survived the shock.

So for this week's  heist I had to raid some jewellery boxes. I'll let you decide whether I got away with it.

Ancient and Modern Jewellery Boxes

The oblong box dates from the late 1800s or early 1900s; I have been unable to trace the jeweller in Halifax, Yorkshire.

Turquoise and Diamond Brooch

My next jeweller at Louth. Lincolnshire has proved equally elusive although I have located a clock and watchmaker of the same name.

Ruby and Pearl Ring

Having looked again for William Colbeck, I found him at the Black Bull at 22 Upgate, Louth aged 1, born in 1880. In 1910 there is a newspaper report which I can't access that shows his shop at Market Rasen was burgled. The report in the Stamford Mercury December 16 1910 starts, "The shop of Mr William Colbeck, jeweller of Market Rasen. Nov 9. The shop door had been cut about with a knife and a hole had been cut right through near the lock. An attempt had also been made to remove the glass panel...."

That ring belonged to Amy who you have seen on Sepia Saturday before. The modern box belongs to my wife and contains the birthday present she bought for me this year.

"Bob's" Ring

I'm afraid there is nothing interesting to report on Market Cross, jewellers in Yarm. However when you raid jewellery boxes you may find some  unexpected things.

Christmas Bells and Grand Daughter's Brooch

Perhaps she will grow up to believe -

or

Perhaps I'd better bow out and let you look for other rocks atSepia-saturday-181.

School Days - Sepia Saturday

As chemistry was my favourite subject at school I thought this week would be ideal for ma as soon as I saw the laboratory photo.

However when I looked through my photo archive it was more difficult than that. From the age of 11 I went to Stamford School in Lincolnshire, then an independent school, Now it it is part of Stamford Endowed Schools along with what back then was Stamford High School for girls.. [Note to Facebook - Stamford School, Stamford, Lincolnshire, England - NOT Stamford School, Lahore, Pakistan as you insist it is on my profile and won't let me correct]

Stamford School & School Chapel

The buildings are situated on St Paul's Street; on the other side of the street are more school buildings.

Brazenose House - 2007

(Richard Croft - CC BY-SA 2.0 - Geograph Project Collection)

Brazenose was built in c 1688 and rebuilt in 1723 and is now part of the Stamford Endowed Schools campus. In my day the upper floor contained the Staff Room and class rooms; the two bottom windows on the right were those for the School Prefects' Study. The entrance at the right hand end led down to Brazenose gardens. 

Later in 1957, two years after I left, a new science block was built at the bottom of that same entrance. Annoyingly, for me, the photos of the opening of the block and one of my old chemistry master in the lab are copyright protected on the members only part of the School website

Major Lamb (Algy) to us was the one who suggest that I go on to his old university at St Andrews. [Note to Facebook - In St Andrews, Fife, Scotland NOT South Carolina] St Andrews University is 600 years old this year.

St Salvator's Hall -1956

I'm perched on the railing on the top floor of the men's hall of residence; you can't see it in this shot but that is the North Sea behind the far hedge,

Not to be thwarted I managed to find a shot of a St Andrews lab that did not exist while I was there.

Nuclear Resonance Lab, St Andrews - 2009
(Shandchem from Scotland - CC BY 2.0)

Finally, definitely before my time, I finish with a shot of Paris from the Scientific American Supplement - Author L Page.

Drawing of the Lab of the School of Physics & Chemistry
Paris - 1884

For more of the best days of your life, schools, laboratories  - whatever, cross over to Sepia-saturday-176.

The Camel Bit Me - Sepia Saturday

Alan's prompt this week is an unknown family group.

I can't claim that my pictures are of unknown groups, but at least they are groups with a family connection.

Bob, Rachel and Amy

This was taken on a quite eventful day. Rachel, in my arms had one arm in a sling after she had fallen of a low stood and suffered a greenstick fracture of her collar bone. Amy, my mother-in-law, appeared in my first Sepia Saturday post here This day out was meant to be a treat until the camel came too close, Rachel let out a scream and cried, "Daddy! The camel bit me." 

For the sake of my security I'm not allowed to tell the year in which the photo was taken

I can guess that my next picture was taken at Christmas time and I know the event was in South Wales at either Six Bells or Abertillery.

Bob's Mother (front left)

You can see her again somtime in the early 1980's with two of her daughters-in law.

Iris, Annie and Edna - 1980s

Another  group of my wife's family that I can date, but it may be pre-WWII.

Amy and Bob plus two daughters (we think)

Finally, my wife's Uncle George and two unknown children in Stamford, Lincolnshire, again date unknown.

George Harper

This must be one of the few weeks in which that I have not had to resort to the internet for photos. It makes me realise how easy it is for people, dates and places to be forgotten when you look at family photos that are a lot less than 100 years old. 

For other unknowns and takes on family groups cross over to Sepia-saturday-165.

Rawhide - Sepia Saturday

Last summer when we were in Michigan we had a visit from a little white bull which had decided to wander off.

Little white bull

It may have been a steer but it was enough to remind me of Tommy Steele

But closer to home this cow was photogenic.

Fortunately for her the nearest cattle market at Yarm has been empty for years.

Yarm Cattle Market (c1975)

In fact like many it has been turned into  a car park.

Yarm Old Market (2012)

When I was at Stamford School in Lincolnshire back in the late 40s/early 1950s I use to pass the local cattle market every day. This is the state it was in in March 2010.

Stamford Cattle Market (disused)
(ex geograph; author Michael Truelove; CC A-S A 2.0 generic license)

The description for this photo said, 'Not much changed since previous submissions to geograph. The weeds are bigger but surprisingly the buildings remain intact apart from a covering of graffiti.

How things change and not always for the better.

For more cattle market reflections, hopefully less depressing don't forget to check out Sepia Saturday 127 

Mirror, Mirror! - Thematic Photography

Winter has returned to Scotland and the North of England today, golf was aborted as a result. This meant I had time to check out some mirrors, real and virtual.

Lounge Mirror

To understand what you see you have to remember Snell's Law - the angle of incidence = the angle of reflection. So what you see is the lamp and pictures on the walls to the right of the photo.

If that's too difficult, let's look at a framed picture acting as a mirror on my office wall..

Map of the County of Lincolnshire

The reflection comes from the window off scene right. I hope you can make out the branches of some trees.

In the bathroom a shaving/beauty mirror stands on the window ledge and gives this effect.

Bathroom Mirror

What interests me about this shot is not the image shown in the mirror, but the frosted glass window behind it. It is not green, The lawn outside is what makes the background colour.

When I saw the result of my next shot I though immediately of Alice and Through the Looking Glass.

Hall mirror with the image of the front door

I eventually got sent out in the rain - I took my camera with me. 

Reflections in the rain

And when I saw this I thought of Gene Kelly.

Puddle reflections

 

So I guess that we need to do now is to dance off  to Carmi's for some more mirror images.