Mundane pictures of the North

[tufty79]

 

[seeformiles]

yup. either civil or electrical engineering.
pubs round there = the library (used to be a firkin), the eldon and the packhorse are pretty much opposite.

My mate used to work as a techie in that bit - used to meet him after work for a few jars in the Packhorse. Still go to meetings there every couple of months or so (no beer these days though )

 

[Dillinger4]

I recommend this book to all the people enjoying this thread:

Edgelands by Michael Symmons Roberts

The wilderness is much closer than you think. Passed through, negotiated, unnamed, unacknowledged: the edgelands - those familiar yet ignored spaces which are neither city nor countryside - have become the great wild places on our doorsteps.

In the same way the Romantic writers taught us to look at hills, lakes and rivers, poets Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts write about mobile masts and gravel pits, business parks and landfill sites, taking the reader on a journey to marvel at these richly mysterious, forgotten regions in our midst.

Edgelands forms a critique of what we value as 'wild', and allows our allotments, railways, motorways, wasteland and water a presence in the world, and a strange beauty all of their own.

 

[spacemonkey]

I recommend this book to all the people enjoying this thread:

Edgelands by Michael Symmons Roberts

That looks amazing! I've always been quite interested in the bits around cities before you get to the countryside, this looks like it describes it perfectly.

 

[Dillinger4]

That looks amazing! I've always been quite interested in the bits around cities before you get to the countryside, this looks like it describes it perfectly.

It's pretty good. If you like that you will also like this:

The Unofficial Countryside by Richard Mabey

During the early 1970s Richard Mabey explored crumbling city docks and overgrown bomb-sites, navigated inner city canals and car parks, and discovered there was scarcely a nook in our urban landscape incapable of supporting life. The Unofficial Countryside is a timely reminder of how nature flourishes against the odds, surviving in the most obscure and surprising places. First published 1973 by William Collins Sons

 

[lazythursday]

That looks amazing! I've always been quite interested in the bits around cities before you get to the countryside, this looks like it describes it perfectly.

The technical term for this is 'urban fringe'. Much of the north has particularly good urban fringe thanks to the collapse of industry and thirty years of efforts to turn polluted land into accessible parkland. Somewhere like Wigan, for example, is surrounded by vast areas of unused land - some nature reserve, some more like wasteland - that is much more interesting than actual countryside because nature has been left to do its thing and it's not all fenced off.

 

[Dillinger4]

The technical term for this is 'urban fringe'. Much of the north has particularly good urban fringe thanks to the collapse of industry and thirty years of efforts to turn polluted land into accessible parkland. Somewhere like Wigan, for example, is surrounded by vast areas of unused land - some nature reserve, some more like wasteland - that is much more interesting than actual countryside because nature has been left to do its thing and it's not all fenced off.

 

[cyberfairy]

That looks amazing! I've always been quite interested in the bits around cities before you get to the countryside, this looks like it describes it perfectly.

I bought that fr my boyfriend because I wanted it Desire paths for the win.

 

[cyberfairy]

It's lucky they put that big window there.

 

[Pickman's model]

 

[cyberfairy]

Summer. See the rain on the roof. Feel the inertia.

 

[neonwilderness]

There is a Waitrose there now

 

[Pickman's model]

There is a Waitrose there now

jesmond

 

[neonwilderness]

jesmond

Some more mundaneness down the road

 

[Pickman's model]

 

[Pickman's model]

 

[Pickman's model]

 

[Pickman's model]

 

[Pickman's model]

 

[Pickman's model]

 

[farmerbarleymow]

I like that - whereabouts is it?

 

[Pickman's model]

 

[Pickman's model]

I like that - whereabouts is it?

don't know didn't make a note of it, it's a boundary stone off geograph.org.uk

 

[Pickman's model]

Road drain, Harwood Dale Forest
This drain is being put in to drain a particularly badly rutted forest road.

 

[Pickman's model]

Crossroads : A6072
Taken from Brussleton Lane, crossing the A6072 to West End Lane, Shildon. An old mine tip can be seen (centre) to remind us of how heavily industrialised the area once was.

 

[sojourner]

The technical term for this is 'urban fringe'. Much of the north has particularly good urban fringe thanks to the collapse of industry and thirty years of efforts to turn polluted land into accessible parkland. Somewhere like Wigan, for example, is surrounded by vast areas of unused land - some nature reserve, some more like wasteland - that is much more interesting than actual countryside because nature has been left to do its thing and it's not all fenced off.

Every time I come across actual wasteland, I get ridiculously happy. It's so rare these days...an expanse of scrubby grass, weeds thigh-high, the litter rolling across it almost like tumbleweed...total nostalgia for my childhood.

We re-watched Boys from the Blackstuff a few months ago, and we jumping up pointing at the wasteland gleefully - 'you just don't SEE that anymore!!'

 

[sojourner]

I remember reading about that, and why not. Waste not want not. I know there are already some former public loos in use for other purposes - the one I've been in was converted into a tiny pub in Manchester called The Temple of Convenience. Based in an incredibly tiny underground loo. Not sure whether it's still open as it's years since I was last there.

Http://manchesterbars.wordpress/2006/11/02/the-temple/

Edited to get the pub name right and add URL.

One of my favourite pubs that

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Every time I come across actual wasteland, I get ridiculously happy. It's so rare these days...an expanse of scrubby grass, weeds thigh-high, the litter rolling across it almost like tumbleweed...total nostalgia for my childhood.

We re-watched Boys from the Blackstuff a few months ago, and we jumping up pointing at the wasteland gleefully - 'you just don't SEE that anymore!!'

I love it too - there's something special about seeing nature running riot and doing its own thing, with no human interference.

That's probably why I love derelict industrial sites - seeing the plants retake rightful possession of the site is a joy to behold.

 

[cyberfairy]

 

[cyberfairy]