Mundane pictures of the North

[farmerbarleymow]

This takes me back! God I feel old!

I remember I got my long hair cut off in a barbers that was just opposite St Michael's. The barber asked me if I was on the run from the police as it was quite abrupt to go from long blond hair to a grade 1 crop.

And that was twenty years ago so I definitely feel old now.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

No wonder you were too tired for the fishy disco last week FBM. How many miles have you put in for this thread!?

You're the Judith Charmers of Greater Manchester

I've been clocking up the miles like there is no tomorrow! Good exercise though, and I've walked down streets and been to parts of town I've never set foot in before, so good fun.

It's 23.5 miles on foot so far. And I've only scratched the surface of the mundaneness of Greater Manchester. I suspect this thread could run for quite a long time!

You can plot your distance easily on this site, and if you want to save your route (to make sure you don't cover old mundane ground, just grab a screen shot):

http://walkit.com/plot-walk/

I somehow think even Judith would struggle to witter on about the delights of the places I've been in for this thread! Wish you weren't here I suspect!

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Stairs and hills everywhere in Stockport.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

An empty pub. Such a shame as it is a lovely building.

Edit to add - I've been reading up on the history of Stockport and this is reckoned to be the oldest hostelry in the town, and its licence dates back to the 14th century. It was a coaching inn on the main route into and out of Stockport, and near the only crossing point of the River Mersey back in the day. The current building is only just over 100 years old though.

 

[machine cat]

Just been looking at the history of the BofE and found they have/had an outpost in Leeds.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bank_of_England.jpg

No idea whether it is still operational, but the design has similarities to that in Manchester. Roust and strong.

The Manchester one is nicer though...

The one in Leeds is still there and operational.

I used to walk past it every day for years. Pretty annoying when they had a delivery/were taking out gold as the cops would close all the surrounding streets and I'd have to take a detour to work.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

An interesting series of presumably cast concrete frescoes on the side of BHS.





I like the way the figure on the left seems to be pointing to the one on the right!

 

[farmerbarleymow]

 

[farmerbarleymow]

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Mutant pigeon.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Always meant to go to this as well as the Hat Museum.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Empty shop (one of many in Stockport sadly).

The odd thing about this one is that it is next door to M & S, which you'd expect any retailer would love to be next to given the footfall such a well-known neighbour attracts. Maybe says a lot about the health of the town's retail economy if even prime sites are empty. I think Mary Portas was doing something in Stockport as part of her project.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

 

[farmerbarleymow]

No Northern town would be complete without at least one of these.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

For all your bag needs.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Drab drab drab.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

An unusual pub name.

But there was a carved stone pineapple outside the nice old timbered building I posted earlier, so I wonder whether Stockport had some involvement in the pineapple trade centuries ago?

 

[farmerbarleymow]

With the proper pronunciation in the sign!

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Boring. I used to work in the one on the right many years ago.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

No visit to Stockport would be complete without pictures of the viaduct. One of Western Europe's biggest brick-built structures.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockport_viaduct

 

[farmerbarleymow]

 

[farmerbarleymow]

 

[farmerbarleymow]

The River Mersey.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Phwoar, look at that enormous cock.

(sorry, had to be done!)



And two of his female chicken friends. The female chickens were quite curious and wandered to the fence to see what was going on, and to say hello presumably, and several came out of the coop to have a look too. It was one of those moments of happiness, where you forget your cares and commune with the chickens.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Time for some dead people. These gravestones are at the Parish Church, all laid down as flags now covering the entire churchyard.

This is one of the oldest I saw:

 

[farmerbarleymow]

A lesson in how bad things used to be - an awful lot of these graves note the deaths of very young children, often several in one family. These are just two examples.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

This is a rather interesting one, with masonic symbols on it.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

And I quite like the saying on this one. How true!

 

[farmerbarleymow]

And finally (you'll all be pleased to hear), some pics from the train on the way home.

From the viaduct:







Heaton Chapel Station:



Random trackside warehouses:





The run down outskirts to Piccadilly:

 

[farmerbarleymow]

When does the dogging begin?

 

[neonwilderness]

No visit to Stockport would be complete without pictures of the viaduct. One of Western Europe's biggest brick-built structures.

I was driving back from visiting a mate in Buxton last year and stopped at that car park to try and get a photo of the viaduct silhouetted by the sunset. I completely failed due to all the mundane shit getting in the way. If only this thread was going back then...