Mundane pictures of the North

[farmerbarleymow]

dislike!

I know - how dare they disrupt the flow of mundanity! Don't they realise how important this thread is?

 

[cyberfairy]

I know - how dare they disrupt the flow of mundanity! Don't they realise how important this thread is?

There are Esso garages in Wigan and newsagents somewhere Nelson furious about this.

 

[Firky]

A very few of the pics I took in the old Spring Bank Cemetery, which is properly fascinating:

Reminds me of the one in Stokie:

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

Abney Park in Stoke Newington, in the London Borough of Hackney, is a historic parkland originally laid out in the early 18th century by Lady Mary Abney and Dr. Isaac Watts, and the neighbouring Hartopp family. In 1840 it became a non-denominational garden cemetery, a semi-public park arboretum, and an educational institute, which was widely celebrated as an example of its time. Abney Park is one of the Magnificent Seven London cemeteries. A total of 196,843 burials had taken place there as of the year 2000.[1] It is a Local Nature Reserve.[2]

Used to get wrecked there with teeps

 

[cyberfairy]

I used to go there every day! The quite Jewish one yes?

 

[Firky]

I used to go there every day! The quite Jewish one yes?

Yeh!

 

[neonwilderness]

For those who don't know Bede's World is on the site of an old monastery.

And for added mundanity (is that a word? ), it's right next to Tyne Dock

I was going to get some pics from the top of the hill, but it was getting a bit dark by the time there was a break in the performance (there's shots of that on the photo thread).

Cafe and ... well, can you read the inscription on the sign to the left...?

Is that Edgar Street? I took my car to a garage there last year and think I saw that cafe

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Back online now, so the Saddleworth onslaught begins...

I'll group them together in themes. So first up, these are some random landscapes.

The highest bit of this ridge is called Dick Hill, which is quite pleasing*. The obelisk is a war memorial I think (been years since I was actually up there), and the hill has large boulders called Pots and Pans Stones, and Oven Stones, which is slightly odd. No idea where the names originate.



A disused quarry on the side of the same ridge a bit further along, with lots of scree down the slope.



Looking back towards Uppermill from the Huddersfield Narrow Canal.



Typical farmland scene round these parts.



The house on the hill. It must be a tad windy up here in winter storms.



* Edited to add - my puerile mind always inwardly giggles at innuendo-laden names of things on the OS map, so maybe an idea for a new thread - to visit and photograph inappropriately-named landscape features. Two I remember are called Dick Slack, and the wonderfully-named Lord Hereford's Knob.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

It is so lush at the time of year - looks very different in autumn/winter.



Diggle:



A hamlet on a hill - I guess these were built on such an exposed position because of an old trading route running across that ridge and down into the valley:



It was incredibly quiet here as it is shielded from roads and the rail line. Very peaceful.



A view from near St Chad's Church:



Another view from somewhere in the area (can't remember the exact location):

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Some canalside scenes on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal as it passes through Uppermill. Not mundane in the boring sense, but rather splendidly not boring. But mundane in the sense of being fairly typical of a village in the North, during Summer.

I await being shouted at for posting not-boring things!

This bit looks magnificent in autumn with all the leaves on the ground:





Note the white Yorkshire Rose on this boat. This is a recurring theme in this area as many do still consider that Saddleworth should be in the West Riding.





I'd love to live in one of these canal-side houses:



I like the name of this boat - quite onomatopoeic:



Friendly fowl. These are so used to people walking down here they don't bat an eyelid even when you're inches away from them:



Tranquillity:

 

[QueenOfGoths]

Did anyone see "How The North Was Built" with not a Geordie Robson Green? It was okay, a bit broad strokes, but it also kept reminding me of this thread

Mr.QofG's was heard to comment "It's ... it's like watching North Korea or something...the north is a foreign country!"

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Some arches for Roadkill. This is the viaduct that carries the railway line across the valley on its way to the Standedge Tunnel through the hills to Marsden.



The canal, the River Tame and the rail line all intersect here.



Nice stonework here:



Looking t'other way:



From the road that passes underneath too. I then walked up that steep side road on the left - murder on the legs!

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Boring canal-side houses.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Some nice old houses up this steep side road. One of these old stone houses was sold for £595k last year, so I don't think I'll be moving here anytime soon...





Steep!

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Wharmston Transmitter. Very very windy at the base of that transmitter, but lovely views.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Friendly cows, and I felt guilty as they looked at me expectantly after I'd fed the horse an apple. I don't think cows eat apples.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

More horses. The brown one was a bit of a dominant character, and was edging towards climbing over the metal gate to mug me for more apples. The black and white one seemed to have a problem with its teeth, as it struggled to eat the apple - the poor thing.



Mr Brown Horse trying to eat my hand, thinking it was another apple.

 

[tufty79]

Did anyone see "How The North Was Built" with not a Geordie Robson Green? It was okay, a bit broad strokes, but it also kept reminding me of this thread

Mr.QofG's was heard to comment "It's ... it's like watching North Korea or something...the north is a foreign country!"

hadn't heard of that programme, so just had a google rummage. look what came up on the first page of video search results

 

[farmerbarleymow]

This was quite random - a fork embedded in a scrubby bit of land. Looked like it'd been there for years.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

St Chad's Church, with a new private graveyard at the front of the old overgrown one. I'm very tempted to buy myself a plot there, as it would be a lovely place to be buried.



And a woman keeping it tidy, completely unlike the old graveyard.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

There are lots of grouse butts marked on the map on the moors round here, but I don't know if there is any shooting in this area any more.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

For cyberfairy

Steps to graveyard porn:









And the Bill o' Jacks grave.



Close-ups of each half of the grave:

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Another overgrown graveyard just down the road from the one above. Didn't go into this one, but might pop back and have a wander one day.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

The Church Inn, by St Chad's. A lovely pub, and definitely recommended if you're ever in this area. The small beer garden has amazing views over the valley, and on days like this, sitting there with a nice pint after a good walk, resting your weary legs and looking out over the rolling hills is perfect.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Uppermill village main street - a pretty mundane Pennine village which has much of its original buildings still intact, and mostly built from the local stone.





More 1974 boundary changes refuseniks:





No idea what this shop sells, but an odd little sign:



I liked the contrast between this young woman's hair and dress:

 

[farmerbarleymow]

A solitary remaining wall of a building that was once by the canal here:



An old mill, now used for multiple small businesses:



A half-derelict mill, but with some parts seemingly still in use:

 

[farmerbarleymow]

The Standedge Tunnels. Mighty engineering feats, with the canal tunnel opening in 1811, and the three later rail tunnels during the Victorian era.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standedge_Tunnels

The canal tunnel. It is kept gated at each end to prevent unauthorised entry by boats, as it can only accommodate a single narrow boat at a time for most of its length:



You get a great breeze coming through it when you peer into the gate:


The live rail tunnel, and the youngest of the three rail tunnels:



And you can just see one of the entrances to one of the older rail tunnels, now disused but still maintained:

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Final one for Saddleworth. This has to be one of the more mundane sights in the North - a dry stone wall going over the top of a hill. I've always liked the fact that they didn't worry about a hill being in the way, nor how steep it was, when they needed a wall built.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Back in Manchester now, this is a former post office, next door to Victoria Station.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Withy Grove Stores. This has been around for donkeys, and nowadays looks a bit incongruous against the newer buildings that surround it. I like the clearly old signage, and the lack of frills.





Another book exchange on the same street. Second-hand adult mag for 40p anyone?


And a greasy spoon at Piccadilly, open all hours:

 

[farmerbarleymow]

The fire on Oldham Street, on the evening it happened. I took this at 9pm, near the time when the poor fireman died.