Goodbye to Cheques

The Cycle Touring Club - CTC now can take renewals online! At last.

But .....

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....never mind, this is another case of e-incompetence. Now where is that cheque book?

First page of a detective novel

An homage to Raymond Chandler by Andrew Hussie. It is the first page of a detective novel but ironically placed at the end of the story. Totally brilliant in my own humble opinion. Read it here

Last chance to see

This corner of Wallbridge, Stroud will disappear underneath a road in a few months so I wanted to take a really close look before it goes forever.
This is what it used to look like:

From blogpics

Then for some reason it was demolished but some of the wall was retained with the windows bricked in and the wall top capped in cement. The dark vertical line on the wall betrays where the rain downpipe used to be and at the top you can still see a bit of the painted arrow showing the way to Bath.

From blogpics

Oscar Wrigley

Is Oscar Wrigley a toddler Einstein? At the age of just over two years old, being accepted into Mensa seems to be quite an achievement.
Full story here

Oscar, just look at your blackboard and you'll see that it says E=MC². Oh dear. If you were so clever you'd know that the equation is actually E=mc²

You don't look so clever now, do you, Oscar Wrigley? Those BBC journalists you invited round to your house appear to have written a science cliché on your blackboard and failed to get it right, unless the MC stands for Maria Carey.

British Gas

One of the great cost cutting ideas of energy companies is to cut the cost of reading meters by not reading them. The electricity and gas meters hardly ever get read these days. A card through the door told me to read my own meter. So I could do it at my convenience online. Great. So I entered the URL and oh dear, this is what I got. Looks like they cut back on IT too.
--//--
Error 404--Not Found
From RFC 2068 Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1:
10.4.5 404 Not Found

The server has not found anything matching the Request-URI. No indication is given of whether the condition is temporary or permanent.

If the server does not wish to make this information available to the client, the status code 403 (Forbidden) can be used instead. The 410 (Gone) status code SHOULD be used if the server knows, through some internally configurable mechanism, that an old resource is permanently unavailable and has no forwarding address.

Precious Slides

Precious memories fade and if they were on Kodacolor slides they become rosy memories. We just got a stack of commercially produced slides from various tourist destinations. They all appear to be Kodacolor. This one is copyright of Leicester Museums and is the AD 125 Jewry Wall. First is the raw scan that is pretty much what you would see if you projected it.

From blogpics

But all is not lost. It is possible to fix the colour and restore a reasonable colour balance.

From blogpics

Afgacolor also fades but tends to go the other way, the blue stays strong but green fades a bit and red a lot. The message is clear. If you have slides that you want to keep, NOW is the time to archive them to digital. Unless you were rich enough to shoot in Kodachrome then rest easy. Those images are supposed to last a very long time.
The next pair is a shabby copy of Campement de bohemiens, les roulottes by Vincent Van Gogh. Marked Cinemati Paris, Reproduction interdite. And indeed it should be forbidden as it is a cropped and out of focus duplication. The colour seems to have been wrong in the first place as it is impossible to correct. All the subtlety of the painting has been lost. Before:

From blogpics

After:

From blogpics

Better but still poor.

Stroud then and Now

The Fountain Inn in Slad road has had a long history and in the past thirsty cyclists graced the entrance. This is the Stonehouse Wheelers today.

From blogpics

And here is a serious bunch of Edwardians. Note how the old guys all have a cap with a metal badge and stand jauntily with one foot on a pedal ready to leap into action.

From Stroud and Stonehouse to Saul old photo tour

This was one of Wilfred Merrett's photos.

Tornado visits Stroud

From blogpics

Tornado 60163 at Toadsmoor making very light work of climbing up the Golden Valley. Tornado was making rapid progess up to the Sapperton tunnel. The safety valve blowing indicated that there was plenty of spare power.

It was a big treat seeing a brand new locomotive instead of the usual last century HSTs.

Ebley Mill and Stanley Mill

Ebley Mill and its light stone chimney with Stanley Mill's brick chimney beyond that seen together from a viewpoint on Parliament Street. The autumn colours are in evidence.

From blogpics

Office Genuine Disadvantage

This pops up every morning and I do have a genuine copy of Office XP. I thoroughly recommend switching to Open Office.

Stroud Then and Now

Here is the grand Prudential building at the corner of Russell Street in Stroud. The road has no entry signs making getting to the station a bit tricky. This probably reflects the low priority for the railway in the 1970s. No less than three flagpoles adorned the roof.

From G2201

This is a very difficult shot because cars and vans chance the traffic warden and park on the corner and get in the way. On my fourth attempt I managed to get a car free shot after scowling at the lady in the green car, who then moved out of shot into the disabled bay. It looks cleaner and more handsome with the pedestrian barriers removed.

From blogpics

Eastington Then and Now

Eastington hasn't changed that much.
This 1897 finger-post combined with a drinking fountain was installed in celebration of the Queen's Jubilee. This view is from the 1960s and is looking in the direction of Claypits.

From G1681

The only change is that there has been an attempt to landscape the roundabout and the road furniture is uglier.

From blogpics

The Stonehouse direction shows this quiet scene with an Austin 1100 parked outside the Co-Op. The south facing shop window has an awning that could have been used for shade.

From G1681

Modern shop design dictates that windows must be obscured. One window is full of graphics and the other has been completely filled in with cement. Natural daylight must be replaced by ranks of fluorescent light. A satellite dish is attached and a number of black pipes carry heat from the chiller units to the outside. All the delivery trolleys and bread containers stand in an untidy collection outside. Bollards in front of the shop stop cars from driving right up to the door. The fingerpost has had the Frocester finger replaced and the design appears to match the other finger exactly.

From blogpics

Stroud Then and Now

This is the School of Art and Science with a building site in the foreground.

From G2121

Today the Lockinghill Surgery occupies the building lot and like many other locations the trees have been left to grow. Cars occupy any space they can find.

From blogpics

Stroud Then and Now

These images are from winter 1975 and judging by the light, a chilly lunchtime picture. This building is in two parts, the right was initially Rev. John Williams' house then converted to a police station in 1858 and the left was the court. By 1969 the police and court had moved out. The shadow cast across the centre bay window was cast by a building at the end of Gloucester Street that no longer exists. The junction was controlled by traffic lights.

From G2001

Today the junction is a roundabout and the ugly street furniture has been moved away from the face of the building. There is plenty more street clutter and street markings making the place ugly and the pedestrian bridge casts a shadow in the foreground. The police have moved up the hill and away from the town centre troublespots and the building is now divided into private offices. However it doesn't stop Reliance Security from trying to deliver prisoners.

From blogpics

The "Petty Sessional Court" is proudly proclaimed in carved stone lettering.

From G2001

The lettering has now been chipped off the court and a chimney is missing. While the police station is Grade 2 listed building the court building is not.

From blogpics

Looking from a different angle down from Beeches Green, people head to town in thick winter coats.

From G2001

Trees and roads have encroached. The building on the corner has vanished. The traffic makes it very difficult to capture a shot from this location.

From blogpics

Stroud Then and Now

The Then and Now collection goes to more mundane locations.
Lansdown Road early morning

From Stroud and Stonehouse to Saul old photo tour

Lansdown Road made ugly with cars

From blogpics

The Milepost at Cainscross has a green field behind it.

From Stroud and Stonehouse to Saul old photo tour

Not so pretty these days with the neck shorter by a few inches. And the ghastly backdrop of Tricorn House. What were they thinking in the 1970s? And late news in November 2009!!! The government has blocked the compulsory purchase of Tricorn House. Which elected numbskull blocked that? I'm pretty sure that it isn't anyone who has ever seen it because it needs to go as soon as possible.

From blogpics

Marling had an open air pool and it was steaming in the early morning chill. Rodborough can be glimpsed behind the row of trees.

From Stroud and Stonehouse to Saul old photo tour

The same scene thoroughly modernised and uglified.

From blogpics

Finally we get to Ebley Mill with a bleakly industrial black chimney

From Stroud and Stonehouse to Saul old photo tour

Nowadays much prettier and sporting a new flared chimney top. Although this view is very nice, the rest of the area still looks like a bomb site.

From blogpics

Aust Cliff

Things I found at Aust Cliff:
Lower Lias embedded with pyrite crystals

From blogpics

A tiny echinoid in the Lower Lias

From blogpics

The stumps of an old pier

From blogpics

And Tammy at the Severn Bridge viewpoint

From blogpics

Then and Now Continued

This is the view about a mile out of Sharpness dock.

From blogpics

Back in 1968 it looked a little different.

From Severn Railway Bridge and Purton

Ebley Mill in the evening sun with the foreground blocked off by a builders screen. This might be the last opportunity to get this viewpoint because it looks like something big is going to be built.

From blogpics

And this is the same view in the mid 1960s showing a lot of rubble in the foreground Notice that the chimney used to be black and without the flare at the top.

From Box-G3

Finally here is Wallbridge. All accounts that I see call this the bottling plant even though it looks more like an Oast house. Today all that remains is some of the wall.

From blogpics

But in the 1960s it looked a lot more interesting.

From Box-G3

Then and Now extravaganza

We went out and spent the day following Peter Coleman's steps, or more accurately cycle tyre treads.
First was the railway bridge at Bristol Road, Stonehouse. This is what it looks like,

From blogpics

and this is forty years ago,

From G1681

The Severn Bridge nowadays has a road deck, bright white superstructure and dark brown concrete.

From blogpics

But when it was being built it had dull superstructure and bright concrete, oh and no road deck yet but a mini railway instead.

From Box-G1

This is Harriet and Dursley in high marshy grass.

From blogpics

And this is in 1967

From Severn Railway Bridge and Purton