A day trip on the train – and a leg stretch beside the Irish Sea, out to North Stack and back over the top of Holyhead Mountain. It may only be 720′ high, but it feels like a mountain – the ground is rugged, in places precipitous, and you have to start at sea level…
I was sure I’d only visited Littleton twice in 1976 – and then I found this solitary photo in the archives, taken in August of that year. I have no recollection of that visit!
It’s been duly added to the Littleton page on Geoff’s Rail Diaries
An amazingly mild and sunny afternoon – at home… The car said it was 16°C; fifteen miles away, on Hope Bowdler hill, the clouds were gathering, and the wind was getting up. It certainly didn’t feel like 16°, not with the wind chill on the tops – but the light was good, the air clear and the views extensive. Jodrell Bank, just over 50 miles away, gleamed on the northern horizon – the first time I’ve seen it from Shropshire’s hills
There’s been a Littleton page in the “Rail Diaries” for some time – photos from a visit in April 1976. Recently, with a new scanner, I’ve tackled the photos taken on an earlier visit in February of the same year. It was a dull day, and I was using (trying out, in effect – with hindsight not a good idea) an unusual home-processed slide film. This time, the scans were usable (if not exactly brilliant).
The April photos have been rescanned too – and all photos are larger than before. For the full set of photos from both February and April 1976, and some details on the fun and games with slide film in the kitchen sink, (re)visit “Littleton” on Geoff’s Rail Diaries
Three days in Yorkshire, for an exploration of places that once were familiar and regular venues for family outings
A walk from the top of the once-notorious ascent, on the main road from Thirsk to Scarborough, along to the gliding field and the White Horse
The road to Scar House dam follows the trackbed of the railway used when the reservoirs were built, to the site of the contractors’ “village”. Reservoirs aside, the upper reaches of Nidderdale are remote and bleak. An old track, impassable to all bar walkers, leads over Dead Man’s hill to Coverdale
From Lofthouse, a hill road leads to Masham (that’s “Massem”, not “Mashem”). The Druid’s Temple is near Ilton, a little way off the direct routs. It’s not as old as it looks (see http://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/england/north-yorkshire/featured-sites/druids-temple-ilton.html) and was a fun place when we were children – no-one else knew about it. It was rather crowded on this cold, clear February day (dodgy-looking “druids”…)
Just published – more photos from the archives. This time, some railway oddities in the East Midlands in February 1976, recorded on some rather odd film (see the photographic notes on the page for more…). It was only on putting the page together that I realised – everything had been static. Nothing moved…
Visit “East Midlands oddities” on Geoff’s Rail Diaries
More archive trawling… A late-1974 visit to Radstock, on the former S&DJR, for a steam open day in the eleventh hour of a preservation scheme that fell through. Visit “Radstock S&D” on Geoff’s Rail Diaries
Homer and Wigwig lie to the north-west of the Wenlock Edge, near Much Wenlock. I visited the former (there’s nothing there, apart from houses) and viewed the latter (a large farm) on this walk from the NT car park in Much Wenlock. Shame the weather wasn’t a bit brighter – no sunshine. just unremitting grey skies. At least it’s not as cold as it was last week.
The route might have been slightly different if I’d remembered to take the map…
A trawl of the archives recently netted these photos taken back in 1974, when a rather fine and unusual articulated locomotive saw service on the Welshpool and Llanfair railway. Visit “Welshpool’s King” on Geoff’s Rail Diaries for more.
I don’t think the temperature ever rose above 1ºC, but it was a great afternoon for a wander on these south-east facing slopes of the Wenlock Edge. With no wind, the sun felt warm, but the air was starting to feel really cold by the time we dropped back down the lane to Aston Munslow.
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