P.Eastwood Ltd.

20th April 2008. Side of The Swan pub, Burnley. Renovated advertisement for long defunct, local transport firm. Previously the colour had been weathered from the sign which, I feel, gave it a more atmospheric look. Whilst now freshly painted and showing all the detail, it seems to lack a bit of authenticity. The alleyway leads to the gaol (to the left).

Click for Details!

20th April 2008. The Swan pub, St. James Street, Burnley.

Blue plaque gives the details of the gaol which is still behind the pub. Clicking the photo should make it bigger and, therefore, easier to read!

Burnley Gaol.

20th April 2008. Behind The Swan pub on St. James Street in Burnley town centre. Now used as a storage building for the pub, this is the old town gaol, complete with barred windows. In its day, there wouldn't have been any glass behind the bars to keep the elements from the scoundrels inside.

Datsun Cogs!

19th April 2008. Tails the cat and Claudius the dog share a moment (and a chair).

Mucky Bridge post match.

19th April 2008. Heading back to the car after the game. The bridge carries the Blackburn to Manchester railway line and is known locally as Mucky Bridge. Probably because it was less than clean. It's still was. Now pedestrians only, it used to be open to traffic and various idiots would decide to drive their cars through it in the immediate aftermath of a home game. Oh, the friendly banter between driver and fans as the door panels were kicked in..... 

Match Result: Rovers 1(Santa Cruz) ManUre 1(SoF - goal coming from a corner (taken by a differenf SoF) which should actually have been a goal kick (after being put out of play by a third SoF). 

Not like the mancs to benefit from dodgy decisions given by a bent ref. against The Rovers........).

Scouting About

11th April 2008. Outside Nelson Library. Formerly named Marsden, the town changed its name to Nelson as a result of the Lord Nelson pub in the middle of the town which was (and still is) the only notable thing about the place. 

People referred to The Lord Nelson when they spoke about Marsden and gradually the pub name took over.

Interestingly, if a similar 'popular reference' for the town was used nowadays, the new name would be 'Shitole'.

Anyways, outside the town library is a statue to commemorate the Boy Scouts from the area that fought and died in the Great War.  

Now I wasn't aware that boy Scouts were called up during the war, so this came as a surprise to me (but not as much of a surprise as it would have been to the lads that joined the Cubs in order to learn a few knots and start a camp fire, and ended up with the 'Clearing German Machine Gun Nest' badge).

Obviously this is where the idea for The Hitler Youth came from for the second leg, though.....

A Tower Eyeful.....

10th April 2008. Taken from the Central Pier, Blackpool. The Tower marks the much famed 'Golden Mile'. Not sure to what it refers as the beach has long been home to the sewage outflow pipe from the town and is anything but golden.

The shops and arcades along the sea front have also lost much of their glister and several have closed and been boarded up.

Not so much a 'Golden Mile' but more a 'Slightly Rusty 300 Yards'. 

Still, it's not a bad afternoon out every five or so years (provided you can avoid the drunken groups of Glaswegians, Stag, Hen parties and also sidestep the numerous pavement pizzas which lurk around the entrances to the lap dancing bars).

Eric Bartholomew

9th April 2008. Promenade, Morecambe. Bronze statue of the town's most famous celebrity: Eric Morecambe. (Thora Hird and Victoria Wood must be a bit miffed although, arguably, the latter isn't dead yet). 

Eric took a new surname from his place of birth and his comedy partner initially used his own hometown as an alias too. 

'Morecambe and Leeds' didn't work, but 'Morecambe and Wise' did.

Although not being too great a photo due to sun glare, it is quite a rare shot. This is because at almost every other time of day or night the statue is flanked by at least two people also doing the 'Give Me Sunshine' pose.

West Coast Main Line

9th April 2008. Hest Bank, north of Morecambe. The main railway line from London to Glasgow is called the West Coast Main Line. Bit of a con really, as Hest Bank is the only part of the entire line where you can actually see the coast from the train. 

(It's that bit to the top left of the picture with the Lakeland hills in the backgound).

It was taken from the footbridge over the level crossing and shows the signal/crossing box. I pressed the shutter button when the front of the train was roughly where the orange jacketed work crew are standing, but the camera delay and train speed means the Pendalino cab has run out of the bottom of the photo. 

Dinosaur Safari.

April 8th 2008. Blackpool Zoo. From under the waterfall looking towards a couple of large, prehistoric, fibreglass animals. On the left, and in hiding, is an example of the most shy and bashful of all the dinosaurs which is called the Doyathinktheysaurus.

Meercats.

April 8th 2008. Blackpool Zoo. There seemed to be hundreds of the little critters when I took the picture, but most seem to have scarpered by the time the button was pressed.

Teatime in the lion pen.

April 8th 2008. Blackpool Zoo. Lioness tucking into a whole uncooked chicken. On previous visits we have seen them throw in large jumps of raw meat for feeding to the lions, however (and this is the strange bit) we have never seen them feed the tigers. 

I think they feed them after the zoo has closed and the public has left. Probably because tigers want something a bit larger than a chicken and also prefer it to be on the fresher side of just dead.....

Waiting for the cookies!

April 6th 2008. Sainsburys Bispham. Helen had gone into the store to buy some post chippy treats so I took the opportunity of taking a quick snap of Claudie. Even in his bedraggled state after a good run around the beach, Claudius still attracted comments as to how handsome he was from passers by.Claudie,however,was more interested in where his cookies where.....

This is where all the dicks hang out......

April 5th 2008. The middle Gentlemen's restroom, Blackburn End, Ewood Park. A lot of time is spent pissing around in here. Interestingly the fittings are made in Filey by EMJ Plastics Ltd. Photo of the factory next time I'm there. Match result: Rovers 1(Gamst) Tottenham 1(SoF).

Reedley NOT Barden!

April 3rd 2008. The entrance to the new marina now has a sign which informs that it is due to open in the Summer of 2008. It also shows that the official name will be 'Reedley Marina' which does sound a bit more impressive than the 'Burnley Barge Yard'. 

I think a good name for the new refreshment outlet would be The Just Barge Inn.... 

More "Yo Ho Ho's"....

April 3rd 2008. I know that the nautical trend is getting a bit worrying, but this picture is of the Waterways service barge 'Yarrow'. It is parked outside Reedley Nurseries on the Leeds/Liverpool Canal in the borough of Pendle (posh) and has probably been used for towpath and canal side maintenance, and serving nice cups of tea. 

A little further along the canal passes into the borough of Burnley (not posh) and the Waterways barges are used there for fishing out old bicylces, shopping trollies and Ford Escorts.