Author Topic: Out and about - as a pedestrian.....  (Read 3091 times)

Offline MrDavo

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Re: Out and about - as a pedestrian.....
« Reply #15 on: May 07, 2020, 09:47:45 AM »
That’s the same loco again, yes, it certainly gets around, we did that trip a couple of years back when we did the North Coast 500 on the Harley, a great day out, same loco again, Ian Riley supplies the locos for that service.

When I first gate crashed Carnforth loco shed at the end of steam, I’d sneaked across the footbridge, went around a corner, and there was 44871, in steam outside the shed. It seems our paths keep crossing, when I was a volunteer cleaner on the ELR I even got to fire her a couple of times. There were long lines of withdrawn steam engines at Carnforth, waiting for their last trip to the scrapyard. As a schoolboy the shed staff turned a blind eye to me as I climbed on and off every single engine. They were all filthy, I don’t think my mum was too pleased when i got home.

Oddjob, you must have had to negotiate that narrow bridge in an artic too. I get my car MOT’d and fixed (if I can’t do it myself) at the garage on Knowl  St just next to it. I think they have modern trucks now, those were the oldest sheds I ever drove. I broke down in one at the Liverpool entrance to the M62, and made the BBC traffic news! I didn’t know that engine shed was there until we walked the track back from Micklehurst, it is a footpath, but with the odd diversion where viaducts aren’t.

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Offline MrDavo

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Re: Out and about - as a pedestrian.....
« Reply #16 on: May 07, 2020, 06:40:54 PM »
Nearly winning the lottery must really hurt! I'm glad its not just me who's savaged that bridge (luckily when noone was looking), although you can tell that as soon as you look at it, it's *&%$ed!

We walked down to Heyrod Village Store this afternoon, so a couple of pictures more for you.

For some reason bluebells smell just like air freshener, it must be evolution :)



Apparently these are boar, they just look like unshaven pigs to me. When we go past, the wife sings to them and they get up out of their shed to see what the hell all the racket is.



Down in the bottom of the valley are the water reservoirs that used to feed the coolers, drawing water from the Tame. We watched a heron fishing there last week, here's a moorhen with her chick, arty style through the fence.



Here's why you cant find that engine shed in the jungle, Oddjob. I took this from the road next to the Heyrod store, looking over towards Buckton castle and the quarry, believe it or not this is exactly the same area as that aerial shot of the power station, in fact the spot I took the photo from is the road in the very bottom left of the aerial picture. Right in the centre you can see the truncated coal elevator, and above and to the right of that just see part of the goods shed roof peeking out of the trees. Bear in mind from the picture on the last page, that thing is bloody massive! The post industrial greening of Britain is quite something - I've seen a few old photos of the Tame Valley, taken in the days when trees were just free fuel that someone had left carelessly lying around (they had the same attitude to whales, too) where there is hardly a scrap of vegetation anywhere.



Finally, because I'm childish at heart, here's a picture I took of a huge cock!



Those words probably just caused the board to send Steve an urgent alarm message.  8)


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Offline SteveD CB500K0

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Re: Out and about - as a pedestrian.....
« Reply #17 on: May 08, 2020, 07:13:30 AM »
Ziggy would have made short work of that huge cock …

Yesterday he caught a baby pigeon in the woods. They can’t escape so easily in the undergrowth.

He ate it (all)

As he comes from working gundog stock, I’m sure he’s not meant to do that.


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Offline ka-ja

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Re: Out and about - as a pedestrian.....
« Reply #18 on: May 08, 2020, 09:15:00 AM »
You should feed the poor thing.
nice bike,nothing in the bank

Offline MrDavo

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Re: Out and about - as a pedestrian.....
« Reply #19 on: May 08, 2020, 01:19:32 PM »
Bad Ziggy!

We had a cat that regularly murdered birds and baby bunnies - I had to hide the dead budgie he brought home. When he disappeared a fox had been seen at the back of the house, so possibly karma!

Searches for ‘huge cock’ will now lead here, but I haven’t checked, I’m still traumatised from the day the cistern in the attic overflowed and I Googled ‘ball cock’  :o
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Offline MrDavo

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Re: Out and about - as a pedestrian.....
« Reply #20 on: May 11, 2020, 12:41:30 PM »
We did two walks over the Bank Holiday weekend, I'm going to do them as two posts, to retain sanity and in case I overload the board and lose the lot.

Friday we walked along the top of the valley, down into Mossley and back along the canal and river, about 5 miles. we've done all the hills in the background over the lockdown.

This was a surprise view as we went on a new (to us) footpath from Luzley, we walked around the back of a farm and...



We dropped down to the bottom of the valley and walked along the Huddersfield Narrow Canal. Completed in 1811, and closed in 1944, when we moved to the area it was lost - the locks had been filled with concrete and the canal filled in, there was a car park where it runs through Stalybridge. It was recomissioned in the 1990's, reopening in 2001. It passes through a tunnel over 3 miles long between Diggle and Marsden.



Here's one of the locks, the ducks are keeping an eye on me in case I have a wok and some oranges in my rucksack.



Here's the light at the end of the 205 yard Scout tunnel. I think the tow path handrail is a modern health and safety thing, back in the old days if you or the horse fell in, tough, there were plenty more where that came from.



We later got on a path along the River Tame, intriguingly posted to the the top of our hill, despite going in the wrong direction. The path was deserted, apart from one of the local outdoor lager enthusiasts,  and a bit overgrown. At the point where it turned 90 degrees from the river we were surrised to find a well hidden and overgrown mill. We knew from a plaque at the top of our hill that the 'Flaggy Fields' path once connected two mills, but had never ventured down the bottom part past the main road, a new fangled former toll road that is probably younger than the path.



Back up the hill and home to a well earned bottle of cold white wine.



1969 Honda CL450 'Scrambler'
1974 Kawasaki Z1A
2005 Harley XL1200R Sportster
1985 Porsche 911 3.2 Carrera Sport
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Online Laverda Dave

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Re: Out and about - as a pedestrian.....
« Reply #21 on: May 11, 2020, 12:53:13 PM »
Great read and photos Mr Davo.  You must be as fit as a butchers dog by now!
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Offline SteveD CB500K0

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Re: Out and about - as a pedestrian.....
« Reply #22 on: May 11, 2020, 01:36:57 PM »
When you are out “exploring”, do you just follow your nose or do you plan it on a map?


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Offline MrDavo

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Re: Out and about - as a pedestrian.....
« Reply #23 on: May 11, 2020, 03:50:31 PM »
Fat as a butcher's dog more like, all that home cooking and nightly boozing have to go somewhere. I have rock hard calves though, as I would have had if the weeks skiing hadn't been cancelled in March.

As far as planning, I plan using online maps and Google, but the Mrs claims to know where she's going and then turns out not to, causing the occasional moving domestic followed by a long sulk. I take it quite seriously, as getting lost on the moors or in high places can turn out to be a serious business.

Saturday, and I decided to have another go at reaching the Chew Reservoir, last week we'd got in sight of the dam but had to turn back as it was getting late, and it was a heck of a long way back. Completed in 1912, the reservoir was the highest constructed in England at the time, at 1,600 feet asl.

Setting off from Greenfield, we passed a row of cottages built for the workers at a mill near Dovestones, I remember as a kid all old stonework was black after years of pollution, these days we have cleaner air and most has been sandblasted. There was a note to 'Steve' on a door, asking him not to leave his van outside, as it had caused the bins not to be emptied. We are headed for the top of ridge in the background, later I'll post a picture looking back from there.



Well it is spring, so cute lambs and their mums are everywhere.



Going up the service road to the reservoir, lower right you can see the trackway of the 4 mile long narrow gauge railway built to supply the workers and a squillion wagons full of clay to make the dam. We are going up the road you can see winding up the valley.



After a long hot uphill slog we got up to the head of the valley, you can see the dam wall up above us at last.



When we got to the dam wall we could hear a noise like a strimmer, I looked up and saw a drone above us. I thought it might belong to plod, there to tell us to go home or else, but at the top was a guy who made it land at his feet, packed it into his rucksack and left. This is the reservoir, I liked this shot for the guy skimming stones. You can see the Holme Moss transmitter aerial on the horizon. We had an illicit picnic here but don't tell the police though. for some reason it won't be a problem from Wednesday though, and we could go for more than one walk a day, if we had the energy.




Quite a lonely place, a few years ago there was a sad mystery about a guy who came up here to poison himself, with no ID or missing report it turned out after a year and much investigation that he was a Brit expat who had flown back from Pakistan to this place to meet his end, noone really knows why.

We walked allong the Valley Top, past the grimly named Charnel Stones and on to Dovestones Edge, overlooking the lake. Somewhere nearby a Pathfinder Mosquito, ironically lost after a raid on Hamburg, crashed into the cliff, there are still bits up there, a battered RR Merlin engine and part of the instrument panel I have seen in the Manchester Air & Space museum. The line of cottages we walked past before is visible just above the left hand end of Dovestones Reservoir dam, to the left of the mill - you can see its roof.



As I took this picture I jokingly said to Karen 'just move back a few feet' to my horror she didn't get the joke and stepped back towards a huge drop :o I had to quickly stop her, she's not that well insured!



This is what she had her back to, photo after we'd come down the track on the left. where the stream cut deep into the hillside the path suddenly became more like rock climbing, scary and unexpected.



Before we came down I saw in the distance this stone cross, a memorial to the MP for Oldham, accidentally shot and fatally wounded by the Mayor in 1857. Awkward. http://www.stanwardine.com/melyniog_letters/James_Platt_Shooting_Death_Account-29-Aug-1857_Oldham_Chronicle-transcription.txt This is what I dislike about phone cameras, fine at normal resolution, but horribly grainy as soon as you enlarge the picture with zoom. That said, my phone goes into my pocket, my 'good' cameras both weigh a ton.



Some shots around Dovestones Reservior, complete with doves (last one). Also in that picture you can see Whimberry Stones, where we were last Saturday, on the skyline
I love the light in this first shot.





Finally a slightly disturbing reminder of why were doing this, before we get unleashed on the World again, only to miss what's been under our noses the whole time....



We went home, for a large G&T or three.

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Offline MrDavo

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Re: Out and about - as a pedestrian.....
« Reply #24 on: May 18, 2020, 12:33:18 PM »
This one was intended to be a ride out, but it ended up being a ride and a walk, in leathers, carrying helmets!

As we've been walking to high places that we often see and never visit, my thoughts turned to the Winter Hill TV mast. Its 1,000 ft high, on top of a 1,500 ft high hill, so pretty good coverage. 30 Miles away from our house, it still is clearly visible, especially at night when it is all lit up with a string of red lights.  Looking at Google maps, there is a road all the way up, and newly liberated as the lockdown eases, we left our local area for the first time since it began.

We took the Sportster as the Mrs doesn't feel safe perched on the end of the CL450 seat with no grabrail. the roads were busier than in a long while, but still free flowing for a Saturday (no footie etc). Climbing up Winter Hill, we suddenly came across signs and a barrier that stopped us from going further - it's a private road. Originally built in the 1950's by Plod, so they could put a police radio mast at the top of the hill, it is now owned by the company that run the TV transmitter. As Father Dougall learned, if something you expect to be very big is smaller than you expected, that's because it is far away still. here, that applies to the TV mast, on the skyline just left of centre.



It was a still mile or so uphill, but at least our legs are fit after all this walking up hills, we're getting used to it, but not carrying helmets usually.



As we got closer, I forget a golden rule of photography, that the sea is flat (never sloping), and aerials tend to go straight up! The joggers weren't just going downhill, they ran up, turned round and ran straight back down again. Masochists!



If you've ever had your tent pegs ripped out by the wind (or drunks that pass in the night) at a bike rally, you'll understand why a 1000ft high mast needs good guy ropes and tent pegs.



I get vertigo looking up, not down, and had to hang onto to something solid before I could look up at the mast from the bottom. For the same reason I'm not entirely happy riding over the Severn Bridge, for example. If I look up, I wobble.

The view from the top was ridiculous, although it was too hazy to take decent pictures with my phone camera. From the trig point at the top we could see Snowdonia, the Peak District, the Lake District, Liverpool Bay, Morecambe Bay and the Pennines. Manchester looks like a miniature toy town from up there. There are a bunch of other aerials up there along the top of the hill, plod, BT, mobiles, the Government Backbone network (for after the bomb drops) and a load more, probably Bolton bin lorries etc etc.



If you will go sticking big hills up into the sky, then as we learned earlier, bad things can happen to lost aeroplanes in poor weather. Here in 1958 a Manx airliner, off course due to a navigation error and full of car dealers off to a jolly at a motor show, plowed into the hill in a blizzard, so bad that the snowed in transmitter staff didn't know a thing about it until an injured copilot turned up at the door.



Another grim memorial, this is Scotsman's Stump, where a traveling salesman was robbed and killed back in 1838.



Like our local moors, all this area was devastated by fires in 2008, but is recovering well.



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Offline mike the bike

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Re: Out and about - as a pedestrian.....
« Reply #25 on: May 19, 2020, 11:15:33 AM »
Some good aerial photography there.
Where's that 10mm socket got to?

Offline MrDavo

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Re: Out and about - as a pedestrian.....
« Reply #26 on: May 21, 2020, 03:05:31 PM »
Yesterday we put Karen's Skoda into reverse to get off the drive and there was an almighty 'boing!' as another spring let go. I don't know if its the roads or the quality of springs that's getting worse, I never broke one for years, now both our day to day cars have gone through all four corners (not my old 911 though, it doesn't have springs but torsion bars, big scale versions of the valve springs in a Black Bomber).

We took it to the garage next to the bridge that Oddjob and I were discussing earlier in the thread. I watched a couple of artics go over the bridge, they either very slowly and deliberately use every inch of the road, its a very tight approach, to a narrow bridge at 90 degrees to the road, or don't bat an eyelid and make it obvious that the driver does it every day without worrying in the slightest. If I go with the wife to pick the car up again I'll take a photo.

Before the lockdown we'd have taken two cars, now we walked home the long way, along the canal bank.

We were met by some inquisitive goslings, eager to see if we'd brought sandwiches:



Mum and dad soon came over to keep an eye on things. Flipping Canada Geese, coming over here and eating our bread....



This is pretty much unique, an electricity pylon straddling a canal. put there when the canal wasn't there any more. Back in the 1980's, I remember walking along the line of the long disappeared canal, and this pylon was alone in an empty field, with no trees, no water and no sign of where the canal had ever been. This was the first time I'd been along this stretch since the canal was restored, the difference is staggering.



This may be the end of our walks as the lockdown eases, or maybe we'll keep doing them anyway, we've enjoyed making the best of a bad situation.

1969 Honda CL450 'Scrambler'
1974 Kawasaki Z1A
2005 Harley XL1200R Sportster
1985 Porsche 911 3.2 Carrera Sport
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Offline MrDavo

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Re: Out and about - as a pedestrian.....
« Reply #27 on: July 07, 2020, 04:17:05 PM »
Out and about to Ravenstonedale now we can stay away from home.

When we got there on Saturday we were having trouble finding Gamelands stone circle, until I wondered how come that sheep was tall enough to be looking over the hedge at me....



Here's a top tip for walkers - when your weather app predicts double windsocks, make your way to the highest point possible, hopefully there will be a handy concrete trig point, to hide behind from the horizontal hail!



The view wasn't bad though. The Howgills, known as the sleeping elephants.



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Offline Johnny4428

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Re: Out and about - as a pedestrian.....
« Reply #28 on: July 08, 2020, 08:00:27 AM »
Some good aerial photography there.
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