The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street

The Bank of England building stands on Threadneedle Street in the heart of the City of London. The Bank was founded in 1694 as banker to the English government and was responsible for managing the national debt. Since then its importance quickly grew through its responsibilities for the nation's currency and underpinning the banking system, roles it still fulfills today.

The bank moved from its original site to Threadneedle Street in 1734, though the present building is comparatively recent, dating from the early part of last century.

The new building was derided in some quarters as an architectural crime, however these days it has become much more accepted, being a familiar sight on TV news reports.

I was in London just round the corner from Threadneedle Street, so before disappearing down the steps at Bank tube station to start my journey home, I had time to take a quick snap of this famous building in the heart of the city.

A cat in the cupboard

We're currently looking after Erin again whilst her owners take a holiday and the study has temporarily become her bedroom: her pillow is on the chair, her scratching post is next to the bookcase and she even has a teddy which she loves to pummel each evening! After being woken at four each morning during her stay with us last year, we've taken the advice of her owners to reluctantly shut the door on her once she has settled down to sleep at night. She doesn't seem to mind, greeting us with plenty of purrs each morning, although this may be because she's after something to eat...

Anyway, despite the first class facilities, like all cats, she's always on the lookout for somewhere more comfortable to lie on, so when we left the cupboard door open where we keep the ironing, it was too good an opportunity to miss!

"Catch the Wind" at Morecambe

Morecambe has suffered much over the years since the days when holidaymakers would flock to the resort, but in recent years its fortunes have started to improve. True, there is still much to do in Morecambe, but the significant regeneration work over the past few years, epitomised by the rebirth of the art-deco Midland Hotel, suggests better times are ahead.

One of the ways Morecambe is trying to bring the visitors back is through several festivals throughout the year. One popular festival is "Catch the Wind", Morecambe's kite festival, now in its seventh year. It promised to be a colourful day by the sea and with sunshine promised for the afternoon, we decided to take a look.

If the aim of the festival's organisers was to attract plenty of visitors to Morecambe, then they certainly succeeded as the promenade and beach were full of people, and most of them had brought a kite too!

The larger display kites were truly impressive, with dinosaurs, sharks and an assortment of colourful fishes, sharing the skies with scuba divers and swimmers. Besides these there was a multitude of traditional kites of all shapes, sizes and colours, all competing for air space.

We had, of course, brought our own kites for the occasion, and the sea breeze ensured they flew with gusto - on one occasion a little too much, as the stunt kite I was flying slammed into another and completely took it out!

The one drawback to the event was that it clashed with Fleetwood's own festival, Tram Sunday, where historic vehicles and trams would be on display by the sea front. Dad was keen to see this too, so we packed up the kites a little quicker than we ought and headed down the coast to Fleetwood. The journey from Morecambe is surprisingly far, and by the time we made it, the trams and buses were just about ready to leave. Still, we weren't downhearted, the planned fish and chip supper was still very much in the itinery, rounding off a very pleasant afternoon.

A downpour on Whalley Nab

Whalley Nab is a well-known and prominant little hill overlooking the small town of Whalley, only a short drive from where we live. We'd left the car at a picnic site just outside Whalley, but started our walk on the outskirts of Great Harwood, about 4 miles away, with the Nab the biggest obstacle in between.

The early part of the walk was through pleasant countryside, in parts following the Great Harwood Nature Walk, and then taking us through fields around the back of Bowley scout camp. The path led through fields and woods, leading close to the River Calder, but although despite the scenery the weather was changing, with dark clouds forming overhead. As we started down through some denser woodland, the heavens opened and we were glad for the shelter of the trees.



The shower lasted longer than we'd hoped, and eventually the trees couldn't hold the water any longer and we became soaked. Fortunately by this time we'd had plenty opportunity to don the wet gear. Just as we decided we may as well carry on, the rain petered out, but the air was now much more humid as we began our climb up the Nab.


The view from the top, although impaired a little by the cloudy skies, was still impressive, looking across to the Bowland fells with the landmark local viaduct, Whalley Arches, taking centre stage in the foreground. The viaduct was built in the 1840s and comprises 48 arches spanning the Calder valley alongside the village.

Our walk then took us down the steepest side of the Nab into the centre of Whalley, and we made it to the car by following another woodland path up to the car park. A wet yet enjoyable afternoon, which was rounded off at the excellent Calf's Head in Worston, a few miles further up the A59.

The Lovell telescope at Jodrell Bank

The huge radio telescope at Jodrell Bank, Cheshire dominates the flat landscape for miles around. Jodrell Bank was originally a botanical research centre run by the University of Manchester, but in 1945 Bernard Lovell, a research scientist, took some ex-army radar system down to the garden sheds at Jodrell Bank to search for cosmic rays. He'd already tried this in the University itself, but the overhead electric cables from the city's tram network were causing too much interferance.

Lovell's team had some successes finding meteor showers but to detect anything from further afield would require bigger, more sentitive equipment. By 1947, his team had built a wire mesh reflecting aerial 218ft in diameter, easily the largest in the world at the time. The aerial made some important astronomical discoveries but its construction limited the area of sky it could cover.

By 1951, a project was under way to build an even bigger and fully-steerable radio telescope, funding was secured and designs created. But during construction, costs escalated dramatically leaving the University faced with a huge debt.

In 1957, the new telescope was still not fully functional, but events were happening elsewhere that would prove the telescope's lifeline. When the Soviets launched Sputnik 1 on October 4th, the telescope at Jodrell Bank successfully tracked the satellite flashing across the sky at a speed of 5 miles a second and was the only instrument in the world capable of doing so. The subsequent publicity for the telescope helped to generate additional funding and its future and ongoing development was secured.

Today, the Lovell telescope, as it is now named, has been modified several times and is a key instrument in British and European space research. It is the core of the UK's MERLIN project, in which several other radio telescopes aroud the country are linked together to create a super-telescope in a technique called 'interferometry', and is a part of a similar European-wide network called VLBI.

When we arrived, the telescope was directed at an angle which would make for some interesting photos, however after popping in the cafe for a coffee, we returned to find it pointing straight up to the sky, meaning the inside of the dish couldn't be seen. After a while it became clear it wasn't going to move again any time soon as some workmen were lifted onto the huge steel framework and set to work painting. Such is life!

The visitor centre is worth a look, and there's also a trail to follow through the adjacent arboretum, where representations of each of the planets can be searched for. The discs representing the planets are each to scale based on the telescope itself representing the sun, and each are spaced out proportionately through the grounds on a much smaller scale. Nevertheless the outermost planets Pluto and Eris (or, more technically dwarf planets as they are officially classified these days) are quite a walk away and take some finding!

Crosby beach and Another Place

Antony Gormley is the sculptor who created the 'Angel of the North' in Gateshead, which we visited last year (click the link to my article at the time). Amongst his other creations is 'Another Place', which is now permanently located at Crosby beach, about 40 miles from where we live.

'Another Place' is a series of 100 life-size iron castings of Gormley himself, which are positioned across a 2 mile stretch of the beach, some close to shore and others further out.

Although the statues have been there since June 2005, we've never visited them before, so didn't really know what to expect. I hadn't realised that there were so many of them, or that they were spaced out across such a wide area. All of them are staring emptily out to sea, and it's this, coupled with the spacing and scale of the work, that makes them so thought-provoking.

Carole takes a close look - just don't look down!

The work has certainly captured the imagination of the local public, so much so that the local council successfully campaigned for them to remain here for ever. They had previously been on display at Cuxhaven in Germany, Stavenger in Norway and De Panne in Belgium, so it was a realy coup for the council to get them here permanently (they were due to go to New York in 2007).

Some of the other photos I took have been converted to black and white and can be seen on my other blog, Iains Photos, by following this link: link to Crosby statues

Orrest Head

In 1930, a 23 year old chap from Blackburn called Alfred Wainwright visited the Lake District for the first time, on holiday with his cousin. Leaving the bus, they set about on their first walk immediately, to the recommended nearby hillside of Orrest Head. This was how Wainwright's love of the Lakes started, and it was a key factor in his decision much later to research and write his seven Pictorial Guides.

Writing in his book Ex-Fellwanderer, Wainwright wrote of this first visit to the Lakes:

"Alighting the bus, our first objective, according to my itinery, was Orrest Head, a recommended viewpoint nearby. Our way led up a lane amongst lovely trees, passing large houses that seemed to me like castles, with gardens fragrent with flowers. I thought how wonderful it must be to live in a house with a garden. The sun was shining, the birds singing. We went on, climbing steadily under a canopy of foliage, the path becoming rougher, and then, quite suddenly, we emerged from the shadows of the trees and were on to a bare headland, and, as though a curtain had dramatically been torn aside, beheld a truly magnificent view.

"It was a moment of magic, a revelation so unexpected that I stood transfixed, unable to believe my eyes...


"...I had seen landscapes of rural beauty pictured in the local art gallery, but here was no painted canvas; this was real. This was truth. God was in his heaven that day and I a humble worshipper."

The climb to the top starts oppposite the Bank on the A591 close by to Windermere railway station, is well signposted and takes only about 15 minutes to get to the top. Coming down, simply retrace your steps, or alternatively carry on to reach a country lane, turn left and find a signposted foopath that leads through woods and brings you back to the start. This is the route Carole and I took and according to the pedometer we carried, it totalled 2.8 miles. Short walks don't come any better than that.

A canalside stroll in Galgate

The Lancaster canal opened in 1799, connecting Preston to the village of Tewitfield (a few miles north of Lancaster). At around about the same time, the southern part of the canal, from Chorley to Clayton le Woods, also opened, the two sections being joined by a tramway. By 1819, the northern section was extended to Kendal, enabling coal from the Lancashire coalfields around Wigan to be transported north, and limestone from Kendal and Burton to be moved south.

The tramway at the southern branch of the canal closed in the 1850s and the southern section became a spur of the Leeds & Liverpool canal, but the remainder remained in use until after the war in the 1940s. Then commercial traffic ended, and when the M6 was built in the 1950s, rather than build over the canal, they simply blocked it off.

The link to Glasson Dock had been completed in 1826, connecting to the main canal near Galgate. Earlier in the spring, we explored the Glasson end of the canal and visited the hamlet of Condor Green, but today's walk took us along the canal towpath at the opposite end of the Glasson spur, around the village of Galgate.

Galgate has a colourful marina, and there were plenty of boats moored up on both sides of the canal. The village is a popular stopping point for barges, being easily accessible from the canal towpath and possessing the added advantage of having a good chippy!

Our walk took us along the towpath past the marina and down to the start of the Glasson branch. From here, we walked down to the next set of locks before retracing our steps back. Interestingly, the top set of locks on the branch are kept locked by British Waterways - any boaters wishing to us the branch must ask for the keys and after use, the locks must be kept empty. This helps ensure that the water level in the main canal is maintained.

The canal is particularly popular in the summer months, but at the moment, because of the M6, boaters can only go as far as Tewitfield. Beyond this point the 'Northern Reaches' of the canal have been built over in several places, although there are now plans to restore the canal all the way to Kendal. If these plans come off, a new marina and basin would be developed, although the costs of the proposals are high. It will be interesting to see if the redevelopment of the Northern Reaches progresses over the next few years, and if it does, what this will mean for Kendal and for the canal itself.

Finding a view over Latterbarrow

On today's agenda was a drive to the Lakes with Mum and Dad and friends Ian and Sue for a walk in the fresh air. We were heading to the picturesque village of Hawkshead, to the west of Lake Windermere, and our goal was the distinctive fell top of Latterbarrow, who's large obelisk overlooks the village.

First stop in time for lunch was a secluded bay on the shores of Esthwaite Water, one of the least visited lakes in the Lake District. Here there were views across the lake out towards the Fairfield range several miles in the distance. Although the forecast was promising, it was decidedly chilly by the side of the lake. But we knew we would soon warm up once we were on our way and climbing.

At 803ft, Latterbarrow doesn't make it into Wainwright's catalogue of 214 fell tops in his Lakeland Guides, but he did later have a change of heart by including it in his mop-up book 'Outlying Fells of Lakeland'. Because of this, Latterbarrow doesn't resonate with most seasoned fellwalkers, which is a pity because the reward for a modest climb are some sensational views right round from the Coniston Fells in the south-west to Kentmere in the south-east.

Before reaching the top though, there's some climbing to do, but the motivation comes from the views backwards over towards the Langdales which gradually improve all the while as height is gained. However as this view disappears behind the trees, the landscape ahead suddenly becomes quite bleak as we walk towards an area where the trees have been cleared and not replaced. All that remains are the stumps of the trees felled and the odd decaying tree still standing - a scene reminiscent of a battlefield.

It's worth persevering through this stretch though - as the path eventually returns to woodland full of life, and the path to the summit soon comes into view through the trees.


The views from the top are just sensational and just had to be captured in a long panorama shot. Click the image above to see the view in more detail. Hopefully I'll soon be updating my Walking Blog with a more detailed explanation of the actual walk, as well as some more photos - I'll add the link shortly.

Birthday picnics and kite flying in Lytham

For her birthday, Carole chose to spend the day on the Fylde coast, where, weather permitting, we could enjoy a summer picnic on the grass at Lytham before an afternoon stroll along the sea front (or should that be river front?). With both sets of parents coming along too, the day was set to be a great family day out.

Although the glorious weather from the previous few weeks had broken down (although to be honest it had been a little too hot for us anyway), the forecast for the day was set fair, with the best of the weather on the west coast - so Carole's choice of venue was perfect.

We started the day a couple of miles up the coast from Lytham centre, in Fairhaven, where the lake is a pleasant spot for a stroll. After the customary photos, we strode off around the lake, watching its flocks of Canada geese whilst watching out for the obstacles they tend to leave behind. The lake itself is a very pleasant place, with plenty of activities available for those so inclined, such as tennis, bowls and crazy golf, as well as a cafe and even a well-stocked RSPB visitor centre, which is worth a look. The lake is just over 1km long so the circular walk around is perhaps almost 2 miles in total and takes about ¾hr. By lunchtime we were back by the green in Lytham, unpacking cool-bags, rugs and chairs for our picnic.

It was, in truth, a little on the cool side for a picnic, but in true British spirit we stuck it out regardless, even though there weren't many others around! Carole still had a couple of presents to open and there was still a cake to cut! There was of course far too much food to eat, so when Dad got the kites out there wasn't at first much enthusiasm from us to join in.


Even so, the breeze was fairly conducive to kite flying and before long we had all three kites in the air, although perhaps not simultaneously. The erratic way the kites dived down towards the ground at speed ensured that we had plenty of space to ourselves!

Later we took a stroll down to the lifeboat station and shop, then on to Lytham's famous landmark, the windmill, which was open with an exhibition of its history and of milling in general.

As the afternoon turned to evening, we returned to the cars and headed north, through Blackpool and on to Bispham for a fish and chip supper - a traditional way to end a lovely day!

The Hens at Wigan Pier

Carole was out on the town last night at Bev's hen party. The girls had chartered a canal barge from Wigan Pier which was kitted out inside for a party, and they spent the evening making much merriment on board the Kittewake.


Carole did manage a great shot of the hens, but this unfortunately was taken before Bev herself had arrived!

The Boys are back in town

"Guess who just got back today?
Them wild-eyed boys that had been away
Haven't changed, haven't much to say
But man, I still think them cats are crazy"
Thin Lizzy

Wibble's wedding is fast approaching now and as the girls get ready for a hen night tonight at Wigan Pier, the boys were heading to the outfitters in Crewe for a suit fitting. The perfect excuse to relive past times and post this picture with the boys from the morning of my wedding several years ago.