Isle of Man, part 3: buses

So far I hadn't used my Go Explore card on a bus! The buses are the one thing on the island that are modern! First though I wanted to visit the Manx Museum. I'd been told I'd have to get there in a lift, behind Iceland! For breakfast I had a boiled egg and toast and was told by Paul to go left at Quids Inn (great name for a pub) and look for the lift. In fact I found the lift before I found Iceland, went up to the 8th floor and across a footbridge. The museum didn't open until 10am so I took a seat outside until it did.



I wasn't disappointed, the art collection was rather wonderful and contained work by talented interned Germans, and - a surprise - paintings and objects by Archibald Knox, the Arts and Crafts designer. I also saw my first and only Manx cat (stuffed).



Then it was down the lift and to the harbour to catch a 6 bus to Peel, on the other side of the island. We saw much rested to the TT course and I must say Peel was very pretty, with a castle, harbour and beaches. I'd brought a sandwich but a fish stall was selling flash-fried queenies, so how could I resist - a fiver a tub, but well worth it!



I had a coffee at the old railway station, discovered that the transport museum was only open on Sundays, and bought a pair of kippers for a couple of quid from the smokery.



Back at Douglas I decided to get a bus to Castletown (the station was a way away from the town centre) and after a wander round the harbour and the Old Grammar school had a pint outside the Glue Pot (The Castle Arms). The bus took me right back to the prom, so I had a look at the Gaiety Theatre, spotted the Norman Wisdom statue, and went for supper at Allesandro's (I'd passed it on the way to the Manx Museum) having been turned away from The Italian Job. I was going to have pizza but queenies carbonara were on the board as the chef's special so I asked for a meatless one, washed down with a bottle of Bushy's beer!



Friday it was up early for my ferry. Lisa had made me a packed breakfast so I crept out and walked along the prom where they were setting up a food market. Onto the Ben My Chree (lifts this time!) for the 8.45 passage to Heysham, where we were greeted by the nuclear power stations, and rain! Then it was a train to Lancaster and on to Edinburgh.



More photos on Flickr.

Vintage bus day at the Bluebell

Getting to the Bluebell Railway by public transport is problematic, so I look forward to the vintage bus days, when I can get a free ride from St Peter's church right to Sheffield Park. This time I was joined by Peter Chrisp, Lisa Wolfe and Susan Sainsbury. So, we waited at St Peter's and along came a cream and green Southdown single decker.



I wasn't holding out much hope for interesting locos - the roster said it would be guest Black 5 No. 45231 The Sherwood Forester plus the South Eastern & Chatham Railway No. 263 and SECR Wainwright goods No. 592, but arriving at Sheffield Park, we were delighted to see that the mighty 9F 92212 from the Watercress Line was in steam. I took a photo of Peter with 263, which was hauling the Golden Arrow dining train, and he waxed lyrically about poppet valves and compound locos, inspired by Flann O'Brien.

 

So, after a pint of Harvey's in the buffet and a look round the sheds, we crossed the footbridge and boarded the train to East Grinstead. The rolling stock on the Bluebell is always perfectly matched with lovely upholstery. The trip there and back was very pleasant, tho we saw little wildlife apart from pheasants, and we caught a glimpse of the Black 5 (which are common as muck Up North) at Horsted Keynes. Back at Sheffield Park we waited in the bus park until a rather boring and bumpy green single decker started up to take us back to Brighton - to await the great storm.

 

The boring green bus that took us home can be seen the other side of the fence in this photo of a rather splendid Eastbourne bus:



Previous trips to the Bluebell:

• 10 May 2013
• 24 March 2011
• 22 November 2010
• 16 November 2009
• 25 October 2009
• 19 October 2008
• 12 November 2007
• 25 October 2007
• 25 October 2007
• 24 October 2005

Now that's what I call entertainment...

I've just had a weekend of what you might call less popular entertainment, albeit almost certainly popular with Jeremy Deller. On Saturday, I travelled by bus to Lewes, for the Lewes Folk Festival day of dance. On the Thursday I'd been (by train) to the Royal Oak to hear a talk by Shirley Collins on BBC collector Bob Copper, and to have a sing song with the Copper Family from Rotten Dean in the second half. That's what's missing from most entertainment these days - the opportunity to sing along!



I have a lot to thank folk music for: it got me in a pub age 16 (the Albion in Bury, I think it was) - I even stood up and sang a song accompanied by my grandad's mandolin (where is it now?). That exerience got me involved with the folk club at Battersea, and that led to my 15 minutes of fame in Helix. One of the first records I bought was an EP by A L Lloyd singing All for me grog.



So, on Saturday I was greeted by some clog dancers as soon as I got off the bus outside Waitrose. Despite Bill Tidy's cartoon strip, The Cloggies, clogging seems to be the domain of the women dancers and Saturday promised at least four clogging sides in action. I wandered round the corner to another set of sides, to the John Harvey Tavern, thence to the Dorset at the far end of town where I succumbed to a pint of Harvey's Old, well you have to. Already dancing were the Kettle Bridge Clogs with their almost militaristic marching, with bells on their green clogs.

 

Then there were the Oyster Girls from the Isle of Wight, and finally the non-clog-wearing locals The Knots of May, whose band included a Serpent! I love the repetitive music, particularly if the squeezebox and fiddle are augmented by a tuba and drums - and we all love the Morris Dancers smashing sticks to bits. On the way back to the bus stop, I caught the tail end of a side dancing in plain black clogs without bells, which seemed a bit more authentically Northern. I was yearning to ask one of them if I could photo their clogs, but afraid of being thought a foot fetishist!


Men banging sticks from Alan Fred Pipes on Vimeo.


In case you don't know what Morris Dancing looks like, here's a video of Brighton Morris banging sticks.



On a rainy Sunday I was off to Portslade Town Hall to hear a mighty Compton theatre organ. At a recent Dome open day (14 September) I'd come across an organ recital by Dave Davies and was captivated. The organ must be the loudest acoustic instrument there is, and what with added bells and drums - invoked via foot pedals (see below) - makes a magnificent sound. At Portslade it was Christian Cartwright on organist duty, who looked a bit like Peter Kay and told christmas cracker jokes at the end of each set. He's assistant organist at the Pipes in the Peaks.

 

I must have been the youngest in the small but enthusiastic audience - we even had tea and KitKats at half time. The Portslade organ is a hybrid of several cinema organs with the original non-working Victorian facade of pipes - and what a sound! You have to experience a theatre organ live. He started with a Buddy Holly medley, including the appropriate Raining in my heart, then went on to the obligatory Dam Busters March, songs from the shows, a Beatles selection and a moving You'll never walk alone. The encore was New York, New York.

The theatre organ can also be the pub singer of musical instruments and sometimes it takes a while to unravel the tune from all the notes! It is also one of the few performance in which the performer has his/her back to the audience - a closed circuit Tv however was looking down at the keyboard, to be projected on a big screen so the side of the stage. Portslade Town Hall seems to be a very underused resource, let's hope the organ recitals are enough to keep it open. Next one is on 10 November: John Mann at 3pm.

Luton to Dunstable Busway

A friend on Facebook - Jenny from the wonderful band Spacedog - mentioned she'd travelled to work on the new guided busway that joins Luton to nearby Dunstable, apparently the biggest town in England without a railway station. She also linked to the rather fascinating blog all about Luton, Yoga World and Pesto, a website almost as captivating as The Lost Promenade, which I urge you all to follow. It occurred to me that I could get to Luton direct from Brighton, via St Pancras, on what was once known as the Thameslink. It would take less than two hours and cost less than 20 quid, so I thought I'd go and check it out.


The journey up was painless, there was a lovely signalbox at St Albans to spot, but no steam interest. Luton station seems to divide Luton from Hightown, the subject of the above mentioned blog, but I didn't get that side of the tracks, instead headed for the bus stop where I could see an 'A' bus had just arrived. And yes, my bus pass was valid! But it was raining and I didn't get a prime seat for photography, so just enjoyed the journey. I'd heard of busways before but never seen or been on one.

I got off at the High Street in Dunstable and followed the cast-iron signposts to the tourist information, spotted an Art Deco cinema turned conference centre, but ended up in Asda car park! However, across the road was a futuristic JD Wetherspoons pub, the Gary Cooper, and so had a pint of Growler Priory Mild for £2.15! Didn't fancy a curry, so popped across the road and caught the next bus (another 'A') back to Luton. This time I got the seat at the front next to the driver. I could see that when he'd been funnelled into the busway, he could take his hands off the steering wheel, but not for long, there were junctions and crossings to negotiate.



I didn't go all the way to the airport, but back at Luton trotted along to the beginning of the busway to see how it worked. Basically it's a concrete railway, built along an old railway line, with car traps to keep the traffic out.


A puzzled woman approached me and asked why? I said because they're faster than normal roads, and the buses have the advantage over trams or light railways in that they can also drive on regular roads when the busway ends. Later I noticed the little guide wheel at the front that does the business.

 

I then decided to explore Luton so headed towards the tower of the impressive town hall. I found the tourist information in the library and picked up leaflets and maps, but walked all round the Mall looking for the indoor market.



On the way back to the station, I experienced 'Loho' the rather seedy ‘tri-street area of Guildford / Bute St / Cheapside’ according to the above blog and, attracted by an A-board chalk sign that said FREE (wifi) / (awesome) COFFEE, popped into the Hat Factory, now an arts centre, where I had a salad sandwich (on white - I should have asked for brown!) and a cappuccino. But it did indeed have wifi, so I was able to see what was happening on Facebook!

 

The journey back was quite busy once we hit London Bridge, and it was only 4.30! Do people leave work earlier these days?

More photos on Flickr - or just click on one of the above snaps.

Hebden Bridge, Haworth and beyond

This was to be a complex excursion. There is only one bus an hour between Hebdon Bridge and Haworth and the last one back was 5.18. I didn't count on other difficulties! The objective was the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway. First setback was not finding Rochdale railway station. I took the 471 bus into Bury and on through Heywood (past Wham Street) to Rochdale. No sign of the station and when I reached the bus station found that the nearest bus to it was... the 471. So back I went, got off at the roadworks where they are installing tram lines, and eventually reached the station bursting for the loo. Luckily they had one!



The train to Hebden Bridge, via Todmorden and many tunnels, was very scenic and the 500 bus was waiting outside. The journey up and over the tops was exhilarating, with lots of snow remaining from the recent showers. At Haworth the train was already in, so I jumped on board and bought a round ticket at the end of the line at Oxenhope. It was pulled by a Standard 4 tank similar to the one I saw at the ELR the day before, 80002, built at Derby in 1952. It went back to Keighley, via Oakworth, where the Railway Children was filmed, and I grabbed a sandwich at the end of the line when the loco took on water.

 

I now had a dilemma: to get off at Ingrow West to see the two museums, or carry on back to Oxenhope to see the locos there. I decided to hop off at Ingrow, but the Loco museum was a disappointment: only three small locos inside, with another small tank down the road at the Museum of Rail Travel. I should have got a Rover, which would have entitled me to free entry to both museums, but I coughed up £2 to get into Ingrow loco, and the Jubilee 5596 Bahamas wasn't even there (it's at York). I didn't bother with the Museum of Rail Travel.

 

So, I waited on the platform for the one train operating to get back and I returned to Keighley, then back to Oxenhope where I thought I could have a quick look in the museum while the engine was changing ends. The Oxenhope exhibit was much better, more like a shed with loads of top class engines on view. And it's free! I grabbed a tea and rode back to Haworth where I'd just missed the penultimate bus. Took a look round by the sheds where 43924 was outside, and up the hill for a bit to see if I could spot any Bronte stuff, but no joy, so spent half an hour in the pub with a dodgy pint of IPA throwing a squeaky toy for a puppy that befriended me. Then it was back over the moors, the train to Rochdale, walk to the bus stop where they stop stopping after 7pm. Luckily one came along before then but it terminated at Bury. After 7pm, the buses, which are every ten minutes during the day, go to being one an hour, so I took refuge in the Art Picture House, now a JD Wetherspoons pub, for a quick half of Thwaites Nutty Black. Made it! Another heritage railway ticked off the list.