Places

Having never before explored towards the Lincolnshire coast, we took a trip to Boston to see what was there. We found an interesting little town where everyone spoke Polish. The most memorable feature of the town is the medieval church of St Botolph's with its 272 ft high tower known widely as 'Boston Stump'.

It's not often you find a whole peal of bells standing on the ground. The Cromer Church bells have been undergoing refurbishment at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry from where 5 of the 6 that have rung out over the town were cast in 1873. All but one of the earlier bells were sold in 1767 to help pay for roof repairs. The bell second from the left is an original dating from 1495 and that to the left is the tenor which weighs 635kg. Two new bells at the far end have been paid for by donations and will bring the peal to a full octave when they are rehung in the church.

Central Buildings - 71-73 Church Street, Cromer. Erected in the 1930s to the design of J Brown of Northampton. A stand-out building clad with cream faience.

The municipal buildings in Boston are dated 1902 although they were not officially opened until 1904. This is currently the headquarters of Boston Borough Council.

A couple of barges have made the trip over the Wash from Boston to Wells-Next-The-Sea harbour. The old granary in the background has now been converted to holiday flats.

The Reading Room at Denver, near Downham Market in Norfolk, dates from 1903. The design is completely different from any tin tabernacles I have seen. It also has an add-on bin store.

This building and the baths beneath were constructed in 1894-5 by G. Harold Elphick for Henry and James Forder Nevill and opened by City of London Alderman Treloar on 5th February 1895. Architectural journals of the day described the baths in glowing terms, praising both the overall decorative scheme and quality of fittings, and also the imaginative manner in which a very small ground level area was utilised. In 1895, before many of the streets in the area were re-named, the main entrance to the baths was in Alderman's Walk (now Bishopsgate Churchyard). The baths themselves were partly underneath the original New Broad Street House (now demolished), and partly underneath Alderman's Walk. The entrance forms part of a kiosk in the upper portion of which were water tanks, masked by a Moorish style wall, and surmounted by a similarly styled onion shaped cupola, decorated with a star and crescent. Entering the kiosk, the bather went down a winding staircase, lined by tin-glazed earthenware (faïence) to the entrance vestibule, where he bought his ticket. At the end of July 1908, the two Nevills floated a company, Nevill's Turkish Baths Ltd, with an capital of £75,000. In addition to the New Broad Street Baths, the company was to 'acquire and take over as going concerns the business of proprietors or keepers of Turkish, Electrical, Light, and other Baths and appliances, carried on by James Forder Nevill' at Harrow Road, Northumberland Avenue, Commercial Road East, High Street Whitechapel, Wool Exchange, and Railway Approach at London Bridge. At this time, the lease on the New Broad Street basement still had 46 years to run at an annual rent (in 1908) of £395. The baths remained open until 1954 until the expiry of the lease when Nevill's decided not to renew it. After a period of use for storage the baths were converted as a restaurant although that business has now closed. The building itself is listed Grade II. More details are on this page from which much of the above has been gleaned. www.victorianturkishbath.org/6directory/AtoZEstab/London/NewBroad/NewBroadSF.htm

Fishermen's stores are usually merssy places with plenty of kit strewn and stacked around. This example is at Wells-Next-The-Sea where crabs, lobster and scallops seem to be the main things landed.

The prisoner of war camp at Cultybraggan was completed in late 1941 and originally used to house Italian prisoners. It was later used as a transit camp for Germans and as a high security establishment for holding ardent nazis. Later it became a MOD training centre until closure in 2004. It is now owned by the local community through the Comrie Development Trust. The camp still contains a large number of nissen huts.

Past times recalled on the frontage of this Todmorden cafe. Of course, being Todmorden, it was raining.

This tiny Nissen hut stands in a quiet corner of the Cultbraggan camp. The prisoner of war camp at Cultybraggan was completed in late 1941 and originally used to house Italian prisoners. It was later used as a transit camp for Germans and as a high security establishment for holding ardent nazis. Later it became a MOD training centre until closure in 2004. It is now owned by the local community through the Comrie Development Trust. The camp still contains a large number of nissen huts.

The Blaen-y-Cwm TV booster station was blown down in a gale some time ago. The remains have just been abandoned as they fell, and provide a strange sight to anyone walking this high up above Ffestiniog.

A day out to Newcastle upon Tyne found several interesting architectural features including this mosaic for the former Crown Hotel on Clayton Street West.

When petrol pumps go bad ............... Seen in College Road, Bangor.

When I visited Australia there were a few hours to wait in Sydney before catching the train across the country. The time was spent in walking across the city and viewing a few of the tourist attractions. We started with a proper breakfast in a cafe close to the harbour and then moved on to Circular Quay. This is said to have been the site of the initial landing of the First Fleet in Port Jackson on 26 January 1788. I wonder what those 18th century arrivals would have made of the place today?

Instructions for the pay and display parking in front of 25-27 King St, Aldeburgh. The 1898 terracotta on the front of No.27 has a definite arts and crafts feel.

An interesting use for panels off a caravan at this Cumbrian farm. Farmers never throw anything away.

The Edinburgh police boxes are of a type unique to the city. They were designed by former city architect Ebenezer MacRae between 1931 and 1933. Featuring the city crest and Saltire-patterned mouldings, they were designed to complement the classical architecture of the Capital. MacRae created 85 in total, and they were made of cast iron at the Carron foundry near Falkirk. Around half of the slope-roofed structures measuring just 1.98 metres by 1.37m with a ridge height of around 2.74m are listed. No longer needed by the police, the boxes have now been sold off and some converted to commercial use. This example stands on Lawnmarket.