Town Shopping

Searching for a decent birthday card that hadto be posted today for a birthday tomorrow.  Today shops opened and I headed for 'Clinton's' wide choice of mediocre cards.  Lucky for me the place was empty, plenty of cards available, but as expected not a really suitable one was seen.  However, one rude enough for a woman denying she is 80 was found and posted later (only 2nd class stamps available, tsk!).

The shops in town were not as busy as feared.  Queues of scraggy men waited outside barbers (sorry 'Men's Hairdressers') and queues were also seen at banks.  Otherwise the shops were not overflowing.  Several charity shops were open, and as a quick look was required I was inside quickly, more cards bought and now I have a reasonable amount for the next birthday, I suspect however, none will fit the person that day!  It is always the way.

 

 

Some time back the town and county councils dug up the High Street, relaid the road with lots of nice red bricks, stopped all traffic yet allowed single and double deck buses to pass along hourly.  It took only a few years for the wheels to dig in and ravines to form on either side of a mountain in the middle. Puddles during rain, people falling when crossing the road, cyclists illegally running the wrong direction until they fall off, and much outcry as to why this was happening.

Now a million or so has been spent to repair this road.  

Last year a group of workers happily blocked everybody, dug up the road, repaired pavements, installed new 'stumble proof' areas, and by Xmas had been dumped by the council.  Too slow, not good enough or inept, I am not sure.  We await a new contracter arriving to finish the job, he will be here soon...

In the meantime the half finished work is hidden behind bright orangy red barriers, people shuffle by, masked and disciplined sort off for the most part, and we await developments, eventually.

 

The other week I was busy doing Spring cleaning.  This led to much hassle last week when my knees reacted, tiredness swept over me and I could do nothing all week.  Tsk!  Innit marvellous?  

Today was the first time out this weekend, round the town, shopping in reopened shops and that was feeling like a new experience, and noting a barber with no queue, I will look in tomorrow!

People were sitting outside coffee shops, with the temperature not that high.  Were the pubs open?  I did not notice, it was lunchtime but I never gave them a thought.  I did read that those sitting outside pubs had to wear masks.  This begs the question how do they drink?  

 

 

Thursday Rambling

Imagine my delight at 10:30 last night when outside my window a lorry, full of unknown substances, began, very loudly, to work on the road surface.  I have no idea what he was doing, I only knew I was going to  have tinnitus by morning!  I did shout at him but he could not hear me for the noise he was making.  Half an hour later he moved away down the road leaving a road surface in similar condition as to when he had started!  I fell asleep.  Just after midnight he was back, making similar noise and no effect on the other side of the road.  
Now many men had been working last night.  Other JCB like monsters moved up and down, digging here and there, spades scraping alongside, but none made a noise equal to johnny in the truck.  I thought at first he was cleaning drains, but there are none at these spots.  I thought he was washing the road but no!  He is merely employed to be a nuisance!  Grrr!
I awoke at 5, I looked out and a new road surface had appeared.  All the way down the road has been replaced with no noise whatsoever, so why did Johnny in the truck unknown have to make such a racket?  Bah!

So I crossed the road, crossed the park, stood back, as did two others and a dog, as a large jogger woman passed by.  'Joggernaught!' Thought I.  The two and myself, plus dog, decided we would not indulge in such frivolity, the dog especially pleased as he is at the granddad stage like the rest of us.
As we watched go, and she did go, I moved on, walked about the town wondering why it was 70% at this time of the morning.  I have hidden away indoors ever since.  

SKY

Bournemouth beach, one of the best in the world, has declared a 'Major Incident' as thousands of dafties headed for the seaside.  Too many people, Coronovirus still alive, and 558 parking tickets, a record, given out.  Some will not be pleased. 
Mind you Tesco was still busy, why did this lot not go there?

Night Highway Repair

I was a bit perturbed to see this monster outside my window the other night.  There had been some noise further up the road but I did not expect a Dinosaur type machine to look in on me.

He had disappeared by morning and much later on Friday evening he turned up again, along with several large trucks.  There was much to-ing and fro-ing by these vehicles, men in bright orange suits pointing fingers this way and that while the late shoppers at Sainsburys tried to get home.

Eventually, late on, they managed to get under way.  Grumbling re the state of the potholes has risen considerably in recent days.  The road here, once made stable by Roman soldiers giving it the name 'Stane Street,' now known by less happy terms as holes appeared everywhere.  The building of two blocks of houses on either side of the road did not help, Gas, Electric and Water all took turns in digging up the road and then doing it all over again for the other side of the street.  Then faults occurred and they had to do it all over again.  Some of the workers offered to camp in the park to save time coming and going!  The temporary patches put on the road after this did not go down well with the locals, many spleens were vented!  Being some 15 years or so since this was last resurfaced the County Council has decided to resurface now.  How long will this last I wonder?

Scrape the surface and dump it straight into the lorry in front.  The Roman soldiers slogging their way along the road would have loved this machine.  I wonder how much this costs?  I must say I have not been so fascinated with men working on the roads since I was coming up for 3.  Way back then I remember what I am sure was a steamroller used by the men creating the roads in our new housing estate.  Over the Brazier hung 'Tate & Lyle' syrup tins from a short improvised metal handle.  This was their tea!  No fancy mugs in those early 50s days. 

Being right outside my window I was not going to miss this, even though I was slouched in bed when they began.  Efficiently they removed the surface, slowly walking the great machine along, careful guiding required.  Alongside the men swept the pavement clean of dust, I had to do my own window, nose and throat myself, as they followed the craft alongside.  Quite why they all wore hard Hats when nothing was going to fall on their heads was not explained. 

The sky, being almost Mid Summer, was brilliant, deep red as the night wore on.  Well after 10:30 when I managed to take that shot.

 
See how clear it is at that time, the youths happily exchanging drugs unafraid of the police who cannot get past the men working on the road way.  Clearly this lot work together often, such teamwork requires practice.  Scraping the ground requires a truck to move in front of the machine while manoeuvring backwards and forwards to fill the truck evenly.  Then when laying the tar similarly a truck has to load the laying machine carefully, tipping it's load without covering everyone in road surface.

As the light faded various machines and men in yellow outfits wandered about.  Here they were working around an electric 'hole in the road,' doing their best not to destroy it.

Filling the beast while blurring my picture.

The first layer goes down, more to come tonight I understand, and it surprised me how hard the layer was.  The men walking on it left no impression behind.  The smell of tar is much better than the dust that was flying about earlier.

Such jobs involve much intense work followed by lots of standing about while the machine gets refilled, the men in charge discuss the next move, or some hold up arrives.  The workers appeared to get on well with the few people passing by.  The wage may be quite good, especially as most of the work is done at night.

What happened to the large machinery I do not know, I awoke to find this man running about and others painting temporary white lines in the road.   There is more disruption to follow but as far as I can see they have done it with little stress on others, not counting the Sainsburys lorry that arrived at the wrong time, and left little mess.  The cynics this morning still did not appear full of joy at the work.  I think they are hoping it fails so they can say "I told you so!"

Thomas Telford

On this day in 1757 Thomas Telford, canal, road and bridge builder, entered the world at Gelndinning, a rural farm in Dumfriesshire.  His shepherd father died soon after he was born and poverty suffused his early life.  At 14 he was apprenticed to a stonemason later working in Edinburgh before making his way to London in 1782.  Self taught for the most part he was a natural engineer and through William Pulteney he obtained the post of Surveyor of Public Works in Shropshire.  While there he not only renovated many public buildings he also began to erect some forty bridges in Shropshire alone as part of his daily duties.  

In 1793 Telford designed and built the Ellsmere Canal linking Wrexham, Ellsmere and Chester with the Mersey.  This included erecting the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct 126 feet over the River Dee. This engineering marvel is still in regular use today by canal boats.  As Telford's reputation grew his opinion was requested in many spheres, Liverpool water, London Bridge and a twenty year job building the Caledonian Canal to improve communication by sea in the heart of the highlands.  This involved a thousand miles of new roads, another thousand bridges, improvements to harbours at ports throughout Scotland as well as the development of the canal itself.  All this at a time when the Navvy, armed with pick and shovel, completed the work by the sweat of his brow.  The death toll from accident as well as overwork must be enormous.  Alongside all this Telford erected 32 new churches and developed almost 200 miles of road in the south west of Scotland.  This at a time when muddy roads were the norm and transport consisted of foot, horse or coach.  Thomas improved on the development of MacAdam roads, changing the material used to strengthen the road surface.  The churches were paid for by parliament and erected in areas devoid of a place of worship.  £1500 was allowed for each building and Telford's design skillfully reduced the cost to a mere £750.  I wonder how many still exist, possibly as expensive homes today.

Telford constructed roads throughout England and Wales all with their accompanying bridges including the Menai Bridge.  The face of Britain was changed completely when his roads were completed.  Canals, roads, bridges and this was soon followed by the entrance of the Railway age, changing the nation once again in a different manner.  Telford's roads and many bridges however are still in use, many now expanded, improved, but still following the original way. When he was referred to as "The Colossus of Roads," by his friend the poet Robert Southey few would have disagreed!   Late in life he completed St Katherine's Dock next to Tower Bridge in London, a place still full of boats today, tunnels, canals and roads were still in his mind when he died in 1834.  Telford was 77 when he died and had never married.  He left no blood relation and had he married and became surrounded by a family would he ever have completed so many great public works?     

Thomas Telford was so great an engineer that many roads, including one near my home area in Edinburgh, were named after him.  However in Shropshire the new town was called 'Telford' in commemoration of the great man.  Few of us will ever have that accolade!

He was a Scot you know, did I mention this?

Thomas Telford  Caledonian Canal  Ellsmere Canal  Thomas Telford Salopian

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