Churches (268) : St Lawrence, Little Stanmore

The parish church of St Lawrence in Little Stanmore, Harrow (now in north London) dates from about 1360 though only the tower remains from this original church. The church was rebuilt in the Baroque style in the early 1700s in a commission by the 1st Duke of Chandos. A mausoleum dedicated to the Duke was later added to the east of the church.

The tower is built from flint and dressed stone. The reconstructed parts of the church from brick. The nave had a gallery on the west end built from the Duke. 

Last screening

Way back in 2017 i began a movie review blog. It was restricted to reviews of films from the 20th century because reasons, and has stuck to that mostly (there have been a couple of reviews of films from the late 1890s!) Now, after eight years and 1,999 reviews i have finally decided to call it a day. Why 1,999? Well the blog is for films between 1900 and 1999 so i thought it was an amusing number to end on...

The blog has tended to review more obscure and lesser known films, especially B-movies from the 1930s to 1950s, rather than famous blockbusters though i did end on Star Wars, my favourite film of all. It will be strange to no longer be seeking out films and reviewing them but it is quite a drain on my time and i think it is better to end now than to struggle on and fizzle out after review 2,217 or something.

The blog is not going anywhere, the reviews will all be available to view for ever more (or until Google kill my Blogger account).

Freight action at Stafford

Coming through.

The Greatest Gathering

The railway industry is celebrating 200 years since the opening of the first (maybe) passenger railway - the Stockton & Darlington Railway. The main event was a three day exhibition at the Litchurch Lane Works in Derby, and i attended last Friday. What an incredible event too, it was called the Greatest Gathering (of rolling stock) and it would be hard to argue with that. Everything from some of the oldest steam locomotives to modern locomotives so new they haven't entered service yet!

You can see my photos here. I saw so much, but missed a few locomotives too. I'll just have to wait for the next big event in fifty years time.

GPO Dialphones (1) : 706

In the past, the General Post Office had a near monopoly (apart from one town) of the British telephone system. Subscribers to the service had to rent a handset from the GPO who designed and had manufactured a series of telephones.

The General Post Office released it's 706 model telephone in 1959, a modernised version of earlier GPO telephones with inspiration taken from contemporary American designs. The 706, and it's later update the 746, remained in production for decades and can still be used today if retro-fitted with a New Plan BT socket.

The 706 was fitted with an optional regulator which could reduce the sensitivity of the telephone if the line was too close to a telephone exchange or even if the telephone was picking up interference from nearby strong radio transmissions. The 746 had this regulator built into it's circuitry.

One variant of the 706 was the 706L which had a lettered dial. This was useful in the age of letter coded telephone exchanges. I have black and ivory examples of the 706 dialphone in my collection.