Churches (35) : All Saints, Narborough

All Saints Church in Narborough, Leicestershire dates from the thirteenth century though was probably built on the site of an earlier Saxon church. The church has a nave, two aisles, a chancel and a West tower. The church was built from granite rubble with a limestone dressing.

The church was rebuilt in 1883 with the chancel dating from 1887 but in a style in keeping with the rest of the church.

Little Venice

As well as the rail adventures in London on Saturday I also had time to walk a canal too! I had a walk along the Paddington branch of the Grand Union Canal from Little Venice up to London Paddington station. This is the London end of the great canal, the other end of the canal is at Spaghetti Junction in Birmingham very close to where I live! You can see my Little Venice photos here.

Mail Rail

Mail Rail was the Royal Mail automated underground railway that transferred mail between various locations in London. The railway opened in 1927 and closed in 2003. A couple of years ago the new Postal Museum opened at Mount Pleasant sorting office and a centrepiece of the museum is the Mail Rail exhibit with newly build special trains taking people on trips of some of the old tracks. I travelled on that train yesterday and it is an excellent visitor attraction.

However the real purpose for my visit came later when I joined a walking tour of the tunnels and Mount Pleasant station. Now I have done a number of Hidden London tours in disused parts of tube stations but this tour was something else entirely walking on the tracks, often with hidden obstacles in the dim light deep underground. I have to rate this as one of the best rail adventures I have ever made. Years ago my Great Uncle Leslie worked at Mount Pleasant, I don't know where exactly he worked but maybe he worked on the Mail Rail all those years ago. You can see my photos here.

Across London... and back... and back again

I went to London today to visit the Postal Museum but I'll talk about that in a separate post. Before I went to the museum I did some rail travelling across the capital (of course!) I went from West to East and then travelled back West... and then went back East to the museum. I managed to see both new EMUs (Classes 710 and 717) and visit some new stations. You can see my rail adventure photos here.

Churches (34) : St James with St Thomas, Poolstock

The Church of St James with St Thomas is in Poolstock, a district of Wigan. Work began on the church in 1863 and it was consecreted three years later. The church (then known as the Church of St James) was funded by local MP and mine and mill owner James Eckersley and built in the centre of a mining village.

The church has a five bay nave with a clerestory, a chancel, a vestry, North and South aisles and a West tower. The church was built from sandstone in the Decorated style. In 1970 the neighbouring church of St Thomas closed and the parishes merged.