Meols

Meols on the Wirral.

Castles (10) : Bedford

Only part of the motte now remains of Bedford castle which was built by Henry I sometime after 1100. The castle was greatly expanded during the following decades and was besieged by Stephen in his war with Matilda. The castle withstood the siege though the defenders were eventually starved into surrender.

The castle was besieged again by Henry III in 1224 in an operation involving thousands of men. After the fall of the castle Henry ordered the castle's destruction. The castle was left a ruin, stone from the walls and defences used to build new houses, pave the streets and build a church in Bedford. The castle was partially restored during the Civil War though afterwards became derelict again. The motte was even used as a bowling green! The site of the castle's remains is now an archaeological park.

Adverts of the 70s/80s... an occasional series

Make your Trash80 a whole new animal.

RAF Cosford

I visited RAF Cosford yesterday in Shropshire, unlike the other RAF museum in London i visited a couple of months ago I have been to Cosford before a few times. However the last time i went a couple of years ago i completely missed one of the hangars! I rectified that omission this time and took many photos of course. You can see my photos here.

Piccadilly

A Transport for Wales train pulls away at Manchester Piccadilly.

Castles (9) : Tamworth

Tamworth is a well preserved example of a Norman motte and bailey castle though was built on the site of earlier Saxon fortifications. The original castle was made from wood in the years following the Norman invasion. It was rebuilt from stone while under the ownership of the Marmion family. When the Marmions turned against King John in 1215 he ordered the castle destroyed. The castle destruction was halted after John's death and the damage repaired. The Marmions were restored to royal favour and Henry III visited the castle in 1257.

The castle had a number of additions as it passed to the Ferrers family especially during the Elizabethan period with the castle being made more suitable for habitation than war. During the Civil War it was captured by Parliamentary forces and used as a garrison. The castle changed ownership a few times in the following centuries, fell into disrepair but was restored. It was finally bought by the Tamworth Corporation in 1891 and remains a council owned museum and tourist attraction with well preserved interiors.

Return of the TwiggyMac

The Twiggy Mac is the stuff of myth surely? What am I talking about? Well the Apple Macintosh, up until a fairly late stage in the project (which was finally released in 1984 of course) was going to use the same 5 1/4 inch "Twiggy" disk drive as used in the Apple Lisa. Unfortunately the Twiggy drive was rubbish and often failed, indeed this was one of the Lisa's Achilles' heels (along with the huge price). Luckily Sony had just bought out their new 3.5 inch floppy drive format which Apple used instead and the rest is history...

It has been assumed that none of the Twiggy drive equipped Macintosh prototypes had survived as Apple had had them all recalled and destroyed in 1983. However one was found and later on another one turned up too!

After some restoration work the Twiggy Macs now work again and could boot from the original Twiggy system disks which included a beta version of Mac OS from August 1983. This version of the eventual first release of Mac OS included some intriguing differences from the final version including "Steve sez" in dialogue boxes. The whole story is recounted in the highly enjoyable Twiggy Mac website.

Heres how it ended up looking, my 512K

The Stratford in Shirley

Today I didn't go very far, just to Solihull in fact. I went to Shirley and then walked the Stratford Canal as far as Whitlock's End. It was nice walking along the canal with many signs of autumn (my favourite season). So many leaves were on the towpath and canal in some places it was hard to see where one ended and the other started! You can see the canal photos here.

Hampton Loade Hoover

A Class 50 (nicknamed the Hoover) pulls away from Hampton Loade.

Castles (8) : Tutbury

Just inside the Staffordshire border is Tutbury castle which was owned by one of William the Conqueror's leading Norman magnates Henry de Ferrers. He was awarded over two hundred manors in England by the King mostly across the Midlands. Duffield castle was another of his castles, though more an outpost, Tutbury castle was his headquarters. The original motte and bailey of Tutbury was constructed in 1068-9.

The castle was nearly destroyed during a rebellion by one of Henry's descendants against Henry III in 1269. It was repaired though became a residential property than a military base. People who stayed at the castle in later years included the wife of John of Gaunt and Mary, Queen of Scots. The Queen noted that the castle was worn out, damp and draughty though she was a prisoner at the castle.

The castle was destroyed after the English Civil War on the orders of parliament though some parts were repaired after the restoration of the monarchy. In later years it was used as a farm and a residential property, but is now open to the public.

Apple, NeXT, Be and Steve Jobs

It is all part of Apple's rich history, how when the chips were down Steve Jobs returned to the company he co-founded and help lead them from the abyss and towards where they are now: one of the biggest companies in the world. However this fascinating blog post details how that almost didn't happen.

In the mid-1990s Apple was struggling. MacOS was becoming out of date and attempts to create a new more modern version were failing hard. Apple looked to buy in an existing operating system to form the basis of the MacOS replacement. In the end they chose NeXT Computer (another company founded by Steve Jobs) and Next's operating system became the basis of Mac OSX. It nearly wasn't this way though, BeOS was also a contender and it is interesting to consider how (Apple) history and maybe the history of the world would have been different if BeOS had been the chosen system.

NeXT Cube

Wirral Transport Museum

Yesterday I visited Wirral Transport Museum, somewhere I have been keen to visit for some time due to it's tram collection and live running of trams. I had a trip on one of the latter, a good old vintage tram... or was it? Actually the tram was built by the HK Tramway company in the early 1990s! It is one of two built for the Wirral Tramway which is part of the museum. The trams on display in the museum are originals though, including a Liverpool tram. My Nan in Liverpool was a conductor on trams in the Second World War, maybe she worked on that tram? You can see my photos here. The museum is well worth a visit and includes road transport including some nice old buses too.

The past, present and future of Merseyside rail transport

Yesterday I visited Liverpool and of course did quite a lot of travelling around on various trains. One interesting aspect of yesterday's visit was to see the preserved Liverpool Overhead Railway exhibit in the museum, this was one of the earliest electrified railways which opened in the 1890s. Before that I had a look at the mock-up of the new Merseyrail trains which should enter service in 2020. As I also travelled around on the current stock I visited (and was aboard) the past, present and future of Merseyside rail transport! You can see my photos here.

Liverpool Overhead Railway

Current Merseyrail Class 507

The future: Class 777

Erdington postboxes

You can do far and wide to see stuff but sometimes the interesting things are right on your doorstep. While waiting for my car to be repaired the garage (pothole damage) i had a walk around the local area. I discovered a George V postbox in Erdington which was interesting. However what was even more exciting was finding an Edward VII postbox right around the corner from my Mum's house. I do find this a bit odd as surely I would have noticed this before but anyway there it is.

Through Wigan

A TPE train passes through Wigan North Western at speed.

Castles (7) : Bridgnorth

Not much remains of Bridgnorth Castle in Shropshire these days. The castle, which was built in 1101 by Robert de Belleme the third Earl of Shrewsbury, is situated on a cliff which overlooks the river Severn. Robert was said to be fond of a little torture so it is likely some of his castle's guests did not enjoy their stay that much.

The castle once had a great tower over twenty metres high and a bailey that encompassed the top of the cliff. The castle was a Royalist stronghold during the Civil War and was destroyed by Parliamentary forces under orders from Oliver Cromwell.

The castle tower was left as a ruin which leans at an angle of fifteen degrees. This is largely all that remains of the castle today.

Creating the Apple Lisa (and Mac) user interface

How exactly are graphical user interfaces (GUI) created? Obviously it involves quite a lot of advanced programming and design work but where do you start, especially back in the 1970s when there weren't many examples of GUIs to gain inspiration from? This extraordinary page on the Mac Folklore website has a series of photographs how the Apple Lisa GUI developed from the first basic graphic tests to the finished article which shipped in the early 1980s, and later carried on by the Apple Macintosh to the present day.

What is especially interesting how the Apple UI, with elements still familiar and used today such as the menu at the top, evolved. Early in the Lisa GUI development a softkey menu along the bottom of the screen was the direction the developers took before the abrupt change to a window and mouse based design. Inspired / stolen from Xerox PARC? Well various theories abound, i'm sure there was plenty of inspiration taken but some elements of the GUI are said to predate that.

It is interesting that in 1980 the Lisa had a menu on the top of windows (like Microsoft Windows later went with) instead of along the top of the screen as how the final design used.

Walking in Wigan

I went up to Wigan yesterday. I have been once before but only to change trains on my trip to St Helens last year. This time I wanted to explore the Leeds & Liverpool Canal which passes through the town. The canal in Wigan is very interesting and i explored part of the Leigh branch too. You can see my canal photos from Wigan here.

Through Warwick

A Chiltern express heads through Warwick.