The final piece in my new website jigsaw (at least for now) has been fitted, so to speak. The British Waterways section of the site is a companion to my waterways blog and will go more into depth* on the subject of Britain's canals with maps and historical information as well as photos. Go check it out and do some gongoozling!
* No pun intended!
This typewriter is similar to a few others in the collection, including the Silver-Reed Silverette. The Seventy is a nice compact little portable typewriter that is in remarkably good condition. When i first received it i thought it was brand new! It was only after a closer inspection that i could see there was a little wear and tear on it here and there, though not much. The typewriter looks like it has not been hardly used, if it has it has been, it has been very well cared for.
The Seventy types pretty well, a couple of keys on the fringes are a bit awkward but that might just require a little correction, usage or lubricant to loosen them. The Seventy only types in one colour (black).
The Seventy is one of the favourite typewriters in my collection. Indeed, a while ago on my old blog i listed the three typewriters i would take with me to a desert island and the Seventy was my third pick!
Yesterday, i returned to the east Midlands but this time went to Market Harborough in Leicestershire. I have been to the town once before but didn't visit the Grand Union Canal that time. My main aim on this trip was to recify that omission and you can see my canal photos here. Other photographs of this pretty town can be seen here.
Christ Church in Alsager, Cheshire was built in 1789 as a chapel of ease for St Bertoline's church in Barthomley. It became a parish church in it's own right in 1946. The church has a six bay nave and a three bay chancel with apse. There is a tower to the west. The church is in the Georgian style with features such as Tuscan demi-columns on the exterior.
The church is built from yellow ashlar Keuper sandstone.
A new calculator has joined the collection this week, this rather lovely Decimo Vatman. This Japanese made machine was released in about 1974 not long after Value Added Tax was introduced into Britain. This calculator was named and released with it's VAT key (aka the percentage key) to take advantage of the ruckus caused by the change in the tax system.
Unfortunately, the calculator no longer seems in working order.
One of the places i visited in Rutland on Saturday was the county museum. Now i love a regional museum and really should visit more of them. The Rutland museum in Oakham has a nice little local collection of historical items and curios. It also has a rather nice fossil fish, and a couple of old tractors! What more could you want? You can see my museum photos (and other Oakham photos) here.
Goostrey is a village to the east of the centre of the county. There have been traces of settlement found in the area dating back to before the Iron Age. The village appears in the Domesday Book as Gostrel which may mean Godhere's tree. A timber-framed church dedicated to St Luke was built in the village in the early 13th century though this was replaced by the current church in the 1790s.
Goostrey's economy has remained primarily agricultural in nature, with farms continuing to exist around the village to this day. Although the railway began passing through Goostrey in 1842, it had to wait until 1891 to get a station! Postwar, new housing developments increased the size of the village notably.
Visible from the village is the Lovell radio telescope at the famous Jodrell Bank Observatory which is a short distance away from the village.
I enjoyed my little bus trip into Rutland a few weeks ago, so headed back by train to Oakham yesterday and took the bus to the nice little village of Manton which is about half way between Oakham and Uppingham. There isn't a whole lot there apart from some pretty houses and a nice church but that is fine. Afterwards i headed back to Oakham but we'll cover that in a later blog post. My photographs from Manton can be seen here.
St Michael's church in Boldmere, Sutton Coldfield was built in 1857. The church consists of a twin aisle nave, west transepts, chancel and a south west tower with spire. The church is built from sandstone with an ashlar dressing.
Most of the church was destroyed in a fire in 1964. The rebuilt church was designed in the Early Decorated Style to match the surviving tower and south aisle.
Finally, after nine months (though the vast majority of that time with nothing happening) Project #108 an Auster Antarctic is completed (bar a bit of varnish). Hopefully i can speed up a bit through the last quarter of the year and get a couple more done before the end of the year.
