At the weekend i headed back down to Buckinghamshire, and the Princes Risborough area again (well it is one of my favourite parts of the world so i am not complaining!) I wanted to visit the two stations either side of Aylesbury which took the number of new stations i stopped at in 2025 up to 50, my target.
Firstly, i went to Aylesbury Vale Parkway then two stops down the line to Stoke Mandeville, where i also had a look around the village. You can see my photos here.
The wall-mounted counterpart to the 706 was the 711. Naturally, when the General Post Office switched to the updated 746 telephone there followed a wall-mounted version of this updated telephone.
This was the 741, which was introduced in 1968 and replaced the 711. It had a similar case to the earlier wall-mounted telephone but had the internals of the 746 including the built-in regulator.
Compared to the 746, the 741 had a quite different case (see below for side-by-side comparison). The 746 is designed for desk use so needs to present the dial at an angle to aid dialing, the 741 needs to present it's dial "flat" to the user for the same reason.
The 741 has an integral bracket for mounting securely on the wall. The handset rests atop the modified case. Our 741 has "KS" scratched on the case, perhaps these were the initals of a previous owner, presumably not Keir Starmer!
The original church of St Chad in Shrewsbury (known as Old St Chad's), Shropshire was probably founded by King Offa in the second half of the 8th century. However, it may have been part of a royal palace of the Kingdom of Powys in the 500s. This church remained in use until 1792 when a new church dedicated to St Chad was built nearby and this church is still in use.
Not much of the original St Chad's church survives. The tower collapsed in 1788 during an attempt to expand the crypt. The decision was made to build a new church and not repair the old. The remains of the church today are a 15th century lady chapel, the chancel's south wall and an exposed crypt.
Yesterday i headed up to Crewe to take some photographs of trains. There was nothing that unusual running but plenty of interesting workings to see, and the good sunlight always seems to make Crewe, and it's faded glory, much more welcoming. You can see my photos here.
I'm not at work this week, on Monday i had my car serviced. As the garage to near to where i used to work in Perry Barr i decided to go home via the Tame Valley Canal. I used to walk along this canal most lunchtimes when i worked nearby. It's what gave me my interest in canals and this is why i created my waterways blog... and probably why the others followed.
A nice walk before it got too hot, you can see my photos here.
At the weekend i headed back down to Buckinghamshire to revisit a couple of my favourite places, Monks and Princes Risborough. I took the train to Monks Risborough then walked back to Princes Risborough, going via the fine medieval church of St Dunstan's which was open. Unlike last year when i did this trip, the weather was dry and fine.
You can see my Monks Risborough photos here and Princes Risborough here.
The General Post Office introduced the 746 telephone in 1967, replacing the 706. The 746 was a refinement of the earlier model, the biggest external change was to the cradle for the receiver which could double as a handle to carry the telephone. So, you could walk around while on a call and try and look cool.
Internally, the 746 had the regulator, which had been optional on the 706, built into the circuit board. The regulator could be used to vary the current flowing into the receiver and transmitter of the telephone as telephone lines too close to an exchange sometimes had trouble with the current on the line being too high.
The 746 remained in production for a long time, some were later modified to use the BT New Plan plug (the type still used today). These were known as the 8746 telephone and can still be used now with a supported line (though this will soon change).
I have three 746s in my collection: red, brown and topaz yellow.
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| Red phone |
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| Topaz yellow phone |
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| Black 706 (left) and 746 (right), showing the external difference |
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| Brown telephone |
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.
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).
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.
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.
This Silver-Reed 500 typewriter is the 37th to join the collection, i think it is the first green one too! It has a wide carriage which i am not that keen on as it does make storing the typewriter more difficult. However, it is a machine that has no doubt worked hard on a desk somewhere typing out invoices and memos and still works pretty well now. Though it will need a new ribbon.
The parish church of St Nicholas in the Warwickshire village of Radford Semele dates from the 12th century, the tower being added in the 14th. The church was mostly rebuilt in 1889, and again in the 21st century after the fire in 2008 which destroyed everything except the tower and the shell of the nave.
The church is in the Perpendicular style, the west tower having two stages. The nave has a north aisle and a south porch.
Aspley Guise is a village on the border in Bedfordshire, on the border with Buckinghamshire, near to Milton Keynes.
Aspley Guise is derived from Aspenlea, meaning aspen clearing, and from the de Guise (de Gyse) family who were lords of the manor in the 14th century. The first recorded settlement in the area dates to the 10th century and the parish was mentioned in the Domesday Book. The area remained mostly agricultural with two windmills in the parish mentioned in the 16th century. The village is situated at a cross roads and has remained small. A market charter was granted in 1267 by Anselm de Gyse though the market has long since been discontinued.
By the 20th century brick making and clay extraction had become major industries though nowadays many inhabitants will work (and commute to) elsewhere. The parish church of St Botolph (a seventh century Anglo-Saxon abbot and scholar) dates from the 13th century, from around 1223. The church was extensively reworked in the early nineteenth century. The church is made from ironstone with ashlar dressings, the tower from limestone rubble.
The church tower dates from the fifteenth century at least and has a clock that dates from then too. The oldest monuments in the church date from the 1400s including a tomb effigy thought to be of Sir William Tyrington who died in 1400.
At the start of the month i changed to a new work regime where i don't work Fridays anymore (well for now anyway), up until now i have spent my free Fridays doing gardening but finally this week i took advantage of the day to do some rail photography at Stafford. It is always better doing this on a weekday as you can see much more freight and special workings. You can see my Stafford photos here, it was not disappointing though getting sunburnt did put a bit of a crimp on my day!
Holy Trinity Church in Barrow upon Soar in Leicestershire dates from the 12th century. However, little of the original church has survived apart from some pillars in the knave. Much of the current church dates from a rebuilding in the 1860s following the collapse of the tower.
The church has a two aisled nave, a chancel, a west tower, transepts and clerestory. The church is built from pink random granite rubble with a sandstone dressing.
