After the hectic weekend in Sevenoaks the week before, last weekend's railway adventure was much more modest. I stayed in the West Midlands and updated my photography at a number of other stations. My book on Warwickshire railway stations has now gone to the publisher, the next book will be on the stations of the West Midlands and i still have some gaps in decent imagery for that one. You can see my photos here, i wonder which ones will make the future book?
Nowadays an area in the south east of Birmingham, Acocks Green has been in existence since at least the beginning of the 17th century, the first reference to it appeared on the Yardley Parish Register in 1604.
Like many places, Acocks Green grew thanks to transport links, it was situated on the Warwick Road and later the Warwick & Birmingham Canal passed through the area. The arrival of the railway in 1852 really helped Acocks Green expand. In 1911 Acocks Green, as part of Yardley, was absorbed into the city of Birmingham.
The population of Acocks Green was greatly increased by the building of new housing estates in the Interwar Period. A large factory in Acocks Green built Bristol radial aircraft engines and later tank engines during the Second World War.
The parish church of St Oswald in Bidston on the Wirral was originally built in the 13th century. The tower was added in the 15th. The church was rebuilt in the Gothic Revival style in the mid-1850s. The church has a nave with north and south aisles, a west tower and a chancel.
The church is built from coursed and squared rubble.
As well as the many photos taken during my Sevenoaks holiday i also recorded quite a few videos, including this one.
Saturday was the big day of my trip to Sevenoaks (after arriving on Good Friday). I would have a full day to visit as many new railway stations as possible after the three on Friday. After a slow start due to some earlier disruption caused by a broken down train, the new stations soon racked up and i ended up visiting eleven! I also visited East Malling and Swanley, and whilst at Kemsing railway station a Spitfire flew overhead. Well i was in Kent after all, luckily no Dorniers or Heinkels were also around...
You can see my day two railway photos here, photos at East Malling and Swanley are here.
This bank holiday weekend i went down to Sevenoaks. I stayed two nights and had the aim of visiting twelve stations. I didn't manage 12... i went to fourteen instead! On day 1 i visited Otford, including the lovely village, and went up to Knockholt too. I also had a look around Sevenoaks too for the first time (i have been to the station once before but did not leave it on that occasion).
You can see my railway photos from day 1 here, and photos from Otford and Sevenoaks here.
Widney Manor is a suburb of Solihull. One of the earliest mentionings of the manor dates from the early 13th century when the land was granted to William de Parles. It was later also held by the Abbey of Westminster. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the land was owned by the Holbech family.
By the end of the 19th century the manor was owned by Greswold family. They granted the Great Western Railway access to build a railway station (in 1899) in return for a minimum of six stopping trains per day, despite the area around the station being sparsely populated and rural. The station also had a goods yard and cattle pens to serve local farms.
Modern housing estates have increased the population of Widney Manor greatly in recent decades though you are not far from the countryside, especially near the railway station. The M42 motorway also passes through Widney Manor, the noise of which can impair the rural feel somewhat.
The church of St Andrew Undershaft (the name is derived from the shaft of the maypole which was traditionally set up opposite the church every Spring until 1517) in the City of London dates from 1147, with a rebuilding in the 14th century. The church has survived both the Great Fire of London and the Blitz, unlike most churches in the city.
The church is in the Perpendicular style with a tower added in the 15th century. The church has an aisled six bay nave with clerestory. The church is built from squared rubble.
I headed up to Liverpool this weekend for the first time this year. I didn't have the time to scratch off any new stations so instead did a walk along the Leeds & Liverpool Canal up to it's terminus at Stanley Dock. Then i walked back into the centre past the old dock lands. You can see my photos of Liverpool here, and the canal can be found here.
LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) calculators from the 1980s and 1990s are not as interesting as the LED and VFD display machines of the previous decade but i do like this simple little Radio Shack EC-458 machine.
It reminds me of the vogue, in my latter school days, for machines with solar panels, it seemed like we were entering the future with free power! The EC-458 is dual power so has a battery as well, and still works fine.
The latest addition to the calculator collection is this rather nice Conic 750. It comes with the original box though no manual, i should be able to work out how to use it though. The calculator works though sometimes can be a bit flakey and lose what you have keyed in. What is shown is via a rather nice red LED display.
The parish church of St Augustine in Dodderhill overlooks the town of Droitwich Spa and is Droitwich's oldest church. The church is Norman but was built on the site of a Saxon church, and maybe even a Roman fort. St Augustine was built in the late 12th century and finished about 1220. The north transept and crossing are surviving parts of the original church.
The church was badly damaged in the Civil War with parts of it blown up. The church was restored in the early 18th century, reusing original masonry if possible. The tower and south transept were rebuilt, the tower being moved so it was over the transept. The church has no nave. Much of the church is made from dressed sandstone with some later additions being brick.
The Busicom 1210PD is a decent sized desktop mains powered calculator with a built in printer. This calculator, like the mighty Silver-Reed 1250PD, is intended for heavy duty number work such as working out the wages for the workers on a Friday.
The calculator works well, though required a new ribbon (this has now been fitted). Despite it's age it seems to work electronically pretty well with few if any glitches. Numbers are shown in a nice cyan blue VFD display.
It's been a few years since i last did a Hidden London tour of non-public areas of a tube station, for various reasons including bad luck with illness i had to cancel or miss three trips in a row. Luckily yesterday at Holborn i was able to break the curse! It was a good tour centred around the ex-Aldwych branch platforms at Holborn. You can see my photos here.
The oldest part of the parish church of St Peter & St Paul in Wem, Shropshire is the the west tower which date from the 14th century. Much of the rest of the church is a later rebuilding. The nave was built in the early 19th century, the chancel at the end of that century. The reason for the rebuilding was that much of the older church was lost in the great fire of Wem in 1677.
The church is built from ashlar and is in a mixture of Decorated and Gothic styles.
My last train adventure of the month of March was, again, a travel around some of Birmingham and the West Midlands' many railway stations. I went as far as Sandwell & Dudley in one direction and Small Heath in the other. You can see my photos here.
