The second day of this year's Guildford trip involved travelling to a number of stations in Surrey as well as walking through the nice town of Ewell. Later on i had time to revisit Farnborough and take some more photos, although fatigue was setting in so i didn't explore too far! My Surrey railway photos can be seen here, Ewell photos are here.
Another successful trip to Guildford, either my sixth or seventh (lost count!) We'll be back next year.
Last Friday i headed down to Surrey for what has become my annual pilgrimage to the railways of the south west of London (well it is my 7th or 8th trip anyway). On Friday i ticked off a couple of stations in Berkshire then went down to Hampshire to visit Farnborough and tick off stations between Farnborough and Basingstoke. Finally, i arrived at my hotel in Guildford. Tomorrow would have a lot more rail adventures. You can see my Berkshire railway photos here, my Hampshire railway photos here and photos of Farnborough here.
The problem with the story though is the predictability. It isn't a bad read and will certainly pass the time of day but you probably won't want to ever read it again.
The parish church of St Nicholas in Elmdon, West Midlands was built in the late 1700s largely replacing an earlier medieval church, though the tower has survived. The church was built by Albert Spooner who had bought the Elmdon estate and had the church built along with the adjacent Elmdon Hall. The Hall was demolished in 1956 but the church is still there!
The earlier church dated from the 14th century and traces of it remain in the foundations of the current church. The tower is 15th century, the rebuilt church in a matching style. The tower has had a parapeted top added to it. The nave was extended in 1979. The church is mostly built from flint and rubble.
This weekend it was time for another local station update, actually i do not have many stations left in the West Midlands which i really need to get updated imagery for. This time it was the turn of Dorridge, Solihull and other stations along the same line. You can see my photos here. Progress on the third book is being made, i need to get it finished by the end of July which isn't that long away now!
Kings Norton is an area in the south of Birmingham, originally in Worcestershire.
There has been human settlements in the area since at least Roman times. Kings Norton itself has Saxon origins and was the northern most manor of Bromsgrove. The name comes from the Old English Nor Tun or northern settlement. The manor was held by Earl Edwin at the time of the Norman Conquest. After Edwin revolted against William his lands, including Kings Norton, were taken from him and held by the King.
King James granted Kings Norton a market charter in 1616. A mop fair for people looking for work was also held every year in October. Kings Norton expanded in the 18th and 19th centuries thanks to new transport links including the Worcester & Birmingham and Stratford Canals. Kings Norton also gained a railway station in 1849.
Kings Norton became part of Birmingham in 1911 and has continued to develop and urbanise. Kings Norton continues to have a number of buildings which survive from it's time as a separate market town. The oldest is the church of St Nicolas which dates from the 13th century.
St Luke's is the parish church of the village of Goostrey in Cheshire, however it isn't the first church on the site. The village has had a church since at least 1244, though this church was timber framed, and much changed over the years. Finally, it was replaced by the current church in the 1790s. The church has a three bay nave with a small chancel and an apse. There is a tower to the west.
The church is built from red brick with an ashlar dressing.
I want to get some more colour into the garden and i am going to try and get some wild flowers growing such as corn marigold and daisy ox-eye. I bought some seeds the other day and have sown some in an unused patch of the garden. I've also put some in a dead patch of the lawn (these i put in Monday - i think something is already growing there!)
Well the weather is nice so why not go to the seaside? So, at the weekend i did! I went up to Liverpool then travelled on a bit further to Southport. I had a walk along the beach, unfortunately the tide was a long way out but it did mean i could walk under the pier. You can see my photos here.
Tile Hill is a western suburb of Coventry.
Tile Hill was situated in the ancient Forest of Arden and also situated on Drove Lane which ran from London to Wales. The village grew as a resting point for travellers along the ancient road. It is possible Tile Hill took it's name from a tile manufacturer. Most of the area was under the control of the Stoneleigh Estate until being purchased by Coventry Corporation in 1926. The area remained mostly rural until recent decades. However, Massey Ferguson had a factory in Tile Hill, the largest tractor factory in western Europe in it's day. The factory has now been closed and demolished.
During the Civil War, the Roundheads used Tile Hill as a staging point before the battle with the Royalists at Kenilworth. Today, Tile Hill is a mostly residential area, it has a railway station on the West Coast Main Line. It was also host to a Network Rail training centre though this has now closed.
The parish church of St Mary in Lowdham, Nottinghamshire dates from the 13th century. The church has a nave with north and south aisles and clerestory, a chancel and a vestry. The tower is 13th century but the spire was added in the 15th.
The church was restored in the 19th century. The church is built from ashlar.
Another calculator has joined the collection, a Silver-Reed Mini-M ER 8095. This is the second Silver-Reed machine in the collection, the other was the very first calculator in my collection (1250PD) which i got many years ago. Over twenty in fact!
It is full steam ahead now (so to speak) with my third book on the railway stations of West Midlands. Therefore, at the weekend i concentrated on updating my photography of a number of stations in the Stourbridge and Black Country areas. I also took some photos around Stourbridge Junction station and the nearby church. You can see my photos here.
Quinton is nowadays a western suburb of Birmingham but has a history stretching back into early medieval times.
The name Quinton is thought to derive from Cweningtun meaning the Queen's settlement, Quinton was also known as Ridgeacre. This was the name of a grange of the convent of Hales in early Norman times (or earlier). Quinton was a chapelry of the ancient parish of Halesowen and was part of Shropshire until 1844 when it was transferred along with Halesowen to Worcestershire. In 1909 Quinton became part of Birmingham.
The major trades in Quinton were agriculture, nail making and construction. Quinton retained a village feel well into the 1930s when large scale housing helped turn it into a suburb, in the 1960s the construction of the M5 motorway passing through the heart of Quinton also changed it's character. Quinton is nowadays almost entirely residential in nature. One reason for this was that residents in Edgbaston did not want heavy industry in Quinton in case the fumes came their way!
Last year i began a project to replace some (if not all) of my blogs with a dedicated website. The website went live this time last year and has continued to grow. Several blogs have been replaced by it and maybe others will too. Well we'll see!
The website can be seen here. I wonder what the website's second year will bring.
The church of St Anne in Moseley, Birmingham is Victorian. The church was built in 1874. The church is a simplified Gothic style designed by Frederick Preedy. The church has a nave with north and south aisles, a chancel, a vestry to the south west and a tgower to the north west.
The church is built from cream and red rock-faced sandstone.
