Project Deblogification complete

The Around the Shires blog, which looks at British towns and villages, has now become the latest blog to reach the end of updates and has been replaced by a section on my website. This now completes Project Deblogification, but wait... didn't i say earlier that there were two blogs left to be replaced?

Indeed, i did plan to replace my Waterways blog last of all but having given it some thought i have decided to keep that blog going. There will be a section on my website coming soon dedicated to canals and other inland waterways, however i think this section complements rather than replaces the blog.

Churches (234) : St Mary the Virgin, Bulwell

The parish church of St Mary the Virgin and All Souls in Bulwell, Nottinghamshire was built in the mid-1800s to replace an earlier (11th century) dilapidated church which had been damaged in a storm. There may have been churches on the site dating back to Saxon times.

The new church was consecreted in 1850. A chancel was added in 1900. A north chapel added in 1946. The church has an aisled nave, a west tower, a chancel and the north chapel and vestry. The church is built from rubble stone with an ashlar dressing.

Pushing away

A Class 68 propels a train away from Birmingham Moor Street.

Yellow phone

This month's purchase of retro office technology is a telephone, another GPO 746 to be exact. I have three of them in various colours, the latest is in a very pleasing yellow. It doesn't have a plug so can't be connected to the telephone line, though i don't have a land line anyway! To find out more about the 746, and to see my red one, click here.

Cheshire Places (1) : Alsager

Alsager is a town on the south eastern border of the county. 

Alsager has Saxon origins, the name coming from the Old English Ælle's arable land. By the time of the Domesday Book, it was known as Eleacier and remained a small farming village for centuries. In the centre of Alsager is a lake known as the Mere. As with many places Alsager did not change until the advent of new technologies and industries, in Alsager's case the railways.

Situated between Crewe and Stoke-on-Trent, Alsager became a popular home for managers of various industries in those industrial towns who could easily commute after the railway station was opened in 1848.

In the Second World War, an armaments factory was built near to Alsager, the town greatly expanding with the new workers bought in for the factory. The factory at Radway Green continues to produce small arms ammunition for the British armed forces. A Royal Marines training camp was also constructed in the town, after the war this was re-purposed as a refugee camp.