Little things - for the layout outside the railway fence

[corneliuslundie]

A day late today but also a bit different and with a seasonal flavour.

The first two photos are of the same place, the first at the start of October and the second a couple of days ago. October is the time when hedges are “trimmed” or massacred depending on how you feel about the “after” appearance.

 

 

The only advantage of the “shorn” version is that it is easier to see over the hedges, especially if you are not 6 ft 3 like me.

The third view is also very typical of October in this part of the world. I shall leave viewers of this thread to explain to their children/grandchildren the significance of the orange die sported by many of the sheep (it can also be bright blue).

 

As the weather is now turning it may be hard to find something new each week but I shall try.

Jonathan

Edited October 2, 2022 by corneliuslundie

[Kris]

When old fire hydrant signs meet new.

 

[corneliuslundie]

And now around here there are all sorts of yellow and blue marks on the roads adjacent to the signs.

Jonathan

[eastglosmog]

Unfortunately didn't have the camera on hand when I saw the Ram with his tupping box attached yesterday!

A few hen coops instead.  These used to be common in back yards and even on top of flat roofed buildings in cities as well as out in the countryside.

This varied lot are getting a bit battered but are still serviceable:

 

 

A rather newer set, but again quite variable in pattern:

 

Edited April 8, 2022 by eastglosmog
Restore photos

[mike morley]

Photographed a couple of weeks ago on the last of the really nice days around Kings Sutton, south of Banbury.

 

A stench pipe.  Once upon a time most houses had one, but now they seem to be quite rare.  I certainly can't remember the last time I saw one.  I have a vague memory of someone making a 4mm scale version in cast whitemetal but I cannot for the life of me remember who.

 

I knew about village pumps and wells and springs before but until recently I'd never heard of village tap.  Now, just a few weeks after encountering my first in St Briavels, I've come across another in Kings Sutton.  This one is quite low, about knee height.

 

Kings Sutton is stunningly picturesque and could have come straight off the cover of a chocolate box.  I spent the whole time I was in the village thinking "That would make a good model" and "So would that", but after a while I realised it would actually be very difficult to model without the result looking extremely twee and contrived.

[MrWolf]

That stench pipe would originally have had a little cast iron grille with vertical bars over the tombstone shaped vent opening. I too have seen whitemetal versions. Can't remember where, probably Langley or one of the other traditional makers.

[mike morley]

Not part of Scalelink's current range.

[Nearholmer]

3 hours ago, mike morley said:

Kings Sutton is stunningly picturesque and could have come straight off the cover of a chocolate box.

 

There are a few places like that in the banbury area. A while back, I diverted from a drive to go and size up a Landrover that was for sale ("Not sensible" quoth SWMBO) in a place called, I think, Upper Wardington. It was so picturesque that I almost crashed the car several times rubber-necking at things. Its on my "must go and have another look" list.

[mike morley]

Going back a subject or two, on our way home from Kings Sutton we stopped for lunch at the Crewe Arms at Hinton-in-the-Hedges, near Brackley.  I didnt notice it while we were there, so unfortunately no picture, but as we drove off I realised the pub sign is supported by what began life as a lattice signal post.

[corneliuslundie]

Back to the Montgomery Canal today, with some photos taken in May.

First, a small building alongside one of the locks. This one is in quite good condition, unlike the lock which no longer has water and is gradually decaying.

 

 

Second, the remains of the lock. I think something like this could be an interesting feature of layouts set in many parts of the country – and avoids the problem of trying to model water effectively.

 

And if you make a mess of constructing a model of the building in the first photo, then you can hide it like this. I am not sure but it may have for some time been used as a store by the canal restoration group, as there used to be material stored on the other side of the path. Not that this stretch of the canal is ever likely to see water again.

 

Next week will depend on the weather. Perhaps it is time to look around town for inspiration.

Jonathan

Edited October 2, 2022 by corneliuslundie

[Nearholmer]

Another long-dry, or possibly long, dry, lock.

 

Thos one no longer links the GUCC to the upper Ouse, and in the uphill direction (the canal is about 50ft up) it used to be the route by which small  seagoing boats, built in Stony Stratford of all unlikely places, got to the sea.

 

 

[Metropolitan H]

8 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Another long-dry, or possibly long, dry, lock.

 

Thos one no longer links the GUCC to the upper Ouse, and in the uphill direction (the canal is about 50ft up) it used to be the route by which small  seagoing boats, built in Stony Stratford of all unlikely places, got to the sea.

 

 

I think I must take issue with the Member for Birlstone's assertions about the use of the pictured disused lock by small sea-going craft built by Hayes' Boatyard to the south of Stony Stratford.

 

I am assuming that the pictured lock is the remains of the flight down from the original "Grand Junction Canal" Main line, south of Cosgrove, to cross the River Ouse on the level - before the Wolverton "Iron Trunk" Aqueduct was completed in 1811, as a replacement for the failed masonary aqueduct that preceded it.

 

Hayes' Ironworks in Stony Stratford opened in 1851 and seems to have started the boat building in 1864 after the owner - Edward Hayes (Senior) - moved to a large house adjacent to the Buckingham Canal in Old Stratford.

 

Some of the steam powered iron boats built by Hayes' yard - were destined for various overseas customers and included tugs and passenger steamers up to 51 ft long. They did not at any time traverse the River Ouse in the vicinity of Stony Stratford or Wolverton. Their route to the sea was by road - often hauled by traction engine - to the launch site on the Buckingham Canal branch at Old Stratford north of the River Ouse. Then following the fitting out and trials they travelled to Cosgrove before turning right and over the "Iron Trunk" to London via the "Grand Junction" later known as "Grand Union" canal.

 

The alternative method of shipping was to take them back to the works after trial on the canal and dismantle them for road / rail / ship transport as a kit for re-erection at the customer's location. Some boats went to Salonika, others to Russia, a number to France during the First World War and a 65ft tug the Curlew steamed all the way from Old Stratford to Portugese East Africa - now Mozambique!.

 

Hayes' boatyard closed circa 1925.

 

If you want to see one of the remaining Hayes' built boats there is one outside the entrance to Milton Keynes Museum - McConnell Drive, Wolverton.

 

Hope that helps put the record straight. If Nearholmer wishes I will loan him the book (published 2018) that I bought in Odell's Ironmongers in Stony Stratford - they do a good line in local history books!

 

Regards

Chris H

Edited October 25, 2021 by Metropolitan H

[Nearholmer]

You’re right - I was conflating two things. Apologies to all for any resultant confusion.

[Rivercider]

There are a couple of locks on the disused Stover Canal. When the upper part of the canal fell into disuse

one of the locks was adapted to become a dry dock for repairing the barges, and became known as Graving Dock Lock.

 

 

Graving Dock Lock looking north towards Ventiford Basin.  9/7/2019

 

Graving Dock Lock looking south, towards the part of the canal that remained active, 9/7/2019

Graving Dock Lock looking south 9/7/2019

To enable timber to be bent to shape it was heated in a wooden box, volunteers at the Stover Canal have rebuilt this at the Graving Dock Lock 9/7/2019

 

cheers 

[corneliuslundie]

Late again.

 

On another thread recently someone was asking about availability of etchings for Victorian style gardens railings. It was suggested that most were removed for scrap during World War 2.

The message evidently didn't reach these parts. These are the railings outside Capel Coffa just around the corner (formerly a Welsh language chapel, now a children's nursery:

 

Next hopefully a screengrab from Google Maps of the houses one one side the the chapel.

 

And on the other side of the chapel:

 

Note that the second and third both incorporate the Prince of Wales feathers.

 

And I couldn't resist including these two photos, taken this morning a few seconds apart from our front door step. The first is looking north west, the second south east towards the town centre and the hills beyond. Local weather! Absolutely impossible to model.

 

 

Jonathan

Edited October 2, 2022 by corneliuslundie
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[MrWolf]

Some very interesting architectural details in all of those photos. 

I do like the Munster's house at the top of your street.

[corneliuslundie]

There is another tower at the right hand end of the terrace but it has no spire. Not sure though how you get into the room at the top. Broomstick perhaps.

Jonathan

[TheQ]

On 25/10/2021 at 12:11, Metropolitan H said:

 

 

Hope that helps put the record straight. If Nearholmer wishes I will loan him the book (published 2018) that I bought in Odell's Ironmongers in Stony Stratford - they do a good line in local history books!

 

Regards

Chris H

Odell's probably are featured in most of the local history books, since they opened in 1740 and are still  in the same shop..

[Nearholmer]

A shrine to ironmongery.

 

It is such a lovely day, and I had such a good bike ride, that I feel compelled to contribute, even if the contribution looks like a large puddle. It’s actually the outfall of a spring, which I like to visit in passing in all seasons, because it somehow manages to encapsulate them.

 

Definite “local weather”, with thick, chilly mist up to about 150ft above river/lake level, then the sensation of cycling up out of the top of the clouds. Bunyan’s ‘sunlit uplands’, literally the ones he knew.

 

 

 

 

Edited November 2, 2021 by Nearholmer

[Compound2632]

5 hours ago, corneliuslundie said:

formerly a Welsh language chapel, now a children's nursery

 

... and not even a Welsh language one, by the look of it, more's the pity.

[mike morley]

Mentioned a couple of weeks ago

Pub sign of the Crewe Arms, Hinton-in-the-Hedges.  Perfect for anyone who fancies having ago at a lattice signal post but whose layout is of a railway that didnt use them.

[MrWolf]

That's an interesting bit of ironwork. It looks more like it started life as part of a radio mast.

 

[mike morley]

We do like canals on this thread, don't we?

Oxford Canal, north of the Heyfords.  Bridge 200 has a different parapet on each side.

 

I've never seen a gated towpath before but there's lots along the entire stretch between Somerton Crossing and well north of Aynho.  Nearly all are variations on a very similar theme, very substantial and obviously made by a skilled blacksmith, probably in the foundry of the original canal company.  Very similar gates were found everywhere, not just on canals, until comparatively recently and having knocked up a couple of simplified versions out of scrap etch a month or so ago I'm pleased to report that they are rather easier to scratchbuild than you might expect.

 

The Oxford Canal's version of an occupation bridge.  Other canals used variations on the same theme.  Beautifully balanced, it took hardly any effort to get it tilting, but when I tried to stop it mid-tilt I was instantly made very aware of both the considerable weight of the bridge and the laws of inertia!

[ChrisN]

I found this thread at its start, then lost it, but now have caught up.  No photos to add at present, but a couple of points.  

 

Coal holes: very good reminder to me as I will in the not to distant, be building a line of Victorian Houses.  Some houses apparently had a cupboard behind the kitchen, or there abouts, but the house I lived in in Tottenham had a coal cellar with a coal hole.  I remember it as not being very big, the hole that is, but I might have been mistaken.  The front 'garden' was probably no more than six foot wide.  The house I grew up in, which was built by Tottenham Council in 1953 had a block at the back, one coal shed, one tool shed, two facing towards us, two to our next door neighbours.  (We had an alleyway between the houses.)

 

Water pumps: My eldest son, when he was 10, had to ask his mum, and his grandmothers, what they had in their houses when they were 10.  My mum was born on North Hertfordshire farm in 1915, and she said that at the age of ten they were still having to collect water from the village pump.  The farm did, and still does connect with one of the roads in the village.

[corneliuslundie]

Monday again. Comments about the buildings in our street made me think again about the interesting porches on some of the houses. I am a bit nervous about photographing other people's houses so these images are from Google Street view.

 

 

Those two houses are almost opposite us. Very modest three storey terrace houses dating from the first part of the 19th century.

 

And these two cace onto the roundabout at the bottom end of the street.

 

And this one is a rather more upmarket house at the bottom of the street, actually next for to those in the previous view. Now though flats I think, and still terraced. Probably older than our house or the first one above as they seemed to have started building at the foot of the hill and gradually worked upwards.

Jonathan

Edited November 8, 2021 by corneliuslundie
Deleting duplicate images