Coronation Street - April 2014

School holidays, time out from derping for a quick drive to Salford with Mrs Hunter and the Fraglets.
 

Well what can I say, first off I haven't watched Corrie for years, secondly I rather enjoyed it as did the rest of the gang.

A 45 minute tour of some of the old interior sets, make up areas and the dressing rooms followed by an as long as you want to potter around the cobbles of the famous street.

 

- The street itself is not very big and with the crowds you do have to have the patience of a saint to get your clear shots.

 

 





Took me 15 minutes to get this clear-ish shot.



 

Over all I would have give it 7/10 for a trip out, but given how much Mrs Hunter and the Fraglets loved it giving me some major Brownie Points, the final points come in at 10/10.

Selby Coalfield - April 2014

The fall of the the UK coal industry is well documented and perhaps now a little shortsighted in light of Mr Putin and his tightening his grip on the energy supply across Europe.

- With Russia having the caused the little issues of Chernobyl, Balakovo and Chlelyabinsk we obviously have nothing to worry about the Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom building a cluster of nuclear power stations across the UK, ignoring any possible issues with the events currently bubbling over from the slowly creeping invasion of the Ukraine.

Anyway that aside and the impending power shortages, we, the UK used to have a massive coal industry, with the Selby setup producing over 121 million tonnes in its relatively short lifespan.

The Selby Superpit was made up of Wistow Mine, Stillingfleet Mine, Riccall Mine, North Selby Mine, Whitemoor Mine with all the coal being brought to the surface at Gascoigne Mill.

Finally closing in 2004, 2014 and we, Judderman and myself visited the two of the sites this sunny Easter Weekend,  being of modern construction, a little bland and well the pictures say it all, enjoy.

First off Wistow Mine, which sadly has very few redeeming features being of breeze block construction and pretty is featureless.
 







Back to the cars and on to North Selby Mine, more of the same, with many of the buildings again having been demolished.

Thankfully North Selby does have a few interesting little bits left, but again not the most exciting of places.

 









 


Big thanks to Judderman for his planning resulting in a very enjoyable day of pottering around the Yorkshire countryside, a beautiful part of the country with lots of hidden surprises.....

Naylor Jennings, West Yorkshire - April 2014

You can't go far wrong on a drive thru Yorkshire, always something to see and having just left Otley I found myself leafing the pages of my little yellow book of derp and stuff.

The yellow book was part of bulk buy of pocket books from Sainsburys, they didn't do black and I didn't fancy the shocking pink - 48p reduced from £3.50 a bargain with Nectar Points thrown in.

My yellow book is my bible of stuff and every one should have one (or 4 in my case), it has postcodes, addresses, even longitude and latitude in some cases given I'm a geek.

"Naylor Jennings, 2.8 miles", a u-turn was made and we aborted some WW2 thing we had spotted from the car earlier.

From the outside the To Let sign was a tad misleading, this couldn't be the same Naylor Jennings I had read about ???



But it was, mass satanic mill type stuff thrashed to an inch of its life.
 

Blood had been spilt on a careless entry but our intrepid explorers continued, only pausing to bid good day to some passing graffiti artists and later to adjust the tourniquet on the near mortal wound.
 

 

 



Its a bit maze like in places and a bit of a knacker, but still retains some charm which I'm guessing the local householders don't appreciate.











Overall, it was a not bad little mooch and another tick in the yellow book (with its newly blood splattered design).

I just wish I'd given the place just a little more time to explore.

- visited with Urban Spaceman.

Lawns Wood Cemetery - April 2014

Just passing en-route and we dropped in, not sure how I got to know about this place but some cracking shots to be had in this cemetery which sits on the outskirts of Otley, West Yorkshire.

 



This cemetery has some very unusual headstones and memorials...



The door, slightly open waiting for someone to enter or perhaps leave ?



Now if I had seen that as a child I would have shit myself and had sleepless nights for months.

So we carried on walking, not far, until we found this memorial, no Bart Simpson or similar engraved on this one.






 

 



We continued, sadly our search for the Weeping Angels was in vain, but the search will continue.

 



Just don't blink as you press the shutter....