Bolton Burnden Viaducts - June 2015

Here at Fraggle Towers we like a bit of good news.

For years the disused railway viaducts of Darcy Lever and Burnden Park sat unused and gated off, the final trains crossed in them in 1970.






So June 2015 they have finally been reopended to the public as part of a footpath and cycleway between Bolton and Bury.

Sadly not much to see, but a walk I've wanted to do for a about 40 years and a cracking short cut across from Leverhulme Park across into Bolton.

Couple of pics.

 

 

Only thing I would say is, given its only been open a week, dogwalkers pick up your dog shit you dirty scumbags.

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Bromborough Power Station - April 2013

A rare venture for myself into Merseyside, the relatively short journey down the East Lancs Road to Liverpool and beyond is not a trip I've made many times in my life. In fact this was my first trip ever under the River Mersey into Birkenhead, Port Sunlight and Bromborough.

Although thinking about it I did once take a ferry across the Mersey and they kept playing that bloody song on a loop - I think I've tried to mentally block the memories of that day.

On this not so fine day I find myself in the company of fellow explorer Urban Spaceman and the new boy to our crew, the ever wordy Tin Dog.

Bromborough Power Station, well what can we say except that sadly there is not very much left other than its got this very lovely control room which reminds me of a 1970s jigsaw I once owned as a kid, Jon Pertwee, Doctor Who.

As I say not much left, this is the old switch room for the now demolished power station originally build for the Lever Bros industrial hub in and around the Port Sunlight and Bromborough area of Merseyside.

So not very much to look at on the outside...

 

But once inside, a nice little gem.



With a Homer Simpson, oh you don't see it ? 

 

You can almost imagine the scene in the 70's, the big control desk buzzing away and some guy with his feet up between the dials. Bored shitless and chain smoking his head off, with the room filled with the stale smoke from his Benson & Hedges full fat - possibly with a large mug of coffee or perhaps over stewed tea carefully nestled on a pile of dog eared Mayfair, Penthouse or similar gentlemen's magazine. This was the 70's, it was bleak and newsagents still sold The Sun, this was Merseyside, as a bonus for any any hard working Scouser you could even see the Mersey from the window. This is my memory of most places of industry in the 1970s as now reinforced by watching Life on Mars a few times too many, except I came from Bolton with no Mersey just the mere trickle of a river, The Croal.

 

 







 

Small, compact, rewarding -  I rather liked this place.