This isn't urbex, it is just a little bit cool, a scrap yard in Cheshire with a whopping great airplane in the yard, and a bit of street art thrown into the mix - bloody cool, yeh, yeh a fucking plane !
I know far tooooooo many photos, but a bloody cool scrap yard, and as Pepa Pig would say "recycle, recycle, recycle !!"
Happy New Year ! The rains coming down, the hangover is lingering and your boss wants you back at work any day, if not tomorrow !!
So settle down with your cup of tea, put your feet up and have some links to kill a few minutes, whilst avoiding the Daily Mail.
So first off we hop over the water to the Emerald Isle with some abandoned mines in Ireland with The Journal.
Boing Boing has an interesting article on the rise of the graffiti hunters that use Instagram whilst out on the mooch.
Over to Russia on the hunt for the truth behind the Metro 2 underground via Russia BTH.
Back over to England and we have details of an explore of Drake' Island, from The Herald, I'm sure I could spend a good few days pottering around this one.
The New Statesman has an article on the long forgotten Victorian Hyperloop system in London, this article alone could send you off at a tangent for hours.
Oh my, the BBC have a video, its an interview with the authors of Sate of Decay.
And finally for your consideration, Google Glass - the release date is nearly upon us, will it change everything ?? Info from International Digital Times.
Did you hear Bolton got a big wheel for Christmas ? The town with no money got a bloody great wheel, 100ft of a beast, a present from a council with no money.
With millions of pounds having been slashed from Bolton Council's budget - effecting everything around the town - social care, parks and recreation, road repairs (you name it, its likely to be have been or will be cut) and further savings of £22 million on the cards for 2014, plus a further estimated £25 million also expected to be announced .
Well I had to walk past the thing everyday, so I might as well take some photos.
Then I flew over it, so I took some photos...
and then I flew over it some more...
Dear Cllr Cliff Morris, come December 2014 may I suggest that with the town falling into such a state of shit we have the big wheel again except with a Pripyat theme around the town.
To quote one of the flocking crowd "yeh great view, you can see all kinds of shit".
I start this post with a photograph of my first car, a Mini, I used to dash round the Lake District in this little beast in the 1980s, I have very few photos of my beloved little car but the ones I do have are taken a Hodge Close - another of my old haunts.
Having visited Cathedral Quarry I decided to shoehorn a quick visit to Hodge Close before my return home, being at the other side of the old Tilberthwaite mining area, a short distant from Coniston.
Hodge Close is a disused green slate quarry which closed just before World War II, a massive hole in the ground now frequented by rock climbers with its "Wicked Willie" and divers who explore its flooded depths of the main pool and the many flooded mine shafts and tunnels - the latter having claimed the lives of a growing number of divers.
The archway on the right used to have a piece of railway track dangling for a few metres above the water, sadly now destroyed by a rock fall.
Moving away from the top of the quarry (its a long way down and slate chippings cinematically fall as you nervously stand on the edge) a short walk up the track brings you to the top of the dry side of the quarry and a steep walk down into the bowels of quarry carefully manouvering the boulders and slippery slate scree.
As I drove home I cursed the day I sold my little Mini, as you do.....
A return to Cathedral Quarry, sometimes known as Cathedral Cave, located in Cumbria or as I know it The Lakes.
My last visits had been in the 1980s, usually over the Christmas period - been a long time and it didn't disappoint.
I'm trying to track down these old haunts, this hopefully is one of many from my list to mark off.
Trust me, believe the sign, the ford was flooded, as was the part of the lower road to Tilberthwaite.
So over the river via the bridge and up the hill brings you to Catherdral Quarry.
In these days of health and safety the signs simply say - be careful, now in the 80s the signs used to say "Keep Out", so in I went.
A dark damp hole in the ground, loved it and memories came flooding back of eating my lunch in this place every Christmas (not my Christmas dinner you understand, but usually over the Christmas holiday break).
Speaking of lunch, it was time to grab a sandwich and no sooner had I opened the my bag and this cheeky chap of a Robin landed inches from my food, a rather tame charmer of a bird.
We chatted, we ate, he posed (reading up on this little chap I now know he does hang about waiting for fools like me to pop into his lair and where upon he unleashes his pretty poses and bird like charms upon weary travelers) I snapped away.
With the time not on my hands, I decided to visit another old haunt and made the walk back to the car as the hail and sleet started to rush down the from the mountains.
As the throngs of Christmas shoppers descend on Manchester, a wander round the back streets of Manchester with a return visit to the Northern Quarter and an update on the Outhouse Project and the other gems in the surrounding streets.
With rather urbex'ee carparking (it was cheap) we parked in the arches under the train lines into Manchester Victoria, had it not been so busy it would have been ripe for a mooch.
- photo taken in the gloom with a Nokia Lumia 1020, no flash, no tripod.
A short walk with the hidden tunnels of the Manchester Cathedral Steps, we headed for the Northern Quarter.
Wandering up Tib Street, firstly we come across a fresh doggie by Stewy
Again a selection of the ever changing street art of the Northern Quarter
All this was sadly a little wasted on the Tin Dog, who had joined me for a potter round the back streets of Manchester, he doesn't "get it", adding that it wasn't bad and better than tagging in that a least some thought goes into street art. But he was nonplussed with his eyes rolling in their sockets with boredom.
In a very strange twist we then ended up at Proper Tea, for a cup of errrr tea - I can recommend this place highly and the Beijing Breakfast Tea is to die for.
Enough of the poncy tea drinking, until next time.........
