Reddish South Railway Station

Reddish South Railway Station is a stop that serves the community of Reddish, Stockport. Frequently amongst the 10 least used stations in the whole of the UK, Reddish South currently has 2 scheduled stops per week both on a Saturday morning in each direction.

Reddish South opened in October 1845 when the line between Stockport and Guide Bridge was completed by the Manchester & Birmingham Railway, barely a year later the line passed into the ownership of the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) when the M&BR, Grand Junction Railway and Liverpool and Manchester Railways merged.

The station was a busy stop in it's early tears and consisted of 2 island platforms, a signal box, engine shed and large goods yard. The station was busy throughout it's first half century until trains were redirected in May 1899, reducing much of the passing railway traffic.

Reddish South continued to decline and by the 1960's, British Rail was under large scale downsizing as part of the Beeching cuts and despite many stations like Reddish South and lines like the Stockport-Stalybridge closing they survived the cuts. Despite surviving the station continued to be run down with a lack of investment with the line reduced to single track status, the 2 island platforms reduced to 1 and the the track bed filled in, the station buildings and engine shed demolished and eventually the sidings and land around the station sold off and redeveloped. 

By the 1980's Reddish South had become a request stop only and even this was eventually reduced to a parliamentary service of 1 train per week at 9.22am on a Friday from Stockport to Stalybridge. In 2007 proposals were made to close the station along with Denton to the north, but keep the line open. This prompted a campaign to get more services and investment at Reddish South and a local group has added a mural, flower bed and picket fence to brighten the station up.

The station today suffers because of a lack of investment, no facilities and only 2 scheduled stops per week, both on a Saturday morning in each direction. Whilst there you could see plenty of house buildings adjacent to Reddish South and a large Morrisons store is located just behind the mural that are potential customers to the stop. Just 158 passengers used the station in 2019/20, an average of 3 per week, the stop is just 1 mile from Reddish North Railway Station which served 242000 in the same period, over 1531 times the amount that used Reddish South.

The pictures were taken on the 15th December 2020 using a Nikon d3300 SLR, they can be seen below and on Clickasnap un-watermarked and higher resolution by clicking any image.

The stations only entrance, the infilled section to the right was once trackbed making the station multi platform, it is now served by 1.

Despite low usage, a lack of investment, and 1 train a week stopping the stations limited facilities are looked after by Friends of Reddish South.

To the stations northern end, past a limited size fence is the disused section of the platform. The construction site to the right used to be the stations goods yard.

The fence represents the end of the used part of the station.

The used part of the station, showing the lack of facilities and shelters.

Freightliner 66610 passing through the station, the line is mainly used by freight trains.

The station viewed from the bridge, the former goods yard having houses constructed on it.

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All the pictures remain the copyright of Colin Green.

Buxton, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Oakham and March. Multiple Picture Postcards.

 Part of my collection of postcards this set of 4 is one I currently have for sale and feature various images from Buxton, Derbyshire, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire. Oakham, Rutland and March Cambridgeshire.

Buxton.

The card I have a Buxton actually features a fold away set of pictures that pull down to reveal another set of pictures from Buxton. I haven't scanned these yet but will do shortly. The main pictures are of Buxton from the Town Hall, The Pavilion Gardens, The Crescent and Serpentine walk at the Pavilion Gardens.

Ashby-de-la-Zouch.

The pictures featured in the Ashby-de-la-Zouch card number 5 and feature the castle ruins, Bath Street, Trinity Church, Elizabethan House and the Loudoun Memorial.

Oakham.

The 4 images shown here are All Saints Church, High Street, Market Place and the Castle.

March.

The final card featured in this post shows March, Cambridgeshire in a set of 3 pictures that include St Windreda's Church, River Nene and Broad Street.

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British Postcards, Hereford, Evesham, Stoneleigh, Blenheim Palace and Stratford-on -Avon

 Part of my collection of collectible postcards, these are part of a collection I am currently listing on Ebay. The all feature multiple pictures of the location featured and can be seen here and on Flickr.

Hereford.

There are 2 postcards featuring scenes from Hereford, card 1 features The Old House, Cathedral Tower and bridge across the River Wye.

Card 2 features images of the Cathedral, Wye Bridge and the Old House.

Evesham.

The images features in the Evesham card include the Hampston Ferry, Gaiety Boat, Bell Tower and Evesham Lock.

Stoneleigh.

Stoneleigh, Warwickshire features images of Park Avenue West, The Broadway, Stoneleigh Hotel, Ewell Court House.

Blenheim Palace.

This card contains images of Sir Winston Churchill, Blenheim Palace, The Great Hall, the room in which Sir Winston Churchill was born and the Lake.

Stratford-on-Avon.

The final card in this post features images from Stratford-on-Avon. The pictures include the River Avon and Clopton Bridge, Shakespeare's Birthplace, Ann Hathaways House, The Gower Monument and Basin and the Avon & Shakespeare Memorial Theatre.

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Sailing Boats at Les Saintes-Maries De La Mer

 Part of a series of paintings by Vincent Van Gogh created in June 1888, when he took a trip to the area from Arles where he was then living. He was there for a week long trip to recover from health problems he had suffered from at the time.

The picture is also known as Fishing Boats on the Beech at Saintes-Maries-De-La-Mer, according to Wikipedia Van Gogh described to his brother the following

"I made the drawing of the boats when I left very early in the morning, and I am now working on a painting based on it, a size 30 canvas with more sea and sky on the right. It was before the boats hastened out, i had watched them every morning, but as they leave very early I didn't have time to paint them."

This was the front of a postcard I recently purchased, clicking the image will open a link in another window to my Clickasnap profile.

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Woolshops Shopping Centre, Halifax

The Woolshops is a shopping centre in the heart of Halifax, West Yorkshire. Named after the Grade II listed timber building built in 1670, that can be found to the north west of the precinct. The centre was originally planned as an Arndale Centre in the mid 1970's, this development would have seen the Woolshops or Tudor house building disappear with many of the other long standing properties nearby. This plan was abandoned by 1979 when a number of the anchor tenants withdrew from the project leading to the building of the Woolshops as an alternative. Phase 1 was completed in 1983, Phase 2 saw additional shops added opposite Marks and Spencers and towards the north gate of the Piece Hall on the site of the car park during the late 1990's - early 2000's

These pictures were taken on an early Sunday morning in May 2018, using a Nikon d3300. The emptiness shows how town centres are suffering from reduced footfall due to restrictive parking, higher pricing and in recent years the effect of Covid.

The centre is named after the building to the left of the picture housing Coffee Cali, the building known as the Woolshops is thought to be amongst the oldest still remaining in Halifax Town Centre. The steps now feature a statue dedictaed to the Duke of Wellington's Regiment.

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All the pictures remain the copyright of Colin Green.

Queensbury Tunnel (Updated)

 I previously posted about the Queensbury Tunnel in December 2017, a number of the pictures that were featured in that post were lost over time so I recently thought I would go back and have a look at what I had and repost them. The full set can be seen here, on Flickr, and on Clickasnap, with some put together to make the following video available to see here and on YouTube, please take a moment to subscribe to my channel.

The video features modern and vintage images taken along the trackbed from Strines Cutting to the former site of Queensbury Station. The Historical images and ones inside the tunnel that are not mine are all Creative Commons licensed or copyright unknown. Credits are given were possible.

Strines Cutting was a railway cutting on approach to the southern portal of Queensbury Tunnel. It was approx. 1030ft long and 59ft deep and ran through solid rock. The cutting was crossed by an Aqueduct that carried Strines / Ovenden beck over the railway. This bridge is still standing today although the ground below is now infilled and it looks more like a wall across some waste ground. The cutting is now largely filled in with only a short section to the tunnel entrance still remaining although this is mostly flooded as drainage along the cutting and in to the tunnel has always been an issue.

Queensbury Tunnel was built by the Great Northern Railway to provide a link from Holmefield Station, Halifax to Queensbury Station allowing travel beyond to Bradford and Keighley. Construction was started in May 1874 and took over 3 years to complete opening to goods traffic on the 14th October 1878. Passenger trains not being introduced until December 1879 when the station at Queensbury was completed. It was to be another 5 years before those same passengers could complete the journey to Keighley, the line from Queensbury to Keighley making slow progress due to financial issues.

Once completed the tunnel ran for 7503ft making it the longest on the Great Northern Railway and also one of the deepest in the country. There had been plans to have 8 air shafts, the plans changing then to 7 and finally 5 due to significant water ingress (the tunnel and cutting has always suffered issues due to water drainage). The deepest shaft completed was 379ft deep, although shaft number 5 would have reached a depth of 414ft had it been completed. Around 700 men were involved in the tunnels construction and at least 10 are thought to have died during the build period with many more injured. 

Once opened the tunnel was operational until the 1950's, the line suffering as passenger numbers declined, but freight traffic remained busy until after the 2nd World War. The high cost of maintaining the tunnel and cutting made the tunnel an early favourite for closure during the post war economy measures and the now with hindsight short sighted decision was made to close the line to traffic. Passenger services were withdrawn on the 23rd May 1955, with goods traffic withdrawn on the 28th May 1956. The line through the tunnel was then mothballed until 1963 when it was finally uplifted.

There is now a campaign for the tunnel to be reopened as part of a cycleway connecting Bradford with Halifax. Engineers are currently trying to push through a scheme to abandon and fill the tunnel with concrete. I  am hoping the people campaigning to save the tunnel are successful in the fight. To find out more please take a moment to view the site at http://www.queensburytunnel.org.uk/

Strines / Ovenden Beck Aqueduct. Strines cutting used to run to a depth of approx 59ft beneath where I was stood to take the picture.

The southern portal of Queensbury Tunnel after it had been drained to allow engineers to asses the damage inside. The entrance rocks are what remains of Strines Cutting.

This is what the entrance to Queensbury Tunnel normally looks like.

Taken on the former Queensbury - Thornton - Keighley trackbed looking towards the former site of Queensbury Station. Opened in 1879 the station was triangular in shape, when opened being one of only 4 shaped that way in England. The station had connections with Bradford, Halifax, Keighley and beyond. The station was 400ft lower than the town and closed to passengers in 1955, and goods, excursion traffic in 1963, other than trackbed nothing of the station now remains.

Clicking any image should open a link in another window to my railway images album on Clickasnap.

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All the pictures remain the copyright of Colin Green.

Bescar Lane Railway Station

 Bescar Lane Railway Station is a small countryside stop on the Manchester to Southport Line. It can be found in the village of Scarisbrick approx. 7 miles to the east of Southport. It is unmanned with only limited facilities with no car parking, ticketing or refreshment facilities on the station or nearby. The station has small passenger numbers with only 3988 recorded users in 2016 / 17, an average of just 77 passengers per week.

The station was originally opened in April 1855 and has undergone a number of changes since then. rly 1990's both platforms were opposite each other with the remains of the westbound platform still showing despite it moving to the other side of the level crossing a few years ago. The station was served by a signal box alongside the level crossing but this was also removed around the time of the platform redevelopment.

The set of pictures was taken on August 21st 2018 using a Nikon d3300 SLR camera. They can be seen below or on Clickasnap full size, resolution and un-watermarked by clicking any image. link will open in another window.

The remains of the goods yard.

Taken from the level crossing the stations disused platform can be seen
overgrown and long since abandoned. When this platform was taken
out of use it was replaced by another at the other side of the level crossing.

Thanks for looking and please take a moment to share and follow me on social media. The pictures can also be seen on Clickasnap by clicking on any image.

Thanks for looking, please take a moment to share and follow me on social media.

All the images remain the copyright of Colin Green.

View my YouTube channel to see more videos like this.

Bill Ward Pin Up Girls

 In addition to my own photography I am also a collector of images, having purchased many collections of photographs, images, 35mm slides, postcards over the years. A few years ago I bought a job lot collection of pin up girl cartoons and images, I was advised at the time that they were all copyright free or public domain so there is no intention to infringe any copyright by me.

Bill Ward was an American "Good Girl" artist and cartoonist who was notable as the creator of the comic character Torchy.  Born William Hess Ward on the 6th March 1919, he grew up in Ridgewood New Jersey where he developed illustrating as a hobby. Attending the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, Ward graduated in 1941 and obtained a job as an assistant at a Manhattan art agency, where he was eventually fired for cutting through a half finished illustration of a Ford motor car. After this Ward went to work for comic book artist Jack Binder, the creator of Daredevil a modern Marvel comics hero. Over the next several decades Ward worked on features such as Captain Marvel, Bullet Man, Blackhawk, Judge Dredd, and his most famous creation Torchy.

The following video features 20 of his "good girl" images with the original caption displayed in the clip.

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Todmorden Unitarian Church (April 2017)

 Todmorden Unitarian Church is located at Honey Hole Road, Todmorden, West Yorkshire. The church was built in the memory of John Fielden a local mill owner, social reformer and member of parliament for Oldham between 1832-1847. Fielden was also a prominent member of the local unitarian movement. Building work began in 1865, paid for by his 3 sons Joshua, John and Samuel on land the Fielden family donated, the budget was not limited by them with the final bill over £35000 ( over £3.5 million at 2020 rates). The work was completed in 1869 with the church opening in April with a sermon preached by William Gaskell to a congregation of over 800 people.

The church continued to grow until the early pert of the 20th Century when like most other religions in the UK, congregations started to decline. As numbers decreased it became increasingly harder to fund the upkeep of the building and by 1987 the decision was taken to close the main church building and move services to the nearby lodge at the entrance to the church grounds. These services continued until 1992 when the church and grounds were closed completely.

After the complete closure the church decayed and was subject to large amounts of vandalism. In 1994 the Historic Chapels Trust took over the church and over the next few years spent over £1million pounds on repairs. The church is licensed for weddings and is used locally as a meeting place.

The church was granted Grade I listed status on the 22nd November 1966, with the lodge at the entrance gaining Grade II listed status on the 22nd February 1984.

The following pictures were taken with a Nikon d3300 SLR camera on the 22nd April 2017.

All the pictures taken in my various visits can also be seen in my video on YouTube. Please take a moment to subscribe to my YouTube channel.

Thanks for looking and please take a moment to share. All the pictures remain the copyright of Colin Green