Today has been a tiring day. Not because I’ve been busy, but because I decided to pull an all-nighter and watch yesterday’s General Election results as they came in through the night. Apart from a short nap at about 1am in the morning for an hour or so, I have been awake since 7am yesterday morning.
I feel like the towel in this picture, and I’ve caught myself nodding off while sat upright a number of times now!
After yesterday’s post about the sad story of The Marples, here’s another Sheffield pub with a point of interest.
The name probably gives away the fact that there is a connection with the mail service, but the interesting fact is (and I’ve not verified this) is that it is the only pub in the country that is built into a Royal Mail building, in this case the Sheffield City Delivery Office. I once went into the delivery office as a child (my nan was a postwoman) and was fascinated by the sight of hundreds of bags of mail moving around the plave on a suspended rail system. How much fun it would have been to ride around the place in a mail bag, I thought.
The building in today’s photograph houses a pawn broker and a self-storage facility, but it was once a pub called The London Mart, although known as Marples by regulars (after it’s owner, John Marples). It is possibly the most famous bar in the city due to the tragedy which befell it during the Second World War.
On the night of Thursday December 12, 1940, the pub received a direct hit from a high-explosive bomb dropped by the German Luftwaffe. The building was destroyed, collapsing into a pile of rubble, killing 70 people from the estimated 77 who were inside at the time. It was initially thought that no-one could have survived the attack, but when rescue activities began the next day seven people were pulled from the wreckage of the building, including two who walked away unaided, never to be heard from again!
Following the destruction, the site lay derelict for 19 years until, in 1959, a new pub was built on the site, this time officially named The Marples. The pub remained open for the next 44 years until it closed for good in 2003, the building taking on a number of different uses in the following two decades. While the space previously occupied by the pub is now the Cash Shop pawn brokers, the upper floors have revived The Marple’s naming and are to become a housing co-operative.
This is a somewhat unassuming picture of the building that currently houses Heron Foods, a frozen foods store, on Haymarket in Sheffield. The structure managed to survive the ravages of The Blitz that destroyed much of Sheffield’s old city centre architecture during World War Two.
What I find more interesting is the faded sign that can be seen in the middle first floor window. This advertises The House of Curls, a hairdressing salon that was in business during the 1970s and 1980s, but which has been closed now for the best part of forty years I believe. Apparently, the salon housed a number of booths on the upper floors which were rented out by the operator to individual hairdressers.
It pleases me that the signage remains after this time. There’s something strangely comforting about ghost signs such as this. Things change, but the memories remain.
The River Idle runs for 26 miles through Nottinghamshire, eventually discharging into the River Trent at West Stockwith. It’s source is a confluence of two smaller rivers, the Maun and the Meden near Markham Moor, just beside the busy A1 road.
While there are a number of suggested sources for the Idle’s name, the origin is not confirmed.
I took this photograph of the river where it flows through Retford, beneath the chesterfield canal, which crosses it on an aqueduct. On this day, the weather was very nice, and the light cast upon and through the waters, illuminating the riverbed and long streamers of gently twisting water weed.
Yashica Mat 124G & Fujifilm Pro 400H. Lab developed, home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro. Converted to B&W in Lightroom.
The picture shared today features a pair of adult swans and, if you look closely, their brood of cygnets.
The photograph was taken a few minutes after the swan at the front had gone into full blown protect-the-family mode.
A man was coming down the canal on a sit-down paddle board (he must have been fishing, as there were a couple of fishing rods attached to the back of the board). As soon as the swan noticed him heading in the direction of its family, even though he was still about thirty meters away, immediately launched into a threatening flight directly towards the man, flying inches above the surface, it’s wing tips making splashes on the water.
The guy on the paddle-board slowed himself to a stop and the swan dropped back into the water maybe seven or eight feet in front of him, it’s long neck coiled down into a tight number-two shape. The swan then proceeded to swim back and forth in front of the board, clearly prepared for any sign of hostility towards it’s nearby family. This continued until the guy gently and slowly passed downstream from the birds.
I took great care not to antagonise the swans when I took this picture. The thing about a swan being able to break a man’s arm is most likely an urban myth, but I felt it prudent to take no chances. 🙂
Yashica Mat 124G & Fujifilm Pro 400H. Lab developed, home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro. Converted to B&W in Lightroom.
A decent amount of my photography focuses on subjects that most would probably not find attractive – brutalist architecture, factories, modern office developments, rundown parts of town, even the odd dead pigeon and ashtray have featured.
But I like the picturesque as much as anyone else and will photograph it when it presents itself. We have an abundance of small towns, villages, hamlets and the like throughout the UK and, due to the relatively compact nature of our island, you’re never too far from one. Even the more humdrum of them will have plentiful opportunities for photograph hunting.
The National Parks, in particular, are jam packed with lovely little places to find and explore. The downside is that they can attract crowds of sightseers. While this isn’t a problem for the businesses that cater to them, it can mean that it’s difficult to get a photograph without someone standing in (or suddenly entering, just as you press the shutter!) the frame. For this reason, I prefer to visit such places mid-week if I can, or during the wintertime when tourist numbers are much reduced, but sometimes a crowded sunny weekend is the chance I get, and it’s better to make the most of it than grumble. There’s a certain charm to having tourists in a picture too, I suppose.
The scene below is in Castleton, a village in the Peak District National Park, famous for its castle and also a number of caves and caverns that have public entry and guided tours. Speedwell Cavern even features a subterranean boat ride!
Yashica Mat 124G & Fujifilm Pro 400H. Lab developed, home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
