Anopheles Corner .. War & Peace .. Stand by your beds, .. (and you, Elizabeth xxx) .. its suddenly turned a bit chilly round the old armpits here today! .. That oppressive humid heat of a few days ago has gone and being here in Leonard Towers is no longer like acting out a scene in, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, or, A Street Car Named Desire .. I so enjoyed those steamy, hot and sweaty, Tennessee Williams stories! ..Those salt tablets were making me feel quite ill, you know, and the insect repellent was bringing me out in hives! . Im huddled over my booze stained keyboard, no longer draped in a mosquito net, but back in my woolly combinations, (with a tailboard, as we macho hauliers say) liberty bodice and my prayer shawl on standby! .. Its an early start today .. Big Assumpta has commandeered my car, trailer and my weather ravaged body, to drive up to the extreme north of the beautiful Co. Donegal, to collect a bed shes bought off some knacker up on the Isle of Inishowen, which isnt far short of Malin Head and well inside the Arctic Circle! .. Apparently, Im to be joined by her mother, Portumna Peg (the monster that ate Europe) .. I had a load of manure in my trailer last week .. do you think I should give it a swill with my hosepipe before leaving to follow in the steps of Saint Brendan the Navigator? (St Brendan and a group of his monks sailed off in a curragh from the West of Ireland to discover America in about the year dot and saw fire breathing dragons on their way ..Poteen was popular even in those days, folks? ... and the potato hadnt even been invented!) .. Malin Head, I guess to many people, is one of those wonderful mysterious names heard on the shipping forecast, but, its real and I was there a few years ago when I spent a lovely weekend with Nuala, (no funny business!) a good friend of mine who in those days, made documentaries for BBC Radio Foyle in Derry. . Like many folks, Nuala worked in the north and lived in the south. The interesting thing about Malin Head is that its the most northerly tip of the island of Ireland and although Malin is in Southern Ireland ... if you stand on top of Malin Head and peer over your right shoulder, you can, on a clear day, see Northern Ireland behind you in the south!!! . Honest Injun! .. Another lady who enjoys a career in radio here and is originally from Wimbledon, is Rachael. . She lives in a little croft house on Inishowen.. I raided her CD collection one Sunday morning whilst she was making me a cup of tea!. .None of it was really my scene .. there is a limit to how much Los Paraguayos or some Mongolian musician snorting on his nose flute I can take ... its almost as bad as Country & Wellington! .. Rachael hosts a daily specialised music programme on RTE Lyric FM. . I said to her one day, isnt it a long daily to drive from the Isle of Inishowen to Dublin to host a radio programme? .. She looked at me and with a certain amusement in her voice, informed me that she presents her show from the BBC in Derry, which is just across Lough Foyle! .. Incidentally, on the sandy beach at Malin Head, below the cliffs and painted in white, are enormous rocks arranged to spell out EIRE. . Apparently, this idea came about in WW2 as a navigable aid to allied aircraft and is still up kept til this day! .. The Nazis bombed parts of Ireland, so this may have acted as a bloody handy signpost, eh? .. Whats all this got to do with anything? .. I hear you ask ... well .. nothing really! .. . Oh yes, manure ... when I was a sprog, all the women in Granley Road(formerly CLODDYMOOR ROAD, en it, Melvyn?) including my mum, used to hide behind the lace curtains with a bucket and spade clutched in their washday blue hands waiting for the familiar sound of the milkmans, coalmans, grocermans, bakermans or rag & bonemans horse clip-clopping down the road. . They had a lot of crap on their minds and stared out into the street as the merchant made his calls and waiting, hoping and hovering in case Dobbin should have a movement. ..If it happened, there was a mad dash to the steaming pile of excrement, swarming with myriad flies! .Manure for the garden was a much prized trophy in the fifties! .. I hope youre enjoying your breakfasts? .. Its just come to my mind, that all ladies in those days and long before, wore a cleverly concocted, kind of folded scarf on their heads whenever they were working .. Mrs Feebrie from across the road, never even took hers off! .. Yesterday on DGBiC, Duncan Jolly posted some brilliant photos of one of the numerous USA class S160 locomotives which entered service in Britain during the second world war. . These powerful work horses were allocated over several continents and quite possibly survive in more numbers than any other steam engines in this day and age! . .I decided, a few days ago, to research a little of the history of our own steam locos roles in WW2 only to discover its a very complicated subject and all too highbrow for me! .. Therefore, for my own sake, Ill keep it as simple as possible. . At the outbreak of WW2, many British engines were commandeered by the War Department for export into Europe. . Some of these locomotives had already seen action in WW1 and returned home afterwards. . On top of that, locomotive builders across the nation were pressed into the service of constructing new engines for the war effort. . On top of that again, American engines arrived here to assist us in our home transportation struggles! .. The title Ministry of Supply comes to mind also, but Im not sure if that was the same as the War Department?... you know what a bunch of bureaucrats these civil servants are, theyll invent new departments over a mug of Ovaltine. .. Never spend a penny when a pound will do! .. ...One of Cheltenhams own locomotives went to the front and returned home again, albeit rather battered and bruised! .. In March 1940, LMS 0-6-0 tank locomotive, a Jinty as the class was affectionately known, was shipped away from her job as pilot (shunter) at High Street Yard at the Moors, down on the Tewkesbury Road.. I imagine her pre nationalisation number would have been, #7607 (?) .. The High Street Goods Yard Pilot was renumbered #WD 10 and she worked close to the front, up to where narrow gauge temporary lines were used. . When the Dunkirk evacuation began, she was left high and dry in France, subsequently seized and put to work by the Nazis. . Remarkably, #WD 10 and four of her sister Jinties, returned to dear old blighty in the Autumn of 1948. . In a very poor state of repair, #WD 10 entered Derby Works where she underwent renovation and many bullet holes were patched up! .. As BR civilian #47607 she re entered traffic based at Barnwood Shed, Gloucester, on 20th November 1948 and was soon back hard at work in Cheltenham High Street Sidings.. Its there #47607 posed for this photograph in 1949.. When Walter Dendy took this picture, he was the goods agent at the yard!
Posted on: Tue, 29 Jul 2014 07:13:17 +0000
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