Tram, train, rain, tram.

Friday 6th September 2019

Manchester's Metrolink Tram system extends far beyond the city to the surrounding suburbs and nearby towns.

Such as Bury, 8 miles north-west of Manchester on the River Irwell and famous for black pudding and as the birthplace of Sir Robert Peel, founder of the Metropolitan Police and the Conservative Party. One of which facts probably makes him a hate figure, you can decide for yourself which.

The Metrolink trams are not low-floor vehicles, surprisingly since they run through the streets, and so require stops that are more like railway stations with quite high platforms. unlike the trams in Croydon where the platform is little more than a raised height kerb.

Handily for the visitor the system allows contactless payment with daily caps, almost like London's Oyster except that you need to touch in and touch out again at the end of your journey. Failure to touch out will result in a £4.60 incomplete journey charge. Failure to touch in will get you a stonking £30 "standard contactless fare". Since I can't see any journey that would cost that much why don't they just be honest and call it a penalty charge? Either way, don't forget to touch in and out. So I touched in using G-pay at St. Peter's Square and hopped on a "green line" service to Bury. The trams run for part of the way over what was the East Lancashire Railway line and there are some far reaching views of Lancashire along the way. The line terminates in the town centre at Bury Interchange. 

The original East Lancashire Railway however terminated at Bury Bolton Street station, about 5 minutes walk from Bury Interchange and the current East Lancashire Railway is still there.

The street level building dates from 1952, the previous one having burnt down after the war. The rest of the station and platforms are below in a deep cutting.

There was about an hour to wait before the next departure to Rawtenstall so I walked across Bolton Street and down the slope to the Bury Transport Museum which is connected with the heritage railway and housed in a former Castlecroft Goods Warehouse. Entry is free although as with any free museum they are donation-hungry. Chuck a few quid in if you can.

It's not a huge museum but they have managed to pack quite a lot in there. They have a wide selection of vehicles including buses, lorries, tractors, vans, cars, and even a steam roller.

There's plenty of hands-on stuff for children to play with too, though as it was Friday there weren't any, at least while I was there. I expect it's different at the weekend.

It certainly kept me interested until it was time to wander back to the railway station, purchase a return ticket to Rawtenstall (£12.50) from the traditional ticket office window and go down to the platform and await the 1455 departure.

It was a pleasant trip despite the weather coming over all "northern" and I made this video which covers the trip there and back.

Having returned to Bury it was Friday evening commuter time. It was also time for something to eat. Bury isn't short of fast food outlets which provided amply for that requirement.

I singularly failed to get any black pudding but I had nowhere to keep it until I went home anyway.

So I touched in at Bury Interchange and rode a somewhat busier tram back to Manchester city centre and walked back to my hotel.

Considering I'd forgotten that the steam railway was there until I actually got to Bury I consider that was a good afternoon all round.

People's History Museum

Friday 6th September 2019

I had few firm plans for what to see while I was in Manchester but this was one of them. In a former Edwardian pumping station next to the River Irwell, the People's History Museum "is the national museum of democracy, telling the story of its development in Britain: past, present, and future".

 The two main exhibitions are found in Main Galleries One and Two on the first and second floors respectively.

Main Gallery One covers the period from the Peterloo Massacre of 1819 until the end of the Second World War in 1945.

I'd already visited the excellent Peterloo 200th anniversary exhibition on the ground floor, so gallery one took the story on from there, covering the industrial revolution, reformers, workers' organizations, political parties, and the fight for universal suffrage. The display pictured above is the first thing you see on entry to the gallery, it says "Abuse of Power Two hundred years ago Britain's political system was corrupt and controlled by a few rich men. Without the right to vote, ordinary people had no power to change their lives." Reading that it's hard not to think that, apart from more people having a vote, the situation in 2019 isn't very different. 😞

The personal stories of ordinary people living through extraordinary times are the most interesting part of the way the exhibition presents the history of social change, along with many many physical and multimedia exhibits. There is a lot of information here although the way the space is laid out sometimes makes it hard to follow as you walk around.

Moving up to the second floor and to Main Gallery Two where postwar politics is the main theme, from the hopefulness of the new Labour government of 1945, through the difficulties of the 1950s and the swinging back and forth between Labour and Tory governments, both promising to deliver the best for ordinary people but by differing means, into the 1970s when ambitious union leaders led their members down a path that eventually led to Thatcherism, erosion of the hard-won rights of workers, and ultimately the rise of the right wing in this country to an extent I never thought I'd see. This gallery covers the period of my working life and evoked memories of standing on picket lines trying to stop the Tories from selling the people that which the people already owned and then the disappointment of Blair's New Labour, the part of her legacy of which Thatcher was most proud. The exhibition also covers the issues of the day such as the anti-war and nuclear disarmament movements, environmental, race relations and immigration, and LGBT+ issues.

It's not all doom and gloom. There's also the matter of how workers gained more time off and what they did with it (football, music, etc.) and a section on the Co-Operative movements, which began in Greater Manchester.

And then there's the banners section. A high ceiling allowing the display of many union and other workers society banners, both home and professionally made, which were carried when the people took to the streets to protest, to demand change, and to try to improve the lives of their fellow ordinary people.

I recommend that you visit this museum if you're in Manchester. It may not answer the questions of how and why we've ended up again with a rich, corrupt, lying, self-serving, un-elected shower of shit running our country but it will give you a better understanding of the journey that got us here.

It may also make you angry. If so that's a good thing, use that anger, protest, fight for what's right. Maybe it's not too late.

Opening times

• Open: every day 10.00am – 5.00pm
• Radical Lates: second Thurs each month until 8.00pm
• Closed: 24, 25, 26 Dec, 1 Jan

Entry is free although they suggest a £5 donation which if you can afford it is a bargain so put your hand in your pocket.


Right, normal service involving mostly transport-nerdery will resume shortly, until then:

 😉

Brummagem part two

Day Two 13th March 2018

The cutest train in Britain, a museum, and canals

Up, showered, out, breakfast (Pret), and down to Birmingham Snow Hill station to catch another train. It's not raining. You may gather I like railways and since watching All The Stations episode 23 I've wanted to visit Stourbridge and ride the unique branch line from Stourbridge Junction to Stourbridge Town. This service is provided using two Parry People Movers also known as Class 139 railcars.

The journey to Stourbridge Junction on West Midlands Railways went smoothly and after a short wait the train arrived from the town.

Stourbridge Junction

A slightly bumpy 3 minute ride gets you to Stourbridge Town station, adjacent to the large bus interchange and a short walk from the town centre.

Stourbridge Town

A walk around Stourbridge revealed an impressive red brick town hall

Stourbridge Town Hall

And the Stourbridge Canal

Stourbridge Canal

A break for coffee and then return to Birmingham (via Moor Street station) to continue doing the tourist thing.

Museum entrance

On the previous evening's walk in the rain I'd passed the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery which looked to be worth further investigation, particularly when I remembered that it contains the Staffordshire Hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver metalwork, stashed away by someone in the 7th century and for reasons unknown never recovered until it was rediscovered in a field near Hammerwich in 2009.

Despite most of the artefacts being damaged when they were removed from the items they originally decorated - the hoarder presumably being interested only in their monetary value - the fine scale of the workmanship is apparent and even by modern standards impressive.






The ornate interior of the building (part of Birmingham City Council House) is worth seeing anyway.

Museum interior Industrial Gallery

Sword pommel, one of the three thousand five hundred pieces in the Staffordshire hoard.

Piece from the Staffordshire Hoard

A cup of tea and then out into the.... Sunshine! Sat in Victoria Square with my camera and took advantage of the fine weather to get some shots of the Town Hall and City Council buildings.

City Council House

Victoria Square

Birmingham Town Hall

Street sign

It still wasn't raining so once I had worked out which way to go to get around the huge building site that is Chamberlain Square I walked down to Gas Street Basin to wander around and over the canals. The area around the canal has been redeveloped with bars, restaurants, and shopping to attract tourists and by extension although probably not by design, beggars. There are quite a few beggars in Birmingham all of whom seem to need 80p.

Gas Street Basin

Gas Street Basin

The Worcester bar (the part of the canal not the name of the pub).

Gas Street Basin, Regency Wharf

Boats in Gas Street Basin

Old Turn Junction

Having been out and mostly on my feet for 8 hours it was time to return to the hotel to freshen up and drop off the camera, backpack etc. and take the weight off for a bit before heading out in search of food and beer. Especially beer 🍺

Food was taken care of by Byron's posh and expensive - very nice though - burgers. There are a lot of pubs and bars in the city centre, some loud, some cheap (though I'm trying to avoid Brexit-plugging Wetherspoons unless really desperate), and some plain odd. For real ale though I'd have to say that The Wellington on Bennetts Hill is going to be hard to beat. Sixteen pumps on the bar and as the first one was Wye Valley HPA I figured that was a good start. There I stayed until it was time to return to the hotel and bed.

More to follow...