Sheep

Today's posts are from up Castleroe way.  If I had done my homework properly I would now embark on a little history of Castleroe before showing you some snappy snaps.  But I haven't done any homework recently.  I do have a list of excuses as long as your arm, mind you - the biggest one being that my eyes have been letting me down recently.  I have inflammation of the iris, or iritis, if you want the technical term.  Unfortunately this is not uncommon in people with ankylosing spondylitis.  I have been pretty lucky so far in that I didn't have iritis once in over 35 years of having AS.  Then last November it decided to pay me a visit.  And again now.  And perhaps in both eyes.  So I'm limiting the amount of time I spend in front of a computer while things ease.  I know you understand, being the sentient beings that you are...

So - quickly then! - here are a couple of images for your amusement.  Of sheep, no less.  In fields.  In Castleroe.  Enjoy...

Lovely power lines, eh?

I wonder if living under those power lines means the lamb is half-cooked when it gets to the abattoir?   Sorry - was that comment in bad taste?  D'oh!  There I go again...  Blame the steroid eye drops - 6 times a day!

Lovely undulations in the fields in these parts

Back to fields...

Well after our  little visit to Merseyside some 30 years ago we're back to present-day Northern Ireland.  The attentive reader will, of course, remember my mention of James Ravilious, who photographed country life in Devon over several decades.  It is of course tempting to think that today's photographs can't ever be as interesting as ones taken decades ago - and for sure, people's way of life has changed a lot even since the 1980s.  And we can't travel back in time...yet.  But that misses the point, I think.  Today's photographs are a record of this time, now.  Who knows what changes will come in years to come.

So I went out and about last week armed with some Ilford FP4+ B&W film in a gorgeous little 35mm Nikon camera.  As anyone familiar with this area knows, there are a lot of fields about.  And fields need gates.

This photograph is one I almost didn't take at all - I remember framing it in the camera and then putting my camera down, before thinking 'What the heck, it's just one frame' and lifting the camera up again to take the shot.

A rural scene, 2015

I know it's just a gate lying against a fence, but it pleases me - and that's the important thing, right?!

A canal

A canal - but which one?  Not surprisingly I don't remember anything about a trip out to a canal in the Autumn of 1984, but the camera doesn't lie so I must have been there at some time that year.  In hindsight had someone had the decency to fall in then the trip might have been more memorable,  but as that didn't happen I'll have to make do with these scans of 35mm slides.  It could be the Shropshire Union canal, or possibly the Stratford upon Avon canal.  Either way looking at the snaps it looks like a mighty fine place to be in the autumn.  What do you think?

I know I do go on about it (Ed: indeed you do, indeed you do), but didn't Mr Kodachrome do well again?  And we have to have one arty-farty one, don't we?

And that, folks, completes our little vignette of The Wirral and its surrounding regions in 1984 and 1987.  I hope you enjoyed it.  Tomorrow, back to present-day Norn Iron - for a while, anyway!

The Three Graces

Well, two of them anyway.  Postcard-type snaps for you today, continuing the series from my visit to Birkenhead and Liverpool in 1984 and 1987.  First off we have the Royal Liver Building itself.

Royal Liver Building

The famous Liver Birds are perched on top - one looking towards the river, the other towards the city.  Apparently they are a mixture of an eagle and cormorant and as usual with such icons there are a number of stories about their significance to the city.  Apparently they don't get to flap their wings many times (nudge nudge wink wink).

Clearly I didn't think much of the middle Cunard Building, as I have no photograph of it - but here is the Port of Liverpool Building:

Port of Liverpool Building

What a beautifully proportioned building.  Eh, they don't build them like that any more...  Out front there is a statue of Edward VII on a horse:

Edward VII statue, Port of Liverpool building in the background

The last photograph today is from the Albert Dock area - specifically Granada Studios.  Richard and Judy broadcast This Morning from there, and yes that was the place that Fred Talbot did his weatherman thing with the floating map, but that's enough about him.  Quite an impressive modern complex though - I love all the brickwork:

Granada Studios, Albert Dock

One more day of around and about The Wirral and its environs and then it's back to Norn Iron - for a wee while anyway!

Ferry across the Mersey...

More from my visit to The Wirral in 1984.  We did, as I said, cross the Mersey on the ferry.  This is the view as you go through the terminal to the dock - or was the view at that time anyway.

Approaching the Mersey ferry (Liverpool side I think)

Apparently in the video of the famous song by Gerry and the Pacemakers it was the Mountwood ferry  they used - we got the Woodchurch (well, it would be, wouldn't it? - see previous post), as seen here coming in to dock.

Woodchurch Ferry coming to take us 'across the Mersey', 1984

The strange thing is I have another photograph of the Woodchurch ferry coming in, clearly from the Wirral direction this time.  As you can see, although the structure of the vessel is the same, the paint job looks different.  This was causing me a bit of grief until I remembered that Kodak date-stamped their slides.  A quick check revealed that this next photograph was taken in 1987, so clearly the vessel had a new paint job sometime between '84 and '87.  Mystery solved!

The 1987 version of the Woodchurch ferry

And here's a close-up, with a couple of scallys looking over, no doubt wondering if my camera was worth nicking.  Haha - only joking!!  Not all scousers are thieves...just like not all Irishmen are thick, right?!

The Woodchurch in close-up

I can't say I remember much of the crossing to Liverpool in 1984, but this is the view looking back to The Wirral.

View from the ferry, towards The Wirral

This is the view looking forwards, towards Liverpool, with a very threatening sky:

Storm brewing over Liverpool, 1984

Looks like The Wirral was definitely the poor cousin in this relationship, doesn't it?  Let's hope it's had some EU urban regeneration funds since then.  My mate Prof Simon informs me: For those not familiar with the Birkenhead skyline, the huge brick structure seen in the image 'View from the ferry, towards The Wirral' that resembles a Stalinist shopping mall not uncommon in Moscow, is in fact a vent for the first Mersey road tunnel completed in 1934. Thanks Simon for that useful snippet - I'm sure it will ease the minds of the legions of readers of this blog (Ed: legions now is it?).

The three mightily impressive looking buildings on the Liverpool side (Pier Head) are known as the Three Graces.  On the left is the famous Royal Liver Building (1911), in the middle the Cunard Building (1917) and the one on the right is the Port of Liverpool Building, the oldest of the three, finished in 1907.  Apparently they are now part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site in Liverpool.

I have to say what a wonderful job Kodachrome did of capturing those colours.

More from The Wirral

Continuing our theme of a photographic social history of The Wirral, we have the famous, or should that be infamous, Woodchurch Estate.  My Uni mate Simon took me on a tour of the more salubrious areas of the Wirral as a payback for me taking him around the Bogside in Derry/Londonderry when he visited Northern Ireland.  I think he got off lightly, by the look of things here:

Woodchurch Estate, The Wirral

Simon went to school there, he informs me, but it can't have been that bad, since he is now a Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at a leading University.

Rents are cheap, apparently

I'm sure the Woodchurch Estate, like the Bogside, has been completely revamped since these photographs were taken in 1984.  I wonder how long these flats were lived in for - they look fairly modern for the time, although clearly the local disaffected youths had been using the windows as target practice.  I like the sink dumped in the front garden - very Tracey Emin.

Social History

Sometimes you come across a photographer who really makes you stop and look - and think.   James Ravilious is one such person.  Ravilious photographed rural life and landscapes (mostly around Devon) in the 1970s, 80s and 90s and he was pretty darn good at what he does - if you have a spare minute you could click here to see his work.

I'm warming to this sort of photography - it's slow and thoughtful and doesn't require any special props or events.  It kind of just depicts life and the world as it is.  The more I look back at photographs I've taken from 30 years ago the more I see the value of photography as means of documenting social history.  I wish I'd taken a lot more snaps back then - of mundane stuff like buildings and places as well as people.

Here's a couple of snaps from 1984, taken during a visit to The Wirral with my Uni mate Simon.  Not that these are anything like Ravilious's work but they remind me of good times and there is a little social history present in them.  Here is Simon, hamming it up, with his girlfriend at the time, Bev, showing her appreciation.  I like the guy coming out of the shop with his loaf of bread.

Woodchurch Estate, Wirral, 1984

Pity I cut their legs off, but no-one's perfect.   I remember going across the Mersey (on the ferry, naturally) - by the look of things this snap must have been taken as we approached the terminal.

The Wirral, 1984

While I haven't been back to The Wirral for many years I'm sure it looks a little different nowadays.  When I see photographs like these I'm reminded how transitory it all is - and how today's ordinary can become tomorrow's interesting.  So - I'm off and about with the camera to take some ordinary snaps - who knows, in 30 years time they might even be interesting!