Around Runcorn

I just thought I might include some of the sights of my home town for you to feast your eyes on..... I asked Judith Chalmers to present this bit but she was not too happy. Bill Bryson also called me back and said he would prefer not to do any travel writing on my site about two-bit Limey One Horse Towns. So you are stuck with me. Sorry.

For fans of the series Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps this one. This is the Waterloo pub used in the series - they call it the Archer on screen.....

And here is the Waterloo as it appears on screen - temporarily renamed the Archer in time for filming September 2004.....

This is the other pub used in the series - they rename this one as well but I cannot remember what to. For further telly trivia fans, if you go to Gallery Set One and look at the Halton Castle set, you can see where the opening title of Two Pints is filmed - alternatively the banner sunset at the top of the page is Halton Castle from many miles away - photographed in the late 80's. OK - I know it's not exactly Ryan's Daughter or Local Hero but this is my town and I'm stuck with it!

Some of you might recall the quite hopeless police drama Mersey Beat that seemed to not be sure if it was set in Runcorn or Widnes (or latterly Liverpool!). The series was filmed in a variety of locations - most famously using the old Golden Wonder crisp factory in Widnes as the main Police Station. The robbers in the series seemed to be a crafty bunch - sometimes the police foot-chase sequences would take in locations about ten miles apart - but I feel it presented the positive impression of a very fit police force as a result! Anyway - back to the photo. One of the houses above stood in as the house of Tiger - everyone's fave bobby!

This is the Waterloo Community Centre - back when this was owned by YKK we (being Strat and Goffy) used it to practice on a couple of occasions. You can see the pictures from one of these practice sessions in Gallery Set 01 - Experiments in Saxaphone.

This is the shop that is responsible for framing my drumsticks when I require. They also do a fine line in framed prints in general. The owner has a mean taste in music... and also plays the drums, whilst his missus plays the sax....sadly the owners have recently thrown in the towel.

Runcorn's own legendary Guitar and Banjo shop: Frailers. I remember this place opening and back then it occupied property about half the size of what you see here - and about a quarter of the size of what you can see once you get inside.... making it by far the most successful enterprise of any kind in Runcorn. This is a great shop for sightseeing: where else are you to see real Gibsons, Gretsch and Fenders?

The most recognisable image of Runcorn (and indeed Widnes before I get any hate e-mail) - the 1961 Road Bridge - which replaced our quite useless Transporter Bridge. I have photographed this bridge on countless occasions, and it has also been used on the closing titles of the aforementioned Mersey Beat (back before they sold out and moved it to Liverpool - turning it into a sort of Scouse Bill). Just behind this is the old rail bridge - main line to Liverpool or London - depending on which way you are travelling. The wall half way across the river marks the Manchester Ship Canal - this goes right into the middle of Manchester.....

Another view of the bridge - this time from the railway side - myself and Boomer soaking up the rays.....

The Bridge from the footpath......

Photographed from the Bridge - Fiddlers Ferry.....

Still on the bridge.... looking down onto the wall between the Mersey and the Ship Canal....

The ICI plant - a great source of income, employment and poisonous emissions for the people of Runcorn....

The big old Arcton Vessels at ICI - source of most of the country's compressed gas for aerosols.... when ICI have finished with them I am going to put some pinstripe heads on one end and get some giant drumsticks.

Emma and Boomer on the old cobbles in Balfour Street - this is the site of the old Boy's School - now buried beneath an old person's home.....

Boomer the dog looking down on the Mersey Estuary, Weston Point and Hale Lighthouse.....

Banks Lane in Weston Village - the entire street is for sale in May 2004! This is due to the high levels of contamination (or so it was thought at the time) of the soil by ICI from about the 1920's onwards - these houses have been given the all clear and have jumped back onto the market. The houses were built by ICI in the 1920's and this road was once the main road out of the plant for the old ICI Road Fleet - my dad assures me that many an old Leyland drive shaft came to grief on this climb.

All that remains of our beloved Scout Hut up on Weston Road (where we used to jam back in the 1980's) - now just a little grassy knoll and the old dedication plaque.......

Just beyond this fence is where the scout hut once stood.... and a load of lovely Edwardian terraced houses... and a load of modern terraced houses - all gone due to the ICI contamination scare......

The old BOC pipeline marker from outside the Banks Lane Garage (home of the old ICI Transport fleet) - I used to sit here and wait for my dad when he was on the tankers........

I wondered for years what this building was for. Mum and Dad have identified it to me as the old ICI estates office - where the old ICI houses were taken care of from (most of the houses in Weston Point were built to provide homes for the ICI plant workers)

Our new all singing and dancing Arts Centre - the Brindley. we are now on the culture map!!!!!

An old shot of Runcorn Shopping City & Southgate

I hope Barry will forgive my use of this very old piccy of him but I have included it to get a piccy of Southgate from the Legoland end - when I was a kid, the bogeyman came from Southgate.....

This is a postcard of Runcorn - the climbers in the pic are Graham H and Worthy - I have never known anyone in a postcard before - I think that we bought all copies of this postcard beween us!

Me & Worthy in our old primary school in Weston Point - pic taken about 1994

Night study of Runcorn Waterfront

Almost across the border in Warrington.... Daresbury Labs.... God knows what they do here....

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