Stages of a sunset

I watched this amazing sunset from the top of Baildon Moor. The whole sequence took over an hour.

Enjoy!    ... I did!  :)

Looking over Saltaire

This is Salts Mill. During the years when Bradford was in the forefront of worsted cloth production, Sir Titus Salt chose to move out of town to a green field site to build his new mill. The reason for this was that he was disgusted with the appalling living and working conditions in the city.

The site he chose was beside the River Aire, the Leeds Liverpool Canal and the railway, within easy reach of Bradford, but far enough away to build in the way he wanted. In total, he relocated his entire business of five separate mills out of Bradford to this new location, which he named Saltaire (a combination of his family name and that of the river).

Saltaire is now a World Heritage Site; tribute to a philanthropist who cared enough about his workers to provide them with decent housing, a hospital, a wash house with running water, the Victoria Hall for meetings and social gatherings, a library, allotments and a school.

The village is built on a grid pattern and the bulk of it is very noticeable to the right of the photograph. The two main roads through the village are Victoria Road and Albert Road (quite obviously named after regents) whilst the other streets are named after members of Sir Titus' family.

For much more information about Saltaire, try out the village website, http://www.saltairevillage.info/ , created and maintained on a voluntary basis by members of the local community.

And for a personal insight into life in the village, visit JennyFreckles newly revamped photo blog, http://saltairedailyphoto.blogspot.com/ .

Baildon Moor

I'm a bit of a contrary so and so. When we lived in Manchester, I used to miss the river valleys of the White Peak, with their rocky outcrops, green fields and pale grey drystone walls. Now that I live back in Derby, within spitting distance of the White Peak, I miss the brooding emptiness of the moors with the rough short grass, the purple heather, the call of the skylark and the constant company of the wind.

It's good to have the opportunity to visit moorland from time to time. It invigorates the spirit and helps to clear the mind.

Looking over Bradford

One of the distinctive features of West Yorkshire is the juxtaposition of moorland with urban sprawl. This photograph was taken from a quiet moorland, populated mainly by birds and the odd dog walker, but looks out over the busy city of Bradford.

Bradford began as a village in Saxon times, it's name meaning Broad Ford since it grew around the confluence of three brooks. It is recorded in the Domesday book of 1086 as having a population of around 300 - 350 people. Today, it is slightly larger, being in the region of 467,000.

A number of factors contributed to Bradford's growth into a significant urban area. It became a town when it was granted permission to hold a market and, in 1461, was allowed to hold two annual fairs, to which buyers and sellers from all over Yorkshire would travel. The local woollen industry continued to grow and by the sixteenth century, the town was servicing a significant number of cottage weavers. There was also a tanning industry in the town.

The town had a difficult time around the English Civil war, being a Parliamentarian stronghold in the midst of a sea of Royalist support. It was attacked on a number of occasions and eventually sacked by the Royalists. When it was abandoned by them in 1644, the Parliamentarians moved back in, but within a year, Bradford was hit by her second bout of the plague. 

It was not until the late seventeenth century that Bradford once again became prosperous when the local textile industry began to combine wool with cotton to make worsted cloth. This put the town in the ideal position to take advantage of the Industrial Revolution. By 1841, there were 38 worsted mills in the town and 70 in the borough (including Lister Mill to the right of the photograph below). Bradford was the wool capital of the world and, by 1851, the population had grown to 103,000, many of whom lived in appalling conditions.The infrastructure of the city began to take shape with gas lit streets, drains and sewers and piped water. An infirmary was built in 1843 and Peel Park opened in 1863. In 1846, the railway reached the city and by 1898, electric trams ran through the streets.

The textile industry continued to be important in Bradford until it's decline after the second world war. For a while, it's place was taken by the manufacture of tractors and televisions, but recession and mass unemployment hit in the 1980s. The economy diversified and survived through engineering, printing, packaging and chemical industries. Tourism was also something of a lifeline, with a number of museums being opened reflecting the history of the city.

When I mention Bradford to friends who live away from the city, I get a mixed reaction. It is known as a strongly multicultural city with significant populations of Bangladeshis, Pakistanis, Indians and Afro-Carrribeans. In itself, this is not a problem, but the riots of 1995 and 2001 still remain in memories. On the other hand, some of my friends have visited the National Media Museum and speak highly of their visits to the city, saying it is a very friendly place.

For an outsider, the truth is always difficult to perceive, but I remember teaching a lad in London. He moved down from Bradford and into my class very soon after the beginning of the year, but his family didn't stay long. One morning, after about six months, he came into the classroom and announced that he was leaving. When I asked him why his reply was very clear "My dad says we can go back Miss. It's much better in Bradford than it is down here."

Trig points

This is a triangulation station, otherwise known as a triangulation pillar, trigonometrical station, trigonometrical point, trig station or trig beacon, but most commonly called a trig point. In the UK, they are generally tapering concrete pillars about four feet high with an inscribed bench mark identifying their location.

All trig points occupy high land relative to their location, but not all are on the summit of a hill because the most important factor is the line of sight, rather than the height.

Trig points were erected to enable geodetic surveying; sort of the science of measuring the landscape in 3D. To enable this to happen, most trig points have a brass plate set into the top of them. This has three equally spaced branches radiating from a central point. I'd always assumed that this was a kind of compass pointer to measure things on the horizon, but it isn't. It's the mounting for a theodolite; a precision instrument for measuring horizontal and vertical angles (a bit like having a compass built into a telescope)

But why?

Trig points were first erected in 1935 by the Ordnance Survey and were so positioned that, on a clear day, it should be possible to stand by one trig point and be able to see at least two more. In this way, the UK was covered in a grid of triangles which could be used to measure the country with a high degree of accuracy. It is thanks to trig points and this grid that we have Ordnance Survey maps. I LOVE Ordnance Survey maps :)

When the grid was first completed, there were 6557 trigs in the UK. Because their map-making usefulness has been superceded by satellites and stuff, many have now been removed, but they are still very useful to hill walkers. In fact, there are those who 'collect' trig points; a practice known as Trig Point Bagging. It's a bit like train spotting except that you go to the trig point rather than waiting for the train to come to you. It would be an enormous job to bag every trig point, so they are usually done by area or category - maybe all of the trig points within a particular National Park, or over a certain altitude. For example, there are 1813 trig points over 300m, but only 676 over 500m and a mere 37 over 1000m. Hmmm. I think I'll set that as a challenge for Mark. Go bag every trig point over 1,000m. Right up his street!

I have no idea how many trig points I have visited during my lifetime. Quite a few! I suppose it's a bit late to start counting now... but whenever I do walk past another one, I will try to remember to take a photo and post it on here.