For me, sundown is a magical time, especially for taking pictures. Was just walking down Bolton Road towards Bury Bridge, as you quite rightly guess in Bury Lancashire, when I just thought that I had to get a picture of the red-bricked factory building in the distance.
For me, the building above looks incredible, almost enchanted, as it bathes itself in the oncoming sundown. Having said all this, I wouldn't like to work in such a place. Did a few dead-end jobs in such places for a few years after leaving school which thankfully gave me the push and motivation to return to education (which eventually provided me with the 'ticket' out of Bury, Lancashire).
This short (20-30 minute) walk starts from the wonderful Gothic-looking St. Stephen's church on Bolton Road, not that far up from Bury Bridge:
Yes, from all angles, this church is quite a piece of work (Bury has several interesting Gothic-looking Anglican churches)
If you cross over Bolton Road just a touch higher up from St. Peter's and carry on in a straightish line, you'll make your way to an interesting small network of old bridges which you go underneath to get to the river Irwell and St. Gabriels, my old secondary school from 31-32 years ago:
Encountering the strange silence of St. Gabriel's, it being the Christmas holidays, first gave me a sense of nostalgia for a lost yesteryear:
However, the place also gave me 'a bit of the creeps' as I recalled pupils, myself included, being routinely 'caned' with bamboo sticks:
Having said this, back in my day at school, at least the pupils weren't fed any politically 'correct' diatribe
Even have a fond memory of Mr. Hogan having introduced us to the Western Literary Canon (Wordsworth's 'Daffodils', to be exact) in the 2: 10 building above.
Finally, this short nostalgic walk ends with a pleasant view towards Bury steam train station (and even some wind turbines in the further distance) from the Monkey Bridge (where all the school fights used to take place):
Looking the other way from the Monkey Bridge, you can see a lot of train carriages having a good rest on the railway lines:
Often heard that quite a few homeless people (used to) go down to these carriages to sleep at night.
Above, at somewhere near their peak, Yes are doing my favourite tune of theirs, 'Parallels', back in 1977 at the time of 'Going For The One' .
Was a first year at secondary school in Bury, Lancashire back then and was just starting to listen to bands like Yes (more Rush and Blue Oyster Cult, still my two favourite bands, to be honest). Still, it took me until 7th June 2004 to eventually get to see Yes on their '35th Anniversary' tour at the Sała Kongresowa in Warsaw, with the classic Anderson-Howe-Squire-Wakeman-White line-up, and the concert was incredible, one of my best over the years.
Moving forward almost 10 years, a few months ago, I saw that tickets were out for Yes at Sała Kongresowa for 2nd June 2014, but, knowing that Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman had left the band some time ago, I just decided to let this news fly by. However, recently, I started to get ear that the band would be doing all of 'The Yes Album'; 'Close To The Edge' and 'Going For The One' on this tour, so I had to start seriously thinking about going to the show.
In response, I went onto Youtube to see how the current line-up of Yes were doing, and really liked what I heard ('Parallels' and 'Starship Trooper' below):
Of course, this led to me getting a ticket for the upcoming Warsaw show immediately, and not really knowing why I'd dragged my feet in the first place (well done to all the good people who have put videos of the band playing live from the US in 2013 on Youtube).
Yes, this current line-up of the band looks more than fine: for me, Geoff Downes is great (think that 'Drama' is a heavily underrated Yes album) and Jon Davison likewise, being as near to Jon Anderson as may be humanly possible.
When I worked up at Black Pits all those years ago (not far off 30 years ago now, in fact), I always just used to refer to the elevated church above as 'Norden Parish church', but after a quick search on the internet, I've just discovered that it's called St. Pauls.
All those years ago, I used to just look at this beautiful building from a distance, and it was only over this Christmas that I finally decided to climb the steps to view the church close up:
Really love the church spire/tower construction below, just find it wonderfully unusual and ornate:
Must say that the people must've been (must still be) incredibly small to get through the door below, so I guess that it must've been designed as some kind of children's entrance:
Yes, from all angles, I found this church worthy of admiration:
Looking at the stained glass windows outside the church could only make me imagine how beautuful they must be inside:
A second reason for going up and having a look at St. Paul's? Well, that was to sit on a bench up there and eat my cheese and onion pie and chips from the wonderful traditional English, family-run 'chippy' nearby. The homemade cheese and onion pie was an honour to eat as it was 'more cheese than onion', just how I like it.
All in all, St. Paul's church was well worth a quick look round, as a stop-off on my walk up towards the Owd Betts pub and Cheesden Valley.
The old bridge arches, like the one above at Black Pits near Norden (Rochdale), must have many old tales tell.
In my late teens in about 1986, I worked up at Black Pits on a Community Programme scheme doing dry-stone walling and building steps like in the picture below:
On a recent walk through Black Pits, I was glad to see that the old retaining dry-stone wall (pictured below) that I built with my good old friend, Dave Dealy, was thoroughly moss-covered but still standing now:
The wonderful wooden arch bridge below was added to Black Pits in 2006, and its incredible how it has so effectively blended in with the natural surroundings:
Yes, whoever designed and put in the wooden arch bridge really knew what they were doing and did a mightily fine job.
Enjoyed a walk through Carr Wood so much recently that I went back a few days later to do it again.
Where is Carr Wood? Well, it's near the bottom of Ashworth Road, just past Crompton Mill, but instead of turning left into Ashworth Valley, you cut through the bottom caravan park to the right to enter into Carr Wood.
Thankfully, since I'd last been through Carr Wood a few years ago, quite a few professional supports, such as the one below, have been added to the footpath to make the walk a lot less treacherous:
The metal stairway above was really impressive, as it had been firmly bolted into a rock formation behind it.
First really encountered Carr Wood in my late teens, as I used to walk through it on my way to working on a Community Project scheme at Black Pits, near Norden (a more scenic part of Rochdale on the way up to the Owd Betts top road).
Towards the end of Carr Wood, the land starts to get a bit higher and I saw a grey squirrel during my last walk through the place.
Finally, just before reaching Black Pits, you come across nature reclaiming some old mill ruins, a recurring motif of rural Lancashire:
But the highlight of the show is the partly hidden but gushing waterfall below which is right at the top of Carr Wood and well worth the walk:
In all, the walk through Carr Wood takes 20-30 minutes at your leisure.
