Manchester Week 43 20th February 2012
                 
The John Ryland Library on Deanesgate is as distinctive inside as out.

But impossible to photograph.

And it never occurred to me previously that the "gate" in Deanesgate is the same "gate" meaning "street" that we will encounter in lots of north of England places.

 
But I tried.

Corridors and rooms full of books.

 
The bookshelves have glass fronts and the rooms are carefully climate controlled.

An important collection. Just a hint is in the presence of the Jodrell Bank Archive added to original works of Copernicus, Gallileo and Kepler.

 
Deanesgate is one of the major streets in the city.
 
We walked to the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI).

This is a working replica of "Baby". The first stored programme computer (made in Manchester of course).

As well as this we were reminded of Dalton (atomic weights and precursor to the periodic table of elements) who taught Joule (of energy fame). There were many more, including Whitworth of thread fame.

 
Manchester is not just the city its a description of cloths.

Even Invercargill (NZ) has a department store with a Manchester and Haberdashery department. Indians (in India) make Manchester.

Most of the industrialisation of spinning and weaving occurred in the Manchester area.

The museum has a collection of working machines covering the complete process. This loom is operating as we watch.

There's something about the mechanical rhythms. I could watch and listen all day.

 
A ribbon loom. Makes pretty patterned ribbons.
 
Next door in the machinery shed is a working stationary steam engine.

Diesel engines just don't quite make as interesting noises or have the hypnotism of exposed moving parts.

 
I thought I recognised the shape!

Loco No 3, The Pender, from the Isle of Man Railway. Built in 1873, a Beyer Peacock.

It mostly ran from Douglas to Peel but bigger tanks later allowed it to run from Douglas to Port Erin where I saw it.

I briefly drove a sister engine in my teens thanks to Mr Buttle the engine driver.

It seems odd that the things of my youth are appearing in museums..

 
Even bigger.

A Beyer Garratt articulated locomotive. This one built for South African Railways.

I saw one working in 1975 at Victoria Falls in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). All 200 tons of it.

 
Manchester did lots of things first. This is a map of a hydraulic power distribution system around the city center.
 
The next shed was all about the air.

A Rolls Royce Merlin 4J engine from a Mark V Spitfire. 

 
And a Shackleton (developed from the Lancaster for early warning radar use.
 
The De Havilland Dragon Rapide. Just like the one my father used to fly on from Isle Of Man to England.
 
The building that houses the air display is an old market.

I wouldn't be surprised if I hadn't walked through it when younger, when it was still a market.

A very distinctive sort of building.

 
A light blue post box.

Not seen often! Specially for air mail.

 
Castlefield is the origin of Manchester.

These are excavations of the Roman fortification and town.

 
The Bridgewater Canal and Rochdale Canal run behind Whitworth Street.

After a bit of renovation the canal system and locks seem to be in working order again.

 
The Cage.

Who knows? We are in Lyme Park, on the edge of the Pennines west of Manchester.

Possibly a shooting lodge!

 
This is the main house.

Like many such buildings its fallen into the hands of the National Trust.

 
A student lunch with Jane and Duncan.

Student food has changed a bit.

 
Manchester City Library is another impressive building.

A happy memory of performing a patent search many years ago. They had (have) a complete set of British Patents.

These days of course the 3 days I spent could be completed in about a half hour through the internet.

 
The Manchester City Art Gallery has a couple of Lowry's pictures. The inspiration drawn from this area.

It also has the Athenaeum room, built as part of a club, now used to hold collections. 

 
A last sight of brick buildings, on another damp Manchester day.

Difficult to describe Manchester as a tourist attraction but there's plenty to have kept our interest.

 
And so we left Manchester to head west across the Pennines then south to Loughborough.
 
Glossop.

At last, after battling a traffic jam. A motorway stub that ended at a roundabout, followed by some roadworks at the narrow point in a village.

The natives aren't too amused - signs about "if you are stuck in the jam...." ironically followed by "speed traps in operation".

The red brick gave way to sandy coloured brick, eventually back to stone.

 
The Snake Pass (A57) across the Pennines was a bit tortuous before the motorway (M62) was built.

Just being nostalgic. This is where the Pennine Way crosses the road.

Just as bleak and windswept as ever.

 
The Snake Pass road descends through the valley in front of us.
 
Stone.

For houses and for walls.

We are somewhere south of Sheffield, looking for the motorway we've somehow lost.

 
Loughborough and Lincoln, England Week 43 21st February 2012
 
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