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Bristol Harbourside in the 1990s Part Seven

Back in the 1990s when I was teaching at a college in Bristol, I use to undertake regular field trips to the Bristol Harbourside as part of a unit on urban regeneration. There was at the time to much happening down there after years of inaction that it was an ideal place to demonstrate the impact of investment and change of use. Bristol had been an important port for hundreds of years, this all came to a halt in the 1970s and regeneration plans were developed. Not much happened for twenty years, but in the last twenty years we have seen major regeneration of the area, massive building of offices, business, residential and entertainment, as well as visitor attractions such as at-Bristol (where incidentally I worked for a while when it opened).

During one of those field trips, I took my SLR camera with me, and digging around a box in the garage I found some more prints, which I have since scanned in. This is a new post on these images, you can find part one, part two, part three, part four,  part five and part six.

This is the car park next the Lloyds TSB building.

It has now been landscaped and is called Waterfront Square and is pedestrianised.

As I find and scan in more photos I will initially add them to this post.

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Then and Now, but not alone – Cabot Circus

This is a regular series of blogs about photographs of the same place taken years apart. The first of the posts in this series was of a council building in Manchester. I always thought I should give then and now photographs a go. However what I have started to notice is that I have been doing Then and Now photographs unintentionally over the years and have been taking photographs of the same thing or place from the same view or perspective years apart. Now this has come to my attention I have started to intentionally take photographs of the same place.

In November I posted one in this series about Cabot Circus at Christmas time having taken a photograph in December 2019 and then intentionally took a similar photograph in November 2022. What I hadn’t remembered was that I had taken identical or similar photographs before. Going through my collection and some old Flickr albums I found two more photographs which I blogged about earlier.

What I did note, looking for the date of construction that, this view was popular with other photographers and the construction company as well.

This was the artist impression of the shopping centre, and as you can see that this is the same view as the photographs I took.

Here is the view of the construction of the centre.

Final preparations being undertaken prior to opening.

This is the opening day of the Cabot Circus centre.

So what about my photographs.

This photograph was taken not long after Cabot Circus had opened. The shopping centre had opened on 25th September 2008, this photograph was taken on the 21st October 2008.

Going through my collection I also had taken this similar photo on the 4th July 2016.

Three years later on December 8th 2019. I was on my way to do a pick up from the Vue Cinema, so I took a photograph of the festive Cabot Circus. Not realising I had taken similar photos before.

This photograph was taken on the 26th November 2022. I remembered I had taken a photograph in the same location, so took this one.

So I had unintentionally taken three photographs of roughly the same place over an eleven year period.

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Baddesley Clinton Hall

For Christmas I got a National Trust membership. It’s being a few years since I was last a member, but now looking forward to visiting new places and going back to places we have been to before.

Back in 2016 I did start to keep a note of how much we saved with the membership, but looking back over the blog, I never kept up to date with that, but with this membership I am intending to blog about the visits we do this year and the savings we made.

I actually went to Baddesley Clinton Hall, for two reasons, in the main to get a drink from the cafe as I was heading down the M5, and the other was to see what it was like, for a potential future visit. Though I had to take a little detour down the M42 and the M40 to get there.

Baddesley Clinton Hall

Moated manor house with late medieval, Tudor and 20th-century histories. Home to the Ferrers family for 500 years.

Current saving -£7.80

One adult £13.00

Parking free

Total Saving £13.00

Membership cost £133.80

Cumulative saving £5.20

So after this visit the membership has paid for itself and we still have eleven months left. Obviously without a membership I probably would have either not visited Baddesley Clinton Hall, or I would have spent much longer than I did to get my money’s worth from the visit. However for this visit, which was more of a journey break, for this kind of quick trip, a National Trust membership is really useful and makes sense. Continue reading “Baddesley Clinton Hall”

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Then and Now Take Two – Manchester (again)

This is a regular series of blogs about photographs of the same place taken years apart. I quite like those Then and Now comparison photographs that you see in books or on the Twitter or Facebook.  The first of the posts in this series was of a council building in Manchester.

I always thought I should give then and now photographs a go. However what I have started to notice is that I have been doing Then and Now photographs unintentionally over the years and have been taking photographs of the same thing or place from the same view or perspective years apart. 

The first instance of this that came to my attention was in May 2019 when I went to Manchester.  I had recently been using Amazon Photos as an online backup service for my photographs. One of the nice features is that in the app it shows you photos from the same date in previous years So I was amused to find that two years ago to the day, not only had I being in Manchester, but I had also taken some photographs including this one the same council building I had taken.

So, back in Manchester in January 2023 and arrived in St Peters’ Square by tram I took the same photograph I had taken before.

This photo was taken in May 2022.

This photo was taken March 2022.

Here is the photograph from May 2019. I was staying in a hotel close to MediaCity, so caught the Metrolinktram into the centre of the city. I arrived in St Peter’s Square and decided to take a few photographs, including this one of a council building.

This was the photograph I had taken in May 2017.

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A quick visit to Hanbury Hall

For Christmas I got a National Trust membership. It’s being a few years since I was last a member, but now looking forward to visiting new places and going back to places we have been to before.

Back in 2016 I did start to keep a note of how much we saved with the membership, but looking back over the blog, I never kept up to date with that, but with this membership I am intending to blog about the visits we do this year and the savings we made.

I actually went to Hanbury Hall, for two reasons, in the main to get a drink from the cafe as I was heading up the M5, and the other was to see what it was like, for a potential future visit.

Hanbury Hall

A country retreat in the heart of Worcestershire. The William and Mary-style country house and garden, originally a stage-set for summer parties, offer a glimpse into life at the turn of the 18th century.

Current saving -£21.80

One adult £14.00

Parking free

Total Saving £14.00

Membership cost £133.80

Cumulative saving -£7.80

Obviously we will need to visit some more places to make the membership cost effective and increase that cumulative saving. However for this visit, which was more of a journey break, for this kind of quick trip, a National Trust membership is really useful and makes sense. Continue reading “A quick visit to Hanbury Hall”

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Montacute House

For Christmas I got a National Trust membership. It’s being a few years since I was last a member, but now looking forward to visiting new places and going back to places we have been to before.

Back in 2016 I did start to keep a note of how much we saved with the membership, but looking back over the blog, I never kept up to date with that, but with this membership I am intending to blog about the visits we do this year and the savings we made.

We had visited Montacute House before in August 2016.

Montacute House

Montacute is a masterpiece of Elizabethan Renaissance architecture and design. With its towering walls of glass, glow of ham stone and surrounding garden and parkland, it is a place of beauty and wonder.

Current saving -£49.80

Two adults £28.00

Parking free

Total Saving £28.00

Membership cost £133.80

Cumulative saving -£21.80

Obviously we will need to visit some more places to make the membership cost effective and increase that cumulative saving. Continue reading “Montacute House”

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Back to Tyntesfield

For Christmas I got a National Trust membership. It’s being a few years since I was last a member, but now looking forward to visiting new places and going back to places we have been to before.

Back in 2016 I did start to keep a note of how much we saved with the membership, but looking back over the blog, I never kept up to date with that, but with this membership I am intending to blog about the visits we do this year and the savings we made.

Following our visit to Knightshayes Court last week, this time we visited Tyntesfield. We have been there before a few times, but this was our first return visit for a fair few years.

Tyntesfield

An ornate Victorian Gothic Revival house with extensive garden and parkland, just a stone’s throw from Bristol

Current saving -£91.30

Family Ticket £38.50

Parking £3.00

Total Saving £41.50

Membership cost £133.80

Cumulative saving -£49.80

Obviously we will need to visit some more places to make the membership cost effective and increase that cumulative saving. Continue reading “Back to Tyntesfield”

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Knightshayes Court

For Christmas I got a National Trust membership. It’s being a few years since I was last a member, but now looking forward to visiting new places and going back to places we have been to before.

Back in 2016 I did start to keep a note of how much we saved with the membership, but looking back over the blog, I never kept up to date with that.

As it was a nice dry day we decided to visit a property. I did consider Tyntesfield, but using the National Trust app I found a property we hadn’t visited before, and it was less than an hour away, down the M5 to Tiverton.

Knightshayes Court

A great post-war garden,19th-century parkland and grand Gothic Revival architecture by Victorian visionary William Burges.

Family Ticket £38.50
Parking £4.00

Total Saving £42.50

Membership cost £133.80

Cumulative saving -£91.30

Obviously we will need to visit some more places to make the membership cost effective and increase that cumulative saving.

Here are some photographs from the visit. Continue reading “Knightshayes Court”

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Walking around Uphill

Went for a New Year Stroll. Walked from the Uphill boatyard and marina, to the beach and then up to the Pier and back.

Walked past the River Axe. The tide was out.

Then we walked by the pontoons on the river.

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Stuff: Top Ten Blog Posts 2022

In 2022 I published 429 posts on the blog. In 2021 I published just 46 posts to the blog. I did 423 posts in 2020, in 2019 it was 68, in 2018 I did 89 posts.

Okay so 365 posts were from a photo a day project I did in 2022. So that leaves 64 posts, well I also did a movie advent calendar, so that means 40 “normal” posts.

Most of the top ten in 2022, as they wee in 2021, are nostalgic posts about the Bristol Harbourside in the 1990s.

Tenth place was The Café a post on filming The Café at Weston-super-Mare.

The post at number nine was Bristol Harbourside in the 1990s Part Three. 

The post at number eight was Bristol Harbourside in the 1990s Part One.

Whilst the seventh most popular post was Bristol Harbourside in the 1990s Part Two.

The post at number six was Bristol Harbourside in the 1990s Part Six.

Fifth most popular post about Changes at the railway station in Weston-super-Mare.

Fourth post was a post reminiscing about The Longleat Miniature Railway

The third most popular blog post asked the question “the cafe on tv at weston super mare is it real” which was a post about people Google searching that phrase and ending up on my blog. Now those same Google searches send people to this page rather than the original post on Cyril’s Cafe.

The post at number two was “I guess you guys aren’t ready for that yet. But your kids are gonna love it.” Which was Michael J Fox joining Coldplay on stage in New Jersey in 2016, playing Johnny B Goode from Back to the Future.

The most popular blog post in 2022 as it was in 2021 was a nostalgic post about Remembering the Bristol Temple Way Flyover.