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Hi,
During the months prior to September 1954 they were busy replacing the old low street lights with the new concrete type tall ones along the main road in Whaley Bridge, I can't remember if the old ones were gas or electricity ( the latter I suspect). On the first of September a friend and I walked up to the top of Eccles pike before it went dusk and sat on the rocks waiting. At the magic hour the new sodium lights came on, they were strung out like fairy lights along the main road beyond the railway bridge on Chapel road where the stopped. They were such a contrast to the old lights where in the poor light people banged into each other ( there wasn't as much fun though), So there we were, we could see where we were going whlst we on the main road, except at midnight they went out, (fun started again) and came on at 6a.m. next morning.
george
Has anyone else memories of this great event?
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Hello George. I cannot add anything to the Whaley Bridge event, but I do remember in the small market town in East Anglia where I was brought up ("Me Duck" country!), that all street lights went out at midnight and came back on at 6.00 a.m. I also remember being woken up at night by the sound of horses hooves - being very small, I really didn't understand why horses should be wandering about in the middle of the night. It was only when I was older that I was told that it was the men clearing out the cess pits! Ah, happy days!
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some towns have considered turning lights off at midnight and on in the morning to save electricity (& be greener) Is this a good idea?
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From both a savings and green point of view it would be excellent, but the other side of the coin is that with pubs and clubs now open until late, would it be a safe option? Difficult one really. Wonder how the police would view a midnight to morning switch-off?
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Hello Fedup,
Some people would say that the police are already switched off from midnight to morning apart from their radar guns that are being charged up for the following morning.
I say some people; I am certainly not one of those people.
R. S-S
Fedup wrote:From both a savings and green point of view it would be excellent, but the other side of the coin is that with pubs and clubs now open until late, would it be a safe option? Difficult one really. Wonder how the police would view a midnight to morning switch-off?
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Good evening R.S-S.
I hope the above post wasn't humerous - you'll have us both arrested!
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Good morning to both of you good gentlemen
I seem to have forgotten What's Humour?
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A very good morning to you Jake,
You have forgotten what humour is have you? I very much doubt that.
Of course we know very well from being on here that certain people view humour in a very dim light.
One thing is for certain and this should not be on the historical side of the forum. Having said that years ago comedians, and I don’t mean councillors, used to address the Mechanics Institute meetings to entertain the gathering.
“Laughter makes the world go round” we have always been told. “Laugh and the world laughs with you”.
Yes that is true and there are many forms of humour; written, spoken, visual etc etc.
Getting back to a bit of ‘local history’ I remember one old Whaley character performing a hilarious routine at that fine old establishment Botany Works. It followed on from a gold medal performance in The Commonwealth Games by our very own Precious McKenzie who won a gold medal for weight lifting. He lifted more than his own body weight which was truly amazing at the time. This feat was being discussed at break time and Precious’s achievement was seen by everyone to be magnificent. That is until one of the workforce shouted from the back of the canteen: “I bet I can lift my own weight.”
“Don’t be silly” came a chorus of replies.
The men asked him to prove it but he said they had nothing to match his exact weight. Well they had; and it was the man himself.
Somebody nipped out and shortly came back with two buckets and the man put a foot in each bucket and started to try to lift himself off the floor. The first bucket was easy but he had more trouble with the second. Everybody watched on in silence; would he do it, could he do it? Every vein in his neck standing out, his face turning purple the second bucket would only come up as the first crashed to the ground. He tried it left foot first, right foot first but never quite managed it. He gave up after a few minutes throwing both buckets the length of the canteen and stating that the lift by Precious McKenzie was somehow rigged by the television or he was on drugs.
It was marvellous to behold and all absolutely true and I have a feeling the whole event might have been witnessed by our very own contributor on here, Frankie.
What a pity Simon Cowell was not in attendance and Amanda would have had to find some other use for her buzzer.
More inane ramblings to follow later Fedup.
R. S-S
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My good friend R.SS.
I did hear of this great fete at Botany Works but did not witness same. A similar attempt was made in the White Horse where a certain character stood on a brush head with one foot either side of the stale. After a few upward pulls and a strained distorted face the stale departed company from the brush head and the poor sole ended up doing a charge of the Light Brigade impersonation.
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R.S-S and Frankie -
All I can say is that you both mix in very odd company! Jake and I look forward to more insanity from you both!!
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