Today's County in the spotlight

[mickthemaverick]

Time for the county flag:

BFTW

and while I'm here perhaps a mention of a worldwide medical research company who have an address in Montrose:

BFTW

Much more information to be found here!

[mickthemaverick]

As a quick tangent to this thread I thought I'd mention that my mate Bob spent a proportion of his engineering apprenticeship at Glaxo, one of the forerunners of GSK, in Greenford. It would seem that the plant has long since gone if the development outlined in this planning application has gone ahead!!

[Paul-R]

For some strange reason the talented artists doing this work were never credited in their own name on the covers of the magazine but were anonymised in the fictitious name J.Campbell Kerr emblazoned on the cover art.

One of the "J Campbell Kerr"'s I discovered was John Forsythe Dallas. In December 1963, he joined DC Thomson as a studio artist, illustrating, including on The People’s Friend as J Campbell Kerr, and ghosting, copying the styles of other artists in the firm.

Well that was a surprise to see John Dallas mentioned. One of my other hobbies is comics and I have very recently updated the record for John on the GCD database. I managed to get in touch with the family and get their permission to use a family photograph.

https://www.comics.org/creator/29836/

[bobins]

"The Scottish city of Dundee has a long association with marmalade. James Keiller and his wife Janet ran a small sweet and preserves shop in the Seagate area of Dundee. In 1797, they opened a factory to produce "Dundee Marmalade", a preserve distinguished by thick chunks of bitter Seville orange rind. The business prospered, and remains a signature marmalade producer today.

According to a Scottish legend, the creation of orange marmalade in Dundee occurred by accident. The legend tells of a ship carrying a cargo of oranges that broke down in the port, resulting in some ingenious locals making marmalade out of the cargo. However, this legend was "decisively disproved by food historians", according to a New York Times report."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marmalade

[NewcastleFalcon]

For some strange reason the talented artists doing this work were never credited in their own name on the covers of the magazine but were anonymised in the fictitious name J.Campbell Kerr emblazoned on the cover art.

One of the "J Campbell Kerr"'s I discovered was John Forsythe Dallas. In December 1963, he joined DC Thomson as a studio artist, illustrating, including on The People’s Friend as J Campbell Kerr, and ghosting, copying the styles of other artists in the firm.

Well that was a surprise to see John Dallas mentioned. One of my other hobbies is comics and I have very recently updated the record for John on the GCD database. I managed to get in touch with the family and get their permission to use a family photograph.

https://www.comics.org/creator/29836/

That is one of those FCF spookies that crop up from time to time. Worth starting the thread to randomly tease out that connection Paul, thanks for posting. I was hoping to find on the DC Thomson Website a whole gallery of their previous covers across all of their publications, but not much on public view.

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Of the genre of old fingerpost direction signs, those with a hand pointing the way are always a joy.

Nice one in near Kirriemuir Angus

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Minor Angus Quiz...

There are two statues of very famous worldwide known figures in Kirriemuir Angus.

Who are they, and why are they in Kirriemuir

Regards Neil

[mickthemaverick]

The first statue is of Bon Scott, lead singer of AC/DC who was born there, and the statue was erected as a memorial following his death during his early 30s.
The second statue is of Peter Pan as a tribute to the author J M Barrie who was also from the town.

[NewcastleFalcon]

Correct and here they are courtesy of Geograph.

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

12 Miles off the Coast of Arbroath is the Bell Rock Lighthouse, with its onshore Arbroath Signal Tower museum telling its story, which has also been the subject of a BBC Documentary Series.

https://www.visitscotland.com/info/see- ... um-p251481

Here is J.M.W. Turners effort of capturing the Bell Rock

Joseph Mallord William Turner - Bell Rock Lighthouse - Google Art Project
J. M. W. Turner
, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Ansd here is my previous ref from 2016

How did lighthouses crop up again? Doesn't really matter but I have acquired a new found fascination and respect for them! As a source of information the internet is absolutely staggering...take lighthouses as an example-pictures and information from across all parts of the globe and easily linked so you can find it should you want to...and foremost in this..good old wiki!

I like a nice image, and lighthouses, come in many shapes, colours, (yes even black and white stripes!) and usually spectacular locations. As well as the "thats a nice image, that appeals to me" reaction, I saw this one, probably not the most outstandingly beautiful of images, and the gleaming white is a bit grubby at the bottom, the sea is neither blue, tranquil, or interestingly stormy, and the lighting, and sky fairly ordinary, no shillouette against a moonlit sky, or a beautiful sunset, or blue skies and fluffy white clouds.....but

...did get me wondering how on earth they built it in 1811, 12 miles off Arbroath in the North Sea, and also that particular lighthouse is attributed to Robert Stevenson ( which I misread as Robert Stephenson but a different preson entirely but also an outstanding civil engineer)...and communications at the time.....no telephone.....only Royal Mail Coaches... and no doubt a tremendous effort required to get the stone and other building materials from the quarries to the port and then 12 miles out to sea, with the reef on which it is perched exposed only at low water to a height of 4 feet, and at high water is submerged 12 feet below the surface. A youtube video/documentary of the process would have been interesting!

Here's the image....Its the Bell Rock Lighthouse....and its an absolutely outstanding building. The design was influenced by the Eddystone designed by John Smeaton which Robert Stevenson visited in 1801.


Bell Rock Lighthouse 01
Derek Robertson / The Bell Rock Lighthouse

REgards Neil

[Paul-R]

That is one of those FCF spookies that crop up from time to time. Worth starting the thread to randomly tease out that connection Paul, thanks for posting. I was hoping to find on the DC Thomson Website a whole gallery of their previous covers across all of their publications, but not much on public view.

Regards Neil

Thomson are probably not the best place to go looking for covers. There are many fan websites with cover scans of whichever comic they obsess over. The GCD have scans of covers which indexers have uploaded over the years, a few of which I have added myself. If it's People's Friend, that's not a path I followed at all!

[Peter.N.]

There was a programme on about the Bell Rock lighthouse recently, what a feat of engineering!

Peter

[NewcastleFalcon]

There was a programme on about the Bell Rock lighthouse recently, what a feat of engineering!

Peter

Its where I came across it Peter.

Currently its on this link here, for anyone who wants to watch


Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

__________________Angusshire Done!_____________________

and the next one please...

There are 92 historic counties in England Scotland Wales and Northern Ireland, each will have a mere day-ish in the spotlight selected at random.

Here's the pool

Spoiler: show

Here's the tool
https://www.random.org/

Just to keep us on track with the randomness of the selection. Todays number is

84

REgards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Number 84 from the pool selected at random is

Here's the pool

Spoiler: show

Sutherland

Anything goes always a chance of a random connection springing up. I'll kick it off with one of the mountains, not a ben or even bheinne but enticingly named Suilven and characteristically shaped.




Suilven2
Moyearo, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
REgards Neil