Today's County in the Spotlight:Part 2

[mickthemaverick]

A beautiful Paisley Bus to give us the XS:

BFTW

and possibly the most famous 'Paisley' car of them all:

BFTW

[NewcastleFalcon]

If there is ever going to be a time when you set aside 30 minutes to watch a documentary on Linwood and the Hillman Imp then I'll provide the content, on Renfrewshire's day in the spotlight. The first few minutes include a Duke of Edinburgh gem on opening the plant in 1963 at 2.23.



Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Cant find a real one yet (a HS plate on an Imp) but what an odd choice for a model with quite an obscure Police Force chosen and the atd with a Renfrewshire reg.

Regards Neil

[mickthemaverick]

Cant find a real one yet (a HS plate on an Imp)

See my earlier post!!:
viewtopic.php?p=721957#p721957

[NewcastleFalcon]

Cant find a real one yet (a HS plate on an Imp)

See my earlier post!!:
viewtopic.php?p=721957#p721957

Missed that one Mick, apologies!

Gratuitous nice arty shot of imps



Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Welcome to Paisley

Mural at Gilmour Street Station

www.paisley2021.co.uk/news/new-mural-we ... ur-street/

Includes William Wallace born at nearby Elderslie, Fulton Mackay, and Gerry Rafferty as well as the Hillman imp.

Of those I think Gerry Rafferty is a better bet for a bit of music.



Regards Neil

[mickthemaverick]

My mate Bob's first car was an Imp. Pea Green with a white top, wide wheels and flared arches with a lot of negative camber. It went well, despite inadvertantly running through a church forecourt in Croxley Green, on our way to Brands Hatch after picking up another mate, when he was a bit too quick for the righthander ,

Own work

but eventually proved too small at the time and he upgraded to a Mk1 Cortina 1500 GT which we had many laughs in, one of which will be forthcoming in Kent's day in the spotlight!! Later on when he had married and moved to Luton he bought himself a Singer Chamois which he used to commute the pair of them between Luton and Watford daily. One morning I was at work at 7.30 (8am start time) when I got a call from him to say he had broken down on the M1 just before J9 and had managed to freewheel the Chammy down the exit slip road and was parked on the hard shoulder of the slip road 10 yds before the roundabout. The water pump had shattered its bearings and shed the water all down the slow lane of the motorway!! I

I had to put in a request for 3 hours casual leave from 8-11 to "assist a colleague in a dangerous situation!" It was granted and I headed straight off to Midnight Motors in Watford and purchased a replacement pump, gaskets and fan belt!! I then popped home for my tools and on up the M1 coming off at J9 round the exit roundabout, under the motorway to the southbound exit roundabout. I pulled over and naughtily reversed the few yards up the hard shoulder until my car was just in front of his. We carried my tools and equipment round the inside of his car to the rear and set about replacing the pump. It took about 45 minutes after which we refilled the radiator and turned it over. Much to Bob's relief it started straight away eliminating fears of a possible destroyed head gasket and I then followed him down the A5 and through St Albans to Watford to make sure all was well. Having dropped his wife at her work we arrived back at the Watford Telephone Exhange at 11.10 and apologised to the 'guvnor' All was well but Bob traded the car in a few months later for an HB Viva!!

[mickthemaverick]

Another place which interests me greatly is the Erskine Bridge which has remorkable similarities with the Humber Bridge as these pictures from our September Stroll will show:

The Erskine Bridge

The Humber Bridge

Under Erskine

Under Humber

You can read about our crossing the Humber Bridge here, although you will need to scroll through the post to find the bridge.

Better still you can read all about the Erskine Bridge here.

[NewcastleFalcon]

Before the bridge the ferry and many centruries ago the pre-dredging Clyde was shallow enough to ford by foot.

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

Some moving pictures from 1956 on home cine.



Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

From the same channel of old cine films on all sorts of locations and occasions across the the UK mostly but also some overseas. This is the Queen's visit to the India Tyre Factory at Inchinnan in Renfrewshire in 1956.

Graces Guide has some info on the Company

https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/India_Tyr ... %20factory.

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

The India of Inchinnan office building itself is a triumph of the art deco style designed in 1930 by Thomas Wallis, Gilbert and Partners – the style is similar to their Hoover building in Perivale, London.

The project to redevelop it has a gallery of super images

https://calmagroup.co.uk/projects/india-of-inchinnan/

Quite a stunning result

Regards Neil

[Gibbo2286]

Just watched your Linwood video Neil, sad days, I remember them well, Harold Wilson and his beer and sandwiches in No 10 with the union leaders went nowhere, they wanted his job of running the country for themselves, of course being a Brummy I saw first hand the shenanigans at Longbridge.

[NewcastleFalcon]

Port Glasgow Renfrewshire on the Clyde. One of the last Shipbuilding yards left.

I watched Michael Portillo's Great British Coastal Railway Journeys Series 1 Episode 16 Fairlie (Ayrshire) to Port Glasgow (Renfrewshire).

Worth a watch its on the I-Player, Covers Hunterston B Nuclear Power Plant, (out of area but interesting), and an excellent piece on Wemyss Bay Station, where you get more of a feeling for the place than my photos included earlier in the thread.

Then he moves on to Port Glasgow and visits Fergusons shipyard. All sweetness and light, but a bit of a lament for what the Clyde used to be in terms of building ships.

Heavily embroiled in controversy now with the construction of the ferries featured in the programme.

'Catastrophic' failings over Ferguson ferry 'fiasco'

Regards Neil

[Rp0thejester]

I wouldn't think so, have a look and make your own judgement!!

Wow, sounds like my kids learning to read with the finger per word technique.

[Gibbo2286]

That's a bit like the Scottish Parliament building contract Neil, estimated cost £39 million end price over £400 million.