Today's County in the Spotlight:Part 2

[mickthemaverick]

I mentioned earlier that I had only stopped in Dumfriesshire twice, time for my second visit. About 10 years ago SWMBO's daughter asked me to find her a red Peugeot 107 as she had fallen in love with one at her place of work. I hunted high and low for one which met all her specifications without any success at all until I found one in Belfast. After some negotiation the owner agreed to ship it over to Scotland and I had to collect it from Cairnryan ferry port. As a result I had an overnight stop with the car in Thornhill at a hotel next to the cross. I have arrowed my room window in the picture. The car was a cracker and as it only had 4300 miles when I collected it I felt it needed to have a look around before I headed south!!

BFTW - My bedroom window

Own work - The car in question!!

[NewcastleFalcon]

On the Vehicle registration area code letters front from 1903 to 1974, Dumfriesshire's was

SM

Looks like we missed out on The Saint's Volvo when Invernessshire hat its day in the spotlight,

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

On the Vehicle registration area code letters front from 1903 to 1974, Dumfriesshire's was

SM

Looking for an SM on an old film, came across this

https://youtu.be/DyJEeynSP-g?t=342

as well as hitting the bullseye with an SM on a snowy day in Dumfries.

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Another SM but an interesting shop scene too. TV shop with a Cycles and Mopeds sideline on a corner site.

Regards Neil

[mickthemaverick]

The SM is not so easy to find but this one is around on a few sites , however there is one very famous owner listed in the bible.

BFTW

From my bible

From my bible

Stirling decided to move his numbers around quite a lot but the most amazing one I can find is:

BFTW

[mickthemaverick]

Here is a picture of Stirling's number in an earlier model:

BFTW

[mickthemaverick]

At last - a proper qualifier:

BFTW

[NewcastleFalcon]

I have probably extracted a disproportionate amount of interest from this video of Dumfries Bygone Days. I like the street scenes and the shops.

I presume this was Halfords with a shop on the high street, before it became too corporate and modernised itself and moved itself to retail parks.

The other thing I noticed was that Dumfries was one of the outposts of the North-East Department Store Binns (HQ in Sunderland with stores at the time in South Shields, Newcastle, Middlesborough, Darlington, West Hartlepool, Carlisle and Edinburgh).

The phrase "Shop at Binns" was memorably plastered on many Buses, and is in the "Eat more Herrings" category of blunt marketing commands. Not a sell the benefits type of phrase, more a just do it command. No more of course in 2022.

https://youtu.be/DyJEeynSP-g

Regards Neil

[mickthemaverick]

No more of course in 2022.



Regards Neil

Not so sure about that Neil, we used to have a single galvanised dustbin out the back, now we have 'Bins for everything!'

[NewcastleFalcon]

Gretna Dumfriesshire wasn't just place for eloping teenagers.



Regards Neil

[mickthemaverick]

Well we have given Dumfriesshire a good showing during its dayish in the spotlight but now it's time to move on:

_______Dumfriesshire Done________51 Done___41 Left______

Heres the pool

Spoiler: show

Already selected 5, 6, 11, 16, 45,

Random Number selection is 43

New County is
Westmorland

Back to a more traditional county!

[mickthemaverick]

A very distintive flag for Westmorland:

BFTW

Details here

The location in England as it was:

BFTW

And the places within the county. As a historic county this is a bit more tricky to read but you can do it with zoom!

BFTW

[NewcastleFalcon]

The main towns/villages are here pretty familiar to me apart from Heversham and Milnthorpe.

Towns and villages
Ambleside
Appleby-in-Westmorland
Bowness-on-Windermere
Heversham
Kendal
Kirkby Lonsdale
Kirkby Stephen
Milnthorpe
Windermere

also Patterdale/Pooley Bridge/South Side of Ullswater/Brough

Early strike with the bargain basement Micra at the Windermere Manor Hotel November 2021.

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Squadron of geese arriving at Bowness Pier

REgards Neil

[mickthemaverick]

I fear my memory may let me down on this one but for the record I've overnighted in Bowness, Ambleside, Windermere and Kendal during various trips for various purposes from marshalling on the RAC Rally to installing remote equipment for customers. At the moment I am having a bit of a recall blackout but I will endeavour to concentrate on it and put a couple of posts about some of those places in due course!!