Summer 1973

By shendy2 Comments
Pics from our summer holiday in 1973 - a trip up north, which will have been to stay with my father's parents near Hull. We went a bit further north, as well. The Transporter Bridge in Middlesborough - to be honest, until I saw this I never knew I'd been there. A couple for any Dr Who fans out there - an exhibition in Stockton-on-Tees. Not sure whether they supplied a sofa to hide behind. One of me and the Brother with our father - no idea where we are! A great piece of 1970s fashion sir! Skidby Mill near hull - I remember going there several times - pretty sure it was a functioning mill. Ah yes, a quick google and here it is. These last two show a fairly uninspiring set of workings and a bloody great hole in the ground. This building site became the Humber Bridge - there are some more pics to come from 1974, but I've never seen the bridge...
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Beckets Park

By shendyNo Comments
Starting off 1973, pretty much all of which is from the summer. These two sets are both from Beckets Park in Northampton. First up, the raft race in May '73 - was it organised by the Rotary Club? Seems to ring a bell. Anyway, first up are the Friends of the Earth - presumably thought of as a bunch of hippies back then, before they became so much more mainstream. The second pic appears to include the Mayor, in a suit, complete with chain, sat on a raft. The third one is the Nene Valley Mountain Rescue crew - presumably not a particularly busy organisation, given the lack of hillage in the area. I'm impressed by the last one - they seem to have built quite a good double scull! The second batch are from a boat rally in August. I do like the barge that's been converted into a replica battleship, and look at the size of the crowd!...
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Northampton Early 1973

By shendyNo Comments
What a vibrant, exciting place Northampton must have been in early 1973... Who am I trying to kid - it was the early 70s! Anyway, there was a lot of building work going on in the town, with the old Chronicle and Echo building being demolished and replaced by that modern invention - a shopping mall. And we ended up with the Grosvenor Centre, attached to a bus station of such monstrosity that in 2005 Channel 4's "Demolition" programme shortlisted it for the worst building in Britain - beaten out only by such excrescences as Cumbernauld Town Centre in Scotland. Then there was the construction of the multi-storey Mayorhold car park, and the modern looking Saxon Inn hotel. And I almost forgot the Carlsberg brewery! I always understood there had been a fire while building it, but I did some googling to find out more. The modern brewery is on the site of the old Phipps one - they were bought out by Watneys, who were then...
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