Water Tower, Bristol Street. Swindon, 14/06/16.

Tags

Bristol Street Swindon, British Listed Buildings, Grade II listed, Grade II listed building, Great Western Railways, Great Western Works, railways, Swindon, Water Tower

To quote from British Listed Buildings. co. uk (mainly because I wouldn’t know where to start describing this rather unusual Grade II listed structure):

“Water tower for Great Western Works. 1870. Cast iron. Round storey stanchions. 3 bays by 3 bays, in 4 lifts, all diagonally braced and with cast iron girders with interlaced circles at each lift. Central bay on plan with timber faced shaft. Grillage platform for water tanks at top, the tanks a replacement of 1979-80. The water tower forms an important landmark“.

Now it stand in the grounds of the University Technical College and is, in my opinion, the best preserved landmark relating to the former Great Western Works on Bristol Street.

Window Boxes in Bloom, The Royal York Hotel, Station Road, York, 15/08/15.

Tags

flowers, gardening, Grade II listed, North Eastern Railway, Railway Architecture of North East England, Station Road York, The Royal York Hotel, William Peachey, window, window boxes, York

Leaving the train at York is always a feast for the eyes.I usually cross the station using the footbridge, so I can admire one of the great “cathedrals of the Railway Age” [to borrow a phrase a website called “Railway Architecture of North East England“] and take everything in. Then I usually turn left when I leave the station, onto Station Road, passed the waiting taxi cabs and face my first York landmark, The Royal York Hotel, a Grade II listed building designed by William Peachey of the North Eastern Railway. The hotel opened in 1878, a year after the present railway station, and was the flagship hotel for the North Eastern Railway Company’s flagship hotel, according to a certain on-line encyclopaedia.

I can’t say I have notice The Royal York Hotel’s window boxes in the past, but they must have looked particularly charming on this particular occasion [either that or I wasn’t rushing passed then in a hurry to get somewhere for once]!

The Ribblehead Viaduct, Ribblesdale, North Yorkshire, 18/07/15.

Tags

Grade II listed, Ingleborough, Pen-y-ghent, railways, Ribbledale, Ribblehead Viaduct, Settle and Carlisle line, Settle and Carlisle railway, Trains., viaduct, views, walking, Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge

The impressive Grade II listed Ribblehead Viaduct was a heart warming sight as my walking companions and I trekked from Pen-y-ghent to Ingleborough, probably because it was one of the most recognisable structures in Ribblesdale from which to take a bearing. The viaduct carries the Settle to Carlisle railway line over the Ribble Valley and we narrowly missed a steam train crossing, although we could hear its distinctive tones [we also had to the privilege of seeing and smelling the black smoke blown from its chimney, down the railway embankment, across a couple of farms and straight up into our eyes and noses].