On March 31st 2020, amidst the Covid-19 pandemonium, Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE), the latest owners of Fiddler’s Ferry Power Station, finally shut down its turbines; this after a long period of doubt & temporary stoppages.
The Society has recently granted the Award to two recipients: The Museum of Carpet (Kidderminster) and Sheffield's Kelham Island Museum. The funding has also been increased - propositions are welcome.
This year, 2020 marks the 80th anniversary of the development of the cavity magnetron, a small but immensely powerful and robust radio valve, at first used in wartime radars and today at the heart of every microwave oven.
A house in St. Mary’s Road, Upton Park was partly wrecked and completely cut in two on Saturday by a gas explosion. The furniture was reduced to a mass of debris, while Mr George Tetin, the occupier, was injured and his wife and two daughters had narrow escapes. Fifty canaries in the dining room were also uninjured.
I am currently locked down at Clevedon Court, our family house in Somerset continuing the long task of transcribing the diaries of my great-great grandfather, Sir Arthur Elton (1819-1883). They throw up a lot of interesting things about the difficulties of introducing modern conveniences to an enormous mediaeval house.
The newly refurbished Runcorn to Widnes Road Bridge (also known as The Silver Jubilee Bridge) was originally designed by Mott, Hay and Anderson with steelwork by Dorman-Long (Bridge and Engineering). Work began in 1956 and it opened in 1961.
Valley Works, in the countryside west of Mold in North Wales, was developed in the late 1930s as a shadow factory for ICI's Randle Works in Runcorn, where mustard gas was made. The Valley was known by the local residents as a place that made nasty things - there were notices in Welsh and English about what to do in the event of a gas escape! In 1941, the MAUD committee reported that an atom bomb was theoretically possible and it was decided to start work on the formidable task of separating uranium isotopes. Again, the site chosen was Rhydymwyn Valley, which had the added advantage of being topographically difficult to bomb accurately.
Lower Vartry Reservoir The Lower Vartry Reservoir has [...]
Dublin Port Diving Bell In the 1860s, more [...]
