Are crime levels in Telford really falling ??

Now this week there was the startling revelation that crime levels in Telford has decreased, what then followed was the customery "mutal back patting" by the police authorities and the council as to how effective they both were and how they had contributed to how wonderful Telford now was.

However, I question, have crime levels really fallen or is it just that people have stopped reporting crime, if my personal experience and that of others I have spoken to is anything to go by it is the later. When reporting "matters of concern" shall we say, twice this year, we have been met with the truely apathetic response "What do you expect US to  do about it" a response experienced by many others. With that being the case what appears to be falling crime levels, as a result of the Police's shocking response to the publics calls, is actually the public stopping reporting crime.

We then had the police announcement which amounted to thinly disguised criticism of public apathy when it came to local PACT meetings which were stopped due to lack of public interest!!! A case of the kettle calling the pot black I think. They just don't get it do they, they respond to our calls in a truely apathetic manner and when the public responded in the same way to what became rather pointless PACT meetings , (because we all knew what their actual response would be) they then critiscise the public!!

Point out to them their own inaction/disinterest via social media like twitter which they were so keen to use to promote their supposed wonderfulness, they suddenly disappear, they only what to get involved as long as it is something deemed positive about them, if not they suddenly do not want to know.

Falling crime levels in Telford, don't think so!!

view point, without a view !!

This morning after a short detour down Dawley High St (really wish I hadn't though) I made my way to Ironbridge via The Silkin Way, a pleasent enough walk.

On the Silkin Way literally a few metres before you walk under the Hay Incline Plane there is a viewing point/platform, which has been rebuilt and by the look of  how substantial it is, its taken time, effort and money and its all very impressive. Just one small, really insignigicant and not very important detail, whoever rebuilt said viewing platform forgot why it was there in the first place, THE VIEW, yes believe it or not there isn't one, well not know there isn't. They forgot about (or maybe it wasn't in the job description) clearing the undergrowth and overgrown trees blocking the view, so there you have it all that time and money spent and you can't use it for what it was intended for, admiring the view, WELL DONE ALL involved.

Telford Steam Railway:- Full Speed Ahead !!

As I sit here in the back room of a house in Dawley I can hear the sounding of a train whistle down at Telfords least desirable tourist attraction the Telford Steam Railway (in Horsehay for those of you who wish to have a laugh or cry).

Now while I may have titled today's post "full speed ahead" it certainly won't be by Steam Locomotive, beause the self titled "Telford Steam Railway" doesn't currently have a steam engine, unbelievable really a "Steam Railway" without a "Steam Locomotive".

Apparently the Locomotive is in for its 10 year boiler inspection/overhaul, now this was something that must have been known about but its not surprising that they failed to plan for the eventuality that said engine might not pass, (highly likely considering how they look after things), now the said engine the inappropriately named "Rocket" has not been seen for some time.

So now if you wish to take a ride in a grubby carriage on the stonking 3/4 mile long section of poorly maintained track thats pulled by a steam locomotive, guess what, it will be pulled by a diesel shunter instead. I have recently observed some maintainence of this diesel shunter during an open day during which they were attempting to pull a carriage with a handful of brave/stupid passengers, maintainence consisted of pulling the engine cover off and jamming a huge block of wood somewhere in the engine compartment and whacking the piece of wood with a lump of metal, fills you full of confidence doesn't it, NOT!!

Now while all this has being going on (or not going on as the case may be) they have aquired a rather shabby green coloured "seen better days" "Diesel Multiple Unit" (I believe thats what its called), they can't look after what they have got never mind aquiring even more junk, now if  DMU's are your thing get down there now to have a look, shabby as it is thats is as good as it will ever be because from this day forth it will "merrily rot away".

Remember they carry the name of our town and as such ARE NOT a good advert for it, time for the council to put them out of their misery and take back the land they were gifted all those years ago.

If you really want a ride in a carriage pulled by a steam locomotive, there's a infinitely better, more professional, better run outfit just a few miles away The Severn Valley Railway, an example of how things should be done!!

Vickers Wellington R1646

During a recent Open University residential school week in Scotland studying metamorphic geology and tectonic structures, after one particular days field trip, while on the way way back to our residential school we had a stop over at Braemar. While having a wander round I spotted an aircraft engine on a plinth tucked away in a paved area overlooking the river.

It turned out to be one of the engines from Vickers Wellington R1646 which crashed near Braemar during a training flight on 19th January 1942 killing all those on board, the engines were recovered in 1999 and this one was used in the memorial to the crew of R1646 and all other aircrew that lost their lives flying in the Cairngorn mountains.

The thing that struck me was the nationalities of the crew, like some of my recent posts on crashed wartime aircraft, the crew of R1646 truely was a commonwealth crew, 1 from New Zealand, 2 from Australia, 2 from Canada and 3 from England, they all came together to fight a common foe in our collective hour of need.

May the crew of R1646 and all those that also died flying in the Cairngorns forever rest in peace, they paid the ultimate price, their sacrifice was not in vain.

Lightmoor, a comparison across the ages !!

The two photographs that follow are taken in Woodlands Lane just off  Holywell Lane on the edge of the new Lightmoor estate, many, many years ago for much of the length of  Holywell Lane and Woodlands Lane there was one long row of squatters cottages. They were built in the 1800's when an obscure law meant if you could get some walls up, a roof on and smoke coming out of a chimney between nightfall and daybreak you could stay on the land, but beyond that you had no rights.

Many cottages were "improved" over the years and became quite substantial structures and were still being lived in come the 1960's, at which point the residents were turfed out and the cottages demolished as the council at the time deemed them unfit for human habitation and the residents would be much better on one of the boroughs shiney new housing estates. The demolition wasn't really very thorough, out-houses, brick walls or in some cases substantial parts of cottages still exist now hidden in the undergrowth along parts of Holywell Lane. However one cottage on Woodlands Lane survived intact and today has "listed status" and is currently protected by being fenced off to keep the vandals away while funding is sought to restore it and bring it back into community use.

The comaprison in the first photograph shows the difference across 100/150 years or so, the cottage represented those at the bottom of the social ladder of their time, they were squatters, they had no rights, no money, their properties were tiny and worthless and built from what ever scrap could be found locally. The roofs in the background are on the new Lightmoor Estate, built on what was (before EU quotas, our Government and the big supermarkets chains made farming unviable for many) "Prime Farmland" by the Bournville Trust, who are trying to create an "instant community" some of the houses are worth in excess of £250,000, currently really only an estate for the up and coming those with "money", those with it all, (we await the "affordable housing" on this new estate with interest).

Now if the two sets of people, those that did live there and those that now do could some how co-exist, across time, what would they think of each other!!

The path you can see trodden down in the grass behind the squatters cottage , was once part of a canal basin and branch off the Shropshire Grand Union Canal, now long since filled in. It ran across the back of the squatters cottages, those that lived in them would try and earn a living from the canal and the local farms. Behind the trees in the centre of the photograph is all that remains of the canal, the following photographs show all that is left, it was emptied and part filled in, buts its towpath and the outline of the canal itself can still be seen and it has a little water, in the winter and when its being raining alot, this particular branch of the canal finished at the boundary fence of what was the Johnson's Pipe Works.

Hero from Lancaster DS660.

In a posting on the 23.05.2012 I mentioned that during our wanderings around the Battlefields of  The Somme, we came across the crew of Lancaster D660 buried in a CWGC Cemetery at Grevillers.

During the original search for information on the internet about DS660 and her crew I came across some pictures of  NAV P/O Chester Armstrong,  records do not show an age for Chester Armstrong, but looking at the photographs I doubt he is much older than the oldest known member of the crew Frederick Leonard Yates who was 28 years old.

                                       NAV P/O Chester Armstrong






                                                   (copywrite, Aircrew Remembrance Society).

Manufacturing, it has all disappeared !!

Its not just a Dawley problem or even just a Telford problem, its one that has effected large parts of the UK and in fact many parts of the "developed world", manufacturing is in decline and has moved to the third world or developing countries.

As living standards increased and prices went up, wages increased to compensate, and the prices of the manufactured goods then went up to pay for the increases in wages, its a visous circle.

We had it good for a long time, probaly to long and all at the expense of much of the rest of the world, when the good times arrived we grabbed it all and then some more, now the rest of the world  wants its time at the top and it will be at our expense, we can't all be top dog.

Will they make the same mistakes as we did, profit driven with little or no investment in new technologies to make manufacturing cheaper, because the quick fix, dispensing with the "expendable" workforce to keep short term profits up was easier than looking to and planning for the future, short term gain ultimately looses you it all. Only history yet to come will reveal if they make the same mistakes.

The three pictures that follow are of the now empty site of Johnsons Pipe Works in Dawley, (currently being "redeveloped as a housing estate") once one of the four biggest employers in Dawley, which between them at their peak employed 2000 people out of a total population of just 8000. All four companies and the jobs they provided have now all gone, will the jobs ever come back in some form, so far they havn't and are unlikely to for some considerable time.

Along with the jobs the skills have also gone too. What will happen many generations down the line when or if the wheel turns full circle and it becomes cheaper to manufacture goods here once more, the skills have gone and all the old factories and the land they stood on have become housing estates!!

Empty, totally empty and so quiet 100's of jobs were once provided on this site.
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