For the past two December 18ths I have had 5pm appointments at Townhead Surgery for my annual review and check-up. This means I walk back through the town nearer to 6pm. I have the place to myself. The cars have mostly gone home and so too the people and evening has not got into its swing. Here are this year's images. Hardly changed from 2023's but wonderful. Click on any one to enlarge:
This was the aftermath of a dreadful fire in not-far-away Kirkby Lonsdale at the weekend. It was right in the middle of the small market town with narrow streets. The shape and corner position of the building involved made fighting the fire exceptionally difficult. Sadly a man died. Water was a big problem in such a small place. Hydrants ran dry as did the town's water supply in general and special high volume pumps had to be brought in to pump water from the river Lune. A severe test for the mostly volunteer fire crews from all over Cumbria. Lancashire and North Yorkshire to whom all credit.
After several days of dire warnings Storm Bert* is here. Nothing too bad in Settle though. A very modest amount of snow followed by lots and lots of rain and a sudden rise in temperature as southerly winds blew in strongly. Autumn and winter sort of rolled together. First picture illustrates rainy darkness at just half past four in the afternoon of Saturday 23rd November, The next two show spectacular low speed skid marks from our lovely new car being driven away over what appeared to be harmless rain-drenched slush. The car ended up sideways on to the boundary fence having slid down the modest slope sideways. Fortunately not a scratch.
* Who names these storms? Bert hardly does justice to the event.
Here's another one of mighty grandson James, quarterback for Birmingham Uni., helping them to a resounding 27-6 win against Cardiff Uni.
Meanwhile, younger grandson Ben is now sixteen
Our policy of letting nature do its thing with the 'cultivated' parts of the gardens has worked well. But, too well in the case of some high growing plants - brambles and young trees especially. Autumn is time for a clear-out of those.
We are unable to tackle them ourselves so must call in some help. Help has come form two directions - Paul and Tracey. Paul, who we have known for years, was a teller at Settle's one-time Barclays Bank. He is now a much happier green-fingered man. He has set about clearing the steep slope of the southern embankment, clearing space for the wanted shrubs:
You could not even see that fence before! The young trees and bushes are in those ton bags awaiting recycling. Phase two is attention from qualified plantswoman Tracey.
How's this for a magnificent photograph by MJ Turner, whose commentary on it is:
The emergency services are kept busy in this far flung corner of England, 30+ miles from the nearest hospital. Police, fire and ambulance are all based here in Settle. A bit further up the valley are the cave and mountain rescue. That said, the actual presence at any one time may be one police constable and one ambulance crew. Fire cover is by call-out. Mutual aid is there in abundance but it is from a distance and that takes time. Emergency calls for the ambulance are either answered almost instantly for Settle itself, IF the ambulance is not elsewhere in the vastness of the Yorkshire Dales. In that case there are the volunteer first responders or, nowadays, the air ambulance is the much valued backup.
You will have seen them on TV probably, too often deployed to the Three Peaks accidents and to serious road accidents.
Late yesterday afternoon must have been one of those times when 'our' ambulance was elsewhere - which could well include being at the far distant Airedale Hospital. I happened to be on the roof of the tower and saw and heard the air ambulance approaching Settle at speed from the south east, heading north west. To my surprise the helicopter slowed and circled more or less directly above the station and water tower, landing very nearby on the playing field of Settle Primary school, immediately on the far side of the railway. There it shut down and the paramedics went about their duties inside the by-then closed-for-the-day school.
Here it is (picture 1) between flights. It took off again around 5pm. Lisa Smith at Settle station caught the ideal picture, number 3 below.
The other day a proper letter arrived. You remember the sort of thing? With a proper stamp on it and my name and address written on it in ink! It was postmarked Swindon. It turned out to be from Philip Harrison from Luckington, Chipenham - a follower of this Blog. It was NINE pages long too!
Philip has an interest in water towers and a specific interest in the watering arrangements at Garsdale, near to the summit of the S and C, Garsdale had not only a tank house and water tower, more or less identical to ours here at Settle, but also the water troughs between he rails for expresses to pick up water without stopping. Here are the Garsdale troughs with their own water tank. Built in 1907 and now long since gone.
It was always a spectacle to see the troughs in use as when the tender was full, surplus water would often overflow, to the delight of line-side photographers but to the dismay of diners in the first class carriages behind:
But back to Philip Harrison. His scholarly letter addressed questions posed in this Blog.
Q1 Could Settle Station Tank House have been built earlier than 1876? Answer (backed up with numerous extracts from contemporary reports) - most probably. Settle station's site was hugely important as an accessible construction base, covering some 10 acres of land. Three tank engines operated along the line well before 1876 and it was important to avoid road haulage for massively heavy supplies. Settle station itself was completed by June 1876 when it was reported that 'a water tank is erected some 30 feet above the level of the rails, which will hold 200 tons of water'.
Q2 Why is Settle Station tank house so large? Answer - uncertain but optimism about future through and local traffic may have been the key. There was local concern about where the precious water would come from. In the end it came from Stainforth higher up the line.
Q3 How was the Garsdale Tank House heated? Answer - It was used for local social functions and had two big coal fired stoves which may have been later amenities fitted for these occasions.
My precis of the answers condenses page after page of evidence, or lack of it.
The letter concludes with a number of drawings of Midland Railway water tanks such as this one:
Thank you so much Philip Harrison.
The evenings are certainly drawing in now which puts a different perspective on our habit of siting outside on the tank decks or inside if it is too cold or raining. The automatic LED lights of the station's lovely neoVictorian street lights come on well before dusk. We can see eleven of them from our perch and a jolly fine spectacle they make. The picture below was in fact almost approaching darkness on a wet and horrible late evening earlier this week. Unfortunately, modern cameras do their best to turn night into day so imagine this as nearly dark. So, mentally darken it considerably and fiat lux.
We have had the privilege of hosting our Ukrainian refugee family for the past year already. Doesn't time fly? There has been only passing reference to them in this Blog. They have in fact been able to return to Ukraine to see their family twice during the year to 'test the temperature' as it were. We hope we have been able to give them a home from home yet to respect their privacy. Evgeniia has even got a Facebook presence which shows her home as Settle, which is nice. She has just published her profile picture, taken in Ukraine, on it too -
On their return from Ukraine this month I asked how things were back home. No bombs I hope? I enquired. "Only one" she matter of factually replied.
They are about to move on to another house, very nearby in Settle in early October and we shall still be here for them if ever needed, of course.
Water ingress has defied more than a year's worth of investigation and attempted cures. It has now become clear that the main ingress is not from that gap between the tank and the walls, though that was part of the problem and is now comprehensively fixed.
In fact the water has been coming in above the tank base plates where is has accumulated. That can only mean that the fibreglass roof inside the tank has failed, either locally, near the one and only outlet, or more generally. A new roof, over the old one is necessary. Inevitably this has meant total clearance of whatever sits on the old roof In other words the decked area above. It has been quite a task to dismantle the decks and a problem was how to store the lengthy components - mainly decking planks and supporting rafters. The obvious place for temporary storage would have been on the ground which would involve lowering them piece by piece and raising them back again. Then, inspiration struck. Why not secure them across the corners of the massively strong tank itself?
For a week of so, the photographers will have to put up with the results but reassembly will be so much more straightforward and the components will be exactly where they are needed. The stacks are tied together securely with tensioned straps and at the western corners the planks are interwoven with the horizontal steel cables of the safety fences. The new roof begins next Monday, 16th September when a week of high pressure if forecast over the UK. Necessity, they say, is the mother of invention.
Here's Sir Nigel Gresley flying through Settle station last evening:
We spend many of our early evenings sitting on top of the tower marvelling at the views. Who wouldn't? Compass directions are important, particularly as Pat has become a Planefinder fan so we need to see what direction a given vapour trail is heading. There is not room for a horizontal compass rose in front of our indoors bench swing-seat to the compromise if a vertical one.
SWMBO is forever suggesting that it is axially wrong. Subtle comments like "They've moved Blackpool again" and not unknown. Last evening gave me an opportunity to verify the position. Here's the sun most definitely setting in THE WEST. Not the best photograph in the world but enough for me to be able to rest my case I think.
I have mentioned before on this Blog that when we lived at The Folly in Settle we had no view of the railway. Frustrating. The water tower more than makes up for it as seen here:
Here's an absolute hero earning his money at height in a howling gale and pouring rain. He is doing the first stage of installing the fibre cable to connect us to the 21st century. The actual hook-up happens next Tuesday with a new fibre router. We need to see how it goes before we decide whether to disconnect from landline telephone.
UPDATE The fibre broadband was finally installed yesterday. Early impression is of a vast improvement. 210 mbps download speed and 103 mbps upload. I did not appreciate that the fibre cable is just one single glass core along which everything goes both ways. The fibre router has the same connections as had the old router. Simply switching the connections from old to new box of tricks seems to have worked fine. Because of the size of the place we have two wi-fi repeaters, each with its own hard wire connection to the router. These seem to work too.
It is Monday morning and the coming week is forecast to be 'Autumnal' in feel. How delightful therefore for this picture by Chris Eccleston to appear on Facebook today.
We are at long last a one-car couple. Our beloved Mazda MX 5 has been sold. Here is its rain-soaked departure:
I am a Facebook follower of some of those daft but ordinary worldwide groups, dedicated to ordinariness. Perhaps you are too? Examples are "The Dull Mens Club", "Pointless Gates. Silly Signs and Other Associated Infrastructure" and inevitably, "The British Water Tower Appreciation Society".
Thankfully for our sanity, there is a streak of childish silliness in all of us. It is healthy and sometimes entertaining. Formalising this on Facebook and elsewhere sharpens our wits and keeps us on the look-out for ordinary things that are, quite literally, extra-ordinary. Nowadays we have in our pockets, the means to record those things when they occur, perhaps momentarily. The trick then is to act fast and capture it.
Below is the sort of thing I mean - an instant in time when things all line up, perhaps never to be repeated. My summertime morning routine, weather permitting, is to sit on one of our rooftop sundecks and attempt to do the Daily Telegraph cryptic crossword. Good for the heart, soul and diminishing brain. Yesterday was one such occasion. I looked up from my crossword to see the shadow of the chain link fence which borders the deck had aligned perfectly with the vertical post from which one end is suspended. But not for long so out with the iPhone and 'click'! Unseen at the time but there in the station drive in the picture was the shadow of the Midland Railway water crane (the white thing to the left of the chain) as a bonus.
(The rusty cast iron pipe in the foreground is a section of the miles-long pipe which once brought the water supply to the tank from far off Langcliffe, via the railway line)
To relieve the monotony of roof leaks and mouldy walls I thought I would post this view from the top of the tower looking north east a week ago. The magnificent Yorkshire Dales with sunshine and church bells.
Click on the pic. to see it without all the Blog gubbins on the right.
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The almost undoubted main water problem is that wretched gap between the cast iron tank and the wall below. Continual efforts to seal it are frustrated by the expansion and contraction of the iron tank which exceeds that of the stone, leading to cracks in the seal like this one:
And this is how that section looks after three coats of the reinforced bitumen seal. Not pretty but it's invisible from all normal viewpoints. Not bad considering it was done from the thin dry end of a six foot long paintbrush. Just need some rain now.
Ironic I suppose that we should be troubled by water getting into our water tower. The problem is that rain, especially when wind-blown, runs down the windward walls of the massive tank in volume and at pressure. The slightest weakness in what should be a rainproof seal between the cast iron of the tank and the stone supporting walls finds its way through causing dampness and eventually black mould within. Eventually, following the sort of prolonged and intense rain we have had so far this year floods the space between the fibreglass roof inside the tank and any holes in the tank itself.
There were only three deliberate holes in the base of the tank - 1. the water inlet pipe, 2. the outlet pipe and 3. the overflow pipe. Pipes 1 and 3 are very definitely dry nowadays. Pipe 2 carries all the rainwater from the roof to our underground rainwater harvesting system. The fibreglass roof necessarily drains into that huge downpipe via a vulnerable outlet. We think that needs exposing, enlarging and making good. That is in hand when roofer Darren Philips can fit us in. It that does not improve matters, the existing fibreglass roof will be replaced with a rubber roof laid above it.
There is also a fourth hole in the base of the tank - the massive hole through which the stairs and the lift shaft pass. The removal of five entire tank base plates, each 4 feet square, creates a mighty big hole for any incoming rain to eventually pass. That is what has been happening for some months now, damaging the parts of the floor below, the lift and its electronics and the tank walls themselves, especially at the south end, evidenced by ever worsening black mould. Our building insurance covers the inside damage but of course it is up to us to keep the roof itself fit for purpose.
This week was to be the week to begin dealing with the unsightly and unhealthy black mould. Se found a firm called The Mould Team who agreed to deal with the matter, having seen photographs of the extent and height (about 10 metres). They attended on the dot on Monday 29th July but would do nothing unless we provided scaffolding access which they specified. Disappointing but unsurprising so we set about finding a local scaffolder who could quickly provide access. We struck gold with scaffolder Aide who scaffolded it the very next day. At the very time the scaffolding was going up The Mould Team emailed to say they could no longer do the job as their men were not willing to work that high - scaffolding of not.
That left us in quite a fix - scaffolded but nobody to actually to climb it and deal with the problems -
A bit of Googling found us PureMaintenanceUK, mould eradication specialists we had found before but rejected as they insisted on using 'dry fog' to get rid of residual spores in the air - a tough and expensive call for a huge water tower. Still, I explained our predicament and they responded straight away without the dry fog extra.
Long story short - scaffolded on Wednesday and job done by PureMaintenanceUK on Friday!! The de-moulded but still rusty water stained walls will be painted with fungicidal paint before the scaffolding is removed.
It seems only yesterday that little James would accompany me as assistant on-train-guide on the Settle-Carlisle railway. This photograph of him and me was taken by Lorna his mother if memory serves. It was soon used in advertising the different-ness of the S&C:
Nowadays James, 6-foot-three and rising, plays American football for Birmingham University. He plays quarter back, where height, reach and ball skills are needed:
