Now THAT"S a View

 The horizontal railing intruded annoyingly into the otherwise glorious view from the viewing platform:

Depending on your eye line it was always on or near the horizon.  But no longer:

I've left the vertical post in the centre and also 60mm stubs projecting from that post and from those on each side.  The removed two sections of 25mm rail can be replaced at any time using 30mm outside diameter (26 mm inside diameter) tubular collars securing the joins firmly in place.

A raily good result, eh?

From the ground the absence of the two railings is invisible - they coincide with the roof overhang's shadow.  The still in situ vertical post completes the illusion:

Gerrard's Cross

 Just spent a delightful weekend with family in Gerrards Cross - the first time we have visited there since Covid so there have been a lot of changes.

Not least the boys James and Ben have both shot up and are way taller than their mother, Lorna.  Here's one of little olde me with James for comparison.

Sixth former James is learning to drive too!  Here's his VW Up parked outside with his mother's big Jag behind it.

And her's said mother in her lovely sheltered garden with Darcey the dog looking a bit wary of the camera.

New Top-of-the-Tower Indoor Viewing Platform

 Our roof room sits deliberately low down inside what was the water tank.  This is to stop it dominating the overall appearance of the tower and topmost structure.   Several things were incorporated into its design to minimise its outward appearance.

From inside though the lowered floor of the roof room is disappointing in that all that a seated person inside the room can see is the inside wall of the cast iron tank.  Impressive but frustrating.  The view to the east is further restricted by frosting to the lower parts of of the roof room's glazed east wall.  That was a planning requirement to prevent us overlook an adjoining garden.  It doesn't work at all well as visitors always ask about it and on hearing the explanation they invariably stand on tiptoes and look over the frosting or go outside to satisfy their natural curiosity.

To the west though are much finer views stretching for miles into Lancashire, the Forest of Bowland and the hills above.

The roof room has had its problems - cold in winter, hot in summer and bedevilled by cluster flies in autumn - see recent posts.  The fly problem seems to have been solved or drastically reduced - time will tell for sure.  The room has been used as an occasional bedroom, dining room and TV lounge but it has lacked a main purpose.  Yet there it sits overlooking a view-to-die-for, rarely seen.  I have long wondered about building a viewing platform in that otherwise underused room.  Well, at last I've done it:

Simple really - a modern see-through sliding two-seater chair, securely mounted on a spare table that was just waiting for a permanent use.  Accessed by three steps, the seated occupant now looks straight out over that stunning view.  Incidentally, the picture shows well the clever design of the massive steel verticals which form the window frames and support the roof.  They are of T section with a very deep upstroke of the T and very small horizontal top strokes.  That design enables very slender frames when viewed from outside yet makes for a massively strong roof support.  Compare the verticals on each side of the viewing platform.

Sitting in comfort and in any sort of weather there it is in all its glory.  Thanks to recent tree felling we can even see the trains.  The only impediment is the horizontal black (purely ornamental) handrail.  That will be made removable and we shall see if things look right with that arrangement.  The inside of the tank will have a repaint while we are at it.  Work in progress but hopefully the result will be an enjoyable and really useful roof room.  The presently very obvious former dining table may yet be cunningly disguised.  Standing head-height on that viewing platform is right up to the ceiling.

No dining tables were harmed in the making of this structure.

You Never Know Who's Watching

 Mark Harvey is a clever chap and a brilliant photographer.   He has devoted years of his time to meticulously recording and documenting every structure along the 72 mile length of the Settle-Carlisle railway line.   The stunning results can be seen on his SCRCA* masterpiece online.

SCRCA

*SCRCA? I hear you cry.  Settle Carlisle Railway Conservation Area.  The longest Conservation Area in the land and perhaps the most spectacular.   The very survival of many of the S&C's structures is down to the existence, and enforcement of the SCRCA.   Maybe our water tower included.

Yesterday the weather was right for Mark Harvey to throw caution to the wind and climb to the top of Settle's Castlebergh Crag and see if he could get an almost aerial panorama of Settle station.  Here is one of the resulting images:

He would have got a fine view of the station were it not for the late summer trees in full foliage - and a certain enormous water tower.  Still, a fine view and  amazing detail of not just the station but also the houses and industrial buildings behind it.  A 'context view' in the jargon of the SCRCA, almost westwards.

Mark H is meticulous about not infringing anybody's privacy so he scans his images in detail before using them.  At first sight there are no such problems with that picture.  Is that a person on the footbridge though?  Any registration numbers readable?  Looks good.  But hang on, are we sure?  Maybe you can click on the pic and zoom-in to check.  That is what Mark H was able to do with his high resolution original image.  What he found was astonishing.

Not at all obvious at first but is that somebody's head between the roof room and the sloping roof of the tank-top but sunken wooden shed?  It was me, inside the tank, about to make my way southwards along the narrow and deep walkway inside the tank between the roof room and the eastern side of the tank.  Nothing to worry about in terms of Data Protection though.  That narrow sunken walkway was a planning requirement to protect the privacy of a neighbouring garden.  An unwelcome consequence meant that any later maintenance high up on that side of the roof room would involve climbing.  At height.

Zooming in on a slightly later image was this:

One foot on top of a near vertical ladder and the other on a narrow shelf inside the tank.  Hands free I am fixing sealant strip under the roof overhang as part of the campaign to keep flies from having access to the roof room (see previous post).  The operation is not as dangerous as it might appear, thanks to the slender but very strong horizontal continuous railing around the top of the tank.  The railing normally serves no purpose apart from creating a horizontal black line above the tank, one of the clever devices to conceal the roof room when viewed from the ground.   It was never intended as a safety fence but on this occasion (and others) it was - thanks to Settle blacksmith David Clements who did the vertical posts and to Jonathan Mounsey and his men who did the rails in between.  The posts were forged from tank bracing rods and the rails are of immensely strong tubular steel industrial electrical conduit.  Fortuitously.

I remember Restoration Man producer Melissa Mayne telling me that planning requirements and building control insistences could be a toxic mix.  How right she was.

Thanks also to Mark H for allowing me to use this set of pictures.  Bracing myself for thorough tellings-off from daughter Lorna and wife Pat.  Both far scarier than this carry-on.

Flies Frustrated?

Some of you already know that we have had immense problems with cluster flies getting into and being unable to get out of our wonderful roof room.

Throughout the summer I have been investigating how the little perishers are getting in in the first place. Clearly, flies can get into an enclosed room via the doors when open - but not in their millions.  I took apart the roof overhangs and found 101 ways in to the flat roof space.  It need to be ventilated after all.  Once in there they need to find a way though the ceiling and there are gaps aplenty - most obviously round those inset little ceiling lights.  There is, in cluster fly terms,  a massive gap between the LED bulb and the lamp housing.  I abandoned all of those and replaced them with 500mm x 500mm square flush-to-ceiling LED panels, suitably (I hope) sealed.  That alone may have done the trick but I shall never know.  The lights are brighter and better anyway.

On the outside I have sealed every gap between cladding panels with backer rod (Google it) and roofing sealant.  That just left the half dozen or so round vents in the undersides of the overhangs through which flies could fly with their eyes closed on a near constant current of air if the vents were doing their intended job.

Each of those vents has been inelegantly but firmly sealed with minute stainless steel fly mesh and silicone sealant (lower).

The fly season will soon be upon us and I shall report further. 

Here is a reminder of the scale of the problem - dead flies surrounding the space in a corner of the roof room where a cylinder vacuum cleaner had been standing.

A Last Wave

 HM The Queen took her last flight yesterday when the RAF flew her coffin from Edinburgh to Northolt, London.  We sat in sunshine under a near blue sky and wondered if she would pass over us in Settle.  We were lucky enough to be able to connect to FlightRadar 24.  That website nearly became overwhelmed with more than 6 million viewers following the flight.  Our connection held good for the entire journey.  At just 23,000 feet the plane was not laying a vapour trail but the sky-view was clear.

Lo and behold, there it was, clearly visible, nearly over Settle.  My efforts at a photograph failed because of the position of the setting sun but here is a splendid one taken from nearby High Bentham:

And here is the FlightRadar 24 image as she almost flew over Settle.  We gave her a final wave.

R.I.P. Your Majesty

 The Queen has died.  She has been part of most of my life.  I am proud to be able to say that for just ten precious minutes or so I was part of hers.