A Few Old Photographs

I was looking back through some old transparencies (photo slides) for a particular photo earlier today and came across these photos. Unfortunately the film has deteriorated quite badly and the quality and definition is not very good, however I scanned them into my PC and with the help of Photoshop I think they make interesting viewing. 


Every Monday, on the M6 Motorway, on our way up to the Lake District with my good friend and fellow photographer John Lenehan, I bore him with the same story of how when I was a lad and used to go up to the Lakes with my father we always stopped at Forton Services. The bonus of stopping here was going up to the observation deck at the top of the tower where good views over Morecambe Bay & the Fells of Bleasdale could be seen. 


When the services (hyped as a 'motorport') opened in 1965 there was a restaurant with table service at the top. it was intended to be “reminiscent of an airport control tower, thereby making positive associations with the most exclusive form of transport" (aeroplanes). These were the short-lived days when motorway services had grill rooms and carveries, all set in modernistic architecture. The idea was to allow ordinary motorists  to eat, toilet and fill up their cars in thrillingly futuristic surroundings while they admired the view of nearby Morecambe Bay. The tower unfortunately fell foul of Health & Safety Regulations and is now closed and in disrepair but it's still a distinctive motorway landmark for thousands of motorists.

The Tower at Forton Services - July 1969

The next photo is the only one I have from the top, looking North up the motorway, note the volume of traffic! The reason for only one photo would probably be the cost of film  and developing, in those days every shot had to count.

The View From The Top

If I remember rightly these photos were taken on my first 35mm camera a Russian built Cosmic 35 using Kodachrome 25 ASA Transparency Film, I was 11 years old.

The next transparency I came across was of Dinckley Suspension Bridge in April 1969. 

Dinckley Suspension Bridge - April 1969

and this prompted me to look for some other photos of the bridge that I had taken after the river flooded and washed it away in the winter of 1980/81.

Dinckley Suspension Bridge - Winter 1980/81

I am not sure now which camera the first photo, of the bridge intact, was taken on because the transparency is 25 x 25mm and I can't remember us having a camera with that film size.

The photos of the wrecked bridge were taken on a 35mm Konica my first SLR, it had been my father's camera and he gave it me for Christmas when he upgraded to a Pentax Spotmatic with TTL Metering (Through The Lens Metering.) but we always considered the Konica Lens which had great definition to be the best.

The Konica was one of those Christmas presents that you always remember, it really was the business, especially if you're only 14 years old. The Pentax Spotmatic was introduced in time for the Tokyo Olympics but surprisingly it was not 'spot metering' as originally designed but 'average metering', Pentax changed it at the last minute (but not the name) fearing that users would not know how to use spot metering and would blame the camera for poor exposure results.

The bridge was built in the 1950's over the River Ribble to connect Dinckley to the village of Hurst Green. My father and I spent a lot of time hiking in the Ribble Valley and he could remember the ferry (a rowing boat) prior to the bridge. He said that you used to have to shout across the river for the ferryman to come and he would row you across for a few pennies. I believe that it was operated by an Italian family called the Corrella's out of Trough House. 

There was another ferry 2-3 miles further up the river where the River Calder joins the Ribble it was known as 'Hacking Boat Ferry'. I remember my father saying 20 years ago that they were going to build a bridge there and we even walked there one day to see if it had been built. 

Follow the link below to the only reference I can find of a footbridge at Mitton. 

http://www.wilkinsoneyre.com/projects/hacking-ferry-bridge.aspx?category=bridges

I am not quite sure what the ferryman would have made of the new bridge! 

I can also remember a rhyme my father used to say when we where walking on the Ribble in this area "The Hodder, The Calder, The Ribble and The Rain, all meet in Mitton's domain'

Finally, me & my dad on one of our Sunday hikes somewhere on the River Ribble with the Cosmic 35 on a tripod testing its self timer.

Arthur & Keith - 1969