History On The Move

It's the national Heritage Open Day today, where buildings open their doors to the public that are usually shut.

So I popped along to the old Barton's bus depot, which has now become a bit of a museum to the bus company and they also stage events like concerts and art works.

It was quite interesting seeing the vehicles again, as I have visited the former depot quite a few times before. But I noticed one or two new vehicles in the collection, like this old fire engine above.

The towing vehicle above looks like it used to be a former army or RAF vehicle, especially with those big tyres.

Here's a couple of commercial vehicles; a tractor for pulling trailers and another recovery vehicle. A lot bigger than the previous tow truck, probably designed for rescuing double deckers.

There were also a few cars on show like this Ford Escort from the late 1960s with Bartons' Robin Hood logo on the front in flag form.

Big Boys' Toys

Armed Forces Day today and so Gail and I popped down this afternoon to see what excitement there was to be found. And there was plenty. Although we had missed quite a bit, as it had started at 10am in the Old Market Square with a march from the castle and a flypast by the Red Arrows.

I was in Beeston this morning, covering the first Great Beeston Bake-Off.  A cookery competition to raise funds for Oxfam when the planes flew over the school where it was taking place. I was photographing the opening ceremony with my camera in 'P' mode, so unfortunately I couldn't take a photo, as my camera was struggling to focus. It would have been OK in auto, and might have got a couple of good shots. Sadly it wasn't to be.

There were loads of people around. It has been estimated that 70,000 visitors had gone down to show their support for the soldiers, sailors and airmen. With that many people wandering around, it was sometimes a bit difficult trying to take reasonable shots of the vehicles on display.

There was some music on offer too, in the form of an Abba Tribute band called Arrival UK, who were very good and the nearest thing to the real Abba you'll find, with their singing, costumes and tunes.

We were still wandering around long after most of the people had left, so we more or less had the site to  ourselves. While we were taking unrestricted photos of the vehicles, I noticed that one by one they were starting to leave the site. So we hung around and snapped them being driven away, or being loaded onto very big low loaders.