A visit to East Didsbury railway station

Maximum Train Nerdery at East Didsbury railway station.

Since moving to the north of England we've been travelling to a lot of new places. This has given me the chance to see some new railway stations and a lot of different trains too.

Train nerd Richard Gottfried at East Didsbury railway station

My new favourite railway station is East Didsbury in Manchester. It's actually one of the closest to ours and we stopped by on Friday prior to going tenpin bowling over the road at Parrs Wood. In just ten minutes six trains passed through the station, although only one stopped. And that was en route to Llandudno!



Check out my YouTube Channel and the links below to see some of my other recent train nerdery captured on camera.

Related blog posts:
- Train Nerd
- Train
- Trains
- A trip to Ashton-under-Lyne railway station
- Tube trains on the Isle of Wight

Videos:

- Crazy Golf and a train at Vickersway Park in Northwich

- GBRf 66737 with Drax freight trucks at Cheadle Heath

- Northern Sprinter train on a railway bridge in Cheadle Heath

- Northern Sprinter and Pacer Railbus trains at Ashton-under-Lyne station

- Pacer Railbus train in Cheadle Heath

- Class 150 Sprinter Northern service from Altrincham to Stockport

- Trainspotting at East Didsbury railway station

- First TransPennine Express Class 185's passing East Didsbury station

- Arriva Trains Wales Class 175 stopping at East Didsbury station

- Northern Class 150 Sprinter passing East Didsbury station

- Northern Class 156 passing East Didsbury station

- Northern Electrics Class 319 passing East Didsbury station

Spotted in Stockport - Only Fools and Hearses

I enjoy a good play on words and so had to get a snap of the Only Fools and Hearses hearse outside the Town Hall Tavern in Stockport yesterday.

Trotter's Independent Traders don't own this vehicle

Related blog posts:
- Stockport
- Bootleg

Crazy Golf at Bitts Park in Carlisle

Playing the Crazy Golf course at Bitts Park in Carlisle.

On the 5th April 2012 we visited Carlisle and the Crazy Golf course at Bitts Park.

The Bitts Park course was one of 13 we played on a roadtrip that took us to 49 minigolf courses in England and Scotland.

At the 471st course on our tour

Tackling the Humpty obstacle

The Crazy Golf course was similar to the Eternite style, but each hole had a fibreglass obstacle on it, including one Humpty. The course was the 289th played and 471st visited on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

Humpty!

However, only one of the holes was anything but a straight 'lane'. With the pyramid obstacle hole being a dogleg right.

Playing the only hole with any sort of variety

In our minigolf match-up Emily won with a score of 31 to 23.

Emily won our round on the faux-Eternit course

We found somewhere to have a nice sit down after our game too.

What a ludicrous bit of street furniture

Related blog posts:
- Visiting a further 49 Minigolf and Crazy Golf courses in England and Scotland
- Unplayed Minigolf Courses on our Roadtrip to Scotland & Back
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Give the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour a Like on Facebook, watch our YouTube channel and follow us on Twitter @putting_gott and @Ems_Lems. Please do sign-up to receive our miniature golf newsletter too.

Indoor glow in the dark minigolf in Brighton

Finding out about Jurassic Globalls indoor glow in the dark minigolf in Brighton.

It's always brilliant to see new minigolf courses opening and even better to hear they are doing well. One such new minigolf course is Jurassic Globalls, an indoor glow in the dark course in Brighton. We haven't been to Brighton for a few years, but really ought to so we can play the new course and see what's changed down there. In the meantime the team at Globalls were kind enough to send me the first scorecard they ever printed for my collection of minigolf ephemera and merchandise in the Crazy Golf Museum. It looks great.

The scorecard at Jurassic Globalls is nice, big, colourful and high quality

I've been told the course record for the 12-hole course currently stands at 19 shots, with the average score coming in at the 50 shots mark!

The reverse of the scorecard shows the Globalls Course Rules

You can find Jurassic Globalls at Unit 8, Ground Floor, Mermaid Walk, The Waterfront, Brighton Marina BN2 5WA. Visit the Jurassic Globalls website for more information, opening times and prices.

Emily and I are looking forward to having a crack at the course on our next trip to Brighton on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour. We've played minigolf at Brighton Marina before - on an Adventure Golf course which had one of the smallest holes we've ever seen!

Do give Jurassic Globalls a follow on social media too as I've seen they run quite a few competitions to win free rounds and other fun stuff.

Related blog posts:
- Scorecards
- Dinosaurs
- Brighton
- Indoor Minigolf

Links:
- Jurassic Globalls website
- Jurassic Globalls on Twitter
- Jurassic Globalls on Facebook
- Jurassic Globalls on Instagram
- The Crazy Golf Museum

Give the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour a Like on Facebook, watch our YouTube channel and follow us on Twitter @putting_gott and @Ems_Lems. Please do sign-up to receive our miniature golf newsletter too.

A visit to the Portland Basin Museum in Ashton-under-Lyne

A look at the Collector's World exhibition at the Portland Basin Museum in Ashton-under-Lyne.

We recently visited Ashton-under-Lyne and the Portland Basin Museum to see the Collector's World exhibition which is on display until the end of February.

I'd seen the Collector's World listed in the Tameside Reporter newspaper and as a collector of many things myself it was interesting to see the varied display of people's collections in the museum.

The various collections were displayed in some very nice pods

Medal, sticker and bottle collections

The Portland Basin Museum is well worth a visit and the curators there were incredibly enthusiastic and helpful. We only had time for a flying visit, but we'll be back for a longer look around in the future.

We had a great time in Ashton-under-Lyne

The Portland Basin Marina

Interacting with one of the museum's social history exhibits in the 1914-1918 Street

Eat Less Bread. Wise words indeed

Visit the Portland Basin Museum website for details of upcoming displays and opening times.

Link:
- Portland Basin Museum

Related blog posts:
- Ashton-under-Lyne
- Museum

The Gazeway 'All-Weather' Miniature Golf Course

Finding out about The Gazeway 'All-Weather' Miniature Golf Course from a minigolf postcard.

Emily and I enjoy a good mystery and after Emily found a great old minigolf postcard while browsing at the Room at the Top antique shop in Stockport Market's Produce Hall we had another bit of minigolf history to research.

The undated and postally unused card shows Room at The Gazeway 'All-Weather' Miniature Golf Course. A quick online search for this term returned no results!

The reverse of the postcard was no help

Luckily after a bit more digging we found details of the course in a 1930 issue of The Graphic magazine.

The Gazeway 'All-Weather' Miniature Golf Course was created by the company W.H. Gaze in 1930 and was located in Kingston-on-Thames, Surrey. The course was part of an old house on Portsmouth Road which the firm modernised, refurbished and furnished to showcase what the business did.

The company had its own miniature golf section, overseen by Mr H. C. Gaze and the Kingston-on-Thames course was created by a Captain G. B. Mallett - himself responsible for minigolf courses in Vancouver and Los Angeles.

Dating from 1930 the Gazeway 'All-Weather' Miniature Golf Course was one of the earliest artificial layouts in the UK. The first Crazy Golf course in England was created in Skegness in 1926.

At the time miniature golf was experiencing a boom period as the latest craze took hold. Portable and temporary courses could be found popping up in a number of different locations, including on the roof at Selfridges in London.

As is so often the case, history repeats itself and we're currently experiencing a high level of new course openings, as well as refurbishment of old courses and enjoyment of the more than 600 layouts in the UK.

Related blog posts:
- Postcards
- Miniature Golf

Give the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour a Like on Facebook, watch our YouTube channel and follow us on Twitter @putting_gott and @Ems_Lems. Please do sign-up to receive our miniature golf newsletter too.

Crazy Golf in Maryport

Visiting the Crazy Golf course at the Lake District Coast Aquarium in Maryport.

On our big minigolf roadtrip to Scotland and back in 2012 we visited a lot of courses. One of those was the Swedish Felt B-Run type of Crazy Golf course at the Lake District Coast Aquarium in Maryport. Unfortunately we arrived ten minutes after it closed at 5pm so didn't get to play.

The sign for the course is made out of the 'green' of one of the holes - we hadn't seen that before, or since

The Crazy Golf course at the Lake District Coast Aquarium

The Maryport Crazy Golf course became the 469th course on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour when we visited on the 5th April 2012.

Instructions, prices and The Rules

 

  

Visit the Lake District Coast Aquarium website for more information.

Related blog posts:
- Visiting a further 49 Minigolf and Crazy Golf courses in England and Scotland
- Unplayed Minigolf Courses on our Roadtrip to Scotland & Back
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

Link:
- Lake District Coast Aquarium website

Give the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour a Like on Facebook, watch our YouTube channel and follow us on Twitter @putting_gott and @Ems_Lems. Please do sign-up to receive our miniature golf newsletter too.

Tripe in Stockport

A blog post about tripe and the Tripe Marketing Board.

Ever since I first spotted tripe on a butcher's stall at Wigan Market in 2012 I've been following the Tripe Marketing Board with interest. Although not enough interest to have actually given tripe a go. Yet. I'm fairly certain that cow's stomach is something of an acquired taste.

While shopping in Stockport's Produce Hall at the indoor market last weekend I spotted tripe for sale at Deli Delights. The first I've seen since moving to the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport last summer.

Thick seam tripe - a deli delight!

The Tripe Marketing Board tell me that up until the 1960s you could find hundreds of tripe shops throughout Lancashire, with many of the shops run by United Cattle Products (UCP) and offering nose-to-tail food at the attached cafes and restaurants.

The country's last remaining Tripe Shop is in Stalybridge. I'll have to go there when I eventually get round to travelling on the once a week Parliamentary one-way rail service from Stockport to Stalybridge.

Back in December we were in Leeds and saw that there was a new Tripe Counter at Ramsdens Fishmongers at Leeds Kirkgate Market!

What a lot of tripe!

I've also seen tripe for sale in Bolton and Blackpool.

Tripe in Bolton

Tripe in Blackpool

The Tripe Marketing Board are dedicated to educating the public about eating tripe as part of a healthy, balanced diet. The Tripe Marketing Board was an industry-wide response to the continuing post-war decline in tripe sales in the UK. This was due to the ending of rationing, increasing affluence and a widespread perception that it is not fit for human consumption.

Visit the Tripe Marketing Board website for more information about tripe. You can also use Tripe Adviser to locate sellers of the delicacy.

Links:
- Tripe Marketing Board website
- Tripe Marketing Board on Twitter
- Tripe Marketing Board on Facebook
- Stockport Market

Related blog posts:
- Marketing
- Stockport
- Food

Crazy Golf and Putting at Bude Haven Recreation Ground

Playing Crazy Golf at Bude Haven Recreation Ground in Cornwall.

On the 10th June 2015 we visited Bude Haven Recreation Ground to play the Crazy Golf course there. We also found there were two grass Putting Greens at the venue.

In our game on the Crazy Golf course I won with a score of 20 to Emily's 21.

Spikey

Snakey

Funny bunny

The Crazy Golf course at Bude Haven Recreation Ground was the 53rd visited on our south west holiday. It was the 652nd visited overall on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour and the 379th played since September 2006.

Bude Haven Recreation Ground was certainly well signposted - something that is always nice to see.

We didn't have time to play the two Putting courses there, but they looked in very good condition.

Related blog posts:
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour
- Mini Golf in the South West of England

Give the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour a Like on Facebook, watch our YouTube channel and follow us on Twitter @putting_gott and @Ems_Lems. Please do sign-up to receive our miniature golf newsletter too.