tarboat's photos with the keyword: carving

This character keeps watch from above the shops in Commercial Streel, Newport.

The weathered lettering carved into the parapet of Bridge 25 at Whiteley Green on the Macclesfield Canal recalls a long-forgotten tragedy. I consulted the Macclesfield Courier and Herald for Saturday June 30th 1894 and the full story soon emerged. Walter Brindley was a 25 year old journeyman baker and married man who had worked for Joseph France on Park Lane in Macclesfield for five years. Esther Pickford was a 29 year old single mother of three who was working as a domestic servant to Mr France. These two had apparently been walking out together for some time, in spite of his being married. They had been seen together in pubs and at Butley, and it was inevitable that this would come to the attention of Mrs Brindley who, naturally, was not amused and went to the bakery to confront them. Neither would speak to her and that evening he went to his house on Knight Street, turned Mrs Brindley out and moved in his companion Esther Pickford. This action so infuriated the neighbours that a melee broke out, with the house windows being broken and the blinds etc pulled down. The next day (June 20th) there was further public disorder and the police had to find Esther Pickford shelter in a court off Park Lane. Later that day the couple were seen together in Bollington and then vanished. Two days later a boatman found their bodies in the canal at Whiteley Green. Their wrists were tied together with a cloth. Their bodies were taken to the nearby Windmill Inn. The whole sad story was told at the inquest, where the jury entered a verdict of "Found Drowned".

Oldham Equitable Co Operative Society Ltd made a big statement with their building on Huddersfield Road. Completed in 1900 the design was by local architect Thomas Taylor. The building is asymmetric with this massive gable set well to the left of centre. Stained glass windows in the arched section above the carved relief name are at one end of a large dance hall. It is no longer in Co-operative occupation and much of the upper area is empty and in varying states of decay.It is listed Grade II.

I had a good mooch around Leek today and really enjoyed the wealth of interesting and whimsical architecture to be found around the town. This keystone is in the entrance arch to a former stables in Leonard St. The adjacent buildings dated from the 1880s and this is almost certainly contemporary.

Whilst out and about one evening the light caught this old graffiti carved into a coping stone on Victoria Bridge over the quarry inclined plane at Kerridge. There is only one family called Jardine listed in the census as living in this area in the late 19th century and the likely culprits are Mary Jardine (born 1879) or Margaret Jardine (born 1874).

I spotted this on a derelict factory in Bailey Lane whilst rambling around Sheffield last week. A Google search revealed that I looked at just the right moment as someone had recently enquired about the carving on a local message board and the answers were to be found as under: This is the Dog Brand trademark of J & Riley Carr Ltd the manufacturing company that occupied the building until the 1950's. The business was established by Riley Carr in 1806 in Bailey Lane but relocated to Herries Road South in 1954. Originally the company were concerned with merchanting steel and making steel and saw fenders but later manufactured saws, files and machine knives. The phrase "a stanch (or staunch) dog" means a good, reliable hunting dog.

It is amazing what passes for a garden ornament. The Elephant and Castle stands in the garden of Laundry Cottage in Peckforton. It was carved in the 1850s by John Watson, a stonemason who worked on Peckforton Castle. It is said that it stood in the garden of his cottage until it was demolished and was then moved to its present location. It is further suggested that the elephant was chosen as it featured on the family arms of the Corbetts, who owned Peckforton up to the 1620s.