We had a walk around Jumbles Country park today, which is just a stones through from where I spent part of my childhood. Between the ages of 5 and 10 years old I lived in Bromley Cross and have fond memories of the area. It’s only the second time I’ve been to Jumbles, the first time being a couple of years ago.

During that first visit, I’d had a funny experience. Jumping back in time, as a 9 year old me and a friend managed to persuade a local newspaper shop owner to give us a job delivering newspapers, but because we were under 10 years old at the time, we could do it only if we did it together. Now I have a strong memory of a country lane me and this friend used to deliver newspapers on, because it had no street lights, and it was always dark because we did the job during the winter months after school, some of the houses were quite secluded and scary in the dark, from a 9 year old’s point of view anyway.

Now jump forwards 39 years, having walked around Jumbles country park, I was completely unaware it would bring me back on to the very same lane (at the back of the park) that I’d delivered papers on all those years before. I hadn’t actually ever seen the place during the daytime, yet I had a strong sense of deja vous as we came onto the lane from Jumbles, and I said to my wife, “I wonder if this is the lane?” I felt a need to walk further down to see if it would bring me to Turton railways station, which it surely did. A very strange experience for me at the time, but it was great to rekindle some of those old memories again.

Anyway here are a few images from our most recent visit that we took using our phone camera …

Here are a few photos from our recent trip to Balmoral Castle and gardens. We spent a week on the estate, stopping at one of the cottages that are available to rent. Photos are a mix of DSLR and camera phone, hope you enjoy them.

Fred Dibnah was a steeplejack and television personality from Bolton, who was well loved because of his infectious enthusiasm and passion for engineering. His home became his playground, littered with many of his homemade projects. Since his death in 2004, the venue has become a heritage centre thanks to Leon Powsney who took over after Fred’s death, aided by some of Fred’s friends including Alf Molyneux who was one of Fred’s best friends and who starred with him on the BBC Made in Britain series.

All images taken with Android phone.

On our drive to Poole’s cavern and Buxton country park we stopped to take in some of the views and of course take a few pictures.

Once we arrived we walked to the summit of Grin Hill, just a 20 minute brisk walk from Poole’s Cavern, to Buxton’s very own folly, Solomon’s Temple.

Solomon’s Temple actually occupies a site of ancient significance. It rises from the centre of an ancient burial mound, and during the tower’s construction an archaeological dig revealed several Bronze Age skeletons from the ‘Beaker’ period, along with later Roman items.

After taking a short rest to enjoy the spectacular views across the High Peak we resulted to take a guided tour of Poole’s cavern.

You can find more information from Poole’s cavern official website at poolescavern.co.uk

It says “Take a journey beneath the earth with expert guides, explore the vast limestone caverns see how crystal stalactites have lined the chambers over millions of years.”

We did and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.