Visiting the Past

We apologise for this prolonged period of inactivity. We can assure you we’re doing everything we can to restore normal service as soon as possible.

In the meantime, here’s some music.

If you use Google Earth and are interested in visiting ROC posts then have I got the thing for you!  This file opens Google Earth and shows placemarkers for all the ROC post locations in the UK. Clicking on the linked post will open up the relevant SubBrit page in the Google Earth mini browser.  I didn’t make it, but whoever did deserves mucho kudos.

• Click the link or right click and do ‘save file’:  ROC Bases (56kb)

• If you don’t have Google Earth get it here:   Google Earth website

As I mentioned, if you have any problems with it, it’s nothing to do with me. It works fine on mine.

Dunkeld ROC post in Perthshire is a lovely little post tucked away on a golf course.  The post is safe and dry and contains a lot of interesting paperwork, some of which you can see in the pictures below. I may add some more shortly too.

The post closed in September 91 when the Royal Observer Corps were stood down.

I see Canon have launched the 7D today too. Looks smart, but they keep punting out new cams at a fair rate with newer technology, but without ever seeming to release something stunning. The same has recently happened with the Nikon D5000 and D3000.

I’m ever the gadget freak but I’ll prob stick with what I have. If a spare 2 grand came along I’d go full frame though.

For more information on the Royal Observer Corps click here

Alyth ROC post is just outside the Perthshire town of Alyth.  It’s a master post (i.e. the main post in a group of usually 3). The post itself is dry and contains various artefacts leftover from standown in the early 1990′s.

I’ll be posting up a whole load of places I’ve been over the last few years, plus one or two bits of info on places that no longer exist.

I’ll also be posting some rubbish up on a semi-regular basis.  Probably things I think are funny and crap from youtube.

Lets see how long it is between this posts and when stuff actually goes up shall we…..

The hospital was originally constructed in 1861 as Banff District Lunatic Asylum at Whitehills, just along from the northern coastal town of Banff.  The hospital’s input of 44 patients in 1865 were the first of many to cross the threshold and live out their days in this relatively remote but attractive facility.  Considered a modern and successful unit in the early 20th century providing a good standard of care and range of facilities, it handed to the control of the NHS in 1948 by which time it had expanded and patient numbers amounted to several hundred.   The later addition of various wards and blocks in the 1960′s extended the capacity and range of care the hospital offered peaking at around 1000 patients on site ranging from the severely mentally handicapped to those with less severe learning difficulties.  Whilst these villa-esque outbuildings gave a greater scope of  care, they also over time give a sturdy granite-built phallus a flimsy, prosaic sixties-era flowery panty.  I’m sure they were seen as a positive and attractive addition at the time but while the main buildings have stood the test of time, these smaller buildings have deteriorated horribly and lost any character they may have had never for it to return.

Since the hospital’s closure in 2003 (amid ongoing rumours of historic abuse and mistreatment of patients) the deterioration has been ably assisted by the local youths young and old who have seen the buildings as the ideal ground for exercising acts of mindless vandalism leaving the area unrecognisable.  These factors, combined with the rumoured underhand purchase of a lot of the land by a company controlled by the brother-in-law of the Scottish First Minister of the time have left a sour taste in the final mouthful of Ladysbridge’s history.  Demolition of the site is well underway at the time of writing as shown in some pictures and the area will re-emerge as Ladysbridge Village comprising 117 residential units including some community care housing.  The main building is to be retained and converted into flats. Or should that be luxury apartments?

These pictures were taken in February 2009.