BBC One HD in Scotland

wrote:

At least Basingstoke doesn't smell of rotten fish.
And Lowestoft doesn't (yet) have so many roundabouts.
Oh yes, we were 'Doughnut City' during the peak of CB Radio's popularity.

Does the AA still have a presence there?
For a period I had to visit the place semi regularly and initially did
not know my way around too well. It seemed many others did not either
as the chaps looking after the entrance to the AA offices had a pile
of A4 photocopied maps by the Window. Upon a request for directions to
say, Park Prewitt the bloke would dutifully take sheet from the pile
and draw a line along the route. Much easier than saying turn right
past the Red Lion and then left by the ****ting Dog.

Yes, the AA are very much still here, it their HQ.

It was (maybe still is ?) the tallest building if you travel west from London,
until you reach New York.

In fact, drifting back on topic, the building is a Tx site :-)

http://tx.mb21.co.uk/gallery/fanum-house.php


--
Mark
Please replace invalid and invalid with gmx and net to reply.

www.paras.org.uk

wrote:

Much easier than saying turn right
past the Red Lion and then left by the ****ting Dog.

The ****ting Dog closed a long time ago.

Bill

On Sat, 16 Apr 2011 13:12:56 +0100, Mark Carver
wrote:

wrote:

At least Basingstoke doesn't smell of rotten fish.
And Lowestoft doesn't (yet) have so many roundabouts.
Oh yes, we were 'Doughnut City' during the peak of CB Radio's popularity.

Does the AA still have a presence there?
For a period I had to visit the place semi regularly and initially did
not know my way around too well. It seemed many others did not either
as the chaps looking after the entrance to the AA offices had a pile
of A4 photocopied maps by the Window. Upon a request for directions to
say, Park Prewitt the bloke would dutifully take sheet from the pile
and draw a line along the route. Much easier than saying turn right
past the Red Lion and then left by the ****ting Dog.

Yes, the AA are very much still here, it their HQ.

It was (maybe still is ?) the tallest building if you travel west from London,
until you reach New York.

If you travel west from London you will miss New York by many miles. You
will make landfall at Newfoundland. If you continue due west you will
cross Canada and arrive at the Pacific without meeting a town or city
will tall buildings.

In fact, drifting back on topic, the building is a Tx site :-)

http://tx.mb21.co.uk/gallery/fanum-house.php

--
Peter Duncanson
(in uk.tech.digital-tv)

"Bill Wright" wrote in message
...
wrote:

Much easier than saying turn right
past the Red Lion and then left by the ****ting Dog.

The ****ting Dog closed a long time ago.

"Left where the ****ting Dog used to be."

--
Max Demian

On Fri, 15 Apr 2011 21:29:07 GMT, Paul Ratcliffe
wrote:

On Fri, 15 Apr 2011 12:26:11 +0100, Albert Ross
wrote:

Ah yes, Lulsgate, where the runway goes uphill and then down a bit

It does that at Filton as well, where I was earlier. Sadly not for that
much longer now they're shutting it. Concorde 216 looked very sad shrouded
in what looked like some sort of scaffolding as far as I could make out
from the road across the other side of the airfield...

I used to see the prototypes flying out of Filton.

Later I would often see them taking a trip to look at Gatwick before
returning to Heathrow (they could land at Gatwick but not take off
with a full load). I watched one of the last flights with some
sadness, twas an impressive beast.

What are they going to do with Filton then, turn it into another
housing estate?

Albert Ross wrote:

Didn't the AA building have a Regional Seat Of Government in the
basement?

No, that was the nearby Crown Building, now revamped into flats:-

http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/sites/...ink/index.html

And I see now that the AA building has lost its place as the tallest building
between London and New York, (surprising I found out before JG Miller eh ?)
it's been beaten by 4ft by the revamped IBM building, also now a block of
flats (next door to the Crown building).

More reading:

http://www.basingstoke.me.uk/

--
Mark
Please replace invalid and invalid with gmx and net to reply.

www.paras.org.uk

On Sun, 17 Apr 2011 13:02:02 +0100, Albert Ross
wrote:

Concorde 216 looked very sad shrouded
in what looked like some sort of scaffolding as far as I could make out
from the road across the other side of the airfield...

I used to see the prototypes flying out of Filton.

I was airside for the final flight and got to sit in the right hand seat
when it was parked up in the Brabazon hangar later in the afternoon.
One of my colleagues who was also around had worked on coverage of the
maiden flight.

What are they going to do with Filton then, turn it into another
housing estate?

It looks like it, or another industrial estate. They've put it a new road
("proudly built by Bovis" or some such ********) to the north (which was a
surprise to me as I usually avoid the A38 round there) and all the
roundabouts have stubs on the south side which go nowhere except into the
perimeter fence.
Houses (by Bovis of course) have already started to the north of the new
road.
Bizarrely, they've put up signs to the Royal Mail depot already but not
built that bit of new road to it.
It was always a pain to get from the A38 to Cribbs, but not any more.

In article , Paul Ratcliffe
wrote:
On Sun, 17 Apr 2011 13:02:02 +0100, Albert Ross
wrote:

Concorde 216 looked very sad shrouded in what looked like some sort of
scaffolding as far as I could make out from the road across the other
side of the airfield...

I used to see the prototypes flying out of Filton.

I was airside for the final flight and got to sit in the right hand seat
when it was parked up in the Brabazon hangar later in the afternoon. One
of my colleagues who was also around had worked on coverage of the
maiden flight.

FWIW I flew a number of times on 001 in the period before there were any
Concordes in service. This was when I was a research student. I spent about
3 months working at Tolouse and then a few weeks in the Canary islands with
the plane.

The project was to use 001 to 'chase the Sun' for a eclipse. We had a far
infrared interferometer looking though a quartz 'window' that was inserted
into the cabin roof. By using the plane we were able to extent the
observable totality of the eclipse and get much more data, as well as get
above a lot of the atmospheric effects.

At the time there were other experiments on 001. One was by people from Los
Alamos who wanted to examine UV from the Sun as part of their research on
fusion. Another was by Jim Birch from the NPL. That was 'no publicity' at
the time as he was examining the stratosphere due to concerns that the
exhaust from Concorde might affect the upper atmosphere.

Slainte,

Jim

--
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Armstrong Audio http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Armstrong/armstrong.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html

On Sat, 30 Apr 2011 18:03:52 GMT, Paul Ratcliffe
wrote:

On Sun, 17 Apr 2011 13:02:02 +0100, Albert Ross
wrote:

Concorde 216 looked very sad shrouded
in what looked like some sort of scaffolding as far as I could make out
from the road across the other side of the airfield...

I used to see the prototypes flying out of Filton.

I was airside for the final flight and got to sit in the right hand seat
when it was parked up in the Brabazon hangar later in the afternoon.
One of my colleagues who was also around had worked on coverage of the
maiden flight.

I bet there were tears.

What are they going to do with Filton then, turn it into another
housing estate?

It looks like it, or another industrial estate. They've put it a new road
("proudly built by Bovis" or some such ********) to the north (which was a
surprise to me as I usually avoid the A38 round there)

As you do

and all the
roundabouts have stubs on the south side which go nowhere except into the
perimeter fence.
Houses (by Bovis of course) have already started to the north of the new
road.
Bizarrely, they've put up signs to the Royal Mail depot already but not
built that bit of new road to it.
It was always a pain to get from the A38 to Cribbs, but not any more.

Yes they've covered one of the ex-USAF bases here with houses. I hope
they scraped up most of the nuclear bits first (allegedly they dropped
a bomb and it broke)

I'm psyching myself up to visit Bristle later in the year, this may
take some time.