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Crewe

Very little happening in that video apart from a man freaking himself out & a few noises. Admittedly I watched it on double speed - maybe I missed something..
 
Here's about the most Crewe photo I've ever taken.

The APT, the iconic red-and-grey railway-built wall, the stanchion, two sizes of track, a Junction floodlight and a Works eagle. :chuckle:

APT at Crewe.jpg
 
Can't remember if we've had this before. If so, here it is again.
Crewe had its own Spirit Photography group. There were six practitioners to choose from.

Flickr page on the Hope Circle
These photographs of 'spirits' are taken from an album of photographs unearthed in a Lancashire second-hand and antiquarian bookshop by one of our curators. They were taken by a controversial medium called William Hope (1863–1933).

Born in 1863 in Crewe, Hope started his working life as a carpenter. In about 1905 he became interested in spirit photography after capturing the supposed image of a ghost while photographing a friend.

He went on to found the Crewe Circle—a group of six spirit photographers led by Hope. When Archbishop Thomas Colley joined the group they began to publicise their work.

Following World War I, support for the Crewe Circle grew as the grieving relatives of those lost to the war sought a means of contacting their loved ones.

By 1922 Hope had moved to London where he became a professional medium. The work of the Crewe Circle was investigated on various occasions.

The most famous of these took place in 1922, when the Society for Psychical Research sent Harry Price to investigate the group.

Price collected evidence that Hope was substituting glass plates bearing ghostly images in order to produce his spirit photographs.

Later the same year Price published his findings, exposing Hope as a fraudster. However, many of Hope’s most ardent supporters spoke out on his behalf, the most famous being Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Hope continued to practice, despite his exposure. He died in London on 7 March 1933.
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escargot said:
Here's about the most Crewe photo I've ever taken.

The APT, the iconic red-and-grey railway-built wall, the stanchion, two sizes of track, a Junction floodlight and a Works eagle. :chuckle:

View attachment 49642
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A classic example of the UK losing its bottle. It was a much better design than the decades later Pendolinos but a few railway hating journalists caused it to be abandoned.

Having said which, the HST's actually did everything our railway network with its relatively short distances between conurbations ever needed. It's no good having a 175 mph top speed if you've got to stop every 30 miles. Most of our population lives in a 120 mile long coffin shaped area Beween Greater London and Greater Birmingham.
 
I posted the Hope 'spirit' photography item on a Crewe Facebook page and had a surprising response.

Thusly -

Poster -
That’s interesting.
One of my grandparents supposedly had a photo that had the face of his dead best friend and partner in fortune telling and phrenology on their wedding photo. That would have been in 1916. Both spiritualists. I wonder???

Me -
Crewe has a long history of Spiritualism. It would surely overlap with the spirit photography. I'd love to see your family photo!

Poster -
So would I Scargy.. It’s been talked about by my parents but no one has it.
This is my Grandfather as a young phrenologist about 1912 ? before he went to fight in WW1.
(See first photo below.)

Poster -
And as a fortune teller standing by the cart along with his friend and colleague holding the horses rains whose face was supposedly seen on their wedding photo even though he had passed away earlier. Again around 1910?
(See second photo below)

Me -
Fantastic! I wonder where this was taken? Also, as the 'spirit photography' business was a scam, and there were photos of your friend available, that's an example of how the fakes were made.

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If I have any more replies I'll post them.

The poster's relation was of course a fraud with his palmistry and phrenology. I bet the spirit wedding photo was a gift from one of the local charlatans.

My paternal grandmother, born around 1900, was a staunch Spiritualist. I often wonder how much she knew about the jiggery-pokery that went on.
 

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Cochise said:
Most of our population lives in a 120 mile long coffin shaped area Beween Greater London and Greater Birmingham.
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That isn't how inclusiveness and accessibility work.
 
Further to the Crewe spirit Photography post -

Poster -
It sounds credible Scargy.
Certainly given me something think about. Thanks.

Poster -
I’d love to know where the photo (of the cart) was taken too? I only know my grandfather traveled all over England and certainly Wales too after the war, became a member of the Showman’s Guild of Great Britain and diversified with three different shows. Two freak shows and a burlesque show.
My mum who is almost 104 used to help with the menagerie of exotic animals and remembers it all well.

====

Wow!
 
escargot said:
That isn't how inclusiveness and accessibility work.
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Its how economic realty works. Otherwise we'd extend HS2 to Penzance and John O'Groats. And maybe even Southend-on-Sea ;)

That last sentence is flippant - I grew up there and some people see it as the ends of the earth in competition with Cromer. It actually has a brilliant train service, as long as the only place you want to go to is London.
 
Cochise said:
It's no good having a 175 mph top speed if you've got to stop every 30 miles.
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If only the road designers would bear this in mind (albeit on a slower speed scale) when putting a good dual carriageway in.............. and then filling it with roundabouts - or even roundabouts with traffic lights.

By the way, did you know that you can have a four/three/two and even one lane dual carriageway?

Sorry, I digress...........
 
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