STANLEY

I was tempted to just stay at home today but I decided to make the effort and go somewhere. Decided to go to Stanley as its easy to get to - the bus which goes there passes near to my house.

Stanley is about 13 miles from here but because the bus takes a roundabout route the journey takes about 50 mins. The route took me past my old grammar School. It doesn't seem to have changed since I left there in 1969.

Stanley is a former colliery town. The West Stanley Pit Disaster, one of the worst coal mining disasters in British history happened on 16 February 1909 when over 160 people were killed in the Burns Pit disaster.

Over recent decades Stanley has suffered hard times economically with the closure of pits and factories in the area. The main shopping area has certainly seen better days. My blip shows a fire damaged row of shops in Front Street. The fire, which occurred in December 2013 was deemed as suspicious. I also saw the site of another, non - suspicious, fire which occurred in November 2013 and which destroyed an Edwardian building which housed a row of shops with living accommodation above. This building is in the process of being demolished.

I mooched around the shops in Front Street - didn't buy much - and then it started chucking it down with rain. I nipped into Asda to escape the weather. Did a bit of food shopping before it was time for my bus home.