Bidston Observatory - A Call to Arms

The plot thickens.

Bidston Observatory - Heritage For Sale

Bidston Observatory is for sale, again.

Migrating

I have set up a new website for Bidston Lighthouse. In future, I'll be mostly posting to the news section there, instead of here.

Thanks for following!

- Lightkeep

Creating New Horizons

4 Lighthouse Cottages, Bidston Hill is to be demolished.

Not many people know that 4 Lighthouse Cottages, Bidston Hill, CH43 7RA, is actually the postal address of the Joseph Proudman Building.

The Joseph Proudman Building was built during the 1970s on land which used to be the kitchen gardens of the Lighthouse Cottages. It was officially opened on 18 April 1979, and named after Joseph Proudman (30 Dec 1888 – 26 Jun 1975), CBE, FRS, Honorary Director of the University of Liverpool Tidal Institute. Joseph Proudman also gave his name to the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory (POL), the research institute which occupied Bidston Observatory, the Joseph Proudman Building and part of the Lighthouse until its relocation to the University of Liverpool in 2004. POL is now part of the National Oceanography Centre.

Few will be disappointed to see the Joseph Proudman Building disappear from the Wirral skyline. Amongst those few are fans of cold-war architecture and the vocal Bidston Preservation Trust, who mounted a campaign to save the building and use it as a Taiko drumming school. They bought a few months for their campaign by applying to English Heritage to have the building Grade II listed. Wirral Borough Council, who own the freehold of the Proudman site, were forced to postpone their decision on whether to consent to the demolition until after English Heritage had considered the matter. To cut a long story short, English Heritage rejected the application at the initial assessment stage, the Council finally gave its consent, and the live-in guardians who have kept the Proudman Building secure for the last seven years have been given notice to quit.

The demolition works are scheduled to start on Monday 26th November 2012, and are expected to take 10-12 weeks.The contractor undertaking the demolition is Hunter Demolition. Their tag line is "creating new horizons".

If all goes to plan, you will be able to follow the action on the web at wirralcam.org. A webcam mounted on the east face of the lighthouse will give a panoramic view of the proceedings. At the beginning, you will see the Joseph Proudman Building. At the end, you will see the iconic Liver Buildings in the distance. Creating new horizons indeed!

Halloween, Ghosts and Mulled Wine

Last night, there was a Halloween Ghost Walk on Bidston Hill. About 60 people assembled at Tam O'Shanter Urban Farm and proceeded along the hill, lit by a waxing gibbous moon two nights off full. Ghost stories were told along the way.  The evening was cold and dry.

Meanwhile back at the Lighthouse, Mandy had baked two carrot cakes, a Dorset apple cake, and a batch of Anzac biscuits, and was preparing hot chocolate. I'd lit a fire and had a big pot of mulled wine simmering. When the party arrived, Mandy served hot chocolate, I served mulled wine, and the walkers helped themselves to cake and warmed themselves by the fire.

Thanks to ranger Nic Harding for organising the event and acting as guide, to the Friends of Bidston Hill for providing story tellers and marshalls, and to Tom Slemen for letting the tellers adapt his stories. The proceeds from the event will go to the Friends of Bidston Hill.

Stephen's Mulled Wine Recipe

Several people asked for the mulled wine recipe. I made it up as I went, but it was something like this:

Ingredients: 

• 5 bottles of red wine. I used Tesco's French red wine at £3.59 a bottle. Any decent, cheap claret will do.
• About a pint of orange juice, no bits (they spoil the texture).
• 2-3 sachets of mulled wine spices. I used a couple of different brands, but Schwarz's are fine.
• 1 apple, sliced.
• 1 orange, peeled and studded with cloves.
• 1 large cinnamon stick.
• 1 handful of green cardamom pods.
• Ground cinnamon, maybe a teaspoon or two.
• Ground ginger (optional), a teaspoon or two.
• A little brandy.
• About a pint of tap water.
• 1 small tin of golden syrup.
• A tablespoon or two of soft brown sugar.

Serves about thirty.

Method:

Put the spice sachets, cinnamon stick, slices of apple, and the clove-studded orange into the pan. Pour in 3-4 bottles of wine, most of the orange juice, and a little water. Heat the pan until the mixture begins to steam, then keep the temperature steady. Its OK to let it simmer a little, but don't let it boil. While the mixture is heating, add the golden syrup and a tablespoon of brown sugar, sprinkle a little ground cinnamon and maybe ginger on top (not too much), and throw in the cardamom pods. Stirr gently. Splash some brandy into the pan about 10 minutes before serving.

The longer the spices and fruits have to blend, the better. I started about an hour before serving.

I had to serve outside, so I transferred the pan to a gas barbeque to keep it on heat while serving. My pan wasn't big enough to hold all the wine, so I had to add more wine, orange juice, and maybe a little brown sugar after every ten servings or so.  Do this little by little, so that the temperature doesn't drop too fast. You rarely need to add more spices. I served using a ladel into plastic cups (Tesco value cups, doubled up for insulation, are quite economical). If you have more time, you could strain and decant before serving.

The recipe is very tolerant of variations of quantity. Let your own taste be the judge. Other spices such as nutmeg and ginger work well too. Probably the most unusual aspects of my recipe are the cardamom pods, and the use of golden syrup instead of sugar, but I do think these work well. If you can arrange that your guests are cold, they'll appreciate it all the more!

Where's Fred?

Fred came to Bidston recently. I met him during the filming of this!

The view from the top

Back in March, we let Merseyside Police shoot a promotional video from the top of Bidston Lighthouse. Here it is.

Behind Roy McGregor is the Wirral coastline. In the distance, you can just make out the Great Orme, in North Wales.