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Nina's Blog - Monday 28th July 2025

Monday 28th July 2025, 12:20

At Burtonwood Services charging my car. Before that I went to Earlestown Post Office to post a form to the UK pension service. Parked in the market square at about 10:00.

Wandered about the town and took a few pictures. Judging by the town hall it must once have been quite a prosperous place.

Found a couple of charity shops, BHD and local one. The local one had a rail of clothes marked down to 1 GBP so of course I had to have a close look. And I bought a top.

Then I went to the Crumpet Café, Earlestown. Had a mug of tea and a sausage on toast.

I like the way it is furnished, lots of small booths. But my tea is only just hot enough.

The sausage on toast is reasonable and the whole thing is good value for money at 4 GBP. Cash only though which is a nuisance but better than the huge number of places in the UK that are card only.

The place could do with staff that are a bit friendlier and less slapdash though.


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ninalanyon · 61-69, T
Monday 28th July 2025, 13:32

In the Station, a café in the old station building at Irlam Railway Station. After the waitress had taken my order she introduced herself, Susan, and asked my name. I told her and she said 'Pleased to meet you Nina .' I can't make out whether this is something she does with everyone, or if there was something about me that prompted it.

Having a pot of tea with a scone, butter, and jam. Almost everywhere I have had scones with cream and jam on this holiday the plate has included pats of butter. Is this something specific to the north of England or a new national trend? It's certainly not how it is traditionally done in my family in Cornwall



22Michelle · 70-79, T
@ninalanyon Delighted to see you prefer jam then cream. I've never understood the preference for cream then jam and, more importantly, how to put cream then jam without it enfing up as a mess.
ninalanyon · 61-69, T
@22Michelle I'm half Cornish. I wouldn't be able to show my face in Cornwall if I started putting the cream on first!

But I feel that it must really have started as a practical solution to the fact that English jam (don't know about Scottish) is typically set harder than it is in Norway, for instance. So as the jam is firmer than the cream the jam has to go on first or you can't spread it without pushing all the cream off. But if I could get clotted cream back home in Norway I might have go over to the dark side and do it the heathen Devon way because typical Norwegian jam is not set so hard, hardly at all in fact so spreading it requires less force than spreading the cream.

Even cheap Norwegian jam is typically on par with or better than luxury brands here in the UK; more fruit, less sugar.

On the subject of spreading jam and cream: the thing that bothers me most is in fact not the order of application but what it is applied to. Scones are an English import, the proper base for jam and clotted cream is a Cornish split not a scone. But they are almost unheard of even in many parts of Cornwall now. I once asked in a cafe, in Cornwall, why they didn't serve splits and the waitress looked at me completely blank, she'd never heard of them yet was not much younger than me.
ninalanyon · 61-69, T
Monday 28th July 2025, 20:22

As I was taking pictures of the curious building a cat appeared above the front door.


She meowed and jumped down from the roof of the porch to the waist of the building and then down to the ground and approached me meowing. Then she trotted over to a bench and sprawled out on it. I went and joined her

After a while she got up and sat on my lap

When I got up to leave she followed me along the path



From here you can see the name of the little trail

Then the silly cat decided to run between my feet and got her paws stepped on for her trouble. She stopped following me then and went up the bank looking very much a like a tiger in the jungle

I've hit the upload limit again. So I'll try to add more tomorrow.
Barefooter25 · 46-50, M
@ninalanyon That house looks like something out of middle Earth from The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings. Looks like the cat has taken a real interest in you Nina.
ninalanyon · 61-69, T
@Barefooter25 Yes the cat was very friendly. I'm a cat person too.
Barefooter25 · 46-50, M
@ninalanyon Same here. 😻
ninalanyon · 61-69, T
Monday 28th July 2025, 13:46

Irlam Station is a working station but there are some preserved railway buildings, signals, and rolling stock.
There were supposed to be another dozen pictures here but the WiFi is so slow that the second still hadn't been uploaded after nearly ten minutes.
This message was deleted by its author.
ninalanyon · 61-69, T
Monday 28th July 2025, 18:35

And here are a few more of the outside of the station building that is now a cafe, a good and reasonably priced cafe too.








supersnipe · 61-69, M
@ninalanyon Assuming the 'forty shillings' penalty notice is pre-world-war 1, that runs into the hundreds of pounds in modern money! 😦
ninalanyon · 61-69, T
@supersnipe The penalty for similar offences now is a thousand pounds I think. Failing to secure a gate that gave access to the track would cause a risk that livestock might stray onto the track with quite possibly disastrous results, derailments, and deaths and the penalty should reflect the seriousness of the consequences.

According to Measuring Worth forty shillings (two pounds) in 1925 would be equivalent to between £139 and £1 276 dependng whethr we mean the labour or capital value, etc.

If you want to compare the value of a £2 0s 0d Income or Wealth , in 1925 there are four choices. In 2024 the relative:
real wage or real wealth value of that income or wealth is £153.90
labour earnings of that income or wealth is £456.90
relative income value of that income or wealth is £831.20
relative output value of that income or wealth is £1,276.00

If we go back another twenty five years then the numbers are considerable larger
If you want to compare the value of a £2 0s 0d Income or Wealth , in 1900 there are four choices. In 2024 the relative:
real wage or real wealth value of that income or wealth is £291.90
labour earnings of that income or wealth is £1,064.00
relative income value of that income or wealth is £1,657.00
relative output value of that income or wealth is £3,024.00

https://www.measuringworth.com/calculators/ukcompare/relativevalue.php?use2=a%3A5%3A%7Bi%3A0%3Bs%3A3%3A%22CPI%22%3Bi%3A1%3Bs%3A6%3A%22DEFIND%22%3Bi%3A2%3Bs%3A4%3A%22WAGE%22%3Bi%3A3%3Bs%3A5%3A%22GDPCP%22%3Bi%3A4%3Bs%3A4%3A%22GDPC%22%3B%7D&amount=2&year_source=1925&year_result=2025&button=Submit

Of course that particular sign doesn't really belong to exactly that location any more than the CROSSING NO GATES one does!
supersnipe · 61-69, M
@ninalanyon Yes it's a thousand now. There is a level crossing on a route I cycle regularly, and there's a notice to that effect. So I do resist the temptation to lift my bike over the barrier when it's down! 🚲🚂
skimpyboy · 56-60, M
Another busy morning and car charging, it raining in Darwen and due to meet up with a friend soon
skimpyboy · 56-60, M
@ninalanyon you sound like you need a good massage
ninalanyon · 61-69, T
@skimpyboy Just had a soak in the bath with a book and a glass of Malbec. But if you are offering ...
skimpyboy · 56-60, M
@ninalanyon I am actually nude with my feet in a foot spa at the minute
ninalanyon · 61-69, T
Monday 28th July 2025, 19:45

Now it's time to wrap up with the walk back to my car through the Station Park











turbineman40 · 80-89, M
@ninalanyon Very interesting pictures Nina. Thanks for sharing them
turbineman40 · 80-89, M
Someone should inform the owner of this store about his waitresses and their relationship with the customer.
ninalanyon · 61-69, T
@turbineman40 I think that most of their customers are regulars and that the staff might well be the owners.
turbineman40 · 80-89, M
@ninalanyon They still need to be reminded that the repeating customer is their income source
ninalanyon · 61-69, T
@turbineman40 Ah, but I'm not a repeat customer, I very much doubt that I'll ever be back here again. So it's not my problem :-)
ninalanyon · 61-69, T
Monday 28th July 2025, 18:34

Here are more pictures of the historical parts of Irlam Station








ninalanyon · 61-69, T
Monday 28th July 2025, 19:43

On the platform by the cafe is sort of memorial to notable people of the area




ninalanyon · 61-69, T
Monday 28th July 2025, 19:05

On the platform on the opposite side of the tracks is a mural


 
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