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On the Buses (TV Series)

2011-03-22T21:27:00.003Z

On the Buses is a British situation comedy created by Ronald Wolfe and Ronald Chesney, broadcast in the UK from 1969 to 1973. The writers had enjoyed successes with The Rag Trade and Meet the Wife for the BBC. The BBC rejected On the Buses and the duo turned to the ITV company London Weekend Television. The show was accepted and despite a poor critical reception became a hit with viewers.

Situation

Stan Butler (Reg Varney) works as a bus driver for the Luxton & District Traction Company. He lives with his bingo-loving, widowed and overbearing mother (Cicely Courtneidge, later Doris Hare), his frumpy sister, Olive (Anna Karen), and his lazy brother-in-law, Arthur (Michael Robbins). The bane of Stan's life is Inspector Cyril "Blakey" Blake (Stephen Lewis), who is often checking up on him and his conductor and friend, the cheerful, bucktoothed Jack Harper (Bob Grant). Blakey threatens them with the sack for lateness and untidiness; he sports a toothbrush moustache and general appearance in the image of Adolf Hitler. His catchphrases are "I ‘ate you Butler!" and "That's made my day, that 'as. In later years Arthur and then Stan left the series, Olive worked for the bus company and Blakey moved in to board at Mum's house.

Background

Seventy-four half-hour episodes were made. Also popular were the spin-off films by Hammer Film Productions On the Buses, 1971; Mutiny on the Buses, 1972; and Holiday on the Buses, 1973, set on a Pontin's holiday camp). On the Buses became Britain's top box-office film at the time, surpassing the James Bond movie Diamonds Are Forever (1971).

The films were somewhat non-canonical to the series - in the films, Arthur and Olive manage to have two children (she's pregnant with their second child at the end of Mutiny On The Buses) and Stan is working for “The Town & District Bus Company" instead of "The Luxton & District Bus Company. The buses in the films are red (not counting the Windsor Safari Park tour bus in Mutiny On The Buses).

Towards the end of the series, Arthur has left Olive - they have no children, they get divorced and Stan takes a job in the Midlands. The buses are green (though, in the black and white episodes, it's hard to tell).

In addition, two five-minute Christmas specials were made by LWT. One has been wiped but the other — featuring a goose that the cast are chasing for Christmas dinner — exists at Fremantle Media.

A spin-off series, Don't Drink the Water, ran for 13 episodes from 1974 to 1975. This featured Blake retiring to Spain with his sister, Dorothy (Pat Coombs).

The format of On the Buses was sold to American television, where it was remade by NBC as Lotsa Luck, starring Dom DeLuise, running for 24 episodes in 1973–74. The American version was unsuccessful and has never been screened in Britain.

The series was recorded at London Weekend Television's studios at Wembley. In late 1972 the show relocated to the company's new South Bank of the River Thames; here the outside doors to the main and secondary studios were too small to accommodate the double-decker buses used in the series. Therefore single-decker buses were used and a plywood mock-up of a second deck was lowered from a lighting rig.

Filmed external shots were part of the series. LWT arranged with Eastern National bus company to use their buses at the Wood Green bus garage in north London. For the series, they were under the ownership of 'Luxton and District'. 'Luxton' is supposed to be in Essex, and actual Essex towns such as Southend, Basildon, Braintree and Tilbury are all mentioned. One of the termini for the buses was 'Cemetery Gates' and for this, LWT used the entrance to Lavender Hill Cemetery in Enfield, Middlesex, near Reg Varney's home.

The fourth season was affected by the ITV Colour Strike, with seven of 13 episodes being made in black and white.

On the Buses was the subject of a board game by Denys Fisher games.

After a tour of Australia in 1988 in an On the Buses stage play, a revival of the television series, Back on the Buses was mooted in 1990, featuring Varney, Lewis, Robbins, Hare, Karen and Grant. Despite publicity, including an appearance by the cast on the BBC TV chat show Wogan, the idea never came to fruition though and the series was never made. Although scripts were never written, the proposed series was to feature Stan and Jack running their own bus company and coming into conflict with Blakey, who was running a rival firm.

Buses

The red "Town & District" buses were Bristol KSWs with Eastern Coachworks bodies. These were ex Eastern National. Stan and Jack's "regular” bus appeared to be VNO 857.

The Green "Luxton & District" buses were Bristol Lodekkas with bodywork by Eastern Coach Works of Lowestoft. In reality these were Eastern National buses, although as mentioned earlier, some of those in the interior depot shots were in fact "dummy" buses.

The open top bus in ''Holiday on the Buses was 229 XFM, a Bristol LD new to Crosville Motor Services.

The bus at the safari park in 'Mutiny on the Buses' was NRN 607, a Leyland Atlantean Metro Cammell, new to Ribble Motor Services.

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Chepstow, Wales, UK

2011-03-21T23:34:00.002Z

Introduction

Chepstow (Welsh: Cas-gwent) is a town on the Wales—England (Monmouthshire—Gloucestershire) border, situated at the confluence of the River Wye and River Severn on the Severn's west bank. It is famous for Chepstow Castle and Chepstow Racecourse, which hosts the Welsh Grand National. Chepstow proper is on the west bank of the Wye, within Wales; the English part on the eastern bank consists of Tutshill and Sedbury

History

Chepstow sits upstream of the confluence of the River Wye and River Severn. There has been a settlement on the site since at least the early Middle Ages. It was named Striguil in Norman times - from the Welsh word ystraigyl meaning a bend in the river - but became known as Chepstow from the old English ceap / chepe stowe meaning market place.

The oldest areas of known habitation are the Iron Age fortified camps at Bulwark and iercefield. Later, there may have been a Roman bridge or ford over the Wye, either near the existing bridge or about 1 mile upstream at Castleford. Chepstow is located at a crossing point directly between the Roman towns of Gloucester and Caerwent. The town is also close to the southern point of Offa's Dyke, which begins on the east bank of the Wye and runs all the way to the Irish Sea in north Wales. This was built in about the 8th century as a boundary between English and Welsh kingdoms, although recent research cited in the page on Offa's Dyke suggests that the part near Chepstow may not actually be part of the original Dyke.

Chepstow Castle is the oldest surviving stone fortification in Britain. After the Norman Invasion Chepstow was identified as an ideal site for a castle, as it not only controlled a crossing point on the River Wye, but also because the steep limestone gorge and castle dell afforded an excellent defensive location. William the Conqueror ordered its construction in 1067, and, according to the Domesday Book, it was designed by the master castle builder of the time, William fitzsbern. The speed with which William the Conqueror committed to the creation of a castle in Chepstow is testament to its strategic importance.

At the time, the kingdoms in the area were independent of the English crown and the castle in Chepstow provided a way to suppress the Welsh from attacking Gloucestershire. From the 14th century, with the end of the wars between England and Wales, the castle's importance declined.

A town grew up beside the castle, the Priory church, and the port, and in 1294 Chepstow was given the right to hold a weekly market and annual fair. It flourished partly because it was exempt from English taxation. The town wall, locally known as the Port Wall, was built about this time, and mostly still stands. Particularly good sections can be seen at the Welsh Street car park, and either side of the A48 road. The Town Gate through the wall at the top end of the High Street was rebuilt in the 16th century and was used as a toll gate.

The most significant church in Chepstow is the Parish and Priory Church of St Mary, located at the bottom of the town. It, like the castle, is Norman in origin, although much rebuilt and extended in later centuries. St Mary's was the centre of a religious community with a convent and school, the remains of which are buried under the adjoining car park. Benedictine monks from Cormeilles Abbey in Normandy, Chepstow's twin town, were there until the Dissolution of the Monasteries from 1536.

Industries

In addition to being a market town, Chepstow was from medieval times the largest port in Wales. Chepstow was still a bustling port of substance, when during the period of 1790 to 1795 it clearly shows record of a greater tonnage of goods handled than Swansea, Cardiff & Newport combined. Although it mainly traded in timber from the Wye Valley and with Bristol, in the medieval period, records show that Chepstow ships sailed as far afield as Iceland and Turkey, as well as to France, Portugal and Ireland. Ships, including many built and launched in Chepstow clearly sailed the world and in 1840, leaders of the Chartist insurrection in Newport were transported from Chepstow to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania).

Other goods exported from Chepstow over the years included wire made in the many mills on the tributaries of the Wye, leather which was tanned with the bark of the forest's oaks, and paper primarily from Mounton Mill which produced the first high grade security paper used by the Bank of England for the printing of bank notes. An important aspect of Chepstow's trade has been entrepôt trade bringing larger cargoes into the manageable deep water of the Wye on high tide and breaking down the load for on shipment in the many throws up the Wye to Hereford past the coin stamping mill at Redbrook, or up the Severn to Gloucester and beyond. Chepstow also traded across the estuary to Bristol on suitable tides to work vessels up and down the Avon to that city's centre.

The port function and local shipbuilding trade declined during the 19th century as ship design developed and the cities of Cardiff, Newport and Swansea became more suitable for handling the bulk export of coal and steel from the Glamorganshire and Monmouthshire valleys. Shipbuilding was briefly revived during the First World War when the first prefabricated ships were constructed. Ships like The War Glory & The War Illiad were constructed and launched primarily from the slipways on the Chepstow side, where 10,000 tons was the manageable limit. The last of these ships was recorded as lost at sea in the South Atlantic losing all hands, whilst carrying a cargo of grain in 1956. The area known as "Garden City" and parts of Bulwark Village were built to house the workers that were brought to Chepstow from 1917 to work in the new National Shipyard no.1. The Bulwark area is now home to about two thirds of the population of Chepstow.

The shipyard developed on the site where the Wye railway bridge had been constructed, and was subsequently taken over by the engineering firm Fairfield Mabey, who specialise in steelwork producing spans for bridges and other structures. One such structure was the lock gate for Avonmouth Docks where during delivery a squall struck the gates and the delivery crew were swept off and lost. Other local industries have included the material for artificial ski slopes, developed at the "Dendix" brush factory, which in its time was one of the major producers of everything from small specialist brushes to huge industrial brushes.

Chepstow, by virtue of its having been the head office of the Red & White bus company (on Bulwark Road), grew and spawned BST, which in turn owned and controlled PUTCO, the Public Utility Bus Company that ran the majority of the buses of Africa. The town also had links with the international snuff trade through Singleton's Snuff.

Transport

The old cast iron road bridge across the Wye, dating from 1816 and designed by John Rastrick, is an elegant example of engineering from the Regency period. The bridge comprises five cast-iron arches carried on stone piers and has a central span of 112 ft. It succeeded a number of wooden predecessors which had been built on or near the same site since at least 1228, and possibly much earlier. In 1576 the bridge was described as being in great decay, and an Act was passed making Gloucestershire and Monmouthshire responsible for the repair of their respective halves. Neglect continued, however, and in 1606 the bridge was said to have fallen down and been carried away. By the beginning of the 18th century the bridge comprised a wooden decking carried by a central stone pier and five piers on either side each formed by a number of timber piles. The Monmouthshire half of the bridge was rebuilt as four stone arches in 1785, but the Gloucestershire half remained timber until 1815 when rebuilding of the whole bridge was begun to the overall plans of John Rennie, as modified by Rastrick.

Until the Severn Bridge - now part of the M48 - was opened in 1966, and a new A48 bridge over the Wye in 1988, the old bridge carried all the road traffic between England and South Wales. The Severn Bridge has the second longest span of any bridge in the UK; it replaced the Aust-Beachley ferry.

Chepstow railway station is on the Gloucester to Newport Line. The railway bridge over the Wye was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel in 1852, but the original structure was replaced in the 1960s. Until 1959, passenger trains operated up the Wye Valley to Monmouth - this service ceased owing to heavy financial losses.

The town today

Chepstow town centre has over 130 shops within easy walking distance of 1000 car park spaces. There are 16 hotels, bars and pubs, and 15 restaurants and cafes. Chepstow Community Hospital was opened in 2002 as a PFI funded hospital and several new housing estates have been developed across the town. Over £2 million has recently been invested in regenerating the town centre. This scheme, which includes new sculptures and other public art, encountered some local criticism over its high cost, but has gained several national awards reflecting its high design quality.

The area beside the river has been attractively landscaped as part of a flood defence scheme. The town holds a biennial festival, an annual folk festival, and in some recent years has also organised major son et lumiere pageants covering aspects of local history, using local residents under professional direction. There is also an excellent local museum, opposite the Castle entrance.

There are industrial estates at Bulwark and close to the railway station, and a major distribution centre on the edge of the town adjoining the junction with the M48 motorway. There has been substantial housing development in recent years, particularly at the Bayfield estate west of the A466.

Chepstow Racecourse is the leading horse racing facility and course in Wales. It is located on the edge of the town, in the grounds of the ruined Piercefield House. Sundays see an extensive market set up on the racecourse grounds which is attended by vendors from as far a field as Birmingham, London, Kent and beyond. During the course of the year the racecourse hosts a number of hobbies and antique fairs.

Chepstow also has many excellent schools including Chepstow School. One of the best co-education semi-boarding schools St Johns on the Hill is located on the outskirts towards Tutshill. There are also a number of churches in Chepstow, including a variety of non-conformist denominations.

Nearby are the Royal Forest of Dean and the Wye Valley. Tintern Abbey is about 5 miles distant. Many current residents of the town commute to Bristol, Newport, Cardiff and elsewhere.

Chepstow is twinned with Cormeilles, France.

Useful Links

BBC - Chepstow Life

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Newport Cathedral, Wales, UK

2011-03-18T17:04:00.001Z

Newport Cathedral in the city of Newport in South Wales is the cathedral of the Diocese of Monmouth, in the Church in Wales, and seat of the Bishop of Monmouth. The full title is Newport Cathedral, Woolos, King & Confessor. Since 2003, the Bishop of Monmouth has been the Right Reverend Dominic Walker, OGS. The current Dean of Monmouth (and vicar of the cathedral) is the Very Reverend Dr. Richard Fenwick, who has been in post since 1997. In February 2011 Dr. Fenwick was elected as the next Bishop of St. Helena within the Anglican Church of South Africa. The Diocese covers the islands of Saint Helena and Ascension in the Atlantic Ocean. He will take up the position of Bishop in May 2011. His successor, Canon Jeremy Winston, will be Installed on September 10th.

Saint Woolos

The name "Woolos" is a corruption of Gwynllyw, the 5th century Welsh saint who first founded a religious establishment on the site.

Norman History

Circa 1080 the Normans built a new nave to the east of the Saxon ruins, and a lean-to south aisle, building a new entrance archway through the Saxon wall. Circa 1200 the Saxon church was repaired so the Norman entrance became an internal archway.

Mediæval History

It was badly damaged in 1402 when Newport was attacked by the forces of Owain Glyndŵr and underwent a major rebuilding including the addition of the tower.

It also seems to have been damaged in the Civil war period when a statue above the main entrance representing a benefactor of the church seems to have lost its head. It is either Jasper Tudor, the Earl of Pembroke, or Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham as both helped rebuild it after Glyndwr's attack.

Recent History

It has been partially rebuilt or extended in every period up to the 1960s. It is currently undergoing much-needed repairs and an appeal fund has started. In 1929 St Woolos became the Pro-Cathedral of the new Diocese of Monmouth, attaining full cathedral status in 1949.

With the Enthronement of Rowan Williams as Archbishop of Wales in February 2000, the Cathedral became the Metropolitan Cathedral for Wales for the third time in its life. The Cathedral continues to serve Wales, the diocese and the City of Newport; it also serves a large parish.

It is also a place of pilgrimage for political and industrial historians - a plaque in the church yard commemorates the bloody suppression of the Chartist rebellion here in 1839.

Organ

A specification of the organ can be found on the National Pipe Organ Register The current organist and Master of the Choristers is Christopher Barton, who has been in post since 1979.

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Rodney Parade, Newport, Wales, UK

2011-01-16T18:36:00.001Z

Rodney Parade is a stadium in the city of Newport, south Wales. Located on the east bank of the River Usk in Newport city centre it is primarily used for rugby matches and is the home ground of Newport RFC and the Newport Gwent Dragons regional team.

History

In 1875 the Newport Athletic Club was created, and two years later they secured the use of land at Rodney Parade from Lord Tredegar for their cricket, tennis, rugby and athletics teams.

Redevelopment

The cricket ground which was on the site no longer exists as the ground was sold and the new Maindee primary school was built on the site.
On September 4, 2007 it was announced that the Rodney Parade stadium was due to be redeveloped into a 15,000-capacity ground by the beginning of the 2010 rugby union season. The redevelopment is backed by Newport City Council, Newport Unlimited, Newport RFC and the Newport Gwent Dragons. The application received planning consent on March 11, 2009. A previous proposal to build an entirely new out-of-town stadium appears to have been shelved.

In August 2010 it was announced that the target finish date for the first phase had been put back to the beginning of the 2011–12 rugby union season with the full redevelopment planned to take several years.

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Woogle Encyclopedia

On the Buses (TV Series)

Situation

Background

Buses

Chepstow, Wales, UK

Introduction

History

Industries

Transport

The town today

Useful Links

Newport Cathedral, Wales, UK

Saint Woolos

Norman History

Mediæval History

Recent History

Organ

Rodney Parade, Newport, Wales, UK

History

Redevelopment

Links

Newport Stadium, Wales, UK

Stands

Attendance Records

Links

Hayley Stadium, Newport, Wales, UK

Links

Victoria, Newport, Wales, UK

Links

Tredegar Park, Newport, Wales, UK

Links

Stow Hill, Newport, Wales, UK

City Centre

Links

St Julians, Newport, Wales, UK

Links

Shaftesbury, Newport, Wales, UK

Links

Rogerstone, Newport, Wales, UK

History

Modern day Rogerstone

Links

Ringland, Newport, Wales, UK

Links

Pillgwenlly, Newport, Wales, UK

Origin of the name

Boundaries

Heart of Newport

Sporting traditions

Links

Marshfield, Newport, Wales, UK

Boundaries & amenities

Sporting traditions

Links

Malpas, Newport, Wales, UK

Boundaries

Name origin

The community

History

Schooling

Churches

Private hospital

Army Cadet Force

Links

Llanwern, Newport, Wales, UK

Regeneration

Links

Lliswerry, Newport, Wales, UK

Community boundaries

Schools & colleges

Churches

History & origins

Newport County

Links

Langstone, Newport, Wales, UK

Location

Development

History

Amenities