Andrew Handyside, The reason you should be proud of Friargate Bridge.

For several months now I have been doing extensive research on the company Andrew Handyside, in case you have never heard of them well they made the very ornate Friargate bridge here in Derby.
As well as our bridge they were renowned around the globe for their high quality iron work.

I have discovered so much about this company that I ended up creating a dedicated blog to the company which I will use to show the world what they have done.
They really did put Derby on the map in the Victorian era and yet I doubt the people of Derby realise this because it seems to have been forgotten in time. Well I'm going to put the record straight here and really promote their history in a way that has never been done before.

If you have not seen my Andrew Handyside blog then go and have a look at some of the amazing things that were all made right here in Derby, they are located all over the world.
People are really proud of these Victorian items and yet we let his bridge rot.

So far I have posted articles on Fountains, bridges and roofs.

Here is a typical high quality cast iron fountain that was made in Derby by Andrew Handyside :



Thanks
Andy

On top of Friar Gate Bridge, My Forgotten Places entry on the World Wide Panorama.

The current themed event has just closed on the World Wide Panorama website and the theme for this event was "Forgotten Places" so I created a 360x180 degree VR photograph looking over the top of Friar Gate Bridge in Derby. I had to go to great lengths to take this photograph as the wall is about 5 foot high and my triod is 2 foot high, I had to use an delayed infrared remote control to take the shots while trying to duck out of the way of the lens!

Here is my entry for "Forgotten Places" : This is an interactive photograph allowing you to look in all directions using the mouse.



Here is a photograph for camparison taken in 1958 from about the same place on the bridge  :

This excellent photograph is from a rare book that I have called Friargate Line: Derby and the Great Northern Railway by Mark Higginson
The photograph was taken on the 9th August 1958.
If you have a fast broadband connection and fast PC then try my high resolution fullscreen version of this 360 dgree photograph here :

Forgotten Places VR Photograph: On top of Friar Gate bridge.

People from all over the World have taken part in this event, you can see all the entries on here :
WWP Forgotten Places

Thanks
Andy

Isn’t modern technology amazing – iPod wifi blogging

I grew up in the age of the ZX Spectrum computer, At school we had Commodore Pets and then at college it was BBC Micros, so in this day an age where technology is everywhere it amazes me at how far we have come over the last few years.

For example here I am in a car park near Friar Gate Studios, Derby using a iPod Touch and I am able to surf the internet.

I posted this message using an App called BlogPress which you can buy through the App Store on your Ipod.

The screen here shows an app on the iPod Touch called WifiTrak, Which costs 59p ! This is much better than the wifi settings panel that you find in Settings – Wi-Fi on the iPod Touch. The WifiTrak app can be set to Scan for wifi connections every n seconds and displays all connections using nice coloured icons that show you extra details such as open connections or ones that are open but auto-redirecting connections such as ones to The cloud.

I found while in London that the Maps app on the iPod works ok if you connect to a Cloud connection even if you don’t have an account with them. I guess this is because the app is not a web browser making http requests. So this is quite useful if you need a map but only have a Cloud connection available.

There are lots of unsecured wi-fi connections out there, its only when you have WifiTrak running on an iTouch that you appreciate just how many people have wi-fi connections. On some streets in Derby the iPod screen fills up with a list so long that you have to do a lot of scrolling to see them all !

The connection I used to post this blog was a 5Mb connection, I know that because I ran an app called Speed Test, again available from the App Store for FREE.

Note I don’t have the iPod Touch phone, it’s just a iPod touch so unfortunately I don’t have the option to surf the internet via a 3G connection so I always have to look for a wi-fi connection.


-- Posted From My iTouch