Trolley 584

This trolley, for once in a while a Sainbury's trolley, was captured in the alley behind their Kiln Lane store, the alley leading to the bottom of West Street and the footbridge over the railway, exiting on the Longmead Estate between the British Gas depot and the soon to be Travis Perkins, once the home of Epsom Coaches.

A Wanzl special, designed for use by those with special needs, that it so say people in wheelchairs. I shall have to look out for one in use: I would have thought that for a wheeler to get to one and to use it without any support at all would be quite challenging. In this case, the front left wheel - back middle in the snap above - came with a wheel lock, which whirred then engaged just as I was turning out of the alley, back into the car park. Which made the trolley awkward to wheel, so I left it in a conspicuous place for one of the trolley jockeys to deal with.

The expedition had started with Thames Water roadworks. Works which had got as far as working traffic lights, but not as far as workmen, work, holes in the road or anything of that sort.

Next up, another new-to-me fire hydrant cover, with the business part known to the manufacturer as a valve. Which reminded me of the MWD problem of reference 2. Current favourite is 'Metropolitan Water Division', an operating division of some now defunct water authority which included Epsom, perhaps vaguely analogous to the South West Metropolitan Health Authority - which became South West Thames in 1974 and lapsed altogether in 1994. Pretty sure that the 'W' bit is water. While Brighouse is in West Yorkshire, a little to the east of Halifax.

The first time for a while in Farrier's Close, next to the Kiln Lane site. I don't know what these houses are like are like to live in, but from the outside the inclusion of a half car port still seems like rather a good idea, providing a bit of outdoor space for bins, wet wellingtons and other odds and ends. Not to mention one end of a car. All very pleasant and leafy.

While Network Rail is busier than Thames Water, with their new flight of steps by the Screwfix underpass nearing completion. Foundations? Workmen taking their break in nearby Stones Road.

The blackberries on the fence adjacent were very pump and ripe, so in the continuing absence of a container, I ate a few on the spot. Very good they were too.

Couple of other blackberry spots on the way home, the last one embellished by a stream trolley. For future consideration. But no pyramid orchids on the grass banks outside what used to be the Tchibo warehouse. Perhaps their time of year for flowering has passed.

On the other hand, there were two washers. One larger one, with nut attached; one smaller one, proper.

Back later that same day with a container. With two of us at it, it was soon filled up, along with some more in the to-hand containers. Probably more than half what we need to supply blackberry and apple in the year to come. A bit late in the season so we need to get on if we are to get that other half.

We picked from three spots along Longmead Road, from Blenheim Road to Gibraltar Crescent (parking) and Brook Close (picking). With the third spot, snapped above, being the most productive, despite initial appearances.

PS 1: to be fair to Thames Water, a hole in the road had arrived by the following morning, with a new looking valve at the bottom of it. But no water take-off so not a fire hydrant.

PS 2: am I about to be struck off the YouGov panel? Rather a lot of the online questionnaire that I have just filled in seemed to have been about checking that I was still awake...

PS 3: The Tchibo website still talks about 1 Blenheim Road, but I am not sure where that might be. Yellow marks Blenheim Road on the snap above and the red blot marks where the Tchibo warehouse used to be, very much in the middle. Street numbering all a bit of a mystery on gmaps, not helped by there being a number of plots with a number of tenants, who probably do not get their own street number. Ordnance Survey do not seem to show street numbers at all. Bing Maps does street numbers on residential streets and attempts both unit numbers and street numbers on the industrial estate, but the both are a bit patchy.

However, I go to the Post Office site and all is revealed. The white block above is 1 Blenheim Road and has lots of tenants, one of whom is Tchibo Coffee. Perhaps where the bosses live rather than the warehousemen. Perhaps where the post room is. In any event, just about where the blue pin is, just before the lower arm of Blenheim Road joins the roundabout with Longmead Road in the previous snap. The building to the right, which one might have thought ought to be No.1 is actually Maritime Court with 12 flats and with no Blenheim Road street number at all. Possibly because it used to be a hut housing the sea cadets, not worthy of Post Office attention. One supposes that the world of street numbers is awash with anomalies of this sort.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/08/trolley-583.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/08/trolley-582.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/08/blackberries-one.html. Edge of Common. The one and only picking last year, pretty much the same date as this one. Not July as I had thought before I checked.

Reference 4: https://www.tchibo-coffee.co.uk/contact/.

Reference 5: https://www.royalmail.com/find-a-postcode.

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