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Christmas Illuminations


Stuart0742

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I was down town Thursday night with camera but there's nothing to show.

OK , I didn't go down the Moor but the rest of it is a bit sparse. I understand

there's no money around so we will just have to make do.

I did take this of Leopold Square, looks a bit Continental don't you think.

Who'd believe you could sit outdoors in England in November?

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I like the blue lights , it does give the impression of a cold frosty night but I do agree with you about the car lights.

I was told they are illegal , is that true?

I don't think they are illegal as more car manufacturers seem to be fitting them as standard these days.

I remember when the rule of night time driving was "dip don't dazzle"

But with these lights dazzling the oncoming driver causing him to have to brake or slow down as he can't see a thing for those bluish over bright lights while the arrogant owner of them goes tearing along at double the speed limit because he can see for miles with his headlights that can outshine a lighthouse seems to be the order of the day.

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Ok, here's something for you. Probably about 5 years ago my daughter switched on the lights! She was down town on the day of switch on and stumbled upon the council worker who really presses the button as the celebrity button/lever activates nothing. She asked him what he was doing and he said that when the celeb did the business he had to press the button to turn the lights on. She asked if she could do it and he said yes.

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In the peace gardens this year are a selection of illuminations which are on loan from Blackpool so they are better than our normal run of the mill year in year out stuff, They look pretty impressive even just as a daylight display.

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In the peace gardens this year are a selection of illuminations which are on loan from Blackpool so they are better than our normal run of the mill year in year out stuff, They look pretty impressive even just as a daylight display.

There's even postman Pat (or postman Pratt as we call our postman who throws those red elastic bands on our doorstep!! :angry: ) with his black and white cat delivering a letter to the council in the Town Hall,

I bet it's not a Christmas card, - more likely a complaint about all the pot holes in the roads!

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There is a nice "Peter Pan" themed pirate ship display, with the shark and pirate with the shark conveniently placed, for effect, in the middle of the new Goodwin fountains.

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There is a Dr. Who display with a Tardis and a Dalek

This display also has a tribute to one of my childhood heros

Neil Armstrong, 1930 - 2012. That was one small step for a man

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A letter in The Star a week or so ago criticised the City illuminations and described this one, which has been part of our illuminations for thelast few years but obviously new to the complainant, as "just a load of balls" and "nothing like a tree"

I must say I disagree.

It is an artistic representation of both a Christmas tree and the decorative baubles which often adorn the tree. What's more, it is made not of wood and glass but of steel, - a material very closely associated with our citys industrial heritage.

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Nice to see what its like Dave, Thank you from afar-ish.

I'm sure I have photographed and posted it before in one of its previous years.

They have moved it around in town but is usually down The Moor as it is this year, just outside Sainsburys.

Unlike the letter in The Star I do think that it is a nice, attractive decoration.

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Guest plain talker

This one looks new this year, can't remember having seen it before.

It's down the Moor just outside Sainsburys where the works start that are being discussed in the "recent Developments" thread.

It probably marks the point where the lights on the Moor will end this year as beyond it are just the works.

Yep.... this tree was out on the moor, near Sainsbury's / Poundland last year, too, and, guess what? it's outside Sainsbury's/ Poundland again this year.

what happened to variety? :(

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There is a Dr. Who display with a Tardis and a Dalek

They should have put it next to our own "Tardis" on the other side of the Town Hall

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I like the fact that the lights used on the Moor in 1968

attachicon.gif05_sheff...d_1968_9.jpg

Were still in use in the Mid 70's, albeit now down Fargate

attachicon.gif70s.jpg

But before 1968?

hmmmmm I wonder ? <_<

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/all-our-christmas-yesterdays-evocative-photographs-of-london-in-full-festive-swing-in-the-fifties-sixties-and-seventies-9001190.html?action=gallery&ino=1

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As this topic has popped up again I thought I would shed some light (!) on the subject from years gone by.

I worked on them during the 1970's and 80's from time to time. We started putting them up in October, usually Sundays as there was no Sunday shopping back then. One of the things that always needed work on was the Goodwin fountain, checking the lights and replacing lamps and the coloured glasses, so it was emptied for us to do that. The Christmas tree was at the top of Fargate next to the fountain, so that needed stringing with festoon lights which usually involved a couple of cherry pickers working from each side and passing the cabling from one to the other while wrapping it around the tree.

The larger items which spanned the roads were usually in various parts, so were put together on site and lifted and fixed to cables strung across to existing wall anchors. The electricity supplies came from some of the lamp posts along the roads, they had timeswitches which turned on late afternoon and off about midnight.

We had to sort out how much electricity was being used for them, so when they were running we used to check the current in each switch post with a clamp around ammeter. Once when we were doing this we were approached by two plain clothes policemen. Apparently there was a visiting dignitary, and they were concerned we were planting bombs in lamp posts, that took some explaining.

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So to follow on from yesterday. The switch on ceremony was always a bit of a fun time. It used to be at the Town Hall, which was fairly easy to deal with but then they moved it to the City Hall, which was a problem! First, let's get one thing out of the way, the celebrity or mayor doesn't switch the lights on. When it was done at the Town Hall it was done from the balcony, and the switch was connected to a light bulb in the gents toilets on Surrey Street. When that light came on a council guy switched on the lights on the Goodwin fountain as this was where the switchgear was, and the Christmas tree. When other switchers saw that, they switched on their sections, and so it cascaded down to Haymarket one way, and down to the bottom of the Moor the other way.

All quite easy, but when they moved to the City Hall it was more complex. The crowd were encouraged to do a countdown. This was so that a council guy stood at the toilet window by the Town Hall could hear what was going on. When they got to 'one' he would knock on the window, where the guy in the toilets would switch the fountain an tree on, and the above procedure continued. What the compere was told  NOT to do was have a practice  countdown, which usually they followed, however one year they forgot and did a practice! So that year the lights came on early!

Once that was all out of the way, the time switches took over the switching automatically. Taking down the stuff was always quicker, and started in mid January, and all the stuff put back into storage. Over the years they were stored at various places, Olive Grove depot, a school in Attercliffe and the Hillsborough barracks. In June or July electricians would check them over and do any repairs ready for the next Christmas. I spent a few weeks in Hillsborough barracks checking over some festooning and set pieces. The wierd thing was that in mid June it was over 20c outside but we were working inside in coats, it was so cold!

The illuminations were taken over by the city centre management, so I wasn't involved after that, don't know how it all works today.

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