SHIRE HORSE SHOW

This Shire Horse Show in the early 90's brought a touch of old style tradition back to Gloucester docks.
The team getting ready in the top picture belonged to Richard Freeth.
The horse & cart in the middle image was from Manor Farm.
The cart waiting for the horses in the bottom photo is advertising Whitbread Best Bitter.

BATTLES IN THE PARK

More action from the early 90's with two battles that took place in Gloucester's main park.
The top one features The Double R Western Club Display Unit, and they performed gun-slinging tricks as well as invite members of the public to try out their duelling skills, this being what the photo is of. You may be able to see that I was pretty quick on the draw myself as I managed to catch the flash of the gun on the left, just at the moment it was fired!
The second picture is a good old fashioned tug-of-war fight. There were quite a lot of teams involved in this contest, but I've no idea who, or who ended up the winner.
In the middle distance, you can also spot the Severn Sound vehicle who were broadcasting live from the park that day.

BARGE FESTIVAL

These are some of the canal barges that gathered at Gloucester docks in the early 90's to take part in a festival.
I can't recall if it was a festival specifically to parade the barges, or if it was just one of the many attractions that was part of a Bank Holiday weekend or suchlike.
Anyway, the top image was taken during their arrival, with most of them adorned with flags & bunting - and the picture under it was later in the day when there was a mad scramble to leave the docks!

AIR BALLOON FESTIVAL

This air balloon festival took place in Gloucester's main park sometime around the early 90's.

MUSIC AT THE DOCKS

Still in the early 90's and back down to Gloucester docks for some holiday entertainment.
These two acts passed the hat around after their stints at the waterfront.
The guys busking in the top image were performing folk songs and the act in the picture underneath them were an upbeat jazzy outfit.
I didn't note their names but maybe someone who views the photos might recognise the people involved and pass the info on.

TOUR OF THE COTSWOLDS

This was the "Tour Of The Cotswolds" cycle race that took place sometime in the early 90's.
I don't recall the exact year now but a couple of the sponsors were Sherwood and Hewden Stuart.
So, starting from the top - the first image was taken in Gloucester's main park and shows part of the crowd that had gathered before the race started. The police bikers were also on stand-by ready to escort the cyclists during the race.
The 2nd photo is the race setting off through the main gate of the park.
The 3rd picture was a few hours later near the end of the race when they were doing a couple of circuits around the streets of Gloucester. You can make out some old pubs along the street in this shot - namely, The Windmill, Steam Rock Cafe and Frankies.
The 4th snap has the winner of the race celebrating as he approaches the finish line.
Finally, the last image was taken after the race when the presentation's were being done, with the winner in the middle of the stage holding the trophy up.
The guy alongside on stage wearing the hat was the compère, and it looks like the event was televised too, although I have no memory of seeing it on telly!

SPIKE AND JACK

This is Spike & Jack bringing a touch of Cockney entertainment to Gloucester docks in the early 90's.
Spike is the chap with the 20 Note Twin Melody Street Organ, and Pearly Jack is the dog.
You can see the dog was fast asleep when I took the picture so not sure what it did. Dance around on its hind legs perhaps.
The blimp belonged to British Waterways and has "Welcome To Gloucester Docks" along the side of it.
As for the Union Jack shorts - oh dear - not a cool look!

FUN FAIR POSTERS

Many of my photos look as if I have the entire area all to myself because of the lack of people on some of them, which was often the case when I was away out in the countryside. However, most of the empty town shots are a bit deceptive. The lack of people on that variety would be down to just letting folk and traffic go past before photographing the subject, so the end result can make the place appear barren, although truth is the people are just out of shot. Another reason for no locals on view can be explained in 2 such examples above - pictures of a fun fair in a park in the middle of Gloucester - but where is everyone? Well the answer is, these were both taken early on a Sunday morning when most of the city was still sleeping!
The reason I've mentioned it is because over the next couple of weeks, the photos I'll be posting will be examples of pictures that are choc-a-block with people - things like holiday entertainment, carnivals, sports events, festivals etc - so hundreds of locals will be part of the crowds along the way.
Getting back to the 2 posters above - the top image was taken in 1999 and the one below it dates from 2000.

CIRQUE PERRIER

These snaps were taken in the late 90's and show the French (I assume) circus performers, Cirque Perrier.
Their gear here was set up in Gloucester's main park, with the top image being the entrance area & booking office, and the one below it being the performing tent.
It's not a show I went to but according to their own description it was "Le Spectacle Magnifique".

LOCAL RADIO

The logo above the door here is the original one for BBC Radio Gloucestershire.
I took this picture around the mid 90's, but sometime later in the 2000's they changed the logo on the building to just a basic black square with a white BBC on it.
I must admit I didn't tune into local radio much, but one show I did listen to on a weekly basis back in the day was on BBC's rival station, Severn Sound.
This was a show called "Reggae Rockers" and was presented by Ivanhoe Campbell.
Not only did I tune into it regularly, I also recorded many of them on tape, but unfortunately, these cassettes got thrown out many years ago.
However, recently I found a little snippet of one of the shows on the end of a tape I did keep which is a nice little reminder, and so because I can't find any samples on the Internet of Ivanhoe's show, and the fact that Ivanhoe died in early 2000's, I thought I'd put what I had up.
It only lasts 5 minutes but there are 2 songs with lots of radio jingles popping up along the way, and it dates from 1988.

UNDER THE CAR PARK

I suppose the bottom of a multi-story car park is quite an unusual spot for a discotheque to be, but that is where Crackers was situated in Gloucester.
The nightclub closed down a few years ago and the premises is still sitting unused.

ON THE DOOR

Across the road from the item I posted yesterday, is this place, the main Technical College building in Gloucester, with its distinctive door panels depicting themes relating to it.
However, they closed their doors a few years ago and it has been sitting empty since.
It hasn't been demolished like its annex but there is building work going on at present and so it looks like it will be put to some other use.

ABOVE THE DOOR

This image looks like it has been done by superimposing the words onto an image of a wall, using computer software, but this is how it actually was in real life and you can make out the reflection of the nearby trees on some of the letters.
It was the sign above the main door to the annex of the Technical College in Gloucester.
The college closed down a few years ago and both buildings have been lying empty since. Recently this year, however, this annex building was demolished.

MAY HILL MODELS

I'm not too sure if the main building in the background was a religious place or a private home but they had these scale model buildings on display in the garden area.
I'm guessing they might have been based on nearby buildings, in which case means they would be somewhere around the May Hill area.

WHITESHILL WISTERIA

This colourful corner display of wisteria was spotted near Whiteshill.

THE MUTANT ANGEL

This strange looking tree reminded me of a grotesque angel with outstretched wings!
So because of this and the fact that it was in a field near Churcham, I thought I'd give the image an ethereal appearance.

DYING TREE

You can see by the trees in the background and the fact that the field crop is still growing, that this picture was taken in the middle of summer. However, the tree in the foreground seems to be in its autumn/winter condition. Its old and gnarled appearance would suggest that this specimen has been around for many decades, so I can only assume that the tree was near the end of its life.
The location was somewhere around the Churcham area.

THE WAILER

I liked the dreadlocks look of this specimen called a weeping birch.
It's just a crying shame I can't remember where I took the photo!

THE TRIFFID

I can definitely say for certain that this is the one and only time I have ever encountered a triffid..!!
This bizarre specimen was sinisterly lurking amongst the thick growth in Sud Meadow.
Needless to say, I didn't hang around too long!

PLANT FROM ANOTHER PLANET

If the piece of ground was covered in these plants then it would have come across as nothing out of the ordinary, but because this one had the area all to itself, it did make it stand out somewhat.
Also, the fact that it wasn't fully developed and so looked pretty weird, did give it a plant from another planet presence!!
This scene from the X-Files was, in reality, on the outskirts of Gloucester.

SQUATTER

A wall doesn't always have to be an old moss covered craggy structure for plants to take advantage of, here is one that managed to settle down pretty quickly on a wall in Gloucester that was newly built.

GATECRASHERS

These plants have managed to get a foothold on this wooden gate in Gloucester docks by surviving on a thin layer of moss growing just above water level.

MICRO ISLAND

This tiny piece of turf was just a little quirk of nature stuck at the side of a mud bank around Lower Parting.
If you use your imagination however, you could conjure up the thought of it being a small exotic island covered in bamboo somewhere in Indonesia!

ITALY IN HIGHNAM

You know the old cliché about the Italian Mafia encasing their victims feet in concrete in order to make them sink when disposing the bodies into the sea - well here is where I reckon they got the idea from!!
As you can see, this garden pond rock looks a bit like a stone sock wrapping the length of Italy.
However, the algae covered pond was not to be found in the Med but in Highnam Arboretum.

PECULIAR POND

This strange looking water feature was not your usual picturesque village pond, but it was eye catching in a rather different kind of way.
I think the hefty amount of algae in the water probably made it appear worse than it was, but these ball shaped plants did add a slightly surreal touch to it too!
Forthampton was the location.

UPSTAGED IN UPLEADON

This basic little cottage in Upleadon was upstaged by the tree topiary in front of it.

SANDHURST WELCOME

I was passing through Sandhurst one day back in the mid 90's and spotted a small cow perched on a front gate. I thought it was probably a novelty letterbox so I took a snap of it while I was there, that being the one in the top photo.
Sometime later after a couple of years had past, I was cycling along the same route and this time I noticed the cow had company. The hedge that was on the other side of the gate had been transformed into some creature. Only thing is, its backside is what greeted you at the entrance, which I don't think was a very warm welcome for visitors!

WATCH THE BIRDIE

When I took this picture in the mid 90's, the building, I think, was being used as a guest house (the sign post is just cut off of shot on the left), but it has since been transformed into a care home.
What hasn't changed is the eccentric topiary display which is still there in Huntley today.

DRINKS IN GLASSHOUSE

The Glasshouse pub in the village of Glasshouse has this rather novel way of enjoying a drink outdoors.

MONKS BAR

This is the outside entrance area to Monks Bar, which was a dungeon like pub below ground and part of the Fleece Hotel in Gloucester.
Monks Bar had bouts of being a youthful music venue during various stages of its life but it closed it's doors a few years ago and I'm not too sure if it has since reopened under a different name.
This picture I took goes back to around the late 90's/early 00's.

PETERS BAR

This photo of Peters Bar in Cheltenham was taken in the mid 90's, and although the premises is still a pub, it was transformed into its present incarnation of O'Neills, many years ago.