Screens, signs and Sheffield

This post is a collection of things I have seen over the past few months that seem mildly interesting but not enough to merit their own page.

A blog recommendation

I enjoy reading the blog of Roger French, a retired director of the bus company Brighton & Hove who now travels around the UK writing about his experiences of public transport. I don’t agree with all he says, but it’s a very interesting blog if you like that sort of thing and I can highly recommend it.

He has a series of pages entitled “Seen Around”, which were the inspiration for the format of this post. The main difference is that not everything here is about public transport.

A tale of two Langworthy Roads

A common source of annoyance when trying to figure out a bus journey in an unfamiliar part of the UK is that the various organisations responsible for maintaining the fragmented system often don’t agree on what a particular bus stop should be called. Between signs at stops, displays on buses, timetables and so on, the same stop can often have two or three different names depending on who you ask.

Transport for Greater Manchester has managed to have the opposite problem on their route 37: two different (and adjacent) stops with the same name!

“Middlewo”

Staying on the subject of passenger information screens, this one at a tram stop in Sheffield shows a rather unusual situation. The blue and yellow lines usually run together as far as the interchange in Hillsborough, before diverging to serve separate termini at Malin Bridge and Middlewood respectively. On this particular weekend, maintenance works were taking place on the branch to Malin Bridge, so both lines were running to Middlewood instead.

The photo also shows how some error with the screens had lead to Middlewood accidentally being renamed “Middlewood Middlewo”.

Guess the speed limit

Somebody here seems to have put up a new speed limit sign. Fair enough. Taking down the old one, though, was apparently not considered necessary, so we’re left with this mess.

Difficult decisions

Seen by the entrance to a supermarket:

The layout and location seemed to suggest that everyone coming into the shop is expected to choose between “Argos” and “Customer toilets”. Those are the choices. The only choices.

Or maybe not strictly speaking the only choices. I’ll take the middle option to evaporate into nothingness, please.

A sauce of confusion

Henderson’s Relish (or “Hendo’s” for short) is a condiment ubiquitous in the Sheffield area, where it has been manufactured since the company was established in the late 19th century. It’s not well-known outside this area, however, and I’ve not seen it for sale anywhere else.

Now available are Hendo’s-flavoured crisps - a relatively recent development:

The curious thing here is that the photo above was taken in a B&M discount store in Walkden, Greater Manchester. This is the first time I have seen anything Henderson’s branded sold outside Sheffield.

I am unsure how the crisps came to be here. Perhaps the company is trying to expand its reach, but it seems strange that they would do this with a new offering when they have a signature product that they have been making for almost 200 years. Or perhaps the launch of the crisps wasn’t as successful as hoped and B&M has managed to buy a large stock of them cheaply. Either way, I can’t help but wonder what people will make of them.