The Beatles - Liverpool England

One of my  projects this winter is to visit some of the various historic places associated with the Beatles.  I've been coming to Liverpool since 1985 and have never taken the time to purposely visit any of the sights associated with the Beatles.  This is also the 50th year since the Beatles first visited the States and performed on the Ed Sullivan show.  This winter I made an attempt to visit some of the more popular and some not so popular locations associated with the Beatles.  Locations like the Cavern, Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane are on the regular Beatles tours yet there are many other sites not often visited.  The locations I concentrated on were those such as homes where they lived, Schools they attended and locations they worked into some of their songs.  There are a great many places where they performed around the city.  These are so numerous that I decided to save that for another project however I did include more popular locations like the Cavern and Casbah.

This project started by visiting the Central Liverpool Library that has, as you can imagine, just about every publication written about the Beatles. I cataloged information on places where they lived, schools they attended, locations they worked into their songs as well as various monuments erected that were in some way connected to the Beatles such as the Yellow Submarine.

When I started this project I had no idea as to how much work would be involved in putting it all together.  Identifying, locating and photographing each location was more involved than I realized it would be.  Before venturing to find a location I would try to select ones that were relatively close to each other.  Since I do not have a vehicle here I used local bus transportation to get to an area. When I located what I was looking for I would photograph it as well as the surrounding area and using my GPS identified the specific geographic longitude and latitude where it was located.  I categorized my information into several topics such as place of birth, location of their home(s), locations associated with their songs, monuments dedicated to the Beatles and some information associated with the group before they changed their name from the Quarry Men to The Beatles.  Because of the amount of information I gathered I decided to break up the information into several posts.  I will post each once I have gathered all the information I have been able to gather on each topic.

It seems most appropriate to first write about where each of the Beatles were born.

Their Birthplace - Ringo and George were born at home while Paul and John were born in Liverpool hospitals.  The original section of Walton Hospital has been converted to apartments where Paul was born. The hospital John was born in was converted to a dorm for Liverpool University. Both still stand today.  The home Ringo was born is is now vacated and was ready for demolition  as a result of a regeneration project of the area where it is located however due to strong opposition the street will be renovated.  The home and the street where George was born still stands today.

Former Liverpool Maternity Hospital where John Lennon was born

124 Mount Pleasant St, Liverpool is the birthplace of John Lennon. John was born on 9th October 1940  in a second floor ward of the hospital. Today the building is used as a dormitory for the Liverpool University.

Birthplace and boyhood home of Ringo

Ringo (Richard Starkey) was born the 17th of July 1940 at 9 Madryn Street, Liverpool and childhood home of Ringo Starr, however, after his parents divorced he spent most of the time in his grandparents home at no. 59 on the same street. The homes on this street were scheduled to be torn down but due to strong opposition the street will now be renovated.

Birthplace of George Harrison

174 Mackets Lane, Liverpool- George Harrison was born here on the 25th of January 1943 and lived here from 1962 until 1965.

Walton Hospital, birthplace of Paul McCartney

Paul was born here on the 19th of June 1942.  The hospital was later converted to apartments however at present (2014) the building does not appear it is being used for housing.

Plymouth - Day 4

Mt Batten Cliff

Today my plan was to walk east along the Coastal Path from where I was staying at the Boringdon Arms.  My first stop was to be Mount Batten and then to walk several miles to a point where there is a bus stop.  My plan was to take a bus if I was tired or as an alternative, walk back to my room cutting across farm land. Unknown to me at the time was that the bus stop was not active during the winter months.



Now for the rest of the story - The beginning section of my walk actually passed through several active boat yards along the waterfront before reaching Mt Batten.  I spent a little time exploring Mt Batten and took a few photographs before heading east.  I came to a point along the path where it was closed apparently due to a land slide and this is where my fun began.

The last point of my walk along the coastal path

A detour was marked directing walkers to take the highway for a distance before returning back to the designated foot path.  Instead of walking back onto the footpath where it was marked I decided to walk a little further to an old fort and then to take a 2ndry road back to the Coastal Path to continue my walk.  The 2ndry road I decided to walk on cut through the middle of a golf course.  I was a little nervous walking through this road with golf balls flying everywhere as it appeared to be ladies day on the golf course and there were several women groups playing golf that morning.  As I passed through the golf course I came to a point where there were signs all over the place warning visitors not to proceed as the road entered a military firing range.  In all honesty I think the signs should have been placed at the edge of the golf course as dodging golf balls was probably more dangerous with all those women golfers on the course that morning.  Needless to say, this was a bit frustrating as I must have walked a good mile to where I planned to join the Coastal Path and was within a few yards of the path and had to turn back which from my rough calculations was going to add a good 3 miles to my walk before I would be able to reach the bus stop and food kiosk I was headed for.  I finally reached the bus stop and as mentioned at the beginning of this saga the bus stop was not in use during the winter months.  (I will know better to check on busses a little more carefully next time).

By the time I reached the bus stop I was exhausted.  The walk was more difficult than I expected as well as being much further than I planned due to the detours I ended up taking.  It was lunch time when I reached this point and there were two vehicles parked near the bus stop.  One car was vacant but I could see the apparent owner walking his dog on the beach as he was the only one in sight.  The other vehicle was a delivery van that was occupied by a driver who was having his lunch.  I approached the driver and explained I was totally exhausted and asked if he was aware of any way I could get a ride back to my room.  He explained that he was not allowed to take passengers for insurance reasons so I thanked him for his help and decided to wait to see if I could hook a ride with the other person who was walking his dog on the beach.  While sitting on a picnic bench waiting, the delivery van driver walked over to me and commented that he could tell I was very tired and agreed to give me a lift close to where I was staying. I have no idea who this person was and there is no way I could ever get in contact with him to thank him for the lift as it would likely mean his job if his company learned he gave me a lift. Hopefully I can do the same for someone else one day.

Plymouth waterfront

 After being dropped off I had a short walk back to my room.  I had some lunch and rested for a while before heading out to explore the Plymouth waterfront.

The heart of Plymouth was just another port city but the waterfront was quite interesting.  Leaving the Inn that afternoon I followed the Coastal Footpath back to Mt Batten where there was a water taxi that took passengers across the bay to downtown Plymouth.  The water taxi departed every half hour and only had to wait a short time to catch the next taxi once I reached the dockside.  It so happened I was the only passenger on the boat and had an opportunity to chat with the boat captain on my way across the bay.  He detected my obvious Yankee accent and wanted to know why I was visiting Portsmouth as it was not common for tourists to visit Portsmouth this time of year.  He wanted to know if I was interested in visiting the dock where the Pilgrims departed for America and I mentioned that it was not in my plans and that furthermore I lived close to where the Pilgrims landed and never visited Plymouth Rock either.  He replied by saying I had no choice in the matter as we would be landing at the dock where the Pilgrims departed so I guess now I will need to visit Plymouth Rock to complete my journey.

Landing where Pilgrims last departed for America

I walked along the Plymouth waterfront taking a few photographs then jumped onto a bus back to the Boringdon Arms where I was staying that evening.

This was my last day in Plymouth as I would be picked up the following morning by Bernard for the drive back to Liverpool.  It was an enjoyable trip even with a some excitement tossed in to keep things interesting for me.

Dartmouth to Plymouth - Day 3

It was day 3 of my trip to southern England and today it was time for me to make my way from Dartmouth to Plymouth where I would be staying for 2 nights.  As I did a fair amount of walking the day before it was a welcome change as I would be taking the coastal bus from Dartmouth to Plymouth.

Rainbow over Plymouth

The bus that traveled the coast was a double-decker bus and I managed to sit in the front row where I had a birds eye view of the countryside during my journey to Plymouth.

The bus terminated at the city center of Plymouth where I was able to transfer to another bus that would take me to the Borington Arms where I would stay for two nights. I was welcomed by the owner who showed me to my room which overlooked Plymouth harbor.  The Borington Arms is well located as it is actually located along the Coastal Path which I planned to walk and not too far from the passenger ferry to the downtown and harbor of central Plymouth.

More photographs from my stay in Plymouth - Click Here

This map shows where Dartmouth and Plymouth 

are located along the southern coast of England

Close up view of the bus trip from Dartmouth to Plymouth

The Borington Arms

Dartmouth - Day 2

Walked over 10 miles today according to my GPS. Breakfast at Cafe Alf Resco. Sunny side eggs on home made brown toast. Started my walk around the Dartmouth town center and along the waterfront then crossed the river Dart by passenger ferry to Kingswear following the coastal path to a point where I was overlooking Mill Bay.

Alf Resco Cafe - Awesome Breakfasts

Returned to Dartmouth for a short break.  Found a coffee shop and could not resist having a slice of fresh baked apple pie and a pot of coffee for my lunch. I then decided to follow the Coastal Path on the Dartmouth side stopping at the Dartmouth Castle which was not open to the public at this time of year. Frankly I don't think I missed much as the grounds were open any way. I followed a narrow road that parralled the Coastal path to a point where it ended at an open field where I decided to head back to Dartmouth. I started to follow a footpath that I thought would take me along a ridge to Dartmouth but it appeared to be taking me away from where I wanted so decided to double back to where I picked tp the path. It was starting to get dark by this time so I made my way back to my room for a short break. Ended the day with taking back a sandwich with goats cheese and greens with a  bottle of Chardonnay to my room which had a fantastic view overlooking Dartmouth harbor.

View of Kingswear in the background from the landing where it is said that the Pilgrim ship to America stopped to pick up passengers

The hills in Dartmouth are killers.  This is one of the walkways leading to the 

town center which I had to climb to get to the room where I stayed while in Dartmouth

View of the countryside along the Coastal Path

Dartmouth -Day 1

Moonrise as viewed from my room in Dartmouth

I was picked up somewhere around 1pm today by Bernard for our drive to Dartmouth where I would be staying. Our drive on the motorway was not as bad as I anticipated as the traffic was relatively light and there were relatively few trucks (lorries as they are called here). Bernard did all the driving which was welcomed as I usually do all the driving on long trips. Bernard drove tanks when in the military which was good training for driving on the motorways here.

Loading Cars onto the South Dart Ferry

We arrived in Kingswear about 5:30pm which is directly across the River Dart from Dartmouth where I would be staying for two nights.  There are two ways to cross the river by car. You have a choice of a very small car ferry (shown above) called the South Dart Ferry or up river a short way you have another very small car ferry called the North Dart Ferry. It was dark when we arrived but it appeared to me that it was only possible to get 5 or 6 vehicles on the ferry. The car ferry was actually a flat barge that was pulled/pushed by a small tug boat.

The B&B where I stayed for two nights is the door with the overhang .

I made reservations to stay at a B&B during my stay in Dartmouth named Room-With-A-View located on the side on the hill overlooking the harbor. To get to where I would be staying we had to drive up a very narrow road just wide enough for one car.  Bernard left me in Dartmouth as he was driving on to Portsmouth where he would be attending training for several days.

Maine for the 4th of July

I was invited to visit friends in Maine over the 4th of July Holiday and decided to make a mini vacation of the trip to travel downeast to visit Campobello Island.

 Sunset from Barter Island, Maine

I stayed two nights with my friends Ray and Candy spending the 4th at their summer home on Barter Island which is fairly close to Boothbay Harbor.  Ray and I were fraternity brothers at the University of Rhode Island where we both attended during the early 60's.  We restabilished contact about 20 years ago when I contacted Ray to repair a chimney in our home when we lived in Maine.  Ray remembered my name when I called for service.  We have been keeping in contact ever since then and manage to see each other a couple times a year.  Ray took delivery on a new Grady White boat this past spring and we managed to take a short day trip on his new boat during my visit. Their neighbors on Barter Island had a 4th of July picnic with fireworks which I was invited to attend.  There was lots of food and the fireworks seemed to go on for ever.

Aftere leaving Ray and Candy I traveled Route 1 downeast staying over the first night in Ellsworth Maine then the following day I traveled to Campobello Island stopping for a short while in Lubec, Machias and Cutler.

Campobello Island is actually located in Canada which required me to pass through US and Canadian border control.  I forgot to take my passport with me however when crossing the border back into the US I was able to use my driver's license. Since they were able to access my passport information online and since I was born in the US and had a photo ID (driver license) traveling without my passport did not raise any concerns however I think it is better to be safe and carry a passport when crossing the border these days.

Head Harbour Lightstation, Campobello Island

While on Campobello I visited the Head Harbour Lightstation at the end of the island, the Roosevelt provincal park and the Roosevelt cottage during the two days of my visit to the island.

Roosevelt Cottage

Before leaving the area I visited Quoddy Head Lighthouse.  The point of land the lighthouse sits on is the most eastern point in the US.  (My British friends may like to know that this theoretically is the closest point in the US to Liverpool) 

Quoddy Head Lighthouse -  Quoddy Point, Maine

I began my return Sunday afternoon first visiting Meddybemps Lake for a short visit which my friend Peter insisted on and then traveled route 9 also known as the Airline.  The Airline is a long somewhat boring road through mostly forests and blueberry fields but not much else.  I traveled as far as Newcastle where I spent the night with my friends Susan and Peter.  

I managed to have my annual Lobster at the famous Small Brothers in New Harbor with Susan and Peter.  I wasn't up to the traditional ritual of ordering a whole lobster so I ordered a Lazy Man's Lobster avoiding the need to fight with the shell of the lobster. My friends didn't think much of my ordering the lobster the way I did but I enjoyed it any way.

On Monday I returned to my home in Groveland.  This was a needed break from the constant lawn care our home seems to demand and even though the temperature was above 90 degrees F I still had a relaxing time.

Mini Clocks

Over the past few weeks I have been working on making mini clocks that are a 1/3 replica of a clock that once hung in my grade school classroom.  The grade school was converted to condominiums a number of years ago and at the time my dad managed to get hold of the clock but never did anything with it.  I found it in his attic when they sold his home.  The original clock was painted pea green and when I stripped the clock I found it was made of oak.  I refinished the original clock that is about 15 inches square and replaced the works with a quartz movement. The original clock remains in our kitchen now.


Last year I built two miniature clocks that my sister has hanging in the rest rooms of her art studio in Lowell.  Visitors spotted the clocks and asked if I would make copies for them.  When I learned she had orders for three of the clocks I decided to make additional clocks since once my tools were setup it would not take much longer to make additional ones.  I had plenty of small pieces of scrap wood and was able to use scraps to build the clocks which helped to keep the total cost of materials to a minimum.


When I started the clocks I built them with the intention of hanging them on a wall.  I later thought they might also go well on a table or shelf so decided to build a base for the clock to sit on.  The base is removable so they can either sit on a table or hang on the wall.  My guess is that they they will most likely sit on a table rather than hang on a wall.


I used several types of finish and wood to make the clocks.  I used quarter sawed oak and Cuban Mahogany.  One of the clocks was finished using an ebony process where the finish was almost black. The clocks shown above are from left to right natural oak, English Oak stained and Cuban mahogany.