Transmission Tower Ducks

I remember seeing ducks on a wall when I was a child in the fifties, not sure where, think it might have been at the home of a school friend. Whenever I see real ducks in flight I can't help thinking of the plaster version.

"The man responsible for the first duck was appointed chief modeller at Beswick Pottery, Stoke on Trent, in 1939. His name was Arthur Gredlington. He it was who invented the wall-hung ducks and made them accessible even to the working classes. Their popularity was instant, and some bright spark had the idea of grouping three such figures together on a wall for effect. Can there be any greater accolade to a piece of pop culture, than that it became an early television phenomenon? The grand old queen of British soaps, Coronation Street, accorded them to the shrill hair-netted housewife Hilda Ogden. On her wall, she had a ‘muriel’- a painting on the plaster of deplorable provenance – and above it flew three ducks."


Shame that I've never watched Coronation Street.

Dull, cold and windy in Essex today. I had a little walk at Fishers Green and ended up in The Bittern Hide. I was on my own at first then my 'nephew' Skye the collie and his master came in. We had a nice chat and a great spotted woodpecker visited. I got a rubbish shot. Just after Skye left the bittern appeared and I got some rubbish shots of that too. Probably the last before it migrates to who knows where, Poland maybe?