Sky Lines

The houses were built in the first decade of the 20th century. I don't know if they all had decorated ridge tiles, or if it was an option at extra cost. If they did, the street must have looked distinguished, even if they are modest, two-bedroom terraces, built for factory-workers. Now, as in the picture, only about half still have them. Imagine being the first occupier to re-roof the house and choose not to have a decorated ridge. Would it have brought social opprobrium, or kudos that you had the means to adopt modern styling?

I doubt if the telephone pole was there when the houses were first built. When it arrived, would it have been resented as an eyesore, mistrusted as potentially damaging to health or a means for the government to spy on people? I suppose there would have been an interval during which it was possible to work out who could afford to have one installed, just by following the wires. It grabs my attention every time we visit - mainly because you never see this many cables originating from one post in our rural backwoods. Its days must be coming to an end - for how much longer will we have overhead wires taking telecomms signals to houses - in fact how many of these wires are already unused?

Many of the chimneys are also obsolete, of course, blocked off at the bottom to stop draughts. The clock is ticking for the log-burners that are on the bottom of some of them, as concern mounts about urban air quality. Oh, and look: a television aerial; how quaint