The Wizard of Todmorden, modern of course. Yesterday Andrew and I went for lunch at the Folklore Centre just around the corner. I wanted him to see the marvellous library of books upstairs in the building. Holly greeted us warmly and served vegan soup. I had mushroom, and was a little taken back by no cream added but it would take sometime for me to adjust to veganism.
I dearly want the centre to survive but it has to make its own money, and after only a short period of opening the cafe bit they have a customer problem. Why? Well the red brick building next to it is the Hippodrome, which has just won some money and now is spending it on building work to make a cinema room upstairs. The building work has sprawled across the pavement, forcing people to walk in the road and it is said that it will be a year before it is removed. Holly says footfall has fallen dramatically because of this. Car parking is not a problem, there are two supermarkets over the road and it has always seemed to me that there are plenty of people at the talks.
Apparently at the beginning of the 20th century the block of buildings you see above was financed by one man, and that includes the enormous Hippodrome next to the centre. He unfortunately bankrupted himself but left behind a good legacy. The centre was at one time the offices/printworks? of a local rag called 'Todmorden Herald'. Now long defunct. It would be interesting to find out the history, but nothing seems to be online, so a visit to the local library is called for.
Nothing else of interest, except, maybe the long conversation I had with my son about transhumanism, apparently there is even a party of them in the USA. Let us say that Musk and Mark Zuckerberg must have their fingers in the pie there. I have this picture of talking heads but no bodies, except of course there will have to be some sort of transport. But it has all been done before. See Bran the Talking Head.