chapel tractor

chapel tractor

Spalding Flower Parade - 2 May 2009

The 51st Spalding Flower Parade took place on 2 May 2009 and formed part of a festival that took place in Spalding in Lincolnshire over the course of the bank holiday weekend. The fact that the event was even staged was remarkable as the previous organising committee had decided that the cost of putting on the events outweighed the traffic that came to the town and decided to call it a day after parade number 50.

The town rallied round like never before and a new committee was formed to organise the event and they had about half the time to put on the show that had previously been the case. So the parade day came and the buses brought in the crowds, as usual, and the sun almost shone.

At the head of the parade, as usual, was the Romsey Old Cadets marching band. The Romsey Old Cadets are famous for completing the parade route in fancy dress and each year they have a different theme for the costume. This year we had a pied piper with his cat and a score of mice following him.

Following the marching band we had a float from a local radio station and then some classic tractors and a classic van representing the local garden centre. After the Budokai Academy there came one of the highlights of every parade and that was a cortège of classic bicycles. In the past the number of bikes on display had fallen but this year there was more than I ever remember seeing and the three penny farthings having a race down the street was something to see!
After the 13th Coventry Scout Band had passed there came the Moulton Chapel Float which was had a representation of the small chapel with a band playing in it. Miss Jersey then came by draped over the back of an open top car and then we were down to the main part of the parade which included the main floats made from tulip heads.

The floats had a theme of Floats Through The Years with a different float for each of the decades that the parade has been running. The 1960's were represented by The Tortoise Family float, the 19701's by Dougal from The Magic Roundabout, the 1980's by the Australian Float from a World Wildlife Theme parade, the 1990's by the spectacular Space Odyssey float and then the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang float from a few years ago made a welcome return. Finally the double length Flower Queen float came into view. The design of this doesn't really change but it is always spectacular with the Flower Queen and her deputies taking the prominent places on the thrones at the back of the float.

This was then followed by a variety of marching bands and volunteer using the parade to raise some money for worthwhile charities such as the local hospice. We then came to the finale and what a finale it turned out to be. The Polka Dot Academy provided up to 180 children and adults to ride on a variety of floats and walk through the parade in costume. The theme of the finale was The Land Of Make Believe so we saw Princess Fiona, Sleeping Beauty, a float representing characters from the Wizard of Oz, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, the Lion King and Peter Pan.

And then after about an hour the Lion King was followed by another classic car and then the standard last vehicle of a police car brought up the rear and the parade from our vantage point was over. The parade lasted about another 2 hours as it wound its way through the streets of Spalding and finished at the local football ground.

All in all therefore a big congratulation should go to the organising committee and hopefully, with a bit more time in the preparation, parade number 52 will be even better.

About the Author

You can see some photos of the the floats from this years parade at
Spalding Flower Parade
photos.

Manchester & Holmes Chapel

The Demolition Requirements

Demolishing a building is a big project. There are many reasons that you might want to do this, including safety hazards. Nobody wants to be responsible for a dangerous building. Other reasons might include needing the land for new development, and the current structure is in the way. Many buildings need to be torn down every year, but many are not. Why?

Sometimes it can seem like a real quandary when you’re dealing with a building that needs to be torn down. It isn’t safe to leave it standing, but demolishing a building isn’t really safe either. So what should you do? Maybe people aren’t sure, so they leave buildings standing.

Calling in professionals that have experience in tearing buildings down is probably your best option. They will be able to assess what the best course of action will be for that particular building.

The most common type of demolition is manual. Workers go in with hammers, saws, and pry-bars and pull something apart until it is in pieces small enough to be carried away in a large dumpster. This kind of demolition is seen all the time in remodels, and is necessary if there is any part of a project you are trying to save.

The next step up from this is mechanical demolition. This involves machinery such as tractors going in to tear down the structure. Generally the waste is then placed in large dumpsters of dump trucks and hauled away.

If you have a really big demolition project, large machines such as cranes and wrecking balls may need to be brought in. These are for tearing down large structures and making sure they are properly removed from the site.

Insurance and liability is a big reason why you want to bring professionals in to do a job. If you hire a handy-man or odd-job guy to do the demolition and they hurt themselves or someone else, you might be responsible if they are not properly insured. This isn’t fair, but it happens all too often with the property owner being at fault. A licensed and insured company can take this stress off your hands. If they get hurt while on your property, they have the insurance to cover it.

Another reason calling in demolition specialists is a good idea is because they will be able to recognize any hazardous material that they find. Asbestos is a material that can cause cancer if particles of it are inhaled, so it needs to be identified and contained as soon as possible if it is in a building.

A demolition specialist will also have or be able to get the required equipment for the job. This could end up actually saving you money, because renting the kind of equipment that is needed for these jobs is extremely expensive. Also, having all the right equipment is the only way to be sure that the job will be done safely. Having the wrong equipment could quickly take a situation from bad to worse.

If you can bring in a crew that will haul the rubble away once the building is torn down, this is even better. Leaving a pile of waste where a building used to be is often just as dangerous as leaving the building standing.

Bringing in a professional demolition crew will make the job easier and much safer for you. At minimum, you should have a contractor come to the site and tell you what will be required for the demolition. With some professional advice, you will be able to make the best choice possible.

About the Author

Loren Krieger operates Turbo Haulk, one of the biggest bulk trash pickup companies in United States. Their Service areas include Baltimore-Washington, Northern Virginia metro Area and Raleigh, Chapel Hill and Durham in North Carolina. Other Services include Roll-off Containers and Demolition Services .

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