SONGS AND SCRIPTS AND DUNKING BISCUITS

The British Insulated Calendar Cables (BICC) was, for many decades, the biggest employer in my town of Prescot in Lancashire, later Merseyside. Founded in 1891 they supplied cables for telephone and communications all over the world.

My grandfather, both my parents, my father’s brother and his wife, my ex-brother-in-law and his father, and both my sisters all at various points worked at the BICC, known locally as just the B.I. The only one who never worked there, was myself. When it comes down to insulated cables, you could say I’m a bit of a black sheep. An outsider. A maverick. I like all those descriptions, choose which one you will. (I also like Renegade).

But even I still remember walking past the furnaces that could sometimes be seen from the street, with white hot metal being shot through on its process to becoming cable. Long since gone, the BICC has been replaced by a shopping centre, and housing estates. For a long time however, Prescot was the BICC.

In the last decade, art works have been placed in various parts of the town, some to celebrate the town’s connection to William Shakespeare, and others to the BICC. Such a statue is the one featured above, and is included as my contribution to the Sunday Stills Monthly Colour Challenge by Terri Webster Schrandt, which currently is ‘Orange’. As the main colour in the photo is mainly orange-ish, I’m putting it out there.

But also, to double down on the Orange theme, here is an image of a butterfly taken at the beautiful Hutton-in-the-Forest in Cumbria, UK last year.

I could give you more of the long and interesting history of Hutton-in-The-Forest, but frankly I think the butterfly is all you need.

As always, none of my images are AI adjusted.