Hell, Hull and Halifax

Great Railway Journeys I have done (3)

I never realised that the thieves' Litany containing the famous lines 'from Hell, Hull and Halifax, Good Lord deliver us!' could have such a negative impact on the Subconscious mind until I actually left the city of my birth. Whenever people ask from whence I came ,the reply' Kingston upon Hull ' seems to provoke sympathy and commiseration rather than the plaudit I am expecting. I wonder if the rhyme itself is to blame ,and I am pleading with Hullensians to start putting around a new and positive one .I am going to start looking at the lyrics of Beautiful South but they should have stuck to the their more positive avian name.
For over 40 years my heart has warmed as it approached Hull by train. I used to like the Hull Brewery Ales hoarding which signalled the approach from all stations west, but I have for nearly 20 years appreciated a gem of a Banksy which has been there before even he was born.
So I start at the now (since 1965)North Riding beginning of my journey from Filey to Hull Paragon. Click on the 1947 map to enlarge, the places have not changed.

Filey Station hangs on by a thread to respectability. Brave and visionary volunteers and Station Buffet proprietors and rail network employees have tried to keep the station clean and bright, floral and litter free. This year they have succeeded, It is looking Great.
On a gray school holiday day the interior livery is looking good, but still only 2 carriages. Why? 2 carriages on packed August days, 2 carriages on busy school commutes, 2 carriages on icy don't take the car to work days.
Still , I enjoy the scenic ride to Bempton. All my favourite landmarks are here

• Filey medieval field systems
• Hunmanby-glacial valleys , steep cuttings (with primroses in spring)
• dewpond Reighton Field
• nearly a glimpse of Buckton Hall
• definite glimpse of disused Bempton Methodist chapel
• hoped for view of Newsham deserted village(winter only)

The no signal for mobile spot kicks in just after Bempton. NO phoning ahead to Brid for taxi to school -I remember that well. wait till the Maltings at Marton.
Tell what sort of a day it is going to be now, with the glimpse of the sea next to the mini golf at Bridlington. I have deleted that picture-the windows in the carriage are too dirty for you.
I do not know why Gardeners World or The One Show have not featured the Station Buffet floral display at Bridlington. Each year it manages to be , apart from David Hockney, and my friends from Hilderhorpe the best thing about the town. I have spent hours in that Buffet when on my way too early, to school, and drunk tea, waiting for ten to eight , in the days when School door opened at 8. Now they open at 7.30 am and most teachers have to stay the night anyway to get their preparation done.The Scarborough to Hull , and the Hull to Scarborough trains usually have a wait of between 2 and 10 minutes at Bridlington. This is thanks to the suit who rubber stamped the removal of one of the lines of track. Trains must pass at Bridlington or Filey.

This bridge is a dear friend. It is just south of Bridlington station, and links the path from Hilderhorpe Primary School as I suppose I must now call it , with the industrial estate famous for child car seats and the Morrisons car park featured in Hockney's Drawings in a printing machine, 'The Atelier' (in the 2009 catalogue-which is wonderful).
When I had to give up smoking, after the ban in all East Riding Schools circa 2000, the steps of this bridge were the nearest place I could get to ,from school, for a sit down and a cigarette during the lunch hour. Few children ever went home for lunch so I don't think I was spotted being a bad influence.
From Bridlington to Beverley is a rural ride of Cobbett preportions. I did not see any countrymen hanging upon the gallows, or miles and miles of turnips without fences to the fields. I saw miles and miles of field beans, dull golden stubble from the oil seed rape,more pinchbeck gold, and heavenly golden stubble from the wheat and barley . Many of the potato fields had been cropped and re ploughed , the Christmas tree plantation surprised me . I heard myself saying that I could remember when they had just been planted.

Beverley Station is still the dullest temple to bricks, lightened only by the sign to the Taxi Firm that will always be no 1 in the county as far as I am concerned. They ferry ancient parent around Beverley, to dentist , doctors, Tescos and chemist ,as if she is the Queen, carry her bags, treat her kindly, that I Thank God for them.
Beverley to Hull , via that best of all addresses, Cottingham reminds all those approaching the Humber that a vast City on the flat is no Has- been.

Smart new glasshouses serving us our Cucumbers and Tomatoes flash by in a healthy promise, vast powerlines are calling the Ordnance Survey map to 'Follow me', and the thrill of Walton street carpark (HullFair) and the new Football Stadium, KC call out YOU'RE HOME. Only the old Workshouse building next to the Hull RI reminds you that for some there was a half -life sans benefits of our times,a la Valerie Wood when there were the deserving and the undeserving poor . Or has that Changed at all?

Here is my Hull Banksy, TRIPPETTS, once the place in Hull for gloves, on the way to Thornton Varleys for a toasted tea-cake served in a charming chafing type dish.
My spouse , used to the Great railway Stations of Europe(Antwerp, Paris North, Ghent, Waterloo) used to tell me that Paragon Station was awful. Now he likes it . The interchange, the flowerstall, the new loos all tick the Baedeker box. Only the coffee is still frightful -one place where a Costas or Cafe Nero would satisfy, in the wait between connections or the arrival of Hullsister , before we hit Ask and THAT view of the marina.

For my girls

Best wishes from North Yorkshire

Workbox

Benjamin John Elder born 1807

Daguerreotypes

George Gower Bruce

I am grateful to my cousin in Argentina for all the information he has sent me which I have kept as posted comments on this blog. I have not posted the comment with his e mail address, but I am able to forward any Elder comments for him . I have had a go at taking a digital photo of 3 Daguerreotypes that I have . They are the best I can do at the moment as the glass reflects.

Firstly here above is George Gower Bruce b.1794, the husband of Mary McKinnon Elder(My great great grandparents)
Next is Benjamin John Elder , a miniature of him as a young man, followed by his daguerreotype

Benjamin John Elder

Benjamin John Elder  Master Mariner

The photo below,also a daguerreotype is of Benjamin John Elder Bruce,my great grandfather, son of George Gower Bruce and Mary McKinnon Elder and nephew to Colin Elder of Skye(of Cruise of the Betsy Fame)

My own grandfather and his siblings were all born in Hull. A first son Gower Bruce was born in Scotland, and brought up by Georgiana Newell (nee Bruce ) after the death of his mother. My great grandmother was Marie Louise Bevan( from Hull). Benjamin John Elder Bruce and family emigrated to New Jersey(USA) in the 1890s but the line has now died out. My grandfather only remained in Hull , where I too was born in 1947.

My cousin in Argentina knows more than I do about the Elders. The family gathers here on Wednesday for the 6th birthday of my grand-daughter. In the meanwhile here are the Elder jewels such as they are, and the inside of MMcKEs Workbox. Will send you the outside pictures tomorrow. I cannot get them to rotate right now and it is after midnight.

Benjamin John Elder Bruce 

Sweet maidens of IsleOrnsey

I have a copy of a book, Turners 'Rivers of France' inscribed as you can read to the daughters of the Elder Family in 1840. This book has come down to me , through the family of Mary McKinnon Elder, of which all branches have now died out. I remain with my 2 sisters only. I also have Mary Mckinnon Elders workbox (sewing box) and the mourning brooch inscribed Margaret Elder 1827 (aged 18 died) and a ring inscribed MMcD to MMcB no date but looks Georgian.
I do not have any information about my Elder forbears. My Cousin in Argentina knows far more than I do.
The keeper of the family archive was Eva Borthwick , a grandaughter of Mary McKinnon Elder.I remember her well. She died in about 1955.

For My cousin In Argentina

Mary McKinnon Elder

Jane MacDonald Elder

Jane Elder

Major General Sir George Elder(from miniature)

Mary McKinnon Elder (top) is my great great grandmother. She died in Inveraray in 1880 and was the daughter of John Elder and Margaret McBean Elder of Isle Ornsey.Skye.
Immediately below her here is Jane McDonald(nee Elder) , her sister who married the minister of Glen Urquart we think?
Below her is Jane Elder (we think) the 2nd wife of the Colin Elder (farmer) of Skye whose first wife was Agnes McKay.
Major General Sir George Elder is the photo taken from a miniature . We have the Inventory of his possessions on his death in Madras In 1836. We also have a plaid (Tartan) of his which we still use on very cold nights on our bed !

Antwerp Station -not just the architecture is great

Worst Weed Wednesday

What a good idea to hold a Worst weed Wednesday. Thank-you' The Home Garden. 'Click on their name to see more about their bright idea.

Here it is then . At the moment in my garden this little weed is a nuisance. It is Euphorbia Peplus, the Petty Spurge H/A up to 20cm on a good day.

1. Firstly , it only has to look at the clouds and before the day is out it has grown 2 cm , flowered and set seed, or so it seems.
2. It hides amongst the lettuces and spinach. This would normally be ok, but I am a poor cook , unable to wash and sort through my greens. I can usually do soil to plate in 10mins . Because I do not pick out strangers in an efficient way it is not uncommon for me to cook this little spurge as well. In a dish of Spinach it is just a green mush so the dear little Euphorbia hides bitterly. It is poisonous, as are all spurges. Perhaps they should be called Purges.
3. It doesn't mind where it grows, when it grows and how tall it grows. I have seen a fresh green haze of them sprouting in February in the snow.
   
4. It exudes a milky sap which is a magnet for small children playing in the what one hoped was an exciting environment of a safe kind. Is there one?

On the positive side it is a most attractive little annual, as are all its cousin cultivars. Just not at the moment Thank-you.Bet you cant spot it -but its there!

Thanking you Headmaster cyberfashion

In a while I will be doing the drive again:

• past the Orchids
  
• Reighton Hill,
  
• the 2 trees
  
• the turning to Grindale,
• the hedge with a dead fox behind it
• Bridlington Hospital,
  
• the place where Hockney did his latest Magnum Opus oka Morrissons Car park
• the MMR award to Great Planting Roundabout
• B nd Q
• SCHOOL

I am going to join your colleagues past and present as we all say THANK -YOU and wish you well as you leave the school which has been overseen by you for 20 years.
You don't know how grateful I was in the Summer term of 1993 when you gave me Supply Work. I so needed to supplement our income that I was getting free carrots from the greengrocer ,for the rabbit we didn't have, and making soup .

For the next 13 years I came and went on the Staff Team, term here ,short contract there, full time here and part time there. I was not the easiest employee I know that. The 'bit of a gob on me' part disrupted a few Staff Meetings. You will remember that you had to ask the Maths Co-Ordinator to request that I stopped calling you 'Boss' and use the correct form of address. So here I am thanking you sincerely S.... for the ways you supported, encouraged ,informed and disciplined me for my own good.

1. I am retired now, and am grateful for all the advice and information you gave as you steered me through the last Official government paperwork I will ever have to do.
2. Thank you for all the enthusiasm with which you embraced the world of ICT ,the Cyberworld, and turned me into a Techie. My family have watched me grow in confidence as I now Blog and Twitter do Spread Sheets and Websites. I am never bored. I have even written more with a real pen now that I have rediscovered language. LOL. You were the first person to show me a new Search engine ,GOOGLE ,You made sure all your staff including me had a laptop for work at home. You were ahead of the game with the introduction of Electronic Whiteboards in School, and the Computer Suite was school heaven for this older person. Now the first thing my 2 yr old Grandson says when he arrives in my home is ' Puter Grandma' . I hold my head up high.
3. Your Monday morning Assemblies were a strength. Even before I had a vested interest in what you said I appreciated the many things you said about ordinary Family things .To hundreds of children many of whom lived in extra-ordinary if not strained Family situations you talked about your childhood in Leeds, your weekly chats with your old Father, the looking forward to Wedding assemblies . Who will ever forget your pictures of the Grand Canyon ? You gave children a rounded view of contentment.
   
4. I loved your Shirts. The duck egg blue one was my favourite. The Red one however was your statement shirt, and I watched you on Red Shirt days to see where the day would go.
5. I really appreciated working in a well ordered , clean and well decorated school. You see I had spent years in a school that was so dirty and untidy that I realised that surroundings do matter. Children do appreciate care ,and learn to be careful . The working enviroment was always under review, and I am sure that aspiring Heads trained for years with you learned much good Housekeeping Practice from you.
6. You always demanded much from your teachers. We had to know what we were doing, the planning had to be done, the children had to be secure and stimulated, happy and well disciplined in our care. Working walls come and go, targets change, Govermment directives blow with the wind, Teachers climb ladders knocking off others as they go. It means nothing when viewed after a few years. BUT Thank you for liking and encouraging and affirming children. My own children would have been content in a class of yours. This to me is the bottom line.
   

LATER I have put 29 photos on Facebook. You will have to become my friend now!
Well I am home now from your DO. It was such a happy time. People were so genuinely pleased to come and wish you well for the future. May you and Pam thrive in the climate of change. GOD BLESS YOU BOTH.

PS
The one and only time I did the minutes of the staff meeting I did a spoof copy of them for a select few . I think they could still be hidden in one of my files on the Server.

The train drew up there unwontedly.

Great Railway Journeys I have done (2)

I would have loved some unscheduled stops because of the heat but these days we have Air conditioned carriages even on the (now bankrupt )National Express trains.
I have done the journey from York to Kings Cross hundreds of times, and feel I know every copse and clump of buildings. I don't of course. In my mind I have an impression of the landmarks I have come to appreciate over forty years of frequent travel.
There are catagories in which to pigeon hole my rail rambles to London and all stops beyond.
Travelling For

• Funerals-expensive journeys, tickets bought on the day, usually a day when you cant afford a bus down the road.Have to set out before 9.30 so cheap day return null.
  
• Quick day trip to visit relation in hospital. Cheap ticket-bought just in advance.
• Quick day trip to visit London Gallery. Same tariff as above
• Well organized visit ,planned in advance for stay of few days with progeny(Sussex) , taking in Galleries and the Kings Road whilst crossing London with bus pass. Using Senior railcard online ,cheaper than a meal in the Saachi Mess.
• Very well organized Progress with spouse. Abroad via Eurostar, or to Heathrow, taking full advantage of days to visit progeny,Galleries, Brighton and Aged Relations. Senior RC online again, maybe night or 2 in YHA St Pauls .

For the Ist 25 yrs of my North /South and back travels they were in fact South/North and back. The journeys are the same however , as these days even very clever forward planning soes not guarantee the direction of your seat . This may be confusing , I might have travelled on the LHS facing Edinburgh more times when travelling South than I have travelled facing Edinburgh travelling North. This might have informed my acute observation of all the sandstone outcrops at Doncaster.
Many more details of my journey may be found in another blog where I am an occasional blogger. The post is called 'Down but not out'
This journey was on an Adlesdrop day. It was indeed late June. The sides of the tracks were never so covered with wild flowers. The fields from York to the Home Counties were at their most interesting for this errant botanist. The great sight of the three Power Stations after York, before Doncaster always amazes me .
This day the dash of red gave a surreal look to the fields.
And so to that threatened Pastime. I just cannot think why bureaucracy threatens that most innocent of anorak pastimes 'trainspotting'. I always like to spot trainspotters on my rail journeys, and Doncaster is one of the best places to spot these most solitary and educated of (mostly) men. A noble hobby, a chance for members of families to have breathing space as Son or Dad takes the 04.00 to Doncaster via Leeds, returning on the 23.41.
I tried to remember location of the grove of Silver Birches on the east side of the line and south of a city Doncaster or is it Peterborough , the former I'm sure. Picture next time. And then that church sitting all on its own , no village or houses to be seen. A remnant from a medieval deserted settlement possibly. This June the Barley is nearly ready and gold and ripe looking, my pictures do not show the shimmer and the promise of each field.
Serious plant hunters like myself spot the many delights from train windows by the track . This month is the turn of Dog Roses, Toadflax, Orchids, Oxe-eye daisies .Queen Annes Lace has given way to Hogweed, Red Campion nearly over has given way to Red Valerian clinging on in the embankment walls. Buddleias are beginning to identify themselves, deep purple or pale mauve what will they be? Horsetails annoy and then the Giant Mullein promises to grow 5 'high and astound the bees. I spotted your welcome whorls.
London does not disappoint. It is so hot the city gents are not discernable,in shorts and open neck shirts. City gentesses are still in their pin striped suits in case they are not taken seriously enough, and everyone is carrying bottles of Evian.
A cooling break on the Ist Capital Connect platform- Oh! the ease here, lifts and walkways and electronic displays-there'll be no getting lost here. The next part of the journey is like being in an episode of Psychoville. Weird Mobile phone conversations need a translator, women are applying nail varnish to their toes on a moving train, young men roam in search of a discarded newspaper they have not yet read and I try to take pictures from the window. They all stare (covertly) at me now. I have become the odd one. I am actually the only over 60 female without dyed hair in London too. London Bridge and the railsides are fascinating from here to East Croydon where they become mundane again and I have to rely on the flora until Worth Abbey and the railbridge near the Cowdray Arms.
Next time I am going to concentrate on the Supermarkets seen from the train between York and Sussex. Counting Waitroses makes me realise that there are more in the South. This is not fair. This is the North /South secret Divide.
If you are wondering about the Header picture , please send all guesses to the Kings Cross Travel Centre. I think it is a Tumble drier, but not absolutely sure.

Common Spotted Orchid or The road to Little Egypt

Three years to the day since I mentioned in this hallowed blog the appearance of my 1st sighting of the Spotted Orchid for the year. Like surfers I have a secret spot. Not secret any more of course, I divulged the location in 2006, but maybe hidden or even so obvious its a not a spotted Orchid Secret spot but sensible overt lair near a layby of a habitat.
I travelled the same Kings highway daily for fifteen years and know every bump, raised ironwork, fencepost and tree.
I have seen the mighty Bypass built efficiently and on schedule by the workmen of England. I have felt the oozing relief of Reighton Hill as it becomes a viewpoint again. It waits patiently for the 121 bus from Hull to breeze happily through and give a sense of 'being just in the real world 'to the ribbon of cottages and tiny churches, one now a posh cottage complete with garage and tubs.

I have driven patiently behind tractors at dawn and haywains at dusk. I have been bitten by a horsefly arrogantly flying through the car window looking for a horse. I have seen barn owls flying just as the sun sets, just above the bonnet of the car. I have endured the early morning winter sun daring to shine straight into my eyes as I cross the boundary from North Yorkshire to my beloved East Riding, and dazzling my senses and boding danger.
I have seen vistas of sheer Cooks Tour loveliness- Bridlington bay from East Huntow top, a medieval view the same for hundreds of years, the Priory and two trees, one on each side of the road. Ebor flats of course may be overlooked.
In the other direction, the homeward bound , more joyful journey albeit North the view of Filey Bay from Reighton, once spoiled by Little Beirut, now a temple to the holidaying aspirations of the New Butlins folk, The Sands or some such eponymously clever and original name. Time Team 3009 will be perplexed I'm sure, with the post holes showing rows and rows of small dwellings overbuilt with larger ones, and the remains of the huge monastic fishpond lined with tiles.
I have seen the direction of the breeze , the airstrip and the windsock over Grindale way , the gradual transformation of the cafe and garage of Speeton Field, the dead windmill in the Newsham distance and all the ancient hedgerows.
It goes like this in my mind, Snow drops and Primroses at Southfield farm, a flush of green on the hawthorn heralds spring, then the Blackthorn blossom for miles and miles, white and promising sloes. Then the flush becomes a reality, and out comes the May, white, pink, red even and the verges start to grow , I wait for the Queen Annes Lace.
I remember that I have its sport Ravens Wing in the garden at home, and wonder who first thought to collect its seeds and breed it on , selecting and choosing , selecting and choosing , until Chilterns Seeds helped you to forget it had ever been Queen Annes Lace by the side of a road. I am coming slowly to Orchids because I have not finished savouring the Red Campions and the Sweet Cecily, and the Hogweed- I'm ready now
COMMON SPOTTED ORCHID
DACTYLORHIZA FUCHSII

My first Wordle

Click for larger Image.


see what you can do on http://www.wordle.net/.

Bridges and houses , hedges and ditches

Great Railway Journeys I have done .

Have to say that the journey from Congleton in Cheshire to Seamer ( Scarborough) is a near perfect rail journey. I had listened to advice and made sure I was on the right hand side of the carriage so as to take in the recommended sights , which did not disappoint. My criteria for a Great Railway Journey were all fulfilled.

• A seat alone
• Good conversation to overhear
• Clean lavatory
• An unknown crop to identify
• Clean window
• A Risk
• Wildlife to spot
• Baby lambs in field to spot
• At least one place of passing needing to be looked up in Pevsner
• A yearning to bring an OS map next time.

This journey had a tantalizing beginning, and here I give Congleton Station the equivalent of a Richard and Judy Bookclub award, which I will call an Adlesdrop award. For in the tiny Booking Hall was a shelf of Books to borrow , worthy of Boots Lending Library in the 1950's.

WHAT A GOOD IDEA!
I had of course brought one of my Arthur Upfields to read so was replete so to speak.
And so to scenery. No one prepares one for Cheshire to be so picturesque from the train. The Cloud first, and then streams ,and field systems, pales and lambs and water meadows all the way to Bramhall . Here the back gardens of the upwardly mobile beckoned but I have seen it all before in Surrey so it held no thrall for me .
I mention here that the sides of the track between Congleton and Manchester were the cleanest and most rubbish free I have ever seen.
Now Stockport , theres a Business park of a place from the train. Not what I imagined , having only known about a past Bishop , Gordon Strutt from my Aunty Mary, so fondly thought it would be full of gleaming spires, instead - pyramidal multiplexes and ugly walls and chimneys. Made mental note to get off the train here another time and look at the Hat Museum, remembering that 'Aunt 'Ada Watson was a Court Milliner from Cheshire in the Edwardian era.
Levenshume was a ME sort of a place. I could just tell from the names of the businesses and the sort of washing on lines.
Manchester Piccadilly takes some working out. Now I am home I have worked it out. Trains that terminate and trains that go through determine , of course, the platform arrangements and so now I have it . I think. The loos are 30p and the change machine doesnt work . Thank God the Transpennine had clean ones and were easy to use.
The journey across or should I say under the Pennines was magic.
Canals and Mills along the Colne Valley would have looked so different a hundred years ago. I loved it now, without the smoke and the grime.
One businessman was overheard to recount to another a Question on some TV Quiz programme where the contestant did not know that Bread Sauce was an accompaniment to Turkey. 'Well ,I did not know that' said his travelmate, and I with him was silently amazed. I thought everyone knew that. Apparantly , I am naive.
So on past the familiar, Leeds, York, Malton , Seamer -I have travelled these rails a score of times since returning North from Surrey in 1992. The stretch from York to Malton along the Derwent Valley deserves a prize of its own . The best Field Systems I have ever seen are on the North side of the river, and then the glimpse of Kirkham Priory through the trees, as the river upstream to Malton tempts speculation always as to the height of the water. Here my journey took a new twist. Two young ladies from across the pond had discussed their complexions ,crowlines and wrinkles all the way from York. As they decanted to thrill a small agricultural town with their conversation , the carriage discussed the triviality of their very public musings.
On to the hedges and ditches of the Carrs, that great Lake Pickering emptying into the North Sea at Filey, its rich ,alluvial soil almost working before ones eyes to support rows of Potatoes , Wheat, Barley and oilseed Rape. No children clambering and scrambling, no runaway carts , just GLIMPSES GONE FOREVER.