UK2013: Bussage and Brownshill

Now we're into my home turf, my original territory; the villages in which I grew up. My parents and I took a walk around the villages - Bussage and Brownshill are kind of conjoined; they're backing on to each other and generally get referred to as one place, almost. It has been many years since I walked around here. But this being rural Gloucestershire, most of the houses are old enough to probably be under some kind of listed protection and as a result, details have changed since I was a kid, but not a lot of major changes in the place. It's pretty good actually, to have that kind of continuity. Even if I'm not often there, it is a nice anchor.

If you've been following this series, you knew there'd be a church, right? This is the Parish Church of St Michael and All Angels, a place I knew pretty well as a kid. Our primary school was right next door; it's a private house now, since they built a bigger school up the road a couple of years before I left it. The school was a Church of England school and as a result, we held certain festivals here, such as Harvest Festival and a Christingle service before Christmas. I tried to get a picture of the old school but it's pretty tucked away. Anyway, continue down the hill past the old school and this is what you see.

Once again, we have a lytch gate.

Here's the grave of soldier from World War 1. Someone is still leaving flowers there.

These graves date from at least 1727 to the 1870's. That's just the legible ones; there could be older graves here.

We were lucky here; the church was open as it was being cleaned. I chatted with the cleaners a bit; they were interested to hear that I'd come here as a kid, and they told me some of the history of the church.

The pulpit and choir stalls.

A longer view up the nave.

Back outside, and guess what? A small side door! I like the little flowers carved into the sides of the arch.

We continued on into the villages, and I enjoyed seeing the old Cotswold architecture. I always loved the solidity of the stone around this area. It's basically sandstone; it starts out a golden yellow colour and turns to grey in around 15-20 years. Then it just starts getting a darker grey, very gradually over the years.

This is a very typical style for local houses. I suspect the bay window would have been a later addition, however.

If memory serves, this used to be the village pub, although it was long gone even when I was young. The building has been restored; much modified and added-on to since then. I remember this place as being pretty much a ruin.

Now here's something interesting, that I had no idea about until this walk, when Dad told me about this place. This is Temple Wood. I always remember the gate here and there's never been anything beyond but trees and wildlife, in my memory. However it turns out that there used to be a Catholic nursing home for injured servicemen here. On the 14th March 1946, a Lancaster bomber crashed into this site, destroying the nursing home, although only one person was hurt. Squadron Leader R.H. Thomas AFC was the pilot, who managed to avoid hitting the entire street. There were two crewmembers, one was Sgt R.L. Grey, the other I do not know. The crash site has been left as it was, all these years since. (ref 1 ref 2 ref3)

This is St Mary of the Angels, which was the church next door to the nursing home, built by the same folks who ran the home. It was in regular use until 2006 and now is in retirement as a listed building.

This is taken from pretty much the same place as the shot above. I looked over the wall to the right to see the church. This view hasn't changed at all since I was a kid.

This is a few yards further down, on the left. It's always been a religious-owned building but the functions have changed through the years. I think it's some kind of retreat now. Whatever; it's got some great views across the valley from here.

Just another pretty cottage, with a long garden path.

This is the house I grew up in. There's been some minor cosmetic changes (a new gate, for example) but it's pretty much the same as I remember, from the outside at least.

We went back to my mother's house for a cup of tea. I'm respecting her privacy, but the Internet always needs more cats ;-)

This is Molly, of the ever-twitching tail.

And her sister Bunty, of the cute pink nose.

UK2013: Miserden

I stayed with my Dad while I was in Gloucestershire for the week. He lives in Cheltenham, while my Mother lives near Stroud. We drove out and met in Miserden village, about half way between the two.

Miserden is a very nice ancient Cotswold village and has numerous footpaths around it running through the hills, which makes it popular for walkers. It is also slightly unusual in that most of the village buildings are owned by one family. You can tell which ones are theirs as they're all painted with the same creamy-yellow colour on their doors and windowframes.

We decided to have a nosey around the village before lunch, and took a visit to the local church. Here's the lytch gate; very common in Gloucestershire. They serve as the main entrance into the church, and as a place to take shelter.

The church in all its Cotswold Stone glory. Shaped yew trees are another feature common in Gloucestershire churchyards.

A moss-covered gravestone, set amongst a patch of snowdrops.

This is the grave of Pat Smythe, a famous British horsewoman and author.

Leaving the churchyard, we come out opposite the war memorial.

Returning to the centre of the village, we find this old tree dominating the road junction, while serving as a bus shelter and village noticeboard.

And finally, no decent village is complete without a proper pub! This is the Carpenters Arms, a splendid establishment serving fine ales and a really great selection of vegetarian and vegan meals. They also have a cute pub cat :-)

UK2013: Heading South

It was time to leave Yorkshire and head south to my parents in Gloucestershire. Of course, the day I was to leave Yorkshire, it dawned with bright sun and clear blue skies. So Diane and I took a quick walk back up the path for a look over the valley in the sun.

We found a few minutes to hang out with Diane's cats in the back garden. Here's Ubu, mid-meow.

This is Chloe, who is tiny and a little shy, but she likes the sunshine.

All too soon it was time to catch my train. Diane waved me off at the station. I thoroughly enjoyed our time together, and being able to explore a part of the UK I hadn't known at all. Thanks, Diane!

The train took me from Hebden Bridge back to Leeds. From here I was to get on a bigger train, direct to Cheltenham Spa. I was lucky at Leeds; it's a big station but my inbound and outbound train went from different ends of the same platform - no stairs for me this time! When I got to where I was meant to be, this train promoting the James Bond film 'Skyfall' was parked at the next platform. The whole train was painted like this; each carriage had the '007' although without Bond's image. The train is also officially named 'Skyfall'; it was named on the black plaque you can see at the nose of the train. Pretty cool.

I enjoyed a nice train ride south; read my book and watched the world speed past. We stopped at several cities along the way but soon I was in Gloucestershire. My father picked me up from the station and took me for lunch, after which we headed over to the new Whole Foods store. Anyone reading this who lives in Austin will be well familiar with this grocery store; their headquarters are here. They've been expanding into the UK and have a few stores in London. Cheltenham is (currently) their newest UK store. (Incidentally, I wrote to them about three years prior to this one opening, suggesting they should open one in Cheltenham. Good citizens of Cheltenham; you're welcome!)

It seemed about the same size - maybe a little smaller - than our local South Austin store. Right away I could see the common themes in the branding and presentation of the store, however very few of the products were familiar to me. Whole Foods prides itself on selling local produce, so whereas we get a lot of Central Texas foods, Cheltenham is blessed with a wide array of local produce from Gloucestershire and surrounding counties. In fact the only thing that I spotted that would be sold in Austin was the Amy's range of frozen meals. Not a single other product.

As with the Austin stores, this one has a bar! Highly civilised. I like the stained glass backdrop; very British, if perhaps more London pub than Gloucestershire local. Not too sure about that bar stool though, it looks a bit lower than would be comfortable... The bottles in front, underneath the Champagne, are the UK equivalent of Growlers (4 US pints). I think they called them Flagons, and they held a smidgeon over two UK pints. You can have the bartender fill one from the beer tap and take it home.

That dodgy looking character standing at the bar is my father, who proceeded to purchase a Flagon of Stroud Brewery's finest, which we enjoyed later on that night ;-)

UK2013: Halifax

If you've seen the film 'Brassed Off', you'll remember there's a scene in which the brass band of the story plays a contest in the town of Halifax. The bands are shown in an open air value that looks amazing, and it turns out that Halifax is not too far from Diane's house, so I expressed an interest in going to see the place.

We got another bus out from Hebden Bridge which took us along the valley and up the side of the hills, through several smaller towns and eventually out into Halifax town centre, by which there is a bus station. Typical of British central bus stations; lots of bus stalls, a slightly shabby kiosk and waiting room, and some very welcome bathrooms which were functional if not pristine.

The weather had turned very grey and dismal; from the snow we'd had in the morning in Haworth, it had turned to more drizzly rain which made itself noticed in fits and starts. The kind of weather that does nothing to showcase a new town, but you can't win them all.

However, Halifax more than made up for the conditions, with some really quite splendid buildings and solid looking streets. Here's a few of them:

This first one is the tower of the City Hall; there was more to this off to the right but the street was too narrow to get a shot of the whole thing.

These next two illustrate the ornamental features on street corner buildings.

Here's a street further up into town; the architectural style continues all over town. Halifax was very prosperous over the years, although it's not as big of a town as I expected, for some reason. Don't ask me why I thought that.

This is currently a branch of Lloyds TSB Bank, but I suspect the building had a previous function. It has an incredibly ornate arch and doorway.

This is the Victoria Theatre, with an interesting dome on the roof, there.

Here is the old Theatre Royal, sadly looking like it is no longer in use.

Not sure about this, but I liked the wooden beam construction.

This church is long since ruined, although it is fenced off to prevent further damage.

I like the design of this window frame. It would have been nice to see what the original glass looked like.

Halifax's prosperity came mainly from the woollen industry, from the 1500s onward. In 1779, the Piece Hall was opened. This is a massive walled courtyard with 300 rooms serviced by covered walkways, built for the sole purpose of selling pieces of woollen cloth. It is also the building I referred to earlier, where the film scene was made.

Detail of the bottom half of the right hand door seen in the shot above. The panel is repeated on the top half. That's the town coat of arms in the middle.

Here you can see the ruined church spire rising behind the walls of Piece Hall.

A vantage point from the top floor allows a view across the courtyard. There are many shops here, arts and crafts and specialist gift shops, but most were closed unfortunately, as many things seemed to be on a Monday in Yorkshire.

Looking along the walkway. This was a bookshop; although it was closed, many books were available outside, I think on an honor system although I could be mistaken.

Halfway along the walkway, looking into the courtyard again. You can see the ground rises half way across the courtyard, meaning there's only two floors on one side of the building. On the right hand side of the far corner, there is a really great sweet shop, too. The black thing on the far left of the picture is a stage.

We went into a little museum that taught some of the history of this place. It had intriguing images of the Hall in full swing, with cloth laid out, awnings sprung out from the walls, market stalls and traders all doing their business. I am sure it would have been a sight to behold. More recently, there were garages and buildings erected in the middle of the Hall, where the cobblestone area is now. There was even talk of demolishing the Hall entirely; I am very glad they did not! Nothing stays the same except change however; there were also plans on display for a proposed modernisation and park-like improvements they want to do in here soon.

Another shot of the taller end, showing the three different pillar styles on the walkways.

Down on the ground floor, tucked into the corner before the ground rises, and many of the shops here have these pretty arched windows.

This is Halifax Minster. It is a huge black church at the bottom of the hill, stained by years of smoke from mill chimneys I guess. It dates back to 1438, so it's had a few years to accumulate grime. We couldn't get inside, so I'll have to show only a few exterior details.

A sundial on the south side. Not doing much business today.

One of those fabulous carved wooden doors, with some pretty ironwork over the window above.

A small side door. I still wonder what you find if you go through these doors.

And to finish, some good quality proper gargoyes. This is not a delicate church, it is big and solid and full of individuality. And you can't beat a decent set of gargoyles.