Also in September, we met up with the Davies' and the Balmponds for the annual Saltaire Festival.
The weather started promising enough, but soon degenerated into frequent heavy showers. We chose oriental food for lunch, before heading to the children's play park to wear out the kids. We walked the length of a classic car display, before having a look at the fair. here are most of the few snaps I grabbed:
Back in September we popped over to Ledston Luck. Gemma's mum has just moved there, and the still tight-knit ex-mining village was celebrating its 100th anniversary.
This former coal mining settlement seems to have kept its sense of community since the pit closed 25 years ago. The fair was small and felt 'local', but boasted a cake stall, beer / band tent and a barbecue. There was also a modest display of vintage tractors:
From the few visits I have made, I am interested to see that pit buildings seem largely intact and accessible (indeed, they have been explored). Further research has established that a narrow-gauge railway ran from the pit to nearby Peckfield Colliery, where the coal was transferred to trains on the Leeds - Selby line. Again, the few physical remains have been investigated, but I think my friend Andrew would enjoy a trip out there at some point.
Last weekend the Heritage Open Days took place. This is a brilliant national event that sees public and private buildings and organisations open up to the public.
Here in Leeds there was plenty to see, but unfortunately for me there was no time in which to see most of it. I work Monday to Friday, and on Saturday we went to a wedding. But we made time on Sunday to go and visit one of the open buildings.
Given Olive's young age and low boredom threshold, we decided against my initial choice of the Town Hall and plumped instead for the Central Library tour. Andrew, Michelle and Scarlett also came along, and I was lucky to book the final six places on the tour. We got to town early, so waited for two o'clock to show itself by spending time in Leeds Art Gallery. We had a nosey at the Damien Hirst exhibition (be prepared only for examples of his iconic works, rather than the actual headline pieces). We then went to the children's area, where we were joined by the others.
Then it was time to meet inside the Calverley Street entrance of the library, which (surprisingly to me) was the original entrance. At first it seemed like no-one was going to show. Then a score of people arrived en masse, and a guide made himself known.
Alas, this was another tour, one for the Art Gallery, poorly planned to commence at the same time and location as our more modestly attended trip. They quickly moved on, leaving a handful of us and our own guide. He was quiet and thoughtful, and initially talked about the building's construction in the last quarter of the 19th century, a little of its design by George Corson (who was also responsible for the Grand Theatre), and something of the materials used. I was interested to note that in today's money, the building cost around £6m to put up. I can't imagine a public building today costing less than twenty times that amount (and then some, as it is likely to be subject to some ridiculously unfair PFI scheme). But I digress.
That was interesting, but we were here to look at the library building itself. We were eager to see and learn about the public areas, but we were most of all itching to see behind the scenes, beyond the doors marked 'private'.
The structure of the tour was a tease. We worked our way up the building, initially staying in the main lending library, the music library and the reference rooms. It was only then did we get to see some hidden-from-the-public rooms and balconies, some disappointingly devoid of any original features, some richly panelled or tiled and crammed full of wonderful books, maps, newspapers and records.
It was interesting and saddening to see the various effects of time, and particularly the brutal and unsentimental alterations of the 60s and 70s that affected most areas of the building. I can't for the life of me think why such destruction is not considered a crime.
All too soon our hour was over, and I was over. Our guide ended the tour in the Tiled Hall, in which it was once feared "people will be continually gazing up at it, instead of quietly reading the magazines and newspapers". This room was insanely hidden from view and subjected to officially-sanctioned vandalism for years, before being recently restored to something approaching its former majesty. Formerly the reading room, now a tea-room, this was a suitably upbeat end to our Heritage Open Day.
(Most pictures taken using Instagram for iPhone)
We both had Wednesday off work. My mum and dad came up for a short visit, and we all went to the Great Yorkshire Show.
Despite setting out at what I consider to be the fairly early time of 9am, we spent a long time sat in queue of snails pace traffic. I subsequently found out that ignoring the officially signed route and an earlier start is the trick to avoiding the jams.
The weather was pretty much dry and almost warm. Gemma's mum called to say that 'Prince Charles and her' were going to the show today. We already knew this, and when we found ourselves near some pens in which Charles was to be judging sheep in a few minutes we made sure we headed for the other side of the site. She (Gemma's mum, not 'her') also said she had just seen Olive and me walk across the background of a live report on the lunchtime edition of Calendar.
We stopped on a grassy knoll to eat our picnic, and managed to see stalls, shops, exhibits and animals in all corners of the extensive Harrogate Showground. Olive loved meeting all of the animals, especially the pigs.
I took a couple of opportunities to snap the views with my still-favourite new toy:
So, as I mentioned on Friday that the family Smith-Forrest took advantage of the long bank holiday weekend by piling into the car and heading due East. Destination: Cleethorpes.
*
I have never been to the North-East Lincolnshire town before and held an uninformed, vaguely negative view of its charms. This was entrenched by reports from Andrew and Michelle after they spent a little time there.
Gemma has been quite a few times, particularly when she was younger. Her nan owned a static caravan there, and has recently bought another at the Beachcomber Holiday Park. So we though we'd take advantage and spend a couple of nights there; a journey of discovery for me (and Olive) and a trip down memory lane for Gemma.
So, this 'Cleethorpes' then, what is it exactly. I knew it was at the seaside in the same way Weston-Super-Mare is at the seaside; it is in fact nestled on the tidal banks of the Humber. It comprises of the merged 'thorpes', or villages, of Itterby, Oole and Thrunscoe. Clee is apparently an old word for clay. It eecked it's way in the world for many of years as a fishing village, and as recently as the early 19th century there were just a couple of hundred residents. Then, as was so often the case, the arrival of the railway changed Cleethorpe's fortunes and set it on the tourist part. No-one of note comes from Cleethorpes (unless you know different).
The motorway doesn't quite reach here, and to get to the town you have to pass through Grimsby. From what I saw, Grimsby is aptly named. Perhaps this is a ploy by Cleethorpes to sparkle next to it's industrial neighbour. If so, it worked. I didn't take an instant dislike to the place, which I was quite willing to do at the slightest provocation. We quickly found the caravan site and parked up at our temporary and very friendly tin home. Gemma's nan, and her dog Basil, were there to greet us.
After lunch we headed straight back into town. We were pleasantly surprised to find ourselves in the middle of a kite festival, complete with food stalls but lacking in wind. We ambled along the front towards the pier, and Olive had a quick play on the beach (the water here was a bit smelly though, so we didn't hang around).
Next day we decided not to bother with near-by Pleasure Island. Instead, we took the path to the right of the theme park and arrived at a wind-swept and somewhat isolated railway station. Humberston is the new Southern extremity of the Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway, which travels two miles to the back of the leisure centre (and actually quite near to the start of the front, so its not too useless).
The 15-inch gauge tracks didn't allow for generous room in the carriages, but we all managed to squeeze into one with sides and a roof, and presently we arrived at our destination. We repeated the previous days' route, and had some fried rice for lunch, before veering into 'town' to see what shops were to be had (answer: not many).
Then it started to spit a little, so we headed home with a little help from the land train.
After tea we walked to the Starlight Club, the on-site Phoenix-style venue, as Gemma's nan was convinced that some kind of bear character was due to make an appearance 'for the children'. The Ursidae did not show, and instead we were subjected to a demented game of musical statues for the children. When the music stopped, it stayed stopped whilst an entertainments girl who sounded like a young Lauren Laverne got into the faces of the frozen participants and tried to make them laugh. The procedings were very annoying and I was glad of the chance to take Olive to her bed, leaving the ladies to an hour of bingo.
On bank holiday Monday it rained. heavily. All day. We stayed in the caravan until after lunch, then went home.
In fact, we all had a really enjoyable time, and we'll definitely be using the caavan in Cleethorpes as a holiday base in the future.
*Most of the vintage LNER posters claim getting to Cleethorpes is 'quicker by rail'. Today, it isn't. The AA website states a distance of 80 miles from Leeds and a travel time of a little of one-and-a-half hours. Trainline.com says that the only route is via Doncaster and generally takes over two hours, though one early morning connection can get you there in one hour fifty.
On Mayday bank holiday we took Neeley to Andrew and Michelle's, from where we struck out to Thornes Park where there was a fete happening.
We started with a picnic, before having a look at the petite gathering of funfair-style rides, face-painting, charity and local interest stalls, and central display area (cheerleader dancing and falconry displays were available during our stay). Despite the strong sunshine, it was actually pretty chilly.
My excellent family went over to Saltaire the Saturday before last. We met up with the Viponds and the Davies', and set about exploring this year's Saltaire Festival.
Exhibition Road was closed to traffic and was taken up by throngs of visitors, all hemmed by a world-tour of food stalls. I went for a German Sausage, Gemma had Paella. We then headed over to the park, and after a visit to the swings and things (where Olive fell on her face after shooting at speed off the end of the slide - see picture below) everybody called in at an activity area, where there was free face-painting, cute animal petting, daffodil planting, and drumming.
I reckon that we all had a fine day.
My mum and dad came up a couple of weekends ago. The pegged their visit on the Chatsworth Country Fair, which we attended on the Saturday.
Despite the hefty drive from Leeds and the mildly extortionate ticket price, we all had an enjoyable day out. We watched displays of falconry, jousting, and stunt-motorcycling, perused the many, many stalls (most of which had a countryside leaning), and had a go at archery (because, you know, Gemma and I are experts after doing it at Centre Parcs in April).
On the Sunday, we headed into town to pay a visit to 'old reliable', aka Leeds City Museum. Here, we saw the permanent displays about natural and Leeds history, and the current Africa exhibition.
One of the interactive displays we presented by a character who thought bore a resemblance to a designer friend.
I promised you a post about the Green Man Festival, and by the power of greyskull I'm going to deliver you a post about the Green Man Festival.
Luckily, I didn't specify the length or depth to which my review would stretch. So I thought I'd see about getting away with confirming that I had a great time, and leaving you with a almost purely pictorial post.
You can see more photos, including those from past festivals, on my Green Man Flickr set, in the Green Man Festival pool.
