Sandy walk

You can walk your dog on Bridlington beach only when the 'tourists' have gone home.

Angelic

Spring Bank Cemetery has a few angel tombstones, sadly many of them have been damaged by the elements or plain old vandalism. This one seems intact. It is the grave of one Wilfred Jessop (d 1930), his wife Isabella Maud (d 1924) and his mother-in-law, Jane Hooper (d 1914). I can find nothing about these people but I'm assuming they had money, monuments like this were not and are not cheap.

There similar posts over at Taphophile Tragics.

Opulent Autumn Cemetery

You don't have to be a lover of graveyards to appreciate the glories of Spring Bank Cemetery. At this time of year it's looks spectacular.

The cemetery is on the Larkin Trail. Philip Larkin described it as the most beautiful place in Hull and for once I could almost agree. In defending the cemetery against "improvement" in the late 70s he said it was a "natural cathedral, an inimitable blended growth of nature and humanity of over a century; something that no other town could create whatever its resources". I  think he might just be guilty of exaggeration. 

1912

The immature gull on the right has just been given a hard lesson that the free lunch is no longer available, I expect he'll survive. There's no shortage of gulls round these parts. The stonework is the top of the facade of Bridlington station.

See more of the Weekend in Black and White here.

Barmston Drain

The Beverley and Barmston drain to give it its full name drains the land between Beverley and Driffield and runs to the west of the river Hull joining it just before the mouth of the river. The pictures here are from the stretch near Sculcotes Lane in Hull. It's pleasant enough now with a tarmac footpath, almost civilised, but when the gas works and electricty power station were operating up to the 1960s the drain was used for cooling the plant and waste hot water was pumped back into the drain making it steaming and polluted. Houses backed on to the drain it was all very Dickensian. Here's Philip Larkin in 1964 having a stroll by the drain while reading one of his more depressing verses.

Now the drain is crystal clear and well stocked with fish and there's abundant wildlife. Of course where there's drains there's rats.

Blue Bridge

Run out of interesting pictures so here's a boring blue bridge to be going on with. It's Cottingham station and that's the Hull train.

As Advertised

This couple of buskers on Whitefriargate the other day were actually not bad. The guy on the left had a mighty voice on him. I saw someone give them money, practically unheard of in Hull.

Dull Day in Bridlington

Anyone taking a seat overlooking Bridlington's harbour is going to be met by one of these guys. There are signs saying they can be agressive and they should not be fed but I've never had any trouble and they will sit patiently while you focus your camera on them.

It was a particularly dull and foggy day in Brid so I pointed my camera at the birds. The above is a Herring Gull probably in its second year judging by the speckled head which mature birds don't have. 

These are Lesser Blackbacked gulls on the beach.... 

These are two Turnstones having a wash.

This little starling sat about two feet away so I barely had time to focus.

R38 Disaster Memorial

You'll no doubt have heard of the Hindenberg disaster in which 35 were killed when a hydrogen filled airship caught fire onlanding in New Jersey; I doubt you'll have much awareness of a similar disaster sixteen years earlier that claimed even more lives in the skies near Hull. On August 23^rd 1921 an R38 airship was completing its trials from Howden, when it broke up and crashed into the Humber near Hull's Victoria Pier claiming 44 lives and putting the brakes on the British airship industry. This memorial in the Western Cemetery has two plaques one for the British and one for the US aircrew. Several crew members are interred beneath this memorial.

There similar posts over at Taphophile Tragics.

Under the Beech

So to Beverley Westwood in search of some Autumn colour. Surprisingly most trees were still mainly green and to make matters worse the sky was overcast and dull. So I had to make do with this massive beech.

Sensory Garden

Tucked away on North Bar Within, Beverley is the Coronation Garden. It was formerly the burial ground of St Mary's church across the street and the gravestones still line the edge of the gardens. At the western end a 'Sensory Garden' has been planted where, to quote a nearby sign, "the scent of aromatic plants, shrubs and trees, the stir of the leaves and grasses in the wind, the particular range of colours and textures, the sound and touch of water, all conmbine to make a varied appeal to the senses." I don't know that I'd go that far but it's a nice enough little garden. The garden was created in 2005 and the local paper has news of further extensions and improvements including fixing the fountain which wasn't working when I was there.

I found a brief history of Coronation gardens online here.

Supermarket Forces

There was a livestock market in Beverley from the mid 19th century until 2001. At one time it was the biggest pig market in the country (East Yorkshire is big on pigs). Despite this it became unprofitable and Beverley Corporation sold it off. It continued to decline and eventually was closed; the site was cleared and sold to another sort of market, a supermarket.  This plaque commemorates the market and is by the entrance to Tesco's emporium on New Walkergate.

Foreseeable Consequence

A few years ago the government, not the present austerity mongers but the previous boomsters, wanted to introduce looser controls on the sale of alcohol. Pubs could open twenty-four hours a day if they wanted and there was an easing on conditions of granting licenses. The result was an massive increase in the number of pubs and bars. There were those who warned that this would lead to increased drunkenness but these wise counsels went unheeded, people were supposed to drink responsibly and a 'continental drinks culture' would suddenly burst forth. It didn't work, the city centre became a hell on earth every Friday and Saturday night soaking up massive police and ambulance resources. Something had to be done. This sign is part of the attempt to reduce drunken behaviour; there's also recently been introduced banning orders on drunks, if they're in the city centre they get arrested. Reports in the local paper say these measures seem to be working but it's all a bit repressive and draconian to my way of thinking. And those responsible for this mess drink themselves blind on subsidised booze in the House of Commons' bars. Make mine a double ...

Hammonds of Hull

I've seen this building described as "the best surviving postwar department store" I wonder what that says about the rest. This is House of Fraser or Binns or Hammonds depending on your age. The original Hammonds store was a grand palatial affair destroyed along with several employees in May 1941 by German bombs. What you see here was opened in the early fifties [see photo , health and safety people should not click on this link] and has little appeal to me. I've read that fans of the building fear it may be lost in the redevelopment of the city; shame then that the redevelopment is on hold.

Venn Diagram

It is a little known fact that I used to be employed by Hull University (not for long, I hasten to add). In my day this was the Admin Building and the Biochemistry Department, where I was supposed to be working, was housed in what seemed to be the attic. Since then a fashion for naming buildings after famous people has overtaken the place and so this late 1920s building is named after Dr John Venn Sc.D, FRS, FSA and senior President of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. Yes, he of the Venn diagram so beloved of modern logic. He was born in Hull in 1834 but spent precious little time here and died four years before Hull University was opened (lucky man).

Western Cemetery

The Western Cemetery is essentially an extension of the Spring Bank cemetery [1, 2] opened in 1889 and still in use. It is across the railway line from the site of Hull Fair which you can see in the background. Most of the early memorials are showing signs of aging except for this one to Zebedee Scaping. Who he? My searches show he was born in Eton then went to the Royal Hospital School which has connections with the Navy. Later he becomes the headmaster of Trinity House school in Hull, a position he held for fifty-five years and, as this monument says, is  known in "every port and on every sea". I've managed to find a photo of him here , he's the one with the beard. The memorial was restored and regilded a few years ago and looks as it must have done when new.

Zeb married Georgiana Harriette Fury in Dublin in 1859, his occupation as that time is described as "Esquire", those were the days, eh!. From census records I found they had a son, also called Zebedee, well it would have been a shame to lose such a fine name.

If you like wandering round cemeteries why not wander over to Taphophile Tragics and see what others have posted.

Something a bit different

On my way to Hull Fair last week I passed this van which for some reason caught my eye, can't think why ...

Deep Muddy One

The river Hull when it enters the Humber is a completely different beast to the crystal clear chalk stream that rises out of the Wolds. I guess those old Scandinavians and Celts were both right.

Here's the tidal surge barrier's reflection in that deep muddy river Hull.

Before and after

This old dry dock is right at the mouth of the river Hull, opposite the Deep. It used to be home to a Manx steamboat that was used as a nightclub but that sailed off into the sunset ten or more years ago. Unfortunately when it left they couldn't close the dock gates, so for a decade the mud and silt of the Humber has washed in and filled it up completely. The owners of the site are planning to make some kind of tourist attraction out of it so they have cleaned it up with a hosepipe and a pump with the result you now see. The dock gates have now been sealed so they won't have to do it all over again.

Fly in the ointment

Just outside Driffield the river Hull passes round an eyot and at this time of year everything's turning nicely Autmnal. The river is very clear and you can see some really big fish in it. All in all very nice, almost bucolic. 

Shame then that right behind you is Bradshaw's grain mill with its constant noise of turbines driven by the river and deliveries from big lorries.

Hull Fair

It's that time of year again, when Europe's largest travelling fair parks itself in west Hull for a week. It's as popular as ever and as ever there's dozens of food stalls in case the fairgoers should get peckish, choose from burgers, candy floss, chips, donuts and kingsize hotdogs and much else. The big handsome doggy is called Lou and seems to be a regular at the fair.

Hype?

Near the mouth of the river Hull the Council have erected several large adverts to hide a derelict site. The Council's aim seems to be to convince the passerby that Hull is going to be a centre for "green" industry. And it is true that Siemens have chosen Hull as the site of their wind turbine factory. But and it's a big but, the Government appears to be turning distinctly blue on all matters green, so much so that Siemens and other eco-firms have warned of withdrawing from the UK. I hope I'm wrong but this green future for Hull may end in tears.

Tap

Another empty shop, this one providing a space for a bit of 'art'.

The Khyber Pass

I mentioned before that Hull had a large garrison protecting the entrance to the river Hull and when it was demolished parts of it went to make a feature called the Khyber Pass in East Park. Until the other day I hadn't been over the bridge that crosses this odd folly nor had I realised quite how large it is.

Tall tyre man

Taken last week on Holderness Road and it really was that dark and overcast, well, OK I may have tweaked the saturation a tad here ...

Man's best friend

I don't have a dog but if I did I think it would be a greyhound, they're such elegant looking beasts (unlike me). I've read that greyhounds despite being extremely fast actually require very little exercise, just 30-40 minutes the park a day keeps them happy. This one had clearly had had enough and was leading his owner homewards.

See more of the Weekend in Black and White here.

Adorned with a handsome fountain

The Boulevard was planned as a grand thoroughfare running up from the Humber to Anlaby Road and possibly beyond. It is a fine, wide, tree lined road with many fine villa residences built for the well-to-do of the time. In the 1870s someone writing of the Boulevard noted that "about half-way down, the street widens into a spacious circle, the centre being adorned with a handsome fountain”. Fifty or so years later a car crashed into the fountain and completely wrecked it. And so for eighty years the Boulevard was sans fontaine. After a seven year campaign of fundraising this delightful restoration was installed in 2008. 

If you're thinking this looks familiar it is a copy of the mermaid fountains that adorn the Avenues area, only this one works.

Horse and Cart

The big moan in Hull at the moment concerns the state of the roads. They're full and traffic is moving sometimes at three or four miles an hour. It's a headache caused by repairs to a bridge and another set of roadworks (including digging up my street) all coinciding. With all the disruption it's probably quicker to walk or go by horse and cart.

Distressed colours

It being 60 years since the unelected head of state took over the onerous tasks of leading this glorious nation, Cottingham Parish Council took it upon itself to buy some bunting in red, white and blue, very patriotic except it was probably made in China. Hundreds of yards of the stuff have been fluttering around noisily (it's plastic bunting!) since May I seem to recall. The sad thing is that the red was never a particularly dark shade, more of a light pink really, and  that quickly faded to, well, white. If there's an analogy to be drawn from the state of these tattered rags and the state of the nation after 60 'glorious' years I leave that up to you.

Poster ponderings

You can tell the students are back by the lengthy queues for the bus and promos like this for a drinking establishment in town. Today the fresh faced first years all seemed to be carrying rolled up posters to stick on their walls with blu-tak, maybe another batch of tennis players with an itchy bum or perhaps Che Guevara least that's how it was in my day.