Another exciting development

If your name is Walker, Tucker or Fuller then it's a good bet your ancestors were involved in the cloth making trade. The fulling of cloths involved them being scoured by soaking them in stale urine and walking up and down on them, this bleached the cloth which was then thickened by felting to give increased waterproofing. I have read that urine was so important to this trade that it was taxed; an early example of the government taking the piss.

Above is a sign on a jewellers which is being tarted up, we're on tenterhooks. Below an uninspired picture of Walkergate, it's the only one I've got so it will have to do. At the end of the 1970s a road, New Walkergate, was built to by-pass all these old streets which were then pedestrianised. 

Surf's up

In 1890, so the story goes, two Hawaiian princes  and their English guardian went surfing in the east Yorkshire resort of Bridlington, in the cold North Sea. So starting a craze in this country for taking boards out to sea in order to be washed ashore ... hmmm. Anyhow the UK tourist people seem to think that folk would rather go to Bridlington than Bondi for their surf, they're nuts, of course!

In Memory of ...

Dotted around Beverley Westwood are a few seats with memorial tags on them. This one seems designed for people with very short legs. 

These were taken a few months back, I've not taken any photos recently so I'm using up old stuff.

Black Mill

Here's the old Black Mill on Beverley Westwood again. 

Hull Road, Beverley

Around here a lot of roads lead to Hull and are called Hull Road. This can lead to confusion especially with the police who are, it has to be said, not the brightest stars in the firmament. Here Hull Road is neatly crossing over Beverley Beck.

Old wrecks

This is looking upstream from the lock at Grovehill and was taken sometime ago so these decaying hulks may have finally been washed away.

Lock Gates at Grovehill

Until the early 1800s Beverley Beck was a tidal stream. The building of a lock meant a constant level of water and better access for Beverley's traders. Nowadays it's pleasure craft that use it.