Voyager returns

Last year I reported on the outrageous theft of the statue Voyage [ 1 ]. Well the news is that he's back, well, not him exactly but a clone. At a cost of £40,000 Hull Council have replaced the stolen item with a copy of the Icelandic one. He looks a little greener than I remember him and he seems to be looking in a slightly different direction but who's quibbling? The Council have also installed £5000 worth of extra 'security'; some may mutter about closing the stable door after the horse has bolted but I'm not that sort of guy ... You can see a very short BBC news video on the unveiling here. It was quite a do with local and Icelandic bigwigs attending; please try not to laugh too much at the mayor he likes to dress up in funny clothes.

Indentured debt slaves?

Students waiting for the bus last October could be in line for debts of £60,000 according to a newspaper report [ 1 ]. Time was they used to pay you to go to Uni (I left uni with a healthy bank balance and absolutely no debts); now they expect students to become indentured debt slaves. Question still remains; why do they queue so orderly?

Walter L'espec

The western facade of Beverley Minster [ 1 ] contains many carved statues, not all of them are of saints and so on. This guy for example, Walter L'espec, was no mean piece of work. He controlled most of northern England during the reign of Henry 1 up to 1120. As was the custom in those days, he built castles all over the place (he is depicted with what looks like Helmsley Castle tucked under his arm), and established priories and abbeys including Rievaulx Abbey in Yorkshire which was one of the wealthiest in England. He died in 1153, so this  was carved much later  since Beverley Minster wasn't finished till the 1400s. This statue makes me question was he a small man with a normal sword or a normal sized man with a massive sword? I suspect the latter; either way you wouldn't want to cross him.

Yet Another Methodist Church

I wouldn't want you to get the wrong idea that I'm a closet Methodist; it's just that  there are a lot of these interesting buildings dotted around the area. I liked the maroon and amber pathway, it reminded me of my old Catholic  primary school colours. I forgot all the religion but remember the football strip! This one sits between Toll Gavel and Walkergate in Beverley and has its own web presence [ 1 ]. 

The Hanging Jerkin of Beverley

Another of the items on Beverley's town trail [ 1 ], a hanging jerkin or tunic made of copper. It's placed in a narrow alleyway next to the Beaver pub.  Beverley’s jerkin makers made leather tunics and held their own market between St. Mary’s Church and Saturday Market. There's a little more info about this here.

 

Cemetery Sump

I've posted before [ 1 ] about the new cemetery created to take Hull's ever expanding number of dead. I think I mentioned that it needed some special drainage to avoid unfortunate accidents happening (you know just what I mean). Well this is that special arrangement; a vast sump in the middle of the cemetery. I just hope it works, must be awful to spend eternity with damp tootsies!

Ellerman Wilson Line Building

We've come across the Wilson Line before [ 1 ] and these are the former offices of this once important shipping line. The company made its money shipping between Hull and Göteborg in Sweden. They carried many emigrants from Sweden and Norway to Hull as they headed to America. They had a monopoly on the trade and as always happens in these cases conditions for emigrants were hardly better than for cattle. [ 2 ] The Wilson Line was bought by Ellerman's in 1916 and the business eventually closed in the 1970's.

The building at the junction of Commercial Road and Kingston Street now houses a firm of architects. Below  is the weather vane atop the building.