Parrots Go For Gold

I mentioned that St Mary's in Cottingham had been having a spot of bother with vandals stealing the lead off the roof. Well here's another problem that you really couldn't make up. These are Orange Winged Amazon parrots and have been living in the area for a while. Indeed they have been reported on the local news programme for a spot of ecclesiastical vandalism. They ate the gold leaf of St Mary's recently renovated clock! They're also extremely noisy little beasts.

St Mary the Virgin, Cottingham

This is the inside of the church I featured the other day. There are some fine stained glass windows, reflecting the wealth of the patrons of the parish.

Land of Green Ginger

There's a street, well it's a more a narrow lane, near the old town called the Land of Green Ginger. No-one knows why it has this odd name and it really is a bit of a disappointment having mainly law offices , coffee bars and very little of any interest apart from a pub which claims to have the smallest window in England. This is little more than a slit between two bricks and in more enlightened times would be called a con.

Winifred Holtby  (who she?) wrote a book called Land of Green Ginger.

Alan Plater, who died last week, wrote a TV play called Land of Green Ginger, one of those gritty "realism" jobs that they always go on about when talking about how good TV was when there were only three channels and you had to get up to change them....Actually this is unfair to Mr Plater, who I once met in the old Hull Truck Theatre, smoking a ciggy and propping up the bar: he did boring so well it was almost an art form, non-events became the focus of his world, with complete fantasies woven into this mundane non-happening. Usually the lack of plot was jollied along with some fine old jazz tunes. I think old Plater was one of the good guys and will be sadly missed.

Wikipedia's article on L of GG recommends that you see also Green Ginger wine; now this I can wholeheartedly agree with; top it up with some whisky, et voilà , instant cure for all that may ail you. Cheers!

Sunday, go to church

Here I present the beauty that is St Mary the Virgin,Cottingham.
Picture postcard perfect.
It's been here since the early 13th century; that's before France had borders, Germany was a country and well before the USA was a stain on humanity.
It's main problems are caused by the insistence of English Heritage that the roof be made of lead. This has led to many thefts of lead from the roof; and damage to the the fabric of the building. If a suitable replacement were allowed the church would be saved many thousands of pounds in restoration costs.

Cool for cats

Big Charley finds some relief from the hot sun.

Sea at Bridlington

The German Ocean gently laps on Bridlington's blue-flagged North Bay.
Today is the third anniversary of the great deluge that put parts of Hull under several feet of water. If the eco-doomsters are right then, in the future, Hull will be under the sea. So it's not all bad news then.

The fishermen of England go down to the sea in ships

Sometimes in the fog of war regrettable incidents happen that, if they did not involve the loss of life, appear to be farcical and if not utterly ridiculous. Thus, in a dispute between Russia and Japan in October 1904, the Russian Navy fired upon British trawlers in the Dogger Bank area of the North Sea, believing them to be Japanese torpedo boats. The British trawler Crane was sunk and two fishermen from Hull lost their lives. Other boats were also attacked and another fisherman later died of his wounds. Compounding their error, the Russians then started firing on themselves; killing at least one Russian sailor and an Orthodox priest on board a Russian cruiser. The only reason more damage wasn't done is that the Russian Navy couldn't shoot straight.

Unsurprisingly, the British Government took a dim view of all this, especially as Britain was allied to Japan at the time. Compensation, to the tune of £66,000, did manage to calm things.

The statue was unveiled in 1906 and shows the dead fisherman George Smith. The other two dead fishermen were William  Legget and Walter Whelpton. It stands at the junction of Hessle Road and the Boulevard, in the centre of the old fishing district. 

(Unless my memory is playing tricks with me, and it might well be; this statute was another of those that sat upon a public convenience; like Queen Vic and King Billy. The conveniences have now gone and so has just about all the fishing fleet.)