A Big No-No

And the villain still pursued her, yes, he chased her high and low
I don't know what he asked her, but she always answered , "No."

As I mentioned at the start of this month the East Riding of Yorkshire Council was to hold an exercise in local democracy, a referendum of those who live in the villages and towns surrounding Hull, following noises from Hull City Council that it might want to expand its boundaries. Everyone expected a majority against expansion and so it turned out with over 96% against! So no big surprise there. What was surprising and most pleasing was the turnout; over 75% of those entitled to vote bothered to fill in the form and post it off. That's better than some recent general elections. It might have cost the ERYC £1 per vote but this was a loud and clear "keep your thieving hands off" message from Hull's neighbours. 

Not that Hull Council will take any notice of this at all, indeed the leader of HCC (who it has to be said looked mightily pissed in the American sense of the word) is still spreading scaremongering tales of the area losing out on economic growth, jobs, investment, blah, blah if Hull doesn't get its way, ...and apparently we're asking the wrong questions  yadda yadda yadda ... all desperate nonsense from desperate politicians.

HCC are paying for an 'independent' commission into all this. The leader of this commission, the life president of a leading local company, states not to have discussed any of the issues with any Hull councillor nor indeed does he actually know any Hull councillors. And I am Marie of Romania ...

So to the results: Question one was "should the boundaries of Hull be extended to include Anlaby with Anlaby Common, Bilton, Cottingham, Elloughton cum Brough, Hedon, Hessle, Kirk Ella, North Ferriby, Preston, Swanland, Welton and Willerby?" 51,312 voted no, 1,887  voted yes.

And question two was "do you think Hull City Council should be allowed to build on land it owns in the green open spaces separating Hull and the towns and villages in the East Riding?" 50,981 voted no, 2,167 voted yes

Former Bank in Red

Staying on Lairgate, across from Narrow Racket is this striking building. It was originally the Beverley Savings Bank back in 1843. I was going to say that was a time before bankers became pariahs and despised amongst men but I doubt there ever was such a time.

Narrow Racket again

Those with a phenomenal memory will recall that I posted about this oddly named alleyway over four years ago. As I was on Lairgate I thought I'd show it again. Still don't know why it has that name.

Lairgate

Looks peaceful and quiet in this picture but in reality Lairgate is one of the busiest streets in this medieval town. It forms part of the main route from the Humber Bridge in the south to Driffield in the north, the A164. Heavy traffic winds and grinds its way through the town, through narrow streets, such as Hengate, that are plainly not up to the task. So Beverley is to get a relief road, a southern by-pass which will cut across the green belt between Cottingham and Beverley. It will, of course, only be a matter of time before Beverley expands outwards to this pass-by, but that's what passes for progress these days and if people want to build their homes on a flood plain who is to stop them?

Paint it black

This cute little black house is on Lairgate in Beverley. Nice of someone to park a car in front for some added reflections.

Weekend Reflections are here.

Belated Birthday Greetings

Seems I missed the three hundredth birthday of Beverley's market cross earlier this month. They had some sort of Georgian themed party and a special Beverley Cross buns were baked! (Those dancers in the video look familiar.) Not looking too bad after all those years but after all that cash spent on renovation it should be good as new.

Conkers bonkers

Time was when youngsters would be picking these little brown nuts up by the bagful and threading a string through them and then bashing them to bits against their opponent's to see which was the hardest. (If none were lying on the ground it was considered perfectly rational to lob a big long branch up into the tree to knock a few down. Just watch out for the returning branch! I speak from experience.) Yup, an absolutely pointless pastime but one involving complex rules, a modicum of skill in aiming the damn thing and no end of skulduggery getting them as hard a nails using various treatments, soaking in vinegar was supposed to toughen 'em up. Of course you could just cheat and keep one from the year before, but that was a knavish trick. 

The game, if you can call it that, seems to be losing popularity. You simply don't see children picking up conkers any more. I've even heard of some schools banning the game on health and safety grounds! For heaven's sake a knock on the knuckles from a errant conker is all part of life's tough journey.

Now these seeds of the Horse chestnut just lie on the pavement unloved and unwanted. I'm told you can use them to scare spiders away but one correspondent in the Times reported that his pile of conkers designed for this purpose was covered in cobwebs. Still if the spiders insist on coming in you could, I suppose, whack them on the head with a conker.

As I say the game is mainly for children, no-one I knew ever played it when they reached the grand old age of twelve. It seems however that there is a World Conker Championship (surely not) held in Aston in Northamptonshire every October. Now that is bonkers!