A full churchyard

This is the churchyard of St Mary's in Cottingham. As you can see it's pretty full not just with graves but trees.  You might think that because the church is old these trees are of a similar age but you'd be wrong. They've all sprouted up in the last century or so. You can see how it looked in 1885 if you click here. When that was taken the churchyard was still in use and so there's no trees. It closed for burials in 1889 and seems to have been subject to reafforestation. It's a little haven for wildlife with squirrels and birds even some exotics.

If  you have an interest in graves and graveyards pop over to Taphophile Tragics.

Flower Show

Here's the Railway pub again this time shaming the world with its fine window boxes and hanging baskets. Window boxes seem to have gone out of fashion in these parts with only public houses putting on any sort of a display. 

It's good to see the Railway doing well as this time last year it closed due to the landlords going bust.

Digging up my street

They're digging up my street. It's like a slow creeping road eating creature.  A trench is dug and whatever it is they're laying (electricity cables, I think) is placed in, covered with rubble then tarmac and the whole exercise lifts up and consumes another stretch of road. So far they done about 300 yards in 6 or 7 weeks.  Now it gets tricky, the first bit ran alongside a field with no houses, when they reach the houses and  side roads and have to let traffic in and out it will slow things down. I reckon it'll take 'til Christmas to finish  the job.

The machinery is tightly secured overnight and at weekends. Wouldn't do to have it 'wander off'.

Up My Street

Hull Road, Cottingham, where I live, is the kind of road where the lower the house number the higher house price. Here's No 4. It belongs to the university and is the residence of the Chancellor or Vice-chancellor I'm not sure which. Swanky, huh?

Unfortunately I live at the other end of the road.

Under Threat

An article I read said that independent newsagents were closing down at 10 a week due to 'competition' from supermarkets and coffee shops such as Starbucks (No, I didn't know they sold newspapers, either). This little shop in Cottingham seems to be hanging on but I wonder how long it will last if the plans for a big supermarket to be built just down that road on the left go through.

Green Wickets & Piped TV

Cottingham at the beginning of the 19th century was "a favourite place of residence for the more opulent portion of the merchants of Hull, ... [with] ..many handsome country houses, gardens and pleasure-grounds". One of those country houses was this one, Green Wickets on Thwaite Street. It was built about 1780 for one Michael Metcalfe. Originally called the Sycamores it has been added to and fiddled with over the years and is now a Grade2 listed building. 

I've passed this building many times little knowing the role it played in the spread of television in the area. Rediffusion  was an early system of transmitting sound and later TV by cable from a central aerial. It was very popular in Hull and the central mast was in the grounds of this house. I seem to remember the system was known as piped TV. Anyhow, Rediffusion is long gone, replaced by satellite and digital advances but the house is still there and looks good for a few more years yet and is still, no doubt, owned by a merchant from Hull.

Reflections on wind power

If you follow the path round the park it goes behind a thicket of trees and bushes emerging at a large pond. It's a fishing pond and there were anglers trying their luck from the bank. Where there's water there's reflections and with a 400ft windmill lurking in the background who could resist?

Pushing on further down a path through the trees brings you out on the banks of the river Hull. Here you can see how the generator stands well apart from the factory it serves, I guess in case it falls over.