Door Carvings, St Mary's Beverley

These charming figures surround the doors to St Mary's. I guess they were meant keep away evil spirits and such like. I also suspect that mediaeval people were just as amsued by them as we are today, no doubt these faces were taken from local notables and as the congregation went to church each Sunday they would have a good laugh at them.

The Parish Church of St Mary, Beverley

Beverley has two nationally important mediaeval church buildings. The minster I showed you here . St Mary's church is  at the other end of the town. Originating in 1120 it has been built up, fallen down, been renovated and restored many times over the centuries.
Both Sir Nikolaus Pevsner and Sir John Betjeman held that St Mary's holds very high rank among the great parish churches of England.

Now for something toadally different

They have arrived! Forty glass fibre, gaudy painted toads. At points throughout the city and even beyond these things have been deposited to amusement and bemusement. Opinion is divided between welcoming them as a bit of lively fun and seeing them a total waste of time, money and effort.
They are part of the Larkin25 todo that I mentioned some time back. Inspired by the poems Toad and Toad Revisited, they manage to make physical what is only a metaphor and in so doing illustrate the stupidity of public relations stunts. Philip Larkin used toads as an image of the drudgery of work; fitting then that one of these noxious things should be placed outside the local Jobcentre.

Round the World

The Clipper 09-10 Round the World Yacht Race ended on Saturday at Hull's Marina. Ten identical 68 foot boats were involved, each one sponsored by a city, region or country. I believe the winner was Spirit of Australia with the local boat Hull & Humber coming fourth. However; the event was less about a race than advertising the region's business development and making commercial contacts. Whether the results merited the cost of this somewhat strange way of touting for business remains to be seen.  

It was estimated that between fifty to eighty thousand  people thronged the Marina area to welcome them back and to have a good time with entertainments and food stalls and so on. 

Big Gun

This imposing old gun stands at the entrance to Hull Marina. A local diving club rescued it in 1984. It was recovered from the SS Greltoria, which was sunk on its maiden voyage in 1917 by a German submarine off Flamborough Head. The irony is that it is an anti-submarine gun. There's more about the wreck here.

Graduation Day

The young woman in the fancy gown was in a bit of a hurry; the graduation ceremony for Hull University was about to begin. Various notables got honorary degrees including Omar (Dr Zhivargo) Sharif, who claimed to have a strange attraction to Hull.  The building in the background is the Ferens Art Gallery .

The Graduation ceremony was held in the City Hall, below, that's the Lord Mayor's limo parked outside the front door.

Good luck to the Class of 2010, with 70 graduates for every job they're going to need it.

Fish and Chips

Bob Carver's  fish and chip restaurant is, depending on your sensibilities, either an institution worthy of national recognition or a public health hazard to be avoided at all costs. The Carver's have been in the frying trade for over a century, with a stall on the open market before moving to this establishment. There's a proper sit-down restaurant upstairs but most customers stand with the pigeons to be served by staff who seemingly have never heard of twentieth century health and safety rules.

Hull has some of the highest levels of obesity in the UK. It would be unfair to put the blame entirely on Carver's shop.

If you're really gripped by all this, (and who isn't ?) you can listen to Bob himself describing his life and times here.