1912

The immature gull on the right has just been given a hard lesson that the free lunch is no longer available, I expect he'll survive. There's no shortage of gulls round these parts. The stonework is the top of the facade of Bridlington station.

See more of the Weekend in Black and White here.

Barmston Drain

The Beverley and Barmston drain to give it its full name drains the land between Beverley and Driffield and runs to the west of the river Hull joining it just before the mouth of the river. The pictures here are from the stretch near Sculcotes Lane in Hull. It's pleasant enough now with a tarmac footpath, almost civilised, but when the gas works and electricty power station were operating up to the 1960s the drain was used for cooling the plant and waste hot water was pumped back into the drain making it steaming and polluted. Houses backed on to the drain it was all very Dickensian. Here's Philip Larkin in 1964 having a stroll by the drain while reading one of his more depressing verses.

Now the drain is crystal clear and well stocked with fish and there's abundant wildlife. Of course where there's drains there's rats.

Blue Bridge

Run out of interesting pictures so here's a boring blue bridge to be going on with. It's Cottingham station and that's the Hull train.

As Advertised

This couple of buskers on Whitefriargate the other day were actually not bad. The guy on the left had a mighty voice on him. I saw someone give them money, practically unheard of in Hull.

Dull Day in Bridlington

Anyone taking a seat overlooking Bridlington's harbour is going to be met by one of these guys. There are signs saying they can be agressive and they should not be fed but I've never had any trouble and they will sit patiently while you focus your camera on them.

It was a particularly dull and foggy day in Brid so I pointed my camera at the birds. The above is a Herring Gull probably in its second year judging by the speckled head which mature birds don't have. 

These are Lesser Blackbacked gulls on the beach.... 

These are two Turnstones having a wash.

This little starling sat about two feet away so I barely had time to focus.

R38 Disaster Memorial

You'll no doubt have heard of the Hindenberg disaster in which 35 were killed when a hydrogen filled airship caught fire onlanding in New Jersey; I doubt you'll have much awareness of a similar disaster sixteen years earlier that claimed even more lives in the skies near Hull. On August 23^rd 1921 an R38 airship was completing its trials from Howden, when it broke up and crashed into the Humber near Hull's Victoria Pier claiming 44 lives and putting the brakes on the British airship industry. This memorial in the Western Cemetery has two plaques one for the British and one for the US aircrew. Several crew members are interred beneath this memorial.

There similar posts over at Taphophile Tragics.

Under the Beech

So to Beverley Westwood in search of some Autumn colour. Surprisingly most trees were still mainly green and to make matters worse the sky was overcast and dull. So I had to make do with this massive beech.