Monochrome Mill

I took a stroll on Beverley Westwood the other day, I don't think I'd been so cold all Winter and it's supposed to be Spring. Absolutely no blossom on any of the trees and no sign of leaves about to burst into life. The only thing moving was the strong Easterly wind that came all the way from Omsk or Tomsk or some such place. I got as far as the old black mill before admitting defeat and going home.

In what seems like a bad joke British Summer Time starts today, I can't imagine what I'm going to do with all that daylight that's being saved.

There's more monochrome fun at the Weekend in Black and White here.

Gewgaws

In these times of flailing austerity Beverley clearly has not been overly affected (see this post from two day ago). Money (between £22,000 to £80,000 depending on who you believe) has been found to renovate the Market Cross and the four shields that hang from it have been given a fresh coat of paint. The top two are Queen Anne's and Beverley town's shields. Bottom left is that of Sir Charles Hotham and bottom right is Sir Michael Warton MPs for Beverley who part paid for the cross in 1714. They could afford it; Charles Hotham had inherited vast estates and Michael Warton was reputed to be the richest man in England at the time.

Old Post Office

I guess when they closed the post office on Westwood Road in Beverley they forgot to take the sign down (they may need planning permission, it's that sort of area). So there it stays gently fading along with the memory of when the Royal Mail used to run a half decent service. Westwood Road, by the by, was once declared to have the most expensive houses in East Yorkshire; this is the cheaper end.

Bah cobblers!

Recently some bright spark at East Riding of Yorkshire Council (ERYC) decided it would be a good idea to remove all the setts or cobbles from Beverley's Saturday Market. Having been there for nearly 200 years these setts were clearly a health and safety hazard and should be ripped up and replaced as part of the pedestrianisation of the area. So far so good you might think. Enter the 'Save our Setts' brigade with their demonstrations and support from the 'subsidise our past mob' aka English Heritage. Cue a quick climb down by Council. The setts will now not be removed, no sir, they'll be taken out, dusted, turned over and put back again or some such. Price tag for this nonsense £2.6 million pounds.

Now I could not care less about these cobbles or setts or whatever you want to call them. They were laid to help horses keep their footing and were no doubt useful then but now they're just a pain to walk on and have little visual appeal. No, what I'm furious about is the £2.6 million being wasted on all this. ERYC have had to find cuts to their budgets this year due to central government's failing austerity measures. The amount of the cut? £2.5 million!

Kapow!

Here's a sign that really makes an impact on Whitefriargate. The shop sells the kind of tacky gadgets and gizmos that modern life finds indispensible. The building was part of  a redevelopment in 1795 of Trinity House property and is Grade 2 listed. Older Hull residents may remember this as the Kardomah coffee house. The old sign was uncovered during recent redecoration (see here)

Flash Drive

Came across this customised Chrysler Cruiser outside Holy Trinity Church the other day. Now I'm not much of a car person as I've mentioned before but this stands out from the well nigh ubiquitous silver-grey that manufacturers seem to offer. 

The Yard

Tucked away on Vicar Lane at the back of King's Buildings I came across what appears to be a pub or a club called the Yard though I can find practically nothing about it on the web. I'm guessing it gets its name from the Grammar School Yard which is just behind the wall on the left or maybe it comes from being a back yard. Anyhow I just liked the imposing gateway which completely dominates the narrow lane.