The moving plod plods; and, having plodded, plods on.

In the  glad confident years of the end of the last century Humberside Police spent well if not too wisely and opened little stations at various places throughout the town and outer regions. One such was this in Pearson Park, next door to the mosque since you ask. There was another built on Beverley Road not four hundred yards from this... Total waste of money. Although it was a station it never seemed to have anyone in it and the couple of times I needed to contact the old Bill I had to use a phone installed in the doorway which put me through to some distant operator who took a message and promised to "see to my query" (meaning get lost and don't bother us we're having our tea break). 

Well you probably know where this is heading ... 2008, the political choice to impose austerity and so on meant that Humberside Police had to close these places in the name of efficiency (an admission if one were needed that these places weren't an efficient use of resources) and they also rashly sacked hundreds of officers. I must just mention in passing that Hull now has the highest burglary rate outside of London (hoorah!) ... maybe it's unconnected and really due to all that culture, who can say?.

So, anyhow,  if you want a big Victorian villa in Pearson Park with nice quiet neighbours apply to the Humberside Police...

Dryad's saddle Polyporus squamosus

 

On a walk through Beverley Westwood I came across this fine specimen on a stump of a tree that had been felled in early Spring. It's called Dryad's Saddle after the wood nymph, apparently it's edible but has an extremely tough texture. It's not particularly rare and I've seen a few before but none as good as this.

Grandstand View

At the northern edge of Beverley Westwood is the racecourse. It's a mile and three furlong course for flat races. As the Westwood is common land you can wander across the racecourse as you wish; just watch out for galloping nags. You do have to pay to get into the stands.The first races this year are in April. There's a website here.

Cave Street

I don't know of any caves in this neighbourhood unless we are all in some kind of Platonic cave and only seeing shadows of reality cast upon the walls of our miserable existence. Anyhow this street of immeasurable pleasures runs off Beverley Road and is, as far as I know, unfortunately, only too real.

These pictures were taken by Margot K Juby while I was waiting at the bus stop. There's more monochrome merriment at the Weekend in Black & White here.

November showers

Lowering clouds and late afternoon sunshine produce this strange lighting effect. Of course sunshine and rain made a nice rainbow which you can see below.
This is Butcher Row in Beverley.

The Bull

The Bull sits on the corner of Stepney Lane and Beverley Road. Its a typical Victorian pub that has seen better days but somehow is managing to survive.

Saturday's Post

You know those sisyphean tasks that this town gets itself into, bridges that take years to build, piers that are never mended, roads that will never be upgraded, derelict buildings that defy both the Council and gravity; the list goes on and on. Well now that silt you can see in the background, well there's now a plan to shift it and all the other sediments from all the way up to Beverley, some eight or nine miles away, out into the Humber to aid river flow. What's that the poet says about a man's reach ...?

The monochrome fun goes on at the weekend in black and white here.

Saving the planet ...

or just saving money?
Commuters park up their bikes at Beverley station before taking the train to Hull or better places.

Beverley Minster

After yesterday's long range shot here's one a bit closer. I know what you're thinking; why didn't I stand a little further back to take this shot? Well I would have but in the 18th century some inconsiderate person built a row of houses right alongside so I couldn't, now if only they'd thought .... This is the western end of the minster and I'm sure you'll agree it's a fine piece of gothic construction.

Oblique Cut Through

The walls of this old outhouse run not at right angles to the street it's on but to the road behind giving an odd effect. This is Duesberry Street, not the sort place an innocent visitor to Hull would or should wander down by choice; it once led to a railway line that's now a foot/cyclepath. It's a short cut through to Beverley Road from Princes Avenue, the  haunt of ne'er-do-wells and worse much like this blog which has been cutting through stuff at odd angles on and off for eight years now.

On your bike ...

Bike hire schemes are nothing new in big cities such as London's Boris Bikes and Paris' Vélib'; well not to be outdone Beverley now has this Bike and Go scheme at the railway station. Hull's council was considering developing a bike hub two years ago but nothing seems to have come of it (the usual lack of funds and/or a sponsor) and there's a brand new bike hub at the University but apart from that hiring a bike in Hull seems to be a no-go. A shame really given how flat the area is and how much congestion (and pollution) caused by cars is clogging up the place.

Sheep may safely graze ...

...but not on this pasture. If you peer closely you may see the Mayfair cinema reflected in the windows of this  shop on Beverley Road. The sheep has also starred in this blog before when the shop temporarily shifted into town. [ 1 ]. If you think this a tad odd I've seen cows, pigs and sheepdogs for sale here in the not too distant past, people buy the oddest things.

Weekend Reflections is here.

A little rustic diversion

These old straw bales lie, or rather, lay since this was taken yonks ago, somewhere alongside the bridle path between Cottingham and Beverley.

The weekend in black and white is here.

Who put the monkey in the monkey puzzle tree?

 

 This is a fine young specimen of  Araucaria araucana on Westwood Road, Beverley, I hope the people who live in this house realise that it will grow to 40m/130ft and live for 1000 years. To quote Wikipedia: "The origin of the popular English name Monkey-puzzle derives from its early cultivation in Britain in about 1850, when the species was still very rare in gardens and not widely known. The proud owner of a young specimen at Pencarrow garden near Bodmin in Cornwall was showing it to a group of friends, and one made the remark "It would puzzle a monkey to climb that"; as the species had no existing popular name, first 'monkey-puzzler', then 'monkey-puzzle' stuck."

I think I prefer the French  "désespoir des singes" or "monkeys' despair".

It's said by some that the devil sits in this tree (clearly he's not a monkey) and so you have to be quiet when passing these trees lest you attract the old Nick's attention and he gives you bad luck. You have been warned.

More Bull

I've shown this place before a long while back so I thought it would be an idea to show some more details. This is the Bull on Beverley Road, built in 1903 ( and not Victorian as I thought ) in the renaissance revival style. The bull statue is thought to come from an older building on this site, there's been a Bull inn or Bull hotel here for quite some time.

Margot took this.

The weekend in Black and White is here.

Death Fetish

After the first death, there is no other.

So here we have the latest alleged memorial to folk who died in unfortunate circumstances; this time it's death by bombs falling on their houses during the last European Civil War or WW2 as you may call it. It's an odd thing when all said and done and covered with the names of those who died over the years as Hull was just a dumping ground for bombers going home. There's a litany of woes behind all this and it's true that 95% of Hull houses were damaged in some way during the conflict and you can still see gaps in terraces that have not been filled in not to mention the cinema on Beverley Road that still awaits demolition. But the dead were buried seventy or more years ago and their graves are well known. So why now this desire to pick at old wounds, to 'honour' the dead? Who now, living, is benefiting from this visual abomination? Well this vile object was paid for by public subscription, organised by the Hull People's Memorial, an organisation devoted to reminding folk how people died in war and don't you ever dare to forget that Hull was bombed more than any other place than London or Malta; who claims that Hull's memory is fading this despite their being no fewer than 46 memorials listed on their website. And if we forget they would, no doubt,  cease to have a purpose in their lives. I choose to forget.

A Scheduled Monument

Catching up with other news from this charming little town and you'll be delighted to learn that, after an exercise in public consultation hitherto unknown in these parts, the local hole has been saved for future generations and is to be extended with seating and a few hedges and so on. This represents a reversal for the Council which wanted to fill it in but had not reckoned without the power of digital petitions and news articles describing that decision as idiotic. (Quite why that particular decision any more idiotic than all the rest is a mystery). So now the litter will have more space to gather in and the youths will have more space to hang around and be disaffected. But history has been saved ...

The few medieval bricks, tucked away in the corner down there, that make up what was once Beverley Gate have now been made a Scheduled Monument by the Department for Culture, Media & Sport (I assume it costs the Government nothing to do this) which means that...., well I don't know what it means, but it sounds good doesn't it.

I've also heard that regarding the dreadful Word Gate proposed for nearby the Council are looking for other sites. They didn't respond to my suggestion that two miles east of Spurn Point was an excellent site.

Hull hole revisited

If there's one thing that can be said about meetings between councils and conservation bodies it is that nothing, absolutely nothing, is done with any degree of haste. So it was over a year ago that Hull Council entered into talks with English Heritage over the future of the oversized rubbish bin otherwise known as the Beverley Gate ruins and still there are no puffs of white smoke to indicate just what is going on. The plan, if you can call rumour a plan, is to fill it all in and build some new tourist attraction. Frankly the sooner the better, for despite its links to the English civil war, it is, when all said and done, just a large ugly hole in the ground.

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.

Upon this blasted heath ...

Well hardly, this is the well grazed almost manicured common land that is Beverley Westwood and much of what you see here is a golf curse. This was taken sometime ago so it's a good bet that that wreck of a tree is no longer there especially as it was being used as a swing by the locals. Far away, off on the horizon you can just make out (with a magnifying lens) the old black mill.