Coffee, Tea and Cakes

The Cyclists' Touring Club [ 1 ] started in the 1878 to promote the interests of cyclists. Establishments such as hotels, cafés and repair shops that met their standards were awarded a large plaque. 

Wikipedia informs me: "CTC is organised at a district level, with CTC Local Groups organising cycle rides on most Sundays and often during the week. The more leisurely rides are planned around café stops, the quality of the ride often being judged on the standard of the cakes; CTC has been referred to as "Café To Café" or "Coffee, Tea and Cakes". 

Eating Out

This sign belongs to a bistro on North Bar Within in Beverley. Like all good establishments they have a website here.

Needler's Way or what's that funny smell?

These new buildings are on the site of the Needler's sweet factory. The factory was demolished a few years ago but while it was making mainly boiled sugary sweets called, I believe, Glacé fruits the smells around there were tremendous. Mixtures of strawberry and  coconut  scents would fill the area hiding the stench from the nearby tannery. Though they knocked down the sweet factory the tannery is still making the area "smell of delicious boiling bovine carcasses" .... [ 1 ]

Another exciting development

If your name is Walker, Tucker or Fuller then it's a good bet your ancestors were involved in the cloth making trade. The fulling of cloths involved them being scoured by soaking them in stale urine and walking up and down on them, this bleached the cloth which was then thickened by felting to give increased waterproofing. I have read that urine was so important to this trade that it was taxed; an early example of the government taking the piss.

Above is a sign on a jewellers which is being tarted up, we're on tenterhooks. Below an uninspired picture of Walkergate, it's the only one I've got so it will have to do. At the end of the 1970s a road, New Walkergate, was built to by-pass all these old streets which were then pedestrianised. 

Surf's up

In 1890, so the story goes, two Hawaiian princes  and their English guardian went surfing in the east Yorkshire resort of Bridlington, in the cold North Sea. So starting a craze in this country for taking boards out to sea in order to be washed ashore ... hmmm. Anyhow the UK tourist people seem to think that folk would rather go to Bridlington than Bondi for their surf, they're nuts, of course!

In Memory of ...

Dotted around Beverley Westwood are a few seats with memorial tags on them. This one seems designed for people with very short legs. 

These were taken a few months back, I've not taken any photos recently so I'm using up old stuff.

Black Mill

Here's the old Black Mill on Beverley Westwood again.