Progress report

An update on the progress of the new houses being built on the Cleminson Hall site in Cottingham. Two show houses have been completed and there's a road of sorts. The hall itself is gradually falling into even more disrepair and you don't want to know what's happened to the tennis court.

All that glisters is not gold

The gold phone box? Not been touched by some latter day Midas, no, it's something to do with a recent sporting event [ 1 ], some chap gets a gold medal so we get a gold phone box. Anyway it'll soon be forgotten in the ongoing economic gloom. Still may as well photograph it before some 'accident'  befalls it.

Today the unemployment figures for Yorkshire showed a rise of 25,000 making 266,000 people out of work, a 10.3% rise in the last three months. The Council have threatened to shed some 200 further jobs. Here on the Market Place the Jobcentre was as busy as usual. I just love the irony of this image.

A strange old place

So this is Mark Kirby's Free School, hmm. First I've heard of it and indeed that's a brand spanking new sign. So a trip to the land of Google and Wikipedia informs me that Mr Kirby left an endowment in 1712 to support the village school near the churchyard and the school was to be renamed as you see. All well and good you might say except that to the right of the door is the sign you see below saying Richard Burton (who, if he'd read them, clearly did not heed the words of Matthew 6:3) gifted the land and the parishioners paid to build the house in 1729.  The wording "to the use of the poor of Cottingham for ever" implies a workhouse was built here a far cry from a school. So, anyway, you're thinking this is a house built in 1729, well not quite. Further delving into the arcane depths of Cottingham's history reveals that this building was modified when the church hall next to it was built in the 1850s. I'm finding what no doubt many have before that the past is a strange old place.

After all that you'll be wanting to see the building. Here it is with the church hall in the foreground. The building is now a coffee shop run by the church.

A full churchyard

This is the churchyard of St Mary's in Cottingham. As you can see it's pretty full not just with graves but trees.  You might think that because the church is old these trees are of a similar age but you'd be wrong. They've all sprouted up in the last century or so. You can see how it looked in 1885 if you click here. When that was taken the churchyard was still in use and so there's no trees. It closed for burials in 1889 and seems to have been subject to reafforestation. It's a little haven for wildlife with squirrels and birds even some exotics.

If  you have an interest in graves and graveyards pop over to Taphophile Tragics.

Flower Show

Here's the Railway pub again this time shaming the world with its fine window boxes and hanging baskets. Window boxes seem to have gone out of fashion in these parts with only public houses putting on any sort of a display. 

It's good to see the Railway doing well as this time last year it closed due to the landlords going bust.

Digging up my street

They're digging up my street. It's like a slow creeping road eating creature.  A trench is dug and whatever it is they're laying (electricity cables, I think) is placed in, covered with rubble then tarmac and the whole exercise lifts up and consumes another stretch of road. So far they done about 300 yards in 6 or 7 weeks.  Now it gets tricky, the first bit ran alongside a field with no houses, when they reach the houses and  side roads and have to let traffic in and out it will slow things down. I reckon it'll take 'til Christmas to finish  the job.

The machinery is tightly secured overnight and at weekends. Wouldn't do to have it 'wander off'.

Up My Street

Hull Road, Cottingham, where I live, is the kind of road where the lower the house number the higher house price. Here's No 4. It belongs to the university and is the residence of the Chancellor or Vice-chancellor I'm not sure which. Swanky, huh?

Unfortunately I live at the other end of the road.