Exploring some history in Lancaster

The final day of our break from work took us to Lancaster for no other reason other than a stroll around the city. Lancaster is a historic city but doesn't get much attention nationally these days. Nonetheless we found our walk interesting and relaxing - a combination of historical buildings and waterside strolls.

We started by walking up to the castle, which is also stiill a crown court (the oldest working courtroom in Britain) and prison too. The Pendle witches were imprisoned here in the 17th century and the cobbled surroundings and Georgian buildings make it easy to imagine days of old. The Priory which sits alongside dates largely from the 15th century, although there's been a church on the site since perhaps 200AD.



From the Priory, we descended some steps down to St Georges Quay, which was built at the time Lancaster was becoming the country's busiest port. Soon after, the river began to silt up, and other ports such as Liverpool took most of the trade away.

Nowadays, the Millennium Bridge is a striking addition to Lancaster's riverside, and is a popular crossing for walkers and cyclists with it's unusual Y-shaped deck.

The tall supports were designed to remind people of the tall ships that used to frequent the quayside.






Another important trade route for Lancaster was the canal, which allowed slate from Kendal and the Lakes to be transported to Preston and Liverpool, and coal from the mines around Wigan to make the opposite journey. Our walk took in a pleasant stretch of the canal before we headed back into the city centre and to the car park.

Getting the outdoor habit at Bolton Abbey

The second day of our break from the office took us to Bolton Abbey over the border in Yorkshire. The ruined abbey is in a beautiful setting on the banks of the River Wharfe, and the extensive grounds offer a number of possibilities for walks catering for all levels of fitness.

Our short walk firstly took us across the river near the priory. The row of stepping stones accross the river looked firm enough to cross, but a couple of them were submerged and there was a notice explaining that others needed re-setting, so we took the sensible option and crossed via the nearby bridge. From the other side of the river, the priory still stands defiantly, but must have been an even more majestic sight before Henry VIII ordered its dissolution nearly 500 years ago.

From here, the walk follows the river, undulating through the woods before eventually returning to the riverbank near the pavilion. Although this is a good place to stop for refreshments, we'd brought our lunch with us and foolishly braved the cool breeze to eat it on the picnic tables by the river.

After lunch, we unpacked the kite, thinking the breeze would be enough to let it fly. However the breeze wasn't consistent enough, but at least it meant we kept ourselves warm retrieving the kite every time it crashed!

Before returning home, we headed into Skipton for a look round before the rain eventually came. That was the end of our outdoor activities, but on the way home we turned off the A59 at a village called Worston to visit the Calf's Head, a smashing village pub serving delicious food. A great way to round off the day.

Lytham Green

With some time off ahead of us this week, we were keen for the morning rain to clear so that we could head out in the afternoon sunshine. The Lytham coast is one of our favourite places for a day out, and whilst the strong breeze kept the temperature down, it was still a pleasant afternoon.

After a walk around Fairhaven Lake, we returned to Lytham for a coffee and a look at the shops before visiting the windmill and the old lifeboat station. The sun was getting lower in the sky by this point, and the light was great for some photos.

A round of golf at Henlle

Although the weather at home had turned dull and murky, in complete contrast to the previous week, the forecast suggested it would stay dry – good news for the golf I’d been invited to the other day.

I had a long journey to make though to get to the course at Henlle, near Oswestry, Shropshire, and I managed to make it even longer by missing the turn off the M56 near Chester, which meant I found myself in Wales a lot longer than planned! One good thing about the journey down was that the sun came out long before reaching the course, and it seemed to be set fair for the day.



After meeting Stuart and Rod at the course, we had enough time for a coffee and a bacon buttie before teeing off at lunchtime. The golf was reasonably good, considering how long since I last played, and after a competitive round I even managed to emerge the victor!

Rod managed the best shot of the day though, his tee shot on the 184yd par 3 12th was a fantastic effort which landed only 4 feet away from the hole.

An evening with Wibs & Bev

Had a great evening catching up with Wibs & Bev earlier tonight. The journey to Sandbach from work wasn't as busy as it could have been and we were soon relaxing and enjoying Bev's cooking and Wibs' wine!

It was good to catch up with the latest on their wedding plans and also make the most of an opportunity to take the mickey about Wibs' bad back, which meant he's had to pull out of golf at the weekend and allow me to go instead - he he.

The evening went far too quickly, but before we left we did manage a quick snap to post on the blog.

Thanks for a great night!

Manchester City Centre

Carole wanted to go into Manchester today to do some shopping and I cleverly packed my small camera bag so that I could dodge the shops and instead take some pictures. Manchester city centre is wonderfully photogenic and even though I didn't stray too far there were still plenty of opportunities for photographs:


The Urbis building near Victoria Station was built in 2002 on land that was decimated by the bomb in 1996. This is a futuristic looking building whose exterior is almost entirely made of glass panels which reflect the other buildings. The two main sides to the building meet at a curved corner which reminds you of the bow of a ship.


The Cathedral is almost lost among the more modern glass buildings around it, but though modest in size, especially when compared to cathedrals in other big cities, it is still worthy of attention. The building was constructed over a period of 600 years and some parts date to 1215.


The Arndale Centre is where many of the new shops can be found (and Carole too). This whole area was destroyed by the IRA bomb and rebuilding work has only recently finished with a new flagship stores for Selfridges, Marks & Spencer and plenty others.


The Printworks, opposite the Urbis building, used to be the Manchester headquarters for Robert Maxwells' newspapers, but it became derelict when newspaper printing ceased soon after his death. After the bomb it was redeveloped as a leisure complex with bars, restaurants and a large cinema to attract visitors.

With so much choice for food, we opted for Pizza Express before finally catching the train home.

The Caretaker

Our latest visit to the Octagon was to see Harold Pinter's play The Caretaker, which must be good, we thought, because we'd heard of it. We always enjoy our visits to the Octagon as the performances are well put together; lighting, set design, costumes - and this production was no exception, and the acting was excellent too.

The only problem was: we just didn't get it. The play centres around a tramp who has been beaten up in a fight and is offered space in a bed-sit by one of the other characters. The play explores the different outlook on life that they have and the tensions that develop between the two, especially when the tenent's brother (who is also the bedsit owner) appears.

And really, that's about it. There's sprinklings of amusing dialogue throughout and also some more poignant sections too, but nothing much else happens except some threads of a story that never really get resolved. Perhaps that's why it's so acclaimed, but it just didn't work for us.

The theatre was packed though, so there must be something about it, even if we didn't see it.

Rambling around Grassington

With the day free for whatever we liked, we decided to give our walking boots an airing and head out into the countryside for a refreshing walk. It's been some time since we visited the pleasant countryside over the border into Yorkshire, so we set off up the A59 towards Skipton, continuing on into limestone country up to Grassington.

The walk we'd planned covered around 5 miles, firstly over a rather bleak landscape of limestone, before passing through a wood down to the River Wharfe. The last leg back followed the riverside path, where Carole was hoping to perhaps see a kingfisher.

At first the weather was overcast, and the rocky, barren landscape contained very little colour, so converting the pics I took to black & white seemed a good option. By the time we were walking through the trees, the rain caught up with us, although there were patches of sunlight too which gave us some encouragement.

By the time we reached the river, the sun was out and the colour returned to the landscape. It was the perfect time to stop for lunch. There were still plenty of darker clouds in the sky throughout the rest of the afternoon though, although we did manage to stay dry. The weather wasn't good enough for the kingfishers though, although we did pick out another, rather larger bird who is also an expert fisher too!