Old traditions still alive in the Yorkshire Dales

The best of the weekend weather was forecast to be today, so we decided we'd head for the hills and into the Yorkshire Dales. Our destination for the day was to be Malham, a great base for walkers who throughout the summer come to roam around the well-known landmarks of Malham Cove, Gordale Scar and Malham Tarn. Unfortunately, the crowds had beaten us to it: the only car park was full and any roadside parking had been claimed. With plenty other cars patrolling round waiting for an elusive place to become available, we cut our losses and headed away to the nearby village of Gargrave instead.








Down the valley near Gargrave, we suddenly found ourselves once again engulfed by crowds of people, this time heading for what looked like a large agricultural show in the roadside fields just outside the village. It turned out to be Gargrave's annual village show, and as there seemed to be plenty going on, we felt it was worth a look. But first we parked up in the village centre to have some lunch on the green by the river and also pop in the teashop just around the corner.

The show followed the traditional format of these events with a large parade area in the centre for the local farmers to exhibit their livestock. Around the sides, there were plenty of stalls selling local produce and crafts and lots of other attractions too. It was a big event, with several thousand people there and local radio and television recording the afternoon's entertainment.

The main event was the livestock competitions, and we watched as the cows and horses were paraded before the judges, all described on the PA system by a Boycott-esque commetator. Seeing the bond between the farmers and their animals and the effort and pride put in by everyone involved made you appreciate the traditions which are still evident in the countryside.

After the show, we headed for the Copy Nook in Bolton-by-Bowland, but found it closed until much later. Instead we drove on to Worston to the Calf's Head for an excellent meal - a great way to end an enjoyable day.

Enjoying the garden

A rare day of sunshine and a rare opportunity to relax meant we could spend some time just sitting in the garden enjoying the warmth. Most of the flowers are past their best now, but the lilies we inherited from the previous owners just keep coming back year after year and are just about at their best at the moment.













Carole was more content to chill out although she wasn't too happy when I took a photo of her wearing my straw hat. She'll be even less pleased when she realises it's on the web!

Erin's holiday home

Over the past few weeks we've once again been looking after Erin, next door's adorable cat. She's such a character and very good company, and once again she immediately made herself at home - so much so that I'm certain she'd have happily stayed with us permanently. Although, she's with us so much on an everyday basis anyway it's hard to tell the difference.

They say curiosity killed the cat, but much more likely is that they are simply finding a warm and comfortable place for a nap. We were changing the sheets on the bed in the spare room and the scrunched-up duvet was just too tempting for her to resist.

She's due to return 'home' early next week and after almost a month with us, we'll certainly miss her.

A wonderful Webster Wedding

It's a late posting but I've cheated and amended the date... Paul and Bev's wedding in Troutbeck in the Lakes was a fabulous occasion and the weather even managed to come up trumps too. Everyone had a great time although I wasn't able to snap all the guests as I had ushering responsibilities to keep me busy!

First job (after the pre-wedding drinks of course) was to get to the church in plenty of time... unfortunately we were kept waiting at the hotel rather longer than we wanted to be which meant we arrived at the church just as all the guests were disembarking from the bus. Not good for ushering and photography had to be put on hold for a while!


After the service, I at least managed a couple of decent shots of the happy couple before everyone left to return to the hotel down by the shore of Lake Windermere.


There hotel was in a fabulous setting and the grounds were in pristine condition - a perfect location for the wedding of two of our closest friends.

Carole and I were snapped too, this one came out rather well for the family album:


The full set of pictures is now on my Flickr site - try this link here: Iain's Webster Wedding Flickr Site

The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street

The Bank of England building stands on Threadneedle Street in the heart of the City of London. The Bank was founded in 1694 as banker to the English government and was responsible for managing the national debt. Since then its importance quickly grew through its responsibilities for the nation's currency and underpinning the banking system, roles it still fulfills today.

The bank moved from its original site to Threadneedle Street in 1734, though the present building is comparatively recent, dating from the early part of last century.

The new building was derided in some quarters as an architectural crime, however these days it has become much more accepted, being a familiar sight on TV news reports.

I was in London just round the corner from Threadneedle Street, so before disappearing down the steps at Bank tube station to start my journey home, I had time to take a quick snap of this famous building in the heart of the city.

A cat in the cupboard

We're currently looking after Erin again whilst her owners take a holiday and the study has temporarily become her bedroom: her pillow is on the chair, her scratching post is next to the bookcase and she even has a teddy which she loves to pummel each evening! After being woken at four each morning during her stay with us last year, we've taken the advice of her owners to reluctantly shut the door on her once she has settled down to sleep at night. She doesn't seem to mind, greeting us with plenty of purrs each morning, although this may be because she's after something to eat...

Anyway, despite the first class facilities, like all cats, she's always on the lookout for somewhere more comfortable to lie on, so when we left the cupboard door open where we keep the ironing, it was too good an opportunity to miss!

"Catch the Wind" at Morecambe

Morecambe has suffered much over the years since the days when holidaymakers would flock to the resort, but in recent years its fortunes have started to improve. True, there is still much to do in Morecambe, but the significant regeneration work over the past few years, epitomised by the rebirth of the art-deco Midland Hotel, suggests better times are ahead.

One of the ways Morecambe is trying to bring the visitors back is through several festivals throughout the year. One popular festival is "Catch the Wind", Morecambe's kite festival, now in its seventh year. It promised to be a colourful day by the sea and with sunshine promised for the afternoon, we decided to take a look.

If the aim of the festival's organisers was to attract plenty of visitors to Morecambe, then they certainly succeeded as the promenade and beach were full of people, and most of them had brought a kite too!

The larger display kites were truly impressive, with dinosaurs, sharks and an assortment of colourful fishes, sharing the skies with scuba divers and swimmers. Besides these there was a multitude of traditional kites of all shapes, sizes and colours, all competing for air space.

We had, of course, brought our own kites for the occasion, and the sea breeze ensured they flew with gusto - on one occasion a little too much, as the stunt kite I was flying slammed into another and completely took it out!

The one drawback to the event was that it clashed with Fleetwood's own festival, Tram Sunday, where historic vehicles and trams would be on display by the sea front. Dad was keen to see this too, so we packed up the kites a little quicker than we ought and headed down the coast to Fleetwood. The journey from Morecambe is surprisingly far, and by the time we made it, the trams and buses were just about ready to leave. Still, we weren't downhearted, the planned fish and chip supper was still very much in the itinery, rounding off a very pleasant afternoon.

A downpour on Whalley Nab

Whalley Nab is a well-known and prominant little hill overlooking the small town of Whalley, only a short drive from where we live. We'd left the car at a picnic site just outside Whalley, but started our walk on the outskirts of Great Harwood, about 4 miles away, with the Nab the biggest obstacle in between.

The early part of the walk was through pleasant countryside, in parts following the Great Harwood Nature Walk, and then taking us through fields around the back of Bowley scout camp. The path led through fields and woods, leading close to the River Calder, but although despite the scenery the weather was changing, with dark clouds forming overhead. As we started down through some denser woodland, the heavens opened and we were glad for the shelter of the trees.



The shower lasted longer than we'd hoped, and eventually the trees couldn't hold the water any longer and we became soaked. Fortunately by this time we'd had plenty opportunity to don the wet gear. Just as we decided we may as well carry on, the rain petered out, but the air was now much more humid as we began our climb up the Nab.


The view from the top, although impaired a little by the cloudy skies, was still impressive, looking across to the Bowland fells with the landmark local viaduct, Whalley Arches, taking centre stage in the foreground. The viaduct was built in the 1840s and comprises 48 arches spanning the Calder valley alongside the village.

Our walk then took us down the steepest side of the Nab into the centre of Whalley, and we made it to the car by following another woodland path up to the car park. A wet yet enjoyable afternoon, which was rounded off at the excellent Calf's Head in Worston, a few miles further up the A59.

The Lovell telescope at Jodrell Bank

The huge radio telescope at Jodrell Bank, Cheshire dominates the flat landscape for miles around. Jodrell Bank was originally a botanical research centre run by the University of Manchester, but in 1945 Bernard Lovell, a research scientist, took some ex-army radar system down to the garden sheds at Jodrell Bank to search for cosmic rays. He'd already tried this in the University itself, but the overhead electric cables from the city's tram network were causing too much interferance.

Lovell's team had some successes finding meteor showers but to detect anything from further afield would require bigger, more sentitive equipment. By 1947, his team had built a wire mesh reflecting aerial 218ft in diameter, easily the largest in the world at the time. The aerial made some important astronomical discoveries but its construction limited the area of sky it could cover.

By 1951, a project was under way to build an even bigger and fully-steerable radio telescope, funding was secured and designs created. But during construction, costs escalated dramatically leaving the University faced with a huge debt.

In 1957, the new telescope was still not fully functional, but events were happening elsewhere that would prove the telescope's lifeline. When the Soviets launched Sputnik 1 on October 4th, the telescope at Jodrell Bank successfully tracked the satellite flashing across the sky at a speed of 5 miles a second and was the only instrument in the world capable of doing so. The subsequent publicity for the telescope helped to generate additional funding and its future and ongoing development was secured.

Today, the Lovell telescope, as it is now named, has been modified several times and is a key instrument in British and European space research. It is the core of the UK's MERLIN project, in which several other radio telescopes aroud the country are linked together to create a super-telescope in a technique called 'interferometry', and is a part of a similar European-wide network called VLBI.

When we arrived, the telescope was directed at an angle which would make for some interesting photos, however after popping in the cafe for a coffee, we returned to find it pointing straight up to the sky, meaning the inside of the dish couldn't be seen. After a while it became clear it wasn't going to move again any time soon as some workmen were lifted onto the huge steel framework and set to work painting. Such is life!

The visitor centre is worth a look, and there's also a trail to follow through the adjacent arboretum, where representations of each of the planets can be searched for. The discs representing the planets are each to scale based on the telescope itself representing the sun, and each are spaced out proportionately through the grounds on a much smaller scale. Nevertheless the outermost planets Pluto and Eris (or, more technically dwarf planets as they are officially classified these days) are quite a walk away and take some finding!

Crosby beach and Another Place

Antony Gormley is the sculptor who created the 'Angel of the North' in Gateshead, which we visited last year (click the link to my article at the time). Amongst his other creations is 'Another Place', which is now permanently located at Crosby beach, about 40 miles from where we live.

'Another Place' is a series of 100 life-size iron castings of Gormley himself, which are positioned across a 2 mile stretch of the beach, some close to shore and others further out.

Although the statues have been there since June 2005, we've never visited them before, so didn't really know what to expect. I hadn't realised that there were so many of them, or that they were spaced out across such a wide area. All of them are staring emptily out to sea, and it's this, coupled with the spacing and scale of the work, that makes them so thought-provoking.

Carole takes a close look - just don't look down!

The work has certainly captured the imagination of the local public, so much so that the local council successfully campaigned for them to remain here for ever. They had previously been on display at Cuxhaven in Germany, Stavenger in Norway and De Panne in Belgium, so it was a realy coup for the council to get them here permanently (they were due to go to New York in 2007).

Some of the other photos I took have been converted to black and white and can be seen on my other blog, Iains Photos, by following this link: link to Crosby statues