More from the North...

After a long hiatus to complete my MA, I'm back to my blog - so to kick us off, how about some football?

Our Friends in the North No 1

Welcome to part one of an occasional series of Northern icons.  And our first hero is the great man, Les Dawson.  My favourite comedian bar none - watch and enjoy!  Here's his first appearance on Parky:

I used to love him on Blankety Blank on a Friday night, 7.30, after Wogan and before Dynasty!  Used to lig in front of the telly and roll around laughing til my ribs would explode. 

And of course we have to remember Cissie and Ada, can there be a better impression of our mams and nans?

  

Top 5 Days Out in Yorkshire and Spring in Yorkshire

Here's a link to a great blog about Yorkshire, with a number of helpful hints to keep us out of trouble now that spring is sprung, to which I have added my twopennorth!

http://www.ayorkshireheart.co.uk/2011/02/top-5-days-out-in-yorkshire/#comment-36
http://www.ayorkshireheart.co.uk/2011/02/five-places-in-yorkshire-to-herald-the-arrival-of-spring/

No excuse for sitting on backsides in God's Own County!

Settle to Carlisle Excursion

On Friday me and th'husband took advantage of the other part of Northern Rail's offer and did the Settle to Carlisle Railway - something I have never done!  Shameful!  I've gone as far as Ribblehead, and spent a very fruitful afternoon's beer drinking in the Station Inn, but no further.  Obviously we wanted to pay a repeat visit to the Station Inn, so we decided the best way to do this would be to get the 8.19 from Leeds, which gets to Carlisle at 11.30, have a quick skeg round, then back on at 11.50, and we'll be in the boozer for half 1. 

One of the best things about the line obviously is the trip through North Yorkshire and Cumbria's finest countryside, but if you're boarding at Leeds, and especially in the morning fighting your way through bundles of harassed commuters, nothing really prepares you for the sheer emptiness once you've left Settle about an hour later.  The really tiny stations such as Ribblehead, Dent and Garsdale are basically in the arse end of nowhere and I know the first time I went to Ribblehead I stood on the station as the train pulled off, with the mist around us, and not a sound except for the occasional sheep, the quiet was unnerving.

This is Ruswarp the dog at Garsdale Station - the only canine signatory on the petition to save the Settle to Carlisle line!  Read his amazing story here: http://ruswarp.blogspot.com/2008/03/ruswarp-story-and-sculpture.html - very emotional, and he was an extremely courageous dog. 

As we only had a 20 minute turnaround when we got to Carlisle, we bobbed out of the station for a mo to have a quick skeg at Carlisle Citadel - a very impressive monument and first impression as you walk out of the Station.  Hopefully we'll get back soon and have a proper look round the city. 

Soz, shouldn't laugh really - this train is on the Hadrian's Wall Line, which is another run through some amazing countryside from North East to North West, and the thought of it being packed out with beered up Cumbrians on their way back from a night out in Newcastle's Bigg Market made me chuckle!

And so we got to the peace and quiet of Ribblehead and went for a walk around the viaduct - one of the greatest structures ever built in the Victorian age. 

It certainly adds a bit of drama to the vista between Ingleborough and Whernside.

After working up a bit of a thirst, we needed a nice beer and sit down, for which the Station Inn is conveniently situated - very civilised of them I must say, especially as they have a good selection of Dent Brewery and Black Sheep Ales. 

It is also I am glad to say, a Rugby League pub - there's a signed Bradford Bulls shirt in the lounge area and various fund raising activities for the Steve Prescott Foundation.  The barman told us that teams come up here for pre-season training, the coaches have them running the Three Peaks and the like.  When I hear tales of this sort, I am glad for being a humble spectator!  

All in all it's the ideal walkers pub and does reasonably priced, home cooked food, they have rooms and also there's a bunk barn, which is a series of dormitories, that sleep about 6 and are about £10 a night: http://www.thestationinn.net/

LOL.  Very helpful!

And then it was time to mosey home - nicely aided by the bar timetable above, because there's no mobile phone reception so we couldn't text National Rail Enquiries. 

And my many thanks to Northern Rail for this winter's fantastic offer - definitely got me money's worth out of it!   

Satdi Aft

For a nice relaxing Saturday afternoon, have a nice cuppa tea, Grandma Wild's Parkin biccies and a copy of Northern Homes.  Spot on. 

Rhubarb - it's the future, I've tasted it

http://www.experiencewakefield.co.uk/attractions/thedms.aspx?dms=13&venue=2190090&feature=1002

Am gutted that I can't make today's Rhubarb Festival in Wakey!  The thought that I'm missing out on a day of troughing rhubarb and swilling beer is too much to bear. 

However, all is not lost, because I have learned from the above website about tours of the forced rhubarb sheds at E Oldroyd & Sons in Rothwell.  I'll be there wi bells on folks! 

The Piece Hall in Halifax is one of the world's top 40 squares

Taken from the Halifax Courier: http://www.halifaxcourier.co.uk/news/local/piece_hall_one_of_world_s_top_40_squares_1_3032852

Well for those of us who know and love the Piece Hall well, this wasn't news - the Piece Hall is such a gem, both atmospherically and architecturally and I spent plenty of time wandering around the Colonnade with me mates when I was a sixth former, and I suspect that tradition has continued given the number of young people in the vintage and alternative shops. 

This shop has been in the Piece Hall about 20 years and is my favourite - it reminds me of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books in the novel 'The Shadow of the Wind' by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.  I always nip in before I go on holiday and buy up loads of 90p copies of Maigrets, in proper vintage Penguin crime fiction green, for me to read on the beach!

I also had a quick look in the Art Gallery and saw this fantastic painting from 1946 of New Bank by Tom Whitehead - can't wait to show me dad this because this is just as he's always described it. 

This photo looks like you could be on the Continent eh?

Here's a detail of the Piece Hall Gates with Halifax's coat of arms - it features St John the Baptist's head, a sheep and Halifax's motto, 'Except the Lord, Keep the City'.