all within a walk from my apartment

  • The former Bull Inn, Hebden Bridge, where Joshua hanged himself in his slaughterhouse at the rear
Joshua and Sally’s grave, Heptonstall
Location of their grave in the old cemetery at Heptonstall
  • A reference to my mum
  • A reference to corona virus
I’m related to Joshua by an ancestor who lived in Lily Hall. By chance the car has my initials!
Looking across to yesterday’s walk to Stoodley Pike. I could pick out my route quite clearly. i can see Weasel Hall and Old Chamber where other ancestors lived
Taking in the view
Steps at the back of The Bull inn where the slaughterhouse was. The wall was raised so that boys couldn’t see over
First bluebell of the season

Update: May 28

Today I saw a message on my blog dated May 2nd. It was from Kate Lycett saying that it was nice to chat this morning and let’s connect again. It took me a few minutes to figure this out. Kate Lycett is a wonderful artist who lives in Hebden Bridge. A visit to her gallery in Heart Gallery is always high on my list to take my visitors to, and last summer I’d been to her open studio and bought a note book, the cover of which was a lovely painting of Staithes. I’d asked Kate to sign the notebook and when Anna came to visit in August and we spent a few days in Staithes I gave her the notebook and we found the exact spot from where Kate had done her painting. so why had she posted on my blog a couple of weeks ago? And then it dawned on me. At the beginning of May I’d been walking past the former Bull inn where Joshua had been the landlord when I saw that the door was being refurbished. A lady was working on it and so I paused to ask if I was correct in thinking that this had been The Bull. It had, and under normal circumstances she would have invited me in when I told her that one of my ancestor had lived there. I invited her to look at the posting on my blog about Joshua. And so the response I noticed today was from Kate, who I hadn’t recognised in my chat to her at her door. This means that I’ve actually been into The Bull, since this was where her open studio was, up the steep steps, behind the building and so I hadn’t realised it was the back of the Bull. Interestingly Kate had moved there when she was pregnant with twins, who I had met at the open studio. I’d also attended a fascinating lecture she had presented to the local history society about Lost Houses of the South Pennines. It’s coincidences like this that make me feel at home in this community.