The first day that I only took one photo
Nicola make dinner for me – yummy – chicken, stuffing, roast potatoes, Yorkshire pud, cauliflower cheese, gravy – and strawberries and cream for dessert.
Category: Uncategorised (Page 11 of 15)
The day started with a trip to the Halifax Agricultural fair
A David Hockney garden
Hey diddle, diddle, the cat and the fiddle, the cow jumped over the moon
Sheep racing (chased by a sheep dog)
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My host, Nicola, preparing for the civil rights lecture
Street art on the square
Nicola all decked out for the conclusion of Happy Valley Pride week; a disco at the Trades
Manchester cathedral was the venue for many of my ancestors’ weddings. It’s undergoing major refurbishment inside and out
Bee keeping on top of the tower!
A street art installation encouraging kids to read over the summer holidays
A chili lunch outdoors on a chilly day
At the National Football museum
From my window back at th’ mill
A drag makeup workshop
Bourgeois and Maurice cabaret
Watch one of the songs they performed:
I chatted with this lovely lady at my favorite coffee shop in Todmorden Market. We reminisced about travelling through the Australian Outback – going to the underground church in Coober Pedy, Broken Hill, alice Springs. She’d emigrated to Sydney with he husband but after 8 years he was homesick for Yorkshire so they returned.
Quite a family get-together
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On an impulse I decided to get my hair restyled at Stone Art Hair. Ela is from Cypress and runs the shop with her brother who has styled hair and makeup for Brenda Blethin, Hugh Laurie and Wayne Rooney!
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Green Springs where one of my ancestors lived
View of the derelict canal in the center of Hebden Bridge in 1963
The bridge today . . . .
Same view in 1963
Not ready to go back to my mill I stopped at the shoulder of Mutton for a drink and a journal catch up. There I got talking to Ken who lives in Surrey but who has a narrow boat in Hebden Bridge and comes up a couple of times per month. His Danish friend who was attending a child psychology conference in Manchester joined us.
The we went out for some excellent Thai food at the restaurant by the canal and ended up at the Trades Club later. I was surprised to find this photo posted on Twitter the next day. . . and discover that the view from my kitchen window is of Ken’s boat!
Picture of the day!
Lunch on the patio
It must be hot
I joined that ladies of the knit ‘nd natter at Hope Chapel, Hebden Bridge.
Hope Chapel has been closed and undergoing major restoration since the floods of 2015. It’s going to be reopened shortly
The ceiling was finished today
An evening stroll along the canal to Mytholmroyd and provided this mill chimney
You can see my mill on the left of the canal.
It was raining hard when I got up. I’d had to move out of my third floor apartment because it had been rented for the weekend. So I had moved everything from my space into the spare bedroom which had a lovely view right out onto the canal. Nicola had spent a long time time night helping me book my train ticket to Aberdeen. I’d had the same difficulty last year when trying to book a train to Edinburgh but we had eventually sorted it out, so first thing this morning was a trip to the station with Nicola to obtain my ticket from the machine. Hey, it worked!
For the first weekend on my trip I had nothing planned. I looked to see what was on in Bradford, Ilkley, Leeds etc but eventually I decided on calling Jean who had mentioned that she was going to a brass band at a church on Saturday afternoon. I called her and she invited me to meet with her and her friend Katrina who was visiting from Stockport. Katrina had been born and raised in Sowerby but had moved to the Manchester area when she was seven. She has strong feeling that she would like to move back to the area, so we had lots in common. I took the train to Sowerby Bridge, had tea and crumpets in Gabriel’s cafe and the caught the bus which struggled to get to the top of Sowerby. I spent half an hour looking for graves of Barracloughs in St Peter’s churchyard and easily found three memorials. I’ll have to do a lot of work to find out if I was related to any of them.
I met Jean and Katrina and we walked along the top road to Steep Lane chapel, the baptist church of Sowerby. It seemed almost surreal to walk through this rural landscape, past isolated farms and cows to arrived at a lonely chapel in which we were to hear Skelmanthorpe Prospect Brass Band followed by afternoon tea for 8 pounds. About 45 people had showed up. I think we were the only ones arriving on Shanks’s pony. The conductor set up a brilliant repartee with the audience with his strong South Yorkshire accent. He told amusing anecdotes and encouraged audience participation, at one point stopping the band when the audience were too quiet. The whole atmosphere was relaxed and fun. The 13 piece band had a good mix of ages with the majority looking to be in their 20’s, all wearing their uniform with pride.
The remote chapel in Sowerby
View from the chapel
Click to listen to the conductor introducing two pieces:
Afternoon tea in the Sunday School
This serves 4!
Katrina, Jean and friend
The band played for just over an hour and then everyone headed into the Sunday school for afternoon tea. Each table was filled with sandwiches and a great variety of cakes on cute little cake stands. everything had been homemade either by the church or band members and was absolutely delicious. Jean seemed to know most of the people and as we walked back to Jean’s house she pointed to each house and told us who used to live there when she was a child. We were even able to take a look at the under-dwelling that Katrina used to live in.
After trying not to do much walking today I’d ended up walking 5 1/2 miles so I decided to stay in and catch up with journal writings and sorting out photos.
It rained so heavily overnight that the constant noise on the skylight in my bedroom woke me up several times. I’d planned to go to two cemeteries in Heptonstall so fortunately the rain had stopped by the time I left at 10 a.m.
It was cold, wet and windy but I uncovered three of the four gravestones I was seeking: James Wrigley of Heptonstall d 1846, his wife, Mally, 1858, ( my gt gt gt gt grandparents)t heir son Thomas (my gt gt gt uncle) of Hebden Bridge d 1875 and his wife Susey d 1886
James Farrar Whitham d 1901, Elizabeth d 1907, Sarah Hannah, d 1923 and William Farrar Whitham 1924
Farrar Whitham was living in Heptonstall ‘under arch’ in 1895. I couldn’t find that on any map so I asked the man who runs the Post Office. He stepped outside his little shop and pointed to ‘the arch’ through which are some ancient cottages. Interestingly, this building is actually joined to The Old Dairy where Rachel and I stayed two years ago!
Farrar
Cottages ‘under arch.’
View from Lily Hall
Cross Lane cemetery, Heptonstall. The Methodist chapel was demolished in 1960 but the graveyard remains.
Grave of Sarah Wrigley and Thomas Henry Wrigley
I awoke to this scene . . . .
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. . . so I decided to make it an ancestry research day. As luck would have it, or not, the library is closed on Tuesdays which meant that I stayed home to do my research online, which was ok but I’d rather be out and about. By 4 pm I was getting restless so I decided to go and check out in the field what I’d discovered.
After about 10 minutes’ walk I came upon this view of William Farrar’s underdwelling on River Street: it’s the house on the far right of the terrace.
Stairs provide access up and down the steep slopes.
A new discovery today was the fact that my 2nd cousin three times removed was the architect of this Catholic church no more than 10 minutes’ walk from my mill! It’s now converted into very nice apartments
I couldn’t find River Street on any map of Hebden Bridge. Yet my gt gt gt uncle, Farrar Whitham had lived there , at #2, in 1895. With the aid of Diana from the local historical society I located River Street. It is the underdwelling of Bridge Lanes. This path (above) is the only access to the house. From Bridge Lane the house appears to be 2 storey but from the path (called River Street) there is another level underneath.
This is River Street. It didn’t seem such a good place to wander around alone, especially taking photos so I was delighted when a man approached me. ‘Do you live here?’ I asked. and he does. He’s the longest resident and has lived here for 40 years. He was able to tell me the more recent history of the building, how originally it had been two storey, then a third storey was added. About 40 years ago the whole block had been condemned as unfit for human habitation but a grant was given to renovate it and now many of the homes are single family dwellings spanning the entire 3 storeys. A doctor owns William Farrar’s house now but it is a second home for her. Barry agreed to tell his story on camera but for some reason my camera malfunctioned so I didn’t get it all. However, he invited me to Quiz Night at the Fox and Goose later that evening.
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Walking back to my mill from Quiz Night Bridge Lanes looked quite spooky. it’s only second time I’ve been out in the dark! It was after 11 when I left the pub.
Quiz Night at the Fox and Goose, a community owned pub – meaning you could buy shares in it! I ordered a beer and asked which room the quiz took place and I was told to sit ‘reet theer.’ And I found myself sitting next to Nina who I had sat next to at the Hepton Singers on Saturday night. Nina lives in Hebden and she was with Mike who was visiting from Brighton. They didn’t know about the quiz but I enlisted their considerable expertise, and together with Barry we formed the Passenger Pigeons team.
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I’ve followed the progress of mummy duck and her 4 fluffy yellow duckings all week. This morning, however, there were only 3, and by the time I left to walk to the pub quiz there were only 2 ducklings in tow.
A spooky walk back through the deserted town.
I got to play the organ in Halifax Minster!
This wonderful church was the site of many of my ancestor’s weddings and baptisms. For the last day of their music festival the church invited anyone to join the choir rehearsal for evensong. I met Father Hillary, the vicar, and he conducted the rehearsal. I introduced myself to the organist who invited me to stay after the service if I’d like to ‘have a go’ on the organ, an offer I couldn’t possibly refuse!
Tea and cakes were, of course, served between the rehearsal and the service
With Graham, the organist and Father Hillary
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