No Ordinary Bank Holiday

‘Grinning as if it were all an August Bank Holiday lark’ 

these words from Philip Larkin’s poem ‘MCMXIV’ were the inspiration behind the latest offering from one of our favourite theatre companies  Northern Broadsides at the New Vic Theatre in Newcastle-under-Lyme.  Written by Deborah McAndrew especially for the start of the 100 years commemorations of the beginning of WW1.  It has all the humour, pathos and energy of other Northern Broadsides productions. I’m always amazed at the talent of the performers, acting, singing, dancing and playing musical instruments as well as moving their own props when necessary – which in this productions included the building up and breaking down of a Rushcart.

It's Wakes Week August 1914, the cotton mills of East Lancashire are closed and the Greenmill Rushcart lads are rehearsing for the Bank Holiday Rushbearing Festival.  Changes are in the air, not many young men are left to perform in this tradtional ceremony as who wants to stay in Greenmill on a Bank Holiday when the delights of Blackpool are on offer?  The old stalwarts like the Squire and Bagman are getting too old and heaven forbid women should be allowed to participate.  Looming on the horizon though is an even greater challenge to tradition and three of the young Rushcart lads are eager to enlist to escape the mill,  to seek new horizons and to do their bit for their county and country in the coming conflict that surely will be over by Christmas.   Who goes and who will return to Greenmill?  Whatever the outcome life will never be the same again.

We cried with laughter in the first part – we applauded the performance of the Denshaw Morris Dance, the building up and the taking down (in the interval) of the Rushcart, we applauded the women musicians who played on whilst this took place, we tapped our feet at the wedding dance and cried again as we learned the fate of the lads.

At the end the audience rose to their feet to say thank you for such a wonderful performance.  If this play comes near you – do go and see it.  I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Link  to trailer on YouTube

The First Drops of Snow........

........and the first Snowdrops

I'm taking a break from blogging for a while I will still visit your blogs when I can.  See you soon!

A Sunny Sunday Walk

Sunday was the most glorious day to say it was only 2nd of February!  After all the gloomy, wet weather we'd had over the last week it was a real treat to get out and about.  We decided to visit Biddulph Grange Gardens, our nearest National Trust property and have a walk round. 

I know I've taken you here many times on this blog over the years and we've visited in all seasons but I'd never been at this time of year. 

There were quite a few changes to notice on this visit, not least the new entrance and reception area which I didn't photograph.  The cafe has been extended into the former reception area next to the shop.

What struck me was how tidy the gardens were.  All the hedges neatly cut and the beds dug and mulched ready for planting.

There were many gardeners hard at work whilst we were there.  I'm guessing that most are volunteers.

 The upturned root walks were still there

 As was the Chinese Garden

which always looks beautiful in any weather but somehow glints and glistens in the brightness of the sun.

 I always tap the little bells as I go along

 Inside the tunnel the path through to the ice house had been opened up but I didn't go round as there was quite a deep puddle and I didn't want to get my feet wet.  We'd left the wellies in the car!

 There is also a new area opened up across the little bridge

 The monkey puzzle trees looked wonderful in the sunlight with the blue sky behind them

I always like this little house and it was great to find out that the room upstairs was open with a photographic exhibition about the house as it was before the fire of 1896 destroyed quite a lot of it.

We walked for an hour or so, there weren't many other visitors with it being so early in the season.

It was just so nice to get out walking in the fresh air, to see the sun and to find some of these.......

Since our visit we've had vast amounts of rain and howling wind but nothing near as bad as those of you who live further south - it sometimes feels as if one day this island will become almost completely inundated and float away or most certainly change shape as it did many thousands of years ago or does that seem quite fanciful?  Anyway to the moving more and eating less - still operating portion control and we've managed three walks this week around the rain.  A walk at Consall Country Park, a walk around the lake at Trentham Gardens and this one around Biddulph Grange.  I keep saying as soon as the weather improves I'm sure we'll walk more  ........ eventually!

The Year in Books - February

Joining in with Laura at Circle of Pine Trees for The Year in Books this month I will be reading Summer in February by Jonathan Smith.

I'm looking forward to reading this novel as it is set in Cornwall in February 1909 and it's about the community of artists known as the Lamorna Group.

According to the blurb  .....'Summer in February is a disturbing and moving re-creation of a celebrated Edwardian artistic community enjoying the last days of a golden age soon to be shattered by war.'

I'm still on the waiting list at the local library for the book I had hoped to read in February, the one I mentioned in my post about January's book,  so I've just started reading this one whilst I am waiting.

Ault Hucknall and Stainsby

A couple of weeks ago on our way back from a visit to Chesterfield we stopped off to photograph the church at the village of Ault Hucknall for Paul's one-name study website.  I think this is one of the few churches where both our family names can be found as the name Limb, Limm and Lymm - found on my mother's side of the family also seems to originate from here.  Whilst researching my ancestors over the years I've found clusters of the Limb (and variants) name in parish records from Ault Hucknall and Heanor in Derbyshire and Eastwood in Nottinghamshire. 

The village of Ault Hucknall, described in some places as the smallest village in England as it has only three dwelling places and the church,  is close to both Hardwick Hall and Stainsby Mill and isn't  far from the village where I grew up in fact the two churches were recently and perhaps still are served by the same vicar.  I think it is known as a dual benefice.

I was surprised that my photos turned out so well as it was getting quite dark in the gloom of a late winter's  afternoon. The whole parish of Ault Hucknall includes the nearby settlements of Hardstoft, Rowthorne, Astwith and Stainsby as well as some outlying farmsteads.

According to the Victoria County History some of the features of the church of St John the Baptist, which is Grade 1 listed, date back to the 11th century when ecclesiastical architecture was still very much influenced by Anglo-Saxon traditions.  As seen in the carvings above and below.

The church played an important part in the lives of all the people on the Hardwick Estate and some of them must have travelled quite a way to attend services there.  Not surprisingly the church was closed whilst we were there but inside is buried the philosopher and author of The Leviathan Thomas Hobbes who was in his younger days a tutor to the Cavendish family.

The gravestones in the churchyard were most interesting and I'd like to return and look at them and the inside of the church at a later date.  I thought the monument below look quite spooky in the half light.

I didn't spot any Limbs in the churchyard but I did see two on the War Memorial which stands just outside Stainsby Mill

We visited Stainsby Mill in April last year on a really cold day and I took a few photos which I never used on here.  It is of course owned by the National Trust and run by volunteers.

It stands on the Hardwick Estate and its interpretation inside is that of a 19th century water mill.

Although from my photos it looks as if there was no one else there in actual fact there were quite a few people inside where the volunteers were describing the various workings of the mill and grinding handfuls of flour for us to feel.

  The mill produces
wholegrain wheat flour and spelt flour.

We bought a bag of each to make bread with at home

Books and Reading

I've decided to join in with The Year in Books blogging challenge organised by Laura at a Circle of Pine Trees.  I noticed this reading challenge on Kathy's Amanda's and Louise's blogs and thought that it sounded like a good idea.

I've read four books so far this month so I thought I'd share some of them with you and tell you more about one of them.  I will also continue to place the books I have read in my sidebar and list the whole year's books as separate pages at the top of the blog.

At the moment I have three books on loan from the local library, two of which I requested the third, the Secrets of Armstrong House, I saw on their 'quick choice' shelf near the check in/out machines and thought that it looked interesting.  

I'm still reading the A. O'Connor book but the other two I've read and thoroughly enjoyed.  I love the DI Vera Stanhope books by Ann Cleeves  Harbour Street is the latest and it didn't for one moment disappoint.  I found it intriguing, atmospheric and hard to put down.

January's Book

In contrast The Secret Rooms is non-fiction (but still very much a detective story) and is written by Catherine Bailey author of the equally interesting and readable book Black Diamonds.  The author went to Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire initially to research the lives of the men from the Belvoir Estate who volunteered to serve in the Midlands Regiments at the outbreak of WW1.  What she found and eventually wrote about was an intriguing mystery surrounding John, the 9th Duke of Rutland.  What was in those secret rooms?  Why had they been closed up for so many years?  Why had the 9th Duke elected to spend his final days in there destroying huge swathes of correspondence from three distinct periods of his life?  Follow the author as she gradually pieces together, using the Belvoir Castle and Haddon Hall archives as well as many other sources, a story that is both astonishing and ultimately quite tragic.

Next month I'm hoping to read The Outcast Dead the latest novel in the Ruth Galloway series by Elly Griffiths.  I have it reserved at the library and I'm sixth in the queue so hopefully I'll be able to read it in February.

Watching the Birds

This weekend I will be taking part in the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch.  I've been doing this for a number of years now and really enjoy taking part.  We always feed the birds in our garden and have three feeding areas which are all well used.  We have hedges and shrubs on two of the three sides of our garden so there is plenty of cover for the birds in particular the sparrows and we have loads of those.  Sometimes we can count up to 30 at a time.  The other birds we see a significant number of are goldfinches.  Yesterday we counted 12 on the feeders or in the bushes nearby.  We also get regular visits from blackbirds, thrush, robin, chaffinch and greenfinch as well as great, blue, coal and long tailed tits. 

Thrush - taken from an upstairs window

I've taken a few photos over the last few days through the windows so they aren't really the best photos I've ever taken but a good record of some of our garden visitors.

Above Sparrow and Greenfinch

Goldfinches

Robin

Blackbird and Sparrow

Long tailed tit and Goldfinch

Sparrows in their favourite laurel bush sometimes it is covered in them and they get down inside especially when the sparrow hawk flies over. I love the way they disappear amongst the leaves.  Sometimes the bush is so full of them that it shivers and sometimes they all fly off together in one swoop across the garden to the holly hedge and then back again.

We also get magpies, starlings and wood pigeons and sometimes a pair of bullfinch all of which have been seen throughout this week.  What's the betting that when we sit down today or tomorrow with a mug of coffee and a biscuit or two to do our hour of recording we only see a few of the birds we've seen all week?  That's what usually happens!

On Queen Street

If you wander down Queen Street in Burslem (one of the six towns that make up the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire) you will come across two amazing buildings.  One still in use; one empty and neglected! The most ornate of the two buildings is the red-brick Wedgwood Memorial Institute built as a memorial to the great potter Josiah Wedgwood 1730-95. 

It stands on the site of the Brick House Pottery Works, owned by the Adams, another local pottery family and which Josiah Wedgwood rented from them during the years of 1762 to 1772.  It was also known as the Bell works because of the bell used to summon the workers to the factory each day.  It was at the Bell Factory that Wedgwood perfected his famous Black Basalt wares. 

A statue of Josiah Wedgwood stands over the impressive doorway.  I was trying to see if the statue showed Wedgwood with his wooden leg as the legs looked a bit awkward but couldn't tell from my photos.  Wedgwood had his right leg amputated in 1768 after it was weakened by an attack of smallpox in his childhood.

The Wedgwood Memorial Institute was established in 1869 as a centre for art and science, the foundation stone was laid by William Gladstone in 1863.   The facade is made up of sculptures, friezes and mosaics designed by many of the leading artists and architects of the day including John Lockwood Kipling father of the author Rudyard Kipling. 

The moulded medallions over the doorway show three of Josiah Wedgwood's famous contemporaries and associates - the scientist and fellow member of the Lunar Society Joseph Priestley, Thomas Bentley his partner in the Etruria pottery works and the artist John Flaxman.

With all its wonderful history and associations it is such a shame that this building is closed, neglected and falling into disrepair!  In 2010 The Victorian Society listed this building as one of its top ten most endangered buildings in England and Wales. According to their website in May last year The Prince's Trust unveiled plans to renovate the Wedgwood Institute to be used by small businesses - I do hope this happens!

So what is the other building I mentioned at the beginning of this post?  Well, exactly opposite the Wedgwood Institute stands the famous Burslem School of Art.  

It was opened in 1907 and designed by A R Wood who was architect of many of the important public buildings across Stoke-on-Trent which at this point was still three years away from having city status.  The six towns which made up the potteries still having their own identity - in fact they still do in many ways.  Burslem was and still is known as the Mother Town and it was the 'Bursley' of many of local author and writer Arnold Bennett's novels including 'Anna of the Five Towns' (I know - he missed one!) 'Old Wives Tales' and 'The Card'.

Many famous artists either attended or exhibited at the Art College including local pottery designers Susie Cooper, Charlotte Rhead and Clarice Cliff, David Hockney and Sir Clough Williams-Ellis founder of Portmeirion village in Wales.  Well known local artists like Reginald Haggar and Arthur Berry taught here as did the Scottish ceramic and stained glass designer Gordon Forsyth. 

The school of Art closed in the 1970s when all art studies were centralised at Staffordshire University.  It was opened again in 2000 as a cultural centre.  I love those large studio windows letting in as much light as possible for the students to work in.

Weekend Flowers

I felt in need of some colour so what better way to provide it than flowers?

 Red tulips on the kitchen table

 Pink hyacinths on the table in the conservatory

The man behind the counter of the fruit and veg shop where we bought them said if they were in a pink pot they would be pink - he was right.

 Blue Iris in the living room

Some blooms just unfurling their petals with plenty more buds to open

Also in the conservatory the Money Plant has flowered

 and the cyclamen are looking good too

They have flowered every year without fail for the last eight or nine years if not more.  There have been more flowers than ever this year.

I nearly forgot the daffodils which have now been replaced by the iris! I'm sure it won't be too long before there are some of these pushing their green shoots up in the garden ready to burst into flower.

I hope you all have a great weekend!