Happy Times at Hull

 

Wednesday 30 August 2023

The Royal City of Hull

Todays trip would take only two of the lads Colin and Glenn to Hull by train catching the 10:27 from Leeds  

arriving in Hull Paragon @ 11:25. 

On exiting the station we asked for directions at Customer Service and it wasn’t long before we were heading towards the Museum Quarter after being informed that the Maritime Museum our principal attraction was closed for another two years as it was being renovated. 

However, we had a contingency plan which included The Streetlife Museum, The Archeological Museum of the East Riding and Hull Minster. 

Both Museums were excellent with a wealth of information and we spent a couple of hours seeking out information and seeing wonderful exhibits ranging from the early 20th century and much earlier history in the Archeological Museum of the East Riding. 

The wealth of medieval Hull is exemplified by the Church of the Holy Trinity, which is the most magnificent and largest Parish Church in England. Now classed as a Minster and Cathedral. 

What a fine historic place to attend Sunday services and other acts of worship, or indeed a fantastic 'medieval' setting for a music concert. It is partly built of brick - the use of bricks in Hull dates from at least 1303, when several brickyards are known to have existed. For over 700 years the people of Hull have worshipped at Holy Trinity. It is considered by many that Holy Trinity Church, Hull is the largest parish church in England. Holy Trinity Church, Hull was established in 1285 as a chapel of ease to Hessle. 

Holy Trinity Church, Hull was consecrated in 1425 and made a parish church in 1661. It is one of the earliest examples of the widespread use of brick. What you see in the architecture of Holy Trinity Church, Hull is mainly from ~1300 to ~1530, with restoration work in 1841-1845 by H.F. Lockwood, 1859-1872 by Sir George Gilbert Scott and lastly in 1906 by F.S. Brodrick.

We put the Minster to good use whilst inside buying hot drinks for consumption in the peaceful community area of the church. 

On leaving the Minster we wandered around the clean and tidy streets finally making our way back towards Hull Exchange stopping in a Mall for another hot drink. 

We left the coffee shop and wandered back to the Railway Station for our 17:03 train back to Leeds and only had a few minutes to wait before the doors opened allowing us to get ensconced in our carriage with a full window to take in the sights for our short hop back to Leeds stopping only at Brough and Selby arriving in Leeds at 17:57. 

Another lovely day out with the weather being kind all day. 

-- 

Colin Hendrick Ward 

Forging our way to Kirkstall

 Tuesday 22nd. August  2023.       Forging our way to Kirkstall

For today’s adventure some of the Lads have decided to stay relatively local so to speak, it will be a trip to see the ruins of the rather majestic abbey,  it was built hundreds of years ago alongside the river Aire  in the location known as Kirkstall .

It will be John, Colin, Dave and Mark that will participate in this adventure, either getting there by train or bus. They met up at the nearby railway station of Kirkstall Forge a somewhat recently built construction in this region.

It was around 11:00 am as they gathered at the station, from here the walk towards the Abbey took them about 30 minutes or so, it was a rather noisy experience having to contend with the amount of traffic using this particular roadway.

Once into the grounds that surround this extensive building the road noise subsided and we were left with just the sounds of children playing amongst the ruins and the odd birdsong. After a brief moment admiring part of the structure we made our way to a riverside bench and tucked into our picnic lunches etc.

It was quite a while before we decided to move on from this peaceful place and now head for the museum situated on the other side of that main road , after some thoughtful discussion we decided not to enter the museum but instead purchased a delightful ice cream from a nearby vendor and consumed it whilst sat on a suitable park bench. From here we now returned to view more of the vastness of the magnificent abbey has we encircled it trying to imagine what it looked like in previous times, splendid we would all have agreed . Eventually we arrived back at the entrance gate and sat for a while discussing by what means we would make our homeward journeys, ie a bus back into the city, a walk back along the noisy road to the railway station or something else

We made the choice of Mark taking the 33 bus back to his hometown of Ottley ,whilst John, Colin and Dave jumped on the A1 flyer bus whisking them back in the direction of the Kirkstall Forge railway station in order to catch their respective trains.

Upon reflection todays experience was short and sweet but well worth the effort, just a pity Brian got the day wrong.

Cheers Everyone.

Outwood. Outing

 Wednesday 16th. August 2023.          Outwood      Outing 

Today would see a return visit to the Wetherby Whaler fish and chip restaurant located here on the high street at Outwood. The occasion for this gathering was as a celebration lunch marking both the past birthdays of both Colin and Dave , joining them would be John, Malcom , Keith, Derek, Glenn , John Emmonds, Mark Simpson plus Russ Parkinson and his partner. A meeting time of midday was agreed upon outside the restaurant, with the participants each travelling there either by a train or bus journey,  or even a car ride. 

For the lads arriving in Outwood by train a walking distance of roughly about a mile would be necessary to reach the restaurant , whilst the bus stop was only a few yards away. 

Once inside the venue ,suitable seating arrangements were established for all of us to be sat together and with our orders taken we awaited for our meals to arrive.

It didn’t seem long for us to wait before we were able to enjoy our choices and then strike up various conversations with our colleagues etc. Before not too long the main topic was about the dates and locations of our next adventures, would it be this, that or the other, the confusion lasted for quite awhile , in fact almost all of our lunchtime . I think some decisions were eventually made and noted, Colin rearranging his schedules upon his iPhone, others thinking they might stay in their heads!.

Soon with lunch over and a plan of some sort made, it was time to bid farewell to all and make our homeward journeys.

Cheers Everyone.

A Wet Day at Roundhay

 Wednesday 2nd. August 2023.         A Wet Day at Roundhay 

As the title suggests it was a rather unusual wet summers day as a group of twelve met up at the Mansion House which is situated near to one of the entrances to Roundhay Park Leeds. The reason behind this larger than normal gathering was to meet up with a dear old friend of ours, Tim Kearney. He has been recovering from a nasty fall which seriously injured his back, but thankfully he is making a good recovery and wished to meet up with us all again.

The group making the journey to the Mansion would consist of John, Colin, Glenn, Brian, Keith, Dave, Russ and his partner Sue ,also Mark Simons, Don Alexander and John Emmonds  made an appearance along with Tim obviously . 

A time of midday was suggested for this gathering to commence and was duly fulfilled only John Emmonds arriving some twenty minutes later.

We did manage to all get seated in what was a rather crowded room owing to the nasty weather conditions ,we were not able to sit outside which we normally would have done. Nevertheless with drinks and cake ordered the various conversations began to flow, memories of bygone times and the names of past work colleagues was the main topic for awhile before other individual conversations took over.

Time seemed to pass by quickly and before we knew it, we had to say farewell to Tim  making sure he got his lift back home ,courtesy of his dear wife needless to say , for the rest of us it was goodbye to everyone and see you later all being well.

Cheers Everyone