Royal Armouries

 Wednesday 29th January 2025.                Royal Armouries 

For their end of January outing the Lads have decided to visit the Royal Armouries, an impressive building situated in the old Dock Land area of the city of Leeds. As per usual most of the lads meet up at the railway station in the city centre, on this occasion it would be Derek, John, Dave, Glenn and Mark, with Keith and Brian meeting them at the venue a little later.

The first five making their way from the station and on through the riverside streets in the direction of the Armouries Building, admiring the various other buildings as they traveled along nearby the river.

Once outside the entrance a few moments were spent waiting for Keith to arrive, a time of 11 o’clock had been suggested , some five minutes later and we were inside the building and deciding our plan of action so to speak, it was up to the 2 nd floor and join a small group watching and listening to a person talking about the various firearms that had been used in the Wild West period of America, it proved to be very informative and well presented. 

Moving on now and we were left to wonder around the numerous exhibits on display here in this interesting building, next we were invited to witness a demonstration of swordsmanship from a bygone era ably performed by two experienced professionals, good to have watched the action . Brian had now joined us at this point.

From here we continued our journey on towards an exhibition of World War 1 firepower and the advancement of the different weaponry , rather lethal to say the least.

With time advancing and the clocks almost at 1:15 we left the building and headed for a lunchtime meal, a couple of suggestions we’re considered before we eventually made or way to a local Pizza Express outlet and chose what they had to offer, our choices made and now time to reflect upon our experience of the Royal Armouries etc. I think we all enjoyed this brief visit to the Royal Armouries and found it most interesting and informative to say the least.

Lunchtime over and time to say goodbye to Keith and Brian at this point, the rest of us headed for the riverbank just in time to board the river taxi that would transport us back in the direction of the railway station, a journey of some 15 minutes or so. A different aspect to look at from the river as we passed under the infamous Leeds bridge and a couple more besides before reaching our designated mooring point close to the railway station. After disembarking our river taxi we now said goodbye to Mark, he was off into the city, the rest of us heading up the escalators and on into the station, at this point is was farewell to all as we took our respective train journeys home.

Yet another great day out with the Lads. 

Cheers Everyone .

Roundup at The Railway

 Wednesday 22nd January 2025.        Roundup at The Railway 

Today would be a rather special day for almost all of the Lads, unfortunately only Colin would miss out on what was a memorable event to say the least.

The “roundup “ refers to a get together for 9 of the Lads at the Railway pub, an establishment situated in an area known as Drighlington. The occasion was a celebration meal in the honour of another 2 of our group reaching the tender age of 80yrs  Namely John and Derek. 

A rendezvous time of about midday was previously scheduled to gather at the pub, once inside we were shown to our appropriate table , apparently other groups were celebrating birthday parties too, so it was quite a busy afternoon for the staff here at the Pub. They handled things pretty well though, taking care of everyone’s needs. 

As you can imagine our table was rather raucous at times with the various conversations taking place, once our main meals were consumed it was time for presentation gifts for our Two Birthday Boys. Dave gave a short speech followed by responses from both John and Derek, a poignant moment for all of us.

With delight on their face with what they had received our celebration’s continued with a choice from the dessert menu and a few more drinks from the bar.

Some two hours had passed bye before we started to make our exits from this harmonious atmosphere here in The Railway, each of us thankful of what we had just experienced, the smiles on our faces said it all.

Cheers Everyone, especially John and Derek.

Otley Observations

 Wednesday 15th January 2025               Otley Observations

As the title suggests it would be a trip to the old market town of Otley for some of the Lads today, those being John , Derek , Dave , Brian, and Glenn, Mark would be at Otley to meet them as they arrived in the town. They had took a short train journey from Leeds to Menston and then taken a ten minute bus ride into the heart of Otley rather than taking a much longer bus journey from Leeds. 

Arriving a head of schedule a brief cuppa in the bus station cafe was taken while Mark made his appearance at about 11:15. Now with all assembled our walk around the town began. First it was through the narrow lanes and alleys in close proximity to the bus station before we crossed a main road heading for the All Saints Church, close by we found our first observation that of the Navvies Memorial, an elaborate stone structure a smaller version of the Gothic north portal entrance to the Bramhope Railway Tunnel, from here we followed the pathway leading to our next observation that of the grade2 listed terrace houses built on Guycroft. From this point of interest we now made our way through the Waitrose supermarket car park and a slightly uphill climb along Burrass Lane leading onto Birdcage Walk. 

Birdcage Walk runs alongside what used to be the main railway line of bye gone days, it is now a busy link road for commuters etc. Just over half a mile along Birdcage Walk we find a footpath that would take us over this busy road and back in the direction of the town, not before passing an area where the old station platform was situated at the top of Station Road and Queens Road, yet another observation.

Once back in the town we now headed for another point of interest, that of the old Police Station and a glimpse of the old holding cells that were used for the local criminals etc. From here we continued our journey on towards our intended lunchtime venue that of Maypole Fishery to enjoy a well deserved meal.  With  meals consumed and the time approaching 2 pm it was back towards the bus station and take the next bus back in the direction of Menston not before saying farewell to Mark and thanking him for his well informed journey around his home town. It would be a nail biting bus ride back to Menston in order to catch the 14:51 train to Leeds , the five lads making it with just over a minute to spare.

Upon reflection today’s excursion to Otley was both informative and intriguing as well as doing us all good, being out and about with great company.

Cheers Everyone.