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Beethoven, Mudd, Status Quo & A Bat Out of Hell

The Maythorne Cross Feud

Here is an article from "The Independent" which tells the tale behind it:

Districts split Saxon cross to settle 150-year feud
By Ian Herbert, North of England Correspondent
Published: 27 March 2004

After a feud lasting 150 years, involving theft, vandalism and municipal threats of legal action, two districts in Yorkshire reached an unusual settlement yesterday over a 1,000-year-old Saxon cross.

New Mill in West Yorkshire and Dunford in South Yorkshire have decided that the only way of resolving their differences over the 8ft-high Maythorne Cross is to split it. Dunford gets the ancient base; New Mill gets the rest.

It was erected as a boundary marker at a cross-roads between Cheshire and Wakefield. The dispute was sparked by Dr Henry Morehouse, a local historian and collector, in the 1850s. With the aid of a horse-drawn cart and several men, Dr Morehouse stole the cross from its ancient site near the hamlet of Victoria, in Dunford, added a new column and ball, and placed it in his own garden.

One of his descendants moved it four miles to the grave of his favourite horse, where he left it on a poorly laid foundation for decades. After it was vandalised in 1959, Kirklees council stepped in, restored the cross and gave it to the local civic society, which placed it outside the village library in 1984.

When the library closed the battle began again in earnest. After there was talk of the monument being removed, a local roofing contractor, Gerald Parker, recruited eight other men and launched a dawn raid in June 2000, claiming the cross belonged to his in-laws' ancestors. He dug it up, loaded it on a lorry and took it back to Victoria. The note he left behind said: "Gone home."

Kirklees council was unimpressed, issuing a legal threat to Mr Parker: "We request that you return the cross in a safe and unharmed condition."

Mr Parker held out for a settlement, keeping his new possession in a field.

And his local parish, Dunford, seems to have secured the most from yesterday's deal. Allen Pestell, a councillor, said: "It is like the Elgin Marbles being returned to Greece. Gerald did not act with our blessing and as a councillor I cannot condone taking the cross, but we cannot condemn him. If he hadn't snatched back the cross, we would never have seen it again in the parish." Mr Parker said: "We tried to tell New Mill they were in possession of stolen goods. When I heard it was going to be moved again I thought we could lose it for ever. We'll have to make sure the cross is firmly embedded this time. We don't want anybody stealing it again."

Clifford Lord, of the civic society in New Mill, said: "We were not happy about the way the cross was removed from New Mill. It's a bit of a farce, us just having the top half of the cross which is not original. But at least the arguing is over."

 

Some unrelated crime type pictures

 

 

Milestoning

Up hill and down dale, Dunford Road bike ride

The Maythorne Cross, of which, more later....

Grand views over the Holme Valley, teeny weeny yachts on Hade Edge Res

Getting ready for a fantastic freewheel down to Holmfirth (max speed 34.1 mph!)

Last milepost, Hade Edge

Chicken Related

 

Spot the chicken in the driving seat....

Parkgate Rooster

 

Parkgate Cottage near Skelmanthorpe...spotted whilst looking for my Bronze D of E group. Also see: Chicken Related (to follow)

Wallaby Wannabee

 Wallaby Wannabee.....FREE!! Thanks to Marcus spotting this on the Huddersfield Examiner website.  Runaway Wallaby, escaped from Meltham.......last seen near Johnson's quarry South Crosland....

More Ming, Wang Fan

The Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), will feature in a new British Museum exhibition

Between 1400 and 1450 AD, China was a global superpower run by the Ming dynasty, which established Beijing as the capital and built the Forbidden City.....think vases.... NB there's a good website, entertainingly edited by Wang Fan:
http://www.ecns.cn/2014/09-17/134861.shtml

Web App

 

New spider identifying app for your phone. Or just run away.....

Emperor Ming

 

 Ming dynasty exhibition at the British Museum

Bottle Digging

 

Bottle digging delights....prize find, a little blue poison bottle, labelled "Not To Be Taken"

Walk a mile in someone elses's shoes

 

More things found in the woods: old leather shoe, size 5 and a half....

Holme Styes Reservoir Walk

 

Old gatepost, in Holme Styes woods, Hade Edge..great walk today

RIP Jaws

 

Farewell to Richard  Kiel (September 13, 1939 – September 10, 2014) , 7 foot 2 American actor, who played the steel-toothed Jaws in James Bond films......

Spinosaurus

 

Now here's a dinosaur name I could have made up myself. Not only that, but Spinosaurus was longer than  Tyrannosaurus Rex. New research into fossilised bones found in the Kem Kem beds, old cliffs in the  Morroccan Sahara, suggests they lived a semi aquatic lifestyle........

Buffalo Pipes

Clay Pipes belonging to members of the Royal Antediluvian order of Buffaloes, the Poor Man's Masons, perhaps..... used as part of their ceremonies, together with a flat cap and  a plate of pie and peas? Too late to ask Dad about it, as he was once a Buffalo back in the 60s.................

Pipes

After 1800 more elaborate relief designs on pipes became common place. Those incorporating Masonic and symbols inspired by other fraternal societies, such as the  Foresters and Buffalos, being particularly well represented on pipes of the period.....more pipe related stuff tomorrow, as I've got a Buffalo pipe  

Kirkburton Clay Pipe

Dug up in Kirkburton, decorated china clay pipe (Victorian?)

Time Gentlemen Please

Farewell to The King's Arms, South Crosland. 2 grim-looking breeze block-supported yellow coloured reconstituted stone walls are emerging from the gap where our village pub stood......

Well, Well, Well

Well House, Netherton...just below it are 3 low, stone sinks, which must have been for washing clothes

 Chickweed garlands on the well across the road

Stone sign encouraging people to look after the 2 Netherton wells. They are overgrown and full of weeds now.....

Well

 

Sign above the well in Netherton

Spotland

Another brick in the wall.......from Spotland Road, Rochdale

Utopia

A brick, from Mum's garden.......

Henry Hoover Sucks.....

.......Less, thanks to European Directive banning higher powered vacs

 

Kirk Deighton

 

Came cross this strange monument in Kirk Deighton after the Wetherby 10k. It's a shell case mounted on a stone block, but no helpful plaque, so presumably a war memorial....