Parklife - Treeface

I loved this funny treeface in the park....

 

Parklife - Slogan

Ramsden Family coat of arms on the gate at Greenhead Park. Well they did pay for it. It has the slogan "God Helps the Industrious". ...or it could be "the diligent". Not sure I'd qualify then. I do seem to always see a rat when I'm sketching in the park...

 

Parklife

Life in the Slow Lane with my pals from Art Group, drawing in the park. Thanks folks, you're so brilliant.

 

Ancient Wood and an old moat

Exploring close to home, an old wood and the site of Crosland Hall, location of "The Ellan Feud" in  1304.....excavations in 1977 revealed the remains of the drawbridge supports and stone-lined moat, all now hidden in the garden of a barn and farmhouse. 

                                       

Pleisiosaurus, Ichthyosaurus

 Enormous fossils I managed to squash onto 2 pages and distort, but I enjoyed doing it!

Elf Folklore?

Aforementioned Whitby Pagan Theatre Group. Or Cult. What a shame we couldn't stay for the "adult harvest festival" at Whitby Brewery, but it looks like there's a subliminal message ......

 

Pagan Goings On In Whitby

This extremely nice Guest House in Whitby had absolutely nothing to do with the pagan theatre group performing at the Whitby Brewery. I just drew their poster on the same page......

 

Coconut Armour

Gilbert Island Warrior wearing coconut fibre armour, resplendent in a puffer fish helmet and carrying a shark's tooth lance......think medieval jousting, but with blokes poking each other. Sadly the mining of guano by Europeans made several of the Gilbert Islands uninhabitable and then America set up a big army base there and evicted lots of inhabitants.......and now, to add insult to injury, the islands are under threat of being submerged due to rising sea levels/ climate change. It's enough to make you want to poke someone with a big stick.

 

Whitby Brewery highly recommended....if you can make it up 199 steps! 

Arguments Yard best avoided.....it's actually named after a chap called Thomas Argment, who had a factory nearby in the 17th century

 

Witch Ball......and an old pump

An old cast iron water pump installed at the expense of a Whitby Whaling Captain....and some charms to ward off Whitby witches!

 

Last Trip to Whitby Museum, 1977

Whitby Museum revisited after 48 years.....Last visit in 1977, when doing the Cleveland Way with Mum, Dad, Nick and Matt. I remembered seeing these tattooed heads, which were repatriated to the Maori and New Zealand in 1998.........a gruesome trade in these heads was started by Captain Cook's botanist, who apparently took one home to England and started a craze. My 11 year old self was fascinated, but didn't grasp they were someone's relatives....
 

Art Nouveau Tiles on Whitby Shop

 

                                                                  Better in colour!

 

Found By Fire.....Fylingdales Stones,

I was fascinated by the top stone, revealed after moorland fires burnt back the peat in 2003....I recognised the same pattern on chalk drum-shaped stones from Folkton on the Wolds....and the pattern is found on Orkney. What did these shapes and symbols mean, or were they just easy to scratch onto rock?!

See the excellent article 

                         http://www.stone-circles.org.uk/stone/folkton.htm

 

Bronze Age

Bronze Age Weapons at Whitby Museum

 

Whitby Stone Heads

Stone heads from Whitby Museum

 

Sailmaking

In Whitby's sail lofts sails were handmade, rigged and stitched, back-breaking work. (Whitby Museum)

 

Whitby Abbey

I was going to draw the bowhead whale bones in Whitby, where everyone has their photo taken, but my 21st century sensibility was disturbed by the site of the harpoon on top....this collection of whaling tools from a bygone trade with macabre purposes...."flensing" knives, "strand" knives, blubber spades, a lance and harpoons...(Trip to Whitby Museum, last visit in 1977 with Mum, Dad, Nick and Matt , walking the Cleveland Way!) 

 

27 Foot Deep Well Found Under Chip shop!

Discovered under the floor of Cliffe Ash Fish and Chip shop during its conversion to the Colne Valley Museum, the old  well is under the floor, its shaft being where customers unknowingly queued for their chips!

Eagle-eyed people will spot the Museum moved the position of the door and window has been moved when the floor was repaired. With thanks to Alan of Colne Valley Museum for an entertaining trip underground in my hard hat!!

 

Haigh Cross

After reading up about this cross in  "Huddersfield Highways Down the Ages" by W.B. Crump, I located it 3 years ago on  the sad remnants of Lindley Moor, behind a high wall by a truck factory.... 

 

The Haigh Cross, Lindley Moor

With thanks to David Morley, Lindley Heritage Day at Lindley Methodist Church- great old postcards! 

Linked to the Elland Feud, this cross was a waymark across Lindley Moor for hundreds of years. Now not accessible to the public on a scruffy bit of land privately owned, the 1808 replica has been "saved" by Kirklees Council, unlike the moor itself, given "in perpetuity to the people of Huddersfield" and covered in houses......More info later on the Elland Feud and how the Quarmbys of Quarmby were involved in family rivalry between the Beaumonts of Crosland Hall, South Crosland (hall long gone, but just down the road!)  and the Ellands of Elland  Hall......(also long gone, under the Elland Bypass!)

 

Willfully Pulled Down

Lindley Moor's historic stone, of which more later....

 

Lawrence of Arabia

An unexpected memorial to Lawrence of Arabia in Bridlington! Real name Aircraftman Shaw, he was based here during his time with the RAF (1929 - 1935).

 

No Fishing In Bridlington

No Fishing in Bridlington......off the harbour wall. 

There were some nice terracotta fish bricks...

 

Ducks Crossing

Sloe Down!

 

Lockup

In contrast to gateways, here's Hunmanby lockup and a pinfold, both about containment and punishment, the pinfold for cows and the lockup for rowdy locals.....

 

Gateway

During Lockdown I became obsessed with drawing old gates.......

 this one's is in Hunmanby, where I got to rest and recuperate and see Mum at last!!

 

 Beautiful mooring on the Tixall Wide, opposite 16th century gatehouse, 

with waterlilies, reeds and geese. Feel so lucky that I made it to Daydream again!

Burdock

                                                   Burdock...but no Dandelion

 

Swivel

 Hoo Mill and Swivel. Great canal names......and we didn't even make it to Heartbreak Hill.

Shugborough Folly

 

 

I liked this folly with a broken statue sitting on a decrepit ruin

Shardlow

Original milepost on the Trent & Mersey. We might go to Shardlow on our next trip..............if there's enough water!

 

Road Liable To Flooding

Things we floated past.

 

This Bridge is Insufficient

 Some wordy signage....and some a little more pithy.....

Whatever Happened to British Waterways"

Since our canal  trip, the whole Canal network has closed due to the drought...

 

A Touch of Lycra

As seen at the TOP TOWPATH CAFE, "THE LAUGHING DUCK", Fradley Junction. The sight didn't put me off my very delicious sandwich!!

Bridge Over (Un)Troubled Water

Coventry canal- names not numbers

 

Woodpecker Tree at the mooring

We passed some very tranquil and beautiful private moorings.....

 

Thor

 Thor had some nice canal art items aboard, including this barrel!

Toepath

It's fair to say I 'm not quite firing on all cylinders............

 

Hare Krishna Heron

A heron pulls up to the bumper on Hare Krishna...plus grumpy boater sitting like a gnome atop her barge