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July 29, 2023

northernvicar June 2023

The Ecclesbourne Railway have done a superb job with a disabled access coach – other railways, please take note. We had a visit on Sunday 4 June, and I got on the footplate at Shottle. We went to Hardwick Hall on Monday 5 June, meeting our friend John. It is rather amusing that he was my Best Man forty years ago, now he gets free admission as Julie’s “essential carer”. Then a series of train trips as I went to and fro to Manchester for various hospital jollies. We managed a week in Wales, and called in to the...
Categories Personal/Railway History/Roman Britain/Wales Comments: 0
January 11, 2022

Wrexham, Clywd – St Giles

St Giles church Wrexham is just down from the centre of the town, not far from Central station. Central is now a terminus – in the old days the line went on east (indeed it cut through the churchyard). Church website https://stgilesparishchurchwrexham.org.uk/ A previous Rector is Geoffrey Marshall, who now lives in Derby and helps us out. He posted images of their angel festival on facebook, and I was really pleased to find it was still on. It has to be said that thousands of angels meant I missed some of the architectural gems of this church, but they...
Categories Wales Comments: 0
January 9, 2022

Hawarden, Clwyd – St Deiniol

Julie and I are staying at Gladstone’s Library – https://www.gladstoneslibrary.org/ – a residential library in Hawarden, just over the border into Wales, Clwyd (Flintshire). It is a wonderful place to go and do some work, so we started 2022 with three nights here. On Friday, the day after Epiphany, I went for a look at the church next door. They had just finished removing the Christmas Trees from a Festival – “you should have come yesterday” said one of the locals. I did think that if they had advertised their Festival (and yesterday’s Epiphany service) on a poster in...
Categories Wales Comments: 0
October 25, 2021

Old Radnor, Powys – St Stephen

Go and have a look at Old Radnor parish church said one of the ladies in Kington, so we did – SO 250590. St Stephen’s church is in Wales, but still the Church of England. (That’s made it fun when the Covid regulations have been different across the border). The views are lovely, and we should probably have gone to the pub next door. Good website – their photos are better than mine, so do have a look – https://www.kingtonparishes.org.uk/oldradnor There was probably an early church here dedicated to the Welsh saint Ystyffan, a member of the Welsh royal...
Categories Wales Comments: 0
September 23, 2020

northernvicarwalks August 2020

I’ve already blogged the National Memorial Arboretum and my 5 mile walk there on the 1st of the month. We opened St Edmund’s in Allestree on 2 August – so both my churches were open within three weeks of it being possible. I commented it would have been so helpful if the Church of England had provided all the signage we needed – which they did, in the middle of September (8 weeks after I’d needed them). After the service we drove to the Embsay and Bolton Abbey Railway for tea in Queen Victoria’s carriage. Built in 1885 for...
Categories 1,000 mile walking/Derbyshire/National Trust/Railway History/Staffordshire/Wales/Yorkshire Comments: 0
March 17, 2020

northernvicarwalks (and has train rides) – February 2020

This is the month that a Barham makes it into Railway Magazine. It’s not me, it’s Hannah – in a feature on the problems of disability access to trains. This was her first ride on an LNER Azuma (and I haven’t been on one yet). We had a series of wet weekends, and on Monday 6 February the Derwent was very high. I walked six miles round Darley Park. In the afternoon we had a snow shower (Sarah photed St Matthew’s Darley Abbey). It lasted just long enough to photo St Edmund’s Allestree looking lovely. The only snow of...
Categories 1,000 mile walking/Lincolnshire/Personal/Railway History/Wales Comments: 0
July 1, 2018

Northernvicar Walks – Snowdon in June

When we moved to Derby we ended up on the British Heart Foundation fundraising committee – some readers of this blog will know we have Dilated Cardiomyopathy in the family, our son Gareth had a heart transplant in 2004, a transplant which gave him another nine years of life. The BHF group organised a weekend – and I found myself saying “I’ll climb Snowdon with you.” I was up early on Saturday 2 June 2018, left home about 0515 and had an easy drive across to North Wales. I got to Llanberis about 8, treated myself to a bacon roll...
Categories 1,000 mile walking/Railway History/Wales Comments: 0
May 27, 2018

Llandudno, Conwy – St Tudno on the Great Orme

Friday 27 April 2018 was a day chasing trains in North Wales – a ride on the loco hauled set from Chester to Holyhead. Nice signals on the platform, and signal box too. There are still several proper ‘boxes across Angelsey – we need to go back. Back to Llandudno Junction, then to Llandudon where they have more signals, a ‘box, and some lovely buffers. We walked through the town to Victoria station to have a ride on the Great Orme Tramway – website. The line opened on 30 July 1902, having been constructed by Thomas and John Owen, a...
Categories Railway History/Wales Comments: 0