May 25, 2019

Darjeeling via Oxford

On Wednesday 5 June I am giving a paper at our MA Conference in Derby. My title is ‘The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway – Toy Train, Relic of the Raj, World Heritage Site’. I am excited, Laura is excited (she wants a trip to Darjeeling), everyone else manages to look interested!! It should be a fascinating day. Julie is speaking about Eva Peron. (One of our early dates was a trip to London in January 1981 to see Evita. It is a little depressing that most of our fellow students were not born in 1981). Details of the Conference are...
Categories Oxfordshire/Personal/Railway History Comments: 0
May 13, 2019

Langley Mill, Derbyshire – St Andrew

On Tuesday 7 May I went over to St Andrew’s Langley Mill where a new Pioneer Minister was being licensed. Langley Mill is a local ecumenical project, and I am the Diocesan Ecumenical Officer. Archdeacon Chris led it, and he was the only person properly addressed – shall we just say it’s not that sort of church! I mustn’t criticise too much – they are working in a church, in a community, where I could never cope. I’ve just read the noticesheet (on their website) and wonder what happens at the “Local preacher straining morning at Marehay”. Chris preached...
Categories Derbyshire/World War 1 Comments: 2
May 13, 2019

Middleton, Leeds – Railway, Park and St Mary’s (outside)

Our daughter Hannah was doing a morning’s on-call at her surgery, which isn’t far from the Middleton Railway in Leeds. We drove up the M1 and met her there about 1 – then she and Julie went off shopping leaving me to have a train ride. It is several years since I last went – Theo (my son) and I had a day here, so that must be 15 years ago. They have an excellent museum, and it was a good train ride – http://www.middletonrailway.org.uk The line was built to transport coal into Leeds. William Grammary, Lord of Middleton,...
Categories Railway History/Yorkshire Comments: 0
May 6, 2019

A day trip to Walsingham – from Derby to Norfolk by public transport

Julie and I have dissertations to write for our MA course at Derby University. Mine is on pilgrimage by rail to Lindisfarne and Walsingham, and I need a day in Walsingham to do some research for the dissertation. I could have driven to Norfolk and back in a day, but decided a day by public transport would be fun – Thursday 2 May. The first train across to East Anglia starts at Nottingham – and an advance single was a good price (£16.10). Unfortunately it doesn’t stop at East Midlands Parkway, and the first train from Derby is behind...
Categories Norfolk/Railway History Comments: 0
May 5, 2019

Mansfield, Nottinghamshire – St Peter and St Paul

Since I moved to Derby I have been going to Sheffield every month to give Platelets. On Friday 1 March I drove to Belper and trained north. A return from Belper to Sheffield is £22.70, so let’s spend less (£21.90) and travel further! An easy armful, and I was back at the station by 1010. I went across to Worksop and had a very nice poached egg on toast in the station café. Not the most beautiful line to Mansfield – a few nice signal boxes and some semaphore signals. I walked down into Mansfield, under the railway viaduct...
Categories Nottinghamshire/Railway History Comments: 0
May 5, 2019

Attenborough, Nottingham – St Mary’s

Jonathan is the Vicar of St Mary’s Attenborough, just this side of Nottingham. He is also an Ecumenical person for Southwell diocese – so I went to see him for lunch. Have a look at the church website – www.attenboroughchurch.org.uk/history.html, and the link to http://southwellchurches.nottingham.ac.uk/attenborough/hintro.php . My camera died, my phone photos are not good, and it is so long since I visited (25 February 2019) I can’t remember a thing. Take these photos as a start – and I’ll go back. The first church here was built in 964, and the oldest visible part of the church is...
Categories Nottinghamshire/World War 1 Comment: 1
May 3, 2019

York – All Saints, North Street

Our final church was All Saints, North Street – and I am sorry it has taken me so long to blog this final church. This church is on the other side of the River Ouse, and the first reference to it is in 1089 when the patronage of the rectory was granted by a layman, Ralph Paganell, to the Benedictine Priory of the Holy Trinity he had refounded nearby in Micklegate. It was probably a simple rectangular structure, and an aisle was added in the C12 as the population that side of the river expanded. The chancel was reconstructed...
Categories Uncategorized/Yorkshire Comments: 2
March 16, 2019

York, Yorkshire – St Martin, Coney Street

Now for church 4, St Martin’s Coney Street was the next one we visited on our crawl of medieval churches in York – https://stmartinsyork.org.uk/ I have walked past this church lots of times, as the City Screen Picturehouse next to it does a very good fish finger sandwich (they show interesting films too). We also looked across the river to All Saints’ North Street – we’ll be there later. York was a port city, and this would have been a useful route to the quayside – logically it would also have led to a  bridge, but there are no...
Categories Yorkshire Comments: 0
March 14, 2019

York, Yorkshire – All Saints Pavement

The third church we visited on our crawl of medieval churches in York, was All Saints Pavement. I have reached the stage of photoing the name boards. Fortunately this church has a good leaflet. The leaflet suggest this was probably the first medieval street in York to be paved – I want a footnote to state their source (this is what doing an MA does to you!). Ancient tradition says the church was originally built in 683 for St Cuthbert, but the church is probably later as it stands on Coppergate and High Ousegate at the heart of the...
Categories World War 1/Yorkshire Comments: 0