March 7, 2019

York – Holy Trinity, Goodramgate (again)

Holy Trinity, Goodramgate, the second church we visited on our crawl of medieval churches in York, was one I’d been to, and blogged before – http://www.northernvicar.co.uk/2015/06/15/york-goodramgate-holy-trinity/. It is in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust, and has an excellent new guidebook (and 60,000 visitors a year). It is great that this walk is bringing people into the CCT church and other Anglican churches in the City – how else do we share the tourism potential? Have a look at the previous blog for the history. This time we entered via Hornpot Lane – they made cups, combs and...
Categories Churches Conservation Trust/Uncategorized/Yorkshire Comments: 0
March 3, 2019

York – St Olave

York University has a post-grad course in Parish Church Studies – https://www.york.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-taught/courses/pg-dip-parish-church-studies/. There is a blog too – https://parishchurchstudies.wordpress.com/. A chap called Rob Andrews is a student on the course – he is on twitter at https://twitter.com/roberrttoa – and he had organised a church crawl of medieval churches. St Olave’s church is in Maygate – SE 599522, right on the side of the Abbey walls. The church website is https://www.stolave.org.uk/, and you can download an app for all the York city churches. Olave (or Olaf) was Norwegian King between 1016 and 1029 – quite a brutal man from all...
Categories World War 1/Yorkshire Comments: 2
February 18, 2019

Chester, Cheshire – St Peter

Having been to Grosvenor Museum we walked back through the town and stopped at St Peter’s Church – https://www.chesterstpeter.org.uk/. It is right in the centre, SJ 405663, at the crossing of Eastgate, Northgate, Watergate and Bridge Street, on the foundation of the Roman headquarters. It was founded by Ethelfleda, the daughter of Alfred the Great, in 907 AD. Much of the building is C15. It comes across as a lively Evangelical church, and they have a good café – highly recommended. Interesting monuments by the snacks. I like this gentleman, Gulielmo Wall, but my Latin is not good enough...
Categories Cheshire Comments: 0
February 17, 2019

Chester’s collection of Roman gravestones

Chester is not a city I know particularly well. We had a couple of nights here on a narrow boat when we were young and in love – I remember going to early Communion in the Cathedral, and taking the boat down the staircase locks at the end of a long day. I’ve changed trains here on a few occasions since, but haven’t visited the Cathedral for years. On Saturday 26 January we drove across and met our friends Jeremy, Sue and Ella. The girls went shopping – Jeremy and I did the museum and a church. I wanted...
Categories Cheshire/Roman Britain Comments: 0
February 5, 2019

northernvicarwalks – Beside the Tyne to Dunston Staithes

After a morning in Newcastle we crossed the Tyne and had a late lunch at the Sage. Then Julie sat with a book, and I went for a walk. I did about 5 miles west along the river to Dunston Staithes and back. As I blog it I need to go back and add up what I really did in 2018 – and the total was 500 miles exactly. I last recorded it at the end of August when the total was 408. In September I managed 32 miles, October was 24, November 17 and December 19. That makes...
Categories 1,000 mile walking/Newcastle upon Tyne/Railway History Comments: 0
February 3, 2019

Newcastle upon Tyne – St Andrew

Friday 18 January. We drove into Newcastle and I went for a walk while Julie and our friend Katie spent a happy few hours in Waterstone’s. I went to J&M Sewing Services to buy new clerical shirts – they have a website at https://www.jandmsewing.com/. I have been a happy customer since they came to Lincoln Theological College in 1992. They are such an Anglican institution I think they should really have their own blog page. I walked back via St Andrew’s church. It is silly that in the seven years I lived here, northernvicar went into the depths of...
Categories Newcastle upon Tyne Comments: 0
February 2, 2019

Elsdon, Northumberland – St Cuthbert (for the third time)

From Hartburn we drove on through Cambo, and the gorgeous road to Elsdon – stopping before the village to get a few photos. I do love Northumberland. St Cuthbert’s church is a favourite. I’ve blogged it twice, but visited a couple of times more. On one occasion I came here for a meeting to discuss what adaptations they could make to the building to make it more of a tourist centre in the village – although nothing like on the scale of Derbyshire, Elsdon is one of those hub villages. I wanted to see what they had done in...
Categories Northumberland/World War 1 Comments: 0
January 29, 2019

Hartburn, Northumberland – St Andrew (for the third visit)

Monday 14 January was a beautiful day. We’re on holiday in Northumberland, so we went for a drive. We went through Morpeth, and stopped at Hartburn. St Andrew’s church is rather lovely, and this is the third time I have visited. I left Julie in the car park with a book, and strolled across. The Norman tower is very impressive, even if the strong Winter sun made it difficult to get the right exposure. Nice arch over the door, and it is a pleasure to open the door and enter. It was also nice to meet another photographer –...
Categories Evetts' windows/Northumberland Comments: 3
January 28, 2019

Haworth, West Yorkshire – St Michael and All Angels

We had arranged to start 2019 by meeting friends at 11.30 for a ride on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway. We overslept. We met our friends off the train at 12.30, then realised the steepness of the hill in Haworth. There is a disabled parking space in the car park by the Parsonage, but no flat access out of the car park unless you push along the road. It wouldn’t be rocket science to get rid of these three steps. We found a café and had a good lunch – Haworth is busy, even in January. We went...
Categories Uncategorized/World War 1/Yorkshire Comments: 0
December 30, 2018

Derwent Valley Heritage Way 7 – Matlock to Whatstandwell

On Thursday 13 December I caught the 1259 from Duffield to Matlock to set off and do the next bit of the Derwent Valley Mills Trail. I avoided the railway bookshop at Matlock station, crossed the river, and walked through the park. A display board reminded me that this was the bottom of the Matlock Cable Tramway – this is an 1891 set of pictures licensed by Commons.wikimedia. It was opened up Matlock Bank in 1893 and lasted until 1927 – there was a continuously moving cable under the road and the trams had a speed of 5 mph....
Categories 1,000 mile walking/Derbyshire/Derwent Walk/Railway History/Trams Comments: 0