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December 23, 2022

northernvicarwalks July and August 2022

Most of July was spent in Orkney, but we managed two train trips on return. I turned 60 at the beginning of August and we had a family meet up at Harlow Carr Gardens. At the end of the week we had booked a Fish and Chip special on the Welshpool and Llanfair line. It was a beautiful evening, I spent too much in the bookshop, Julie was well looked after (it is an excellent lift), and the fish and chips (served on the platform at Welshpool) were lovely. Like many things in my life, it also became a...
Categories Personal/Railway History Comments: 0
December 23, 2022

Lincoln Cathedral (again)

I did a reasonable blog in 2014 – here – and we revisited what is still my second-favourite Cathedral on 22 July 2022. It’s always bitter-sweet going to Lincoln, as we lived there with three young children and there are many things that remind us of Gareth. It’s bitter-sweet as the Theological College is closed, sold off and rebuilt as luxury flats. The chapel in which I worshipped daily is now a very nice apartment, behind big security gates and a sign that says “beware of the dog.” The welcoming, homely college, place of students and families, of a...
Categories Lincolnshire/Personal Comments: 3
December 28, 2021

Barton, Cambridgeshire – St Peter

Our 38th wedding anniversary, 3 December 2021. We drove to Barton and parked by the school so I could have an explore of St Peter’s – TL 408557. The village of my childhood. We moved here when I was 9. Lovely that St Peter’s church was open – indeed church, chapel, school and Vicarage, still seemed the same as they were half a century ago. But Mr Law no longer lives in the Vicarage and Miss Mason no longer lives in the School House. Looking at the church website – https://www.bartonstpeters.org.uk/ – I did not remember that there is...
Categories Cambridgeshire/Personal Comment: 1
December 27, 2021

Cambridge, Cambridgeshire – St Andrew’s Street Baptist Church

We are in Cambridge for a Wedding Anniversary break and on 2 December 2021 (37 years and 364 days since that Fateful Day) we walked along to St Andrew’s Street Baptist Church. I realised that, although we worshipped here for three years and were married here, I know nothing about the history of the church. The website helps – https://www.stasbaptist.org/Groups/239182/Our_History.aspx – and I hope they don’t mind if I use a couple of their photos. On 16 April 1721 a group of Christians took over the stable and granary that was on this site, and started a new church....
Categories Cambridgeshire/Personal Comments: 0
December 4, 2020

northernvicarwalks November 2020

We were running a safe service in each church every Sunday, but were told on the evening of Saturday 31 October that Sunday 1 November would be the last service for several weeks. Apparently the announcement came as a surprise to the Archbishops as well. Good to know that State still talks to Church. Remembrance Sunday was difficult – clear instructions from the City and the Director of Public Health that we must not meet at War Memorials. The Government gave one message about standing on our doorsteps, but also issued instructions that small groups could meet together and...
Categories 1,000 mile walking/Cambridgeshire/Derbyshire/Personal Comments: 0
August 20, 2020

National Memorial Arboretum, Staffordshire – RAF, Far East, Land Girls and Navy

Having visited the Millennium Chapel, we started to explore the grounds. There is no way I will do all the memorials, so we will have a selection of them. The gardens are lovely, and there is a good variety of planting. I like the Alder Tree, although the Arboretum seems cut off from Alrewas by the A38. Access to the Arboretum by public transport is appalling. The RAF Halton Apprentices Memorial Garden has a centrepiece representing the wheel badge. The base in Buckinghamshire, was open in 1912 when forces from Aldershot needed somewhere to practice the defence of London...
Categories Personal/Staffordshire/World War 1 Comment: 1
August 19, 2020

northernvicarwalks July 2020

This cartoon was in Private Eye and it sums everything up better than I can. I should have been celebrating my 25th anniversary of Ordination, instead we are struggling to get churches reopened. We had our first Sunday service at St Matthew’s on 19 July – St Edmund’s has had the builders in, so that delayed things there. Some local walks to Quorn, Duffield and along the old railway to Breadsall. A very wet day at Blist’s Hill Museum at Ironbridge. Trips to Kedleston Hall, our nearest National Trust property. A new whill3 powerchair from TGA Mobility, named Morgan....
Categories 1,000 mile walking/Personal Comments: 0
June 3, 2020

northernvicarwalks – May 2020

This cartoon sums up the shambles that was May. If you don’t laugh, you’ll cry. It will be interesting if people reading this blog in 20 years time have any idea who the cartoon relates to. I know an historian should give his sources, but I will not mention the evil man’s name. The first half of the month was spent walking round the garden, going some cooking, and trying to hold everything together. Thursday 14 was the first proper walk, a circle through Quarndon and the outskirts of Duffield. Lovely to see that the tree is still there,...
Categories 1,000 mile walking/Derbyshire/Personal Comment: 1
May 5, 2020

northernvicarwalks [or doesn’t walk] – April 2000

Here we are in the time of Covid-19. This is one cartoon which sums up the month. The one below sums up what it felt like not to do Holy Week and Easter in my churches. You had to try and smile (or else you’d cry). If you want to know what we got up to in our two churches, have a look at https://www.stedsandstmatts.co.uk/copy-of-worship-while-our-buildings The furthest I got in the month was Nottingham Road Cemetery. The staff there (and at the Crem) are being superb. We tried to keep in touch with people through emails, phone, and facebook....
Categories 1,000 mile walking/Derbyshire/Personal 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