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January 30, 2020

A personal pause – another (two) MAs

My wife Julie is the clever clogs of the family. MA (Cantab), PGCE, MA (Open University). I have an MA (Cantab) and a BTh Hons (Nottingham). Once I could put ALA after my name, until I stopped being an Associate of the Library Association. Apparently it is now called CILIP which I guess is Chartered Institute of Library and Information Practitioners (slightly ironically their website doesn’t spell it out!). After a year or so in Derby we decided we needed to stretch our brains. Derby University were starting an MA in Public History and Heritage, and launched it at...
Categories Derbyshire/Personal Comment: 1
October 26, 2019

A Personal Pause – Harry and Sarah’s Wedding

Back in the North East for Harry and Sarah’s wedding at Newcastle Civic Centre on Saturday 21 September 2019. Here is me wearing a tie (and needing to lose some weight), Julie looking decidedly elf-like, Hannah (the one who works for the National Elf Service), Harry and Sarah. I am now a father-in-law and Julie is a mother-in-law (that’s scary!). We had the party at Gosforth Civic Theatre, which was a wonderful venue – and the staff could not have been more helpful. https://www.gosforthcivictheatre.co.uk/ After a lovely weekend, we then had a week’s holiday. Lots of love to them...
Categories Newcastle upon Tyne/Personal Comment: 1
September 23, 2019

Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire – Christ the Cornerstone

Driving home from High Wycombe on Saturday 18 August we stopped in Milton Keynes, and went to the Church of Christ the Cornerstone – SP 850 388. It wasn’t that busy on a Saturday morning – the café wasn’t open – but that part of MK seems to be more offices than anything else. The website is at http://www.cornerstonemk.co.uk/. We looked at buying our first house in MK around 1985 – I remember reading the brochures one lunchtime while I was working in London – and we have visited this church once before. It was described as MK’s Cathedral,...
Categories Buckinghamshire/Personal Comments: 0
May 29, 2019

Hanbury, Worcestershire – St Mary the Virgin

Friday 24 May and we are en route for a few days in Worcestershire. Hanbury Hall NT property is on our way – http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/hanbury-hall-and-gardens. The Vernon family moved to the estate in the 1570s, and Thomas Vernon started work on this house in about 1706. He had married Mary in 1680, became an MP, and wanted a Country Estate. The house was designed by provincial architects and craftsmen, but the interior decoration is by James Thornhill. He worked at Hampton Court, Greenwich Hospital, St Paul’s, and did this work in about 1710. The story is of Achilles, but there...
Categories National Trust/Personal/Worcestershire/World War 1 Comments: 0
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
December 17, 2018

Coventry Cathedral – a personal pause

My beautiful wife Julie is a Coventry girl, and Monday 3 December 2018 was our 35th wedding anniversary. We drove to Coventry, parked at the west end of the old cathedral and then went in to the new one. We needed a verger to take us down from the nave floor to the basement, and direct us through to the café. After a snack we went back upstairs, and had an explore – the photos were taken on my phone. We also purchased lots of guidebooks to write a full blog next time we come. The Cathedral was destroyed in...
Categories Cathedrals/Personal/West Midlands Comments: 0
October 23, 2018

Cherry Hinton, Cambridge – St Andrew

Rob and I continued on a bus to St Andrew’s church in Cherry Hinton, which is at TL 490571, and has a website. At 3 pm we had an appointment with Karin the Vicar and a lady called Isobel. We were to look at Evetts glass. For those who haven’t followed my blog for years, Leonard Evetts was an artist who lived in Newcastle for many years. I had some of his stained glass windows in Ponteland, and found others as I travelled round the North East (you can search for them all on this blog by using the category...
Categories Cambridgeshire/Evetts' windows/Personal Comments: 2
October 21, 2018

Cambridge – photos of Robinson and Selwyn Colleges

We had a day in Cambridge (Monday 17 September). Julie and Anne did Heffer’s and other bookshops. Rob and I had a walk. We called in at Robinson and Selwyn Colleges, both of which have been blogged before. Rob takes better photos than me, so we’ll add some of his photos to this blog (with my thanks). Let’s start with the Piper window in the chapel at Robinson. Selwyn remains very special – it is frightening to think it is 38 years since I met my beloved in this very chapel … We continued our walk down Church Rate...
Categories 1,000 mile walking/Cambridgeshire/Personal Comment: 1
July 18, 2018

Cambridge – Selwyn College

In Cambridge for the day. I left northernreader in Heffers bookshop and walked across to Selwyn College. Some of my earliest memories are of staying with Granny and Granddad – Joan and Len Hoskison  – who kept 23 Grange Road as a College hostel. I remember the noise as undergrads returned from hall. You can read more about those days in my mum’s book – Backstairs Cambridge, by Jane Barham (long out of print, but copies are available). Here is 23 Grange Road.15 years later I started at Selwyn, and my room was I15. A few weeks later I...
Categories Cambridgeshire/Personal Comments: 2
July 8, 2018

Heckington, Lincolnshire – Mill

Having been to the stunning church, we went to Heckington windmill – a unique eight-sail windmill beside the station, signal box and level crossing (though I still think the new H&S-complaint signal is hideous). The ‘box is 1876 Great Northern Railway, and Grade II listed – photos here. We had visited the mill in the early 90s – while at Lincoln Theological College we purchased a Lincoln Mills Passport and visited them all. I believe my family were the first to get their silver Dusty Miller badge. I can’t find a photo of it, and I must have lost...
Categories Lincolnshire/Personal/Railway History Comments: 0