Rovers Duck

"The Mall" shopping centre in Blackburn has acquired a giant duck. It has, fabulously, been painted in the colours of the most successful and famous, town based football club that the world has ever known.... Blackburn Rovers FC.

Little Trains.

Well, small engines, actually. The train is the rake of carriages or wagons being pulled along. The locomotive is the engine.
Anyways, the daytime photo of 2014 LION was taken outside Filey Railway Station (which can be seen in the background).
Evening photos of 1931 AVENA were taken in front of the North Bay Railway at Newstead Gardens, Scarborough. Rather than a wooden replica, as at Filey, this engine appears to be one of the early working loco"s used on the railway which is now being used as a static display.

Six Fish Fingers and Chips, please.

Barden Lane Chippy, Dingledom.

We have waited around 3 years for the latest incarnation of the local Chip Shop to finally open. 

Gone are the halcyon days of Ronnie (who, legend has it, used to spit into the fat to test that it was hot enough to fry the fish).

There was a brief reign of 'Bo Shin' (following Ronnie's retirement/death)  whose Chinese takeaway meals were undoubtedly better than their attempts at the staple English Fish and Chips. 

The 'Min Hui' was the next replacement and fared better on both types of menu, (but memory fades as to which establishment had the guy with the extra little finger who served up the food. In either case it turns out to have been an inbreeding omen of future ownership...)
The Min Hui closed and the shop was idle for many years. 

Eager excitement was stirred when the SOLD sign finally went up after years on the market.
Fish & Chips for dinner again! Thank goodness it wasn't going to be a curry house!! 

But over 2 years then passed as much refurbishment was undertaken (transforming the inside at seemingly great cost into being exactly the same as it always has been). 
What a blow, therefore, to discover the new colour scheme and signage to be vomit inducing.... Shite & light blue are a worrying and nauseating combination in any circumstance.
Worst fears were confirmed when it finally opened this week... It IS a Dinglefest. 

Unfortunately the new owners appear to be linking themselves to the Bastard Football Club of Dingledom. 
So after all the waiting and anticipation, it turns out that we will never actually buy anything from there after all.  

Ghost Signs

I recently stumbled across the Twitter account for @ghostsignsuk.
Ghost signs represent an opportunity to experience social history in the present time.
They are something I had previously been aware of, but had never thought to record.
Until now!!
This one is for "K Boots and Shoes" and was found in Murray Street, Filey, North Yorkshire.(if you llook closely there's even a 'flying Hoover', but as this isn't painted onto the brickwork, I'm not sure that it counts.....) 

....... not so sure who the rather stunned looking fat bloke is, he wasn't there when I took the picture!  

In The Splosh Pit

Scarborough Open Air Theatre is situated in the North Bay public park. It is a 6000 seat outdoor concert area with the stage protected by a moat. It hosts many top name acts during the summer months but not, as yet, local heroes The Little Angels.

Are they Too Posh To Splosh?

Room With A View.

The old Royal Hotel on The Crescent at the top of West Cliff in Whitby. One time holiday retreat of Bram Stoker and the inspiration, along with the rest of the town, for his novel, Dracula.
Nowadays, no longer a hotel (and not looking very Royal}, it has been converted into apartments and is available for purchase complete with a nice blue plaque on the outside wall.

Moneyball

Central Park in Haworth, Yorkshire.
A piece of civic furniture made from hundreds of 2p pieces. Not sure what the relevance is, but the total amount of tuppences is probably greater than the value of the 'art'.

A Tale Of Two Chippies....

It has to be said that Yorkshire just cannot do Fish & Chips. 

Over 20 years of visiting the Yorkshire Coast (at least 3 times per year) and we have still to find a decent Chip 'ole. 

I don't know what the problem is. They should be good, (with fish fresh from the North Sea that very day), THEY even say that they ARE good but (like cricket & tea) this is proven to be simply self publicity and the reality is that they are, in fact, fairly poor at them indeed. 

As if the actual fish and chips in the region weren't bad enough, there appears to be a highly desirable custom (amongst locals) of 'scraps' which, as far as I can see, involves dumping a load of dregs from the fryer onto your food. I fell foul of this practice once but never again. 

The next occasion they were offered I declined and the guy behind me nearly exploded in delight saying that they could put mine onto his order if they liked. He looked like he had just won the lottery and was chuckling to himself : "hee hee!, double scraps!! hee hee!" 

So, lacking any 'decent' (never mind 'good') Chipperies the most adequate places we have managed to find in all this time of searching the Coast are The Magpie at Whitby and North Bay Fisheries at Scarborough.
The Magpie, however, does seem to live on its reputation and charges excessively for small portions. 

For some reason the restaurant has aquired a cult following (the darling of TV travel shows) and people are, unbelievably, prepared to queue outside in all weathers whilst waiting for a table. The photo, for example, was taken from across the road in a designated 'waiting area', such is the need to keep the road clear from those desperate to eat there. 

It seems to be a case of the Emperor's New Clothes as far as self perpetuating praise goes. But, hey ho, I suppose, given the standard of stuff available elsewhere in the county, you can understand the clamour to be ripped off in return for something edible. 

North Bay Fisheries, across the road from Peasholm Park in Scarborough, is more realistically priced and actually provides a decent amount of chips with a fish worthy of the name (Magpie should take note). 

Both these oulets avoid floating your food in a sea of grease which seems to be the norm everywhere else. 

In reality, however, the best and nearest Chip 'ole to the Yorkshire Coast is Vic's Fountain Chippy in Blackburn. (Go for "John Bull & chips") 

Cholmley House, Whitby.

A view of Whitby Hall/Cholmley House from Whitby Abbey (and of The Abbey from Cholmley House).
The banqueting hall was built for Sir Hugh Chomeley using materials 'borrowed' from the Abbey following its dissolution (by order of King Henry VIII) in 1539.
The bronze statue in the centre of the courtyard is of the Borghese Gladiator and is a replica of the original (which itself was a replica of a sculpture from c100 BC) which stood on that spot.

To Boldly Go......

The Southern Hemisphere, the final frontier.
The voyages of Captain James T. Cook, his mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to discover intelligence in new lands.....

Unfortunately, he only found Australia.

This statue is on West Cliff, Whitby (the town where he lived and which built his ships - the Bark HMS Endeavour and the Sloop HMS Resolution).