Riot Control, Preston Style

Daleks : Invasion Scarborough 2012

The Butter Cross Scarborough

The last remaining medieval street cross. Not sure if that's the last in Britain or in Scarborough. There's not much cross left in either case.

Naval Gun #4

Filey Sea Cadets (TS Unseen).
Outside the cadet building is this British built deck gun. It was originally part of a French ship which was captured by the Germans in WWII who moved it onto one of their own vessels.
The recipient German ship was subsequently captured by the French and the gun relocated back onto a French boat.
Before the story could become too silly, the French ship was sunk off Filey Brigg, (probably by a German ship looking for a new deck gun....),  where years later it was salvaged by a local fisherman who took it into Scarborough Harbour, further along the  coast.
It was given to Filey Sea Cadets & transported by Fork Lift Truck (a rather precarious & entertaining journey by all accounts) to their Filey base.
Now painted back to prevent vandalism by local youths, it was once highly polished metal & brass.
I know this because, despite the lack of a descriptive plate, the driver of that very Fork Lift Truck popped out & told us the tale!

Smugglers Apprentice

Following on from the purchase for the towns of Scarborough and Filey of the sculptures 'Freddie Gilroy' and 'A high tide in short Wellies' a further piece has been bought for Scarborough.
This is 'The Smugglers Apprentice' and is supposed to reflect the history of the town.
A town full of criminals, obviously.

Naval Gun #3

Scarborough Harbour

More Pill Boxes at Cayton Bay

... towards the Northern end this time. Views from inside each box. The heavily weathered painted sign reads "Clothing Optional Beach".

Naval Gun #2

Whitby Harbour.

Naval Gun #1

Bridlington Harbour.

Staithes

To the north of Whitby. Just like Cornwall, but not hundreds of miles away.
The embankment above the house in the middle picture contains a stone parapet, from which the old railway line crossed the estuary on a wooden trestle bridge. It arrived on the near side more or less where the photo was taken from (behind which are the old station buildings).

'Ow's about that, then??

I took the photo of the plaque (Blogger seems to publish them in any old order.....) hours before the Scarborough News took the 'graffiti affected' one.

Within the space of a week we had the naming ceremony of a thoroughfare, the putting up of wall plaque, a newspaper revelation, the defacing of Wall plaque, the removal of Wall plaque and the reversing of the naming of the thoroughfare. 

'Savile's View' is now back to being 'Bird Cage Walk'.
Looks like Scarborough doesn't want to be associated with Sir Jimmy anymore.

Naval Battle at Peasholme

For the last 80 years or so, a feature of Peasholme Park in Scarborough has been the Naval Battle.
Originally it represented a WW1 exchange between British and German Dreadnoughts.
More recently, it has become a loose reenactment of the Battle of the River Plate with models of the Graf Spee & HMS's Ajax, Achillies & Exeter. There is also an aircraft carrier (HMS Ark Royal) as well as a submarine and merchant liner.
Lots of explosions, aeroplanes swooping in on wires and smoke from the stricken ships.
Up the 20ft in size, the models are controlled by a person sitting inside them.
Moored at the island when not in use, the photos just about catch them on maximum zoom.

Thornwick Bay

¾mile North of North Landing along the cliffs is Thornwick Bay which was once protected by a WW2 pill box & (across the beach from right to left) the remains of tank or landing craft traps.
The Bay is just south of the 'White Cliffs of Bempton' which was the inspiration for a wartime song by Vera Lynn but the location had to be changed as they couldn't think of a rhyme.
There are many interesting caves to be investigated by people and dogs!

John Paul Jones

.....not the much more famous bass guitarist from Led Zeppelin, but the father of the American Navy.
Actually a Scot, JPJ offered his services to the British Settlers during the civil war which resulted in Devolution for the colony.
His ship, the Bonhomme Richard, engaged the Royal Navy frigate HMS Serapis off the coast of Flamborough and north towards Filey, & was sunk in the confrontation.
The photos are of a monument to commemorate the battle, sited on the spot at Flamborough Head where local people congregated to watch the exchanges.
(This was in the days before television or football had been invented, obviously) .

Thomas The Bakers never fail to entertain!

All three in one bag...... The Ginger Mong Spacker Pack!

Cayton to Scarborough

The East Coast is falling into the sea at a stupid rate. I think it's something close to 6ft a year. Erosion isn't so much from the action of the sea below the cliffs, but from water (rain) drainage through them from above.
Photo above Gristhorpe Bay of recent landslip.
The WW2 pill box on Cayton Bay has new artwork.
View from Scarborough Castle over the North Bay.

Whitby Panorama

First attempt at using Pano App. In direct sunlight it was difficult to line up the images and a bit of post photo editing was needed, but it's a reasonable representation of Whitby from Tate Hill Beach (the beach onto which Dracula crashed his boat).

Helmsley & Rievaulx revisited #2

In the dry this time! Some of the carvings & mosaics found around the Abbey.
Rievaulx was built by the Cistercian monks, who in their day were a very influential group. They controlled lands & properties over much of England and Europe.
They were very active traders, which is how they gained the wealth to fund their buildings (as well as 'accepting donations' from landowners in return for a guaranteed place in Heaven) .
Probably the forerunners to the old 'African Prince in excile who needs your bank details to release his £billions' trick....
I can also exclusively report that the ongoing experiment to chart deterioration of a medieval fire over the centuries, shows no noticeable difference over the last 2 months.