The Dead Centre of Saltburn

 At the end of the seafront in Saltburn is this random mortuary. 

Not what you would normally expect at the seaside but, looking at the state of the fish and

chips being sold further along the prom, it's probably quite useful.

Pit wheel being poignant and artistic in a fossil garden, a view to sea from the upper terrace and an old North Eastern Railway marker stone outside the railway station. 

Pump Up The Tram

Tuesday 20th July 2021

The Village Pump Collection goes large, with the one used by the Saltburn Tramway. 

This funicular is the only one in England (and, therefore, the world) that

uses the North Sea as a means of propulsion.

Sea water is pumped up the slope to fill tanks in the upper carriage and is then used as ballast weight to send it to the bottom whilst also pulling the opposite carriage (with empty ballast tanks) up to the top, where the process is repeated for the next trip.

The Tramway was created to enable the better classes to travel from their nice, headland hotels with commanding views, to the pier below. 

They could then promenade out to sea in a civilised fashion and avoid the common peasantry on the seafront who were only there for the day and couldn't be trusted not to get in the way, start singing and then throw things about.

Looking at the crowd piling off the train from Middlesbrough, not much has changed over the years on that score. 

Cherry Bomb

Tuesday July 20th 2021

Saltburn by the Sea

My continuing, but very occasional, series recording the converted naval mines found in many English Coastal towns.

This one is outside the pier at Saltburn, North Yorkshire (some would say Cleveland). 

Morello coloured, but without the white band. 

It is not in terrible condition, however it would benefit from a bit of a tidy up. 

Acting as a giant collecting tin for The Shipwrecked Mariners Society, like the others, it is still unclear how often they are emptied or how they get the money out. 

Where The L's That?!

LNER Community Stadium

The brand new football and rugby league ground at the Vangarde Centre, York.

Following the plan to flatten the old ground, Bootham Crescent, for slum clearance and the aim of general improvement for the centre of York, both of the city's sporting clubs - York City FC (football) and York City Knights (rugby league) - have relocated to a swish new place in the 'burbs.

Great parking, fantastic choice of places to eat and drink, open spaces and close to the A64 (the main route to the city).

It is too good for the football fans that it will attract.

(The Northern Union crowd will, you feel, treat and appreciate it much better).

Unfortunately, in my attempt to avoid a stray lamp post blocking the club badges, I cut off the "L" from the LNER on the left.

LNER is the name given to the renationalised East Coast rail line.

Back in the day, LNER used to stand for the London and North Eastern Railway.

By missing the "L", this would make it the North Eastern Railway which, to be fair, actually used to exist as well.

....and no one wants to go to London anyway.

Arthur's Seat

Cliff Top, Gristhorpe. 

A handy bench to sit on and admire the view of the North Sea and look out for seals, dolphins and porpoise. 

It is the only seat on this part of the Cleveland Way, the nearest alternative one is about a mile away at Cayton Bay and doesn't have quite as good a name.

 

The view from that one is also quite good though. 

Arthur's Seat is quite highly sought after in the summer months and it's always a blow to arrive and find bloody tourists sat on it. 

On The Rocks

Gristhorpe Bay.

Only accessible from the clifftop, 115ft above, via rope. (You could walk around from the next bay, to be honest, but you would need to keep an eye on the tides and it's not as much fun as a semi-controlled plummet down the cliff).

Once at sea level, the beach is nice and quiet, home to seals and crabs and a good place to explore.

Especially the remains of "Sincere", a fishing boat which ran onto the rocks at Yons Nab (on the northern side) during thick fog on 28th May 1968.

It's All A Bit Fishy

Monday 28th June

The Promenade along the seafront at Bridlington has a retaining wall decorated with tiles depicting fish, a link to the (now dwindling) fishing industry in the town.

There are two types of tile, a single large fish and a pair of smaller ones.

Most of the fish are facing, or swimming, to the right (North to South).

However, a single large fish swims against the flow!

This was previously thought to be the only fish on the whole promenade facing the 'wrong way'.

But I found a pair of the smaller ones going against the flow too!

Postbox Cosy

Sunday 26th June 

Tuesday May 4th

(Star Wars Day!) 

Sunday 28th March 

I don't usually travel into the big city that often but on the last couple* of occasions that I have, I noticed that someone has been knitting hats for Filey's postbox. 

* That's a 'pub couple' 

(ie. "just popping to The Bull for a couple of pints") and not a literal couple (eg. only 2).  

Why don't Polar Bears eat Penguins?

...... because they can't get the wrappers off!! 

Spotted on the promenade wall outside the Sealife Centre (pyramids), North Bay Scarborough. 

A penguin has arrived, leaving with a little back sack. More or less positioned outside of the penguin enclosure (on the left, behind the fence with the 'Pirate Golf' sign). 

It has been signed by 'Wade' and is in a 'Banksy' style. 

A Wade Banksy. 

A Wanksy. 

The Continuing Village Pump Collection.

.......except that Newark is a town. 

May 2021.

At the edge of the market square is this pump.

The wooden post to the right was used, back in the day, to tie bears to for baiting purposes. 

The medievals were a set of bastards towards animals, sometimes.

Mind you, they were just as bad to themselves. 

Mantraps were deployed liberally amongst the estates of the Landowners to deter poachers who, not only became stuck in agonising pain waiting to be found and released but would also receive a proper kicking when they eventually were.

Any deserters during the Civil wars of the 17th Century would be made to wear the pin lined glove when they were 're enlisted'. 

The pins were not particularly sharp, but were heated to at least red hot, branding the wearer as a coward and a traitor for all to see.

Forever.

During the Civil War several castles were under seige for quite some time. Scarborough Castle was one, and issued its own currency for the duration. 

The skeleton was originally thought to have been a bloke, but it turns out that they are actually the bones of some giant woman.

Or something. 

Newark is home to the National Civil War Museum (photographs) which, it has to be said, was a fairly poor effort.

Maybe it was something to do with Covid and social distancing (most things are at the moment) but there really was no excuse for charging an entrance fee to see it. 

If it was free, I'd still be wanting my money back. 

Newark does have multilingual signage, however. 

The bottom photo is of one such sign in both English and Dog.