Ilkley's Cow and Calf, Leeds Playhouse and Wakefield stroll

YAY SUMMER!  Been here four summers now, this is the first time I have been warm.  Its 29 degrees as I write this in early July. 

But what have we been doing since last blog at the start of June?

Got to admit, I thought June was a bit of a slow month as far as interesting things to report on these pages went.  But I know even a boring month here still means we go places we haven't been before and take photos. 

The last few weeks have even provided sunny warm English summer days so I can attach some shots that are actually interesting;

We enjoy the Ilkley Cow and Calf pub for its good meals and great service but it always rains there.  So one fine June weekend we returned  for a walk through the old mill stone quarry, a lunch naturally, and a pint.  The photos here are a selection of the day. 

The Cow and Calf pub sits on a ridge overlooking Ilkley in Wharfedale and the iconic Cow and Calf rocks which you can see behind Gail in the photo above and from which the pub takes its name.

 The rocks provide climbers with practice and walkers with great scenery.

But enough about lunch.  Some time during June we also went into Leeds again this time for the partaking of some last century culture by going to the Yorkshire Playhouse to see a performance of Noel Coward's Hayfever. Excellent performance marred only by the director and or producer who failed to take any opportunity to modernise the play, probably due to some sense of purity and fuddy-duddy respect to the script.... I guess I should have expected a somewhat time-lost story and creaky portrayal of an arts/society family in the 1950s.  As I said, it was well done excellently acted or hammed, and at least we can now say we have been to Leeds' premier theatre venue. 

We also spent the day taking lunch over the canal, walking the city streets ( a shot here of Leeds' 45degree cemetery),

and even did another bloody church. 

Photos of which are here by inserted as well as I can now do given Google's draconian and unilateral up-stuffing of what was a good photo handling blog platform... but I digress.                                                    I don't want to set the theme as a whole month of looking at churches, although........  We also went down to Wakefield on another fine day to look at a business for sale there.... yes another adventure of the mind.  Did I tell you I had too much time on my hands?  Anyway while we were down there (it's a bit south east of Leeds) we stopped off at a couple of places of interest.

-----

--So Wakefield, a very old city mostly lost in the bombings of the war but with some lovely and enjoyable relics.  The original Wakefield Bridge was the only all weather river crossing for a while and any traveller heading off across the country was in fear of being attacked, robbed and generally made to feel unhappy.  The church, sensing an opportunity, built a chancellery right on the middle of the only all weather bridge out of Wakefield. 

No god-fearing traveller could hope to pass it without offering prayer and the obligatory tithe to ensure a christian god protected them on their journey to Leeds or parts west. Cunning buggers, the church. There is no record suggesting if you didn't pay up then the church would hire thugs to beat you up on the other side of the river and I don't know what made me think this would ever have been the case.  But I was told this chancellery collected more money than any other church or king at the time...

After stopping to marvel at the stone carving of the chancellery, (partly intrigued by the "and more recently" phrase on the blue plaque, we saw there are weathered and worn ancient imposing stone faces on one side and new carved images of modern faces, probably council members, on the other side, really strange.  I can only imagine what level of ego would make you say yes to the question, "do you want your head carved into the stone of Wakefield Chancellery?"  So if they are not local politicians then there are some supposedly humble clergy with a lot of explaining to do.

Time for a drink we thought. Whenever we are in a place we don't know much about we look for the canals and seek out a pub.  Stanley Ferry is a large British Waterways dock where they make the huge oak canal lock gates, check and register boats, run marinas and control traffic over some really impressive water filled boat bridges.   One of these bridges is supposedly the model for the Sydney Harbour bridge.  That makes two bridges in North England and one in New York that we have been told this story about.... I am beginning to wonder..... There is also a great big modern pub called the Stanley Ferry Pub.  We spent a fantastic afternoon talking to some mad locals, looking at narrow boats, watching dogs and animals gambol in the fields and generally having a fine summer evening.  

Just to close off, I know a blog page would never be complete without a pretty animal picture so here are some Stanly ferry mute swans. Note the reflections of canal boats.  There is a quietly brewing theme here.... maybe another canal boat hire trip is in our future.

 For now though, it is early July, we have just come back from a fantastic couple of days in Manchester where we looked at a block of units, a house and, together with a couple of really good friends may have started an above-table cracker eating trend.  More on all of that and a report on our holiday in Germany when next I update the blog again. 

Do keep in touch.

Gail and I are both on Facebook now so add us to your friends list if you wish.