Ribchester (Part 1) - Stydd Church

A lovely summer's day out first to Brockholes Nature Reserve (see View Too Blog about this) and upon the recommendation of one of the guides there we drove to Ribchester where archaeologists are doing a dig behind the Roman Museum there. (Year 1 of a 5 year project).  We were also told of a lovely little walk to The Church of St. Saviour at Stydd.

Past the Almshouses

The walk back to the pub car park in Ribchester.

Chester

An overnight stay in Chester and a walk round The Rows (two tier shops), enjoying the Christmassy atmosphere.  These pictures will enlarge if you click on them.

Inside the Cathedral

where we attended the Candle-lit service for the 1st Sunday of Advent.

Chesterfield, Derbyshire

A weekend away in Chesterfield, Derbyshire and a visit to the Museum and  St. Mary and All Saints, the Parish Church, with its wonderful wonky spire.

I like to light candles for my family

"Scot Free" 

A visit to the Museum was most informative. I never knew what a "windlass" was until this weekend.  

It was used in the construction of the church tower. The wheel is so perfectly balanced that it can be set in motion by just pushing it with one finger.  The timbers (apart from 3 replaced pieces which had been stolen) have been dated using dendrochronology and are 1,000 years old.

There are links to more information in the first paragraph.

In search of ancestors - Heddon on the Wall

One of the pleasures of being retired has been spending the past twelve months or so researching my family history.  I joined Ancestry.co.uk and was hooked. The roots of my family tree stretch back to the 1600s, and reveal generation upon generation of  English commonfolk from the Midlands, Yorkshire and North of England. I have not been able to go back any further than about 1580.

In 1679 one of my 7th great grandfathers was born in a little village called Heddon on the Wall, Northumberland. ('The Wall' referring to Hadrian's Wall). I learned that his grave still exists in a nearby village called Kirkwhelpington and thought it would be an experience to visit the area he lived in.

We made a bee-line for the 7th Century St. Andrew's Church which was added to by the Normans.  Here we found the medieval oak chest which had housed the church documents. It has three locks, 3 different people having a key to one of them.  The priest had the middle one.  The documents are now kept somewhere else. My 7th G.GFather was baptised here, in the Saxon font no doubt. I was so enraptured by the experience which I had been looking forward to for months that I didn't take enough photos.  There are some excellent ones if you click on the link.

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KIRKWHELPINGTON

Where I remembered to take more photos.

 

Gravestone of 7th GGF, who lived to be 88.  He is buried with his brother who died in the same year aged 84 in 1759.  The family were here for about 125 years and there are four gravestones with lots of beautiful inscriptions.  Several of the family were stonemasons and carpenters. The family moved to Long Benton, near Newcastle upon Tyne.

Samlesbury Hall, Lancashire

April 9th and we ventured out with our trusty picnic basket loaded with ham and lettuce sandwiches, flasks of boiling hot water, flask of milk - the makings of tea and coffee (we like to make it fresh in the cup) and not forgetting the McVitie's Digestive biscuits.

We headed for Samlesbury Hall, (pronounced Sarmsberry) near Blackburn, Lancashire and spent a lovely couple of hours there, soaking up the history and atmosphere.

Here are some pictures, click on them for a closer look  . . .

In the school-room - check out the dates on these two pictures

Of course they say it is haunted . . . but nobody stroked my hair that day . . . 

 I love this little desk and  chair by the side of the range

Signs of the times

 The two youngest grandsons were both in nativity plays this Christmas, both very different in style.  One took place in a catholic church, the other in school.

The church one was very traditional and of course, there were quite a few of us shedding emotional tears. My grandson was the Innkeeper and also did some of the narration.

The school one was a musical play called 'Christmas with the Aliens' and was more of a 'fun singing and dancing one'.  A spaceship full of aliens (about 12 of them!) land on Earth because their spaceship has 'broken down'.  They meet some earthlings who take them to see a nativity play, where they learn about the birth of Jesus.  The earthlings are able to start their spaceship for them and the aliens set off home to 'spread the word'.

This was on the door where we waited to go in to see the performance.

Also waiting was this wooden reindeer, which I think is a very clever use of wood and branches.  Behind him is a bin for people to donate groceries for the less well-off.  There are a lot of those these days, and distribution centres have been set up to help families who cannot afford to buy enough food.  Sadly, bins like this are now a frequent sight in supermarkets etc.

I hope your Christmas is a happy one. xx

Christmas Shopping in York

We spent two nights at the Premier Inn in York as we had booked tickets to see Harry Christophers and The 16 at the Minster on Thursday evening.

We were able to walk about before the performance and during the interval but could not take pictures whilst the 16 were singing.  They were marvellous of course! (Here is a link to them on Youtube)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiFSdL5eCVk

The following day we visited the Museum:-

http://www.yorkshiremuseum.org.uk/Page/SpecialExhibitions.aspx

Ancient Trollbeads!

and of course we did some Christmas Shopping! 

Nice carrier bags, eh?!