A Depiction of The Raising of Lazarous in Stained Glass, St John The Evangelist Church, Tolpuddle.

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church, Church architecture, Church of England., Lazarus, St John The Evangelist Tolpuddle, stained glass., The Raising of Lazarus, Tolpuddle

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A Depiction of The Entombment in Stained Glass, Wimborne Minster, Wimborne Minster.

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Church architecture, Church of England., Churches, entombment, Jesus Christ., Joseph of Armathea, Mary Magdalene, Nicedemus, St Mary, stained glass., The Blessed Virgin Mother, The Entombment, Wimborne Minster

Another usual example of stained glass from Wimborne Minster [the first being a depiction of The Resurrection]. Joseph of Arimathea, wearing a blue halo, as well as a red cap, lowers Jesus Christ into a “modern box tomb“, on the left of the scene. Nicedemus, who helped prepare Jesus Christ’s body for burial, wears a purple halo and stand on the right of the scene. Mary, The Blessed Virgin Mother, looks composed beside Joseph of Armathea. Mary Magdalene however is obscured by the haloes of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicedemus, which makes for a rather unusual composition!

You can see the top of her head above the haloes and two hands raised in an attitude of grief.

Captain Edmund Blackadder, “Thomas’s of York” Public House, Museum Street, York, 15/08/15.

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BBC, BBC Comedy, Blackadder, Blackadder Comes Forth, brickwork, Captain Edmund Blackadder, comedy, Public houses, pubs, Rowan Atkinson, Thomas's of York, window, World War One, York

http://thomasofyorkpub.wix.com/thomas-of-york-

Souvenirs: Wristband, Thinktank, Birmingham Science Museum, Millennium Point, Curzon Street, Birmingham, 30/04/15.

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Birmingham, Birmingham Science Museum, Brough Superior, Castle Bromwich, Millennium Point Birmingham, pangolin, Queen Victoria, Royal Train, Souvenirs, Spitfire, Spitfire Gallery, Ted, The Black Alpine Brough Superior, Thinktank, triceratops, wristband

On my way down to Bristol to visit my sister, I changed trains at Birmingham New Street and picked a leaflet with “New: Spitfire Gallery, Thinktank, Birmingham” written on it. Six days later, on breaking my journey at Birmingham New Street again, I rushed through the famous Bull Ring, across previously unexplored territory, to Millennium Point for the quickest of quick looks before continuing on my way.

I was completely unaware of Birmingham’s connection to the iconic Spitfire, so the Spitfire Gallery was very much an eye opener.  10,000 Spitfires, including the example suspended from the ceiling at Thinktank, were produced at the Castle Bromwich Aeroplane Factory. Unfortunately, I didn’t note down any of the interesting facts I came across that day, but I am left with a general impression that it was very good!

The notes I did scribble down describe a pangolin [“This armoured anteater uses its powerful claws to pull apart ant-hills and termite mounds“], the fossilised skeleton of a triceratops discovered in Montana in 1098, The Black Alpine Brough Superior motorcycle [“Top speed 85 miles an hour“] and an oil lamp from Queen Victoria’s Royal Train, so I must have been particularly taken with these exhibits. I’ll have to have a more leisurely look around the next time I’m in Birmingham.

If you’re interested in science and industry or the natural sciences, the Thinktank is well worth looking into.

Souvenirs: Leaflet, “The Horse With The Red Umbrella” Tea Rooms and Coffee House, 10 High West Street, Dorchester, 29/04/15.

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Dorchester, Dorset, Food and Drink, High West Street Dorchester, leaflet, Loyalty Theatre, Souvenirs, tea., Ted, The Horse With The Red Umbrella

https://www.facebook.com/TheHorseWithTheRedUmbrella. 

I only know three facts about “The Horse With The Red Umbrella” Tea Rooms and Coffee House and only one of them is mentioned in this souvenir.

Firstly: This spot on the High Street was once occupied by the Loyalty Theatre, between 1828 and 1843, before becoming a glass and china shop and then “The Horse With The Red Umbrella” in 1970 [named after the last play to be performed at the Loyalty Theatre, allegedly].

Secondly: I was made so welcome on my first visit “The Horse With The Red Umbrella” when I went in there for my elevenses I went back there for tea [or dinner as some people prefer to call it] on the same day!

Thirdly: My travelling companion, Mrs. W, never gets the name of the restaurant correct! It is usually the Umbrella that slips her mind and it is often replaced by another wet weather item, like wellies or galoshes! Not that that is problem, because we always remember The Horse.

Window Boxes in Bloom, The Royal York Hotel, Station Road, York, 15/08/15.

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flowers, gardening, Grade II listed, North Eastern Railway, Railway Architecture of North East England, Station Road York, The Royal York Hotel, William Peachey, window, window boxes, York

Leaving the train at York is always a feast for the eyes.I usually cross the station using the footbridge, so I can admire one of the great “cathedrals of the Railway Age” [to borrow a phrase a website called “Railway Architecture of North East England“] and take everything in. Then I usually turn left when I leave the station, onto Station Road, passed the waiting taxi cabs and face my first York landmark, The Royal York Hotel, a Grade II listed building designed by William Peachey of the North Eastern Railway. The hotel opened in 1878, a year after the present railway station, and was the flagship hotel for the North Eastern Railway Company’s flagship hotel, according to a certain on-line encyclopaedia.

I can’t say I have notice The Royal York Hotel’s window boxes in the past, but they must have looked particularly charming on this particular occasion [either that or I wasn’t rushing passed then in a hurry to get somewhere for once]!

“Frying Fish & Chips”, The Chipperies, 15 South Street, Wareham, 08/07/15.

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Dorset, Fish and Chips, Food and Drink, frying, light, signs, South Street Wareham, The Chipperies, Wareham

The Union flag flying from The Grand Hotel and Spa, Station Rise, York, 15/08/15.

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badges, British Rail, British Rail Eastern Region, coat of arms, flags, North Eastern Railway, ornamental detail, railways, Station Rise York, The Grand Hotel and Spa York, Union Flag, York

Note the badges of the North Eastern Railway under the bay window.

Not all visitors to arrive in York, I’ve noticed recently, head into town, having passed through the historic city walls, having turned into Station Rise; in fact I’m probably in the minority. Station Rise has always been, in my lifetime, home to The North Eastern Railway Memorial, dedicated to the 2236 men of the company who lost their lives in the Great War, buses coming out of George Hudson Street (named after “The Railway King” George Hudson, railway pioneer, Conservative politician, dubious businessman and debtor) and this impressive Edwardian red brick building, which is now The Grand Hotel and Spa.

A plaque, a piece of history in itself, informed me that, “This building, now the headquarters of British Rail, Eastern Region, was head office of the North Eastern Railway from 1906“. I think I’m right in saying that York became the headquarters of the Eastern Region when it amalgamated with the North Eastern Region in 1967 and ceased to exist in 1992 [but if you’re an expert in these matters, feel free to correct me], so the plaque was already something of a curiosity when I started to notice the plaque when I was a much younger man than I an today!

The badge of the York and North Midland Railway (Top), the badge of the Leeds Northern Railway (left) and the badge of the York Newcastle and Berwick Railway, which formed the North Eastern Railway in 1854.

The plaque also describes the different elements of the North Eastern Railway badge, which is one of the most noticeable ornamental details and can just be seen below the bay window in first photograph and in detail above.

The View from The Georgian House Museum, 7 Great George Street, Bristol, 05/08/15.

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Bristol, City Hall Bristol, cityscape, E Vincent Harris, English Literature, Georgian Britain, Great George Street Bristol, John Pinney, Museums, Romantics, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, slavery, sugar, The Georgian House Museum Bristol, views, William Wordsworth

The view from The Georgian House Museum isn’t what it was, for better or worse; I don’t know the history of Bristol well enough to say. E Vincent Harris’ Bristol Council House, opened by The Queen in 1956 and renamed Bristol City Hall in 2012, dominates the centre of this cityscape; with Bristol Cathedral barely visible behind.

I would imagine that, in the 1790s, when John Pinney, sugar merchant and slave plantation owner, moved into the property he would have been able to see as far as College Green. The Georgian House Museum’s website suggests that John Pinney would have been able to see ships in the harbour from his bedroom window; you’d have hardly thought it looking at this view!

The Museum’s website also informs me that the Pinneys entertained the Romantic poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth at their Great George Street home. What would they have made of the view from this window, I wonder?

“The Rose of Denmark” Public House on a Thursday Evening, 6 Dowry Square, Bristol, 06/08/15.

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Alexandra of Denmark, Bristol, evening, light, Public houses, pubs, Royal Family, The Rose of Denmark, The Rose of Denmark Public House Bristol, Traffic lights

According to the Bristol Post the name “The Rose of Denmark”, is reference to “Alexandra, Edward VII’s Queen“. Alexandra of Denmark, according to a certain on-line encyclopaedia, gave her name to 67 road and streets in Greater London alone, the historic entertainment venue Alexandra Palace and the Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps; as well as plenty of public houses across the United Kingdom.