Hawes

The railway is gone and you can only get to the Museum by bus as Hawes railway station was been converted into the Folk Museum. Well, since Dr Beeching zapped the Dales, you can take shank’s pony and walk or even take the car if you want to pay for parking.

The cultural museum was inspired by Marie Hartley and Joan Ingleby, the prodigious authors of Yorkshire sociology and history. The museum covers all you could want to see about life in the dales from the ice age forward and explains a lot about the Yorkshire psyche. There are lots of interactive activities to keep the young and old amused and kids get in for free!

The Wensleydale Vintage Bus service uses two buses from the 1940′s (named Dorothy and Edith) and Bessie from 1961 to run between Ripon and Hawes, Garsdale and Redmire. Bus passes accepted! In summer this links to the Wensleydale Railway.

Spades

Aims and Objectives of the Friends of the Dales Countryside Museum

* To promote the improvement of the museum
* To raise funds to help in maintaining and enlarging the collection. (Registered Charity No. 519 546)
* To arrange events for the interest and education of the Friends

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Dougie Lampkin is only 33 but he has already accumulated 12 World Championship titles including 7 consecutive World Outdoor Championships and 5 Indoor.

Motor bikes   run in the Lampkin family. Dougie’s father Martin was the first trials world champion in 1975. Dougie’s  uncle Arthur was even more famous, riding for the army in 1958 and becoming nationally famous during the sixties.  Scrambling was often on the TV and many lads dreamt of riding a bike as Arthur so frequently did.
Alan Lampkin was the other less successful brother but he did win the Scottish six day trial in 1966.

Pictures of Arthur

We should have this sport as an Olympic event in 2012! If we did Dougie’s existing MBE for services to sport would be upgraded!

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The Good Things

  • The road to Hull but beware the M62 also goes to that other place.
  • Road to Bradford via Pudsey or any other road out of the city for that matter.
  • The ring road so you do not have to go into the city centre – not that the Burghers of Leeds want any cars near their city judging by the atrocious parking and one way system.  They might as well put up no entry signs!
  • Leeds bus station a very convenient 1.2 miles from Leeds railway station. That’s the way the silly Burghers encourage the use of public transport.
  • Only slightly better are the roads to Harry Ramsdens, Bryans and Murgatroyds gold plated fish and chip shops in Guiseley, Headingley and Yeadon.

Win a weekend in Leeds, if you dare and still want to win after all this,  ‘Leeds love it live it’ closing date 30 June 2010

On a positive note ……….

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Pickering

Pickering is the perfect start to your steam train adventure, leaving the charming village the trains to Whitby go through stations evocative of an earlier era.

  • Levisham is an 1912 style station, accessible by one solitary hill road and suitable mainly for sheep and walkers (if they are different).
  • Newton Dale requires you to make a special request for the Guard to stop the train at this tiny, picturesque halt.
  • Goathland or should I say Aidensfield or Hogsmeade from Harry Potter, is just a few yards up the hill from the station.
  • Grosmont is a 50′s style British rail station and home for the engine sheds. ( My uncle worked for British rail as a welder, he put the tops on the pork pies).
  • So into Whitby and on some days up the Esk Valley railway to Battersby.

Book Cover

The original NYMR route started at Whitby and ran through to Malton Junction. The southern section from Pickering to Malton has long since passed into history – or has it? Read more in ‘A Nostalgic Trip Along the Former Whitby and Pickering Railway and Through to Malton’ on Amazon

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Twirlies on Trolley Buses

Twirlies you know, the ones who stand at bus stops with their free passes and ask if they are ‘too early’ because it is not yet 9.30am.
Well they would have needed to get up early in the morning to catch the Bradford Corporation Trolley Bus No 7 to Thornbury.
Ten Bradford trolleybuses are now preserved at the Trolleybus Museum at Sandtoft , Lincolnshire. In the tram shed at Bradford Industrial Museum there is the pictured Trolley bus plus the only tramcar left in Bradford.

The Bradford trolleybus was an electric bus that drew its electricity from overhead wires using spring-loaded trolleypoles. Two wires and poles are required to complete the electrical circuit, unlike a tram or streetcar, which normally uses the track as part of the electrical path and thus needs only one wire and pole. This increased the amount of street furniture and the cost of maintenance. However the buses were quite, clean and exceptionally good for the hills rising from the center of Bradford to the suburbs.

Bradford became the first (1911) and last city (1972) to operate trolleybuses in the United Kingdom. Bradford introduced a one-man operated trolleybus route to Bolton Woods in 1915, with the West Yorkshire Road Car Company, which later formed the City Circle route with the link to Bankfoot and Lister Park service.

Double deck trolleybuses were first introduced in 1921. The last rear-entrance trolleybus in Britain was also in Bradford and is now owned by The Bradford Trolley Bus Association

Many of the Twirlies will have enjoyed the experience of riding to the Trolley buses but also remember the delays when they were ‘off their Trolleys’. As a Twirly my self I even remember Bradford’s trams that pre-date the trolley service but that is a whole new subject. The Trolley bus evokes a distinct nostalgic feeling and even though it is out of the county I will have to visit Sandtoft.

This is the only book I can find on Electric buses and Trolleys but be warned it costs £41.65 and that is from discounter amazon.

Book Cover

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sat-nav

I put the registration number of this canal barge into a search engine and this is what I discovered ‘Length 15.25 metres (50 feet ) – Beam 1.99 metres (6 feet 6 inches ) – Draft 0.92 metres (3 feet ) Metal hull power of 60.’ Then as is the way with searches I discovered one place of its berth – ‘The Sheffield and South Yorkshire New Junction Canal connects not only the Aire and Calder Main Line with the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Canal, but also Sheffield with the River Trent via the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation. Construction was authorised in 1891 to increase the scope of the coal trade carried in “Tom Puddings”. Work started in 1896 and it was opened in 1905.’ This is courtesy of Jim Shead who has a great deal more information and history on his site

Barge spotting is a more leisurely pastime than plane or train spotting as the speed tends to be steady enough for even the slowest to catch the details. Since the river banks and canal sides are not thronged with young kids with pen and paper recording the numbers it isn’t catching on just yet. One thing that did impress me was the Sat Nav on this barge and it brought to mind the stories of lorries being sent down totally unsuitable roads, so expect to see a barge in a puddle near you next time it rains – that will boost barge spotting.

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