Bookish

 An entry to Sepia Saturday, "Using old images as prompts for new reflections"

I have always loved books, perhaps too much

 because I obviously couldn't be without one on this day out on Hoad Hill, Ulverston.  I remember these little books, they were a set that fitted into a box sleeve. I have no idea who the legs with summer skirts belong to, one would have been my mother. I can remember as a child seeing pictures of people reading in different positions and experimented to see if one would replace curling up on a chair, such as lying on my stomach (too uncomfortable for long periods of time),  but never tried sitting on a branch

 which does look rather spiffing to use the word that could have been used in this book full of stories full of adventure such as "Betty's Besetment" "The Detectives" and "Out of the Storm.  Even if I did not know that this book was published in the 1930s I would know it was my mothers rather than mine because no book illustration would be left uncoloured in a book owned by me as a child.  I wonder which section I would have started on first, possibly the tree flowers, although the dress flowers would be tempting, then again the broad sweeps of the branch would be relaxing.  Although I have never sat on a high branch to read I did used to 

use the lilac tree in the background of this photo to gain access to the wall (not when this picture was taken, those 3 year old legs would never have made it).   On the other side of the wall was a builders yard, which had interesting stacks of wood, copper tubes for plumbing and the coming and goings of the builders. On warm summer days it was my favourite place to sit drying my hair after having it washed.   We left this house when I was 12 years old but I think I gained my love of walled gardens from this time, not to mention hats. But here is a much more elaborate hat

 From the North Yorkshire Library Collection

in an idyllic spot for a quiet moment with a book on the River Greta at Ingleton in 1912, (woman and photographer unknown).

ABC Wednesday - Immaculate

Last November this is the view of Hoad hill, bracken golden brown and a strange structure on the top. Were we heading for the moon or some other interplanetary journey?  No, but there was a mystery inside for this was a repair to the 160 year old monument underneath, so what would the result be.

Nobody had ever seen the Hoad Monument looking so white

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it was immaculate. The first part to appear above the scaffolding was the copper roof cap glinting in the sunlight.  Eventually, a couple of months ago the full lighthouse was revealed and on August 22 there was the official reopening, celebrated with incendiary devices, commonly called fireworks, and, nobody wanting to resist a pun, a Hoad down. 

 For the first time in over a decade the inside was open as well. Ever since it was in existence there has been a custodian in charge of opening, starting in 1850 when it was open 6 days a week and shut on Sundays. Now it is open once a week on a Sunday afternoon and on Bank Holidays from Easter to September.  There has been quite a rush for the curious wanting to see what has happened inside.

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 There are placards and plasterwork at the bottom, all looking immaculate,  but really what we all want to do is to go to the top. I remember as a child the custodian used to sell sweets, but not today.  So after a wait, todays health and safety demands that only a certain number are allowed up at a time, we go up to the next level

Where we look at the rest of the 112 steps round the side we are going to climb. There is also a display about the history of Hoad whose official name is the John Barrow memorial.  This is a son of Ulverston who lived from 1764-1848,  leaving school to start work at 13, went on a whaling expedition to Greenland at 16, and was attached to the first British Embassy in China from 1792-94, where he learnt Mandarin Chinese and throughout his life had a fascination with China. However 1797 saw him land at the Cape of Good Hope, which had been occupied by the British because revolutionary France had occupied the Netherlands and the British did not want them landing on this strategic location at the tip of Africa.  Barrow married and decided to settle in South Africa but under the Peace of Amiens, the British handed the Cape back (only temporarily as it turned out) so he returned to England in 1804.  He was appointed 2nd Secretary of the Navy, a post he would hold for 40 years, where he sent expeditions into West Africa and also exploration of the Arctic by Ross, Parry and Franklin,who also tried to find the elusive north west passage. Barrow Point and Cape Barrow were named after him. He wrote a history of modern Arctic Voyages of Discovery which was published in 1846.

On his death a public subscription was started in Ulverston and a monument was erected on the hill he loved to walk on as a child. This was in the shape of the Eddystone Lighthouse standing 100 feet tall and inaugurated in 1850 to immortalize his achievements.

History over now, are you impatient to get to the top

Last steps now

And able to look out of the windows, in-between gasps for breath, I like to set a good pace when for some inconceivable reason the entrance gate was opened to me to lead out the half dozen intrepid stair climbers.  This is looking over Ulverston, and Glaxo's pharmaceutical plant to Chapel Island and Morecambe Bay. The view the other way to the Lakeland Hills was hazy and the sun reflected on the windows in the photos.

But not to disappoint here is one of the other directions with kite flyers at the bottom of the monument

The immaculate monument, now like an Ivory Tower, a structure that generations of Ulverstonians see on the horizon when returning from away and know they will soon be home. It has never had a light at the top but it is lit up from the bottom at night and it glows in the night sky.

What a incredible difference to how it was, cracked with water leaking, the structure deteriorating inside and out.

Picture taken February 2009.

Custodians car with 19th Century Photo.

Interested in more words starting with the letter I?  Visit the participants of ABC Wednesday

ABC Wednesday - Trams

Turned out to be a tricky letter so what could I find, trams. Location the seaside town of Blackpool. In the background the other T in the photo which is Blackpool Tower. We were there in July for a cup final. I've used this trip before, for the last ABC Letter E. Despite the team loosing, I have at least got two posts out of it, yippee. We did what you always do at the seaside, take pictures and have an ice cream;
although on a very windy day, not venturing into the water. Possibly not a day to go up Blackpool tower although it has been standing there since 1894 so no doubt people have been up in all weathers. Not sure what the black and white tower was but the crane is there because there is a lot of work going on to modernise the frontage.
so it will all look like this. More cranes on the right but on the left is part of the big dipper which is where this tram will be heading,

because it says on the front - Pleasure Beach. There have been trams in Blackpool since 1885, single deckers and

double deckers. It was one of the first electrical tramways in the world. Across the bay in Barrow they had just replaced the horse buses with steam trams but
in 1904 the British Electrical Traction Company completed a scheme of electrical tramways which apparently, I learned on the Tramways & Light Railway Society page, was of intermediate gauge. Unlike Blackpool the trams only lasted until 1932 when they were replaced by buses. As you can see this is also a double decker tram, but with an open top, they were hardy souls in the early 1900s. All the buildings in this photograph are still there but the road has changed considerably, not only because it is now jammed with cars, but there are also three sets of traffic lights down this end of Abbey Road.

This postcard was sent to my Great Aunt Rachel, who I never met, I think she and one of her sisters emigrated to Canada. The card wishes her a happy new year and is date stamped 1 Jan but the postmark is incomplete so the date is unknown.

Swindlehurst family at Hazelslack Tower farm

Rachel is the little girl in the checked dress on the left. The reason I have the card is that my Grandmother Winifred, who is the little girl standing in the middle leaning against her mothers knee, collected postcards in her early life. I like the way they have taken a table outside to put the family bible on and then grouped around it.

How quickly the world changed, at the time when the electric tram system was completed in 1904 Marconi was patenting his radio system in the USA, the summer Olympics were being staged in St Louis along with the world fair, the suffragettes were fighting for votes for women in Britain and the Russo-Japanese war was an ominous sign of wars to come.

To end on a lighter note, here are where notes float on the air for it is Radio City Tower in Liverpool also known as St John's Beacon.

And a tower that looks as though someone is building a rocket to take-off for Mars or the Moon, but is actually the scaffolding round the Hoad Monument (a lighthouse) while it is renovated and painted. I wonder what colour it is going to be. Watch this space, but unfortunately not outer space.

For more themes on the letter T go to the participants of the ABC Wednesday meme

ABC Wednesday - L

L is for Lighthouse

To start with the youngest of our trio above is the Tynemouth lighthouse and pier built in 1903. The ferries pass here on their way to Scandinavia and continental Europe. Tynemouth is a historic town and resort at the mouth of the River Tyne. The pier is closed in stormy weather

Next comes the Chanory Point lighthouse (the white building in the distance built in 1846) on the Black Isle in Scotland. This is on a narrow spit on the Morray Firth where the tide sluices through the narrows. The point is a popular place for dolphin watchers and the colony of bottle-nose dolphins are the most northerly in Europe. It is also a good spot to watch porpoises and seals.

Now you may think that lighthouses mark dangerous places and hazards but here is one (just to the left of the cherry trees) that is well inland and has never flashed a light although it is lit up at night with spotlights.
This is the Sir John Barrow monument built in 1850 to commemorate Ulverston's famous son who was the 2nd secretary to the Admiralty. It is based on the John Smeaton designed Eddystone Lighthouse of 1759.
The hill is called Hoad (436 ft) so it is generally known as the Hoad Monument or the 'pepper pot'. The monument is 100 foot high and there are is a 112 step spiral staircase inside leading to magnificent views at the top to the sea and mountains.
Unfortunately it is no longer open as it is in need of repair (see the cracks below) however money is being raised to bring it back to its original state.
Hoad Hill is a popular walk but it will be busy this Easter week-end because this is where the children will be rolling their Pasch Eggs on Easter Monday. These are eggs hard boiled with onions skins and various other things to colour them although sometimes today they are painted. The aim is to roll yours the furthest without cracking it. The dialect word is Pace Eggs which is which is derived from Pasch meaning easter or passover and is supposed to symbolise the stone being rolled from Jesus's tomb although it may come from an earlier Celtic tradition.

There is an old Lancashire superstition that the empty pace eggs must be crushed because they can be used by witches as boats! Well it must be boring always being on broomsticks.

For Lots more Ls go to Mrs Nesbitts ABC Wednesday