20 September 2021

Beverley

Beverley Minster still rising high above the houses

Clint was deposited at the "Park and Ride" car park  at Hessle west of Hull. I rode on a double decker bus to the stadium and headed to a little Polish cafe on Anlaby Road. We have met up there countless times before.  It was a lovely, sunny morning so we bagged one of the picnic tables in the small enclosed garden at the back. "We" meant me and Tony and Karl. 

We had what the young Polish café proprietors call British breakfasts as opposed to the Polish breakfasts that are also on the menu. We drank mugs of tea.

The game began promisingly for The Tigers but well, one thing led to another and we ended up losing the match by three goals to one. It might have been so different if  fortune had been on our side. The result cast a shadow over the weekend. It's crazy I know but a victory always puts a smile on my face  and the world seems like a much better place for a day or two. It is the opposite of that when we lose.

Back in the town of Beverley six miles north of Hull, Tony and I went walking. First we headed to the  allotment that he and his wife Pauline have been working on for the past eighteen months. We sat in the afternoon sunshine drinking tea from a flask after picking the last of the raspberries.

Allotment gardens  looking to Beverley Minster's twin towers

Then we walked along Beverley Beck to the point where it meets The River Hull. Beverley Beck is really a short canal. It was dug in medieval times and along it the limestone for Beverley Minster's construction was brought in barges. Beverley Minster is a truly magnificent church built between 1220 and 1425 and it still stands in testimony to the town's medieval importance.

At the end of  Beverley Beck there is a small marina and in there - I kid you not - there's a silver submarine. It has been there for years. If the skipper shouts "Down! Down!" the submarine won't be going far - perhaps no more than five feet!

Submarine at the end of Beverley Beck

Pauline was heading out to Hull for a little soiree with some of her nursing colleagues so Tony and I visited one of the best pubs in the world. It's real name is "The White Horse" but everyone around Beverley knows it as Nellie's. I first had a beer in there over fifty years ago. It hasn't changed much though on Saturday night I noticed that it was not heaving with customers. It still retains its authentic Victorian appearance.

Then we went on for a delicious late curry at "The Windmill Inn"  before heading back to Tony's house for "Match of the Day" on the television.

Statue that remembers medieval carriers in Beverley

In the morning, Tony made a slap up breakfast as our endless conversation continued. Then I whipped Clint's silver buttocks, galloping back west to Sheffield. However, before leaving the East Riding of Yorkshire, that land of my heart, I made an interesting diversion - to a vineyard! It was the Little Wold vineyard near South Cave on the edge of the chalky Yorkshire Wolds. There I bought a bottle of  the Barley Hill White (2020). Shirley and I have drunk it  before and it's excellent. Mind you it needs to be at £15 a bottle.

Apart from what happened on the football pitch, this was a great weekend. It was nice to  be back in the very town where I went to school between the ages of sixteen and eighteen - Beverley Grammar School, on the edge of The Westwood. Like coming home.

Signs spotted on an old house in Beverley

24 comments:

  1. Presumably you first went to Nellie's when Nellie was still running it - an illegal dinner time drink while still in the sixth form, perhaps.

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    1. I remember Nellie Collinson and her equally elderly sisters as if it were yesterday but I never drank during the school day. Only men were allowed in the main bar. Women were allowed in the pub but had to sit in the various side rooms and not approach the bar.

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  2. Anonymous12:15 pm

    I thought you English were supposed to go to the pub before the match and commit a little street vandalism and biffo on the way to the match. What a disappointing report.

    One wonders about a Polish breakfast and I expect it less slimming than a full English.

    I think that short canal is connect via the river to the large connected canal system.

    I love the signs in the last photo.

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    1. Thanks for calling by again Andrew. We English are not all like Boris Johnson you know. Some of us are civilised. I expect a Polish breakfast contains sausage and pickled gherkins.

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  3. I looked up the score on Saturday night. Knew you would be disappointed, but it seems like the rest of the time with your friends more than made up for the loss. Well, almost.

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    1. This is going to be a long, hard football season. I think we will struggle to stay in the division - the second tier of English football.

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  4. I'm glad you enjoyed your weekend, even if your team lost. That last photo made me chuckle. Not a lot changes over the centuries.

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    1. There was once a semi-pro band up here in Yorkshire and they were called Nothineverappens. Those signs reminded me of that group.

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  5. Sounds like it was a good weekend, despite the football score.

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  6. Love the allotment and Minster towers. Both equally resplendent in the sunshine.

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    1. As a child growing up in that area I did not realise what a smashing town Beverley is.

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  7. For some reason, I was born without a lick of caring about sports. I can sit down and watch whatever everyone else is watching and even pick a team to cheer for but when the game is done, I'm instantly over it and moving on. When I'm alone, I don't even watch. So it always amazes me when someone loves a team such that a lose or win affects their day greatly. I've never known such feelings.

    Really love those signs.

    You were in the land of my ancestors, the Chicken family of East Riding of Yorkshire. They left in the spring of 1849 for reasons unknown to me. Perhaps they were tired of getting teased about their name.

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    1. Ha-ha! Yes - that would be a good reason for leaving... so are you called Ed Chicken?

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    2. They changed their name after the Civil War here in the States and it belongs to my maternal line so I fortunately don't have the surname of Chicken.

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  8. My local football(American) gave the game away yesterday, so I was unhappy with them. The rest of the day was decent however. It sounds like yours was too.

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    1. Getting down when one's team loses is illogical but I just can't help it.

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  9. Interesting submarine. I wonder where the yellow submarine is? You seem to know all the good places to go for food and drink.

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    1. They say that the best place to eat in Red Deer is The Boulevard Restaurant & Lounge. Have you been there?

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  10. Tim's team lost too. He used his frustration to do some concrete patching. I'm like Ed. I could not possibly care less.

    I was on someone else's blog and saw one of your son's cookbooks in her kitchen.

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    1. You and Ed should get together. I will chill out with Tim then we'll patch some more concrete together. Thanks for the Bosh! connection Debby.

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  11. Sorry to read that your team lost YP. I'm really glad that I have no interest in sport whatsoever, so that a result like you and your friends experienced won't ruin the day!
    Funny place to leave a submarine - it looks like one of those fancy makeovers you see on TV these days.

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    1. There's a drama on the BBC at the moment called "Vigil" in which a submarine figures greatly. We were jesting about that. Nobody seems to know the back story of the silver submarine on Beverley Beck.

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  12. Love the signs! Just out of curiosity -- what constitutes a Polish breakfast?

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