Surprisingly, until today, I had never before in my life been to Castleford. It is a hardworking Yorkshire town south east of Leeds with a population of some 45,000. It is famous for rugby league - being the home of Castleford Tigers but once it was also famous for coal mining. Most of the nearby collieries went the way of many others in the 1980's but Kellingley hung on till 2016 - still feeding the big power station at Ferrybridge.
I rode up there by train once again on another sparkling spring day. My aim was not to mooch about the town itself but to strike out into the countryside north of Castleford. I was wishing I had caught the 10.02 train instead of the 11.02 in order to give myself more time. At times I was marching like a soldier just to keep up a good pace.
Only when I reached the charming village of Ledsham did I allow myself five minutes on a churchyard bench - drinking from my flask of water and munching on a chocolate and hazelnut croissant I bought from Lidl last night.
I marched on to Ledston and then across the fields to Allerton Bywater. However, at that point my watch said I needed to cancel a planned detour if I was going to make the 15.52 train back to Sheffield. After waiting five minutes for a timetabled bus that never came, I continued the march back to Castleford but as the little station came into view my train left without me. If only I hadn't waited for that elusive bus!
I went into "The Lamplighters" pub on Carlton Street and ordered myself a well-deserved pint of bitter shandy. I got chatting to Lucy - the pleasant young barmaid and she kindly allowed me to use her phone to ring Shirley and tell her I had missed my train and would be home an hour later than I had indicated. It was one of the very few times in recent months that I realised it might have been useful to have a phone of my own. After all, public phone booths that actually work have become as rare as hen's teeth.
And so I rode back to Sheffield still reading "The Gallows Pole". Here in my home city as evening approached, human life was buzzing and it felt like the end of a warm summer's day. Bars and cafes were filled at the end of the working week and in Endcliffe Park young people still sat on the grass socialising in groups as barbecue smoke rose heavenward. Surely Ukraine's current horror was just a nightmare we shared - wasn't it?
Gadzooks, Sir !
ReplyDeleteYou have never been to Castleford?
Come to think of it, I have never been Dunfermline, and it looks strangely deja vu, judging from a video tour of Dunfermline on YouTube.
Forfar, Aberdeen and Inverness I have never seen and probably never will.
The Lamplighters pub and barmaid Lucy are straight out of that couthy blogland we call Tasker Dunham.
Don't ever tell me there is no Tasker Dunham, or I'll start to think I have been in a Covid coma these last two years, and have imagined you all ... Ghosts !
Lucy is the light-bearer: Santa Lucia.
Life imitating art as it aye does.
*Christmas - Santa Lucia Sweden.* YouTube.
Tasker Dunham exists but only in the virtual world as he is a hologram. Crikey old chap! I have been to Aberdeen and Inverness though not I am sad to say to Forfar... Forfar 4 East Fife 5.
DeleteTasker may be a holotype but if he is a hologram then I am living in Virtual Reality rather like Tom Cruise in Vanilla Sky.
DeleteI wonder if novelists feel this way when they invent their paper people?
What if Tasker and Meike and Kylie existed only in my own mind?
The imagination can disturb: A.S. Byatt said she feared solipsism.
I must ask Shaelin Bishop of Shaelin Writes (YouTube) a clever wee lassie who lives in Vancouver and writes like an angel.
Shaelin also vlogs as reedsy.
As for Scottish towns unvisited, I could make a lyric about them if I had your talent for writing verse.
There is a Jacobite song about Kirkcaldy which I only visited once:
Some say the Devil's deid (dead)
And some say he's hardly,
Some say the Devil's deid
And buried in Kirkcaldy.
Some say he rose again,
Rose again, rose again,
Some say he rose again
And joined the English Army.
Alternatively the last lines are sung as:
Some say he rose again
And danced the Highland Laddie !
How I wish we had the train system of England here.
ReplyDeleteWe enjoy good regional services. Train tickets from here to London can be outrageously expensive. You have to be canny or rich.
DeleteYou have an excellent transportation system where if you miss something , there's always another one later.
ReplyDeleteJust like women.
DeleteI cannot remember the last time I saw a public phone booth and even if I were to call from one, it's doubtful my party would answer, not recognizing the number. I'd have to leave a voice mail.
ReplyDeleteThey have already seeped into history.
DeleteOh how I hate missing a train because I missed the bus. Where I live the buses and trains timetables don't often match up anyway and I'm usually left waiting for one or the other. Another reason why I don't get out much. Sadly, the Ukraine nightmare is real and not a dream we all shared.
ReplyDeleteI feared what you said in your last sentence.
Delete"Lucy And The Lamplighters". Support: "Yorkshire Pudding". West Riding tour. 2022.
ReplyDeleteRoadie and groupie inspector: Dave Knott-Cider.
DeleteI recently discovered that my treasured and long-held Yorkshire Bank credit card will now receive the "improvement" of a "Virgin Money makeover" (Virgin acquire YB about 3 years ago). What they didn't mention is the credit card can now only be managed by their smartphone "app" (always applications to me). They have switched off the online access. My 19 year-old mobile phone (rarely switched on) cannot run computer applications. I fear we are facing the inevitable.
ReplyDeleteThey are forcing us to have expensive smartphones as they assume we all have them. I blame Jacob Rees-Mogg who I also blame for plastic pollution and the war in Ukraine and the fact that Hull City lost to Luton Town last weekend.
DeleteClint may not approve of your train travel.
ReplyDeleteI thought you had an old phone. Not having one at all...well.
Nice to hear things are getting back to normal, even if everyone will catch the 'horror'.
Putin fail and in disgrace, not recoverable in my lifetime after seeing Russia as somewhat benign post the breaking up of the Union. Russia has such bad leadership and until that changes, the west now after the invasion will not trust it and will certainly find alternatives to energy supplied by Russia.
Petrol has shot up in price so Clint can rest in the spring sunshine humming "The Blue Danube" to his heart's content.
DeleteAnother nice walk - and in pastures new to you! Excellent photos, although you don't show any of the surrounding countryside. Was it not photogenic?
ReplyDeleteSomeone with a sense of humour in the first photo - or a storeroom with one remaining mannequin?
With all this train travel, I hope that Clint doesn't throw a wobbly, decide to sulk, and refuse to transport you anywhere.
Sadly, like me, I think you'll have to bite on the bullet and invest in a phone. The forces are against us. Just too many people refuse to use anything else, and are demanding even more interaction with their phones. I read recently that somewhere in the UK BT are closing down landline phones.
The countryside was quite nice Carol but my pictures didn't do it justice. Sometimes I think I am on another planet when I see people glued to their bloody phones.
DeleteIf you're into birdwatching, Fairburn Ings near Castleford is one of the best places in the UK to see rare 'waders'. I spent a fair few weekends as a kid sitting in the hides with a pair of binoculars while our biology teacher guide went crazy over avocets, plovers and bitterns https://fairburnbirders.co.uk
ReplyDeleteI passed an RSPB site off Newton Lane and I noticed that the landscape was very watery and I saw several birdwatchers too. Thanks for calling by 10.39am!
DeleteAnother day of a walking adventure for you, Mr. P!
ReplyDeleteYour blue sky is a match for ours here. It's a lovely time of year.
If you aren't being invaded by a madman.
What a delightful looking pub. I'd love to enjoy a beer in there. I might even dare try a bitter shandy...I'm normally a pale ale girl.
ReplyDeleteWhat lovely photos, except for that poor mannequin, he appears to have lost a hand and I won't even comment on his poor misshapen wedding tackle:)
ReplyDeleteSounds nice to be able to go on outings by train - except for the timetable thing... (Typical that when one is late oneself, the train/bus is not...) Love the Ledsham photo.
ReplyDelete