Clarke Chronicler's Resurrection

 For  our next  weekend,  we  returned  to  Woolley Edge Travelodge near Wakefield. We  had tea  before  setting  off and  arrived mid-evening. The  next  day we drove  to  Pontefract  for  the  dungeon tour  at  Pontefract Castle.  We  also wanted  to  complete  filming at the Castle. We  filmed there  four  years  earlier but  I  didn't think we did it justice so never posted it. The  complete footage will appear here in due course. After that we went into the town for some lunch, inevitably  finding the Wetherspoon's . After that we  went  for  a  look around  Pontefract's underwelming museum. This rocking horse was the most interesting exhibit. After that we had a look around Pontefract's half-ruined parish church. We  had a  long discussion about what to do next as Simon couldn't ...

 This  was a  filming  trip  for  two of  our  playlists.  The  original plan was  to have  lunch in Manchester and  then  go  on  to  Handforth Miniature  railway but the  train was  very  late  so  we  had  to  to  Handforth  first. The journey entailed catching a  London train to Wilmslow  which passed through Handforth and taking a stopping  train back. The  station had some  interesting  decorations. The  miniature  railway  was  in  a  park  about  half a mile from the station. The  video we filmed can be seen here. After our ride we went back to Manchester via  Wimslow  again. We  went  for tea  to Base  One  but  it  appeared  to have closed down. Simon sat down while we figured out  which  was  the next...

 Simon  chose  a  trip  to  Ribchester Museum. We had  lunch at The Fernhurst in Blackburn beforehand. It  was a  dismal day so we walked  fairly  briskly from the car park to the museum. This  stone  fragment gives  the  name  of  a  standard  bearer one  of  the  few  known names of  Romans  stationed  at  the  site. Maybe  he  looked like  this I'm not quite what's going on in the carving here. This  was  an  impressive  find I  loved  this  tomstone. I can't remember what this was This  is pre-Roman, a  Bronze Age cremation urn After we'd been round the museum,  we braved the rain to look round the  remains of the Roman bath house. We  had a drink in a  cafe  near  the  car park before returning home.

 We  again went to Green View Lodges in Welton for a weekend in February. We  went up on Friday and stopped off at Burton Services for something to eat.  On Saturday, Simon and I went  to film some castles at Brackenburgh, Ormside and Kirkoswald and the country park at Talkin Tarn. The videos can be seen here : We had lunch in a pub in Kirkoswald. On Sunday, Simon and I went to mass in Carlisle. In  the afternoon , our  friends from Selside came  round  and  we  went  to  Maryport Aquarium . We had tea there and played crazy golf. On the Monday, we  drove  to film another castle at Crake Trees. The  video we filmed will appear here in due course. We  then had lunch at a cafe near Tebay. We filmed another video at  Cappleside Hall  on  the  way home.

 For my next trip, I decided  to  carry on down the Bridgewater Canal.  Given the proximity of  the canal to numerous tram stops the  plan  was  to continue walking till 12 oclock then  return  to  the  Trafford Centre  for  lunch  before Rochdale's game  against Ebbsfleet. We drove to the Trafford Centre. Before  starting the walk we  had a look at some  drones in a shop but decided against purchase .We  needed  Google Earth to  relocate the canal.  It  started with a long straight  section   On  the  approach I thought these lined up  cranes  were some sort of strange sculpture We soon reached the junction where a  side arm goes into Manchester city centre. Not  long  afterwards  we  reached  Stretford Marina. This  was  the  first  active  boat  since  we  started wal...

 This  one  was  Simon's  choice.. We  took  the  train to Manchester Airport. From  there we  had to get  a  bus  to  a  depot  which  is  the  nearest stop to the visitor park in the winter. After  a  short  walk , we arrived at the park This  is  a Nimrod  search  and  rescue plane which  saw  action in the Falklands This  is an old fashioned Trident, inactive since 2003 The  star  of  the  show  is  Concorde which has its own  hangar This is on board the front section of a DC-10 This plane  is an Avro RJX, the last plane to be fully manufactured in the UK We  then went  outside to the viewing platform Here are some  of  the  planes we saw  land  or  taxi in. Simon  wanted to go in  the  flight  simulator so we booked  tickets. I...

This  was  a  follow up  to  a  walk in  the  Christmas  holidays  when we walked from  Leigh  to  Worsley along the  Bridgewater Canal.  For  this  next  stage  the  plan was to drive to The Trafford Centre, catch  the  bus to Worsley then walk the towpath back to the  Centre  getting some  lunch there before  heading  to  Rochdale for the game against Yeovil. The  plan  first  went  off  course when Simon wanted breakfast at Wetherspoons so we went  there  first. We  then caught  the  bus  to Worsley. Then it was  my turn to spike the timetable. I  started reading  something  interesting on the bus and  we  overshot  Worsley and  landed in Boothstown. We  had a  fair  wait for a  return bus back to Worsley. We  eventually  g...