Beamish and beyond - another adventure with the Golden Oldies club!

A few days ago we were due to visit Beamish (The Living Museum) in County Durham but as usual a simple coach trip turned into an adventure!

We had arranged to meet up at one spot in Todmorden as we all live in different areas of the valley - seemed straight forward enough - but as usual the best laid plans etc didn't quite work out.  First of all my brother couldn't come as he had to go to hospital for an x-ray so that left only 5 of us.  We had booked a local cab to pick us up and take us to Rochdale which was the pick-up point for the coach.  The rest of us met to wait for the cab, but guess what - it didn't turn up.  When we phoned they said they had no booking (this was despite confirming 48 hours before as they asked) so we won't be using A2B Taxis in Todmorden any time soon.

Anyway cut a long story short, luckily Doreen & Steve have a 4 x 4 so we all piled into that and she drove us to Rochdale with not a lot of time to spare to catch the coach.  In a rush to park and get to the coach she parked in a shopping centre (more of which later!).  We got the coach and had a decent ride up the motorway to Beamish.

The weather was sunny but chilly and we had the afternoon to spend there.  The whole place is set out as a village would have been in 1913 with a pit village, the home farm, the old Hall and the Town.  As there are over 400 acres we picked just a couple of places to see - the first one being the "mine" - but as I'm claustrophobic I stayed at the top - see the miners going down (Doreen, Trevor, David and Steve).

This is me waiting for them to come back up (with David's hat)!

We then had a walk around some of the cottages that the miners would have lived in - very interesting to see and they had real coal fires burning in them so that was a great opportunity to warm our hands.

It was almost lunchtime by now so we queued for Davy's fish and chips (for almost 40 minutes).  Once actualy inside the shop we could see the food was cooked in a coal-fired range and in beef dripping - not something you see very often these days.  I have to say they were the best fish and chips I've had in a long, long time (and as I'm a Yorkshire girl, that's hard to admit) so it was worth the wait.

We then got a bus (yes a really, really old one!) to the "Town" and looked around the (posh) houses up there.  They again had real people in the place, and this photo shows a gentleman waiting for the bread to rise (they make it properly by hand every day and cook it on the fire).

After looking around more houses (the dentist included - which was frightening!) and having a swift half of beer in the small pub, we had to get back for the coach home - that meant we got the tram this time which was brilliant - old wooden seats to sit on but it made a lovely noise.

After a lovely day we headed back to Rochdale to pick up the car and go home - BUT the shopping centre where we had parked was closed for the night and it was pouring with rain....... (told you we always have adventures).

With the help of two lovely cleaning ladies (who didn't just ignore these five old people, wet through and trying to collect a car) we were let into the shopping mall, escorted to the roof and collected the car, then helped out and sent merrily on our way.  Without these two lovely ladies it would have been a bad end to a good day, so it shows there are some good people out there, especially as we had walked muddy shoes all over their wonderful clean floor (so embarrassed).

Looking forward to our next adventure.......

Up the Buttress - and other weird events!

Yes I did put "Up the Buttress" - it's just one of the many weird and wonderful things that happen in Hebden Bridge.  The Buttress is a narrow, cobbled walkway (not really a street) that goes from Hebden Bridge to Heptonstall and it's very, very steep (1 in 4) and 400 yards long.

The idea is to cycle up it - I can hardly walk up it, yet more than 40 people turned up to try it, with a very happy and warm crowd helping them along.  You can see some great pictures on the website of the organiser - here: http://singletrackworld.com/2012/09/up-the-buttress-2

A festival I'm looking forward to a lot this year is the Valley of Lights at the end of November.  This is a lovely evening when there's a parade of all the handmade "lanterns" - I use the term loosely as some of them are huge.

This parade coincides with the Christmas Tree being turned on in the Square and there are lots of food stalls and a market so it's a great time for the family.

We've had many such events throughout the year, including the Summer Arts Festival and the Burlesque Show (which caused so much of a rumpus in the town with some of our more rabid feminists that you'd have thought they were dancing naked).  There's also the Handmade Parade which is definitely one for families as the children are encouraged to make their own costumes.

We also have the Vintage Car (and vans, motorcycles et al) Festival over a weekend at the beginning of August.  I went this year as I had a visitor staying and we had a lovely time remembering some of the cars we grew up with - only I got stung by a wasp (ouch!!!).  For some reason wasps came out by the bucketload and kept the St John Ambulance people busy (they were wonderful by the way and took the sting out). 

Anyway folks that's just a taste of some of the things we have going on in the Valley - take a look at http://www.hebdenbridge.org.uk for more information.

Hello world - hope you like what I have to say!

Well, here I am, now settled back in my old home town of Hebden Bridge after an absence of more than 40 years.  I moved away in 1969 when I married a musician called Richie Dharma (great drummer) and went to live in London.  

After two children, two marriages gone awry and a yearning to return home I finally made it in January 2012.  I now live in a lovely ground floor flat with a balcony and view over the river just outside the main town of Hebden Bridge, (now known as a tourist destination rather than the mill town that I left).  

This is my little piece of heaven where I've been able to sit and watch the world go by - and the birds visiting, butterflies, and listening to the noise of the river flowing by just 20 yards away.

I was actually born in the village of Wadsworth (also known as Old Town) just above Hebden and lived there with my parents, and my brother Robert, until I finally left the area at the age of 21.  

This is me aged about 3 with my dad (Jim Richmond) outside Club Houses where I was born.

It's hard to explain to people who have never been to the Calder Valley what always drew me back, but to me it's one of the most beautiful places in the world, and I will be showing you more pictures as we go on this journey together.