A Pint, a Fire and a Ghost

Well, it’s only September but I’m ready to swap a pint in a sunny beer garden for a glass of nose-clearingly strong spirit by a crackling fireplace. I go to pubs a lot less than I used to so when I do go, I want it to be a nice one. A great bad weather pub conveniently close to my flat is Ye Olde Black Boy in Hull’s Old Town. It’s one of my favourites because it’s small and cosy yet full of life. You can tell that it’s very old, the drink selection is awesome and on cold days there’s still a real fire warming up the smoking room (don’t let the name fool you - the English were thankfully very thorough with their implementation of the smoking ban).

The Smoking Room

You enter the pub through an inconspicuous looking, dark door and find yourself in a short stone corridor. The first door on your right takes you to the small front/smoking room and to the pool table upstairs. The door at the end of the corridor leads to a bigger and often slightly livelier back room. Smoking room and back room are both linked by the fixed pivotal point: the bar. All rooms are darkly panelled and posters and old newspaper articles hang on the rather thick walls (I never have a decent phone signal in these old pubs). You choose between sitting on wooden leather-cushioned benches or footstools. Along the top of the wall a black shelf runs around the perimeter of the room. On it stand a large variety of bottles and when it gets darker outside fairy lights bathe the whole scene in a warm light.

There have been houses in the Black Boy’s location as early as the 14th century but it wasn’t until the 1720s when William Smith purchased the building that its transformation into a public house started being documented. Smith originally opened it as a pipe shop. At one point, the Black Boy was a brothel and it took until the 1930s for it to become a pub as we know it today. The origin of the name Ye Olde Black Boy is not entirely clear. Some claim that it refers to the look of a chimney sweep, others say it was named after a Moroccan boy who worked there in the 1730s, when the building was a coffee shop. Some even claim the name was inspired by King Charles II (1630-1685), who had a rather swarthy complexion and was also known as the black boy king of England.

Slavery abolitionist William Wilberforce (1759-1833) and poet Philip Larkin (1922-1985) were both known to regularly frequent the premises. But the pub also has a reputation for getting slightly less worldly visitors. It is said to be haunted with bottles inexplicably flying off shelves and apparitional hands reaching out through the wall panels.

I ain't afraid of no ghost! And looking out now into the cold, windy greyness taking my chances with a ghost to sit by a crackling fire over a warm glass of mulled cider sounds like a risk worth taking.

Iron, Grouse and Cream Tea at Rosedale Abbey

The North York Moors National Park is full of villages that look much too quaint to be true. Up there I found the Yorkshire I first encountered on TV as a kid when my parents and I were watching All Creatures Great and Small (in German: Der Doktor und das liebe Vieh). Although the series was set in the Yorkshire Dales it is close enough for me. The North York Moors are surprisingly easy to get to from Hull with the Moorsbus running every Sunday from March until the end of October. You can get virtually anywhere in North Yorkshire with a day ticket for £9. So last weekend we hopped onto the M14 bus to Rosedale Abbey. A bit of a cold trip as the windows were open and a rather opinionated argument ensued whenever someone tried to close them. But after a smooth bus change in Pickering and a second rather speedy bus journey, we were at our desired destination.

And so began our lovely eight mile circular walkabout around Rosedale. The sky was clear, the sun was shining and a refreshing September breeze unmistakably announced the end of summer. You start off in a green valley and head north along the rather red stream Northdale Beck. It gets its colour from the high concentration of iron in the area. Another thing that there seems to be an abundance of is grouse. At least I think they are grouse. They are just terrible at hiding and much too tame for their own good. There were a few dismembered wings scattered along the trail. I did manage to get one to pose for me though so I will forgive them for randomly jumping out of the bushes nearly giving me mini heart attacks.

Calcining Kilns

I was a little safer from the grouse when we left the high grass and entered a dark pine forest. I was deep in thought about lunch when John darted off and headed straight towards a bed of wood sorrell and started plucking. Wood sorrel is an awesome little snack to find along the way. It tastes a bit like a sour apple. When we got out of the forest it was time for elevenses: salami and a fancy sweet chilli cheese. I can be funny about cheese because I just can't tell if it is dead or alive. Plus it smells weird. It had gotten a bit soft in the sun too so that didn't help. Once wrapped in a slice of salami it was alright, though.

We waded through a densely populated field of sheep before crossing a poultry ridden farm: ducks, chicken and geese en masse. When I went through my photos later that night it seemed like 90% of them were of livestock. Grazing sheep were scattered all across the hills near the ruins of the Rosedale iron mines by Hollins farm. There isn’t much left of the railway tracks and the mining community that started flourishing in the area in the 1850s. The mines were given up in 1929 but a few kilns and mine shaft entries still stand strong as a reminder of the past.

We had now walked approximately four miles and thus had hit the half-way point. This clearly meant that pie had to happen so we went to the Farmhouse Fodder Tea Garden at Dale Head Farm. A small sign at the top of the hill directed us down to the valley where you can take your tea from “11-5 every day... but closed Monday except bank holidays and Tuesdays” and basically whenever nobody is around it is closed too. With our fingers crossed we made the descend in the hope of sugary goodness.

We were in luck and it was open and it was hands down one of the loveliest cream tea experiences I’ve had. We sat in the garden on a stone bench covered with wood in our own little nook surrounded by flowers. Bumble bees and butterflies were whizzing all around us. Our brains had been in scone-mode all morning and I ordered the cream tea while John changed his mind at the last second and had a Ginger Yorkshire Moggy and coffee. Both cakes were homemade and tasted divine. My scone was served with a slice of orange and strawberry and it was almost too perfect when a butterfly (possibly a Painted Lady) landed on the orange. As we were basking in the sun, eating tasty treats and drinking hot drinks a sports aeroplane flew through the valley. It was so close you could see every detail! At this point I was ready to move there and bake delicious cakes for a living.  

But alas it was time to head back towards Rosedale along more fields, a lot of cows and streams that looked like we could have been in the jungle. The tea gardens popularity showed itself once more when a group of hikers walked past us and asked if Farmhouse Fodder was open. The group had tried to phone the owner but the signal in the valley isn’t very good. I don’t think we could have made them any happier when we confirmed that it was indeed open. Their stride became a little bit bouncier and their smiles got a little bit bigger. There was less of a climb on the way back so the second half of the walk seemed to pass much quicker and we were back in Rosedale quite early. We didn’t have to wait long at all for a Moorsbus to take us back to Pickering. The bus ride back was a lot more relaxed as the driver took a longer route and he was in less of a rush than the one who brought us to Rosedale that morning. Once we were back in Pickering we waited in a cosy pub over a pint of Stowford Press until the Moorsbus took us back to Hull.

Unfortunately, due to funding cuts it looks like the Moorsbus service won’t be available in 2014 anymore, which would be a huge shame. Trips to North Yorkshire using public transport will become a lot more complicated and expensive.

Reconnoitring the Leeds Liverpool Canal

Last Sunday we made a first attempt at exploring the Leeds Liverpool Canal and its narrowboats on foot starting in Leeds city centre and heading towards Shipley. That's about as elaborate as our plan was. The lovely area around the canal would have been reason enough to go but I had a second agenda. I wanted to look at some narrowboats as living on one is something I’d love to try for several reasons:

1. To see how tidy I can be when limited space forces me to be.
2. To learn what possessions I really need in everyday life.
3. To be more on top of the resources I use to sustain myself. 
4. To stop rushing through life and just take my time. 
5. To get a sun-basking narrowboat dog.

We got into Leeds station at 11am and after a tasty Full English and a strong coffee at Aire Bar we headed to Clarence Dock near the Royal Armouries to take a look at some narrowboats and we began judging. I like the cosy gypsy style boats in purple or green with a herb garden and flowers creatively attached. Living space-savingly could be a challenge for me as I seem to have a knack for making a mess yet I can’t stand my own flat being untidy. I will spend two minutes turning my room upside down to find that one top I really want to wear only to then tidy up after myself for another two hours. I'm not proud.

We followed the river Aire until we hit the Leeds Liverpool canal near the station. It was my favourite walking weather: windy, fresh, cloudy but dry. I like the clash of architecture you find while you’re still in the heart of Leeds: abandoned industrial ruins followed by trendy bars before nature takes over a little more but in the distance modern high-rise office towers keep watch over everything.

I read up a bit on what the canal is all about so here is a super quick summary. While today the canal is mostly used for leisure purposes it was originally intended to move goods between Leeds, Bradford, Skipton and Liverpool. Construction on the canal started in the second half of the 18th century and it took 46 years to complete it. It was mostly a lack of funding that made the construction draw out so much. It also ended up costing five times more than originally planned. I couldn't help but be reminded of Hull's footbridge. But 127 miles of canal and 91 locks later, it was done! A lot of the locks appear in groups of two or three to create stairs. The most fun to get through with a boat should be the five rise lock staircase at Bingley.

We only made it to somewhere near Rodley this time before taking a bus back to Leeds. My excuses: I was wearing skate shoes, we set off quite late and we had a limited supply of water with us so we decided to take it easy. After all, this whole trip was supposed to be a recon mission to see how well suited the area is for a few days of walking. I’m rather excited about it as there are loads of blackberries to forage and woods to explore. This definitely looks like something worth pursuing.