What I did on my summer vacation

[The Wizard of BC]

I suppose I should finish posting the rest of the photos from our trip.
Otherwise this thread will stretch out and take as much time to post as it did to actually do it.

As I mentioned earlier as Bobbie and her friend were touring York I was off visiting with business people.

I first drove to Otley, just north of Leeds to visit Marton Mills.

Somehow our wires got crossed and the boss was not notified that I was coming but the reception I received was worthy of a King.
I specifically wanted to speak to them about a new Tartan I have designed for the City of Victoria but I also was very interested to see the different looms.
As you know Marton Mills produce fabric with both a Kilt Selvedge and also a Fringed Selvedge.


Here is a shot down the length of the weaving room.
Not nearly as large and sophisticated as Lochcarron with their visitor center, Marton Mills far exceeded my expectations for friendly and helpful.




And here you can see the loom that produces the Kilt Selvedge.



If you look just below the silver colored bar in he picture you can see the hook the lifts the last couple of warp yarns allowing the weft yarns to be tucked back into the fabric forming the Kilt Selvedge.


And here is the loom which produces the Fringed Selvedge.



On this loom there are a few warp yarns missing. The fabric is woven the same way as normal but then a cutter slices the little extra part off forming the fringed Selvedge.


I spent well over three hours talking and touring the mill. Everyone was unreadability nice and I can't express well enough how I appreciate the time and effort they went through for "Just another customer". I don't order any where near as much fabric from Marton Mills as Rocky does but I sure felt that I was their biggest customer.


Lat/Long 53° 54' 18.24" N, 1° 38' 26.95" W

[The Wizard of BC]

I next drove into Leeds proper to visit with my Jacket makers.

I don't know what I expected Vernon Bros. Tailoring to be but it was sure a surprise to have the SatNav direct me to this small building in a residential neighborhood.

You may not know but if you own a Jacket with a Vernon Bros., St. Kilda, Gaelic Themes, or about ten other labels in it, this is where it was made.



Now I don't know if any of you have ever seen a real Tailors Shop where each and every garment is made one at a time with no pre-made patterns.

Vernon Bros use what is called a "Cutter". This person draws every Jacket using only the measurements sent to him from the customer. I had thought this skill was all but lost in any but Saville Row Bespoke shops.
But here one was.
Fabric everywhere, and real true craftsmen and ladies.




I was amazed at how much they do in such a small space. This room holds six sewing machines. Four ladies work here. It is smaller than my production room where I have only 2 ladies.





I got a lesson in proper terminology and one on how to properly measure for a Jacket.

To the crew of Vernon Bros. Thank you. It was an eye opener.

[The Wizard of BC]

The next part of Bobbie and my trip was not scheduled. By that I mean I had not planned out exactly how we were going from York down to Hamish's in Storrington. I had two basic routes to choose from. One would have taken us around the East side of London with a stop in Greenwich to see John Harrison's Clocks. (For those who don't know John Harrison produced the first marine Chronometers allowing seamen to accurately determine their Longitude.)

I had this route planned as a back-up because everyone had told me that it would take twice as long to get anywhere in the UK as it does in N. America.
But we were making good time and I was getting pretty used to the voice on the SatNav telling me things like "Go right at the round-about, take the third exit." So Bobbie and I headed West from York on our preferred route.

We headed towards Manchester.
Why would anyone subject themselves to the roads of a large English City during rush hour?
Well, to get here.







Now, I have no proof that the town of Ashton under Lyne is where my family gets it's name. There are seventeen towns in the UK with the name of Ashton or some derivative. But this one is probably where my family went during the Highland Clearances. And for some reason dropped the Scottish name for this one which may have given them some anonymity.



Lat/Long 53° 29' 22.81" N, 2° 05' 36.03" W

[The Wizard of BC]

Bobbie and I spent the night at one of the Superior Inns which are in the Service areas of the Motorways.
We found each of the Inns we stayed at to be convenient, inexpensive, clean, and well staffed. I would recommend them to anyone traveling in the UK. And the fact that they are located in the Service Areas meant not only could we get a meal but fuel up and use the wireless internet and still get right back on the motorway with little or no hassle.

Bobbie is a great fan of the Brother Cadfael Mysteries written by Ellis Peters. The only place she asked me to plan for her was a stop at Shrewsbury Abbey.

Now, by this time Bobbie and I had seen plenty of Churches and Cathedrals.
I was starting to think "If you've seen one....yadda yadda."

But Shrewsbury Abbey was a very pleasant surprise.

First the Abbey is far older than some of the others we had seen.

In this first photo you can see that the tops of the arches are round on the right and pointed on the left.



The round arches are far older than those added almost three hundred years later. Also note that the columns are larger and round where the newer ones are fluted.

The original part of the Abbey date from around the 4th Crusade and the idea behind the Brother Cadfael books is that a middle aged Crusader is tired of war and takes vows to the Church. He brings with him a knowledge of healing plants and a knack for solving mysteries.

We were told by the Docent in the Abbey that these two effigies may have been what inspired Ellis Peters to write the books.



Both faces seem to be of the same person. But one has a sword and armour and one is dresses as a friar.

Since the publication of the books so much interest was generated about the Abbey that there is a Stained-Glass window dedicated to the Author.



Bobbie and I both fell in love with Shrewsbury. Not only was it a magnificent building but every tourist tends to forget that these churches are living congregations.
We were met at the door by a very friendly and knowledgeable Docent. She filled us with information and stories of people long dead and made us remember that sometimes children used to play among these pillers. And then she invited us to have tea with the ladies of the church.





Shrewsbury turned out to be a delightful stop and one we will not soon forget.



Lat/Long of Shrewsbury Abbey 52° 42' 27.31" N, 2° 44' 36.92" W

[dfmacliam]

Very nice, I see the Vernon Bros. Cutter is wearing the traditional cutting clothing... Thanks for another episode of Steves vacation photos... You must go back often and take more pictures....lol I would love to get to Manchester myself.... I have aunts, uncles, and cousins living there..

[The Wizard of BC]

Has anyone noticed that I skipped over the photos of the York Minster?

Well, the reason for that is because that thing is absolutely large beyond imagining. It was almost impossible for my flash to reach the opposite wall when I was taking pictures.

Now that you have some photos of Shrewsbury for comparison I thought I would throw some of York Minster in just for comparison.


here are the front doors of the Minster.



And inside here is a shot taken looking straight up almost 300 feet to the vaulted ceiling. Please remember that the ceiling you are looking at is larger than a football field. (Even a Canadian one with the extra yardage.)



And the windows you see are actually the third level of windows in this Cathedral.


This will give you some sense of the scale of this building.



This is what you get when you try to shoot down the length of just one arm of this place.
See the little dots framed in the door at the bottom of the picture? Those are people.



do you like Gargoyles?








And before we leave York Minster I wanted to show you this small plaque I found by accident.



The next time you hear "Amazing Grace" think of the almost 50 years of work by William Wilberforce who used the song as his rallying theme to abolish Slavery in England.


Now can you see why posting pics of the Minster would have been meaningless without some sort of perspective?

Lat/Long of York Minster 53° 57' 44.44" N, 1° 4' 55.40"W

[The Wizard of BC]

Ah yes, thank you for pointing that out Peacekeeper.



I was told that Guild Law proscribes the uniform for all Cutters and Tailors.

Please notice also that the stickers on the table are awards for complying with dress code in an exceptional and impeccable manner. The inspector for this region is named Chiquita and these are his "Seals of Compliance" that must be prominently displayed in any Cutter's place of business.

[The Wizard of BC]

OK, you have seen Cathederals and Churches and Abbeys and Chapels.

Now I want you to see what for me was a truly religious experience.

300 years ago this year, in this small and quiet dale, something was constructed that was to change the entire world and the lives of everyone since.



In this unassuming place the Darby family perfected the method of smelting Iron with Coke and giving rise to "The Birth of The Industrial Revolution".

With the capability of producing consistent quality Iron, cheaper and faster, Engineers were able, for the first time to design Steam Engines, Railroads, machines (and machines to make machines) and the tools to work on those machines.

This is Iron Bridge Gorge. Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Now, when building the first Iron Bridge there were some problems.
First, no one had ever built a bridge from Iron before. They did not know how strong the stuff was, and they had not yet developed the methods to work with it.
The solution was to build the bridge with the techniques that had been developed over the millennium for building wooden bridges.


here you can see the mortise and tenon joints from wooden construction adapted to this new form of building material.





but they also adhered to the Engineers Creed that states "If you can't build something to do the job, that is not also beautiful, why bother."





For 300 years this bridge has stood. Resisting corrosion, floods, neglect, and abuse of vehicles it was never designed to hold.





Just so I can stand on it, touch history, and cry at the magnificence of it.








Bobbie is, of course, unimpressed.








Can you read the name of the Hotel?



The Tontine Hotel is named for the economic concept that fueled the Industrial Revolution.

"The basic concept is simple. Each investor pays a sum into the tontine. Each investor then receives annual dividends on his capital. As each investor dies, his or her share is reallocated amongst the surviving investors. This process continues until only one investor survives. Each subscriber receives only dividends; the capital is never paid back. The proceeds of the subscription were used to fund various private or public works projects. These sometimes contained the word "tontine" in their name, as did the Tontine Coffee House on Wall Street in New York City. Built in 1792, it was the first home of the New York Stock Exchange In a later version of "The Tontine Pact", the capital would be given to the last survivor, effectively dissolving the trust and usually making the survivor very wealthy."

[The Wizard of BC]

In this photo do I look reverential enough?




And in this one you see my ploy to make the other visitors think I am concentrating on framing a shot.



Actually I'm just holding the camera up in front of my face so they cannot see the tears streaming down my cheeks.


I thought you might enjoy this shot.




Lat/Long 52° 37' 35.26" N, 2° 28' 21.39" W

[The Wizard of BC]

Bobbie and I now leave the Midlands and continue our arduous journey into the wilds of England.

To get to Sussex we were forced to pass through the notorious tourist trap that is known as "The Salsbury Plain".

Just two days before had been the Summer Solstice and we had been listening to the news reports of the thousands of weirdos who descend on Stonehenge each year.

I've never had Stonehenge on my bucket list. But Avebury, now that's different.

The Circle of Standing Stones at Avebury are larger by far than Stonehenge. In fact the town of Avebury is right in the middle of the circle and it is quadra-sected by two roads.

So off we go.

On the way I was trying to keep an eye out for one of the famous Chalk or "White Horses" which dot the hillsides of this area.

The problem with spotting them was one we experienced all over the UK.
Why can't these people cut down some of the trees and bushes lining the roads so we tourists can see the country side?


This White Horse is called the "Hackpen White Horse".



I took this picture to give you an idea how hard it was to spot.


Here is a commercial shot to show you the scale of this horse.



There are 14 of these Horses dotting the Wiltshire downs. The oldest is the Uffington Horse which dates to the Neolithic period.

This one is far more recent dating only to 1838. But cool to see anyway.
Lat/Long 51° 28' 20.70" N, 1° 49' 3.21" W



We then come to Avebury.

As we walked to the monument from the car park we passed this Cricket match which had probably been in progress for the past three days.



And then you pass through the town of Avebury and it's buildings with Thatched roofs.





And then you come into the circle of stones itself.




To keep the grass down the Heritage Trust encourages the locals to graze their sheep in and among the stones.
At each gate there is a sign. "Where there are sheep, there is poo. Mind the Poo."





I get Bobbie to pose for a "Diana Gabaldon" moment.





Does anyone remember the scene from "Saving Private Ryan" where one of the American soldiers shows the German prisoners the Star of David on his dog tags and tells them "Yudden, Yudden".

Here I am tormenting some of the poor helpless sheep.

"Your cousin, Your cousin."




And what does an ignorant N. American tourist do when faced with something that has stood, erect, in this spot for about a billion years?

A little vandalism of course.



Lat/Long of the 5th photo 51° 28' 20.70" N, 1° 49' 2.90" W