Walking. Gossip. Travel.

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  • Smuggler’s Trod Challenge Walk 2019 – Yorkshire Coast LDWA

    On August Bank Holiday in 2018 I thought it’d be a marvellous idea to walk the Yorkshire Coast LDWA’s Smuggler’s Trod challenge event which starts in Robin Hood’s Bay. I thought it’d be another marvellous idea to do the same in 2019, especially as I was able to book a good value B&B which was just three minutes walk from the start of the event.

    There were seven of us from Norfolk & Suffolk group, Jane, Clive, Simon, Brian, Kathleen, Hayley and last and certainly not least, me. I’d note here that this post is just about my experiences, as the others might not want me to broadcast what they got up to. And I am the sole of discretion as everyone in the group knows.

    Unlike some others on the walk, I didn’t get confused by this   🙂    It’s the black token which is dropped off at the, well, drop off bucket, and the tally card which is cut along the route. Being only three minutes from the start of the walk meant that I could walk over to register, then go back to get breakfast at the B&B before starting the event at 08:00.

    The turnout on the walk seemed high and there was a positive atmosphere at the beginning of the event. I was over confident and planning this as some sort of training event for the 100. As usual though, around three hours in I launched an inquiry whose idea it was to go on the walk. We had a debate and thought it must have been one of Peter’s ideas.

    Walking across the moor thing, the start of the walk is also the beginning of the Coast to Coast route. Although I don’t like being reminded of that bloody walk, but that’s a story explained in more than enough detail elsewhere on this blog.

    This is the drop down into the first checkpoint and it’s quite a fun little scramble down. Well, it’s not really a scramble, but I’ll call it that so that I sound braver. It can be quite slippery though and the marshals advised us to take extra care. I was extra careful as I knew that the checkpoint was nearby and I was hungry.

    The first checkpoint where I accidentally ate about three bags of jelly babies and several Yum Yums (doughnuts). This was just after the breakpoint of the short and long routes and although secretly I wanted to go on the short route, I didn’t want Simon to think I wasn’t as good a walker as he is.

    We went a bit wrong in this area last year, but all went well this year.

    I really like this checkpoint on the Moors, especially with the smuggler’s flag flying high. We caught up with Brian and Kathleen here, although Clive had long since sodded off. We had several theories why, but I can’t reveal on a public post why I thought he went off. I had more jelly babies here and I even had some tomatoes, which I hoped wouldn’t counteract with the healthy aforementioned jelly babies.

    I found the walk harder this year than last year, but it was because of the heat. The sun was rather unrelenting and the walk is quite exposed for some stretches on the moors, although there was a reasonable breeze throughout much of the day. Like some other walkers on the route I spoke to, I drank more water than I’ve ever done on a challenge event. One of the marshals said they’d had a few people drop out during the event, and they thought it was the heat which was the cause. It was a tough day out there on the moors for nine hours is all I can say.

    Incidentally, I heard one of the female entrants (not from our group) say that they had ‘chub rub’. I hadn’t heard of that, but it seems that it’s a real thing. I won’t give too many details here….

    And one of the smaller checkpoints where I got more jelly babies. Jane and I had been agreeing about how brave we were at this stage, but I won’t go on about that here.

    This middle section of the walk is beautiful and is much easier when it’s dry, otherwise it can be a little soggy in places. It’s a lovely part of the country to walk through, although I did wonder about how many snakes there might be in the undergrowth. I let Hayley go through first in case there were swarms of snakes as I thought she might know how to deal with the situation if it did arise.

    Winding through the trees, this was a welcome stretch of the route as it was shady. We didn’t know where Clive had gone, so we kept an eye along the route in case he had got lost, which was something which happened to certain members of the group last year. Although we don’t mention that of course.

    This was the checkpoint that I was looking forwards to, the one at the campsite. We were still in a big group at this stage that had sort of formed together, around thirty of us. The volunteers coped marvellously, making a variety of sandwiches quickly and efficiently. I had jelly babies and as many salty crisps and snacks as I could to ensure my salt levels weren’t depleted. I had more tomatoes as I’m reckless like that. Oh, and lots of cheese and jaffa cakes.

    It was shortly after this that one of our party managed to get ordered out of the pub for using their toilets. I won’t go into details though, but I’m sure that the story will be retold…..

    Robin Hood’s Bay comes into view.

    Just before the mast with about six miles to go. So very brave. I’ve still got a slightly sore foot from the Birmingham Canal Canter from two weeks ago, which never really got chance to heal since I did the 21 miles last week on the Suffolk coast, but it will be getting a lot of rest this week. Quite a lot of that rest will be in the pub.

    I did miss Jayne at this point, as she would have been able to do some bandaging and tell me how brave I was. Well, nodded knowingly when I asked if she thought I was being brave. It’s the same thing.

    The mast thing.

    The checkpoint near to the mast and I was pleased to get here as it marks the walk back into Robin Hood’s Bay. There was another entrant struggling at this point who had been affected by the heat. I knew that I wasn’t feeling entirely right as I started to crave melon, which can’t be healthy for me. I had some more jelly babies too though as I assumed I must be low on sugar.

    Walking along the coast towards Robin Hood’s Bay, it’s a lovely view.

    Onto the railway line….

    This is the former railway line which ran from Scarborough to Whitby and we were on this for over two miles as we approached Robin Hood’s Bay.

    I enjoyed this railway line section as it was flat and it was easy on the feet, although I still made Simon talk about politics to help the miles go even quicker. I also made Simon listen to my thoughts about the rail network, which I’m confident he very much enjoyed and I suspect was a real boost to him to help get him to the finishing line.

    That was kind of it for the walk, albeit there’s a very steep (I’m from Norfolk, it’s very steep to me) hill at the end. It wasn’t quite as bad as I remembered, so with one final exertion to climb this mountain I was within sight of the end. It was very lovely indeed to be able to see the hall where the event finished….

    A slightly blurry photo, there was either sweat or tears on the lens, I can’t recall which. I must admit, and I hope no-one from the Yorkshire Coast LDWA group reads this as I don’t like any negativity about the wonderful events run by volunteers, that I was marginally disappointed with the pie. I liked the pie and gravy they supplied last year at the event, and I had rather hoped for that again.

    Anyway, in the absence of my planned main course I did have two desserts and several Yum Yums, so all was well with the world. And there were some jelly babies left as well, so I helped the group eat them.

    On the subject of the Yorkshire Coast LDWA group, they were wonderfully friendly as ever and the event was very professionally organised. It’s so very kind of the marshals to give up their time and they were all happy throughout the event, although I don’t think I’ll be getting Norfolk & Suffolk LDWA to dress up at challenge events (they’d take it too far, I just know….).

    Very well done Julian. Oh and well done to the others. So very brave.

  • Birmingham – Barber Institute of Fine Arts (An Old Woman by Bernardo Strozzi)

    This artwork was painted by Bernardo Strozzi in Genoa in the 1620s and it’s not actually of anyone in particular. Instead it’s a study of old age and so wasn’t funded by some wealthy trader or influential politician from the period. The artist was also called il Cappuccino, likely derived from the Capuchin monks, as the coffee didn’t receive its name until much more recently.

    There doesn’t seem to be much provenance listed for this work, although the Barber Institute purchased it for £2,000 from the Hazlitt Gallery in 1966. I’m not very well placed to be an art critic, since I don’t know anything about art, but I thought that it was quite an eye-catching and powerful portrayal of the individual.

  • Sittingbourne – The Bargeman

    This interesting statue is located along the main street which runs through Sittingbourne, which was once Watling Street. This sculpture was designed by Jill Tweed and was unveiled in 1996 to commemorate the work of the local bargemen. Not particularly clear in this photo is that the bargeman’s dog is standing by his foot and is helping his master.

  • Birmingham – Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (HP Sign)

    One of the HP signs which used to be on the company’s Aston Cross factory in Birmingham. The factory originally opened in 1875 and the iconic HP sauce first went on sale in 1903. This all went marvellously until 2007 when HP was bought out and production was moved to the Netherlands to save money, with the last production line closing on 16 March 2007. The factory was demolished and this sign is one of the few reminders of the site.

  • Birmingham – Barber Institute of Fine Arts (A Portrait of a Boy by Giovanni Bellini)

    This artwork was originally used as part of a lid of an inheritance chest and was painted in Venice in around 1475. I’m not entirely sure what an inheritance chest is (as opposed to any other chest) and an on-line search for the term just finds the description that the gallery have for this artwork. The information provided by the gallery does though add that the chest was constructed to hold the marble bust of Angelo Probi who died in 1474.

    Bellini was a Venetian artist who lived from 1430 until 1516 and I assume that he was quite prolific given how many of his artworks that still exist. The artwork was owned by the Holford family from at least the mid-eighteenth century and it was acquired by the Barber Institute in 1946 for £9,500.

  • Norwich – Ice Cream

    How lovely – a free ice cream from Tesco and Vodafone…… I’m easily pleased.

  • Birmingham – Barber Institute of Fine Arts (Joseph Distributing Corn in Egypt by Bartholomeus Breenbergh)

    This artwork was painted by the Dutch artist Bartholomeus Breenbergh in 1655 and was purchased by the gallery in 1963. It shows Joseph distributing corn and it’s known that the location is in Egypt because of the obelisk. There’s another very similar painting to this which the artist painted in the previous year, although that artwork is now in private hands.

    There’s some provenance to this artwork, likely sold at an auction in Amsterdam during 1702 when works owned by the merchant and art collector Jan Agges were sold following his death. It was later purchased by P. Laendert de Neufville in 1756 who at the time was a wealthy merchant in Amsterdam, but he suffered severe financial difficulty in 1763 and after trying to pay his debts for some years the whole house of cards fell down in 1770. This explains the sale of the painting in 1771 to Fouquet and was later sold again in 1844.

    I still find the whole provenance of artworks such as this fascinating, as the route for this painting to end up in Birmingham is a long and complex one determined by some many different factors.

  • Birmingham – Barber Institute of Fine Arts (The Loggetta, Venice by Canaletto)

    I thought that this was a bemusing painting by Canaletto as he’s one of my favourite artists and this looks ridiculous. However, the information panel by the painting revealed the truth, which is that the top of the artwork was at some stage cut off. Bloody vandals…. It’s thought that it was to fit the painting above a door, with the top section of the Loggetta being painted out. The information panel doesn’t say, but I assume that it was cut down on the left hand side as well, as it looking irritatingly uncentred.

    The artwork was purchased by the Barber Institute in 1954 and it was during cleaning of the painting in 1964 that the painted out section at the top was revealed and then restored. The Loggetta, or bell tower, was constructed between 1537 and 1540 and the artwork was painted in the mid 1730s.

    I like paintings with provenance, and this is fortunately available for this one from throughout some of its history. It was purchased by the gallery from the art dealer Mr Edward Speelman in 1954 for £3,000 and it had been purchased at Sotheby’s in May the year before by a Mr. Murray for £2,300. Before that it had been owned by Sir Robert Mond who was an archaeologist and then before that it was owned by G. A. F. Cavendish-Bentinck MP, a prominent Conservative politician, who had sourced the painting from the art dealer Martin Colnaghi. Before that the artwork was owned by James Whatman who was the Liberal MP for Maidstone and West Kent and before that it was owned by George Gee.

  • Birmingham – Birmingham Library

    Birmingham Library replaced the former Central Library which was on a nearby site and which closed in 2013. I actually quite liked the old library and it’s a shame that it was only in use between 1974 and 2013, but the brutalist architecture never really appealed to many. Inside the library I remember that it was quiet, calm and peaceful, so at the time I had hoped that the new library wouldn’t be built when there were campaigns to save the old one.

    The escalators in the new building sweep visitors through the book stacks and it is an impressive sight. However, this library cost nearly £200 million and that seems a huge investment given that the previous building was still functional. I recall the fiasco that Birmingham City Council got into when they realised they didn’t have enough money to open their lovely flagship building, with proposed opening hours slashed nearly in half, although the situation seems to have improved a little since then.

    Books neatly shelved, although some of them are deliberately decorative and can’t be reached by visitors or staff.

    Another view of the escalator.

    The tower area of the building. I’ve visited this library before shortly after it opened and I visited again because I wanted to go on the terraces to get a view over the city centre. Unfortunately I decided that I’d come to the library at a time of inclement weather and so they had closed them off. I’m not actually sure what the inclement weather was since it was neither raining nor windy though….

    I’m not sure that I’ve seen so many Haynes manuals in one place before.

    Moveable book stacks. Secretly, I’d install these in my flat if I could.

    Long and wide aisles which makes browsing books easy, with the whole building feeling spacious and peaceful. The element that I most like though is the quantity of seating and there were numerous quiet areas. Norwich Central Library, which seems to find itself inconvenienced by having to have books (although it keeps flogging them off), has no such quiet areas without veering into the Heritage Centre.

    The library design is innovative and functional, something I’ve given up hope for in Norwich. Incidentally, it’s 25 years this month since the old Norwich library burned down, and I still think we’re in a worse place now than we were with that building. But there we go, I’m often displeased by something. But not by this library in Birmingham, it’s rather lovely.

  • Birmingham – Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (Abolition Teapot)

    An abolition teapot produced in around the 1770s by Josiah Wedgwood & Sons in Stoke-on-Trent, with the text reading:

    “Health to the sick, honour to the brave, success to the lover and freedom to the slave”.

    Wedgwood was an abolitionist and spent a fair sum of his own money on supporting the campaign to end slavery. He later produced medallions of a slave in chains, with the message “Am I not a Man and a Brother?” which became an icon of the abolitionist movement.