I can’t entirely argue against that….. I hope that this plaque remains here, and since it’s now September 2021 it’s done well so far.
Category: UK
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Barnsley – Experience Barnsley
I’ve finally got chance to work through my little backlog of posts that I wanted to write but never got chance to (or did get chance to, but I went to the pub)…..
This is Barnsley’s town hall, which was controversial when it was built in the 1930s because it was so expensive. Today it’s still used by the council, but it’s primarily the museum and local archives and there’s a new building nearby for the council staff.
I thought that the museum would be a bit dull, as they really pushed how interactive and modern it was. Sometimes, if I’m being honest, this means that they’ve taken out all the interesting bits and put in some screens that don’t work and aimed the whole arrangement at children. I have to say though that this wasn’t the case here, it was a brilliantly laid out museum which had lots of information about the town’s history.
The museum are very proud of this, a fire engine from 1791 which is thought to be the only one linked to the English inventor Joseph Bramah which still survives. It was the first that Bramah built and was used by the Wentworth Castle estate from 1791, where it remained until 1949. It was then given to Barnsley Fire Brigade who probably wondered what on earth they were going to do with it. It moved about to a number of locations before being moved to this museum when it opened in 2013.
The museum looks bright and modern, but there’s plenty of information on those boards for people who like reading things (people like me).
This is rather lovely, a grant which dates to the early twelfth century and is the oldest document which is held by Barnsley Archives. It is a grant which transferred 20 acres of land from Adam, son of Swain, Lord of Newall, to Adam Beccon, his godson. The payment was a red rose annually if it was requested, which sounds like a good deal for the godson.
A hoard of Roman coins rating from between the first to third centuries that was found in the town, evidence that there was some local activity in the Roman period.
The Moot Hall Clock, which was located on, well, Moot Hall, until 1822. This was the centre of excitement in Barnsley with meetings upstairs and floggings downstairs, it all sounds really quite intriguing. It was made by the local clockmaker Tobias Fletcher in the 1790s and was taken down when the building was demolished in the 1820s.
The ‘This is Your Life’ book which was given to the comedian Charlie Williams.
I’ve seen the film Kes a couple of times, this display contains a signed photo from Ken Loach and a taxidermy kestrel.
The England football cap which belonged to Ernest Hines, dating to 1929 and 1930.
This tray was kept as it served the last pint of Barnsley Bitter.
A “coal not dole” helmet worn by Rita Brenton, as Barnsley was once a mining town although the last one closed in the 1990s.
All in all, I thought that this was a really well put together museum and given that there was free entry, there was nothing for me to find fault in. An excellent example of a provincial museum where the money has been spent wisely, so I can see why it has won a number of awards recently.
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Hull – I’m not entirely sure…..
It’s lovely to be back in Hull, although I’m not entirely sure what is happening here….
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National Express : London Victoria Coach Station to Hull
After the delights of a weekend in London, there was then the thought of the slightly less delightful six hour coach journey to Hull. The waiting area at Victoria Coach Station was packed when I got there, which wasn’t entirely ideal as I noted to myself just how hot it was.
Fortunately, a seat became available soon enough and that fan at the back (only one, the other was broken) helped slightly. This coach station facility is hopelessly inadequate for the number of passengers, but there’s no obvious way that they can improve the situation. There has been talk about moving it to a new location, but its site near London Victoria is quite handy. That section off the left was once the Megabus customer service desk, but they’ve moved to a slightly bigger bit at the rear of this photo and I note that more Flixbus services are emerging here now. I suspect that the coach market will become quite a competitive one in the years ahead.
The service before mine was going to Norwich and the driver came over to do a final check to see if there were any more passengers for his coach, but there weren’t. The driver said to a member of customer service staff that “I doubt that anyone here has even heard of Thetford”, but I decided not to get involved with that…
I was the first to board the National Express Thunderbolt service to Hull, which was stopping off at Nottingham and Lincoln en route.
The lovely clean coach. Everything seems to be pretty much in order, although the power points weren’t working.
I got my usual emergency exit row seat, slightly desirable as it has more legroom. The coach was nearly full to Nottingham, but nearly empty after it. The passenger next to me had been to Chelsea Flower Show for the day, spending £85 to get in. I had no idea that there was so much cost to see flowers….. I didn’t envy her getting up at 2am to get the morning service into London, just to go back in the afternoon. She mentioned to me that the driver had run a couple of red lights, but I hadn’t been paying attention (and it wouldn’t matter if I had, there’s a limited amount that can be seen from the back of the coach) and so that might not have been true.
And a few minutes early, here we are into Hull. The driver was friendly and the service was efficient and very keenly priced, costing me £9 which was entirely reasonable as far as I was concerned. Odd little quirks aside, the National Express service is definitely improving and I like that they’ve scrapped the £1 ticketing charge for those who have signed up to a free account with them. I’d rather get the train as it’s quicker, but in terms of the cost, this was an excellent service.
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London – Westminster (Borough of) – Oxford Street – Hard Rock Cafe (2nd Visit)
This is another venue that I’ve been to before, but The Fork gave me £20 promotional credit to spend and this is an ideal place to spend that as there aren’t that many options.
I was less than excited to discover that there was a live band on (no disrespect to them, I’m sure they were marvellous, it’s just not entirely my thing) and I noticed that the three sets of customers in front of me all asked to be seated away from it in an area that was closed. The Hard Rock staff are endlessly professional and managed to work that situation out for all of those customers. It’s a reminder perhaps that you can’t really mix a band and people eating nearly next to them, even in a Hard Rock cafe. Fortunately, they stopped banging about shortly after I was seated, there was some technical issue or something. Back to the service, it’s impeccable, but that’s within the brand standard and I wasn’t surprised at the high level of engagement.
The beer option I went for had run out, but the staff member offered some recommendations. I went for the acceptable Camdens Hells lager which is drinkable. I noticed that half pints were nowhere near half the price of a full pint, which does slightly annoy me (it’s a rare situation now) and CAMRA campaign against that. However, it’s fair to note that Hard Rock Cafe aren’t really aiming to be listed in the Good Beer Guide, so that situation is unlikely to change. They really should be doing a better selection of craft beer though, that’s within their brand remit I’d have thought.
The chicken tenders, all nicely done and there seems little more for me to add about this as it’s hardly high end cuisine. However, I needed to get to my hotel, so something simple worked for me. The dining environment is very comfortable and Hard Rock Cafe have plenty of musically related things on the walls to look at. The customer base was quite formal, but they seemed to mostly be hotel customers and the prices to stay here aren’t cheap.
Anyway, the meal cost me £2 which was the automatic tip, so that worked out as far as I was concerned. And The Fork have sent me more promotional credit (which is very kind of them) which means I’ll likely be back within the next few weeks. I’d recommend going here, and book using The Fork does give 50% off eating here most of the time, which makes the prices entirely reasonable.
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London – Westminster (Borough of) – Brewdog Paddington (2nd Visit)
I’ve visited this Brewdog before, but I thought that it seemed an ideal place to spend a couple of hours before readying myself for a near six hour long coach journey to Hull. I’m not thrilled at the thought of the coach journey, although the price was entirely agreeable which is why I opted for it over the more decadently priced train.
The bar was nearly empty, which meant that I had a choice of seats around the venue, but there’s usually more drama being located near to the bar. There were also power points and a nice chill from the air conditioning, so that location was perfect for me. I ordered via the app to save the long walk to the bar…..
As an aside and since it was so good, I went for a third of the Dessert in a Can – Mocha Ice Cream Fudge Cake from the brilliant Amundsen Brewery. It’s on draft and isn’t in a can here so the name is slightly confusing (although there is a canned version which obviously makes more sense) and it was beautifully decadent and rich. I didn’t need to buy anything else during my near two hours in the pub (stretching a third to last that long isn’t ideal, but it wasn’t cheap, so I felt that balanced out fine) as sipping that and getting on with other bits of work worked out nicely. The drink was rich, quite sweet and the taste of fudge was certainly there, definitely a liquid pudding in a glass. Pleasant flavour which wasn’t too strong and a long aftertaste which didn’t readily dissipate.
For anyone who wants a relaxing and relatively peaceful afternoon in Paddington, I can think of far worse places…..
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London – Hounslow (Borough of) – Ibis Budget Hounslow
I’ve been in London this weekend to have a rather lovely time seeing Liam and his wonderful two boys, a really nice day on the cable cars, the ArcelorMittal Orbit (which we have to go back to as their slide was a bit jammed yesterday), Downing Street, the Houses of Parliament, Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, M&Ms World, the Lego Store, the London Transport Museum and about 62 trains. There weren’t many cheap accommodation options, so the best value that I could find was the Ibis Budget in Hounslow.
The usual basic room, which seems to be the older design, judging by the lovely new set-up at hotels such as Ibis Budget Whitechapel. It was very clean, no issues there. The hotel also isn’t currently offering daily cleaning of the rooms and they’re claiming Covid-19 restrictions, but that is now becoming rarer in hotels within Accor and other chains and is perhaps not entirely believeable now. If they’re short of staff or saving money, I’d personally rather that they were honest about that.
The main public area on the ground floor, with the staff being friendly and engaging, which seems to often be the case at Ibis Budget hotels. There are no free hot drinks in the rooms at this Accor brand, but there is free tea at reception and there’s chargeable coffee.
The breakfast buffet arrangement, which only costs a few pounds and I find really quite good value. There’s cereals, jams, Nutella, ham, cheese, yoghurts, orange juice, coffees, porridge and so on, basic but perfectly acceptable quality.
I was very brave and used the toast machine, although I’m always slightly nervous I’ll set the hotel on fire. All went well actually with the whole breakfast arrangement and I didn’t break anything which is always a positive way to start the day. It was quite quiet in the breakfast area, but I did go down early on both days.
The breakfast arrangement I went for, or at least, part of it. The coffee was of an unusually high standard, I very much liked that.
The reviews of the hotel are mixed, although the staff and location are well reviewed. It’s rated a lot better for solo travellers than it is was friends and families, which is entirely understandable. One guest left a negative review, but I liked the hotel’s reply of:
“I believed that the fact that you kept extending your stay on numerous occasions meant you were satisfied with the hotel”. It’s a fair point from the management……
I had expected a weekend at Ibis Budget to be a little louder than it was, but there was no internal noise or disturbances at all. Being under the flightpath of London Heathrow was more annoying at 06:00 though, my sympathies to the local residents as the aircraft do indeed make one hell of a noise. I liked this hotel, it’s a short walk away from Hounslow Central underground station and the staff were friendly. I’d happily stay here again if it was competitively priced.
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National Express : Bradford to London Victoria Coach Station
Time to return to London and although I would have preferred to get the train, the National Express fare was only £5 from Bradford into the centre of London, so I went with that for a journey that was estimated to take 5 hours 20 minutes. Above is the bus section of Bradford Interchange and the signage is, if I’m being honest, organised by an idiot. The data sent to Google Maps is wrong on where National Express coaches depart from and the signage is terrible. However, National Express have put on their web-site that their coaches depart from Stands T, U and V, although not on the tickets themselves.
For those who didn’t search the National Express web-site, here’s the ultra clear signage stuck on a window. Anyway, my muttering about the lack of signage aside, the coach turned up ten minutes early and at Stand T, so I was ready and waiting for it. Until 2019, there was a National Express ticket office at the bus station, but that and the National Express customer service staff have now gone.
The coach did get much busier, although not until Leeds which is when more customers got on.
I had the emergency exit seat, with the luxury of having both seats to myself for the entire journey.
The only real excitement during the journey was when the driver said on the tannoy that the National Express control room had contacted him and said that the company had accidentally left someone at a service station on the M1. There must be a very interesting back story to that which unfortunately we weren’t told, but it meant that we had to stop off Tibshelf Services to pick her up and drop her off in Milton Keynes. It delay the coach, but not badly.
The driver also said that he intended to miss out the stops of Golders Green and Marble Arch in London so that the coach could arrive on time. He urged anyone who needed to get off at those stops to go and talk to him. There was then a little procession of customers tripping down the aisle of a fast moving coach going to tell the driver that they had planned to get off at those stops. The conclusion of that was that we stopped at Golders Green and Marble Arch…..
This is really nicely written signage, I liked it.
As for the coach, it was easy to make my seat area nice and cold, with the seats being clean and well presented. The cleaners hadn’t cleaned the seat trays, so I decided against using those, but the toilet was clean. There were USB connections which worked well, so my phone remained fully charged.
And safely into Victoria Coach Station in London, only twenty minutes late.
For the fare charged, this really was excellent value for money, a clean and comfortable coach which arrived sort of on time and with a friendly and engaging driver. All very nice, even though it’s not a train.
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West Yorkshire Day Ranger – Bradford, Halifax, Brighouse, Hebden Bridge, Sowerby Bridge
There’s a handy rail rover ticket called the West Yorkshire Train DaySaver which costs £8.30 for the day and allows travel in Zones 1 to 5 of the above map, which is the area covered by West Yorkshire. On weekends, the ticket can be used at any time, but on weekdays it can only be used after 09:30 and not between 16:00 and 18:30. Nonetheless, it seemed a way of seeing a few towns in the area.
Waiting for my first train at Bradford Interchange, which is also the railway station where I purchased my ticket from. I think that the tickets have to be purchased from the ticket office, or from guards on board when there isn’t a ticket office.
Most of the services were run by Northern, although they’re also valid on East Midlands Railway, LNER, TransPennine Express and CrossCountry in the area.
My first visit of the day was to Halifax, not somewhere that I’ve been before.
This is the town’s new library, merging together a church and a more modern construction. Obviously this brilliant new library which has come at vast expense was shut for the day. £9 million this cost and it’s not open on some weekdays. Apparently they’re planning to improve opening times soon, which would be rather useful…..
The town’s Minster, which was shut.
Wetherspoons was open, so I popped in there.
There we go, a quick half pint of the Chapter 4 – 24 Carrot from Fuggle Bunny brewery, perfectly acceptable…. Unfortunately, there was a limited opening of any decent pubs in town until later on during the day, leaving me opportunity to visit the other Wetherspoons in the town, the Barum Top Inn.
I didn’t expect anything like this when I walked through the gates, the enormously impressive Piece Hall, the sole surviving cloth hall in the north of the country. It opened in 1779 when there were 315 separate rooms for smaller traders to sell their wares. It has recently been restored and the nineteenth century sheds shoved in the middle have all been removed.
One of the gates into the Piece Hall.
Then onto the train to the Richard Oastler pub in Brighouse which is located in a former Methodist chapel.
And lunch in that pub, from JD Wetherspoon’s new chicken menu that is still just in trial pubs, but is being launched nationally from next week. As an aside, that means they’re bringing back half chickens, which they ditched a few years ago.
The delights of Brighouse.
And another train, this time taking me to Sowerby Bridge.
A nicely looked after station, with plenty of history boards as well.
I visited a few pubs here, the Hogs Head, the Commercial Inn and the Hollins Mill.
I had to stay in Sowerby Bridge until 18:30 due to the restrictions on the train ticket, by which time it was starting to get dark. I’m not sure why I wrote that last bit, it’s self-evident from the photo. But there we go….
I had a quick visit to Vocation’s pub.
Then waiting for the train back to Bradford, although I stopped off at Halifax to visit the Victorian Craft Beer Cafe. This was my favourite train journey of the day as a customer complained that the toilet was still occupied. The guard stood outside the toilet looking annoyed, banging on the door loudly saying “there are other customers who need to use the facility, finish up quickly and get out please”. I love the direct approach that was suitably passive aggressive. An embarrassed young woman emerged a couple of minutes later, much to the relief of other waiting passengers. This is a tricky situation though, it might be that there was a hidden disability and the lady needed the time, but it did present some drama for me between Hebden Bridge and Halifax.
Anyway, I thought that the ticket was good value for money and it let me see a few towns that I might not otherwise have done so. The ticket was a bit restrictive that it couldn’t be used in the evening rush hour, but I didn’t have any issues with using it. Northern seem to have very regular ticket checks, so I must have shown my ticket around ten times during the time, but it’s good to be on top of that I guess. All of the trains I boarded were relatively quiet, so this is a good way of selling what would otherwise be empty inventory. Other than for a very short delays, everything ran to schedule as well and I was back into Bradford before the trains stopped running….
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Leeds – Head of Steam Headingley
Although it looks like I’ve visited a branch of William Hill, the sun was annoyingly in the way for taking a photo of Head of Steam which is next door. I could have stood outside the window of the bar and taken a better one, but there were customers inside looking out and they might not have been entirely surprised and delighted of me taking a photo with them in it. This location was previously Havana Bar although a basic Internet search shows that there were consistent and substantial problems with that venue, of the nature that I won’t go into here.
The bar area, which is all modern as would be expected from a Head of Steam. There are two floors here, with the first floor being used as additional seating and also some sort of games room set-up. It wasn’t massively busy when I visited early evening on a Wednesday, but there were a few customers dotted about. Service was immediate and friendly, all efficient and well managed.
I went for the Litmus – Strawberry, Basil and Black Pepper from Atom Brewing of Hull. The beer had a perfectly enjoyable taste, but the tastes of strawberry, basil and black pepper were all too faint for my liking, which was slightly disappointing. A taste of black pepper running through a beer should be strangely slightly decadent, but it was lost on me.
There was a more relaxed and comfortable vibe to this bar than the Brewdog down the road, with a much better curated list of beers as well which cut across most different styles. Some of the furniture probably needed replacing, but this is a student bar which probably does a considerable amount of trade on weekend evenings, so I can imagine everything takes quite a knock. Also as another of my random comments, Head of Steam have these tables in a couple of locations which aren’t even because of the chunky wood and although I know that wood isn’t necessarily flat (it’s not that visible in the photo to be fair), I suspect a few drinks get knocked because of these slight slopes on the table.
Anyway, all very lovely and it’s nice to visit another Head of Steam, there aren’t that many left for me to go to now.
