CONTENTS
Cover
About the Book
About the Author
Title Page
Dedication
Introduction
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
Index
Acknowledgements
Copyright
Think you know England? Think again.
A green and pleasant land of rolling hills and gentle village lanes? England is so much more than its traditional image would have you believe. Let Tired of London, Tire of Life author Tom Jones be your guide to this astonishing nation, where among a wealth of other surprising experiences you can . . .
Dive into the pages of Mad Dogs & Englishmen, and experience a year of English adventures full of eccentricity, ingenuity and enchantment.
Tom Jones is a writer and researcher who lives in South East London. He is happiest when discovering new things to do and believes it is important to make the most of where you live. Born in the South Cotswolds, before creating Tired of London, Tired of Life, he worked as a researcher at the House of Commons, as a white van man and in the Armed Forces Medal Office.
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First published in the UK in 2013 by Virgin Books, an imprint of Ebury Publishing A Random House Group Company
Copyright © Tom Jones, 2013
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ISBN: 9780753541746
Design: Lottie Crumbleholme
Illustrations © Hannah Warren, 2013
Photography © Tom Jones, 2013
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Please note: Where text refers to ‘Nearest station’, this is the nearest mainline station, not local rail, which in some instances may be nearer to the destination.
For Sue & Pete
With thanks to Hannah Knowles, Nicola Barr, Lottie Crumbleholme, Hannah Warren and Virgin Books for their help in making this book. Thanks as always to Susan, Peter & Cynthia Jones for their help and support, and for, along with the late Ronald Jones, teaching me to love interesting places.
Thanks to Stephen Jones, Jemima Warren, Ronald Whittington, Jon Searle and Alison Gregory for joining me in different corners of England, Paul Warbrick for offering me shelter in Manchester and the Lakes and Lis Wood for entertaining me in Bristol. Thanks also to Rosie Luff for her knowledge of Worcestershire and the staff and guests at Gladstone’s Library for their hospitality.
Many think they know England, but few have travelled it fully, often overlooking the depth of culture, geology, geography and history in the country on their doorstep. However, England still has the potential to amaze and delight even the most cynical traveller with displays of the unexpected, from the real snow ski slopes of Cumbria to the sub-tropical gardens of the Isles of Scilly.
Whilst it can be driven end to end in half a day, England offers almost unlimited landscapes, a rich cultural heritage, and a diversity of opportunities any nation would struggle to match.
England inspires with its constantly changing scenery, which has touched the greatest artists in history; visitors to galleries in even the most remote corners of the country are greeted with outstanding examples of art and architecture.
England’s landscapes have also informed the world’s finest literature and poetry, with writers capturing their evocative surroundings, from the Kent of Dickens to the Yorkshire of the Brontës and the Cumbria of Wordsworth.
Our deceptively small nation requires more than a second look. This book is an attempt to investigate what can easily be missed or overlooked – forgotten England, if you like. Ours is a country that embraces the changing seasons and reveals its best side, whatever the weather.
This book is the result of thirty years of exploring England and many months of revisiting it to check it was all still there. I hope in some small way these pages encourage you to find an England of your own.
Tom Jones – January 2013
With the feasts of December petering out towards Twelfth Night, January brings in the year with vigour: wassailing ceremonies offer a toast to the coming year’s crop in England’s orchards, while Plough Monday marks the traditional return to work for the year. A month of rich wintry sunsets, January’s grey skies are occasionally punctured by blissful days of heavenly blue.
This is a month of crystal clarity, sometimes marked by beautiful frozen spells of snow and ice. The countryside, however, offers an unexpectedly warm welcome to visitors willing to wrap up, and far from the deep-winter slumber of towns and villages they will find misty mornings, muddy puddles, windblown cheeks and rich hospitality beside roaring pub fires.
Each New Year’s Day, the Derbyshire village of Mappleton (sometimes spelled Mapleton), near Ashbourne, is the venue for an unusual race. Pairs of participants paddle half a mile down the River Dove in small boats before jumping thirty feet from the bridge into the icy cold water.
Following the jump, competitors race across a field to the Okeover Arms to warm up, with the winner receiving the Brass Monkey Trophy. The race was devised by local man Jim Breeze in the 1980s and is now a popular local event, with many of those taking part adopting fancy dress.
Website: www.visitashbourne.co.uk
Address: The Okeover Arms, Mappleton, Ashbourne DE6 2AB
Nearest station: Derby
At the Black Bull pub in Frosterley, County Durham, the clocks could have stopped in the nineteenth century: its ageless interior features cosy open fires burning in iron ranges, traditional rooms, flagstone floors and warming ales, making it an atmospheric place for a snug winter’s evening.
The Black Bull is only a short walk from the historic Weardale railway, and, as well as attracting steam enthusiasts, the pub is also popular with bell-ringers due to its unique peal of traditional bells housed in the roof, rung by rope and wheel, and not found in any other pub in the world.
Website: www.blackbullfrosterley.com
Address: The Black Bull Inn, Frosterley, Co.Durham, DL13 2SL
Nearest station: Darlington
The old English tradition of wassailing sees cider-apple trees blessed for the new season by those hoping to ensure a strong crop, and in the Sussex village of Bolney it is still celebrated with a vocal display on the first Saturday in January.
Known locally as ‘Apple Howling’, the ancient custom was believed to drive out evil spirits who might compromise the apple crop. Essential to the tradition is consumption of cider and cake, and a torchlight procession featuring the last carols of the season.
Website: www.crmm.org.uk
Address: Old Mill Fruit Farm, Cowfold Road, Bolney, West Sussex RH17 5SE
Nearest station: Haywards Heath
The Grade II*-listed City Varieties Music Hall in Leeds is the longest continuously operating music hall in Britain, having been opened above the White Swan Inn off Briggate by Charles Thornton in 1865. Originally known as the New Music Hall and Fashionable Lounge, the music hall became City Varieties in 1893.
Probably best known as the venue for BBC television show The Good Old Days between 1953 and 1983, the stage has witnessed performances by everyone from Charlie Chaplin to Harry Houdini, Mickey Rooney, Ken Dodd and Barry Cryer, and its annual pantomime season is especially popular with local crowds.
Website: www.cityvarieties.co.uk
Address: City Varieties Music Hall, Swan St, Leeds LS1 6LW
Nearest station: Leeds
England is hardly known for its skiing climate, but adventurous skiers have been enjoying the slopes at Yad Moss, near Alston in Cumbria, since the 1970s. England’s largest ski area is staffed entirely by volunteers and consists of eight runs, each around half a mile in length.
Despite being in the North Pennines, the slopes can offer some great skiing when the conditions are right, and those expecting an amateur experience should think again, as a Lottery grant has funded the purchase of a ‘piste basher’ to prepare the slopes, while a permanent button lift is on hand to tow skiers to the top.
Website: www.yadmoss.co.uk
Address: On the B6277, 7 miles south of Alston
Nearest station: Darlington
One of the oldest traditional Yorkshire longsword dance teams in the country, the Goathland Plough Stots hold their annual Day of Dance in the North Yorkshire village of Goathland in mid-January.
This festive occasion, with live musicians and seasonal drinks and food, makes January a busy time for the Stots, who owe their name to the ancient practice of dancers performing on Plough Monday, the Monday after 6 January.
Website: www.goathlandploughstots.co.uk
Address: Goathland Village
Nearest station: Whitby
Built in the 1830s as the crowning glory of Charles Barry’s Neo-Gothic Palace of Westminster, the tower – known colloquially as Big Ben and officially renamed Elizabeth Tower in 2012 in honour of the Queen’s Jubilee – stands nearly 100 metres tall in the centre of London and has four identical faces.
Tours run regularly and can be arranged through your Member of Parliament, allowing visitors to climb 334 stone steps to hear the real Big Ben – the bell inside the tower – strike the hour.
Website: www.parliament.uk/bigben
Address: Westminster Palace, Parliament Square, London SW1A 0AA
Nearest underground station: Westminster
Once a major port on the Suffolk coast, Dunwich was hit by a fierce storm in early January 1286, sweeping much of the town into the sea. Further storms in 1287 and 1328 destroyed the port, eventually leaving only a few houses and the ruined priory, which remain standing to this day.
Local legend has it that, from Dunwich’s bleak stretch of beach, the bells of the submerged church can be heard ringing underwater, forewarning of future storms, while shadowy figures seen on the cliff tops are thought to be the ghosts of former townspeople.
Website: www.dunwich.org.uk
Address: Dunwich, Suffolk
Nearest station: Darsham
The annual Straw Bear Festival is a highlight in the Cambridgeshire town of Whittlesea, during which mysterious figures stalk the streets dressed from head to toe in straw. The festival derives from an annual custom to mark Plough Tuesday, the day after Plough Monday, when farmers traditionally began to plough their fields for the new season, and a straw-covered man (the Bear) was led from house to house to dance for money, food and beer.
Though the resurrected custom takes place on the closest weekend to Plough Tuesday rather than on the day itself, it still maintains the atmosphere of the original, with the Bear wandering the streets and dancing with Morris Men, and much ale and folk music taken in local pubs over the weekend.
Website: www.strawbear.org.uk
Address: Whittlesea Straw Bear Festival Tickets, 4 Delph Street, Whittlesey, Peterborough, PE7 1QQ
Nearest station: Whittlesea
Mounted on the north door of Durham Cathedral, the Sanctuary Knocker is a ferocious metal beast, once the last point of refuge for the accused. Established as early as the ninth century by King Guthred, the right of sanctuary meant that an alleged criminal who reached the cathedral and grasped the ring held in the ornamental knocker’s mouth could receive 37 days’ sanctuary.
The accused would then have the right to stay within the boundaries of the cathedral for that time – as well as being given food, drink and bedding – and records show that more than 300 criminals sought this protection between 1464 and 1524. This option is not open to modern-day criminals, however, as the right was abolished in 1623.
Website: www.durhamcathedral.co.uk
Address: Durham Cathedral, Palace Green, Durham DH1 3EP
Nearest station: Durham
The days around the Feast of St Ceolwulf of Northumbria on 15 January are an atmospheric time to visit Lindisfarne Priory, the final resting place of St Ceowulf, the eighth-century King of Northumbria. The historic monastery was founded on Holy Island by St Aidan in AD 635 as an early outpost of Christianity in Northern England, which was at the time subject to frequent Viking raids.
A deeply pious man, known for his long beard, Ceolwulf reigned for just eight years before abdicating to enter the monastery, and remained there for twenty years until his death, happily undertaking religious study to the sounds of the winds and waves of the North Sea.
Website: www.lindisfarne.org.uk
Address: Holy Island, Berwick-Upon-Tweed, Northumberland TD15 2RX
Nearest station: Berwick-Upon-Tweed
As visitors arrive at Spurn Point, the remote end of a three-mile sand-and-shingle spit, and see the peaceful mouth of the Humber before them, it is hard to imagine the spot being a hive of activity, but for hundreds of years passing ships have relied on the point to ensure their safety, as demonstrated by the presence of the Humber RNLI base and the now-disused Spurn Lighthouse.
As well as tracing the routes of the stalking hulks approaching Hull’s container ports, the bleak spit also offers the chance to watch wildlife at the Spurn Observatory and to trace the point’s First World War coastal artillery batteries, which once protected the Humber in a very different way.
Website: www.spurnpoint.com
Address: Spurn Point, Spurn, near Kilnsea, Humberside HU12 0UB
Nearest station: Hull
A seventeenth-century manor house in the heart of the Derbyshire Peak District, Hartington Hall was built for the Bateman family, who were major landowners. The style of the hall is everything one would expect from an aristocratic country house, with the only significant change to the exterior being the rebuilding of the west front in the nineteenth century.
The Bateman family remained at the house until the early twentieth century, but, in 1934, the building became one of the Youth Hostels Association’s first premises. Today, still characterised by log fires and oak panelling, Hartington Hall is one of the finest in the YHA’s care, offering quality budget accommodation.
Website: www.yha.org.uk/hostel/hartington
Address: Hall Bank, Hartington, Buxton, Derbyshire, SK17 0AT
Nearest station: Buxton
Kielder Forest in Northumberland has the darkest night skies in England, and the Kielder Observatory on Black Fell near the Scottish border was opened in 2008 to take advantage of the lack of light pollution.
Operated by Kielder Observatory Astronomical Society, the observatory holds regular stargazing events, using its various turrets and telescopes to achieve the best possible views of the night sky.
Website: www.kielderobservatory.org
Address: Kielder Observatory, Kielder Forest, Northumberland NE48 1ER
Nearest station: Hexham
A last remaining vestige of the Victorian temperance movement can be found in the Lancashire town of Rawtenstall, in the form of Fitzpatrick’s Temperance Bar, an original non-alcoholic pub that opened in 1890 as part of a network of temperance bars established to combat nineteenth-century alcoholism.
The bar takes its name from the Fitzpatricks, an Irish family of herbalists, and serves a range of herbal cordials including Dandelion & Burdock, Sarsaparilla and the rather Gothic-sounding Blood Tonic Cordial.
Website: www.fitzpatrickstemperancebar.co.uk
Address: 5 Bank St, Rawtenstall, Rossendale, BB4 6QS
Nearest station: Bolton
For more than 700 years, the people of the North Lincolnshire village of Haxey have been playing the Hood Game, in which a huge and unstructured scrum aims to push the ‘hood’ – a leather tube – towards one of the four local pubs, which then gets to keep it until the next year.
The game – which roughly coincides with Old Christmas Day on 6 January – is based on the story of Lady de Mowbray, the wife of a local landowner, who, legend has it, lost her red hood when out riding, leaving thirteen farm workers to chase it around a field. The day is led by the Fool, who represents the man who caught the hood but was too shy to hand it back to Lady de Mowbray.
Website: www.isleofaxholme.net/haxey-hood.html
Address: The Carpenter’s Arms, Newbigg, Westwoodside, DN9 2AT
Nearest station: Doncaster
Despite billing itself fairly meaninglessly as the world’s only ‘submarium’, the Deep in Hull is an impressive aquarium. The building juts out over the waterfront, contains 2.5 million litres of water, and is home to more than 3,500 sea creatures.
The aquarium was opened in 2002 and boasts Europe’s only pair of green sawfish, as well as eight other types of shark and a coral reef, teeming with tropical fish.
Website: www.thedeep.co.uk
Address: The Deep Aquarium, Tower St, Hull, HU1 4DP
Nearest station: Hull
Celebrated by some as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, Ironbridge was once the most technologically advanced town in the world, after Abraham Darby began to use coke fuel in the smelting of iron there in 1709.
The 100-foot iron bridge from which the town takes its name was the world’s first metal bridge. It was built by Darby’s grandson in 1779 and proved to be a great influence on subsequent technology and architecture. The bridge is freely open to the public and a number of museums in the town tell the story of local industry.
Website: www.ironbridge.org.uk
Address: Museum of the Gorge, The Wharfage, Ironbridge TF8 7DQ
Nearest station: Wellington or Telford
Known for its panoramic views and the steep bends that must be negotiated to get there, the Hartside Top Café is England’s highest café, located on Hartside Pass on the A686 between Penrith and Alston in the North Pennines.
Particularly popular with cyclists and motorbikers, owing to its 1,904-foot altitude and the challenging route, the café is open on weekends during January, weather permitting.
Website: www.transportcafe.co.uk/hartsidetop.html
Address: Hartside Top Café, Alston, Cumbria, CA9 3BW
Nearest station: Penrith
The centrepiece of Hartlepool’s Maritime Experience, a themed recreation of the town in the eighteenth century, HMS Trincomalee was built in Bombay, India, in 1817. It is the oldest British warship still afloat, and the second oldest floating ship in the world.
The ship sits in the town’s Jackson Dock, where it arrived in 1987 for ten years of restoration following work as a training ship, and is now part of the National Historic Fleet, Core Collection.
Website: www.hms-trincomalee.co.uk
Address: Jackson Dock, Maritime Ave, Hartlepool, Cleveland TS24 OXZ
Nearest station: Hartlepool
Bristol’s M-Shed is an interesting and informative museum of the city’s history, opened in 2011. It was built in one of the alphabetically labelled transit sheds in the docks, hence its curious name, which was first given in the 1950s.
The museum offers a very interesting exploration of the culture and history of the city that is often considered the capital of the West Country.
Website: mshed.org
Address: Princes Wharf, Wapping Rd, Bristol, BS1 4RN
Nearest station: Bristol
Now remembered around the world as the founders of one of the first European settlements in North America, the Pilgrim Fathers began their lives in a quiet corner of the English countryside on the borders between Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Derbyshire.
The Mayflower Trail visits various locations associated with the Pilgrims, including Babworth Church, where the religious separatism of the Pilgrim Fathers originated, led by the parson Richard Clyfton; Scrooby, where William Brewster held meetings of the separatist congregation at his manor house; and Gainsborough Old Hall, where John Smyth held meetings of his congregation.
Website: http://mayflowermaid.com/mayflower_trail_map
Address: Babworth All Saints Church, Bridle Path, Babworth, Nottinghamshire, DN22 7BP
Nearest station: Retford
The Somerset village of Kilmersdon lies within cider-apple territory and takes its wassailing seriously, keen to ensure a good cider crop by blessing the apple trees in its Community Orchard.
The village, which is said to be home to the hill climbed by Jack and Jill in the nursery rhyme of the same name, crowns a Wassail Queen each year, and celebrates the season with music and Morris dancing.
Website: www.frome-tc.gov.uk
Address: Kilmersdon Village Hall, Kilmersdon, Somerset BA3 5TD
Nearest station: Frome
Otherwise known as the Ashington Group, the Pitmen Painters were a group of working-class coal miners from Ashington in Northumberland who started meeting regularly in the 1930s as part of a Workers’ Education Association group to study art appreciation, and who subsequently began painting their own works.
The results were seen by many as a uniquely insightful collection of working-class art, capturing aspects of life in Northern mining communities and leading to critically acclaimed exhibitions in Durham, London, Germany, the Netherlands and China. The group’s pictures, reflecting life in their local community, are now on permanent exhibition at the Woodhorn Museum in Ashington.
Website: www.experiencewoodhorn.com
Address: Woodhorn Museum and Archives, Queen Elizabeth II Country Park, Ashington, Northumberland, NE63 9YF
Nearest station: Newcastle
An eccentrically decorated seventeenth-century thatched restaurant and pub at Asenby, near Thirsk in North Yorkshire, the Crab & Lobster specialises in good food in an interesting environment, with a treasure trove of antiques, including old advertising boards, fishing nets and characterful Marilyn Monroe-themed toilets.
The warm and cosy bar is perfect for a winter lunch, and the area’s close connection to the North Sea coast means that seafood enjoys a strong presence on the menu.
Website: www.crabandlobster.co.uk
Address: Crab Manor Hotel, Dishforth, Asenby, North Yorks., YO7 3QL
Nearest station: Northallerton
Known for its narrow cobbled streets and higgledy-piggledy cottages, the village of Staithes on the North Yorkshire coast was an important fishing port when a sixteen-year-old James Cook came here to work in a grocery shop in 1745.
The village now remembers Cook – who went on to become the famous explorer Captain Cook – in a heritage centre, and the village makes a good spot from which to explore the rugged coastline.
Website: www.staithes-town.info
Address: Staithes, North Yorkshire
Nearest station: Saltburn
People have been gathering at Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem for special events since at least the twelfth century, when it is believed that knights and supporters of Richard the Lionheart rested here before departing for Jerusalem to fight in the Third Crusade, hence the pub’s name.
Built into the cliffs beneath Nottingham Castle, with the cellars and some of the rooms actually carved out from the rock, the pub is one of many that claim to be the oldest in England.
Website: www.triptojerusalem.com
Address: Brewhouse Yard, Nottingham, England NG1 6AD
Nearest station: Nottingham
An interesting museum exploring local history, the Dock Museum in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, is located within a former dry dock, offering visitors an insight into the expansion of the industrial town, with a focus on shipbuilding and steel production.
The museum is a good starting place for those wishing to understand a modern-day town that is still shaped by its shipyards, which have continued to build submarines and other ships for the Royal Navy.
Website: www.dockmuseum.org.uk
Address: Dock Museum, North Road, Barrow-in-Furness, LA14 2PW
Nearest station: Barrow-in-Furness
In January 1644, at the height of the English Civil War, the Parliamentarian garrison at Nantwich in Cheshire was under siege, surrounded by Royalists forces. A Parliamentarian relief force marched south from Lancashire towards Nantwich, and the Battle of Nantwich began.
On 25 January 1644, the siege was finally lifted and the people of the town wore holly sprigs in their hats to celebrate. Since then, the day has been remembered as Holly Holy Day, and the soldiers of the Sealed Knot re-enactment organisation now come to the town each year in late January for a weekend’s recreation of the battle.
Website: www.battleofnantwich.co.uk
Address: Nantwich, Cheshire
Nearest station: Nantwich
The outskirts of Leicester may not be where you would expect to find the National Space Centre, but since 2001 it has indeed been based here, attracting a quarter of a million visitors each year.
The centre brings together a range of artefacts and exhibitions relating to space science and astronomy, including a 1970s Russian Soyuz spacecraft, a space suit worn by the first Briton in space, Helen Sharman, and a mock-up of the Columbus module built for the International Space Station.
Website: www.spacecentre.co.uk
Address: Exploration Dr., Leicester, LE4 5NS
Nearest station: Leicester
The Victorian Turkish Baths in Harrogate are an original part of the town’s nineteenth-century Royal Baths complex, built to attract visitors to the spa town that has been known for its mineral waters since a spring was first discovered there by William Slingsby in 1571.
The restored Turkish Baths are one of only a handful of such surviving Victorian facilities, remaining true to their original grand Moorish design with Islamic arches and screens, walls of colourful glazed brickwork, painted ceilings and terrazzo floors, as well as a variety of steam rooms and hot rooms and a cool plunge pool.
Website: www.turkishbathsharrogate.co.uk
Address: Harrogate Turkish Baths & Health Spa, Parliament Street, Harrogate HG1 2WH
Nearest station: Harrogate
With the arrival of February, many hope spring is around the corner, but it still feels a lifetime away, as storm clouds and icy spells continue to dominate. However, although February is short, it is a month of change, and by the final week early daffodils become common in the South and the first lambs are born.
In Old English, February was called ‘Solmonath’ or ‘the month of cakes’, signifying offerings of cakes made to the gods; and it remains a month for food lovers, with bacon, pea soup and pancakes all traditional in the run up to Shrove Tuesday. The month is also a time for lovers, with Valentine’s Day observed by couples, and ladies encouraged to propose in the event of a leap day at the end of the month.