I have found it much harder than I expected to keep
up with the daily blog. Particularly now it is summer and the there is so much
more on, and also because the fruits of retirement planning are starting to
bear fruit. By way of example I shall recap the last three days giving I hope
some insight into some interesting subjects.
On Friday we returned Marion’s parents to Poole via
Leeds Airport. I think that I have said enough on that subject, but suffice it
to say it lived up to its previous poor reputation. A long time ago we had
booked tickets for this evening at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, so we had some
time to kill. Marion suggested visiting Salts Mill at Saltaire.
This is a great preserved part of our industrial heritage
in West Yorkshire. Simply it is a huge mill at the centre of a planned village
built in the 19th century when this part of the world was a centre
for world textile manufacturing. It was built by Sir Titus Salt, hence the name
Salts Mill. It was one of the first planned towns in the UK where Salt provided
for all of his employee’s needs except drink, the place was strictly teetotal.
The mill was saved from the demolition that was the
fate of so many similar buildings. It now has an interesting variety of uses.
One floor is the home of Pace whose main business I think is the manufacture of
television decoders like Skyboxes. The anchor though is an exhibition of the
works of David Hockney that changes according to the season. For those of you
unsure of this juxtaposition Hockney was a native of nearby Bradford so it is
entirely appropriate that it should be a centre for displaying his work. In
between there is an excellent bookshop, a household shop and an excellent café.
These are all set in the vast halls of the mills interiors. It is not hard to
imagine the thundering machines that must have occupied this space. All in all
it was a lovely couple of hours, also good for the quiet talk/discussion that
we had.
So then it was on to the theatre, and this time it
was a truly entertaining play about a Yorkshire sporting heroine, Beryl Burton.
Beryl dominated women’s cycling in Britain for twenty years from the late
1950’s. She was a remarkably talented athlete and had some awe-inspiring
achievements. Beryl was the first woman ever to break a men’s record in any
sport. This was for the distance covered over twelve hours of road racing. The
woman’s record still stands today almost fifty years after it was set.
Remarkable when you consider the improvements in bike technology and training,
and the fact that Burton had a weak heart.
The play itself was written by Maxine Peake a well
know British actor. It was well constructed, had pace and was both funny and
poignant at the same time. I felt that we were getting a great insight into a
remarkable life. It was also played with verve by the small cast. So we did not
get home until nearly midnight tired after a long day, I was certainly in no
state to write a coherent blog.
To be continued………
No comments:
Post a Comment