Monday 6 November 2017 – The Wabash Jazzmen at Eagley Jazz Club

Another excellent night’s entertainment at Eagley Jazz Club. Tonight’s line up for the Wabash Jazzmen was led by Mark Challinor on banjo, accompanied by the rhythmic string bass of Richard Vernon, with a front line of Bill Smith on cornet/mouth organ, Mike Hayler on clarinet/tenor sax and Mike Pembroke on trombone.

Our old friend Reg Kingston, of ‘LDWA Plodder’ fame, is actively trying to increase the membership of the jazz club. Posters have been produced for shop windows etc, but as it’s a little way from Timperley I can’t assist in that way. However I would encourage readers who like a bit of Trad Jazz to make the trip to Bolton and enjoy the (roughly) fortnightly Monday night performances. It’s great stuff.

The next date is 20 November - THE CHICAGO TEDDYBEARS SOCIETY JAZZ BAND.

See you there?

Wythenshawe parkrun Number 313, and some Fireworks

There was a good turnout of 239 for parkrun 313. Despite poor weather, the cancellation of a nearby run boosted today’s numbers. We used the original course as we’d have got in the way of preparations for a firework display if we’d used the usual route. It was very squishy underfoot. Waterproof socks were a definite benefit. Only the bravest ran through the big puddle (pictured) at the end of both laps. Sue walked around the course with Jeanette, who is banned from running by her medical team, in about 40 minutes, whilst I jogged round with Young Joe in about 28 minutes. My ‘hamstring’ (or it may be something else?) remains debilitatingly the same, but doesn’t stop me jogging slowly. Thanks to Joe for educating me re some computer issues. Full results are here.

I put my rucksack on the grass under the gazebo before the start. Half an hour later the whole area had been transformed into a mud bath!

Moving on from ‘The Muddy Sinks of Timperley’, the following evening, thousands of people braved the mud to enjoy a 12 minute firework display. Since we were dining with Mike and Sarah just round the corner from the park, it was an easy stroll to watch the excellent display.

My phone may have a ‘fireworks’ setting (older phones certainly have had one) but if so, I have yet to find it. So most of my firework pictures are c**p.

We walked home under a cloud of firework induced fog, but the following day everything had returned to normal. The leaves are mostly still holding firm on the trees by the canal…

Friday 3 November 2017 – A Walk Around Burtonwood

This week’s regular mid-week outing started from the car park at Red Brow Wood (SJ 577 044), near Vulcan Village just north of Junction 9 on the M62. It enabled Keith to pop over from Liverpool as the start was only a five minute walk from Earlestown Station.

Cary accepted a lift for the 40 minute drive from Timperley. He had never been over the Warburton Toll Bridge before and was highly amused by the 12 pence fee!

Keith appeared on time, and we gazed up at a ‘heap’ (not worthy of a picture) that gives it name to the ‘Mucky Mountains’. In 1832, James Muspratt built a chemical works here to manufacture Vitriol – Sulphuric Acid and Metallic Sulphates – by the Leblanc Process. Unfortunately, for every ton of Vitriol produced there were two tons of waste. This waste accumulated to form the ‘Mucky Mountains’. The process also produced large amounts of toxic Hydrogen Chloride. Local landowners complained and Muspratt built a 400 ft chimney to try to circumvent the problem. It didn’t work. The lawsuits continued. The works were closed in 1851, and the chimney was demolished in 1925. Nearby houses had been built for the workers, but these were very basic, being deemed in 1956 to be hovels, and demolished then without ceremony.

Subsequently, a sugar refinery built in 1855 lasted until 1979, when it became an early victim of the EU’s restrictions on sugar cane imports. Perhaps it will now be rebuilt?

Long before the chemical works, back in 1757, the Sankey Canal was opened – the first still water canal – mainly for the purpose of transporting coal from Haydock and Parr to the burgeoning factories of Liverpool. The water remains in part of the cut (see above), but the canal is no longer navigable, having been profitable only up to the 1830’s, when competition from railways initiated its decline.

There are a few locks like this one (Winwick Lock) that have been partially renovated (excavated).

On the other side of the railway near here, the Vulcan foundry is the site of the construction of many locomotives, and a village of small houses that took care of the workforce. Unlike the Muspratt homes, these have been restored and look picturesque as you drive through the village.

The ‘Sankey’ path is now a good cycle track all the way to the River Mersey. It’s easy walking or cycling. It goes under the M62 near junction 9, passing a scrapyard where this classic vehicle is sadly mouldering. I’m not sure of the model, but it appears to date from around 1967 – a Leyland Comet?

We passed Winwick Dry Dock, once a hive of activity.

Nearby, Hulme Lock and Dallam Sluice have been partially resuscitated.

Stanners Pool looks very ordinary, but nearby signage declares it to be part of a nature reserve that teems with wildlife, including water voles, ‘pond minibeasts’ and amphibians, as well as many species of fish.

We left the Sankey Valley here and followed a good path around the edge of a modern industrial estate, and back under the noisy motorway. Soon we were on field paths with views to competing ‘blots on the horizon’.

The local farmer doesn’t seem to care for either the public footpaths across his land, or the signage that accompanies them.

However, I was expecting more mud than this!

Cary and Keith seemed reasonably happy as we took an extra little loop through pleasant woodland to reach the unremarkable village of Burtonwood.

We diverted for half a kilometre or so here, to enjoy lunch at Woody’s café. Soup was from a packet and chewy, for £1.50. Butties (£3) were hefty and quite tasty. Drinks were £1 – rather cheaper than most places, even the Courtyard Café at Wythenshawe Park! There’s a chippy across the road, but the café had the added attraction of a TV that was initially ignored but that gradually mesmerised Cary as an item bought on Bargain Hunt for £30 slowly grew in ‘value’ until it was sold for over £400!

Nearer to our onward path, the Chapel House Inn, reputedly the oldest building in Burtonwood, and extensively refurbished in 2013 appeared less than enticing, as it has a ‘rough’ appearance and was partly surrounded by a wire fence.

A nearby website pronounces:

St. Michael & All Angels, Parish Church of Burtonwood and Collins Green has been at the heart of village life for over 400 years. 

Reunited with our planned route, we took a narrow path between housing estates to reach a quiet lane at Boarded Barn Farm. We then inadvertently passed Bradlegh Old Hall, around which if we’d been more alert we may have noticed a moat, and a 15th century gatehouse. Those features are an heirloom from the time when the hall was the home of Sir Piers Legh, an ancient Lord of the Manor, but today’s farmhouse (shown below) was rebuilt in the 17th century from the stones of the old hall.

Stories of ghosts and secret passages abound, but we continued uneventfully along the summery path towards the Sankey Valley.

The view from the bridge over the canal remained much as it was when we arrived three and a half hours earlier.

Here’s our route – 13 km with minimal ascent.

Whilst writing this up, I discovered I’d been on parts of this walk before, on 8 November 2009. I knew I’d been there when I saw the dry dock, but I’d incorrectly placed it on an LDWA walk on the nearby Lancashire Trail.

The Wipers Times, at Manchester Opera House

Thanks to Jenny for organising this little outing on 2 November.

Ian Hislop and Nick Newman had already made a TV film from the story of how a satirical newspaper was produced by frontline soldiers in the first world war.

This stage version is currently touring the country. Details here.

Here are some extracts from Michael Billington’s Guardian review:

The story is framed by the spectacle of the paper’s editor, Fred Roberts, struggling to find a job in post war Fleet Street. The bulk of the action shows Roberts and his fellow officer Jack Pearson deciding to set up a paper while stationed at Ypres. “A bit like the Daily Mail?” says someone. “I was thinking of something rather more accurate,” replies Roberts. That feels like an anachronistic barb, since the Wipers Times was less concerned with news than with offering a Punch-like mixture of jokes, parodies, poems and cartoons that would capture the rumbling resentment of the common soldier with a cosseted high command and the facile optimism of fireside patriots.

Hislop and Newman give us generous helpings of quotes from the original paper, ram home the point that humour is what separates civilisation from incivility and come up with much intriguing information: it’s astonishing to discover that Michelin really did set out to provide a guide to the battlefields during the war and that Lloyd George claimed that drunkenness posed a bigger threat to the troops than that of Germany or Austria.

The difficulty is striking the right balance between the epic futility of the war and its countervailing humour. Caroline Leslie’s skilfully staged production tends to alternate scenes of military attack with music-hall interludes. The show makes its point about the redemptive power of laughter and the insolent bravery of its journalist heroes.

There is a touch of public-school camaraderie about the relationship between James Dutton’s Roberts and George Kemp’s Pearson that, appropriately, since RC Sherriff contributed to the Wipers Times, put me in mind of Journey’s End. Both actors are very good and there is strong support from Dan Tetsell as the ever-practical sergeant, Sam Ducane as the paper’s main antagonist and Peter Losasso as a hapless private. The show recounts an extraordinary story without escalating into powerful drama but offers a salutary message: that, even in war, blessed are the piss-takers.

There’s another review here.

This was an excellent evening, including a pre theatre meal at Carluccio’s, just a few metres away from my old employer’s offices. I expect I’d know it well if I was still working, but these days trips into Manchester City Centre are few and far between.

A very entertaining production despite the wartime backdrop. Commended.

Wednesday 1 November 2017 – Morfa Nefyn and Llanbedrog

Peter and Cassie, who hosted us in Calgary in September, are in the UK for a few weeks. They have been staying in a rented house in Mynytho for a few days with Peter’s old school friend Rod, and his wife Kate.

We popped down for the day and enjoyed a couple of ‘gentle strolls’, the first being along Porth Dinllaen, near Morfa Nefyn. The wind was light and the sea was calm; a few seagulls were floating overhead, or bobbing gently on the water.

It was warm for the first day of November, so much so that children on their half-term holiday were playing happily in their swimsuits on the beach, with one girl venturing into waist deep water with her fishing net!

The 19th Century Ty Coch Inn, located on the beach, was too inviting to stroll past. Coffees (and some sneaky brownies that were in Martin’s rucksack) were enjoyed, with the sun occasionally breaking through the light cloud.

Another short meander brought us to the smart lifeboat station, with its shiny rescue boat ready for action (after closing the hatches, of course).

There’s a popular golf course here. Take plenty of balls! The coastguard is well positioned to watch the golf and have a seaward view at the same time. Today his telescope was trained on a flock of about twenty choughs who were practicing their murmurations, or should that be ‘chattering’?.

Meanwhile, cormorants, oyster catchers, and a variety of gulls mobbed the offshore rocks.

We weren’t the only tourists – just off the peninsula Nessie revealed that she was on tour – enjoying her half term break no doubt.

The Welsh Coast Path assiduously follows the coast as closely as possible hereabouts. So much so that Cassie decided to turn back at this point, Rod and Kate having already succumbed to the more level nature of the path through the golf course.

We soon regrouped, having wandered around the headland in various ways. Ty Coch Inn was now heaving with families enjoying their lunch. We joined them. The food was good, especially the home made soup.

Walking back along the Porth Dinllaen beach to the National Trust car park, the views to Yr Eifl, with its cap of cloud at 500 metres, confirmed that we weren’t missing out by eschewing the higher peaks of Snowdonia.

Here’s our 4.5 km route.

The afternoon saw us taking a wider road than the morning’s narrow lanes, to Llanbedrog, where the National Trust car park seems to be a winter home for lots of beach huts. These are just 8’ x 6’ sheds with robust corrugated roofs instead of the usual felt (that on our shed at home has rotted and blown away), and solid doors. The lack of any windows must grant a rather dark sort of privacy.

Down at the beach, a lone heron looked rather out of place amongst the one-legged oystercatchers, gulls, and redshanks.

What can you spot?

Away in the distance (see previous picture for the wider view), the sun caught a small section of beach.

Kate adjourned to the pleasures of Plas Glyn-y-Weddw’s tearoom, whilst the rest of us climbed about 100 metres up a steep stairway.

A short walk from the top of the steps leads to a wrought Iron Man that was a millennium project to replace a Tin Man that had looked out over Cardigan Bay to Barmouth and the Rhinogs since the 1980s.

There were good views from here, back to Llanbedrog beach and also down to the Plas Glyn-y-Weddw mansion.

We took the coast path around Mynydd Tir-y-cwmwd rather than head over the summit, where the toposcope would have been informative as to the direction in which the peaks of Snowdonia lie, but given the cloud cover those peaks were well hidden today. Instead, we got an aerial view of Abersoch and an ‘estate’ of up market mobile homes.

Looking out to sea, a lone two bladed windmill lurked in the foreground.

A short descent back to Llanbedrog took us past St Pedrog's Church Hall, then past the church itself to Plas Glyn-y-Weddw, a dower house built in 1856 by Lady Love Jones Parry. The Gothic mansion became an art gallery and ballroom in 1896 and was served by a horse-tramway from the railway terminus at Pwllheli until 1927. It remains a vibrant gallery, and is one of nine locations that houses the Celtic Neighbours partnership, a group of visual artists from native Celtic communities.

Some of the art, on this occasion from a renowned Welsh abstract artist (Gillian Ayres), unlike the tea and cake, and as on previous visits, remains sadly not to our conservative taste.

The lovely sculpture, ‘Louise’ was made by David Williams-Ellis and was generously donated in 2002 and placed on a large rock from the Wern Estate.

Outside the mansion sits the only remaining carriage from the tramway that was closed in 1927/28 after part of the line was destroyed by a storm in 1927. Now immaculately restored, the carriage was found in a barn in 1967, being used to store animal feed.

Here’s our 4.5 km route. Allow an hour and a half.

Then we returned to Mynytho for more tea before driving home.

Well, that was a most enjoyable day out, and good to see Peter and Cassie again. We hope Peter’s poorly foot regains its more normal sprightly condition as soon as possible.