My last trip back to the UK, in July of 2012, was primarily to visit my mother and to help celebrate my last remaining uncle’s 90th birthday. A nice stay with, for the most part, lovely weather and a Test Match win over India to boot.
For a long time my mother and I had been threatening to visit the seaside for some time now, but we had always found some reason not to. This time, however, we persevered and made it to Whitby – a one-time beautiful seaside town on the east coast of Yorkshire. I have fond memories of Whitby from my younger days, and while the town itself is still quite beautiful, when it is full of holidaymakers and tourists it doesn’t quite have the same appeal. The crowded quay area was particularly unpleasant being thronged with people eating fish and chips, hot dogs, smelly shellfish (cockles, whelks, muscles), or ice cream. Litter was abundant and the whole place was just not that inviting. It had none of its charm of older times.
We did however consume the best fish and chips that I have ever had at a rather upscale fish and chip shop – Trenchers. While this is perhaps not typical of English Fish and Chips (even the cooks wear chef’s hats) it is perhaps some of the best battered fish you can buy.
This was perhaps more typical, a coffee shop catering to the English palette with the usual range of coffee drinks and for the non-caffeine lovers, Horlicks!
We escaped out of Whitby and went a little further up the coast to Runswick Bay – a beautiful and picturesque spot if ever I saw one. We had afternoon tea in the garden of the Hotel overlooking the bay – very pleasant indeed.
On my last Sunday there, I met up with my friends Steve and Yvonne for lunch. Since Steve and Yvonne live in Cumbria and I was in Derbyshire, we met half-way in between – in the little village of Hudswell, near Richmond in the Yorkshire Dales. The village of Hudswell has a rather fine Community Pub, The George and Dragon. We had a nice lunch there. The whole idea of a Community Pub is that the residents of the village, town or whatever buy shares in the ownership of the pub and run it for the benefit of the community. They usually exist where a commercially operated pub has failed to survive and they attempt to be more than just a commercial operation, they try and preserve some of the architecture and historical significance of the public house. This is a very good thing as far as I can see. In Hudswell, there was also a Community Shop adjacent to the pub. Again there to provide a service to the village community when the local shops were no longer commercially viable after the Morrisons or Tesco move into the area.
Finally a quick mention of the birthday party for my Uncle Geoff’s 90th birthday. It was a surprise party and he took it very well - you have to be careful with surprise for a 90 year old man. Here’s a picture of him with my mother.
And here we all are - cousins, grand-children, the lot.
More pictures of everything are here.
For a long time my mother and I had been threatening to visit the seaside for some time now, but we had always found some reason not to. This time, however, we persevered and made it to Whitby – a one-time beautiful seaside town on the east coast of Yorkshire. I have fond memories of Whitby from my younger days, and while the town itself is still quite beautiful, when it is full of holidaymakers and tourists it doesn’t quite have the same appeal. The crowded quay area was particularly unpleasant being thronged with people eating fish and chips, hot dogs, smelly shellfish (cockles, whelks, muscles), or ice cream. Litter was abundant and the whole place was just not that inviting. It had none of its charm of older times.
We did however consume the best fish and chips that I have ever had at a rather upscale fish and chip shop – Trenchers. While this is perhaps not typical of English Fish and Chips (even the cooks wear chef’s hats) it is perhaps some of the best battered fish you can buy.
This was perhaps more typical, a coffee shop catering to the English palette with the usual range of coffee drinks and for the non-caffeine lovers, Horlicks!
We escaped out of Whitby and went a little further up the coast to Runswick Bay – a beautiful and picturesque spot if ever I saw one. We had afternoon tea in the garden of the Hotel overlooking the bay – very pleasant indeed.
On my last Sunday there, I met up with my friends Steve and Yvonne for lunch. Since Steve and Yvonne live in Cumbria and I was in Derbyshire, we met half-way in between – in the little village of Hudswell, near Richmond in the Yorkshire Dales. The village of Hudswell has a rather fine Community Pub, The George and Dragon. We had a nice lunch there. The whole idea of a Community Pub is that the residents of the village, town or whatever buy shares in the ownership of the pub and run it for the benefit of the community. They usually exist where a commercially operated pub has failed to survive and they attempt to be more than just a commercial operation, they try and preserve some of the architecture and historical significance of the public house. This is a very good thing as far as I can see. In Hudswell, there was also a Community Shop adjacent to the pub. Again there to provide a service to the village community when the local shops were no longer commercially viable after the Morrisons or Tesco move into the area.
Finally a quick mention of the birthday party for my Uncle Geoff’s 90th birthday. It was a surprise party and he took it very well - you have to be careful with surprise for a 90 year old man. Here’s a picture of him with my mother.
And here we all are - cousins, grand-children, the lot.
More pictures of everything are here.
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