Santo Bugitos House of Horrors

Japan and its mistreatment of Sea Mammals

sean — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 10:07:47 +0000

Japan causes a dichotomy within me, it’s a country which produces some of the most original and interesting films in the world and has a culture and history which intrigues me. However part of that culture which developed from its two self enforced isolations from the rest of the world over the last millennium is its sense of nationalism, and its misplaced use for the justification of activities which all but a minority of other world countries find abborant, even if they do not use the word, preferring more diplomatic terms.

The continued insistence of cruelty towards whales and dolphins, via the state sponsored so called “research hunting” of whales in the southern Antarctic Ocean and the organised slaughter of dolphins at Taiji, Wakayama each year is something which they need to deal with. The country should not be trying to cover up the activities, or buy off votes of small nations at the International Whaling Commission (IWC), most of which are small Pacific or Caribbean islands states who had no interest in whaling before, and now are only interested due to aid and funding coming in from Japan, typically around $40 per capita.

The increased media exposure into these activities over the last 3-4 years has brought these practices to a far wider audience, via TV shows such as Animal Planets’ Whale Wars, which has just finished airing its 3rd series in the states and the new series Blood Dolphins which starts this week in the US, following on from the award winning documentary The Cove released in 2009.

Both Blood Dolphins and The Cove follow the work of Ric O’Barry and Save Japans Dolphins, the man who started off as a dolphin trainer to the 5 examples who were collectively called Flipper from the TV series of the same name and who fundamentally changed his views after the death of Cathy, the “lead” Flipper. The focus of this organisation is the killing and capture of wild dolphins in a deliberately secluded bay in Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, where they are rounded up using techniques which cause them to be terrified and disorientated, then trapped and the best specimens captured for sale to water parks around the world, and the rest are slaughtered for food, to be sold around Japan, despite the meat naturally containing 4000x the safe limit of mercury in food, due to the food chain below the dolphin. The locals try to hide the activities using both human intervention and security measures to stop the event being filmed or witnessed.

Whale Wars follows the work of Paul Watson, co-founder of Greenpeace, who later left to start the Sea Shepard organisation dedicated to protecting sea creatures from cruelty and preventing the extermination of species due to illegal and irresponsible fishing / hunting. His organisation has been patrolling the Antarctic Ocean for the past 4 hunting seasons, attempting to prevent the hunting and processing of whales with increasing success with each subsequent annual operation. This year, the campaign forced the Institute of Cetacean Research’s (ICR) ships to only hit around 50% of their targets and made a substantial loss on their operations. The money is made from selling the by-product of the “research” which just happens to be a lot of whale meat, which commands rather high prices in the Japanese market. The factory ship also contains a processing and packaging unit, just why you’d need these facilities for a pure research operation has eluded me.
The organisation has also campaigned against the Faroe Islands seemingly ritualistic capture and slaughter of whales, and the removal of baby whales from the pregnant females. All ages seem to be encouraged to get involved, including children beating the corpses with sticks.

However its easy to take such a one sided view, without looking from the other side. When you look at the other side, such as the ICR website, and the non existent response from the minority of Taiji residents who are involved in the dolphin killing, they don’t help themselves when they use extreme language such as attack, sabotage, ram, irradiates and shoots in every press release without fail, and my favourite headline of all is “2010.02.09 Steve Irwin activists use loudspeakers to broadcast classical music near the Nisshin Maru (5.99MB)”. Also the use of terms such as “Self-righteous terrorist group Sea Shepherd” does not give an impression of a calm and controlled organisation. A similar charge can be brought against both campaign groups, but on a far lesser scale, with typical headlines from Sea Shepard such as “Water Cannon Battle In Frigid Seas”, “Five-Hour Battle At the Gateway of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary” and “Japan Takes A Prisoner In their Crusade to Plunder the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary” being presented in a more passive controlled tone which seems to show a more mature approach to the media.

Links to reference organisations

http://www.icrwhale.org/eng-index.htm

http://www.savejapandolphins.org

http://iwcoffice.org/index.htm

http://www.seashepherd.org

http://www.thecovemovie.com/

Pubpaper Article 2 – Cock and Bottle, Bank Top – Present

sean — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 14:00:42 +0000

The Cock and Bottle, Bank Top – Past, Present, Future – Published in Pubpaper dated 20/08/2010 Issue 569

Leave a building alone for a couple of weeks while you go on holiday, it needs a good clean when you return. Leave a pub shuttered up for a year over a hard winter and you need to do a lot more to get it back habitable. Add to this receipe bad drainage coming into the main bar when it rains, then you have a monster of a project to re-open the Cock and Bottle at Bank Top. A years worth of no heating and water collecting in the building had that definite damp smell developing nicely. This was the scene that greeted Michael Cawood of Hutton and Cawood who purchased and plan to re-open the pub in just over a month.

Enterprise Inns, not a brewco with the greatest of reputations within the trade, had long neglected this property despite promises made repeatedly over the years to several landlords. If you’ve ever seen an episode of Property Ladders on Channel 4 where investors rip apart a house and start again leaving just the shell, then you have an idea of the scale of work that it takes just to get a shuttered pub back to a state where you can start to add the fixtures and fittings. If you are wondering how long it takes, the answer is 3 months, with a large development company behind you.

Leaky roof needs replacing totally including supports, Check. Dodgy 8ft long concrete floor panel that could have fell from first to ground floor at any point over last 2 years, got one of those as well. Replace all electrics, plumbing and sanitary, that too! Gutted is the term that should be applied to this project, inside stripping the entire building back to the brickwork, ripping everything out that could be ripped out. New floors and ceilings had to be fitted throughout the entire building and all windows have been replaced, as well as making sure that water doesn’t flow through top end of the pub.

When I visited the site to do the interview, it was at a position where the floors and plasterboarded walls were about to completed ready for the start of the 2 month refit stage of the project. Changes to the old design include removing the 2 chimneys that divided the original design into 3 distinct areas and opening up the space to be far more inclusive for future customers and to allow relocation of the bar to a more central location. Talking to Michael, its clear that he thinks certain elements of the original design worked well, the benches going round the edge of the pub flanked by tables will return in the new design, but the small corners which seperated people within the old design have gone, making the place both feel bigger and avoiding the segregation of the bar area.

The new bar design will be centrally located, with the pool room at the back being retained, thankfully with a new pool table as well. Off this there will be a new small patio area overlooking Hipperholme and Lightcliffe from the heady heights of Beacon Hill. However, all this is no good if there beer selection isn’t good, and the fact that the pub is now a freehold helps no end in this aspect. The real ale choice at the old pub was a staple of the larger “real ales” providers, such as Black Sheep, Fullers and Theakstons, and while there will be a regular real ale from a similar sized brewery, the pub hopes to support local brewers as much a possible with 2 or 3 rotating guest pumps.

The pub is looking to offer the same things which made the original pub a success in the first place, the Monday Pub Quiz, Thursday Pool Night and entertainments at the weekend. Families will be made welcome supporting the idea of bringing the community back together at the “village pub”. Adding hot bar snacks, something the old pub could not cater for, adds another ingredient into the mix.

The pub may have seen its autumn a few years ago, but this autumn should be a good one for the pub, and a pint of real ale, sitting overlooking the countryside on the pubs doorstep as the sun sets seems to be the best way to celebrate the licensed trade returning to Bank Top after too long a break. And one I will be partaking in quite happily.

Next time, in the last installment, we will cover the re-opening of the pub.

Pubpaper Article 1 – Cock and Bottle, Bank Top – Past

sean — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 13:32:05 +0000

The Cock and Bottle, Bank Top – Past, Present, Future – Published in Pubpaper dated 13/08/2010 Issue 568

Michael Cawood had his first experience of the Cock and Bottle at Bank Top when he was 11. “It was a Saturday night and the place was full for Karaoke, with everyone having a good time”. However it wasn’t until 2 years later when his ongoing relationship with the pub started after befriending the new landlord’s son. Michael remembers it developing from a place to keep out of the rain, to somewhere to hang out when they got slightly older, with the pool table providing regular entertainment. He saw the pub go through its heydays from 1999 until 2004, under the management of Margaret and George Pearson. The pub was the centre of the community, with the Monday night quiz nights and weekends always seeing the place packed, especially on a Sunday afternoon which became an institution in Bank Top.

Michael also saw pub life from the other side of the bar, working there for 5 years from the age of 19. He notes that the pub brought the village closer together, with people talking to others they didn’t normally meet in day to day life. “There was a really friendly crowd and was the sort of pub you didn’t need to go to with anybody to have a chat, as the atmosphere drew you into conversation with others naturally”. The Cock and Bottle football team was drawn from mainly local lads, and there were annual trips away for the locals. It truly was a local pub.

However Enterprise Inns didn’t see it like that and decided that the popularity of the pub meant that they could increase beer and rent costs regularly. These extra costs started to bite around 2006, and as the price for a pint of bitter crept firmly into the £2 plus level, the customers gradually crept away. The Sunday afternoons ended up with customers being counted in single figures, and some mid week evenings were down to 2 or 3 customers. It was only the weekend evening trade of Friday and Saturday which was making the pub viable. The smoking ban in 2007 accelerated this downfall with people not wanting to stand outside in a cold and wet winter evening. Margeret and George first considering leaving the pub soon after this, started to prepare for life after being a landlord, and finally gave up the pub in Jan 2008 after 9 years. The Cock and Bottle was closed for 3 months until new landlords came in on the promises of the building being fixed up and renovated by Enterprise Inns. This work never materialised and 12 months this the building was finally shuttered and left to the elements for the next 12 months.

Michael was there until the last, staying long after I had abandoned the pub for alternatives in Southowram village. When the pub closed, “It was a shock to system, the village lost part of its heart when the Cock and Bottle shut down finally”. Looking back over the last 3 years, you can see the difference, there is a lot less interaction between people in the village, as regulars and locals have been spread out in all directions, some moving to Southowram pubs like me, others further afield to Claremount and Northowram establishments, and many to the town centre. The ongoing football team had new homes at the local cricket club and Shoulder of Mutton for a while before they disbanded. The Cock and Bottle in its prime held a special place within the community and contributed to local life.

After a year under shutter, the Cock and Bottle was put up for auction in March 2010. However this was not the first time that Michael’s family business, the builders Hutton and Cawood, had tried to buy the pub. They expressed an interest in Jan 2008 when Margaret and George left, but Enterprise Inns saw it as a going concern and were not interested. Knowing the pub had some serious structural issues, the bid, well below the asking price was accepted and they took ownership of the Cock and Bottle in April of this year.

Next time, we will cover the renovation and restoration of the pub, followed by the final installment when we cover the pubs re-opening in late September.

Training for Nine Edges has started!

sean — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:03:22 +0000

I’ve finally got into regular training for the Nine Edges Challenge in September by building up my 3 mile time on a loop at lunch time. Two weeks in and already got it down 6 minutes.

I’m using Trip Computer on my phone to record the track and time each run, you can see the runs so far by clicking on link below

View Lunchtime Route in a larger map

Caldercask Walks No 3 – Hebden Bridge

sean — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 10:41:06 +0000

This article appeared in Caldercask published in August 2010, link to website to follow when article is put up.

Having developed from a run down mill town in the late seventies to what is widely regarded as the Calder Valleys tourism jewel in the crown, Hebden Bridge is a fitting base for this issues Cask Walk. A renowned small town, with a wide selection on niche shops, organic cafes and most importantly good pubs, also known for its alternative culture scene.

Sitting on the banks of the River Calder and Rochdale Canal, and surrounded by the hills of the Pennine Ridge, on the route of the Pennine Way, it’s prime walking country and has a walk to suit all moods and abilities. From a stroll along the canal, to a hike up to the high level reservoirs at Widdop and Gorple on the moors via Hardcastle Crags, as well as access to the Stoodley Pike Monument to the west of the town.

Its also well served with good real ale pubs, with the White Lion and the Hole in the Wall in the centre of town, the Fox and Goose sitting 5 minutes from the market square and the Stubbing Wharf located 10 minutes down the canal providing a good range of real ales. There are plenty of other drinking establishments, with Moyles Bar, the Railway Inn and the White Swan among others offering an ale selection. Food wise its well served well for Greek, Italian, British and Oriental tastes.

As usual I will start at one of my favorite pubs, the White Lion, a traditional 17th century coaching inn sitting next to the river, with 4 real ale taps, normally serving Black Sheep as a regular brew and a couple of rotating guest ales. Sited at the top end of town, just round the corner from the market square, this open spacious pub is split into a bar area and 3 dining / drinking areas, one for families. The food is a good quality english menu with nods to other food cultures, and the beer is well kept, with normally 3-4 real ales on tap at any point, with a regular Black Sheep and rotating guests.

From here, drop back down to the market square, and your walk will start with a stiff hill up to Hepstonstall, dropping back to valley level via Colden Clough and some woodland walks above Charlestown and then back via a couple of pubs based just off the main road. There are a lot of woodlands featured in this walk, this may be because I researched this walk on the hottest day of June and I needed all the shade I could get. Total distance is 4.5 miles and took me 2 hours of walking time, so I’d say 4-5 hours with generous drinking time taken into account.

From the market square head over the bridge just before the Shoulder of Mutton pub and take a left turn towards the Hole in the Wall, another pub well worth a visit on your return to the town later on, open plan, and serving a good selection of 4-5 real ales and a couple of real ciders at any point in time. Its a lot funkier than the White Lion and and a livelier atmosphere, probably a venue for a good night out, when you don’t just want a chilled evening session.

Ahead of you, you will see sign pointing the footpath to Heptonstall, up a cobbled path, which goes on for about 400m, with a steady steep gradient. I told you I’d build up the hills as I went on in this series, and this is your first serious challenge with an ascent of about 180m up to the village high up on the hill. There’s a rail to help you along on the steeper sections, but if you take it steady, you’ll be at the main road towards Heptonstall and Long Causeway before you realise.

Turn right at the main road, following the brown tourist sign, a few hundred metres down the road, you will see a green walking sign on the right hand side of the road heading into the woods, this will lead you to a stepped cobbled path, which goes on for about 200 m before coming out at the foot of the village itself. There is a bench at the end of this path which is a welcome rest after putting the bulk of the hill climbing behind you. Turn right to head uphill into the village, passing the sign for visitor parking and heading straight onto the cobbled road.

Following this road will bring you up to two pubs in close proximity, the Cross Inn and our stop of choice, the second White Lion of the day. This pub is a cosy pub, originating in the 17th century, split into a bar, and a main lounge warmed by an open fire on colder days. It does good pub food focusing on british fayre, with the obligatory nod to some italian dishes, and serves 6 hand pulled ales. The beers on offer came from the casks of Springhead, Derwent, Copper dragon and Daniel Thwaites breweries at the time of writing.

After this well deserved stop, turn right out of the pub and head up out of the village passing the school on your right. As you leave the village you get a fantastic view of Stoodley Pike and the surrounding tops. The road levels off after about 400m and you will see a green sign pointing left towards Lumb Bank and a public bridleway down a paved road. This road will eventually return you to not far off valley level, so you can enjoy the extended stroll on an almost constant downward gradient for approx 800m before you reach the base of the valley. The path will head down then veer to the right before straightening off.

You will see a smaller track crossing the main path near a low window in the wall, ignore this track and carry on, eventually the tarmac will give way to a gravel path, heading in the same direction. This track heads to the remote cottages of Pickets Mill, the only remainder of which is the tall chimney which dominates the base of the valley. As you drop down the track will do a u-turn towards a row of cottages, just before you get to the cottages, do another u-turn and cross over the bridge. Turn left here, and you will start to head back down towards the Calder Valley,

This part of the track goes on for just over 1.2km, and you just need to keep heading down the main track, following the stream, losing height all the time. You will know when you are coming to end of the track when you see the playground and football pitch to your left. Soon after this you will join the main road which heads up to Blackshaw Head, At this point we have another short up hill section after turning right following the road until you see the stairs on your left hand side, head up these stairs and turn left at the top rejoining the road. You will see a sign at the bottom end of the terrace marked “Glen View”, take the path to left just before this sign, and after a short stretch you will see a house ahead of you and yellow flashed path heading into the woods to the left, follow the yellow flash.

This path will follow the top of the woods, tracking a dry stone wall for half of the distance, before following a well defined path through the woods, after which you will enter a small clearing, at this point start to tend to the left hand side of the clearing, dropping some gentle height, past a rope swing. You will come to a fork in the woods, take the right fork and you will come out opposite a well maintained bungalowed garden as you gain the road, take a right turn here and head slightly uphill. You will come to a wooded dead end, with a footpath sign on your left, follow this sign. The path in this wood is slightly less defined, but still easy to follow.

The track will meander through the wood for a while, passing a dry stone wall, keep to the right of this, and just after this take the middle footpath straight ahead, not the vehicle tracks on either side. You will then pass over a stile, and the path will tend right and uphill for a few hundred metres. Eventually you will see a footpath sign pointing either side of the main path you are on, take the left turn here. Following this path will bring you down to just below the Wood Farm entrance. Here take a left turn and head downhill. This road goes on for about 500m, taking a left u-turn before joining the rail side road this side of the tracks. You are now within 10 minutes of your next pub, don’t worry! After reaching the main Hebden Bridge road, go left and cross the road, and after a few minutes you will reach the Stubbing Wharf, via an access road to your right.

The Stubbing Wharf sits next to the Rochdale Canal, with a large bar and dining area, with additional space upstairs at canal level, which can be hired out. The pub is famous for its selection of real cider as well as real ale. Its welcoming to both dogs and families, the latter to be said for all pubs mentioned on this walk. Normally the Wharf serves at least 5 real ales, and 3 real ciders. The house beers are Black Sheep, Copper Dragon and Timothy Taylor, with an additional rotating selection. The food again concentrates on well made english dishes.

After leaving here, there is one more stop. Follow the road into Hebden Bridge, just before the road forks towards Hepstonstall, you will see the Fox and Goose, this the last scheduled stop of the day, although you can add any pub to the end of the walk, and there’s plenty to choose from, after the short walk from the Fox to the town centre, taking the bottom road as you leave the pub.

The Fox and Goose sits on the junction, with a beer garden to the rear, and a couple of rooms inside. A staunch supporter of the small and micro breweries, you won’t find any beers from any of the established national real ale brewers, focusing on a regular ale and 5 pumps rotating daily, inevitably leaving you with a selection beers never tried before. When I visited, I had tried none of the beers on offer, and the one I tried certainly hit the spot. A regular spot on the local real ale festival circuit and regular midweek events makes this well worth a visit.

Information

Links

Transport

Any train from Halifax which heads to Blackpool or Manchester Victoria, reverse is same to get back to Halifax, every 15 minutes during week and Saturday, up to every hour on Sundays

Buses from Halifax – 392, 517, 590, 591, 592, 593 (same services return, this is only a selection, there are 26 in all)

Ram Fest 2010 – Southowram Cricket Club – 4th July

sean — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 12:58:55 +0000

Recently I’ve working on the poster and programme, as well as dealing with local media for this years inaugural Ram Fest Music Festival on Sunday 4th July.

We’ve got 6 bands on from 2pm until 7.45am, ranging from acoustic guitar to rock to Elvis.

Good beer and a fine BBQ will be available all day. Tickets are £4 per person with accompanied children free. You can pay on the day, or get buy a programme in advance from the cricket club any time over the weekend or on a tuesday night. You can find the club 200m down the hill of Ashday Lane in Southowram Village, near the West Lane works of Marshalls. You can find a map of the location here

Tickets are available from the following outlets (or you can pay on the door on the day)

The Rose & Crown, Greetland

Grovenors Butchers, Halifax town centre

Guitar Zone, Halifax town centre

Southowram Chemist

The Pack Horse Inn, Southowram

Johls Newsagents, Siddal

Simprint, Halifax town centre

Southowram Cricket Club

Southowram Fish & Chip shop

Southowram Social Club

Chathas, Southowram

You can find the facebook event here and the facebook group here

The line up for the day is

Gates open at 1.30pm

Midlife Crisis 2pm

Paddy McCallion 3pm

Forever Young 4pm

My Brother Jake 5pm

Vega Elvis 6pm

The McCarrons 6.45pm

East Yorkshire Getaway

sean — Wed, 26 May 2010 09:30:01 +0000

The run to York was fast, faster than I remember from a couple of years ago. The only problem is to remember you are not on the motorway and 85mph is going to cost you a lot of money and points on your driving license. Its only when you drop onto the single carriage way stretch of the A64 to Scarborough that you remember the hazards of agricultural traffic and old shape Nissan Micra drivers.

The camp was a lot more promising on first sight at Cayton Bay than our visit last year for a long weekend at Skipsea. First of all the camp wasn’t slowly being swallowed by coastal erosion, although in Skipsea this is definitely not a bad thing and should be encouraged by all means, hose pipes, dynamite undermining the structure of the ground, very localised earthquakes.

Cayton Bay is out of the way, annexed between Scarborough and Bridlington on the coastal road over looking the surf beach below. The bay itself it flanked by high crumbling mud cliffs, and is dotted with WW2 pill boxes, although their use has been re-designated in more modern times. Served by only a small beach toy shop, a surf shop / school, and strangest of all its own dedicated motobility centre, its never been developed in any serious way however to its benefit.

The worst thing to come out of modern tourism is that everything has to be an “attraction”, it needs to have its own Unique Selling Point. National Parks have stemmed a lot of this where it matters most, and let nature be nature. I am of the opinion that if you are getting visitors to an undeveloped part of the country, they are coming for the place itself, not for the fair, park, visitor centre you place there for next season.

The camp at Skipsea matched the quality of the coastal structure, crumbling and in need of a lot of work, fortunately the caravan and facilities are of far better quality here, although the evening entertainment still would not look out of place at a 1970′s working mens club on a friday evening. The caravan is large, with plenty of space for my recently increased family of 4, en-suite in our room, with range cooker and dishwasher, both of which going unused for the sake of 5 days, along with a large decked area overlooking the sea. Thankfully they’ve overhauled the menu as well from last year, and although its not going to get a Michelin star, its does the job needed.

The swimming pool made my daughters holiday, with 3 visits in 4 mornings, with 1 large slide and a row of smaller ones, it kept her very happy for an hour each morning as well as sending my 4 month old to sleep when we took her in on Thursday, changing facilites could do with some improvement, but they seem to have hit the spot with one 6 year old.

They do however need to think about offering a variety of venues for an evening, as they close the restaurant / bar area at 9pm, leaving you only with an overly loud 70′s cabaret bar as an alternative venue. Having a 4 month old and a 6 year old who doesn’t have a love of 70′s classics means this leaves us a bit cold, and when you are trying to get a baby to settle, it just doesn’t work. The second benefit of the closed area is that it overlooks the playground, so you can let your child play while you watch on through the window over a drink.

They also need to extend their range of beer from the typical range of 1664, Fosters, John Smiths and Strongbow you seem to get at these places. Just getting 1 cask ale would be a start. They also need to extend the spirits range to include Pimms (for my wife), and something other the bog standard brand name whiskies and brandies for when you want something a bit more quality for the end of night. Luckily there is a pub across the road, the Tow Bar which avoids all of the above, Black Sheep on tap, Pimms behind the bar, conservatory overlooking the play equipment and no loud music.

Whitby Bay, 20 miles to the north of Scarborough, is a place I visited last year on a joint birthday / wedding anniversary weekend away with my immediate family, its a place with a fantastic drive over the Yorkshire Moors from either Scarborough or Pickering. Nestled in a wide bay, the town is split in two halves by the River Esk, the eastern side is the more tourist side with the Abbey and shambles with every other shop selling Whitby Jet stone, leading one shop to declare itself to be a ‘Whitby Jet Free Zone’. It does however have a couple of nice pubs at the bottom of the climb to the abbey itself. The western side is the more commercial area, with the main shops and the traditional sea front stalls, arcades and fairground rides. Heading further west leads to the promenade along the beach and the Pavilion. The town trades a lot on its two local celebrities, James Cook the sailor and Dracula, with festivals linked to them throughout the year.

A place to recommend here for lunch is upstairs at the Jolly Sailor, a small but friendly dining room, we arrived near the end of the lunchtime sitting. Its a Samuel Smiths pub, so you know you are going to get quality beers, including my favourites, Alpine Lager and Pure Brew Lager, the former a bargain at under £2. We had a thick well cooked burger, a chilli con carne and a chicken caesar salad and all hit the spot.

Scarborough is a town of two halves, the south bay full of tourist attractions, the north bay undeveloped before you reach the newly built beach front diner and apartments at the far end of the promenade road, with a parade of hotels overlooking from high above. This will soon be joined by the new oasis cafe, replacing the ramshackle shed they occupy at the moment.

The south bay is your typical sea side front, with arcades, fish shops and cafes surrounding the harbour area, the main town hides behind the hill with ubiquitous castle perched on it. Further south is the spa complex which being renovated. If you don’t have a 4 month old, then I recommend the pirate boat trip from the harbour, we did this a couple of years ago and was well worth the money.

We parked at South Cliffe Park and did the 25 minute walk down through South Cliffe Gardens to the harbour coming down at the Clock Cafe at the far end of the spa complex. It is here you realise there were some lazy gits in the Victorian era, not 1 but 3 trams taking you from the beach to the top of the cliff, when its only a 5 minute minute walk at the very worse. The worrying thing is enough people are still using them today to keep them commercially viable, I’m hoping that it is for the novelty value.

The town is one of the better examples of how to commercialise without selling your soul to the devil, yes, there are arcades and cheap tat shops, but they are held in check with higher end restaurants and shops. The north bay promenade has its hazards, mainly getting soaked from waves breaking over the path at the latter end, but a fun miles can be had wave dodging, andrea came closest even though she wasn’t officially playing. Its quite compulsive just chilling and watching the waves break along the shore. The return walk from south shore to the facilities at the end of north bay is about 5.5 miles, a nice distance in my book for a days walking.

I must mention the Oakwheel Pub at Burniston about 15 minutes north of Scarborough where we went for dinner, great quality food, and no worry of not getting enough, My burger (without a bun, a first for me, but not needed), came with homecooked chips, carrots, beans, new potatoes and creamed leeks, as well as tomato sauce for the burger, all done to perfection. Andrea’s butterflied Gammon was equally generous, with peas, chips, mushrooms and egg, and cooked just as well. The best meal so far this holiday, and one which will be hard to beat.

Bridlington is simply put “Scarborough Light” without the castle. We started up at the north end and took the promenade to the harbour, although to the towns credit, at least part of the fair was open already unlike Scarborough, and the mini roller coaster kept Elise happy as did the Walters. The Pavilion bar in the middle of the fairground did its job for a drink and Elises very lurid mix of fruit cocktail and mint choc chip ice cream sundae, a photo of which you can find on my facebook page. It tastes just as it sounded, not unpleasant, just weird. We ate here last year on our visit and the pizza’s were pretty good back then as well. The resort is quite compact, focusing around the harbour. Its a decent enough area with all the facilities you expect, it could however, do with being done up a little. We walked back through town to the car to find somewhere for tea.

However before we get to that point, I must mention the crack cocaine that is the “2p pushers”. My daughter loves them, I don’t know why, but she is quite happy to keep shoving 2p’s in them as long as we would let her, and get excited at the smallest win, not noticing that she’s lost 4 times the amount already. (Before you ask, its £1 a day we allow). You can see in a very pure way how people get addicted to gambling over a period, and with the wrong tendencies it can be crippling.

Another pub worthy of mention is the Martonian at Bempton, just to the north of Bridlington, a rarity with it serving Samuel Smith Alpine Lager outside of a tied house. A large open pub, with two levels of menu, the £3.95 meals, and the regular priced meals which is a common split in a lot of places now. It has a play area visible from a conservatory dining area to keep children busy, and is located on the main Bempton road. Me and andrea both plumped for the enchiladas and a side of nachos. I’m picky about my Mexican food, and this was a good attempt for a non specialist restaurant, although I question the coleslaw dip which came along with it for authenticity. My daughters seemingly 1 millionth spaghetti bolognese of the week was polished off totally, so I can only guess it hit the spot.

We also visited Playdale Farm Park near Cayton as well, and although maybe slightly too expensive for what it provided, it provided everything we expected with adventure playground, hay barn, lamb feeding, as well as all the usual farm animals which can be fed. It kept Elise entertained as well as her mother on the play equipment at times.

Would I recommend this holiday to other people, certainly, if you use the camp as a base and share the driving over the week, it works well, and you get to see most of the east coast in this area, you could add Robin Hoods Bay to the Whitby day, and Filey to the Bridlington day to make slightly more of it. The food on the camp does the job, but personally I would leave later and eat on the way back home as there are plenty of places en route more worthy of your eating dollars. Of all the places visited, Whitby Bay is most picturesque, but Scarborough has most to do. We are planning to rebook as soon as we can get the holiday vouchers out of Tesco Clubcard again (you can use £40 rewards for £10 vouchers at Park Resorts) for the same time next year, this time it shouldn’t cost us a penny, double bonus!

Just Lightwater Valley theme park on the way home today and then its back to reality and a proper broadband connection, I’ve been coping this week by transferring this text file to my phone and then copying and pasting the text into the blog back end in the phones browser. It works, but its a faff! Viva la Wireless router.

Caldercask Walks No 2 – Sowerby Bridge

sean — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 19:37:29 +0000

This article was published in the April Issue of Caldercask. I will post a link when the website is updated.

I’ve been visiting Sowerby Bridge regularly for the last 12 years, in fact ever since I moved up to Halifax in 1998. For many of those years twice weekly, as a member of the canoe club based at Greenups Mill, and inevitably it ended up with a pint the pub afterwards. However back then we were not quite so blessed with the quanitity of good real ale pubs, the best choices being the Moorings and Puzzle Hall Inn, both of which are still doing a fine job today. The other choices of the Turks Head, Engineers, Bulls Head and the William IVth on the main road were less appealing at the time.

How things have changed now, the town is now my first choice for a night out, with many top quality pubs and resturants, including my favourite bar in the area, The Works. The list of well regarded real ale pubs include the aforementioned Works, Moorings and Puzzle Hall Inn, the Jubilee Refreshment Rooms at the Railway Station, the Navigation Inn and the Shephards Rest. Foodwise you are spoilt by several good indian resturants, including Chilli 2, Shyiba and the Village and Java resturants. For traditional fayre the Moorings, Navigation,Works and Firehouse all fit the bill nicely.

The town itself could host a good, if short pub walk, going from the Puzzle Hall Inn, via the Works, Firehouse, Bar Francisca for a cocktail for a change, then down taking your pick from the bars on the main road, before finishing off at the Moorings and Navigation. However I will be doing a circular walk from Sowerby Bridge, taking in some of the hills which surround the town before finishing back at the other end of the town. Don’t say you weren’t warned in the last article, and yes it does involve the up hill variety this time, not much, but a short sustained hill is encountered en-route.

Like my last walk I’ll start at my favourite pub in the area, the Works, from here, we’ll walk through town, join the canal to the old wire works at Copley, then head up to Saville Park via Woodhouse Scar Woods, across Saville Park to the Big 6 for a mid walk drink, then back down towards Sowerby Bridge walking in the shadow of Wainhouse Tower, with an optional pub stop at the Royal Hotel, and then back into town for a couple of stops at the near end of town and the Refreshment Rooms at the railway station. Distance is about 7km or 4.5 miles, with 130m of ascent.

The Works arrived on the scene a few years ago, and added modern pub centred around real ale to the town pub circuit, the opposite of most pubs in Sowerby Bridge, the high ceilings and open bar make it feel large, leather sofas making you feel welcome. A popular stop over for cyclists and walkers, and equally more heeled customers. A bar full of real ales, with at least 6 on tap any point, with regular ales from Timothy Taylor, Moorhouse and Copper Dragon breweries, and a couple of good quality ciders. It rather stole the Puzzle Hall Inn’s glory as the real ale pub in the area, though after a closure, that has now re-opened and is doing good trade. Consolidating this with Beer Festivals, room hire and good food has meant that the place has gone from strength to strength in an increasing competitive local market.

However, we must start the walk, so we reluctantly leave the soft sofa, and head on our way, heading through town, we head towards Halifax, and at the junction of Tuel Lane, we head onto the Calder and Navigation Canal towards Copley. This canal has the good fortune to have been restored in the last 20 years as part of the Rochdale Canal regeneration, and thus benefits from good paths for its distance. Its a canal I’ve cycled frequently from Mirfield all the way to Summit with different starting and stopping points, but the section from Salterhebble to Hebden Bridge is one of my favourite and most travelled, and the section I am walking is included in this. Nestled in the valley, its tree lined bank disguse the fact you are never far from the main Wakefield Road, and at times you are walking between the two navigable water courses, the other being the River Calder. On the way, there are access bridges to both the Navigation Inn and the Moorings in the Canal Basin.

After about 2km you will reach the now flattened site of the old wire works opposite the HBOS offices, this is your point of departure from the canal and the start of the first uphill section in this series. After joining the main road and crossing to the far side, you will come to Woodhouse Lane after 100m, this cobbled lane leads all the way up to the junction with Albert Promenade, which we will be walking below later. Its a steady ascent, lasting just under 1/2 a mile, nothing too strenuous, and before you know it, you will be at the junction with Scarr Bottom Road. At this point you need to carry on straight ahead to just before the left hand bend, you will see a No Entry sign on the right, and 30m before this is a path on the left leading into the woods. On a hot summers day, these woods give welcome shade, something which attracts local climbers to the crags below the wall at Albert Promenade. With over 20 rocks up to 12m tall, its fun for both the serious climber and also kids to mess about on the smaller rocks en-route. At the end of the woods, take the cobbles uphill to the promenade itself and take in the panoramic views over the Calder Valley.

Your next pub is not too far away now, and you’ve done all the hard work. Head across to Saville Park, and following the boundary wall round at the top of the park. While you are here, you can take in the view across the whole of Beacon Hill, from Elland all the way over to A58 leading out of Halifax town centre. The Big 6 is not evident as it is tucked away in a back street. As you round the school, you will see a play park on the far side of the road, take the rutted road next to it and 2 streets back on Horsfall St, you will find the Big 6, with its beer garden on the next street along. This pub couldn’t be more different to the works, an old fashioned pub, made out of 6 terraced houses knocked together, with several distinct areas, and more nooks and crannies. A small bar serves 5 real ales as well as a good bottle selection. Its no worse for its traditional layout, which is conducive to a good atmosphere. It may look on the small side, but it can pack in plenty of people when called for. The beers are kept well and regularly rotated, and there is always a good welcome from the staff.

Now we are half way through our walk, its now time to return to Sowerby Bridge, we will retrace our steps as far as the cobbled path into Woodhouse Scar woods, cutting over the top side of the school this time and walking past the impressive front to the school, until turning right into Albert Promenade, and dropping into the woods, however this time, we will stay on the cobbled path and bear right, and eventually meet a junction. Turn left, then when you reach Scarr Bottom Road, turn right, following the road. Mostly free of trees on the lower slope, you start to get more of the clear views across the valley and onto the tops opposite, always however getting closer to being in the shadow of the local monument, Wainhouse Tower, open to the public on certain days until a few years ago due to structural issues. On a clear day from Southowram you can see Wainhouse Tower across the tops and in the background, Stoodley Pike.

After a while, drop onto Master Lane to your left, and past the Tower House, after a slight uphill, take left onto Upper Washer Lane, and you will eventually get to the Royal Hotel. I put this as an optional stop off, as the pub was closed as I went past while doing this walk myself, and thus cannot judge the place on its real ale credentials, however it looks well maintained and tidy, so it may well be worth an excursion. In any case, continue down this road as it becomes Edward Road, and you will soon meet the main Pye Nest Road into Sowerby Bridge. Follow this road down to the roundabout and go left into the town itself. The next stop on this tour is the Moorings in the Canal Basin, although an alternative is the Navigation Inn, which can be reached via a steep road just after the Wakefield Road junction, sitting above the canal, a lovely vantage point on a warm summers day, from which you can enjoy one of several good ales.

The Moorings has just reopened after a refurbishment, and have kept a good real ale presence on the bar, with Black Sheep, Old Speckled as regular beers and a rotation cast of guests including Ruddles quite frequently. There is a good range of food, and have eaten there many times before and can well recommend the homemade burgers and chunky chips. The only downside is that they also give a regular pump to Greene King IPA, but that is a personal thing, as I am not a fan of the brewery at all, stemming from a month working down there near Ipswich a few years ago, and being served poorly kept pints for the period. With plenty of space both inside, with views over the canal, and outside at the front of the building to enjoy the sun, its a worthy place to spend an afternoon chilling in its own right.

Now onto the last short leg of our journey, rejoin the main road through the town centre past the canal, and in the middle of the terrrace of shops you will see a narrow passage way signed as the route to the railway station, head through here and over the bridge and follow the signs to station, you will reach the Jubilee Refreshment Rooms next to the track. This bar opened last year in one of the old platform buildings after 12 years of negotiation with the buildings owners by the Wright brothers, a pair of railway and real ale enthusiasts. Despite some set backs due to break ins and minor crime, is still providing a pleasant environment to enjoy quality range of real ales, normally 6 at any time, and if you are hungry at the end of your walk, they also serve light snacks to soak up your pint with. It is also the perfect place to wait for your train home if you arrived here that way.

I’ll leave any local extensions down to you as normal, but there are plenty of worthwhile options to choose from in the town.

PUBLIC TRANSPORT

Halifax – Sowerby Bridge
Bus – Service 579
Train – both the Manchester and Blackpool services from Halifax serve the station.

Training courses and losing your Mojo

sean — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 09:45:51 +0000

Its been a couple of years since I was last on a training course, in fact, it was at the same training centre I am currently sitting at now, doing my SQL Server Reporting Services course. This time its SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS). It’s the start of day two, and I’ll give you my main observation, my company, like any other who send somebody here will be paying close to Â£300 per day for the pleasure, for that you expect a lunch and refreshments. Lunch, no complaints there, good food and plenty of it, however its in the refreshment stakes they fall over. For my company’s Â£900 I don’t want water mixed with mud and a hint of coffee taste (correction : some jugs of coffee did appear at morning break, better, but no cigar), I want proper fresh filter coffee, it costs 10-15p per cup, its not going to break the bank. Tesco’s Finest Instant Columbian is doing a decent job, but its not the real deal!

Second, I need Wifi. I’m the sole developer at work, and a lot of knowledge sits purely in my head, some issues need me to dial in to work to resolve in breaks, however it appears that wireless isn’t viewed that way here, it was on my last visit, I’d like to know what has changed since then, given the fact that the number of wifi enabled devices has grown since that point in time. A couple of us have asked with no joy so far.

The first day is always a strange mix, if like me, you have some previous knowledge, its a mix of what you know already, while picking up some side knowledge as you go along. Not much gets done before lunch as people are brought up to speed, and the real work starts after lunch. The second day is when the new concepts truly start to be introduced, and from the syllabus it going to be a lot more interesting day today. However I’ve already got some good ideas for how we can replace legacy applications with SSIS, as well as applying it to new data migration projects.

There is usually more than one course running at any time, in my case as well as mine, there seems to be Access and Excel courses running for local authority employees, most of which look like they don’t want to be there and would rather be back in the office avoiding work (my wife is local authority worker and can testify that this is the case in real life as well, having worked for them for 17 years), the rest seems to appreciate the change of scene for a day or two, and are keen to learn something, rather than just pass the course to help against their pay rise and additional contributions to their early retirement final salary pension.

The phrase “a change is as good as a rest” is very true in my sector, sometimes you get so entrenched in the day to day work that you stop looking at the big picture, how things can be replaced to improve performance or save time. This time I have had a change and rest, with the long easter holiday leading into the course giving me a full week out of the office, it gives you space to think generally about projects without having to deal with the details.

This is especially true with one of my projects at work at the moment where I have backed my self into a corner I can’t get out of, and need to step back and look at my approach to the solution when I return to work, without going into detail, I’m taking an orange and trying to merge it with an apple and its never going to work out, its one or the other. This has coincided with a period of having a general creative block, both professionally and personally, where I’ve found it hard to even get a blog article started, in fact this the first article I have got past the first paragraph on since I finished my second guided walk for Caldercask late last month.

Sometimes all you need is something new to get the creative juices going again, in this case I’ve been asked to design the website for a local music festival at Southowram Cricket Club in July, the same club for whom I did the site redevelopment last year. Its not going to earn my any money, as all work I do for the cricket club is free or for non monetary payment (free membership and beer is usual payment), however its good for promoting my name and work further.

CalderCask Walks No 1 – Southowram to Brighouse

sean — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 09:01:13 +0000

This article was published in the Winter 2009/2010 edition of Caldercask and can be found here

A few pints of a nice real ale is a great way to spend a free afternoon, a few pints at several fine drinking establishments can only improve this proposition, however you have the quandary then of who does the driving, as nobody wants to miss out on a nice pint of Timothy Taylor or Little Valley’s latest brew. In the first of a new series of articles, I’m going to solve this problem with some pub walks which are accessible with public transport and take in the best real ales pubs in the area. Each issue I will base a walk around one or two Calderdale towns or villages and take you to 4 or 5 pubs where you are guaranteed a good pint.

I will start this series with a walk from my home village, Southowram to Brighouse, and what better place to start than my local pub, the Shoulder of Mutton, on Cain Lane, which just happens to be the current Northern Community Pub of the Year, awarded recently at the Great British Pub Awards. It lives up to its title, friendly staff, 2 or 3 real ales at any time, normally a blonde beer and a second brew which is changed every couple of weeks, with Harviestoun Schiehallion, Copper Dragon Golden Pippin and Saltaire Blonde making regular appearances.

Ten years ago, I could have written this article without ever leaving Southowram with 5 pubs to visit in the village. But now we are left with 2, both in the village centre, the aforementioned Shoulder of Mutton and the Packhorse just up the road. At the Bank Top end of the village, we have lost the Manor House to a new housing estate and the Cock and Bottle is boarded up with no sign of re-opening any time soon. Down the hill from the Shoulder we have lost the Malt Shovel, which has been boarded up for at least 6 years now, and looking in a pretty poor state. I used to live just 15 seconds from the Cock and Bottle, so I could make a quick pint mean just that! However the rare blessing is that the best pub in the village remained open.

The good news for this walk, is that gravity is on your side all of the way, I thought I’d ease you in gradually, you’ll be walking back up the hill in the couple of issues time. After leaving the Shoulder, head downhill towards Brighouse for about 500m until you get to Chapel Lane on your right, just past here, you’ll see two tracks leaving the main road on the right side of the road, take the narrow walled track on the left directly behind the building, and ignore the vehice access track to the right. This will lead you eventually to Cromwell Woods. I’d lived up here for 7 years before I ever ventured here, but it’s one of the many nice short walks on Beacon Hill and probably the best in my opinion. After 200m, the walls give way to a patch of open land before you enter the woods for a peaceful mile of quiet woodland, interrupted only by dogs and their owners. Ignore the path to the right 400m into the woods, and head straight down the main track.

Eventually you will reach the end of the woods and join a farmers access track, drop down past the farm, and turn right towards the main road onto Brier Lane, ignoring the perpetually barking dog. All you need to do now is take a short walk towards Brighouse and you are at your next establishment, Casa Del Lago, not a traditional pub, but with panoramic views from the garden of the entire valley over the water skiing lake, it’s best taken in during summer. However the heated balcony makes it very comfortable during the cooler months of the year as well, with 2 – 3 cask ales on tap, normally a Westmoreland ale and rotating guests, as well as several good continental beers if others in your party are partial to that. Its also a good place for a mid walk lunch if you feel the need.

After dislodging yourself from the sofas, you carry on along the road towards our destination for 1/2 mile, and to the best pub for ale on this walk, the Red Rooster. I’m sure there is no need for introduction to this pub for readers of Caldercask. Seven or eight well kept beers on rotation, pies and pasties from the local Ingfield Farm Shop served with peas and mint sauce, and a proper pub interior with stripped floorboards, traditional stools and tables. To be honest when researching this walk it was tempting to end it here, but I suffered and pushed on to yet another pub, its hard work you know. Ales on tap regularly include Moorhouses, Saltaire and Copper Dragon’s products among many others.

It is now a case of taking the main road into Brighouse and heading into the town centre to conclude this walk.

Brighouse town centre itself could be host to a very productive pub crawl, in this case I’ll finish at one of two pubs, and leave the Brighouse circuit extension to this pub walk up to your imagination. Unfortunately, what I considered to be the best real ale pub in the town is no longer open due to a fire and subsequent looting of the wreckage. By this, of course I mean the Tipp Inn, a fantastic little bar ran by great staff, situated in the unglamorous vicinity of the local recycling centre. So to keep the mood for todays outing, we’ll end at the Ship Inn on Bethel Street.

The Ship Inn has a had a chequered history until recently, with a less that brilliant reputation being re-enforced by having plastic shielding on the windows for many years. However all of that has changed now, with a refurbishment totally changing the place, at least 4 hand pull taps serving consistently good beer, and regular rotation of guest beers. Alternatively there is Wetherspoons just down the road with a good selection of cheap real ales, I’m not even going to pretend to keep up with their rotation of beer, but lets just say that you’ll find something to your taste, and provision of cheap food to soak up the beer consumed is a bonus as well.

You can now walk back up the hill, or if you are sensible then catch the bus back up and relax at the end of a good afternoon.

BUS SERVICES :
Halifax – Southowram – Brighouse 571, same service for opposite journey,
Halifax – Southowram – Halifax only 572

RAIL : Brighouse – Halifax.

MAP :