After we had done our charity shop hopping we went for a quick look around the second hand goods market. Nothing that warranted more than a glance (other than some of the weirdly dressed and hair styled customers). It as still pretty cold and damp, and past 1pm so we went to get some lunch. We settled for hot baked potatoes, Di and I had meatballs and salsa, Jude hummus and olives, and Hilary who didn’t have a potato had nachos with salsa and cheese. It was all very nice indeed, and great to have something warm and solid keeping the chills away.
After lunch Jude had to skip away to work, while the rest of us had the afternoon free to do what we pleased. It was still pretty cold (I had to put on an extra layer of merino), but the rain had stopped so we decided to go for a walk beside the canal. Hilary had some seeds and wheat we had bought earlier at the information centre to feed to the ducks or geese or whatever else fancied a morsel. On our canal tow-path walk we discovered a white, rather hostile goose we had encountered earlier. Hilary was keen to feed it, which she did, but the goose’s manners left a lot to be desired, hissing and making threatening advances towards Hilary. We have named it “Mr Grumpy Bum” though we actually have no idea of its gender.
Mr Grumpy Bum
St Hilary of Assisi
We wandered beside the canal in an easterly direction. We admired reflections, the green of the foliage, and bright colours of the narrow-boats.
We chatted about how locks worked (and why they were there), the birds we saw, the fishermen and what they might be fishing for and I’m sure a number of other topics as Hilary leapt through puddles and Di and I tried to avoid the splashes. We came across a couple of horses on our walk (across a bridge at a farm on the other side of the canal), so went over for a chat and pat/scratch. The Clydesdale type (very big feet and a solid squat workman like stature) was very pleased to have a big rub and much attention, the other pleased too I’m sure, but not as obviously needy.
We headed back to the van for a hot cup of tea. Gosh it is wonderful to have that sort of facility right there, we have many hot drinks on the go, and being able to have a sit down, cup of tea, hot chocolate and a snack in the van is not only such a delight, but saving us so much money. A cup of tea here is around about £1.20, cappacino/latte £2.20-2.40 unless you go to McDonalds in which case the tea is 99p and the special coffee 1.39-1.49 depending on where you are. So for those tea drinkers amongst us, we probably have 5 cups of tea each a day, £12 saved a day (teabags 100/£1.50 or thereabouts) milk £1.30 for 2.2litres (4 pints). Imagine if you multiplied that by 7 (84) for a week and then 10 weeks (just for the ease of maths) about how long we’ll be in England. £840 over 10 weeks, not sure of current exchange rate but maybe close to $2000 in tea alone!!! That’s not counting the biscuits, cakes, lunches, and dinners, or the accommodation which is wickedly expensive. I digress.
We had intended doing another walk over to the next village but it was pretty chilly still and we were tired so we sat in the camper in the car-park drinking tea and I played on the laptop for a while, the other did some writing, and then we drove back up to our campsite for dinner and bed.
12.5.11 we went to the National Coal Mining Museum. It was an hour drive each way through narrow streets and busy towns (Huddersfield in particular). I don’t know if I’ve mentioned my dislike of driving the van through busy towns?!!!! I find I get incredibly tense anticipating it and all the time we are negotiating our route. I find the roundabouts really hard, multiple lanes shooting off in all directions, sometimes 2 or even 3 roundabouts in succession with cars everywhere, driving flat out, tooting horns wildly, ……… scarey!!!! And all in a big, left hand-drive campervan. Nevermind, it is getting easier, and in fact the trip yesterday was a doddle compared to when we did it the other day. There was a ring-road around Huddersfield, which once you are clear of your route is quite easy to negotiate, but it is all about being in the correct lane at the correct point in the journey which is difficult the first time. Did I tell you there is a huge blindspot in the rear view mirror on the right which makes changing lane from left to right really difficult? It is because it is set up for driving on the right I imagine. There is a video mounted on the back which is superb for reversing and observing what is coming up behind, but cars disappear off that as they come alongside and don’t come into view until they have come right up beside you. I now get Di to check by just about hanging out her window, as well, after nearly cleaning up one driver. On the big motorways the speed limit is 130km/h (I think, though it will be in mph- 80 so that’s a wee bit more than 130 I think) but some ignore that. I don’t muck around, but I’m not comfortable doing more than 110km/h (our speedo is in metric and so is my brain) in the van. I’m sure it would go faster but there is no point putting my St Christopher pendant to the test. It is mind-boggling just how quickly a car can approach from behind when I’m trucking along at 110- they are like comets sometimes with a tail of braking lights as they change lanes sometimes indicating, often not.
Back to the coal mining museum…..It was set up over a now disused coal mine, and had all the (well I’m not sure about all) equipment still above ground. Trains, coal buckets, conveyors, boiler houses plus many other things. There was a very informative area with information panels, old film from the archives (we watched them all, about how to put in roof supports, the coalmine band, artists, soccer teams…. Hilary and I now know that if your support strut with lid is straight up and down it will support 60 tons of weight, if it’s slightly off perpendicular it will only support 12 tons and if it is really crooked it won’t support any. We know about dropping a stone from the centre of the top point and lining up its landing place with the top to ensure straightness (a bit like an on-the- job plumb bob) hammering the support into place and testing for snugness of fit. We also did three little “brass-rubbings” read a few information panels, and looked at static displays. My favourite two sessions were meeting the pit ponies (we met three of the four on-site). Some of them didn’t ever work in the mines, but one at least did. Finn, was a bit bored and kept kicking his stable door, he was also very inquisitive and checked out with a very determined effort and extremely strong neck, if I had anything of interest in my pockets. I didn’t, though I have now put two sugar lumps in Di’s jacket pocket for the next lucky horses we come across. The other most exciting part of the museum was the tour in the mine. We had to wear hard hats, take a brass disc with us to be checked in and checked out (18 in, 18 came out) and wear a light with battery pack harness around our waists. Also had to hand over any contraband we may have had. So any flammables, lighters, cigarettes, and anything with a battery, including watches, cameras, car keys with alarms…. The 18 of us crowded into the cage (it was intimate to say the least, yet John our guide said it wasn’t unusual to have 34 miners and their gear in there at a time, all I can say is “cosy”) and we were dropped 140 metres into the darkness. Hilary clutched at my hand with sweaty palms poor thing… I’m sure her eyes were wide and wild, but of course couldn’t see, just gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. Once we got down to the bottom (it was really chilly) there were lights in the access tunnel, dim but reassuring, but only near the beginning of our tour. There was a cold breeze wafting down the tunnel from the ventilation shaft, and John explained all along the way the importance of ensuring the maximum air movement through having air doors, ensuring all the walls were as smooth and free from pockets as possible. This also meant that in the late 1800’s when people (often man and his wife and young child) were working a little side seam they were enclosed in a trapdoor system to make sure the rest of the mine was well ventilated. There were models set up around the mine showing the people at work as they would have been over the ages. We don’t know how lucky we are! As I said there was this family group husband and wife inside this prison virtually, not much more than a metre high, maybe two wide, trapdoor closed, with 8 year old son sitting outside the trapdoor in darkness waiting to pull the door open when his mother slithered out with another sack/bucket of coal and rock hanging from her waist. She was topless because of the heat, no ventilation, and just a single candle to light their working area. They worked from 6 in the morning until 6 at night six days a week. As John said, for months over winter they would only see daylight on Sundays. However, they had it easy compared to the pit ponies! The ponies stayed underground 50 weeks a year, coming out for only 2 weeks to graze. When it was time to return to work they would invariably lead the bloke who had come to fetch them on a merry dance, as like us, the thought of returning to work after a summer break was not too appealing. Add to that that the only way into the mine was being strapped under the cage, and lowered into darkness well underground, hardly surprising really that they weren’t too keen. Apparently the horses suffered from the same lung complaints as the miners, and that was pretty much the only way they could get retirement. John was an excellent tour guide, very knowledgeable, he had been an electrician in the mines for 34 years, so was certainly well versed in much of the process, and once you could decipher what he was saying through his very broad accent, really interesting. He was very keen to explain all the safety measures that were in place, including in-depth explanation of methane levels and their monitoring both in the mine and above ground by computer. It made it very hard to understand how things could have gone so wrong at Pike River, but hopefully there will be a clearer picture once the Commission has investigated. The whole tour was fascinating, made me very pleased I wasn’t a miner and that I worked above ground, and hopefully I won’t ever complain about working in an air-conditioned environment with no opening windows to the outside again.
Once we’d had lunch in the truck in the car-park in the pouring rain, and a little read/computer playing it was time to head back to Hebden Bridge as we were meeting Jude at her house for dinner. We had a very pleasant time at her house, chatting, eating, I did some blogging, we did some washing, and Hilary got to watch a DVD… all very civilised. We got back here tour camping spot about 10 I guess, and into bed.
Today (13th- Friday) we are going to pick Jude up and head up to Haworth, about 10 miles away I think, where the Brontes lived, we will visit the Parsonage and hangout. I hope the rain has gone, it is still pretty grey overhead, but with patches of blue. Very cool though, with highs in the early teens forecast for the next few days. I’ll add photos to this when I’m online next, and post it soon.
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