Tuesday 8^th July                               WINDEMERE  -  BRADFORD  -  MANCHESTER

Robyn writes:  Today was yet another travel day, and it’s all gone pretty well, really. We enjoyed another lovely breakfast at Rum Doodle before packing our overnight bags (we’ve just had a small bag each for the last three stops) and heading south from the Lake District.

The landscape changed fairly quickly as we drove south, from the rugged Pennines to rolling hills and dales, lots and lots of stone walls and sheep, and sure enough, we were in North Yorkshire. It was just like ‘All Creatures Great and Small’! The sun was shining, so it was all picture-postcard perfect, and a beautiful drive.

                                                    North Yorkshire Dales country

                                                            Stone fences galore!

We set a course towards the centre of Bradford, as my great-great-grandmother, Elizabeth Holmes, was christened at St Peter’s there in 1828. So was her mother Betty Hey,(she was also married there) and it seems to very much have been the family church for generations. It’s now the Bradford Cathedral – it was made a cathedral in the early 1900s. To get there, we travelled through Shipley – once a township in its own right; now a suburb of Bradford. Elizabeth was actually born in Shipley, and she gave my great-grandfather (my Nanna’s father) its name. He was Frederick Shipley Moore. Parts of Shipley are now World Heritage sites, because of the Saltaire houses and buildings, which are exceptionally well preserved from the mid-1800s when they were built.

                                                          Shipley - World Heritage site

                                                         St Paul's Anglican Church, Shipley

We had a bit of trouble getting parking in Bradford’s centre – the first carpark we tried was full, but the next one turned out to be a huge shopping centre, so it had plenty. It also had food, so our first action was to find some lunch, as it was now after noon. We settled on the food court there – Lex had Subway and I had Chinese, so fast and reasonably cheap. Then we walked up the road to the Cathedral. It’s certainly on the small side for a cathedral, but a lovely building. We chatted to one of the welcomers there, and he showed us the font. Unfortunately the font itself is from the mid-1800s (the Victorians just couldn’t help themselves tarting everything up!) but the magnificent font cover, made from carved oak, is original and dates back to the reign of Henry VIII.

                                                           Bradford Cathedral

                                                          As Betty Hey would have known it

                                                                Interior towards the altar

                                                       Victorian font but Tudor font cover

Most of the graveyard, where generations of my family were buried, was dug up and landscaped during the 60s, and the bones relocated (where, inquiring minds ask…) At the back of the cathedral, they’ve laid the huge rectangular slabs of gravestones almost like tiles right across the whole area, but wildflowers and weeds grow in between them so it’s a fairly wild effect. It’s certainly like no cathedral grounds we’ve ever seen before – they could do with a gardener! As my ancestors were labourers and mill workers, I wasn’t expecting to find any family members featured there, and we didn’t.

                                                    Burial yard at the back of the cathedral

As it was now about one thirty, we set out for Manchester. Our accommodation for the next three nights is in the suburb of Stockport, so we set the GPS. Unfortunately there was an accident on the M60, so it took us a good deal longer to get here than it should have – we did the scenic detour through the suburbs and hit school run time. It’s interesting – the Scottish kids seemed to all be on holidays, but the English kids very much aren’t yet. We noticed a Tesco’s so ducked in there for groceries, and finally got here at about a quarter to 4.

Our little flat is just lovely. We were met by Mike, whose project it was, and he helped us bring things in. The flat has two bedrooms, a lovely living area and kitchen, a gorgeous garden just for us and a laundry with a washer and a drier! Our first load is washing is in already, and a lot more will be done over the next few days. Lex, of course, has been for a walk to acquaint himself with the neighbourhood while I see to the laundry and start the blog. He walked down as far as the Mersey River, which of course we know well from Liverpool. (It’s a lot bigger there.)

                                                        View from the bedroom windows

                                                        A lovely garden area just for us

                                                         The Mersey River at Manchester

It's so nice to be in self-contained accommodation again after several hotels/B&Bs in a row – so much room to move and tea (Tesco’s coq au vin) is in the oven. Tomorrow Glen arrives and he and I are off to see ELO!