Earl Sees the World!

[brianv]

Continuing to enjoy Earl's adventures! Great photos, Jack.

 

[Jack Black]

Thanks Brian :thumbup:

 

[Gevonovich]

Oyez, Oyez, Oyez! I ave this wee jack hear....he is henceforth the King of the Knaresborough castle....I say!!!

It's not funny ... but the town crier was exactly what they needed ( and so it goes )

From wiki:
"Town criers were the means of communication with the people of the town since many people could not read or write. Proclamations, local bylaws, market days, adverts, were all proclaimed by a bellman or crier."

Great stuff, Jack!

 

[Jack Black]

Thanks Gev :thumbup:

From wiki:
"As in England, town criers were the means of communication with the people of the town since many people could not read or write. Proclamations, local bylaws, market days, adverts, were all proclaimed by a bellman or crier."

And in North Yorkshire, they're still too tight (mean) to buy a newspaper or get a radio!

 

[5K Qs]

...Earl and I travelled first of all to the North Yorkshire town of Harrogate ..., and then onto Knaresborough ....
It's still chucking it down outside, but me and Earl have a couple of bottles of Porter to warm our cockles
...

Jack, I continue to enjoy your documenting EARL's visit to Yorkshire! :thumbup::thumbup:
I opened up Google Maps to "orient" myself to today's travels, and the map inspired a couple of questions related to your locale.
1) My first question isn't knife-related, except in the sense that you and EARL were enjoying porter together, and my question is porter-related.
The map showed a town named Tadcaster that I think is not far from where you live. Is that the home of Samuel Smith's brewery? My preference for porters and stouts originally began when I drank some Samuel Smith's Taddy Porter and Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout that a sister-in-law bought for me when we visited her many years ago.

2) My second question can be phrased in a knife-related way. When I was much younger, I somehow was introduced to James Herriot's books about life as a Yorkshire veterinarian. Having been raised on a dairy farm, I enjoyed those books very much. I subsequently enjoyed public television's airing of a BBC production of some of Herriot's stories (although the Yorkshire accents of some of the characters on the TV shows were more than I could comprehend). Anyway, what is Herriot's reputation in Yorkshire? Is there any sort of museum devoted to his exploits? And in particular, is there an exhibit of the pocketknives he carried as a lad, in his practice, or during his military service that you and EARL plan to visit?

Sorry if Google Maps sent me too far afield here!

- GT

 

[Jack Black]

Thanks for your interest and for your kind words GT. Tadcaster is between Leeds, where I live, and York, and should you care to request it, I could take Earl to Tadcsaster for a visit, and possibly get a pic of him outside the Samuel Smiths Brewery?

In the meantime, there's a pic in this thread here (the chimney belongs to Sam Smiths) - http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...kings-and-Thieving-Varlet?highlight=Tadcaster

I'm afraid to say that, so far as I know, James Herriot's reputation here is as as a writer of quaint fiction for middle-aged ladies and people overseas, but I shall investigate! Perhaps he has been maligned hereabouts! :thumbup:

 

[5K Qs]

Thanks for your interest and for your kind words GT. Tadcaster is between Leeds, where I live, and York, and should you care to request it, I could take Earl to Tadcsaster for a visit, and possibly get a pic of him outside the Samuel Smiths Brewery?

In the meantime, there's a pic in this thread here (the chimney belongs to Sam Smiths) - http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...kings-and-Thieving-Varlet?highlight=Tadcaster

I'm afraid to say that, so far as I know, James Herriot's reputation here is as as a writer of quaint fiction for middle-aged ladies and people overseas, but I shall investigate! Perhaps he has been maligned hereabouts! :thumbup:

EARL's travels have had the effect of making me VERY jealous of him, so seeing him at the Tadcaster brewery would be right in character; I'd be honored to continue to live vicariously (and enviously) through EARL!

About Herriot's reputation, I suppose I'm not totally surprised; "a prophet is without honor …"

(And you live in Leeds; another nostalgic blast from the past, as I used to often listen to an LP of The Who Live At Leeds in my misspent youth. )

- GT

 

[Jack Black]

I will pencil a visit to Tadcaster in my friend :thumbup:

Classic gig, but before my gig-going days I'm afraid

Me and Earl are off to Sheffield tomorrow :thumbup:

 

[pertinux]

Great shakes, Jack, you and Earl off together.

Thanks for taking us along!

~ P.

 

[Jsega51]

EARL is getting nothing but the best from you Jack!

 

[clutchcarter]

Jack you sure are showing Earl a good time, he might not want to leave!

 

[5K Qs]

I will pencil a visit to Tadcaster in my friend :thumbup:

Classic gig, but before my gig-going days I'm afraid

Me and Earl are off to Sheffield tomorrow :thumbup:

Thanks, Jack; looking forward to the Tadcaster trip! :thumbup:
Classic gig indeed, and I guess my musical tastes betray my advanced age!

- GT

 

[coolio]

I'm afraid to say that, so far as I know, James Herriot's reputation here is as as a writer of quaint fiction for middle-aged ladies and people overseas, but I shall investigate!

First, thanks for keeping us up to date on Earl's travels, Jack! Second, I can attest to GT's accounting of James Herriot, when I was a kid I loved "All Creatures Great and Small" on PBS. It was a brilliant series. And the Yorkshire dialect that some of the farmers used, seemed like a foreign language. Third, I am not a overseas middle-aged lady! (I'm a middle-aged overseas man)

 

[meako]

The Who Live at Leeds was at time the loudest concert ever recorded. Then along came ACDC who are sadly past it and very unlikely to ever appear again .
Re James Herriot.-check youtube for Dr Chinnery.a character from The League of Gentlemen. In particular the Mrs DeCorsi and Bentley sketch. Hilarious and an irreverant stab at All Creatures.

 

[Jack Black]

Thanks for the very kind words folks. If I can ever get my pics (30) uploaded to Photobucket, and then edit them back to how they're supposed to be mad, I'll write up our adventures in Sheffield today :thumbup:

First, thanks for keeping us up to date on Earl's travels, Jack! Second, I can attest to GT's accounting of James Herriot, when I was a kid I loved "All Creatures Great and Small" on PBS. It was a brilliant series. And the Yorkshire dialect that some of the farmers used, seemed like a foreign language. Third, I am not a overseas middle-aged lady! (I'm a middle-aged overseas man)

THanks Coolio :thumbup: They may have toned down that Yorkshire accent! :thumbup:

The Who Live at Leeds was at time the loudest concert ever recorded. Then along came ACDC who are sadly past it and very unlikely to ever appear again .
Re James Herriot.-check youtube for Dr Chinnery.a character from The League of Gentlemen. In particular the Mrs DeCorsi and Bentley sketch. Hilarious and an irreverant stab at All Creatures.

Dr Chinnery is one of my favourite characters from TLOG, particularly in the Xmas Special, where the story is told of how he came to be cursed! :thumbup:

 

[Jack Black]

After an insomnia-cursed night, in which I was reduced to counting my old postal addresses (see Carl’s Lounge ) to try and get some sleep, and with Earl no doubt wondering what I was babbling about, we set off much earlier than bright, for a trip to Sheffield via my local market.



After some dismal months, in which virtually nothing pointy has crossed my path in the local fleamarket, I was pleasantly surprised, when a trader I know well, turned up with a Joseph Rodgers Jack for me, as well as a rusty Lambsfoot. I also acquired this interesting, but oddly-named, “salad knife”, which I may put to use carving up haggis next Burn’s Night, an old Amalgamated Engineering Union badge, a folding Chesterman ruler, and an interesting old whistle.



Many of the traders were not yet there, but I checked in with one or two, including my pals The Two Teds, on Yorkshire’s finest second-hand tool stall. After telling Big Paul and Ray about Earl’s adventures, I asked them if they wouldn’t mind posing with him, and while admiring him, they also gave an impromptu rendition of the Gene Chandler classic, ‘Duke of Earl’!



Earl and I set off for Sheffield, and less than an hour later, we came into the city via the former industrial East End, where the road once passed between nearly a mile of steel works, making it like travelling through a scene from Dante’s ‘Inferno’. The journey is no longer lit up by flame and molten steel, but some of the steel works, now under the umbrella of Sheffield Forgemasters, are still there.



Arriving in the city centre, I first took Earl to see the site of the former Joseph Rodgers factory, where he was heartily admired by a group of ladies from the bingo hall which is now on the site, and who were having a cigarette break outside. One of them told me her granddad had worked at the Rodgers factory and had some photos of the interior. Earl relished the attention!









I next took Earl to see where all the Barlowness began, at Hartshead, and the site of the home and hearth of Obadiah Barlow and his forbears. Unfortunately though, a large high-sided vehicle was blocking the view of the scene, so I decided to take Earl down to see the main source of the city’s water-power in days gone by, the River Don, and to have a look at a few of the old factories, heading upstream away from town.

...

 

[Jack Black]

We walked as far as Kelham Island and the industrial museum there, and I was able to snap Earl in front of Sheffield’s last Bessamer Converter, one of only two remaining in the world, the other being in Pittsburgh. A shame someone from the museum always parks their car directly next to the converter! :grumpy:



Stan Shaw wasn’t working today unfortunately, so I thought it was time to adjourn for a coffee at the on-site Little Mester’s cafetereia. I was pleased to see they had Henderson’s Relish on the table













I next took Earl for a good stroll round the former industrial quarter to see some of the remaining historic factories.



It was time for a pint! And where better to go than The Fat Cat pub, which began to fill up as soon as the doors opened at noon? In honour of Earl, I thought I would try a pint of an American-style IPA, a new beer brewed next door to the pub at the well-established Kelham Island Brewery. It was called ‘Shotgun Wedding’!



I sat down in the tap room, and returned to the bar to order some food, which is always good in The Fat Cat. I ordered a pie, with roast potatoes, peas, and gravy. It was delicious with a good splash of Henderson’s, and I would have certainly taken photos, save for the fact that I had by this time gotten into conversation with a retired gentlemen, who might have found my ‘Earl and pie’ composition disconcerting I’ve told Earl only to talk to me when nobody else is around

...

 

[Jack Black]

After finishing my pint and bidding farewell to the company, I decided to take Earl back into the city centre on the tram. It would have been nice to have been able to show him the vicinity of the workshop of Samuel Barlow, who made Barlow knives at Neepsend, together with his son-in-law Henry Mills, but in recent years most of that area, and the adjoining locales, have been virtually obliterated by a vast swathe of roads and tramlines, which run across it like an oil-slick in clear water. It took me and Earl 10 minutes just to get across it!





Once back in the centre of Sheffield, I decided to take Earl to visit the newly re-vamped cutlery and metalware room at the central museum. Earl took a great deal of interest in the exhibits, and we watched a short film showing a Bowie knife being made.



Afterwards, we stopped to admire Sheffield Cathedral.



Then the Cutler’s Hall.





Earl took a liking to a lady driver, but I think he might have been trying to punch above his weight on this occasion! Still, you never know

It was time to make another trip to nearby Hartshead I thought, and I was able to snap a pic of Earl opposite the site of the old Barlow workshop. The older house on the right is the oldest surviving brick-built house in Sheffield city centre, being built in 1728 by Nicholas Broadbent. The old Barlow house sat at right-angles to the old banker’s house, and the two families would eventually be joined by marriage. The Barlow house and workshop was demolished when the road, Campo Lane, was widened, and the building which currently occupies the site was only erected in 1923, though the rear of the building is noticeably older. Wooden beams still run from the Broadbent house across the small road, which once separated it from the house of Obadiah, and later, of John Barlow.



I thought I’d take Earl for afternoon tea



Then it was time to head back out of town, passing the entrance to Forgemasters on the way.

 

[brianv]

What a grand field trip Earl had! Thanks for taking us along, Jack. If I ever manage to find myself in England again I have to visit Sheffield with my GEC Barlow/Charlow.

 

[Jack Black]

Hartshead should definitely be a point of pilgrimage for all Barlow fans Brian! :thumbup: