The Adventures of Pearl !!! Host list post's #22 and #23

[JohnDF]

You and Pearl make a handsome couple, Jack!

Oh poo... you stole my line.

 

[Prester John]

Oh poo... you stole my line.

 

[Jack Black]

I have carried Pearl every day since she arrived in my mail box Here she is helping me open birthday presents yesterday, and having a cheeky half in a Hebden Bridge beer shop yesterday (hoping to do a full catch-up soon)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebden_Bridge

 

[Jack Black]

I took Pearl to the Sheffield museum today

That's Vulcan atop Sheffield Town Hall

Norfolk Street was once lined with cutlery factories, the most famous being Joseph Rodgers.

It was a nice sunny day, but I couldn't afford to tarry. We'll have to head back for another visit

 

[redsparrow]

Great pics Jack and please, do take us back for another visit!

 

[zolthar]

Thanks for the tour Jack, and belated happy birthday!

 

[r redden]

Jack Black I really enjoy seeing where others live and you sir are giving us a front row seat to your beautiful homeland. Thanks so much this is a great visit to the UK.

 

[JohnDF]

Thanks for the pictures Jack. Most enjoyable.

 

[Ramrodmb]

Lovely indoor garden and interesting construction with the huge wooden arches. The trees in full blossom (cherry?) are a beautiful sight after the winter we had.
Thanks for taking us with you, Jack.

 

[Fodderwing]

The trees in full blossom (cherry?) are a beautiful sight after the winter we had.

This tree is what jumped out at me too Mark. I love trees and that one is a spectacular specimen!. Thanks Jack.

 

[Gevonovich]

Happy belated Birthday, Jack !!! Your a masterpiece !

 

[Jack Black]

Thanks for the tour Jack, and belated happy birthday!

Thank you my friend

Jack Black I really enjoy seeing where others live and you sir are giving us a front row seat to your beautiful homeland. Thanks so much this is a great visit to the UK.

Thanks Randy, wish I had more time to post here, the Lambsfoot thread is a full-time job these days!

Thanks for the pictures Jack. Most enjoyable.

Thanks John

Lovely indoor garden and interesting construction with the huge wooden arches. The trees in full blossom (cherry?) are a beautiful sight after the winter we had.
Thanks for taking us with you, Jack.

This tree is what jumped out at me too Mark. I love trees and that one is a spectacular specimen!. Thanks Jack.

Thanks guys, that's the Winter Garden in the centre of Sheffield, it was built for the Millenium

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheffield_Winter_Garden

Happy belated Birthday, Jack !!! Your a masterpiece !

Thanks Gev

 

[Jack Black]

I took Pearl into North Yorkshire yesterday, to visit a couple of towns, which aren't too far away from me, Harrogate and Knaresborough, both of which may be familiar to long-standing members from my previous visits, with Earl, and on The Wizard's Quest, for example.

Harrogate is probably Yorkshire poshest town, and has been dating back to its heydays as a spa town, when the gentry came to imbibe its supposedly beneficial waters. They just drink Prosecco these days

One of the interesting things about Harrogate is the broad ribbon of open grassland which surrounds the centre. If it wasn't protected, it would certainly be chocker-block with swanky hotels and yuppie apartments now - just like the rest of the place

I called in at an antiques centre, but only found an old US Goloid Dollar (an old fake I think) in the bargain basket. I called in at the Orvis shop, and then went for a coffee at this 'Blues Bar', nice coffee, must return for a pint sometime - even if they did manage to get my birthday wrong

I then proceeded down the hill into the town's 'Montpellier Quarter'. There's another up-market antiques centre there, but I thought Pearl might start demanding a pearl necklace, which is the sort of thing it's stuffed with, and there's never any lowly pocket knives. So I headed back into the town centre again, and then onto Knaresborough

 

[dc50]

I took Pearl into North Yorkshire yesterday, to visit a couple of towns, which aren't too far away from me, Harrogate and Knaresborough, both of which may be familiar to long-standing members from my previous visits, with Earl, and on The Wizard's Quest, for example.

Harrogate is probably Yorkshire poshest town, and has been dating back to its heydays as a spa town, when the gentry came to imbibe its supposedly beneficial waters. They just drink Prosecco these days

One of the interesting things about Harrogate is the broad ribbon of open grassland which surrounds the centre. If it wasn't protected, it would certainly be chocker-block with swanky hotels and yuppie apartments now - just like the rest of the place

I called in at an antiques centre, but only found an old US Goloid Dollar (an old fake I think) in the bargain basket. I called in at the Orvis shop, and then went for a coffee at this 'Blue's Bar', nice coffee, must return for a pint sometime - even if they did manage to get my birthday wrong

I then proceeded down the hill into the town's 'Montpellier Quarter'. There's another up-market antiques centre there, but I thought Pearl might start demanding a pearl necklace, which is the sort of thing it's stuffed with, and there's never any lowly pocket knives. So I headed back into the town centre again, and then onto Knaresborough

Love it, Jack! Thank you for taking the time putting this together fascinating

 

[I'mSoSharp]

Great thread .
If Pearl would like to be shown around southern Spain I'd be more than happy to oblige.

 

[Jack Black]

Knaresborough is an attractive and ancient market town a couple of miles north of Harrogate, and sits atop the hill looming over the River Nidd. I used to have some business interests here, and visited on a weekly basis, but now I travel there only very occasionally. As with Harrogate, long-term members may remember my numerous posts about Knaresborough from the past, and you may be surprised to learn that the pretender to the the post of Knaresborough Town Crier, the one who got Earl into trouble with the Law, passed away last year, and that Madame Gi Gi's Emporium is no more - no danger of running into the bulldog-faced harridan with the Freddy May perm

Here's a pic of Earl with Simon the pretend Town Crier for the sake of posterity

I usually go to Knaresborough on market days, when it has a thriving and attractive market. Unfortunately, it's best pub, Blind Jack's, is not open on market day, but it is open on Saturday



Blind Jack's is named after one of Knaresborough's innumerable characters, Blind Jack Metcalf, who among other things, built roads. He was actually blind, they didn't just call him that, in the way they might call some other road builders Stupid Joe Smith or Environmentally Insensitive Harry Adams You might notice that a couple of windows have been bricked up in the building, there's a lot of houses like that in Knaresborough, as it's an old town with houses which were built prior to the introduction of the Window Tax (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Window_tax).

From the pub I headed to the ruins of Knaresborough Castle, where another character used to stay, Prince John, the baddie from the Robin Hood films! The castle was originally surrounded by a royal hunting forest, which stretched for many miles in each direction. The poor peasants who lived in the forest were forbidden to hunt so much as a rabbit, and could neither cultivate land, nor move away. Eventually, due to fatalities brought on by empty bellies, they let them grow a few carrots, but it was a notoriously rotten place to live, even for vegetarians

No love, there's no need to glare at me, it's not you I want a photo of, it's the darn great ancient monument behind you! (Come on guys, I'm talking about the castle! )

That's better, I thought she'd never move on!

Talking of po-faced old sods, the castle ruins are still haunted by the silly old bat who keeps crows on a string, and cons tourists into believing she's 'Her Majesty's Keeper of Ravens'!

You do get a good view though

After visiting the castle, I thought I'd go and check out another antiques centre, and though they were quite pricey, I did find a couple of knives (I'll edit in a pic in a bit as they're still in my bag )

Another Knaresborough character was local hag Mother Shipton, who lived in a cave, and prophesied nonsense (she was probably an ancestor of the 'Ravenmistress') To be fair she may have been wildly misquoted, but it looks like she did OK for herself in the end, judging from that 'cave', the Liquorice Allsorts paintwork (common hereabouts) was probably designed to lure in children so she could feed them to her pet ravens

One of Mother Shipton's prophesies related to the local bridge, the one next to her 'cave', where I took these photos from

It's been rebuilt twice, and if it goes again the world will end, the old lass supposedly claimed, which is the reason the pub opposite Mother Shipton's old cave is called 'The World's End'. It has a nice beer garden, and used to do a good chip butty. Since I went here with Earl, I thought I better go with Pearl, but I had to settle for a pint

 

[SVTFreak]

Just incredible.

 

[Wurrwulf]

Thank you, Jack. That doesn't quite express the proper levels of gratitude for your pictures, history, and humor, but it's the best my brain can manage right now. You are a treasure.

 

[Jack Black]

Just incredible.

Thank you, Jack. That doesn't quite express the proper levels of gratitude for your pictures, history, and humor, but it's the best my brain can manage right now. You are a treasure.

Cheers guys, I'm sorry I've not had more time to post here, but I'll try to tell you about mine and Pearl's adventures this coming week. For now, here's a couple of pics of the knives we found, both MOP appropriately enough Plus the coin I picked up in Harrogate

I undoubtedly paid over the odds for this wee penknife (and arguably for both knives), but it has a special interest for me. It carries the mark of James Chesterman, a company whose Bow Works was located just down the road from where I grew up. My great grandmother and grandmother lived on the same street, and both worked there, as did my brother's Godfather later. Chesterman's are best known for rulers, tape measures, and spirit levels, but their name appears on ruler knives, of which I have a small collection. Collectors and cutlery historians have long speculated about whether or not Chesterman's actually made any of these knives (which were produced by a number of companies using Chesterman rulers) themselves. This is something different, an old penknife, with an early Chesterman mark, made specifically for a penknife. It is tempting to see this as conclusive proof Chesterman did indeed make penknives, and they/he may well have done, but as ever, with Sheffield-made knives, we can only conclude that this knife MAY indicate Chesterman made the knife, it could just as easily have been made for them by another firm, or more likely, by a jobbing cutler. Still, nice to add it to my collection though

The other knife was made by Thomas Renshaw & Son, a 19th century Sheffield firm. The blade looks like it was actually ground for a two-blade penknife.

 

[Prester John]

I took Pearl into North Yorkshire yesterday, to visit a couple of towns, which aren't too far away from me, Harrogate and Knaresborough, both of which may be familiar to long-standing members from my previous visits, with Earl, and on The Wizard's Quest, for example.

Harrogate is probably Yorkshire poshest town, and has been dating back to its heydays as a spa town, when the gentry came to imbibe its supposedly beneficial waters. They just drink Prosecco these days

One of the interesting things about Harrogate is the broad ribbon of open grassland which surrounds the centre. If it wasn't protected, it would certainly be chocker-block with swanky hotels and yuppie apartments now - just like the rest of the place

I called in at an antiques centre, but only found an old US Goloid Dollar (an old fake I think) in the bargain basket. I called in at the Orvis shop, and then went for a coffee at this 'Blues Bar', nice coffee, must return for a pint sometime - even if they did manage to get my birthday wrong

I then proceeded down the hill into the town's 'Montpellier Quarter'. There's another up-market antiques centre there, but I thought Pearl might start demanding a pearl necklace, which is the sort of thing it's stuffed with, and there's never any lowly pocket knives. So I headed back into the town centre again, and then onto Knaresborough

Fascinating tour, Jack. Lovely pics.
I noticed a neon Budweiser sign in that blues bar. Does it sell well in England?