Hipperholme West Yorkshire 5-8 Aug 24

 

The Cock o' the North

A short run up the M1 and M62 to the certified site by the Cock o' the North microbrewery in Hipperholme. We've been here quite a few times before to see our friends, who live locally, although the site is now surrounded by a massive housing estate when it used to be fields and woods. It's a basic place frequented by people who seem to have taken up residence there, but it is handy and friendly and you couldn't get any closer to an excellent bar.

Having quickly set up (we know how to park here to get absolutely level) we wandered up the hill to the Co-Op to reprovision before meeting Jane and Tavis and heading off to the Hove Edge Bowling and Working Men's Club for a wonderful evening chatting with old friends.

On Tuesday we caught the bus into Halifax, found the wonderful market and had a typically Yorkshire lunch in t'cafe in t' market. She had a spam, egg and cheese butty and I had pie, mushy peas and chips wi' gravy and mint sauce. We felt very local indeed. After lunch we had a look around the Piece Hall, then in the evening we went for Fish and Chips at Peach's house. A reet northern day out.

Halifax

Ethnic grub

Piece Hall

Borough Market, Halifax

On Wednesday we walked down (and up - plenty of bumps in West Yorkshire) to Shibden Hall, home of the diarist Anne Lister, which the BBC drama Gentleman Jack has made famous. It is a lovely place to visit and we thoroughly enjoyed our wander around. We eventually found the cafe down a very steep hill, but it was too packed for lunch so we had a sticky bun and eventually found a very steep staircase to get us back on the road home.

Later we went into the Cock o' the North to meet Jane, Sarah and Tav and take part in the pub quiz. We were crap, but it was a good night out.

Shibden Hall

Gentleman Debs

Lightning rod disguised for the filming of Gentleman Jack

On Thursday we packed up, but of course the A1 was closed as some poor unfortunate had been killed crossing the road outside RAF Wittering. It is very sad, and we feel very sorry for his friends and family, but why do they have to close such a major road for over 10 hours following an accident? Eventually we got home, exhausted, and unpacked ready for more visitors who had decided that they WILL visit us 2 days after we got back from an exhausting trip. Oh well. Family eh? 

Underneath the Stars Festival Cawthorne, South Yorkshire 1-5 Aug 24

We haven't been to this festival for a few years, so we thought we'd give it another go. Luckily we booked tickets early as, after we had booked them, we found out that this was to be the last UTS festival, which is a shame as it is in a lovely location on a dairy farm in South Yorkshire.

We were not allowed on site until 1700hrs on the Thursday, so we had plenty of time for the  125 mile journey. We thought we could divert to the National Trust property at Woolsthorpe (Isaac Newton's home) but it was rammed and we couldn't get in. Next stop was Boundary Mills for lunch and absolutely hours spent looking at shoes (zzzzzzz). We left there with time to spare to get to Cawthorne but then found the A1 was closed and we were stuck fast in searing heat for over an hour. What is it with that part of Lincolnshire that makes people want to drive into each other? There are always accidents there. Now very tired and in a foul mood we finished the journey down some narrow roads with challenging driving and, exhausted and thoroughly pissed off, we arrived and set up. The marshall showing us to our pitch was Mr Finickity, who had no idea about how a motorhome works, trying to park us EXACTLY on a white marking on the grass. If he has just said "park on this white mark on the grass" we would have done it in seconds. Instead, we were backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards until he was happy. Finally, after a very stressful day, we were parked.

Festival site at Cawthorne

The spaces were pretty tight so we hoisted our flags so we could find our bus amongst the thousands of others and wandered across for a couple of beers to try and relax a bit, hoping for better things in the morning.

Friday was a day of music, sitting around and eating and drinking in the warm sunshine, which made us feel much better. It was nice to relax and the atmosphere at the festival was great.

On Saturday Morning we wandered into Cawthorne to have a mooch around this very pretty village before enjoying more music, food and beer for the rest of the day 

Cawthorne Museum

New mug

Sunday was a brilliant day for music and entertainment with some of our favourite bands and a hilarious performance from Bill Bailey. It was a great day, albeit the weather was a bit "meh".

Craft stalls

Exotic tank tops - fans of the Barsteward sons of Val Doonican

A packed house for Bill Bailey

On Monday we had a leisurely morning, packed up and headed up the road a bit to Hipperholme in West Yorkshire. In all, a brilliant festival and it's such a shame it will not be on next year.

Emptying out a bit

RIAT Fairford Gloucestershire 15-22 Jul 24

Red Arrows

We weren't too sure about this one. A nasty cold meant that we didn't tag anything on to the beginning of the trip to give us a chance to recover, so we set out on Monday morning. We encountered quite heavy traffic at various stages along the route then found that those complete tits at Thames water had closed the road through Lechlade. We had no idea where to go, there were no diversion signs, and it was all a bit of a mess, so we took a chance and went down some narrow, twisty roads, eventually arriving at the Gloucestershire DA Temporary Holiday Site next to RAF Fairford. It was raining. It was also St Swithin's Day, so the portents weren't good. Anyway, we pitched up and relaxed a bit, amused to hear the retreat, national anthem and star spangled banner blaring out from the speakers at the base at exactly 1700hrs.

On Tuesday, after being woken up at 0630hrs by a U2 Spy Plane taking off,  we marched into Fairford along a fast road with no pavement and stinging nettles growing in the verges. Fairford is a nice enough place with a wonderful church (St Mary's), which contains a remarkable set of medieval stained glass windows. Having had a good mooch about we took our lives in our hands once again and headed back along the road.

Fairford Market

River Colne

St Mary's Church

Fairford

The grave of Tiddles the church cat

Misericord depicting a man being battered by a woman

Wednesday was market day in Fairford. We walked back in and looked at the 6 or so stalls that comprise the market before restocking our provisions and heading back.

Trout for tea?

From Thursday to Sunday we stayed on the site watching the Air Tattoo from our pitch. It was very noisy, but the lovely ice cream drove up to our pitch each day and on Saturday evening a pizza van turned up so we had a break from cooking.

Red Arrows Hawk

RAF Falcons

C17 Globemaster

Embraer KC390

Lockheed U2 Dragon Lady

Red Arrows

"Moggy" RAF Typhoon

Spitfire

Rad Arrows

Spanish Harrrier

RAF F35b Lightning

Saudi Hawks Display Team

Alenia C27J Spartan doing things a big cargo aircraft shouldn't be doing!

On Monday we packed up quickly and headed for home, stopping for LPG at Witney and for lunch and a bit of shopping at Rushden Lakes shopping centre (but finding where we were supposed to park was a nightmare).

Rushden Lakes parking

In all, the trip was better than we expected and we really enjoyed the rest. We'd probably do it again.