Riverside Walks

I hope the weekend has treated you well? We've had some lovely weather here with seasonal showers now and then during this summer of long overdue fine weather.

I've done two walks recently with my friend Linda in order to keep the fitness up, both near enough two miles, which in the scheme of things isn't far, but we're building up.

You've read many times of the Humber in my blogs, one of the countries busiest and most dangerous rivers and it tends to be pretty muddy water due to the clay nature of the land, but the land provides beautiful walks alongside it and vistas to make your mouth water.

Two recent walks were in total contrast, yet only a few yards apart, one pleasant and one not so bright. Let me explain.

Our first walk - highly recommended - Google Maps

The first walk took place from the Corporation Pier in Hull walking eastward. We did both these walks on warm balmy evenings with a view to seeing nice sunsets. This walk starts in one of the oldest places in Hull where ferries used to sail to New Holland in Lincolnshire, in latter years, paddle steamers. Now, nothing sails from the pier because the Humber bridge makes commercial passenger traffic by boat across the Humber superfluous. I have thought however that pleasure trips would make a bit of money to be honest.  

Disused Yorkshire Dry Dock (the Tidal Barrier across the River Hull in the background)

We cross the river Hull by a new footbridge next to the disused dry dock which someone wants to turn into an amphitheatre and round the Deep, a nationally recognised sea life centre. The walk then takes us along the Humber bank along a purpose built wide footway with the Victoria Dock estate on one side and the river separated by a barrier on the other side. This is frequented by residents and dog walkers, kids on bikes and families and is a lovely safe walk.

Walk alongside and round the Deep at a place locally known as Sammy's Point

The path then takes us across the old lock gate, now all concreted up which used to lead to the old timber dock. This dock is now just full of water and fish and three fountains with playing water, very attractive it is too. Houses and blocks of nice looking flats overlook the river and the old dock here and it has been lovingly restored and maintained making this a lovely atmosphere. 

The walk finishes at the end of the Victoria Dock estate when it is time to walk back and as we timed it right, you walk back westwards and see the sun setting across the river vista. 

At the far end of our first walk, we see the Pride of Rotterdam (mainly cars and passengers) leaving port for her overnight North Sea crossing

This is gentle, steady, plenty of seats although no loos, but its a mile one way and a mile back. Take a camera and  a flask and see lots of wildlife activity in the river and in the riverside flora as well as shipping which passes pretty close to the shore at this point. The Ferries to the European continent can be seen leaving on the evening tide every day (using deep channels.)

The skeletal remains of the front end of an old wooden barge, left abandoned donkey's years ago can be seen at the end of this walk on the waters edge.

There are regular signs too along this walk explaining the history of the area and modern day context.

A small flotilla of speed boats come in together making their way to Humber Dock for the night

Several speedboats were coming in to the Humber dock just as we finished our walk.

The last few yards of the walk near the Deep looking west, the lights twinkling as dusk sets in

The second walk, taken on another evening was just a continuation of the first route, but as the Victoria Dock estate finishes, as you continue to walk eastward, there are industrial units to the left and the open river with no barriers to separate you from the river on the other side. This is all so very different and isolated and less pleasant. The path is solid and wide enough but not recommended for children or dogs who like to roam. 

Our second walk, not really recommended unless in a party - Google Maps

No seats on this one and nothing to see of interest in the commercial premises on the land side of the path.

The walk takes you across a working lock gate which I think is always a twitchy experience, just flimsy looking chains separate you from the big drop into the lock or to the river and the footway is iron gridded, so it's like walking on air. I'm sure it's safe, but it feels not so much so. Having said that, there are ramps either side, so if you are in a wheel chair, you can get across.

The Amanda from Willemstad waiting patiently for the Pride of Hull to leave the dock entrance before coming into dock itself

There are some fascinating empty ruined riverside sheds and wooden piles in the Humber itself which once held wharves and railway lines still in evidence, memories for some older generations of long lost and almost forgotten dock side activity. Birds are the only occupants these days.  

Long abandoned wharf sheds, although difficult to see in the picture, there are old railway lines just this side of the shed used by trains to take away the good offloaded from ships

Eventually, the outward walk finally finishes at the King George Dock where the modern days ferries are berthed and which houses a very busy shipping dock (the walk is a dead end, you can't get onto the dock). 

The passenger and cargo ferry (60,000 tonnes), The Pride of Hull leaving port; the old wharf supports can be seen in the foreground

The walk back has nothing to commend it much other than the setting sun and river views.   We got stopped by the lock gates which opened to let a tug and a towed vessel into the dock which was interesting to watch, but completely isolated and trapped us on the path to the east. 

The Hull tug Beamer towing smaller tug Lashette toward the dock gate

 There were some wading birds on the mud flats and cormorants on riverside structures arising out of the water.

Water birds waiting for higher tides for their feeding

Don't do this one alone, watch for exceptionally high tides which face no barriers to the footpath and take a mobile phone.

Two entirely contrasting walks separated by a car park in the middle, but good exercise nonetheless.

Enjoy your week ahead.

Chat soon

Ta-ra.

Skeleton in the Cupboard or Dark Secret?

 

I've been inspired by inspirational fellow blogger Jarmara to write about a family secret I found a few years ago whilst doing my family history. It doesn't involve millions of pounds in treasure or illicit affairs with princesses, just a very sad secret that prevented a family knowing the simple truth about a loved one. 

John William Mayes (pictured above) was my great grandfather. He had eight children including my grandmother, now deceased, Connie. Born in Hull, I've never really found out what John did for a living but when I started my family history many years ago, I asked my grandmother about the family to set me off and she told me that her father John had been killed in an accident on the railway on Hull docks around 1925. He had been hit on the head by something falling off a load being carried by a crane.

Quite specific information about John and when the time came to do some serious research, I started the quest to find out something about him in order to fit him into the tree. No computers to speak of in those days, so letters were written to the docks company and to British Rail and trips to the local history library to check the local newspapers were certain to have covered the bases and information would be forthcoming in short time. Or so I thought. In fact all the enquiries I made drew a blank. The family confirmed the story of a death by accident on the docks.

John's home was on Hessle Road in Hull, in an era which was a difficult time for the country and for the hard working but relatively poor close knit community close to the docks, the heart of the city's enterprise in those days. Many of the husbands and sons were away on trawlers or worked on the docks and the wives ran the home and were the real power in the family if truth were told. 

No dole, if you didn't work, you struggled - money was tight but grandmother always said how happy she had been with her brothers and sisters in their two bedroomed terraced house. House's were left unlocked at night because people were trusted and everyone knew each other's business, so not a lot happened without the female population knowing about it. 

1925 - a pint of milk cost 3d (about 1.5 new pence today) and King George V was on the throne. The average weekly male wage was £5.

Despite looking at death records and any and all sources that were available in those days, there was no luck in finding John and as a consequence, I could do no more on that side of the family. 

Hull had and still has its own register office and registration area known as Kingston upon Hull to use its Sunday name.  I was pottering around the Hull City Council archives helping my brother-in-law do his family history when I thought I'd have a look at some index cards during a break from reading old court records.

There was a Mayes - William John - names the wrong way around but it didn't matter. The reference was to a a place called Willerby Asylum which was situated outside of the Hull boundary in the East Riding of Yorkshire which has its own separate registration district. I asked the archivist for the relevant book indicated by the index card.

A large red leather bound book was brought to me with hundreds of entries of deaths. There - in 1925 was the death of William John Mayes - cerebral softening. John had died in a mental asylum, aged 35 with his youngest child just 8 months old at his former home being looked after with all the other children. The registration of his death was in another area and clearly the incident on the docks was a fabrication. Other records indicated that he had been in a workhouse elsewhere in Hull in the months before his death, often doubled as a hospital in those days.

The reason the book was in the Hull City Council archives is because the Council owned the asylum as most of the patients were from Hull even though it was in the East Riding of Yorkshire.

On the one hand, (and family historians will know what I mean) there was a sense of triumph, a sense of achievement in finding this elusive man. On the other hand, an ancestor had died in a mental asylum which, when linked to the status of his family and the economic situation at the time was so desperately sad. 

Clearly, the stigma of the workhouse and mental illness was too much to bear for the family and therefore their embarassment or perhaps shame even, was hidden from the world including John's own family.

Here's the thing. My grandmother, his daughter was still alive at the time as was (and still is) many descendents of John. Do I tell them or do I not? My grandmother was elderly and not in good health. What would be the point - what would it achieve? I wasn't a spiritualist in those days, but I do recall thinking that she would find out when she meets him in whatever place dead spirits go to. I didn't tell her and I didn't tell my dad for many years.

Today Willerby Asylum no longer exists in the same guise with all the old buildings gone. What survives is a small church which belonged to the asylum (now the Haltemprice Crematorium) and a tiny overgrown graveyard. A secure centre for the mentally ill is nearby, a modern building of no great architectural value.

Grandmother was brought up without her father as a teenager but she said that her mother made do. She did odd jobs, took in some net mending in the back yard and there was always food on the table.

I hope you found that interesting - it was a long standing and sometimes frustrating search for me, but I'm glad he's now part of the family in the tree.

Chat soon

Ta-ra

Mixed September

We've nearly finished decorating. The carpet is being delivered on Thursday and we are nearly all prepared. We just have to shift the furniture ready for them to put the carpet down and then we have to put it all back again. I'll be glad when things are back in place; I hate untidy, not that I'm the tidiest person on earth, but I like some assemblance of order.

What an odd day weather wise today. I went to see my son play football this morning and take a team picture for them so they could give a copy to their sponsor. I stayed a little while and I had other things to do, but his team won 5 - 0. The weather was glorious - sunny and warm with no breeze, good enough for shirt sleeves. He plays in goal so he was happy keeping a 'clean sheet'.

In contrast this afternoon saw black skies bubble up with heavy rain showers and the occasional rumble of thunder. It looked spectacular, but felt sorry for the many cyclists who had clearly gone for rides to enjoy the weather who ended up battling through rain.

The next phase of my son John's photographic hobby has arrived. We've obtained some copyright free photographs from the local history library in Hull of historical photographs of Hull and we are going to take some modern pics from where the original photographer stood and then meld the two together to show old and new. I'll take the modern pictures but the genius is in the photographic manipulation. We are putting the photographs on exhibition in the Hull History Centre in November.

Hull has much history to it. The town as is stands goes back as far as 1215 when salt was carried to the river for transport abroad. Over the years the town expanded and because of its proximity to the Humber became an internationally important port in centuries past.  Fishing was the important most recent trade, all but gone now, but it shaped the culture of the town and it remains even now fiercly proud of its history earned in the most part by the hardship of trawling the sea for our food.

The very successful docks east of the city are now handed over to freight, timber, coal, passenger ferries, petrochemicals - a place which wouldn't be recognised by the trawlermen of yesteryear.

I don't live in Hull, I live outside it in the East Riding of Yorkshire, but most of my working life has been in and around Hull and you either love it or hate it. It has its good points and bad like any city. Its been badly in need of high quality investment, but its like being in a town at the end of a cul-de-sac (M62). Hopefully, if the contractors for new wind farm equipment come here to one of the underused docks in the town, it will give it a massive boost which, to be fair, for the people of Hull, it deserves.

I hope you have a great week ahead of you as nights close in and as I finish this blog (7.30 pm ish) it's dark outside already and the street lights are on.

Chat soon

Ta-ra.

Incy Wincy Spider's Hideout Discovered!

Not blogged for a week, then two in one day! I've always believed if you ain't got anything to say, don't say it and it has been such a routine time, there's nothing happening that I think would be of any interest. However today, as a measure of how really exciting life is, i thought I'd share with you a couple of things.

My son and I went into Hull to get some film developed for him. He's just bought a 360 degree camera and we went to the Chinese restaurant for lunch while we waited for the first film to be processed. It was a lovely meal, we collected our negatives, bought a new camera bag for me and then went off into the old town of Hull to see if St Mary's church was open.

Sadly, the church was just closing for the day, but this is indeed an old church and within it lies a monument of a certain civic dignitary who lived in hull going back 200 years and ended up as the town Mayor (it was a town in those days). We are going to visit it on Bank Holiday Monday to see the monument and I'll report on the trip and give you some history of this lovely old building and why we're going to see the monument tomorrow.

The old part of the town (which goes back to about 1215 originally) still has narrow streets and cobble stones, old tall buildings and fascinating architecture. The picture above is just one view of Bishop Lane which leads down to the High Street, one of the oldest streets which served business carried out on the river for centuries.

The second bit of excitement was my greenhouse has had a makeover with new shelving! I know how to make the headlines. The greenhouse is a lot tidier now but the tidying process was rather creepy. I was sorting the pots into size and i heard this pitter-patter - i kid you not, and I turned to see a spider the size of a rat run across a plastic bag! It had a saddle on its back! Now I'm not frightened of spiders, I wouldn't invite one for tea you understand, but the sight of this one made me shiver. I eventually found it hiding under a pot and threw it into the flower bed.

Chat soon

Ta-ra

Mothering Sunday and Loo Rolls

Bit of a strange day today; sadly our dog died having become ill overnight, the Vet did the kindest thing and we await her ashes.

Cindy, a Spaniel, was 14 years of age and part of the family, very close to the children and as soft as a brush. She had deteriorated in the last two years or so becoming deaf and increasingly blind, but she was still active.

Years ago, she was one of twin bitches kept together by someone we knew and was being attacked by her twin sister bitch. We took Cindy, the docile one of the two, just a year old, a few months after moving into our present house. She'll be missed.

Mother's day today and both mothers had a visit and we took them some potted plants to brighten their days. My mother is progressing well after having a hip replacement and is walking about even visiting Tescos yesterday with the trolley as support.

I didn't know this until I read it on Wikipedia, but Mothering Sunday has a religious origin going back to neolithic times and as the Romans converted to Christianity, the masses would go to the local cathedral to honour the Virgin Mary and the mother church and the modern revival of the day came about in World War 2 and has been popular ever since, not least by shops!

Here's the thing, although I have no figures for the UK, according to IBISWorld, for Mother's Day, the Americans spend $2.6 billion on flowers, $1.53 billion on pampering items such as spas etc., and $68 million on greetings cards. Phew.

I thought I would give you an update on the toilet roll situation. I've stopped collecting now and put them to good use and here they are...

They are potted up and standing in the greenhouse with sweet pea seeds in them and hopefully in about two weeks time, they'll be poking their little green leaves through. I lost all my Begonia tubers this winter which is a shame, but I got twelve free with some plants I bought - so all is well and they are now in their pots. I've managed two half days in the garden this weekend and I've scared the sun and the neighbours with wearing my shorts - that's got to be some sort of record - mid March, but with virtually no breeze, it's been pleasantly warm.

The compost bin has been mostly emptied, a new border has been created around a fountain we bought last year and the fresh compost has been dug in ready for some red geraniums late spring early summer. I've even given the grass its first cut and (don't tell any gardening professionals) it was a very low cut and managed to get all the remaining straggling leaves, twigs and other rubbish off the grass and it looks very presentable. I promise to raise the blades for cutting for the next few weeks. It really does have some moss in it which is my fault for cutting so low, but I'm thinking of getting someone in to give it a treatment; they come and put stuff on your lawn which can't be bought four times a year. My brother in law next door has it done and it looks great - no moss and wonderfully green.

I didn't get to bed until three-ish this morning after doing a paranormal investigation in an old building in the old part of Hull. It was a very interesting night, although there were very few spirits around, it was a good atmosphere and a good little team of ten thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm going to sift through all the photographs and video footage to see if we captured anything. The beauty of digital cameras and their instant accessibility to pictures allowed one or two of the team to see that they had captured some unexpected and unexplained anomalies on their photographs.

Hope you've had a good weekend, have a great week.

Chat soon

Ta-ra.

Minerva's River Views

The entrance to Humber Dock, looking west at sunset today (29th November) from Minerva Pier in Hull - click the picture to enlarge it.

It's a while since I posted for which I am sorry, anyway hoping you have enjoyed your weekend. It's been so wet and cold here; very wintry minus the snow - we've had everything else! I've been waiting to get in the garden to do a major pruning job, but its been too wet these last few weekends.

The computer has a new home, temporarily anyway in the main living room whilst the other half decorates the room in which the computer normally sits, once called (but not used as) the dining room - the Internet connection is sooooo slow since I had to put an extension line in.

It's a shame, but I've had to watch football on Sky this weekend instead of the gardening - a mucky job, but someone has to do it. It means I can watch TV at the same time as I am writing my blog (OHHH WHAT A GOAL!!) Anyway I can still concentrate - now what was I saying?

I went to see a friend this afternoon who was working today at his hobby of taking results of the local boys football league. He spends Sunday afternoon on his own doing this unenviable task at the league office on Minerva Pier in Hull which overlooks the mighty River Humber. Although the views are magnificent along the river, there were were very few people about today on this bitterly cold afternoon. There were the hardy fishermen hoping to catch a few flatties fishing from the pier, but apart from that, the seagulls were the most predominant of living things on the riverside.

I didn't have my camera with me today, but the mobile phone managed to capture some decent views of the river from Minerva Pier. This one, looking east shows The Deep to the left (a massive aquarium - the outside of which represents a shark) and in the distance, a huge plume of steam rising into the air from the cooling tower east of the city of Hull. Click the picture to enlarge.

Minerva was a Roman Goddess of all sorts of things, but I suspect it's her connection to commerce that gives the Pier in Hull its name. The City and County Borough of Kingston upon Hull (pre 1974), historically is most famously linked to fishing, but in the early years of its existence, it was for import and export of wool and wine it was so well known.

Today's story is topical.

One day three fishermen were out in a boat in the Gulf of Mexico. They hadn't caught a thing all day when suddenly, one of the fishermen's rods started jerking. He grabbed it and started reeling in his line and shouting,"I got something! I got something!"

He had caught a nice fish, about ten inches long. The fishermen were about to revel in his catch when the fish shook the hook out of its mouth and transformed into a being, half man and half fish, sporting a crown and holding a trident.

"Who are you?" said the frightened fisherman who had caught him.

"I AM NEPTUNE, GOD OF THE SEA, AND I AM GOING TO PUT A CURSE ON YOU LOWLY MORTALS! BEFORE YOU LEAVE HERE TODAY YOUR BOAT WILL SPRING A DOZEN LEAKS! ...NO, MAKE THAT A DOZEN AND A HALF!"

And with that, he dived back into the waters. As soon as he was gone, the fishermen's boat had sprung so many leaks they were forced to swim to shore.

To this day, they never forgot Neptune's eighteen-hole Gulf curse.

Chat soon

Ta-ra.

Freedom

The weekend is well underway and what a fabulous day for weather on Saturday, good stuff, got a lot done outside and feel much better for the sun shining and the warmth. Not so warm today, the cloud has returned with a cooling breeze.

I got a call from my brother in law last night to go out and take some night shots (photographs!) again and this time, he wanted to take pictures of the fireworks display marking the Freedom Celebrations in Hull this year that have been coupled with the round the world clipper race. We decided to go around the River Humber to the south bank (Goxhill) so we could get an uninterrupted view of Hull which was gridlocked with hundreds of thousands of people.

The river was calm although the breeze was up and when we arrived, there was only five people there. By the time of the fireworks starting at 10.15 pm there were many dozens in this very isolated spot. For those of you who don't know, Hull is on the north bank of the Humber and we went to the south bank and the river at this point is about two miles wide, give or take a few bob.

What a spectacle we were treated to - it was brilliant. To all the detractors who belong to the 'Whingeing, Whining, Miserable, Complaining and Bigoted club', who write negative comments on news stories published on the Hull Daily Mail website - I say to them - 'Get a life!'

£28,000 for fireworks to entertain hundred thousand people at the events and hundreds of thousands more like me who watched from afar, it was worth ever penny, in fact per head only a few pence for 15 minutes of glorious technicolour pyrotechnics. With all the other events, like free music in Queens Gardens including one of my favourite bands, Florence and the Machine, Hull has done its citizens proud in remembering the exceptional work done by William Wilberforce.
On a technical note, the camera used was a Canon 40D camera with a Tamron 70-300 lens on various time exposures on a 'bulb' setting and all mounted on a tripod.

Chat soon

Ta-ra!

Come up and see us sometime...

I've had a great weekend so far; very busy both in the garden and in the house doing just bits and pieces but achieving a great deal. As Saturday and Sunday has been so productive, and my wife is decorating my son's bedroom on Bank Holiday Monday, I thought I'd just nip onto Google and check 'things to do on a Bank Holiday.' It just took 0.23 seconds to come up with 119,000,000 (one hundred and nineteen million) hits. See the screen grab to prove it.
So, as it's an impossible task, (at an average of 30 seconds scanning the average site to decide whether it's the sort of information you require) it would take me over 113 years without sleep to scan all of them by which time I will no doubt be passed bloody caring what to do on a Bank Holiday weekend. So thanks Google for not helping a great deal. I've read a news article today (and for the life of me I can't find it now) that says there is a new rival to challenge Google who will make searching more relevant to what the searcher wants. It says it will revolutionise searching - hooray, hours of searching saved.

I've decided to go and see my parents and take my son who's learning to drive with me - just going to have a leisurely day. Where I live, in East Yorkshire there's plenty to do generally. We are within easy driving distance of the coast and three towns of Bridlington, Hornsea and Withernsea and if you like it a bit wilder, Spurn Point is isolated but splendid for coastal walks, bird watching and bracing air but dress up because except for high summer, it can be chilly with sea breezes. If the sea is not your gaff, the countryside is beautiful. It's not mountainous or anything, but green, lush and pretty and plenty of it. The iconic Humber Bridge is good to stop off and see and it has some great vistas.

The Humber Bridge south bank tower (click to enlarge)

For non-seaside places, Hull can be a bit disappointing for things to do with a few exceptions. The best attraction is The Deep with its sea life aquariums, that's good for half a day. There are some museums, Wilberforce and the Street Life museums are good and interesting and some of the architecture around the city centre is okay. If you're into ice skating it has an arena as well as a climbing centre. Other than that - it's just like any other city with its 'same-old, same-old' production line standard food outlets, cinemas, City Hall, theatre, bowling alleys and shops, providing of course the recession hasn't hit you in the pocket and you can afford to do these things. Hull is simply in need of regeneration - full stop.

The Deep, looking like a shark peeking through the concrete, (click for larger picture)

Beverley, an ancient market town is cool and great to walk round with nice shopping areas and weekly merkets, plenty to see and you'll have read my blogs about the Minster. Driffield is a lovely wolds country town and good to walk round. Indeed either round Hull or anywhere else, the best plan is to walk. The East Riding of Yorkshire Council has lots of planned walks, long, medium and short, details of which can be obtained and in Hull there is a city centre 'fish trail.' In Pocklington, there are the magnificent Burnby Hall Gardens with extensive lakes, manicured gardens and one of the biggest collections of water lillies in the UK I understand.

Burnby Hall Gardens (click to enlarge although this may be a little pixilated - it was a large file)

So there we have it for now - only a snapshot of the East Riding of Yorkshire, if you're ever thinking of visiting the area, let me know and I'll give you some tips.

Finally, there may be worse off places to visit: "It's a ghastly place. Huge gangs of tough sinewy men roam the valleys terrorising people with their close harmony singing. You need half a bucket of phlegm in your throat to pronounce the placenames. Never ask for directions in Wales Baldrick, you'll be washing spit out of your hair for a fortnight."
Rowan Atkinson on Wales, Blackadder.

Chat soon

Ta-ra!

The Great Escape

Happy Easter!

After two solid days in the garden making it clean and ready for the late Spring I sat down and for the 47th time watched The Great Escape on Virgin 1 on Sky. A whole Sunday evening devoted to a film I've seen so many times I remember some of the script lines - "Next time you escape Squadron Leader Bartlett, you will not be so lucky, " said in a dangerous and threatening German accent. It must have been hell sitting on uncomfortable cinema seats watching that when it first came out - the seats are so much more comfortable and luxurious now with tons of leg room and a holder for the Diet Coke.

My mother and grandmother took me to the pictures regularly when I was a kid in Hull and there were a number we went to. However the trip to the pictures, often during the day always stared with a fish and chip supper at Gainsboroughs 'restaurant' - an elaborate cafe really, in Carr Lane with plastic chequered table cloths and delicious bread and butter to go with the best fish and chips around. I cried at Bambi, one of my first ever films and have never watched it since. Lassie always got shot or injured during her missions and was always so sad and I've never seen one of those again either.

"If your wife and your lawyer were drowning and you had to choose, would you go to lunch or to the cinema?"
Anon.

The most popular one in the city centre was the ABC or otherwise known as the Regal where there were live acts as well such as the Rolling Stones (watch it on YouTube courtesy of British Pathe news) and the Beatles. I saw Morecambe and Wise there. This was the cinema that we paid 9d (in old money) the equivalent today of 4 pence for the Saturday morning matinee which was usually a Children's Film Foundation film, Pearl and Dean advertising, Pathe News and a cartoon.

The Cecil cinema just down the road from the ABC was the bee's knees with an organ that used to arise majestically through the floor playing the popular songs of the day. The decor was very art nouveau as you climbed the wide long red carpeted stairs to the theatre. The other two I remember was the Tower cinema, a flea pit, narrow, small and too intimate unless that's what you went for! I'm told they had unisex toilets there but I don't remember those and a cinema across the road of the same ilk.

Historically there were dozens of cinemas in Hull pre-war and tales from my late grandfather, a 'Hessle Road-er' told of paying for entry with jam jars and jam jar lids and other re-usables during the war. He recounted that if they were quick enough, someone who paid to get in would open the emergency exits for dozens of kids to rush in before the over zealous usherettes grabbed you sneaking in, took you by the collar and hoofed you out the way you came in.

There was a gap for many years when I never visited the cinema, probably in the late seventies, through the eighties and nineties unless for a very exceptional trip. Money and time, or lack of, (working shifts) made it harder and then bringing up kids changed it really. We started to take them to see the kids films and my love with the cinema (the pictures) took off again and I have not turned my back on it yet.

My top ten films (but not necessarily in order):

• The Shawshank Redemption;
• Goodfellas;
• Any Harry Potter film - HP and the Order of the Phoenix was the best;
• Lord of the Rings - the Two Towers and Return of the King;
• The Great Escape;
• Star Wars (original - 1977);
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade;
• The Departed;
• Some Like it Hot;
• Life of Brian.

Enjoy what remains of the holidays!

Chat soon

Ta-ra