Tunes in Dent

I was under the impression we were off to darkest Yorkshire for a weekend of tunes. The direction seemed about right - down the M6 for a bit, turn left and drive for half an hour down winding roads. But for all Dent is in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, I never left Cumbria. What does it matter where it is, it's a lovely little village. Thank goodness the George and Dragon had a car park because what you see below is the main street.

Our home for the weekend, the George and Dragon.

In exchange for a couple of evenings of music, which seemed to go down very well, we were offered rather attractive rates and the landlord fed us on the Saturday night.

Must say the George and Dragon's food is very good and the trio of Cumberland sausage (who'd have thought you'd find three quite different Cumberland sausages) was no exception. It was though very large and I certainly couldn't eat it all, nor did I see anyone else succeed in finishing it in the time I was there.

I went for a bit of a wander through the village on Saturday morning. This is the local parish church of St Andrew's.

Any excuse to pop a bit of stained glass in the blog. As far as I could see most of the glass here was early 20th century.

Across the road from the pub, where the road divides and is at it's widest, is this memorial to the 19th century geologist, Adam Sedgwick, who was born in the village in 1785. I imagine that Sedgwick is a local name because from 1768 to 1885 all the ministers in the local church were also called Sedgwick.

The villages Methodist church is a much more modest affair.

 It was supposed to be the weekend of the Dent show but it had been raining and the showground was in poor condition so it was cancelled. This poor wee Martin or swift seems less than impressed too.

The one event that did take place was the dry stone dyking  competition (photographed form the road to save me a traipse across a soggy field.) One local told us that they were needing a new wall anyway and it seemed a good way to get it.

In a demonstration of drinking infidelity, we popped into the Sun Inn for a small visit (actually, we popped in for a beer if the truth be told.)

A fine pint (it's really a half pint) of Radical in the Sun Inn.

The George and Dragon is the pub for the local brewery, appropriately named The Dent Brewery . Described by the website as nestling in the hills, I think dug into the hillside and seriously camouflaged is more like it. Even with directions from a local, we couldn't find it when we set out to persuade them to let us have a look around. We did find a large chicken farm but it's really not the same. Perhaps it's there ability to remain hidden that gives them the time to brew some excellent beer. This, T'owd Tup, was my favorite.

Being a bit of a lightweight, I would have fallen over if I had had a pint of every beer on tap, especially as you might have noticed that the T'owd Tup rings in at 6%. The worryingly named Kamikaze isn't exactly alcohol free at 5% either. The pub though, for the price of a pint will sell you three thirds of a pint so you can try more varieties, served up in a bat with holes to help you carry them. Great idea and it feels like you're getting more than a pint.

Honourable mentions must go to the Meadowside cafe in Dent, where we played for a couple of hours on Saturday afternoon. It was full when we went in and empty when we left and still they provided us with drinks (a nice cup of tea in my case) and chips.

The Prestonpans Tapestry

In March, 2009 Dr Gordon Prestoungrange, founding chairman of the Battle of Prestonpans Heritage Trust, visited the Bayeux Tapestry and was struck that this was something that could be done back home for the trust. They enlisted a local artist Andrew Crummy to design the panels, as well as seeking historical and architectural advice from experts. Originally 79 panels we planned, but as the number of volunteer stitches grew to around 200 and other suggestions for scenes were made, the number of panels grew to 104. It seems remarkable that, 10 million stitches later and 25000 hours of work, the Tapestry was finished only the following year in June 2010 and unveiled at Cockenzie Power Station Near to the site of the battle.

The tapestry, which is actually an embroidery in reality, has been on tour around the country and we saw it when it was displayed in St Mary's Cathedral during the festival. It covers the 1745 Jacobite uprising up to and including the Battle of Prestonpans. Here is a selection of my photos of it.

Although each embroiderer or group of embroiderers had to complete the panels according to the instructions, in a little square in the bottom right hand corner, they were free to embroider something, of their own design, which would act as a signature.

 

The Tapestry website can be found here

More Festival Madness

The festival in Edinburgh is over and most of the colourful and frankly mad people have packed up their suitcases and gone home. Perhaps some have gone to cause chaos in some other city but most have probably climbed back into their civvies and returned to the nine to five or are now sharpening their pencils in preparation for a return to another year of textbooks and learning in the countries fine institutes of further education.

With the number of superheros that abound, I should wonder that any crime happens during the festival.

He's a one man band, nobody knows or understands. 

The chap in the middle of the road is a member of the Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club. We were nattering to some of his mates that we had seen the previous afternoon in a rather funny version of As You Like It. They had a second show on at the fringe called Interruption, which we didn't take much persuasion to go and see. It was a powerful, well written and acted, short play, which ended without a curtain call. Not a peep was to be heard from the audience as it filed out. I'd be very surprised if we don't see some of these people on our screens before too long.

 "Tempest sir?"  I didn't go to The Tempest but I thought I had better take the leaflet.

Nor did we feel the need for a further dose of tunes from the lads and lassies of Lancaster University.

We stopped for a while and watched Tom Ward playing a few tunes on his guitar. His guitar was made by his Dad, Ian - maybe it's been cleverly designed to look stressed or perhaps Tom just gives it a hard time on the road. Either way he manages to get some great sounds out of his beat up old instrument - have a listen here and here.

 

Lying down on the job seems quite a popular way to attract attention.

This fellow taped to a pillar by his own show posters amused us - not enough to go and see his show though.

 We found the people of Zambezi Express drumming up a bit of custom on the corner of Princes Street. We had been to see them only a few hours earlier, they were great. Here's the trailer for their show on Youtube.

Honourably mentions must also go to New Zealand comic, Andre King, who we met in the street and who also nattered to us for a while after his show - nice guy and funny too, which is handy when you tell jokes for a living.

After all that, it was rather nice to find the White Hart none too busy. Macaroni cheese and Belhaven Black :)

STOP PRESS

This picture just in. Seems another mad person has been spotted on a bollard during the festival.

See the heights I go to to get pictures for you (about 2 feet max)