The above picture is something and nothing, but I see the image as a representation of the old Hall disappearing into the ether, which is represented by the clouds in the sky! Which seems to have sucked the Hall from the landscape, of course this view was obscured for centuries, my photograph is taken from the location of the old kitchen, looking across where the central section stood after the 1730’s! The picture is sized A3+ [330mm x 483mm].
The old MG has to go, I have spent a fortune on the thing since 1986 when I bought it, I had a complete body rebuild done in 1989, at a cost of over £5,000, and after using it for years as a play car, I started to use it daily after returning from the Far East in 1993.
This coming Friday, 28th May, I will be setting up a new exhibit at Crossgates Heritage Centre of my Parlington artefacts, for the East Leeds History and Archaeology Society. The picture below is a view of the Centre at Crossgates Library, and I presume, my items will be placed in one of the glass cabinets. Whilst this is somewhat smaller than the four cabinets on display at Lotherton Hall, I’m sure I can put enough into it to make it a worthwhile exhibit.
Downsizing means I have no use for such a large lawnmower, hence the sale of my MTD Lawnflite 603, bought new from a local dealer in 2005, the equipment is in excellent condition and comprises the motor unit with a cutting deck and fan assisted grass clippings removal. Demountable rear grass collector or external chute, to leave clippings on the ground. Tight turning circle, 30″ cut; Regularly serviced; 12.5 HP Briggs & Stratton electric start engine; 5 litre fuel tank; Front head lights; 5 level cutting deck; 5 speed shift-on-the-go transmission forward and reverse.
Having not written any articles recently, I felt I should add a short note about my exhibition of Parlington artefacts that have been on display at Lotherton Hall these last six months and more. Today the items have been taken down and packed into boxes, to return to Parlington, so ends my first mini-exhibition, which by all accounts was well received. Perhaps the best item on display was the collection of stereo photo cards from the 1860’s and the “Brewster” mahogany stereo viewer (shown above). I think it reasonable to believe that the photographs were taken by one of Gascoigne family, or a close friend and found their way via the then butler John Shelton to his descendants and finally back to Parlington! The details of the extrordinary discovery is recounted on the Parlington history site here.
The intro photo was taken on Christmas day by my eldest daughter, Pip, she thought it worth capturing the moment! I have cooked the Christmas turkey on a Weber BBQ since the late 80’s. The BBQ in the image is the fifth I have owned, and with the ash collection system beneath the kettle, is, I can testify, the best yet! Behind and almost obscured is an earlier model, which had just completed cooking a duck to accompany the turkey.
This may seem an odd post title, but during my visit to London last weekend, whilst on route to the V & A Museum in South Kensington, I noticed a sign in the tube network which gave dates of various luminaries from the past and their birth places. There was the name of Howard Carter [1874-1939] the Egyptologist, famous for discovering the tomb of Tutankhamun on the 26th of November 1922. His birthplace was stated as Swaffham, and having visited the place recently, I was unaware of this fact. [This link is to an earlier post about a visit to Swaffham] This reminded me of my own mini discovery a couple of years ago whilst cutting the grass, my foot slipped down a rabbit hole and I grated my ankle on a hard object which turned out to be the remains of a brick wall.
The talk that I give to Historical Societies and other interested groups is built with Apple Keynote, a great program for presentations, people often ask if I can let them know what software the talk is created with, sadly for most, using PC’s I have to explain that there is no version that runs on their computers. The responses I get, about what they think of PowerPoint, is amusing!
Following the talk I gave at Lotherton, Adam White the Curator kindly sent a couple of photographs of the event. Whilst it wasn’t a huge gathering, the room was full, so it would have been a struggle to accommodate any more people!
The weather was too good to miss the opportunity after work, so I continued some excavations around the location of the fountain, the centre piece of the lawn in the nineteenth century. Of course I had to find the location first, but recent geophys scans gave some insights so off I went!