Alex's Historical Fiction

Last couple of days ...

The dp's off work this week, so we've been going on jaunts. On Wednesday we went to Malton, to visit the excellent, if small, museum there. It's got a great, well displayed Roman collection, with plenty to admire.

Yesterday, we went to Pickering by bus, then got on to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. Then spent the rest of the day travelling on the steam engines and getting off the various stops, including Goathland and Grosmont. Found out about further details of the Railway's Wartime Weekend in October. I know it gets very crowded on the railways during these weekends (it was busy enough yesterday!), but I may well at least go to Pickering and get some good photos with the possibility of using them in the article that Diane pointed out I might be able to sell!

After the railway, we returned to Pickering just in time to whizz round the Beck Isle Museum. There I found some chaff cutting machines, which one of my ancestors would have used - on my paternal grandmother's certificate it says her father was a 'chaff-cutter' I don't know what the chaff was used for (feeding cattle?) but I know what a chaff cutting machine looks like now!

It was now about 5pm, and our attempts to find somewhere to have a meal seemed to be failing. In Pickering, the cafe bars were just shutting (!). But we disovered the Concorde Cafe, and had a good meal there before proceeding to catch the bus back to York.

Anyway pics to follow!

posted by Alex Bordessa @ Friday, September 23, 2005