Trips & Adventures – 1 August 2019

Whilst waiting for the group to gather at Victoria train station I was approached by a stranger who recognised me from the internet – “Changing the Record on Growing Older in Greater Manchester” – I was amazed by the power of social media!

Anyway, five of us met and left Manchester with its heavy downpours of rain and travelled to Leeds where we found not only dry weather, but also warm sunshine.

We knew the Royal Armouries were on the outskirts of the city near the Leeds Dock area on the bank of the river Aire, but we were unsure which bus to catch. We decided to get a taxi and arrived just in time for lunch. We sampled various dishes – crispy fish and chips, Caesar salad and soup – and three of us washed this down with a bottle of Punk IPA, a fruity beer favoured by revolutionaries!

The Royal Armouries is the UK’s oldest museum, originally housed in the Tower of London from the 15^th century. But today the collection of arms and armour is split across three sites in Leeds, London and Portsmouth.

The building in Leeds opened in 1996 and is very impressive, built on five floors with wide open spaces.

In addition to the five original galleries which house 5,000 objects in the permanent displays and the more recent Peace Gallery, the museum also includes the Hall of Steel, a giant staircase whose walls are decorated with trophy displays composed of 2,500 objects reminiscent of the historical trophy displays erected by the Tower Armouries from the 17th century. This was spectacular and the number of brilliant photos indicate the stunning displays throughout the museum.

Wandering round the building were various cowboys, centurions and gladiators ready to demonstrate their skills in battle.

We wandered over to the waterfront and by chance saw that there was a water taxi from the Royal Armouries back to the train station down the Leeds & Liverpool Canal. The journey was approximately twelve minutes and cost only £1.00 per person. Imagine our surprise when the water taxi turned up sporting a rainbow flag. It was a fantastic way to finish our visit to Leeds giving us a different view of the city.

To find out more about our next outings click here

Trips & Adventures – 25 July 2019

Clayton Hall (the building) is a hidden gem. If you take the tram from Piccadilly Gardens heading towards Ashton, not far past the Etihad Stadium (Manchester City’s football ground), you will come to Clayton Hall (the tram stop).

Clayton Hall is a 15th-century manor house on Ashton New Road, in Clayton, Manchester, just two minutes away from the tram stop. It is hidden behind trees in a small park. You cannot miss it unless you blink at the wrong time.

The hall is a Grade II listed building, the mound on which it is built is a scheduled ancient monument, and a rare example of a medieval moated site.

We arrived about 12.00 noon and were ushered into the oak-beamed dining area. Although it was the hottest day of the year so far, we were greeted by a lovely log fire. We had pre-ordered food for ten people so fortunately our party was made up of exactly ten people.

We had a leisurely meal – the home made soup was delicious – and we filled up with sandwiches, cake, teas and coffees.

We split into two groups and toured round the various rooms. We were encouraged (and to be truthful, we don’t need much encouragement) to touch items, to open drawers and to try on items of clothing. In the washroom Ken tried on some bloomers and gave us a lesson in ironing. He also got us singing “Doing the Lambeth Walk” and “All The Nice Girls Love a Sailor” while we tried on various hats and waved our canes.

John was delighted to find a book about Belle Vue – “Showground of the World” remembering and celebrating the fun and heady days of Belle Vue Zoological Gardens.

The staff are all volunteers and they seemed to enjoy it as much as we did. After viewing rooms upstairs we were given a power point presentation about the history of the building which was fascinating.

We ended up with cold drinks, ices and a walk around the gardens before heading back to the city centre.

There are more photos here

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Trips & Adventures – 18 July 2019

The steam train from Bury Bolton Street station takes you to Rawtenstall via Burrs Country Park, Summerseat, Ramsbottom and Irwell Vale. The East Lancashire Railway is a 12.5 mile heritage railway line and has been run by volunteers since July 1987. Passenger services between Bury and Rawtenstall were withdrawn by British Rail on 3 June 1972.

On the way we met a friend – Jean Friend – from Oldham’s LGBT group, Out & About. She was enjoying a day out, and it was great to see her.

We previously made the journey during Bury Pride when the train was renamed “The Rainbow Train”, but we wanted to have a longer visit to the town of Rawtenstall.

On the way to the station we noticed the statue commemorating Victoria Wood:

Victoria Wood, CBE was an English comedienne, actress, singer and songwriter, screenwriter, producer and director. Wood wrote and starred in dozens of sketches, plays, musicals, films and sitcoms over several decades, and her live comedy act was interspersed with her own compositions, which she performed on the piano. She was born in Prestwich in 1953, but sadly died in 2016.

“Thomas” also found time to have a ride on “Thomas the Tank Engine”.

Once in Rawtenstall we looked for somewhere to eat and found a lovely cafe which served delicious food. The afters included home made fruit crumble and custard or sticky toffee pudding with custard!

It was a lovely day out – the sun shone and we discovered Mr Fitzpatrick’s – Britain’s Last Original Temperance Bar selling vintage drinks for modern tastes. The highlight, however, was discovering the building dated 1912 (now a carpet and rug emporium) which used to be a cinema which still featured a proscenium arch. Amazing!

For more photos please click here

For more photos of the Pride in Ageing launch click here

To find out more about our next outings click here

 

 

 

Pauline has written a fantastic review of Ian McKellen’s recent one-man show at 80, which shows there is no age limit to success. See here.

Pauline was treading the boards herself on Sunday, 30 June for 100 Trans Voices with Transcreative UK at the Royal Exchange Theatre. We are very proud of you, Pauline!

We’ve been busy attending Manchester International Festival events: Invisible Cities, The Anvil and Tree, and we are enormously grateful to the organisers for supplying tickets to Out In The City. Two of our members were also involved in Street Poem.

We are also involved in the Pride in Ageing – attending the launch and contributing to the Advisory Group and Steering Committee.

Finally, we are involved with the Talking About My Generation project. We started recording our first ever podcast! Thanks to Age UK Salford for hosting our session.

Trips & Adventures – 4 July 2019

We set off from Piccadilly Bus Station at 12.00 noon and arrived at the Turing Tap in the university area within twenty minutes or so. The pub was named after Alan Turing and features some photos of him, but oddly also had some old style telephones attached to the wall. Most of us had some food, which was very tasty, but Peter’s fish was so huge we thought he had been served with Moby Dick!

The Whitworth Art Gallery is only a block away and is set in Whitworth Park. Unusually, the gallery does not feature permanent exhibits, as the collection is too big (about 55,000 items) but changes displays every few months

There was a tour scheduled for 2.00pm and we met with our guide Jason, in the rear extension, which was only opened four years ago. He started with a history of the building which was previously owned by wealthy tradesmen who had made their fortunes in the cotton industry.

He explained that in recent years the Art Gallery had made a feature of the outside garden and park areas linking the building to the park and so we stepped outside to admire the sculptures. We walked around the building, whilst Jason gave us a very interesting and informative talk. He was also very attentive to our needs taking a route with few steps and finding us places to sit down.

A statue of King Edward VII commemorates the royal visit when the Royal Infirmary (just over the road) was opened in 1909. Jason told us that the bronze statue is often decorated with a traffic cone by university freshers each year. I wondered if one of those freshers was called “Jason”?

The garden has Japanese blossom, mint plants and linden trees and attracts green parakeets as well as migrating birds.

The gallery is free to enter and also has free Sunday concerts – it prides itself on being a “Gathering of Strangers”. However, in 2003, three paintings — Van Gogh’s The Fortification of Paris with Houses, Picasso’s Poverty and Gauguin’s Tahitian Landscape – were stolen from the gallery. They were later found rolled up in a nearby public toilet and were subsequently put back on display.

In our usual practice we made our way to the café for a much needed tea or coffee.