WOO HOO! a year on Flickr.
Actually it’s been amazing, I’ve met some really great people in Sheffield, talked with many others all over the world, got to know my neighbour and I think (hope) improved my photography. The picture is a composite of all the people who are my contacts on Flickr.
Bummer! It’s the last episode of the fantastic tv programme ‘House’ tonight and I seem to have lost Channel 5 on my television.
I only watch two programmes and both are on Ch5 – CSI and House – what a bummer!
Anyway, hopefully Mum will get someone to record it for me, looks like it will be a good episode as House will get shot.
Oh well, as the Guardian tv guide puts it “Cheerio for now, Dr H. Come back soon, you sexy, limping, stubbly love god.”
The picture above comes from the Fox Television website – here
– from Merrony’s Moll – (?)
This is the Church of England Chapel at the General Cemetery in Sheffield. A fantastic building which unfortunately has been derelict for many years.
I have just been told that there is a planning application to turn this building into six flats, and fence off a large amount of the surrounding churchyard and footpaths as parking and garden.
We will have to wait and see what the council decide but I don’t hold out much hope – they only seem to care about money and what developers want. The loss of the historic buildings in the city is amazing, and what do we get in their place – lifestyle apartments, hundreds of them.
Visit the Friends of the General Cemetery website for more (the photo above comes from their website).
For those of you who don’t know, I’ve just had a couple of days in the Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield, much of which was spent connected to my friend shown here -
– from Merrony’s Moll – (?)
He’s a drip, which was used for saline (as for much of the time I was nil by mouth), Paracetamol and antibiotics.
I went in after spending a couple of days with really bad stomach pains, which they thought were appendicitis. Anyway, after a day and night of no food or drink they then decided that it wasn’t my appendix, but probably a burst cyst on one of my ovaries.
Good I guess because it means no operation (for now) and that I could have some food -
– from Merrony’s Moll – (?)
I know what they say about hospital food but I have to say it was very nice (or perhaps that’s because I was so hungry!).
Anyway, I’m back home now, despite still having the pains (although not as bad as before). I have an appointment with the gynaecology department – joy!
One thing I can certainly say for the hospital was that the view of the city is great -
– from Merrony’s Moll – (?)
Oh yes! and the nurses were great (best not to mention the arrogant surgeon!)
Well, after saying I wouldn’t visit Rosslyn whilst all the hype of the book and film (The Da Vinci Code) was still going on – but I was passing.
The car park (newly extended) was rammed with cars and coaches, and there were so many people (it was mid morning on a week day).
£7 to get in, and who can blame them! The carvings are totally amazing and worth the visit, the amount of people there was ridiculous.
Well worth visit – but might be an idea to wait a while!?
Click on the link under the photo to go to my photo stream and see some of the photos I took.
It seems that one of the volunteers on the Bolsterstone dig wanted to see his name in the papers – he got his wish.
Unknown to the Village Committee or the directors of the dig this guy invited a national newspaper reporter and photographer on site and then spun them a line about the building remains that they had found being part of ‘Robin Hood’s house’!!
Heavens knows where the idiot got the idea from, there is no dating evidence on site, nothing what-so-ever to do with Robin Hood (who is anyway a mythic amalgam of lots of different characters) and absolutely nothing to base his idea on except perhaps his imagination.
Well, it certainly caught the imagination of the press with the University (who were mentioned) having to field enquiries from Swedish, Canadian, German and Nottingham (not surprisingly) press.
What is most amazing is that the Sunday Express, Daily Mirror, The Sun and The Metro all ran the story with without checking a single fact or even contacting the university!
Makes you wonder just how rigourously they check their stories!!
After doing a google search on ‘Bolsterstone Robin Hood’ I’ve discovered that the story is everywhere on the net – I know I should have known but I still find it amazing that such rubbish can spread so quickly!
It’s obviously funny, but potentially damaging for the image of archaeology.
Things had moved around in the boot of the car!
Typical it had just started raining too.
I’ll get sorted soon and on my way up to Durham tonight.
– from Merrony’s Moll – (?)
This is Buzz and he’s a naughty man!
Buzz keeps me sane, I work with him, but if he carries on the way he is going he’ll be in the funny farm before me!
Today he admitted that we has just logged a week of over 80 hours!! The system has heart failure if you go over 40 hrs!
Anyway, I guess that he knows his limitations, I just worry that he’s doing too much – but then he says the same to me!
– from Merrony’s Moll – (?)
Fred’s dig has been in the local paper (The Star), thankfully I don’t think there was a photo.
Unearthing the mystery of ‘lost castle’ location – The Star 10/06/06
SECRETS of a lost South Yorkshire castle are set to be uncovered this summer thanks to a project launched by a village community group.
Clues that Bolsterstone, to the north of Sheffield, once had a castle can be found all over the village.
The local pub is, after all, called The Castle while several nearby houses have related names such as Castle View.
Reference books, meanwhile, have logged the remains of a gatehouse and 16th century stone cottages which may have been built from remnants of an earlier structure.
But the exact location, size and age of Bolsterstone Castle seemed destined to remain a mystery.
Now, with the help of a £20,000 Lottery grant, members of the Bolsterstone Community Group are beginning to unearth the truth.
University of Sheffield archaeologists were commissioned to carry out a preliminary week-long survey of the most likely site in the heart of the village – and the results are already promising.
“The castle has been something of a myth in the area because there was very little hard evidence for its existence,” explained university field officer Colin Merrony.
“There are buildings which are believed to have been built with stone taken from the ruins, but little more than that.
“Our survey has certainly found something – if it isn’t the castle, then we don’t know what it is,” Colin said.
Project co-ordinator Wendy Goodchild, a member of the community group, said the archaeologists seemed enthusiastic about their findings.
“They are certainly hopeful – they were walking round with grins like the Cheshire Cat,” she said.
“We know Bolsterstone had a manor house owned by a family called the Talbots, but its history may be earlier, to times when it was a fortified structure. We didn’t expect to find anything beyond that,” Wendy said.
“There are stories that the manor was linked to the Earl of Shrewsbury, who was the jailer of Mary, Queen of Scots.”
But the university survey has found much more.
The soundings have identified an extensive buried stone wall with a ditch around it in a triangular design – typical hallmarks of a medieval castle.
“The remains aren’t very deep but they do stretch 80 metres across, so a full dig would be a big undertaking,” Colin said.
“We don’t think the castle collapsed – it seems more likely it was dismantled when it fell out of use and the stone was then used elsewhere. We are now left with the foundations.
“The castle may be 15th century but it could have earlier origins, perhaps the late Norman era of the 12th century.”
Colin believes the lack of any documentary evidence could be due to the fact the area was owned by the powerful families who controlled Sheffield – and to them Bolsterstone was just an outpost.
Now plans are being drawn up for a full dig, to begin probably in late May or early June.
“We want to train up local people to help the experts as volunteers,” Wendy explained.
“The dig if done completely could take 10 weeks, but we are more likely to commission two. It could be done in stages though so as not to disrupt the life of the village.
“But we need more funding for this to go ahead, so we are looking at how to obtain further grants. We just hope the whole story will capture people’s imagination,” Wendy added.
TESCO are at it again!
Thursday, 29 June, 2006It seems incredible that Tesco have managed to get a North Norfolk council to sign an agreement which means that the council will not be able to sell council land to any other supermarket chain!
The Guardian has reported on this Secret deals with Tesco cast shadow over town and local residents are campaigning against, see the links from the Tescopoly website.
It seems that Tesco’s cannot now be prevented from openning a store here, despite the fact that planning permission was originally turned down, so another town will die, businesses will close, people will lose jobs and customer choice will disappear.
We are soon to live in a world where nothing can be bought anywhere but in a supermarket, and probably a Tesco.
If you want to get really angry about it all you could read Shopped by Joanna Blythman (0007158041).
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