Enjoying retirement
In The Red Rose County
Dinner, Bed and Breakfast from an on-line offer at the 5 Star Lowry Hotel in Manchester seemed too good to miss. and our room overlooking the river exceeded expectations.... it had a typically Manchester urban view over a Calatrava bridge. with impressive view both ways.... And here I must apologise to the City of Salford because the hotel side of the bridge is indeed Salford, Manchester's poorer sister. I note that the Lowry always referred to Manchester....something it should really change. There's no shame in being in Salford! Anyhow, having dropped our bags we walked through Manchester, past the usual variety of styles and ages of buildings which is such a feature of my favourite city and ended up at our destination of the Bridgewater Hall to buy some concert tickets. Here again the ultra modern Bridgewater stands in contrast to one of Mnachester's old mills turned, as is often the case, into some smart flats. Some city-centre buildings are just grand - here the Midland Hotel. and some stand teeny weeny but proud as with the Rising Sun which seems to be in the wrong company. Talking of pubs Manchester has many excellent ones of course. The Old Nag's Head has amazing decor. Christmas hadn't quite arrived, but very nearly. Since we were staying in Salford we thought we would like to give Salford a chance and went to the Museum and Art Gallery standing on an eminence over the very fine Peel Park. Opened in August 1846, Peel Park was one of the first public parks to be opened in the country "for the enjoyment and recreation of the public... without charge or restriction." It is named in honour of Sir Robert Peel, the former Prime Minister. After a good and very reasonably priced lunch in their cafe which was very popular with students from the adjoining University, and others, we visited first the Lark Hill Place Victorian street where it is apparently always tea-time on a winter’s evening, when the street gas lights have just been lit. This was certainly the equal of the similar attraction in York, and one of the very friendly employees pointed out quite a few things to us which we would otherwise have missed. The Langworthy Gallery was next. Here you follow the alphabet through Salford’s collections as you journey from aeroplane to zither. Under each letter you never knew what you were going to find next - from paintings and decorative art to costume and social history. Talking to one of the assistant curators he implied that the whole idea of the gallery, which we by the way thought was terrific, was a mere pet project of the Curator. We enjoyed the interesting juxtapositions. Under 'S' the almost floor to ceiling painting of the sailor was stupendous... and the unusual not to say unique Steam Hammer Clock was intriguing. Who knows what it might do on the hour?! There were modern toilets elsewhere.......... There was a conventional art display as well with some excellent local paintings... This particular painting (below) was of Manchester seen from Peel Park, Salford in the Seventies when I lived there. How things have changed in one or two generations. But this is how I remember it. The River Irwell which now flows past the Lowry and where we saw a cormorant and where amazingly an otter has recently been spotted, was in the Seventies indescribably filthy........absolutely jet black and almost solid with wastes, many of them chemical. I suppose it wasn't all bad. I remember one particular fishing spot on the Bridgewater canal near Trafford Park which had a warm water outlet from, I think, Kellog's and believe it or not tropical fish thrived there and were regularly caught. It goes without saying that the Art Gallery has some Lowrys (the painter not the hotel). This one painted from the terrace outside the Gallery. Lowry was at art school here. Something we were not very familiar with (only having seen the odd piece on 'Flog It' etc) was the work of the Pilkington Pottery. The Pilkington’s collections are significant because of their size and the range of material spanning almost the factory’s entire history from 1889 to 2008. The collections are material evidence of one of the most successful and longest surviving of the British art potteries founded in the late Victorian period. The Pilkington’s factory was based in Clifton, Salford and the business was only liquidated in 2010. What a crying shame. Its products were brilliant, and a lot would now certainly be in fashion. Must surely have been mismanaged.............worth some further research. These particular tiles (below) were rescued at the last minute from the demolition of a butcher's shop. The tale is told below. The potter's wheel shown at an exhibition is on show in the museum. There were also a number of exhibitions featuring local artists. Here the theme was Salford buildings past and present made into bird boxes...... ..and here articles found in Salford parks and impressed into florists foam....some interesting guesswork needed. One of the main galleries is the Victorian Gallery arranged in the busy way quite normal for the Victorians (and sometimes the Summer Exhibition at the RA). But the gallery had been taken over by a party of school children who were doing some imaginative work so we didn't linger. But I was fascinated to see the statue entitled 'Genius of Lancashire'. I'd like one. Salford Museum got 10 out of 10 for me. A good find. The area around wasn't without its attractions either..... Walking back to the hotel was atmospheric at night. Our 'Host' for our meal was Jones, and he did look after us incredibly well and chat to us whenever there was a natural break. He was Five Star. The plastic plants you can see were everywhere and completely naff in a Five Star hotel. The next day we revisited John Ryland's Library (always a pleasure). Amazing architecture. Even the heating controls were impressive. Here some papers which I consulted in the Sixties on these shelves. I must rejoin the lIbrary. And we thoroughly enjoyed the exhibition about The Qing 清 (1636-1912), China’s last dynasty, which existed for nearly three centuries, and produced some incredible works of art and artefacts. Lunch was at Pot Kettle Black in the swish Victorian gem the Barton Arcade. Then to the Bridgewater and our concert featuring Strauss's Four Last Songs, Mozart's Jupiter Symphony and Howell's Lamia which we knew nothing about but which was very good indeed. Dorothy Howell was only 21 when Lamia was given its first performance at the Proms by Sir Henry Wood. The work was such a success that it was played five times that season and was soon being heard all over England.
0 Comments
Going to the supermarket at Cameron Toll near Katherine's we passed one magnificent house after the other lining both sides of the main road. Edinburgh never ceases to amaze with its quality and quantity of solid and stylish Georgian/Victorian/Edwardian buildings. Taking Roxie for a walk was a trip into the countryside by Blackford Hill and Pond and along the Braid Burn virtually to Morningside. Very nice indeed. and afterwards......... We had a very good trip by rail to Stirling and were very impressed with the castle and the town. Our first stop was a tour of Stirling Old Town Jail. The early Nineteenth Century was not a good time to be in prison.... However, Inspired by his friend, Elizabeth Fry, and the work of other ground-breaking Prison Reformers, Frederick Hill was appointed as Scotland’s first Inspector of Prisons in 1840 and on his first visit to the Burgh the following year, he was shocked by the dire, dehumanising conditions in the Stirling Tolbooth. He condemned the Tolbooth as “The worst prison in Britain.” This spurred Hill and other Reformers to force Stirling’s County Prison Board to build the New County Jail – better known today as The Old Town Jail. Conditions were much better, there was some education and 'reform', but...... there was still work to do! The pan-optican tower had been given a make-over, and the views from the top were terrific. Next on the agenda was Stirling Castle. In a very strategic position bith geographically and atop its steep cliffs, before the union with England, Stirling Castle was also one of the most used of the many Scottish royal residences, very much a palace as well as a fortress. Most of the principal buildings of the castle date from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. A few structures remain from the fourteenth century, During the reign of David I at the start of the Twelfth Century Stirling became a royal burgh, and the castle an important administration centre. The Great Hall (on the right) was built for James IV around 1503. and on the inside proved truly spectacular........ One unusual feature of some rooms in the castle was that they had been arranged and decorated very much as they would have been in times past. This gave a much better idea of how sumptuous the insides of these great fortifications could be. Truly amazing. The Stirling Heads are one of Scotland’s great art treasures – metre-wide 16th-century oak medallions carved with images of kings, queens, nobles, Roman emperors and characters from the Bible and Classical mythology. They decorated palace ceilings until a collapse in 1777 after which they were dispersed. Most of the survivors have now been brought back together. some in the display are replicas of items held elsewhere. Another morning was spent at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, always a favourite. A splendid building. And since we were there last the inside has been improved tremendously with defined exhibition areas. In these times I was astonished and delighted to see an exhibition of Scottish Heroes and their times........ Winston was of course MP for Dundee for a large number of years and had many Scottish connections. He was one of the first MP's to argue for a federal UK giving a large degree of independence to Scotland. Here Thomas Carlyle.... Here Sir William Gillies (self-portrait)... Doddy Weir of course.... Queen Victoria.. Annie Lennox... Author Naomi Lady Michison.... and I particularly love people in settings, here Sir Adam Thomson founder of British Caledonian Airways.... here Professor Dame Sue Black the preeminent forensic pathologist in a picture entitled 'Unknown Man'..... It was great to meet Aiisha from school with freshly baked bread... and should we let her down, well....... Because of problems with flooding our trip back was delayed somewhat and we had to change at York which just gave us time to get to know the Maltings an old-fashioned boozer near the river. Very atmospheric. Great trip.
|
Keith & Frances SmithArchives
August 2023
Categories |