In and around Burnley

Thu 28th July  Reedley Marina – museum and drive to Hebden Bridge

Enterprise Car Hire came to collect James and took him to their base, where he collected a 2-door red Ford Fiesta. The fuel gauge was on red so he went to a garage and put in £20 worth of fuel.

Back at the boat we got a few things together and went off in the car to Queen Street Steam Mill.  On the way we found a shop selling hanging baskets, and we bought a large bowl of red petunias for the roof of the boat.

The museum was very interesting, with a steam engine called “Peace” driving many rods and belts, with lots of weaving machines operating. We had a demonstration of how the boilers worked and how Terry towelling was made. We visited the cafe for a light lunch there before we left.

Queen Street Mill chimney

Mill pond for water supplies for the boilers

 Steam boilers

Boiler demonstration

Steam engine

Engine named Peace

Steam Engine

Machine room

Intriguing machine

 Machine room

Machine demo

Terry towelling

We decided to drive over the moors behind, and found some beautiful scenery and narrow roads.  We ended up in Hebden Bridge, where we found a cafe and had some coffee and cake before looking round the village. Many shops were still empty from the flooding in the winter.

Hire car and moorland

Back alley in Hebden Bridge

Rochdale Canal, Hebden Bridge

 River Calder Aqueduct, Hebden Bridge

We chose a different route back and came upon a modern sculpture used as a lookout. It is called the Panopticon Atom at Pendle Hill.  This was Bronte country, and in the names of some of the buildings and businesses locally there were many references to landmarks and people from the Bronte books.

Moorland view

Panopticon Atom

The view from the Atom

Back in Burnley we decided to visit the Shapla Indian Restaurant, just yards from the marina entrance. It was very good food and pleasant service, crowned with a free Baileys or brandy at the end. Perhaps they hoped we would come back.  Not for a while.

No boating today

Fri 29th July  Reedley Marina

We spent the morning choosing songs, partly for the folk club in the evening, and partly for an event next Wednesday when we sing to a lunch time group at Paul Standley’s church in Barnoldswick.

Reedley Marina

We met Phillip Ingram and his daughter Shannon for lunch at the marina cafe. He wanted to discuss two of his evangelistic plans – to walk the canal with a large cross, praying for Lancashire, and to take a boat along the canal with various Christian musicians playing on board.  It is good to meet people with ideas and vision.

Phillip Ingram and daughter Shannon

 

Moored at Reedley Marina

There was rain at times in the afternoon.

We took the car to The Woodman pub, where there is a folk club every Friday.  Good fun. We sang Long way down, Athenry, Antiques, Low Bridge.  We were kindly offered a lift back, but this time we had a car.

No boating today

Sat 30th July  Reedley Marina – drive to Malham

We had a lovely drive to Settle and up narrow lanes to Malham Tarn. We went to Malham Village for a picnic lunch and a hot drink in cafe, before parking in Watersink car park.

This is so named because a clear stream flows under a bridge on the road here, and then disappears in the ground, appearing again at the foot of Malham Cove.

We walked down the Pennine Way through the “Dry Valley”, and we found our way to the Limestone Pavement that we had heard about. This is an amazing formation of limestone, lying fairly flat, full of holes and channels where water has run down inside. We have never seen anything like it.  On our previous visit, we saw Malham Cove, down below, but we never came further up.

Rough Terrain

Dry Valley

Selfie time

Limestone pavement

View to the south

 Avoiding the cracks

Ladder stile

We spotted a dark green fritillary

 Across the moors

 Signpost

We had another lovely drive back to the marina, where we had a meal back on board.

No boating today

Sun 31st July  Reedley Marina and Burnley

When we looked out in the morning we saw the grey tabby lying on a garden seat, with Hugo lying on the grass close by.  We thought they had become friends, but after a short while the tabby crept slowly off the seat and started walking away in slow motion.  Hugo followed, eventually running up to him and batting him on the back! We have never seen Hugo as an aggressor before – he is very often a victim. It wasn’t a serious conflict and was over in seconds as the tabby ran off.

Hugo and the grey tabby

After memorising the route from Google Earth, we drove to Life Church, the other side of Burnley. They have recently outgrown their old building and moved into a large warehouse, a bit like the church we went to in Wigan. Who says the church is dying?  The word was entitled living and leading, based on Paul’s letter to Timothy.  The worship was good, again in a performance style. The welcome was excellent, with lots of people coming to say hello.

Life Church warehouse

Life Church

Worship team

 Congregation

We drove to Aldi for some of our favourite things, and then to Sainsbury’s for lunch and one or two other things.

In the afternoon we spent some more time choosing songs for Wednesday.

We discovered that our £5 electric card had run out so we switched off our immersion heater and disconnected the electric cable and stowed it ready for the morning.

No boating today

Next: To Barnoldswick to sing to a lunch time group, then on to Skipton.