Leeds City Museum, Millenium Square - Night

This is a night time view of the front of the Leeds City Museum building, located on Millenium Square in Leeds city centre.

This was the first time I got to try out my new heavy duty tripod and I am pleased with the results. The area marked out on the RH side in small blue lights is I think the outside area used by the cafe in the Leeds City Museum.

The Leeds City Museum overlooks the fine looking building that is the Leeds Civic Hall also on Millenium Square.

I featured a very similar day time photograph of the Leeds City Museum earlier on my Leeds in Yorkshire daily photo blog.

Violinist - Kate in Leeds, Yorkshire

This photo shows a local musician Kate who is a violinist here in Leeds, Yorkshire. Kate plays beautiful music and can be seen as in this picture busking on Briggate in Leeds city centre.

Kate has a website and is available to play the violin at concerts, weddings and events anywhere in Yorkshire and further afield.

Kate can be seen playing her violin in this video on youtube

Elavi - Musician and Peddler in Leeds

First a question... When is a busker not a busker, that is the question.

And the guy in the photo should know the answer to this simple question, as I will explain or at least try to.

In the photo you can see Elavi who is a musician and I spoke with him and took this photograph in the centre of Leeds.

As some of my readers will already know I like to photograph the various musicians busking around Leeds city centre and do a story about them on my Leeds daily photo blog. The buskers in Leeds are very good, indeed it would be difficult to say who I think is the best musician busking in Leeds at this moment. I had a discussion with another Yorkshire photographer on this subject quite recently, he did not know about my blog and he was surprised that I had photographed most of Leeds busker at work. We compared notes and found that we both had spoken with Holoman here in Leeds and thought how good he was.

Here in Leeds as in other towns and cities across England busker need a licence from the council. Elavi was selling his music on the streets of Leeds on CD for less than a cup of coffee. We discussed his pricing strategy and I think it really is a winner. I was happy to buy one of his music albums for the money and also to promote his website on this blog.

He had fallen out with the council over a trading license which they want him to have costing £ hundreds, he much prefers and I cannot say I blame him to get a peddlers licence from the police. There have been peddlers on the streets here in England for at least 800 years at least the first known use of the word is in 1225.

Here in England peddling is regulated by the Pedlars Act of 1871, which provides for a "pedlar's certificate" these are obtained from the local police and cost £12.50. Over the last few years local councils have been trying to do away with the idea of peddlers and want to issue their own street traders licences to rake in much more money and also to have control of "their" streets. Now maybe I am wrong, but I think that the streets are ours. I would be the first to agree that you cannot have a free for all but I am sure that the police enforce the peddlers rules.

You can listen to Elavi on his music and media website.

Just to please Anonymous I should also plug Hannah Trigwell another Leeds musician and busker.

Atlas Supporting a Globe - Leeds City Centre

I like many people in Leeds, Yorkshire pass this work of art quite often but I guess like many I never really appreciated it till the day I took this photograph.

This is Atlas supporting a globe above the entrance to a building in the financial district of Leeds city centre. If he was not built into to stone structure of the building I think that he really belongs in a museum. He is perched above the entrance to Atlas House, King street, Leeds. I think that at one time this building was a bank, however today it is home to Atlas Pizzaria.

Atlas in Greek mythology was a titan who supported the heavens from the mountains now called the Atlas mountains he was the son of the Titan Iapetus and the Oceanid Asia. Zeus condemned Atlas to hold up the sky for eternity and here in Leeds he continues to do so.

Temple Works - Holbeck, Leeds

It does not look much in the photo but it was a dank and dull day when I took this photograph of the Temple Works main entrance at Holbeck, Leeds.

Temple Works is a former flax mill designed by Joseph Bonomi the Younger and built by John Marshall between 1836 and 1840 here in Leeds, Yorkshire.



Detail on Pillar at Temple Works Leeds can be seen in the above picture.

Temple Works also known as Temple Mill was based on the Temple of Edfu at Horus in Egypt with a chimney designed in the style of an obelisk. Marshall's inspiration for the design of Temple Works was his interest in Egyptology. When it was built it was said that Temple Works was the biggest single room in the world.

During its heyday sheep used to graze on its grass covered roof that was designed to keep the humidity in the flax mill to stop the linen thread from drying out.

Temple Works is located in Holbeck which was a thriving centre of industry during the industrial revolution.

Today Temple Works is the only Grade I listed building in Holbeck and it is in great need of some serious restoration work. In December 2008 a pillar collapsed and a large chunk of millstone grit fell onto the pavement of Marshall Street. Hence the need for safety helmets when I got a chance to look around the interior of Temple Works in Holbeck recently. Part of Marshall Street Holbeck was blocked to traffic for quite a while while they propped up part of the roof as I noticed several times when I would try to go down this street in my car.

Clock at Temple Works, Leeds

I am a curious person and I like to find out about things and places. Even as a boy I would want to know what was behind a tall wall or inside an unusual building.

There are quite a few buildings in Leeds that I really would like to look around and explore the inside of. This photograph of a clock built into a wall is inside a building that I have often passed and wanted to get a peek inside.

By chance I was reading a copy of the Yorkshire Evening Post in The Leeds Library of which I am a member when I noticed pictures taken by one of the newspapers photographers. Because I have a friend who is an editorial photographer I tend to look not just at the photos in a newspaper but also at the credit to who had taken them. These photos in the paper were taken by James Hardisty a photographer with the Yorkshire Evening Post. The story in the YEP was about one of Leeds most famous buildings, the Temple Works in Holbeck, Leeds.

Around 20 local artists were holding an exhibition at the Temple Works, Marshall Street, Holbeck, Leeds and you could apply online to view inside the old flax mill. I jumped at the chance and booked at once to both see the art exhibition but mostly for a chance to look inside this famous Leeds landmark.

On the appointed evening recently a group of people including me found ourselves standing outside the Temple Works waiting to sign a disclaimer to the effect that we were entering the building of our own free will and that we understood that it was not necessarily safe. I should perhaps point out that a part of the ceiling collapsed about a year ago causing one of the 18 ornate pillars to crumble.

So with hard hats we walked between the volunteers who shepherded us with torches to the safer bits of the building. I must at this point thank these mostly young people prepared to give up their evening to show us around this intesting old building.

The photograph today shows the works clock on an internal wall of the Temple Works, Holbeck, Leeds. The clock is around 4 feet in diameter, but in this photo does not give much indication of size.

There will be more about the Temple Works in Holbeck, Leeds tomorrow on the Leeds Daily Photo.

Sphere - The Calls, Leeds City Centre

Whenever I walk down to the Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds or Brewery Wharf I pass this public work of art on The Calls in Leeds city centre. I have no idea what it is called or who created this large round ball or sphere standing on a small pedestal with a stream of water running over it.

You can see another night time photograph of Leeds city centre taken not far from this picture of the view across Centenary Bridge towards Brewery Wharf from The Calls.

The Drayman Statue - Dortmund Square, Leeds

This statue standing in Dortmund Square, Leeds, Yorkshire is The Drayman.

The city of Dortmund in Germany was twinned with Leeds in West Yorkshire in 1970 and to mark the 10th year of twinning the people of Dortmund presented to Leeds the bronze statue of the Dortmund Drayman which now stand in the square. This statue is now one of the most famous public statues in the city of Leeds and the sculptor was Arthur Shulze-Engels.

Dortmund Square Lies between The Headrow, Leeds and the entrance to the St John's Shopping Centre.

Captain Lawrence "Titus" Oates - Leeds Parish Church

I was walking around the interior of Leeds Parish Church on Kirkgate, Leeds when I came across a brass plaque on a wall dedicated to the memory of a man who was a hero from my childhood. I was very surprised to make this discovery because I never knew that he had a connection with this Yorkshire city that I call home.

Lawrence Oates was 31 at the time of his death, he was a soldier but his death and the manner of it was imprinted on my mind at a young age. He left as his last words the memorable line "I am just going outside and may be some time" and in his death achieved immortality.

Captain Lawrence Edward Grace Oates (17 March 1880 – 16 March 1912) was an English cavalry officer who famously was part of the Scott Terra Nova Antartic expedition of 1911. Educated at Eton Oates nickname was Titus after the historical figure, Oates was also known on the expedition to the South Pole as Soldier.

The expedition was a failure with Amundsen and his party beating them to the pole by 35 days. The British party under Robert Falcon Scott then had to escape the ice and return to civilisation. This at a time when an expedition to the South Pole was similar in hazard to the later trip to the Moon in 1969.

It was during the return trip after having endured appalling privation and hardship suffering severely frostbitten feet that Captain Oates decided to sacrifice himself that the others might survive without the burden on the party that had become.

Sadly the sacrifice that Oates made was in vain and the remaining members of the expedition, Scott, Wilson and Bowers eventually were halted by the terrible weather suffering from the cold and malnourished. The 3 men died in their tent only 11 miles from their objective.

In his diaries, Scott himself described Oates’ decision as “the act of a brave man and an English gentleman.”

Their frozen bodies were discovered by a search party on 12 November 1912. Oates' body was never found. Near where he was presumed to have died, the search party erected a cairn and cross bearing the inscription, ‘Hereabouts died a very gallant gentleman, Captain L. E. G. Oates, of the Inniskilling Dragoons. In March 1912, returning from the Pole, he walked willingly to his death in a blizzard, to try and save his comrades, beset by hardships.’ I cannot think of a better memorial after having departed this life.

The connection with Yorkshire is that Lawrence Oates in 1898 joined the 3rd West Yorkshire (Militia) Regiment. He saw military service during the Second Boer War as a junior officer in the 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons, having joined in 1900 and been promoted to Lieutenant in 1902, then to Captain in 1906.

The brass monument to Lawrence Oates in Leeds Parish Church reads:

In memory of Captain Lawrence Edward Grace Oates
Captain 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons
Born 17th March 1880
Who having served his country with distiction
In the South African War 1901-2
Joined Captain Scott's Antartic expedition 1910
Reaching the South Pole 17th January 1912
And on the return journey Lat, 80°,8',8"
In the hope of saving the lives of his companions
Gave his own life
17th march 1912
This monument is placed here by fellow citizens
As a record of the brave act of
"A very gallant gentleman"
AD 1913.

Underneath this there is a Greek inscription but I was never much at the classics.

You can find out more about the life and death of Lawrence Oates, soldier, explorer and “gallant gentleman”, at The Oates Museum at Selborne in Hampshire.

This story shows that no matter how long you live in a town or city there are always things to discover just around the corner. Also that without my Leeds in Yorkshire daily photo blog I would most likely never have discovered Lawrence Oates connection with my home city.

Masham Sheep Fair, Yorkshire - Part 2

Yesterday I featured the work of a guest photographer, Lorne Campbell on the Leeds daily photo. Today I also feature another photograph by Lorne Cambell taken at the Masham Sheep Fair held here in North Yorkshire.

This photograph shows:

Allison Addyman, and her son Ben (4) of Pately Bridge, near Harrogate, North Yorkshire, and their Dorset sheep pictured before entering the judging area in the junior handlers section at the famous two-day Masham Sheep Fair, Masham, near Ripon, North Yorkshire, on Sunday 27 September 2009.

Masham Sheep Fair, Yorkshire

This photograph is from the Masham Sheep Fair held here in Yorkshire.

This is a first for my Leeds daily photo blog, todays photograph is by a guest photographer, my friend Lorne Campbell who is an editorial photographer. Lorne was born and grew up in Fife, Scotland where his father was a newspaper editor. Lorne is the chief photographer of the Guzelian picture agency and his photographs appear in in the UK's national newspapers like the the Times, Daily Telegraph and the Guardian amongst others.

This picture shows Patricia Dodsworth (right) from Cleveland, with her Ryeland sheep in the judging area at the famous two-day Masham Sheep Fair, Masham, near Ripon, North Yorkshire, on Sunday 27 September 2009. With her are her husband Richard and friend Sue Bryden.

The Ryeland sheep is one of the oldest breeds of sheep here in the UK going back to the monks of Leominster in Herefordshire who 700 years ago bred sheep and raised them on rye pastures which gave them their name. Elizabeth I (7 September 1533 – 24 March 1603) Queen of England was given stockings made from the wool of Ryeland sheep from "Lemster" and insisted from then on she wanted only the finest "Lemster" wool. At that time the Ryeland sheep was considered to produced the finest wool and fetched the best prices too.

The Ryeland sheep is a shortwool breed with no horns, being docile in nature and are ideally suited to be kept by smallholders.

Ryeland sheep were introduced to Australia in 1919 where it was quite succesful but today it is now classed as an endangered breed by the Rare Breeds Trust of Australia.

Between 1900 and 1973 here in the UK we lost 26 native breeds of livestock. In 1973 the Rare Breeds Survival Trust was founded to save our native breeds and since then no breed has become extinct. Here in Yorkshire we are lucky to have Europe's largest working Rare Breeds Farm, with over 400 animals at theHome Farm on the Temple Newsam estate just outside Leeds.

I hasten to add that the Ryeland breed of sheep is not endangered here in Britain but as Joni Mitchell said... You don't know what you have got till its gone!

Golden Hornet, Crab Apple - Yorkshire

When I visit the Bradford Apple Day here in Yorkshire, due to recent high winds the only apples left on the trees were the ones you can see in this photograph.

One had fallen from the tree so I took it to the expert who was identifying apples that people might bring with them from there garden. I knew it was a crab apple but wanted to check the variety and she told me that it was a crab appple called Golden Hornet and that it was a popular variety of crab apple bearing prolific fruit and lovely flowers in the spring. The Golden Hornet is also grown as a cross polinator for other apple trees and you could use it for making crab apple jelly.

Because the Golden Hornet keeps its fruit for quite a while it is very good for wildlife and birds will feed on the fruit, particularly robins, starlings, greenfinches and thrushes. In the spring bees and many other insects will be attracted to the apple blossom.

Apple Varieties at Apple Day Bradford, Yorkshire

I attended Apple Day here in Bradford, Yorkshire and was very pleased to discover lots of new varieties of apple that were new to me.

You can see in the photograph a selection of apple varieties that are I think no longer common here in England, at least here in Yorkshire. There was an expert on hand to identify apples and also provide information on the many varieties on display. Because of the recent high winds that we have had here in this part of Yorkshire all the apples at Bowling Park Community Orchard where Apple Day was held were no longer on the trees. The only tree with any fruit left on it was a crab apple tree, so I photographed those fruits.

In the photo can be seen several apple varieties of Malus domestica:

Bramley's Seedling - Commonly known as the Bramley is a cooking apple.
Lord Derby - Cooking apple suited to the Northern climes of England.
Hambledon Deux Ans - An 18th Century cooking apple originating from Hampshire and popular in Victorian times.
Gascoyne's Scarlet - A victorian Kentish variety. Large, handsome red fruit.
Bismarck - An old Australian cooking apple
Queen Caroline - Large cooking apple, named after George IV's wife.

The only one of these apples that I have encountered before is the Bramley, which is probably the most common cooking apple here in England. The Bramley apple tree can be found growing in quite a few old gardens here in England.

Apple Day - Bradford, Yorkshire

Apple day is a celebration of all things about this well known fruit. This last Sunday I attended the Bradford Apple Day held at Bowling Park Community Orchard here in Bradford, Yorkshire.

I saw some old, I think table mats with pictures of various varieties of apple on them including the one in the picture above.

I have always believed that we should preserve and indeed use the many and varied varieties of the apple. There are here in the UK a large number of identifiable varieties of the humble apple and even so there are many old varieties that have been forgotten. The trees live on in gardens and old orchards but the people who planted and looked after them are long gone.

I you look at the apples in most supermarkets, they will be selling only a very few common varieties often with them being grown in France and other much further afield countries. I remember getting an apple some time back and getting people to guess where it grew. No one ever guessed, it was from Chile in South America.

I used to live in Kent in the South East of England and the is one of the traditional places where there used to be many orchards. Today here in the UK the orchard is no longer as common as they were in my childhood.

I think the Apple Day held in Bradford is not the last of those to be held this year there are still a few yet to come over the next few weeks in other places.

Watermans Place - Granary Wharf, Leeds

This photograph shows Watermans Place, a new apartment block at Granary Wharf on the Leeds waterfront.

Watermans place is a 15 storey residental development consisting of 121 apartments within a 47m building.

You can see photos of the two other buildings on the Granary Wharf development, the new hotel City Inn Leeds and also Candle House.

Granary Wharf, Leeds Waterfront - Model

The model showing the layout of the new deveopment of Granary Wharf on the Leeds city waterfront is in the sales office in the development.

I guess really I have posted this picture in the wrong order, having already shown photographs of the Granary Wharf buildings earlier on my Leeds daily photo blog.

The buildings in the picture are from left Candle House in the middle the new Leeds City Inn hotel and on the right the residential block Watermans Place.

Centenary Bridge, Leeds at Night

This photograph shows a night time view across Centenary Bridge in Leeds city centre.

Centenary Bridge takes pedestrians over the river Aire from The Calls to Brewery Wharf on the waterfront area of Leeds city centre.

It was funny, I had my tripod with me to get a few pictures of Leeds city centre afer dark and I was stood with my camera at The Calls end of the Centenary Bridge when the people in the photo tried not to ruin the photo. I said just walk on over the bridge and it really would be no problem and when I showed them the results they were surprised!

I love how you can play with the image produced by just using the camera, I really must get a few more like this when next I am in Leeds after dark. I showed a friend this and she thought I had played with the photo on a PC to get the result, not true.

Clarence Dock, Leeds - Night View

This picture shows a view of Clarence Dock on the Leeds city centre waterfront after dark.

Like most places Leeds city centre is the same but different after the sun goes down and I think that this is especially true through a camera lens. The camera sees places differently at night compared to the human eye, at least that is my view.

In this photo the large building on the left is the Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds.

A Yorkshire Soldier - Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Picture of headstone of a Yorkshire Soldier - Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

The photograph above shows a Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone marking the burial place of a Yorkshire soldier buried in Gargrave churchyard in North Yorkshire.

Although this particular headstone was photographed by me here in Yorkshire a similar photo could have been taken in churchyards all over the UK. This war grave is of Captain G H Ermen, Duke of Wellington's (West Riding Regiment) a previous unit that today lives on in The Yorkshire Regiment. The headstone is the standard one used by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission being made from portland stone.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is responsible for the maintenance of over 1 million war graves and larger memorials marking and honouring the deaths of around 750,000 war dead with no known grave.

Each grave uses standard uniform headstones, differentiated only by their inscriptions: the national emblem or regimental badge, rank, name, unit, date of death and age of each casualty is inscribed above an appropriate religious symbol and a more personal dedication chosen by relatives.

As you can see on the headstone for Capt Godfrey Henry Ermen there is no age shown and also no personal wording that is placed near the base of many of these headstones.

I have found a little about Capt Godfrey Ermen, he was made Adjutant of the 6th Bn DWR on 4th April 1915, the Bn landed at Boulogne 14th April 1915. Within 3 weeks of arriving in France Captain Godfrey Ermen was dead at the age of 37. The fact that his grave is here in Yorkshire suggests to me that he was wounded at or near the front and was the evacuated to hospital here near Skipton and died shortly afterwards.

I am interested in old buildings and always have been and in visiting old churches all over the UK I often encouter war graves like the one in the picture. Sometimes there will be several and occasionally perhaps one or two. I usually pause for a while and ponder the lives of these unknown (to me) mostly young men. I served as a young man, so I do think sometimes it could easily have been me.

As I stand in an English churchyard the poem by Rupert Brooke comes to my mind.

The Soldier

If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

Rupert Brooke was a young Englishman famous today as a war poet, he wrote The Soldier in 1914 and died on his way to a battle at Gallipoli on St. George's Day 1915, at the age of 27. The grave of this poet is today one of the most isolated in the care of the CWGC.

Today is the 300th post on my Leeds daily photo blog from Yorkshire here in England and I cannot think of a more appropriate story to mark this small milestone. There was a time when I started posting about photos and stories of life here in Yorkshire that I seriously thought that I would struggle to find enough subjects. I no longer think this, after all there are so many stories about the people and places of Englands largest county.

Norman Church - St John the Baptist, Adel, Leeds

Adel was once a Romano British settlement, later named in the 1086 Domesday Book and here was built a fine church c.1150.

Today this church, St John the Baptist is home to a thriving Church of England parish with regular Anglican services. The church also has social activities including coffee mornings and the like.

Built of local millstone grit St John the Baptist, Adel is one of the best preserved churches of this period in the whole of Yorkshire and as such is listed as Grade I (buildings of outstanding architectural or historic interest). Grade I is the highest designation of protection of structures here in the UK.

There is another photograph on the Leeds daily photo from Adel, St John the Baptist church of the famous 13th century sanctuary ring.

Adel, Leeds - Church Door Knocker

I visited Adel, North Leeds a few weeks ago and visited the old church which has stood here since Norman times.

Adel today is a suburb of Leeds but is a village named in the Domesday book of 1086, the selling then was Adele. There has been a church here since Saxon times, the current one of St John the Baptist, Adel parish church was built 1150-1170.

I have long been interested in old buildings and here in England the best old buildings that you can access easily are churches. England has many early churches that are nearly 1,000 years old. There are fewer here in Yorkshire than where I lived as a young man. Many years ago I read about the door knocker on Adel church. Indeed I have a book that features it on the cover. So I was pleased to see this famous door knocker up close and photograph it.

The Adel church knocker is actually a 13th century sanctuary ring cast in bronze with a mans head emerging from the mouth of a lion. Just after I had taken the photo above a local man passing by said it was a pity the original was stolen around 5 years back but this was a good replica. Oh no, this work of art was around 800 years old and was part of our nations heritage. Now dont get me wrong but I can understand people robbing banks, thats where the money is and it is only money. This is a crime against all of us, churchgoers or not, people sometimes talk of things being beyond value and I think that this bronze artefact is one of those.

There is still a reward offered and it would be nice to think that one day it may be found.

Conkers - A Game For Two People

In the photograph above you can see Charlie who is 2 1/2 years old and his 5 year old big sister Maisie. I saw Charlie at the Make, Bake and Grow fete in Charlie Cake park, Armley, here in Leeds and he appeared to be having trouble with the basics of the game of Conkers. I asked his father and Maisie was happy to pose with Charlie for my blog.



As can be seen in the picture above Charlie was not the only one having problems with the basics of the traditional game of Conkers. This is Lucy happy to hold her own in the game she was playing with Michael.

Conkers at Make, Bake and Grow - Armley, Leeds

Having visited the Make, Bake and Grow fete at Charlie Cake park in Armley a district of Leeds in Yorkshire I soon discovered what the most popular thing to take part in was.. Playing conkers.

On this table you can see everything needed to play the traditional British childhood game of conkers. I notice that there is a also a printed version of the rules of the noble game of Conkers (never had written rules in my day, conkers was very much alive and well and I think every child knew the rules). Using the seeds of horse chestnut trees – the name conker is also applied to the seed and to the tree itself.

The game is played by 2 people each having a conker with a hole drilled through the centre and then threaded with a piece of string. Each player takes it in turn to hit the others with their conker until one breaks and the person with the surviving conker wins. The winner then has a conker that is a one-er and so on.

As a boy growing up in Oxfordshire conkers was a favourite game, played every autumn when the conkers were ripe and falling off the horse chestnut trees. Indeed every boy in a village or town would know where the horse chestnut trees were growing and would encourage the chestnuts to fall by throwing sticks at the branches where the conkers were bunched together.

As I write this there is a large horse chestnut tree a few yards from the window and I have watched quite a few people, both young and old scour around among the fallen leaves looking for conkers on the ground.

Oddly I discovered at the fete all the young boys there had not ever played the game of conkers and were hopeless at it. We the adults discussed this and thought that this was most likely due to "Elf n Safety" rules at schools. After all one of the boys might be injured by playing this game, however none of us had ever heard of this ever happening. According to Wikipedia there are also schools that banned the playing of Conkers due to fears over nut allergies. You could not make this up!!

There will be more pictures and stories of adults playing the game of Conkers at Charlie Cake park, Armley on the Leeds daily photo over the next couple of days.

National Poetry Day - Ian McMillan in Yorkshire

Today Thurs 8 October 2009, here in the UK it is National Poetry Day.

In honour of this day my picture today is well known Yorkshire poet Ian Mcmillan, seen recently performing here in Saltaire, Yorkshire. Ian is not just a poet, he is a very witty and amusing man, I would recommend any performance that he gives.

I will be posting more pictures from Make, Bake and Grow over the next few days.

Make, Bake & Grow - Armley, Leeds

In the photo above you can see the ladies from Briggate Morris dancing at Make, Bake and Grow, Armley.

Chatting with Katie who has the Leeds Grub blog last week when we both attended a Leeds blogger meet she told me about an event to be held in Armley, Leeds on Sunday. I am pleased to have travelled over to Armley to the Make, Bake & Grow event.

Make, Bake & Grow remimded me a bit of those long ago village fetes that I attended as a boy growing up in Oxfordshire. It had a very home made feel and even though I only knew Katie and one other blogger who was there, I really enjoyed being there.

Armley is a district in the west of Leeds here in yorkshire and is I guess most famous in England for being home to HM prison Leeds, formerly Armley Gaol, more on that later.

Like many other areas of Leeds Armley grew during the industrial revolution and was home to several mills, one of which is now the Armley Mills Industrial Museum, Leeds.

Make, Bake and Grow 2009 was held in a small park in Armley, this small triangular park is now known as Charlie Cake Park. The story is that back in the 19th century a pedlar called Charlie used to rest his pony and trap in Whingate Park. Charlie used to sell a spicy shortbread to the residents of Armley and eventually the land became known as Charlie Park or Charlie Cake Park.

I had been to Armley before but not for quite a few years and had never heard of Charlie Cake Park, but Katie had given me good directions so I found myself in a small urban park. I knew I had come to the right place because there was a small entrance fee (£1) and there were some temporary huts placed around the park.



You can see another picture of the ladies of Briggate Morris dancing to the music provided by their musicians.

During Make, Bake and Grow the ladies of Briggate Morris not only danced but also did a Morris dance workshop with the mostly younger volunteers from the crowd watching. "Gotta catch them young" said Katie later when we chatted about this particular group of Morris ladies. Apparently because it is late in the season there were only a few of the regulars available for this Armley gig.

Earlier on my Leeds daily photo blog I post about the Haworth Village Morris Men.

Azucar Tequila and Tapas Bar - Brewery Wharf, Leeds

One of the great things about me doing my Leeds in Yorkshire daily photo blog is that I can discover new things about this northern English city and sometimes rediscover them too.

One thing I learnt this week directly because of my blog is that I really like a cocktail drink called Cuba Libre and I can certainly recommend the use of Havana Club rum. I came to this discovery having been invited out to meet some other bloggers who write about Leeds.

In the photo above you can see the many drinks on offer at the bar of the Azucar Tequila and Tapas bar that is located on the Leeds waterfront on Brewery Wharf.

I had not been in this bar before, it is a great place to meet friends, have a delicious Cuba Libre and perhaps try their inexpensive food.

Azucar can be found at
5 Brewery Place
Leeds LS10 1NE

Leeds Bloggers and Havana Cultura - Azucar Bar, Leeds

This photograph shows Krista from theneonhub talking with Leeds blogger Reinhold Behringer pictured at Azucar on Brewery Wharf, Leeds.

In the picture in the hand of Reinhold is a brand new music CD by Gilles Peterson Havana Cultura: New Cuba Sound. I am listening to this CD as I write this blog post. I was pleased to be given this new release being a fan of the music of Cuba since seeing the film Buena Vista Social Club at the cinema here in Yorkshire.

The album Havana Cultura: New Cuba Sound by Gilles Peterson on Brownswood Recordings will be released here in the UK on 26 october, featuring Gilles Peterson, Roberto Fonseca, Kumar, Gente de Zona, Francis del Rio, Doble Filo, Obsesion, Ogguere, Los Adeanos, Wichy de Vedado, Free Hole Negro, Telmary, Cubanito 20.02, Harold Lopez-Nussa, Descemer Bueno & Kelvis Ocohoa, Yusa, Vince Vella, Mayra Caridad Valdes.

As for the music think Buena Vista Social Club for 2009, if you liked the BVSC you will most likely enjoy this new album.

The evening may have been sponsored by Havana Club, the well know Cuban brand of rum but they took a back seat prefering to promote the contemorary art scene in Havana and the artists that work there. The website of Havana Cultura is very festive and provides an insight into the current Havana culture complete with sights and sounds.

Leeds Bloggers Meet - Azucar Tequila and Tapas Bar

This is a photograph from the Leeds bloggers meet held at Azucar Tequila and Tapas Bar at Brewery Wharf on the Leeds waterfront a couple of days ago.

This photo is from later in the evening and shows the two winners of a draw each winning a bottle of Havana Club rum. I think they both look pleased to take home with them a bottle of rum that will enable them to make the cocktails Mojito and Cuba Libre that most of us spent the evening drinking.

In the picture is Katie from Leeds Grub, I already knew Katie through her blog. The chap in the photo is Stuart Childs another Leeds blogger.

This was the first blogger meet I have attended and I think it is quite a good idea and would be up for another one.

Not that the rest of us went home empty handed because we did not, I have in my photo bag a music CD, more of which I will reveal in the next installment of this story on the Leeds daily photo.

View From The Bridge - Leeds Canal at Night

This photograph shows the night time view from Centenary Bridge towards Crown Point Bridge in Leeds city centre.

I had spent the evening in a bar, the Azucar, Brewery Wharf just past The Calls on the Leeds waterfront. Now here I must declare that it was in futherance of my Leeds daily photo blog and I had been invited to a bloggers meeting sponsored by Havana Rum. How neat is that, being invited out for the evening by a drinks company.

I like the Azucar, nice people and the food is good too, I will be posting pics and more from the Leeds bloggers meet over the next few days.

On my way bact to the Leeds rail station I walked back over the Centenary Bridge over the river Aire and took this photo. I had not taken my tripod to the bar so apologies if image not really sharp.

County Arcade Ceiling - Victoria Quarter, Leeds

This picture shows a view of the ceiling of the County Arcade in the Victoria Quarter of Leeds city centre.

The County Arcade is two storeys high with shops on the ground floor. The ceiling is vaulted with painted cast ironwork including 3 glass domes surounded by coloured and gilded mosaics depicting various figures.

The whole of the County Arcade demonstrates late Victorian art and craftsmanship of a very high standard. If you like Art Nouveau then the County Arcade is a place to look at and wonder. There are Italian pink marble columns, mosaics and Burmantofts faience. Burmantofts Pottery was the common trading name of a manufacturer of ceramic pipes and construction materials, named after the Burmantofts district of Leeds, England.

On the day I took this photograph of the interior of the County Arcade, Leeds a young artist was sitting on the floor with a watercolour pad and paints. The artist was painting the scene that appears in the above photo. The County Arcade really is worth time exploring as an example of what the victorians could achieve as art in peoples daily lives.

County Arcade - Victoria Quarter, Leeds

This photo shows the Briggate entrance to the County Arcade in Leeds city centre.

The area where the County Arcade now stands was a warren of yards and courts housing mostly slaughter houses and butcher shops. In 1881 on Briggate itself there were butchers operating from..
No 103 Thomas Myers - Butcher
No 108 Robert Lamb - Butcher
No 110 James Biggs - Butcher
No 111 Robert Stead - Butcher
No 118 Thomas Harland - Butcher
No 119 William Crampton - Coffee House
No 119 Benjamin Smith - Butcher
No 120 Alfred Jefferson - Butcher
No 121 Thomas & Geo Wildblood - Butcher
No 122 John Smith - Butcher
No 122 1/2 Joseph Marsden - Coffee Rooms
No 123 Richard Johnson - Butchers

The above is just a selection to give an idea of this area of Briggate, Leeds in the 1880's. This was all to change with the growing prosperity of this great Northern city with the building of the arcades mostly off Briggate.

County Arcade was completed in 1903 and is quite grand when compared to the other arcades. Featuring marble floors, intricate stonework and elegant iron domes, it makes up part of the modern day Victoria Quarter complex. The architect was Frank Matcham (22 November 1854, Newton Abbot, Devon – 17 May 1920, Southend-on-Sea, Essex) who was a famous English theatrical architect. He is buried in Highgate Cemetery, London.

This area was redeveloped again in 1989-96 and became the Victoria Quarter comprising the County Arcade, Cross Arcade, Queen Victoria Street and King Edward Street.

Today the County Arcade is home to many upmarket brands with shops dedicated to lifestyle living.