Part 2 Hilbre Islands: A Uninhabited Island Near Liverpool

After my dramatic failed attempt of reaching this Island, I can happily announce I successfully made it over two weeks later.

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It was a glorious sunny week and about to get even warmer as we approached the weekend. I figured if it was sunny there would be a fair chance of other people taking walks out to Hilbre Islands, so I booked my trains for the very next day.

I was absolutely right! I arrived at West Kirby beach at 10.45am as the tide was coming in much later than last time. I was confident, very well equipped and a lot more organised than last time. Nothing whatsoever was going to stop me. Walking out to sea, I could see other people walking out and I could also see the coast guard’s vehicle sitting on Little Eye Island as I approached. It felt much safer than last time.

I had already experienced Little Eye, so didn’t stop here and headed straight over to Middle Eye.

Middle Eye

Middle Eye is a small Uninhabited tidal island located to the South of Hilbre Island.

Over on this Island there are interesting rock strata, caves and seasonal flowers. Many rock pools to explore with lots of crabs, shrimps and tiny fish to find hiding in the shadows.

It seems like everyone loves this natural arched cave here. Not surprising its quite impressive don’t you think?

The rock formations and the views from this island are just surreal.

This was taken whilst heading back to mainland. Most of us were heading back because we could see the tide coming in.

….And I finally made it to Hilbre Island!

At last, I finally made it to Hilbre Island after weeks of hesitation, fear of crossing because of the lack of being unable to swim and one failed attempt. Don’t you just love it when you conquer something you were so fearful of? This felt like a victory for me. 😂

What’s on the Island, things to see and facilities

Houses

There are a few cute houses here, however as I have mentioned I’m my last blog. Nobody has lived here permanently since 2012. However, some of the houses are privately owned.

The last person to live here permanently was a Wirral Council Warden, but since January 2012 it was announced there will be no permanent residents here. This was after the Wirral Council struggled to find a ranger willing to live without electricity or water supply. The rangers now visit on a daily basis.

Could you live here without energy or water supplies?

The Hilbre Bird Observatory

One of the most interesting buildings here is the bird observatory. This is where birds are monitored for the recordings of a national network of observatories. And as a place of nature reserve, you bet you will spot some of the more unique birds.

The Old life boat station and slip way

The old life boat station was built in 1839 and remained in service until 1939 after being abandoned.

It was built here along with a long slipway so the life boats could be used even if the tide was low. But it was abandoned for the tractor that towed the boats across instead.

Enjoy the panoramic views

Enjoy the panoramic views where you can look out to The River Dee Estuary, the mountains of North Wales and the Wirral Coast line.

The views here are breathtaking! You’ll be glad you took the walk out.

Spot the grey Seals

The island has a colony of grey seals. Apparently the best place to spot then is behind the old life boat station. I didn’t know this until I had left the island and unfortunately didn’t get to see any.

Image borrowed from Dragon Tools on pixabay

Bird watching

The island is a prime spot for bird watching. There is an array of different birds all throughout the year. They fall into four groups estuary birds, sea birds, migrating birds and breeding birds.

Facilities

There is a little seating area with a shelter on the island as well as two toilets

If you would like to know more advice and tips on visiting the island stay tuned for my next up and coming post.

Thank you for visiting my blog today

Stay blessed ❤🙏🏾

Mar 20

Manchester,England: The world’s first industrial city, and more interesting facts

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Hi all! Welcome back to my blog. I hope you have all had a wonderful weekend.

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In this blog, I would like to introduce Manchester, my home city. Have any of you ever visited? If so, what did you think? Be sure to leave your comments.

Location

Manchester is one of UK’s most popular cities. It is located in the north West of England and is the fifth largest city in the UK.

Here are a few of my favourite facts about Manchester

The World’s First Industrial City

It was the world’s first industrial city which led the way to transforming people’s lives in the area and across the world.

You can still see several of the old warehouses, mills and signs in and around the city

Due to it’s astounding growth of the cotton industry in the early 19th century it became a major global centre for trading and manufacturing. Textiles was the driving force, but it soon emerged to producing all kinds of products.

Manchester’s Symbol ‘The Worker Bee’

The Bee was adopted from the period when the city first became the global centre and leader in the Industrial Revolution. At the time it had been described as being like a hive for activity due to it’s hard working population, this was the motif behind it. Since this time, the Bee symbol has been the feature of the city and you’ll be sure to spot several symbols in and around the city .

Britain’s first ever black professor worked at Manchester University

Sir W. Arthur Lewis became Britain’s first ever black professor at aged 33, he was a Saint Lucian economist who come to work at Manchester University in 1948. Not only was he a professor, but a Noble prizewinner who was able to persuade and negotiate with world leaders.

He helped post- war Afro-Caribbean people arriving and settling in the areas of Hulme and Moss Side by creating centres of support for them. These centres supported people for socialising and learning at the height of racism and prejudice views. One of the centres still exists today in the moss side area. Sir Arthur wasn’t a Mancunian born, but he will be forever in the heart of manchester for his work and courage, and is commemorated at Manchester University with a building named after him.

The Suffragette Movement was founded here

Emmeline Prankhurst founded the Women’s Social and Political Union, known as the Suffragettes Movement in 1903. Emmeline a local Women from Manchester and her members fought to enfranchise women here in the UK, using militant strategies. In 1918 women were given limited rights to vote, and full voting rights in 1928 just before the passing of Emmeline Pankhurst.

One of the first cities in the world to celebrate and commemorate LGBT

Manchester was one of the first cities in the world to commemorate LGBT people by commissioning a local artist to paint the city with rainbow tiles in to flagstones across the city. Manchester Pride is one of the UK’ s leading charities celebrating LGBT and helping individuals to thrive as well as fighting for equality. It has held one of the worlds leading pride festivals since 1985 every year which is centred around the vibrant gay village.

The place where Charles Rolls and Henry Royce first ever met

It was at Manchester’s Midland Hotel where Rolls and Royce first met, and just two years later the pair formed the Rolls Royce company. There is a statue at the hotel dedicated to this meeting.

Hope you enjoyed my blog today. Which was your favourite fact? Do you have a favourite you know of that is not listed here?

I appreciate your visit today

Have a fantastic week

Stay blessed 🙏🏾❤

Jan 16

Stoke-On-trent: Trentham Estate

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Stoke-on-Trent is another one of our cities, it is situated in the centre of England, Staffordshire. It is often referred to as simply ‘Stoke’ and is the biggest settlement in Staffordshire. It is known for it’s pottery industry and has a number of art galleries and museums dedicated to this.

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It was just after another lockdown when I visited here. Needless to say, there were many places still closed and the city was incredibly quiet. I knew this would be the case before I arrived, but I had just found a fantastic £2 return train ticket deal with Northern. It was an offer I couldn’t resist.

After researching and discovering many places were still closed, I discovered Trentham Estate.

Trentham Estate

The Trentham Estate is in the village of Trentham on the edge of Stoke city. It occupies 725 acres of nature and one of its main attractions is the award-winning gardens.

Trentham Gardens

This historic garden is one of the best in the UK. It offers a vast contemporary perennial of plantings and is absoulety stunning to walk around.

The garden has been designed in an Italian style garden, in the framework of Sir Barry’s 19th century Italianate garden.

At the back of the gardens stands the remains of Trentham hall. The parts of the remains date back to 1833-42.

It was a bit eerie

It was a little eerie here, I’m not really sure how to describe the feeling. Nothing really happened, but I had the strangest feeling I was being watched and suddenly felt a bit spooked out. I mean, I feel like I should make a disclaimer here, so please consider this as a disclaimer. It was a rainy day and I suddenly found that everyone had disappeared, therefore I was here alone for a short while. I was enjoying my time and everything was fine until I stood at the hall taking my pictures, this was when I got the strange eerie feeling. But who knows maybe a just got spooked out because I was alone in such a huge unfamiliar space🤷🏿‍♀️.

Nonetheless I thoroughly enjoyed my time here. Its such a beautiful tranquil place.

The Lake

The lake here is at the centre of the gardens, it is actually the first place you arrive at as you go through the entrance, so immediately your surrounded by the natural beauty. The walk around the lake gives views of the River Trent and leads to the woodlands and the wildflower meadows.

Other things to do here

There are lots more things to do here at Trentham gardens such as the fairy trail, the children’s playground, boat trips, the tree top adventures, the monkey forest and trentham shopping village. See here to discover more about The Trentham Estate.

Thank you for visiting my blog today

Stay blessed 🙏🏾

Natalie ❤

Jan 11

North Yorkshire:Bolton Abbey

Comments 7

Hi there, hope everyone is good.

This post is going to be about Bolton Abbey, a place I visited on the day I visited Malham Cove.

Did you read my last post on Malham Cove? If not and your considering visiting here you may want to take a look at the post as the two are within only a half an hour drive from each other.

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Location

Bolton Abbey is a village and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England, near the little market town of Skipton and is situated on the border of the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

Things to do here:

Priory Church and Ruins

There are a number of things to do and see in Bolton Abbey, but the main attraction is the Priory Church and Ruins.

The church and its ruins are of an Augustinian Priory which had be given to Augustinian Canons (A Roman Catholic Order group) in 1154 by Alice de Rumilly, a lady of craven and Skipton, who had inherited the area. The Canons lived here until it was stripped of its assets during the dissolution of the monasteries.

This is a perfect place for escaping the 21st century and getting a glimpse of some incredible views.

Walk along the stepping stones

There are 60 stepping stones here which have become the challenge for visitors to take. I sat this one out as I had just almost broke my neck after stumbling at the top of malham Cove earlier this day.

The stones used to be the crossing point for the lay workers who worked at the priory. Can you imagine having to cross these everyday to get to and from work?

Just North of the stones is a large popular beach. This is a perfect place to relax and enjoy the surrounding views and views of the priory.

A walk to the Valley of Desolation & Simon’s Seat

The valley is linked with the River Wharfe. There is a beautiful waterfall and the walk can be continued where visitors will arrive at Simon’s seat where they experience beautiful views.

Other things include

Strid Wood and the Strid which is an ancient woodland

Flora and Fauna, a wildlife habitat

Burden Tower, a ruin which was a hunting lodge

The Aqueduct bridge that stands over the river Wharfe

Have a walk around the quaint Bolton Abbey Village. The village has a number of cute cottages, tea rooms, a book store, a post office and a steam railway.

Tickets

The Bolton Abbey Estate is open from 9am to 5pm, tickets are £10- £12.50

For more information visit here

Hope you enjoyed the blog today

Many thanks for stopping by

Stay blessed 🙏🏾

Natalie ❤

Nov 02

Holmfirth: The Picture-Postcard Little Yorkshire Town

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I honestly can not remember for the life of me how I come across this beautiful little town. I remember wanting to visit and looking at pictures of this place for quite some time, but being a little hesitant about visiting. Sometimes I tend to get a little anxious when traveling somewhere new, well, all the time but, especially when I have to take multiple methods of transport to get to a single place. Anyway, I decided I would take the trip spontaneously the night before. I’m so glad I’m did! And luckily my mum accompanied me on this one, this was a nice change as I’m usually solo traveling.

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Holmfirth sits in the Borough of Kirklees, West Yorkshire, in the Holme Valley.

A bit about the history

In the 1770s the first spinning cotton machine known as the spinning jenny was brought onto Holmfirth. By the 1850s textile mills began to pop up, the population started to rise and the town had become a trading centre for the textile industry.

The town is best known for being the filming location of a popular British TV Programme series The Last Of The Summer Wine.

The town is made up of independent shops, cobbled streets, mill cottages, beautiful valleys, sloping woodlands that join on to the Peak District and the River Ribble running through the town.

Last of the summer wine filming locations we visited

Nora Batty’s Cottage

On our arrival the first thing we wanted to do was visit the Nora Batty Cottage one of the filming locations. Nora Batty was one of the characters in the show who became popular due to her wrinkled stockings, hair rollers and her funny personality. The cottage is now a self catering accommodation that can be rented.

The Wrinkled Stocking Tearoom is not connected to the show, but is a place we wanted to experience and its right next door to the cottage. It is a cute little place that offers a range of local foods and has great reviews on TripAdvisor. Although, unfortunately for us, we did not get to go inside as it was closed due to Covid so I just had to make do with a photo instead 😏.

Sid’s Cafe

Sid’s Cafe another filming location of the TV show. We didn’t get to go inside here either as this again was closed too due to the pandemic.

As we were around this area, we spotted a little tour bus that was offering tours around more of the shows filming locations. We decided to hop on board and join the tour. So glad we did because we would have never have got to see half as much by ourselves.

The Last Of The Summer Wine Tour

The tour is a 45 minute journey around all the filming locations which also incorporates the beautiful scenery of the Yorkshire Pennines and residential areas. There is also a full commentary on the history of Holmfirth. The tour is £9 per person and picks up and starts outside Sid’s Cafe every hour although, they only run on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. The tour is run by Colin, a man who owned the famous Sids cafe for twenty years and featured in many of the episodes of the show.

Here are just a few pictures from the tour, but there is plenty more to see on this tour.

After our tour we had another little walk around. Below are a few more snaps of this beautiful town.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my short post about Holmfirth today.

Thanks for reading 🙂

Stay blessed 🙏🏾

Natalie x

May 29

York Minster: The largest Gothic cathedral in Northern Europe

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One of our tour stops was York Minster, after all you can’t visit York without seeing its most popular landmark.

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The history in brief

York Cathedral is the cathedral’s commonly known name, but it is officially the Cathedral and Metropolitcal Church of St Peter. The first original Church on this site was a temporary wooden church built by King Edwin of Northumbria. The church was built after King Edwin, who was in control of York, married Princess Ethelburga of Kent who persuaded him to convert to Christianity as part of the marriage deal. The church was built for the purpose of King Edwin’s baptism in 627.

After his baptism, Edwin ordered for the church to be rebuilt in stone structure, although he never actually got to see it complete because he was killed in battle in 633. The church was supposedly completed in 640 under King Oswald some time after Saint Paulinus helped King Edwin’s widow and her children back to Kent. The church was then dedicated to St Peter.

In 732 the first Archbishop of York was recognised by the pope.

In 741 the church was burnt to the ground and Ecgbert the first Archbishop of York re-built and designed the new lofty structure.

The stone saxon church was ransacked by William the conqueror’s forces in 1069, he then ordered his appointed archbishop to rebuild a Norman Cathedral on the site. It took Archbishop Thomas 20 years to complete the Cathedral. This cathedral was badly damaged in a fire in 1137, this time Archbishop Thomas’s successor Archbishop Roger Pont L’Eveque started to remodel the seating area and chamber in 1154. All the work was completed by 1175 with an addition of two western towers.

The Gothic style church of today took 250 years to build, and was built between 1220 and 1472.

Interesting facts about York Minster

The Cathedral has its own policing The police force was established after a religious fanatic set the church on fire on the 2nd of February 1829, and has had a police force ever since.

Some of its roof was designed by children A children’s programme called Blue Peter hosted a competition to design a roof in 1984 during restoration of the cathedral. The winning designs were art inspired by Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon, the raising of Mary Rose and a whale and diver.

The first black Archbishop of the Church Of England led services here Dr. John Sentamu became the first black Archbishop in the church of England in 2005. He became the Archbishop of York and led the services here up until June 2020.

It costs £15,000 a day to keep it open We already mentioned the police force but, imagine the cost of heating, lightning and all the other staff.

Its apparently haunted. With York having the reputation of one of Europe’s most haunted cities, it’s probably hardly surprising to hear this. One of the many story’s that pops up is, a man is often seen sitting in the pews.

I hope you have enjoyed reading about York Minster if your thinking of visiting click here for more information and tickets.

Thanks for stopping by

Natalie x

Apr 27

York, England Part 1: Off with their heads!

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York is a historical medieval city in the North of England located between London and Edinburgh. It is often described as one of the UK’s most treasured and loved cities. In fact, some would even regard this as England’s number one city. The city is often voted number one in surveys as the most beautiful cities in the UK.

Not only is it beautiful, it has incredible history dating right back to 8000 and 7000 BC, and this can clearly be seen right throughout the city.

First stop: Micklegate Bar

The first stop we made was to one of the gateway’s to the city. There are four main gateways, Bootham Bar, Monk Bar, Micklegate Bar and Walmgate Bar. The gateway we entered through was Micklegate Bar, the most important of the four. For centuries monarchs had stopped here to ask for permission from York’s Lord Mayor to enter into the city.

Dating back to the 12th century Micklegate Bar has seen a gruesome and bloody history. Decapitated heads of traitors and rebels were once displayed on spikes at the top as a warning for anyone entering the city. Some of the victims heads included Sir Henry Purcey and Richard, Duke of York. Richard The Duke Of York was one of the most, if not powerful man in the UK until he literally lost his head.

Ghost Stories

There has been many ghostly encounters reported, mainly from Sarah Brocklebank. Sarah was the young daughter of a man who had been an 18th century gate keeper. Apparently she had lost her father’s keys to Micklegate which resulted in him loosing his job. There have since been several reports of people seeing her inside Micklegate Bar and around the surrounding area.

People have also reported seeing glowing eyes at the top of the Bar 🤤

My sister sneaky snapped this one of me. The walls you see are the city’s medeival walls attached to Micklegate. All four of the gates are attached to the city walls.

Until next time.

Natalie x

Thanks for reading 🙂