Who do I think I are? (Skipsea investigations)

Alice Hill was one of my English great grandmothers. Growing up, there was a lot of mystery about my grandmother's origins. But other family members had in recent years tracked her origin down to the village of Skipsea, near the Yorkshire coast, and given me pointers to where to locate her gravestone. So I went there on my own fact-finding mission.


Initially I couldn't locate the cemetery, so where better to enquire than the local pub? This was a very good move, because not only were the regulars terrifically friendly and helpful, but they were able to show me some historical photographs of the very village square adjacent to which, I believe, great grandmother lived.






The photos were undated, but who knows, maybe my grandmother and/or great grandmother are actually in them.

Top, middle, and bottom

Pubs, that is. Lots of country towns have a top and a bottom pub, and often a middle one too. Here are Ulverstone's.

Top pub is these days called The Lighthouse, and they've put a (plastic?) lighthouse tower thing on the roof. I had a nice meal here, and asked the barmaid to remind me what the place used to be known as. "Stones", she said. That's right! How could I forget my Ulverstone pubs?

Just down the road is the grand old Furners pub. It looks pretty well unchanged, on the outside at least. I had an even better meal there.

The disappointment is the bottom pub, the River Arms. In the late 70s  and early 80s this one was looking very smart and cosy, and hired some very good cooks to became the gastro pub of choice for hip young Ulverstonians like me. And shortly after then, its bottom bar gained national fame for its 'Bottoms Bar', with its display of (sometimes tasteful) photography featuring the relevant anatomical part.

None of this now though. It's been renovated again recently, and most of it seems to have become a reception centre. Meals were being served in the upper section, but I found the ambience less than inviting.


Ulverstone's main drag is still dominated by the Shrine of Remembrance clock tower, at the very top end of town. It's a bit hard to love this thing, but here's an interesting account of it from the Burnie Advocate on the occasion of its 60th anniversary, in 2014:
http://www.theadvocate.com.au/story/2179023/clocks-life-and-chimes/

An amble through Coonamble and a Nickname Hall of Fame

Another pleasant little town. Coonamble has about 5000 inhabitants and many of them seem to be colourful characters, known mainly by their nicknames. They're pictured, larger than life, on various walls around the place. This is the Coonamble Nickname Hall of Fame.

We took a few minutes to stretch our legs here, to acquaint ourselves with these local identities, and to admire the fine looking pubs.


Like most of north western NSW, Coonamble has been suffering from drought for about four years, though there was a bit of rain a couple of weeks ago. It's traditionally known for sheep grazing, but more recently beef cattle have become important, plus crops such as wheat, barley, and canola.

Newtown

Sometimes I've walked around a

suburb and had a hard time finding very much to photograph. It's been tempting at times to report that the only special feature of the place is that there isn't really one. You can't use that tactic too often.

There's absolutely no problem finding things to photograph in Newtown though. It's always a visual feast. (As well as a gastronomic one.)