museum – Canvins WordPress

York

A nice train ride to York for the day. We had a look around the many shops and side streets called the shambles and had a pint in a lovely little pub called the lamb and lion that I see from walking along the city walls. The highlight was a trip to York minster and then a walk up 275 steps to the top of the highest tower. The views from the top were great. We also had a 1 hour river cruise along the river Ouse to see the sights. A good trip out.

**The City walls**
York has, since Roman times, been defended by walls of one form or another. To this day, substantial portions of the walls remain, and York has more miles of intact wall than any other city in England. They are known variously as **York City Walls**,

Days Out, History, museum, Yorkshire

Knaresborough

The weather was not great so we took the train from Harrogate to Knaresborough only a ten min journey. The little village has one of the nicest train stations looks like something out of the 50’s. There is a nice viaduct that takes the train over the river and looks spectacular from the riverside views. Also take a trip to the castle it is free to get in. Have a look at the Wikipedia link for some more info.

**Knaresborough Castle** is a ruined fortress overlooking the River Nidd in the town of Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, England.

The early-fifteenth century **Chapel of Our Lady of the Crag** is located in an old quarry on Abbey Road beside the Nidd Gorge at Knaresborough and is an early 15th century chapel cut out of the sandstone of the river gorge cliff face

History, museum, Naval, WW2

Bletchley Park home of the codebreakers.

A great trip to Bletchley park home of the codebreakers. Its been ten years or so since our last visit and was pleasantly surprised they has spent a lot of money on the place. Entry fee is £21 for an Adult but we had some free tickets that where given to us by a friend. you will find some great exhibits and its all explained in great detail for you. How it all worked and how the germans never discovered it is amazing for so many people played a part in the cracking of the code thus saving many many lives and shortening the war. make sure you give it a visit you will not be disappointed.

From Wikipedia

Bletchley Park is an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes (Buckinghamshire) that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. The mansion was constructed during the years following 1883 for the financier and politician Sir Herbert Leon in the Victorian Gothic, Tudor, and Dutch Baroque styles, on the site of older buildings of the same name.

During World War II, the estate housed the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS), which regularly penetrated the secret communications of the Axis Powers – most importantly the German Enigma and Lorenz ciphers; among its most notable early personnel the GC&CS team of codebreakers included Alan Turing, Gordon Welchman, Hugh Alexander, Bill Tutte, and Stuart Milner-Barry. The nature of the work there was secret until many years after the war.

According to the official historian of British Intelligence, the “Ultra” intelligence produced at Bletchley shortened the war by two to four years, and without it the outcome of the war would have been uncertain.^[1] The team at Bletchley Park devised automatic machinery to help with decryption, culminating in the development of Colossus, the world’s first programmable digital electronic computer.^[a] Codebreaking operations at Bletchley Park came to an end in 1946 and all information about the wartime operations was classified until the mid-1970s.

After the war, the Post Office took over the site and used it as a management school, but by 1990 the huts in which the codebreakers worked were being considered for demolition and redevelopment. The Bletchley Park Trust was formed in February 1992 to save large portions of the site from development.

More recently, Bletchley Park has been open to the public and houses interpretive exhibits and rebuilt huts as they would have appeared during their wartime operations. It receives hundreds of thousands of visitors annually.^[2] The separate National Museum of Computing, which includes a working replica Bombe machine and a rebuilt Colossus computer, is housed in Block H on the site.

History, Holidays, museum, wales, Walking

Monmouth

The first time out for a while due to the Pandemic , we made a trip down to the borders and a visit & stay in Monmouth Wales. The Town has a rich heritage and History with some grand old Buildings, museums and bridges over the river Wye. We stayed in the [Mayhill Hotel](http://themayhillhotel.com) just a small distance and nice walk across the river right into the Town centre. A Visit to the Monnow Bridge is a must, this old bridge circa 1272 is the last fortified river bridge and it is now pedestrianised so you can walk across no problem. Other great places to visit are the Monmouth military museum and the old castle .

Monnow St

canal, museum

Hatton Locks 15th August 2020

Well after the year gone due to the pandemic we finally got out and visited Warwickshire to visit the 21 locks on the grand union canal at the village of Hatton. The weather was fantastic so we had a walk from top to bottom and it surprised me, the incline was huge and it must of took ages to get from top to bottom.

he flight was opened in December 1799 on the Warwick and Birmingham Canal. In 1929, the canal was renamed as the Grand Union Canal (on unification of a number of operators) and the decision was made to widen the Hatton stretch. In order to accommodate traders with heavy cargos of coal, sugar, tea and spices up the flight, the locks were widened to 14 feet (4.3 m) – allowing navigation by industrial boats or two single narrowboats.^[1] The widening was completed in the mid-1930s using a workforce of 1,000, and the revolutionary concrete lock system was opened by Prince George, Duke of Kent.^[1]

The flight was known as the “stairway to heaven” due to the difficulty of the flight and the subsequent easier journey to Camp Hill where the workmen would receive their wages.^[1]

Hatton Locks

museum

Bedford for the Day 18th January 2020

We visited Bedford today the first time we have ever been there. We took the train from Bletchley train station its only 50 mins to Bedford and was nice looking at all the stops along the way. Bedford high street is like all the old towns a little run down but down by the river it was nice and the sun come out witch made it all the better. We visited the Higgins Museum and found it one of the best we have found on our travels, lots of local interest so would recommend a visit.

From Wikipedia – The Higgins Art Gallery & Museum is in the Castle Quarter which occupies the site of Bedford Castle to the east of the High Street on the north side of the River Great Ouse embankment. The quarter also has the Castle Bailey gardens, the Castle Quay development of flats, restaurants and shops, the Castle Mound, and the John Bunyan Museum. The Art Gallery & Museum reopened after an extensive refurbishment in June 2013.

The Higgins Bedford

London, museum

The Clash at the Museum of London 4th January 2020

We went down to London by train and went to the museum of London to see an exhibition showing items of the Punk Band The Clash. It was 40 years since the clash released the great Album London calling one of my favourites. Never been to this museum before but must say it was one of the best we have visited on our travels over the years. The exhibition was showing a lot of memorabilia from the Album including old guitars and Song Lyrics etc. As always after the museum we had a slow walk back and as per normal found other things interesting they will wait until another day.

Museum of London

Cathederal, Days Out, History, London, museum

London Trip 3rd August 2019

Places Visited on a recent trip to London, we go down often and just choose an area and just walk around we don’t take Tubes or buses that way you get to see more.

The Tate Modern

Takis at the Tate Modern

This exhibition was by a greek artist called takis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takis. He does sculptures using magnetism and sound, i found it good but Gail did not think much of it as per normal. I shall keep trying to find strange and wonderful things to take her too.

Panayiotis Vassilakis (Greek: Παναγιώτης Βασιλάκης; 29 October 1925 – 9 August 2019), also known as Takis (Greek: Τάκις), was a self-taught Greek artist known for his kinetic sculptures. He exhibited his artworks in Europe and the United States. Popular in France, his works can be found in public locations in and around Paris, as well as at the Athens-based Takis Foundation Research Center for the Arts and Sciences.^[1

Tate Modern Viewing Level

St Stephen Walbrook

St Stephen Walbrook is a church in the City of London, part of the Church of England‘s Diocese of London. The present domed building was erected to the designs of Sir Christopher Wren following the destruction of its medieval predecessor in the Great Fire of London in 1666. It is located in Walbrook, next to the Mansion House, and near to Bank and Monument Underground stations.

This little Church is well worth a visit if just to look at the Dome.

St Stephen Walbrook

The London Mithraeum

This was Gail’s part of the trip to London and for once she done us proud. Its some old roman thing that most of the time i find boring but it was very interesting indeed. Again just walk off the beaten track and you find something interesting.

From Wikipedia. The London Mithraeum, also known as the Temple of Mithras, Walbrook, is a Roman mithraeum that was discovered in Walbrook, a street in the City of London, during a building’s construction in 1954. The entire site was relocated to permit continued construction and this temple of the mystery god Mithras became perhaps the most famous 20th-century Romandiscovery in London.

London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE

History, museum, Naval

Portsmouth Naval Dockyard

date Visited 25th July 2019

Another visit to the historic dock yards in Portsmouth. It’s well worth the trip even thou it’s a little on the expensive side at £39 each and bloody £9 for car-parking. We were lucky this time around as we see the huge new aircraft carrier HMS queen Elisabeth. Also on this trip we visited the submarine museum in Gosport docks across the water. After we had finished in the dockyards we had a nice pint in a pub on the water side.

From Wikipedia Click this link.

Portsmouth Historic Dockyard is an area of HM Naval Base Portsmouth which is open to the public; it contains several historic buildings and ships. It is managed by the National Museum of the Royal Navy as an umbrella organisation representing five charities: the Portsmouth Naval Base Property Trust, the National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth, the Mary Rose Trust, the Warrior Preservation Trust Ltd and the HMS Victory Preservation Company. Portsmouth Historic Dockyard Ltd was created to promote and manage the tourism element of the Royal Navy Dockyard, with the relevant trusts maintaining and interpreting their own attractions. It also promotes other nearby navy-related tourist attractions.

Portsmouth Naval Docks

Offical Website Link. https://www.historicdockyard.co.uk

Days Out, museum

The summer exhibition at the Royal Academy London

We booked the tickets for the RA a couple of months ago and we have looked forward to this trip for some time. This year was the 250th year of the summer Exhibition and was coordinated by Grayson Perry the artist and committee member. Getting to the RA is easy just take a tube to Piccadilly Circus and walk the short distance to Burlington gardens, you are close to both New and old Bond Street and the arcades selling all manner of things.

For 250 years painters and sculptures have been showing their latest works and this year works by Hockney, Emin and Allen Jones were on show for the public to purchase. A good couple of hours were spent having a look around and I shall go next year as we both enjoyed it. I have included some pictures below for you to have a look at.