Holme village is on the eastern slope of the Pennines, hanging on the edge under Black Hill near Holme Moss. For those who are not familiar with Holme Moss and many have never heard of it, it is in Yorkshire. Holme is more a hamlet than a village with an extremely good small junior and infant school and an excellent pub called The Fleece Inn, well known for its cuisine. Strangely, opposite the pub and set back by the bus stop, Holme sports a very functional free public convenience. By that I mean it is in good working order and hygienic. Quite a rarity these days. It should be a boon to those who will flock here to see and participate in the Tour de France when it tackles the A6024 Holme Moss road. This road in the earlier days of motoring was used for hill climbs so it is quite challenging. Some think it still is! Given the boom in cycling enthusiasm one might think the race was already in progress at weekends.
So this post is about a 'Lawn Meet' at the village of Holme. In other words the 'Beagles' were invited to meet here and start the activities with pork pie, fruit cake and cheese and the like, as well as strong liquor, by the generosity of a local gentleman and his family. (We eat cheese with our fruit cake here). In fact it was more of a garage meet than a lawn meet as there was no lawn, but what a garden stretching as far as the skyline!
Being a Tuesday, and given the new association between the Colne Valley Beagles and the Holme Valley Beagles, this was designated a Holme Valley Beagles meet in their country on their normal midweek day. It is all pretty academic really and one day, hopefully, the movers and shakers will get together and rename this arrangement as one pack.
So it was a Home Valley Beagles meet.
As it was a Tuesday, the 'field' was mainly composed of mobile oldies, and of course some ladies, a few entrepreneurs who are able to regulate their work life balance in their favour and a bagpipe playing physician who had fortunately not brought his instrument with him although it would have sounded pretty good if he had been piping on the top of Black Hill.
(For those who don't know, if you click on a picture it enlarges )
(For those who don't know, if you click on a picture it enlarges )
Here is a good example of 'Keepers Tweed' being worn. Made in Holmbridge at the mill of Whitely and Green, now defunct like most of our textile companies, this fabric is a hard wearing heavyweight smooth wool fabric, over 20 ozs/ yard I think for this sort being worn, which withstands the cold and wet of the locality. I said smooth as one thinks of tweed as the hairy Harris sort. The wind does not get through Keepers Tweed, it being very closely woven, or to be a bit technical, highly sett. I am told it is still made somewhere else now. It keeps its shape, looks good and will see these two out and still look smart and is probably already pretty ancient.
Extinguishing the last remnant of Whitely and Green's mill. The last remaining derelict building on fire in June 2013
Back to the 'Lawn Meet'
The gentleman on the left is from Illinois and had just arrived on a visit to the locality
The hounds arrive
One of the Masters always gives a speech before we move off, It is important to state the rules to ensure everything is kept within the law. It is also an opportunity to pass on information of forthcoming events and thank our hosts and generally wax eloquent.
Some are not so impressed
'They also serve who only stand and wait.'
He is still speaking
Bit more yet, hang in there.
Getting into his stride
Some wandering attention here but there is clearly someone who is enthralled!
But look at that garden!
Across to the village of Holme
Basically the other way
Even walls have wire at the top as this is sheep country - lots of them
Walking towards Holme
Fences are to be overcome, It is impossible to use gateways all the time. Unfortunately sheep netting and barbed wire are a fact of life, just as the collapsing dry stone walls are. There was a choice on this fence to either go over the barbed wire top strand or between it and the top of the sheep netting. This hound chose to go over the top, others went between and one or two managed to find a way underneath with a bit of help.
It is time to go home
Waiting to go home
It was a lovely mild autumn day with a bit of sun now and then. If only all our days out were like this.
