MELBREAK FOXHOUND SHOW - LORTON

The Vale of Lorton

The Melbreak Foxhound Show set in the Vale of Lorton is in Cumbria for those who don’t know.  Cumbria, also for those not up on these things, is the home of the Six Fell Packs.  The independent minded big foxhounds evolved to cope with the mountainous rugged terrain of the Lake District as a means of controlling the foxes and protecting the livelihood of the farmers.  Anyway, you can look them up and no doubt find differing sentiments.  However without them the Lakes community life would be much the worse and events like this local show would probably have no focus to exist.   A Brief History

The show included separate events to judge terriers lurchers and beagles as well as fell foxhounds.  There were also Trailhound events where athletic hounds, bred for the purpose, follow a specially laid scent trail over the fells competing with each other to win the race and get back for their bowl of food, and so odds are given and wagers are made in speculation of which hound might come first.

So below are images, in no particular order, of Lorton Show on Sunday 26th July 2014 on a very hot sunny day.

A trailhound at the finish having run over the fells, stone walls and fences for anything up to ten miles in about half an hour.  Being closely cropped to allow it to keep cool it has virtually no coat so tends to look even thinner.  If you want to know more start here maybe - Hound trailing

The Finish

The reward

GREETLAND

DEMOLISHING A MILL

On the 3^rd November 1974 I was passing through Greetland, which is near Halifax.  I don’t remember why except that I used to buy cotton yarn around that time, from James Sutcliffe and Sons Ltd., cotton spinners,   who had Victoria Mills there, currently inhabited these days by Andy Thornton Architectural Antiques and possibly others, as like most textile companies James Sutcliffe’s faded away. 

I was confronted by fire engines on the main road, the B6113 Rochdale Road, not far from Victoria Mill just before a road junction.  It was an era when demolition was going on all over the place around this area, usually by firms with Irish names.

There was an old stone mill being pulled down alongside the main road.  I don’t know whose it was.  There was a token gesture to 'Health and Safety' of the time with a sign indicating 'men at work' on the pavement but little else.  The mill was being demolished by a couple of chaps walking about on top of the high walls that were still standing, about four storeys up, knocking off the stones with a sledgehammer so that they fell down inside the mill.  At least the demolition men were wearing hard hats!

I know this is an old tale but I have only just rediscovered three colour slides I took at the time.  I doubt there are any other photographs of this event as people did not tend to carry cameras around in those days.  Today everyone has a means of taking photographs and videos.

Unfortunately only the Fire Brigade could help here as one chap apparently lost his nerve high up on that narrow wall, so I was told at the time, and had to be brought down.  His mate watched the proceedings, standing hands in pockets, staying with him until he was helped away and then he strolled off along the wall on his own to carry on swinging his hammer, knocking the stonework down bit by bit.

The pics are not too good as it was gloomy being in the late afternoon on a winter’s day.

The turntable ladder goes up while the man waiting to be rescued sits on the wall - see insert

 A fireman goes up the ladder

Rescued

When this little drama was over and while the nonchalant man with the hammer continued knocking his stones off the top of the wall, the traffic  carried on as normal, but the pavement seemed to be closed - just in case!.

TOUR de YORKSHIRE and a CANON SX700 HS

THE BIKE RACE AND A CAMERA

Recently, after much deliberation and agonizing, I bought another camera.  I have been getting fed up of trailing about with an ostentatious heavy DSLR and big zoom lens.  I decided, rather rashly for me, that I would buy another camera that I could put in my pocket.  My research told me the Canon SX700 HS was within my limited budget of unnecessary extravagance and so I plunged with an online purchase.

I haven’t had much chance to test it yet but this weekend I had an opportunity in one respect and that was mostly on rapidly moving objects.

The Tour de France came through Yorkshire as everyone knows and so will now have heard of both Holmfirth and Holme Moss.  Inevitable I was drawn to the spectacle, encouraged by continuous hype here. That was despite a slight antipathy to the ever growing Lycra brigade in general who are able to use public roads as an every-day race track.   These bicyclists are not to be confused with ‘bikers’ who are very responsible, observe speed limits and also pay road tax, have insurance, have a driving license by having passed a bike test and ride slow and wide for horses.  Equestrians ought not to be on roads these days either. - (tongue in cheek in case you get too serious).

One great benefit of the Tour de France coming here has been the immaculate restoration of some sadly deteriorated road surfaces, but I suppose the peripheral ones to the route will now never be repaired in the foreseeable future as the entire budget for the next few years, and more, has been blown.

The biking fraternity, the bicycling one, has infiltrated this family and as a consequence we provided accommodation for three members of Velo Club Baracchi, non of whom speak Italian, at the weekend.

Here they are, all the way from Lowestoft in Suffolk, ready to cycle up Holme Moss this past Sunday to view the spectacle, having already been to the North Yorkshire section to see the action on Saturday. (The one the right does not have a dog on his helmet).

Interestingly and coincidentally, they are standing in the same place as this wedding party was standing during the time of WW1, 100 years ago!

However, hopefully without being too boring as I know the web is awash with photos of the event, I am listing a few images as the riders flashed past just to show how well this camera performed.  I took a continuous sequence of them as they passed by and non failed.  I just wish I had taken a photo of the huge phalanx of police motorcyclists as they swept past at the very beginning.  Not only that,  but they seemed to keep on coming after the initial impressive batch and were in splendid form giving high-fives to onlookers - well it looked as though that was what they were doing.  I never realised that the UK had so many police bikes.

The camera focuses well and takes continuous shots very quickly and silently.  I am so used to my DSLR sounding like a closet door slamming when I take a photo that this smooth fast action is addictive. 

174 below is Cyril Lemoine (France)

Here is a cropped section from the above just to show the detail as this chap passed at a very fast speed on the flat.  Not bad for a point and press Auto ‘Action’ setting.

And yet another crop of the above.  I wonder if he shaves his legs and if so not his arms.  I wonder why?  I must ask my brother!  I suspect he indulges in these perversities. 

So really this post is about some early results of a Canon SX700 HS that are totally untouched apart from the text I added and I cropped a bottom bit of road off on some.  I am very impressed so far.

As for the Tour de France in the Holmfirth area, it was a huge success.  The day was like one big party in spirit.  The locals and farmers made a bob or two and probably a lot more that no one will ever know about and everyone went home happy, although I heard on the local news tonight, (the Monday following) that some are still celebrating in The Fleece at Holme, as they don't want the party to end.  It was a fun day and hopefully it will return sometime but preferably round the back roads that are more testing and require some urgent attention. 

As I was loafing in my garden chair, this Goldfinch came for a drink of water about 18 feet away.  This is a crop out of the bigger picture below it.  Again not bad for a point and press with a zoom that can go to 30X magnification although it was about half that when I took the quick 'snap'.

 The original

There are plenty of options to keep me amused on this camera as well as HD1080P video so maybe I will get around to trying that next.  But for my basic level of happy snapping I think I will be quite content with the camera.