[2019]
Trip to Louth and Hubbard’s Hills
…Janet and I got a №10 bus into town (09:51). We boarded the №51 bus to Louth when it arrived (10:39). We sat on the front seats upstairs,
Janet on the right and I on the left.
Saturday 22 June 2019 — 10:41:40
Aboard the №51 bus, awaiting departure
The bus proceeded along the A1243 road — Bargate, Scartho Road (turning off to stop at the hospital), Louth Road — which became the A16 after the roundabout at the junction with Peaks Parkway. As we continued along the A16 there were diversions through villages: left, passing through Holton-le-Clay; left, passing though North Thoresby; right, through Ludborough (Utterby, though, didn’t require a diversion); left, through Fotherby.
I noticed a sign advertising a “scarecrow festival” in Holton-le-Clay. I didn’t pay it much heed, till I noticed another one in Fotherby. This was something new to me, but
Janet had heard of them.
I noticed that some of the fields had had wide borders dug around them — indeed, were in the process of having, for I later saw a mechanical digger in one of the fields bordering Louth Road — too shallow to be called “trenches”.
I think most of the fields we passed had wheat growing in them. Others had a “whiskery” appearance, but I didn’t know enough to be able to tell whether they were barley or rye. Some had other grasses, which I assumed were for hay. Some fields had oilseed rape, but not as many as I might have expected from the seeming predominance, earlier in the year, of yellow oilseed flowers. I don’t recall seeing any animals (apart from a few horses in one field). Away to the right, at the top of a small hill, was a field coloured red, which I took to be the redness of poppies concentrated by foreshortening. Just before we entered Utterby, I saw, walking on the sidewalk to the left, a pair of greylag geese with three very small goslings.
On the approach to Louth, the bus: turned left, at the Fairfield Industrial Estate, into Bolingbroke Road; right, along Tattershall Way; right into North Holme Road, then left into Arundel Drive; left, along Chatsworth Drive; right, along North Holme Road; right, along High Holme Road; left, along Bridge Street, past St. James Church to our right, bearing right along Upgate; and left, along Mercer Row, where we got off at Market Place. There, it turned left, through Market Place and on along Eastgate.
We walked along Market Place and Eastgate, looking for somewhere to eat, turning right, along Burnt Hill Lane, and right, along Queen Street, deciding then to look in the
Turk’s Head on the corner of Queen Street and Aswell Street. The Turk’s Head is where we went during a visit to Beth and Jim many years ago when they lived at Covenham. The
Ward’s beer that used to be served there was particularly yeasty that evening. We all felt the effects of it afterwards, and Jim in particular was ill. Today, there was no trace of it to be
seen.[i] We asked for a menu at the bar, and decided we’d stay. I had a pint of
Stella Artois, and Janet an Appletiser. “Shall I put it on the bill?” the barman asked. We went through to the restaurant area: “Julie’s Conservatory”, where
Janet ordered “Italian chicken” and I “hunter’s chicken”. Each was served in a gratin dish on a plate with chunky chips and salad — “real” chips, that didn’t soften into mush when vinegar was applied.…
- [i] The Sheaf Brewery in Sheffield, which produced Ward’s Best Bitter, closed in 1999. The brand was bought by the Double Maxim Beer Company in 2003 and production resumed variously in Cockermouth and Stockport.
Saturday 22 June 2019 — 12:08:40
Lunch at the Turk’s Head
Saturday 22 June 2019 — 12:25:18
“Julie’s Conservatory” at the Turk’s Head
Saturday 22 June 2019 — 12:26:22
View through to the bar at the Turk’s Head
From there, we found a nearby ATM to replenish our cash, for the
Turk’s Head didn’t accept payments by card. I got us a bit lost after we set out to find Hubbard’s Hills. All I had was a screen-shot print of
Bing Maps in “Ordnance Survey” view, which didn’t have street names.
I thought we were on the “orange” road just south of “River Lud”; but it turned out, we were on the “orange” road just east of the “yellow” road further below on the map.
Janet asked directions, and on the second attempt a lady gave her detailed directions. From Horncastle Road, we turned right, northwards along a broad, wooded path shown by a pecked green line on the map.
Saturday 22 June 2019 — 13:10:08
Wooded way from Horncastle Road to Crowtree Lane
From there we turned left. When we came to a stile leading into a park area, we decided to go that way.
Saturday 22 June 2019 — 13:17:34
Entering Westgate Fields from Crowtree Lane
Saturday 22 June 2019 — 13:24:08
Westgate Fields
Saturday 22 June 2019 — 13:29:22
“Westgate Fields Information Point”
Saturday 22 June 2019 — 13:29:22 (detail)
“Westgate Fields Information Point”
Exiting the park, we turned right—
Saturday 22 June 2019 — 13:31:14
The Old Mill House, Crowtree Lane
—and some 150 yards farther along came to a fork, with the lane to the right sloping gently downwards, and the path to the left sloping somewhat more steeply upwards. We took the latter, which led us up along the valley top.
Saturday 22 June 2019 — 13:32:58
Choosing the upward way along the top of the Lud valley
Saturday 22 June 2019 — 13:38:02
Choosing again the upward way along the top of the Lud valley
Saturday 22 June 2019 — 13:40:24
Proceeding along the top of the Lud valley
Saturday 22 June 2019 — 13:43:18
View across the valley, with the River Lud, below, hidden by the greenery
The path came to an end, after about 1000 yards, at steps, leading up to the golf course to the left, and down to the Lud valley to the right. We went the latter way, ending at the southern entrance to the Hubbard’s Hills estate.
Saturday 22 June 2019 — 13:55:56
About to descend to the valley bottom
Saturday 22 June 2019 — 13:56:50
Descending to the valley bottom
From there, we proceeded northwards.
Saturday 22 June 2019 — 13:59:20
View northwards (downstream) of the River Lud at the southern end of the Hubbard’s Hills estate
Saturday 22 June 2019 — 14:01:20
One of the bridges across the Lud
Saturday 22 June 2019 — 14:03:04
Fallen willow tree on the other side
Saturday 22 June 2019 — 14:05:24
View upstream
Saturday 22 June 2019 — 14:08:10
Proceeding downstream
Saturday 22 June 2019 — 14:10:48
View up the east side of the valley
Saturday 22 June 2019 — 14:15:04
On one of the bridges to the other side
Saturday 22 June 2019 — 14:15:04 (detail)
On one of the bridges to the other side
Saturday 22 June 2019 — 14:15:50
Crossing one of the bridges to the other side
Saturday 22 June 2019 — 14:18:36
View back
Saturday 22 June 2019 — 14:18:56
View ahead
Saturday 22 June 2019 — 14:20:14
Memorial to Annie Pahud[ii]
- [ii] Hubbard’s Hills was donated to the town of Louth by the trustees of Auguste Alphonse Pahud, and opened to the public on 1 August 1907. Auguste Pahud, who was Swiss, moved to Louth in 1875 to take up duties as a German and French teacher at King Edward VI Grammar School. He married a local girl, Annie, daughter of William and Maria Grant, wealthy farmers living at the manor in Withern about six miles south east of Louth. Annie Pahud died in 1889 and Auguste never got over this, committing suicide in 1902. The trustees of Auguste Pahud bought Hubbard's Hills to honour his wish to create a memorial for Annie.
(Wikipedia)
Saturday 22 June 2019 — 14:20:50
Detail of the Annie Pahud memorial
Saturday 22 June 2019 — 14:22:50
Hubbard’s Hills play area
Saturday 22 June 2019 — 14:31:06
Map of Hubbard’s Hills at the northern entrance
At the café near the northern entrance, we sat on the balcony. I had an “strawberry split” ice-lolly [popsicle] and a small bottle of water, and
Janet had some ice cream and a Tango orange-flavour soda-pop. Her opinion was that
Tango is nowhere near as good as Fanta. She also had a slice of Battenberg cake.
Saturday 22 June 2019 — 14:58:18
Hubbard’s Hills Café near the northern entrance
Saturday 22 June 2019 — 15:00:54
River Lud, looking upstream just by the Hubbard’s Hills entrance
Saturday 22 June 2019 — 15:03:28
River Lud, looking upstream from the bridge over to Crowtree Lane
On the way back, we again went through the park, Westgate Fields,—
Saturday 22 June 2019 — 15:08:20
Passing the Old Mill House, Crowtree Lane
Saturday 22 June 2019 — 15:09:58
Westgate Fields
—continuing at the end in an easterly direction along Westgate,—
Saturday 22 June 2019 — 15:18:12
Westgate and St. James’s Church
—then bearing right along Breakneck Lane and turning left along Gospelgate.
Saturday 22 June 2019 — 15:23:22
Bedehouses on the corner of Gospelgate and Schoolhouse Lane
At the end of Gospelgate, we turned left into Upgate, then right along Mercer Row, bearing left through Market Place, and continuing along Eastgate,
i.e. the way we’d seen the bus go after we got off it this morning. But where was the bus station?
Janet asked a couple who were passing, and they told us they were going there themselves: to the right at the end of Eastgate, and not far along that street, Church Street, on its right. I remembered it when we got there: now run-down looking and in need of refurbishment, unnecessarily large in my opinion, with no indication which stand served which bus-line, and with only two small forms for seating. There were ladies’ and gents’ toilets, with 20p coin-operated turnstiles. The somewhat art deco-looking four-faced clock atop a little tower showed the time as “3.50” — “so that no-one will know that the bus is late!” I thought wryly.
Janet had misread the timetable, thinking that the next №51 bus back to Grimsby would be at “15:55” (it was now 3.35pm or 3.40pm); but when she showed it to me for me to check, I noticed that this service was headed
“SD” (“School days only”). The list adjacent to it showed that the next bus,
“SSH” (“Saturday and School Holidays”), would be at “16:15”. So we decided that, rather than spend 20p and wait, we’d go and find a café. We turned right and walked along Queen Street, seeing but not liking the look of one café; then turned right, along Burnt Hill Lane; and right again, along Eastgate. At the end of one block was a narrow little two-storey building with a Dutch gable, which we did like the look of, and entered.
Tertulia, 132 Eastgate, Louth
Image capture, Sep. 2018
© 2019 Google
Janet had one of their “signature” Belgian hot chocolate drinks, with hot milk to dilute it, and I had a black filter coffee, agreeably sufficiently strong.
Janet complimented them on the cleanliness of their toilet, an old-fashioned one with overhead tank and pull-chain. That’s an establishment to patronise on a return visit to Louth.
Saturday 22 June 2019 — 15:58:16
Refreshments at Tertulia
Back at the bus station, the clock still said it was “3.50” — so, for the aforementioned “four-faced clock”, read “four-faced liar”! We boarded the №51 bus when it arrived (16:18), back to Grimsby. The pedestrianised part of Victoria Street was only sparsely populated; but such persons as there were, struck us as tending to be “low-life”. We used the
ATM at Lloyds Bank — both of them, in fact, because the first, after a very long pause, cancelled the transaction and returned the card — because we needed the means to pay at cash-only
Casper’s ristorante/pizzeria. I bought a 660ml bottle of San Miguel at the
Express off-licence on the corner of Victoria Street and Town Hall Street; then we went to
Casper’s, who are happy for customers to bring their own alcoholic drinks,
with no charge for “corkage”.
Janet had a Fanta there, so much better, she commented, than the earlier
Tango. I had chicken pieces and lamb chops, served in a thin flatbread, with fries and salad, and
Janet had doner and lamb kebabs, also wrapped in a flatbread, with rice and salad. I just managed to eat mine, but
Janet left some of hers, for she wanted to leave room for the “lemon delight” dessert.
I had a black coffee, and it was agreeably sufficiently strong. (Again! That’s two coffees I’ve had today that have been strong enough — and this is England, where such phenomena are rare!) It was quite a large one, as was the one at
Tertulia; so I suspect that it too was a filter coffee, not an americano, for the larger an
americano is, the more its espresso base has been diluted. Afterwards, I walked along the row of bus stops, and found that the first bus to arrive would be a №10, so we got that (18:36).…
[2019]
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