John Edward Cooper’s Notes
Saturday 12 October 2019
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[2019] Trip to Market Rasen and Caistor …It was a dull but dry day. Later, the sun came out from time to time. Janet and I got a №10 bus to Top Town (09:52).… There was a queue of ten or so people waiting there; and we boarded the single-decker №53 bus when it came (10:41). We sat near the back of the bus. All the windows were open. When it proved to be very cold and draughty, I closed the two windows nearest me, but that didn’t improve matters appreciably. I didn’t want to get up en route and risk falling to close the other windows, and didn’t want to risk anyone disagreeing with my action, so I stayed where I was. Two young women in front of us seemed to be shivering, and one man moved from near the front to just in front of us on the other side. No-one made any move to close the other windows, though, till after Caistor. At the top of the Wolds, as the road approached Caistor, the bus didn’t continue ahead along Grimsby Road to enter the town, it bore left along Caistor By-Pass as if it was going to miss Caistor altogether; then, at the bottom of the hill, it turned sharp right and entered via Nettleton Road. It then looped around via the Market Place, and left Caistor, I think, by the same road by which it had entered. At Market Rasen, where one might expect to turn right from George Street into Queen Street, the bus turned left, continued along Queen Street, and turned right down Oxford Street. I rang the bell to get off then, because we didn’t want to be taken far from the town centre. But when the bus reached the railway station (and didn’t stop at a bus stop there), it turned around and returned the way it had come. It then passed George Street and stopped with the cobbled Market Place to the right. I realised then what had happened, why the driver had gone that way: when we’d got to the junction of George Street and Queen Street, there’d happened to be a returning №53 there wanting to turn left. There was no room because of our bus for it to turn left, and no room for our bus because of it to turn right. So our driver had turned left instead, then come back. We went straight to the nearby Aston Arms, at the north-east corner of Market Place. I chose what elsewhere would be termed “Hunter’s Chicken”, prepared in a gratin dish as it was at the Turk’s Head in Louth, and served on a plate with chips. From a choice of garlic bread and salad, I opted for the former. Janet had a 10oz rump steak. I helped her to eat some of her chips and some of her peas. To drink I had a pint of Black Sheep Best Bitter (not Theakston’s, as the branded glass suggested). Janet had a lemonade with blackcurrant cordial added.  Saturday 12 October 2019 — 12:18:36 Lunch at the Aston Arms, 18 Market Place, Market Rasen A fellow who had been on the bus was also in the pub. He asked us to mind a plastic bag that he left on the seat while he went out for a smoke. While he was out a woman approached where he’d been sitting, and we were just about to tell her that the occupant was coming back when he appeared. He knew her, so she did in fact sit in that location. A second woman also, whom he knew, came, and she sat there also. I had the impression that these were unplanned, though not wholly unexpected, meetings. He told them that he was about to become the oldest paper-boy in the world; he’d just accepted an offer of a delivery round in Caistor. We were under the impression that he’d been on the bus since Grimsby, but we could have been mistaken; he could have boarded at Caistor.  Saturday 12 October 2019 — 12:18:36 (detail) The fellow whom we unwittingly followed to Caistor  Saturday 12 October 2019 — 12:19:42 Aston Arms, 18 Market Place, Market Rasen  Saturday 12 October 2019 — 12:52:02 Aston Arms, 18 Market Place, Market Rasen To the left of the Aston Arms as one faces it, was a gate leading to the parish church. The door was open, but first I wanted to go around the church and take photographs. When we got back to the door, we found that it was locked.  Saturday 12 October 2019 — 12:53:22 Parish Church of St. Thomas, Market Rasen, seen from the south (Market Place)   Saturday 12 October 2019 — 12:56:28 Parish Church of St. Thomas, Market Rasen, seen from the north (Caistor Road) 
Saturday 12 October 2019 — 12:57:36 River Rase, seen from the west (Caistor Road), passing under Church Mill Bridge 
Saturday 12 October 2019 — 12:59:10 Parish Church of St. Thomas, Market Rasen, seen from the east (George Street) We walked eastwards along Queen Street. Janet went in a gift shop called “The Gift Horse”, and bought an item…. We continued under the railway bridge. This is a beam bridge, but either side of it are brick viaduct arches, so I guessed that this might have originally been an arched structure integral with the viaduct. We turned left into Jameson Bridge Street, where on the right-hand side we noticed an interesting house, very narrow on its side facing the street, but extending back quite a long way. 
Viaduct in Queen Street, seen from the east Google Street View — Image capture: Sep 2016 © 2019 Google 
Interesting house in Jameson Bridge Street Google Street View — Image capture: May 2011 © 2019 Google 
Interesting house in Jameson Bridge Street Google Street View — Image capture: May 2011 © 2019 Google On the way out, Janet had noticed in Queen Street Jossal’s Bistro and Coffee Shop. She wanted a hot chocolate and a dessert. But I felt daunted by it. I thought I’d seen another tea shop nearer the Market Place, but I was mistaken. A №53 bus was waiting there, so I suggested that we get it (13:33). The fellow mentioned earlier was aboard, but he didn’t notice us. To continue rather than end our day out, and to attempt to redeem the situation,… I suggested that we get off in Caistor. We looked in Market Place, and followed a sign to a tea shop at the back of a model shop in the north-east corner. But Janet didn’t like the look of that. We’d got off the bus in Butter Market, a short street running from the south-east corner of Market Place; and just beyond there was The White Hart pub…. They were about to close the kitchen after serving lunches, but agreed to do a banana fritter for Janet. She also had a hot chocolate (so the situation was thus “redeemed”). I had a pint of San Miguel. The fellow from both buses and the Aston Arms came into the room to be served at the bar, so we said hello to him. “This is my ‘local’,” he informed us. 
Saturday 12 October 2019 — 14:19:54 The White Hart, 21 South Street, Caistor From there, we went north-west through the ca.40 yards’ length Butter Market, where the bus stop was, then west, skirting the south side of Market Place and proceeding along Bank Lane. 
Saturday 12 October 2019 — 14:52:44 The White Hart, 21 South Street, Caistor 
Saturday 12 October 2019 — 14:53:32 Market Place, Caistor, seen from Butter Market On the right side of Bank Lane, about halfway down, we passed what looked like a large house that had been converted into a Catholic church, dedicated to St. Thomas More. Beyond that, to the right, down Chapel Street, was the eponymous chapel, looking to my eyes very typically Methodist: a box-shaped brick building, with a quasi-Palladian façade with triangular pediment above low-relief fake columns. A little farther along to the left was the north side of the extensive churchyard of the parish church. It was open for visitors. We were the only ones there; it was unattended. It struck me as being very “Anglo-Catholic”. 
Saturday 12 October 2019 — 15:00:38 Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Caistor, seen from the north 
Saturday 12 October 2019 — 15:02:44 Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Caistor: nave, looking east 
Saturday 12 October 2019 — 15:03:40 Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Caistor: roof of the nave 
Saturday 12 October 2019 — 15:04:34 Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Caistor: rood beam 
Saturday 12 October 2019 — 15:05:36 Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Caistor: east window 
Saturday 12 October 2019 — 15:06:54 Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Caistor: window of the Lady Chapel 
Saturday 12 October 2019 — 15:08:02 Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Caistor: north aisle and Lady Chapel 
Saturday 12 October 2019 — 15:09:30 Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Caistor: nave, looking west 
Saturday 12 October 2019 — 15:20:36 Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Caistor: ceiling 
Saturday 12 October 2019 — 15:21:40 Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Caistor: font 
Saturday 12 October 2019 — 15:22:48 Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Caistor: south aisle 
Saturday 12 October 2019 — 15:31:22 Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Caistor: north doorway and tower Going back outside, we found a narrow lane (“Church Folly”) southwards then westwards around the perimeter of the churchyard. On the south side, a section of rubble-and-mortar retaining wall between the higher churchyard and a house below had a sign “Roman Wall” attached to the fence above it. Shortly after that, a grassy path through the slightly longer grass of the churchyard led us back north. One of the gravestones had the surname “Christmas” engraved on it…. On the north-west side of the churchyard was a sign “Caistor Grammar School”. 
Saturday 12 October 2019 — 15:36:00 Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Caistor, seen from the south-west Then we made our way back to the Butter Market bus stop, without delay because the bus was almost due. Because buses went in a loop through Caistor, it was the same stop for both Market Rasen-bound and Grimsby-bound buses. 
Saturday 12 October 2019 — 15:45:36 View from Butter Market bus stop, Caistor: War Memorial, unveiled on 15 August 1920; and The White Hart It was a double-decker №53 bus that arrived (15:47), and we sat at the front upstairs so got a magnificent, almost bird’s-eye view of the undulating wolds as we passed through them. On arrival in Grimsby, we went first to the HMV shop, where Janet selected quite a handful DVDs for purchase. Then we visited the ATM at Lloyds Bank and the off-licence on the corner of Town Hall Street and Victoria Street for a bottle of San Miguel before going to Casper’s. Janet had fusilli with chicken in a tomato sauce. I again chose “Arrabbiata” with fettuccine, but asked them to “go easy on the chillis”. It was nevertheless quite hot, but tolerably so. Leaving there, we waited for some five minutes for a №3 bus back (18:55).… [2019] |
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