John Edward Cooper’s Notes

[i] The woman with the car was turned away when the Castle opened at 10am, Janet told me, to find somewhere to park the car, because there was no on-site parking at the Castle.

“We arrived at 9.45am,” Janet wrote, “and had a wander around until 10am when [the Castle] opened [for visitors]. Wonderful: the sun came out —yes!” There was a bit of a disagreement when I wanted to continue along the path below the southern wall of the Castle, but Janet wanted to be back at the Castle exactly at 10 o’clock. Anyway, she did turn back; but I went on, before turning back myself to arrive at three minutes past 10. I didn’t appreciate how desperate for a pee she was!


Sunday 5 September 2021 09:44:18
Part of the Barbican, the Barbican Bridge and the Great Tower


Sunday 5 September 2021 09:45:58
Barbican Bridge and Gate


Sunday 5 September 2021 09:48:36
Scarborough Castle: views of the southern wall and towers


Sunday 5 September 2021 09:52:04
South Bay, Scarborough


Sunday 5 September 2021 09:54:20
Scarborough Castle: views of the southern wall and towers


Sunday 5 September 2021 09:56:20
Scarborough Castle: views of the southern wall and towers


Sunday 5 September 2021 09:56:38
Scarborough Castle: views of the southern wall and towers


Sunday 5 September 2021 09:58:36
Scarborough Castle: views of the southern wall and towers


Sunday 5 September 2021 10:01:04
Scarborough Castle: Barbican Bridge and Gate


Sunday 5 September 2021 10:03:02
Scarborough Castle: Barbican and visitor entrance

When I got back, Janet was nowhere to be seen, without or within. Anyway, a man in the ticket office (“Elliott”, presumably) recalled seeing a woman in a bright blue coat enter a few minutes ago,—


Summary receipt, issued “10:01:26”


Itemised receipt, issued “10:01:55”

—so I purchased just one entry, along with a guide-book.


Summary receipt, issued “10:05:09”


Itemised receipt, issued “10:05:19”


Scarborough Castle, English Heritage guidebook


Plans of the Castle, as they appear in the fold-out inner rear cover of the English Heritage guidebook
Click on image to enlarge


Sunday 5 September 2021 10:07:42
Scarborough Castle: ascending beside the Inner Bailey


Sunday 5 September 2021 10:09:32
Scarborough Castle: Master Gunner’s House

After I found Janet, “we had a drink al fresco at a picnic table…” (Janet had a Diet Coke and a Mr. T. G. Pullin’s Bakery fruit cake slice, and I had a Franklin & Sons “Brewed Ginger Beer”)—


Summary receipt, issued “10:13:58”


Itemised receipt, issued “10:14:10”


Sunday 5 September 2021 10:31:54
Scarborough Castle: Inner Bailey embankment and wall; Great Tower; and Master Gunner’s House

—“…then set off around the site. Like Whitby Abbey there was far more to see than was evident down below.”


Sunday 5 September 2021 10:32:56
Scarborough Castle: Great Tower


Sunday 5 September 2021 10:35:44
Scarborough Castle: Great Tower


Sunday 5 September 2021 10:37:36
Scarborough Castle: Great Tower, interior


Sunday 5 September 2021 10:37:46
Scarborough Castle: Great Tower, interior


Sunday 5 September 2021 10:38:04
Scarborough Castle: Great Tower, interior


Sunday 5 September 2021 10:38:12
Scarborough Castle: Great Tower, interior

I’d taken photos around the interior of the Great Tower, when Janet pointed out the herringbone pattern of bricks in the first-floor and second-floor fireplaces, the former especially, so having almost missed them in the first photos I photographed them also.


Sunday 5 September 2021 10:41:40
Scarborough Castle: Great Tower, first-floor fireplace


Sunday 5 September 2021 10:42:18
Scarborough Castle: Great Tower, second-floor fireplace


Sunday 5 September 2021 10:43:16
Scarborough Castle: view southwards from the Great Tower of the Inner Bailey


Sunday 5 September 2021 10:46:32
Scarborough Castle: Well


Sunday 5 September 2021 10:47:24
Scarborough Castle: Well


Sunday 5 September 2021 10:48:50
Scarborough Castle: Well and Great Tower


Sunday 5 September 2021 10:49:18
Scarborough Castle: viewing platform

The first few photos that I took from up on the viewing platform have the look of colourised black-and-white photos, such as one used to see sometimes in picture postcards.


Sunday 5 September 2021 10:51:46
Views from the viewing platform


Sunday 5 September 2021 10:52:46
Views from the viewing platform


Sunday 5 September 2021 10:53:14
Views from the viewing platform


Sunday 5 September 2021 10:53:32
Views from the viewing platform


Sunday 5 September 2021 10:53:42
Views from the viewing platform


Sunday 5 September 2021 10:53:58
Views from the viewing platform


Sunday 5 September 2021 10:57:40
Scarborough Castle: Inner Bailey, embankment and ditch


Sunday 5 September 2021 11:01:02
Scarborough Castle: the first of the towers along the curtain wall


Sunday 5 September 2021 11:04:06
Scarborough Castle: King John’s Chamber Block


Sunday 5 September 2021 11:04:56
Scarborough Castle: King John’s Chamber Block


Sunday 5 September 2021 11:04:56 (detail)
Detail showing Oliver’s Mount with its TV mast and war memorial


Sunday 5 September 2021 11:06:40
Scarborough Castle: King John’s Chamber Block


Sunday 5 September 2021 11:07:50
Scarborough Castle: King John’s Chamber Block


Sunday 5 September 2021 11:08:38
Scarborough Castle: King John’s Chamber Block


Sunday 5 September 2021 11:09:22
Scarborough Castle: King John’s Chamber Block and curtain wall


Sunday 5 September 2021 11:11:14
Scarborough Castle: King John’s Chamber Block and Great Tower


Sunday 5 September 2021 11:14:44
Scarborough Castle: King’s Hall


Sunday 5 September 2021 11:15:02
Scarborough Castle: King’s Hall


Sunday 5 September 2021 11:36:52
Scarborough Castle: a second tower along the curtain wall


Sunday 5 September 2021 11:40:58
Scarborough Castle: a third tower along the curtain wall


Sunday 5 September 2021 11:43:28
Scarborough Castle: looking back along the wall


Sunday 5 September 2021 11:43:54
Scarborough Castle: “sally port” to the former South Steel Battery…


Sunday 5 September 2021 11:44:44
…gated and barred against access

I heard voices from the other side of the “sally port”, but could not go through to whence they came. Perhaps, if I’d continued along the path below the wall earlier, and not turned back when I did, I’d have got to where they were.


Sunday 5 September 2021 11:46:18
“The Cockhill Tower
also known as Charless Tower stood
at the edge of the cliff near this point.
George Fox, founder of the Society of
Friends, is said to have been imprisoned
here when he was held in the castle
from 1665 to 1666.”


Sunday 5 September 2021 11:49:36
Farthest part of the curtain wall


Sunday 5 September 2021 11:50:20
Farthest part of the curtain wall


Sunday 5 September 2021 11:53:28
Crossing the ditch around the Roman Signal Station and Medieval Chapel


Sunday 5 September 2021 11:53:36
Ditch around the Roman Signal Station and Medieval Chapel


Sunday 5 September 2021 11:53:48
Standing at the Roman Signal Station enclosure wall


Sunday 5 September 2021 11:56:26
Roman Signal Station and Medieval Chapel


Sunday 5 September 2021 11:57:06
Activity out in the North Sea


Sunday 5 September 2021 11:58:16
Roman Signal Station and Medieval Chapel


Sunday 5 September 2021 11:58:44
Our Lady’s Well


Sunday 5 September 2021 11:59:16
Our Lady’s Well


Sunday 5 September 2021 12:00:44
Underground vault and water tank


Sunday 5 September 2021 12:01:18
Underground vault and water tank


Sunday 5 September 2021 12:03:14
Fishing vessel “SH 129 Elvina”


Sunday 5 September 2021 12:09:34
Views from the headland


Sunday 5 September 2021 12:09:46
Views from the headland


Sunday 5 September 2021 12:09:58
Views from the headland


Sunday 5 September 2021 12:10:06
Views from the headland


Sunday 5 September 2021 12:12:02
Heading back to the Inner Bailey

“We spent over two hours in there,” Janet wrote: “nearly 2½. Lots to see. Very interesting. Just before we left I used the loo and my glasses fell down the pan before I’d flushed the loo. That’s a first! Sodding masks!” The use of the coarse-slang intensive was because, in order to stop her glasses misting up while wearing a face mask, Janet had to perch her glasses further down her nose than usual, and that had caused them to fall off when she leaned over the lavatory pan. So we sat at one of the picnic tables while she produced some antibacterial wipes to clean her glasses. 


Sunday 5 September 2021 12:33:30
Pair of cannon near the Great Tower


Sunday 5 September 2021 12:36:26
Model of Scarborough castle and the headland


Sunday 5 September 2021 12:36:40
Model of Scarborough castle and the headland


Sunday 5 September 2021 12:37:04
Model of Scarborough castle and the headland


Sunday 5 September 2021 12:37:40
Model of Scarborough castle and the headland

On the way down from the Castle entrance, as we were approaching St. Mary’s Church, we saw people coming out of the graveyard on the left that’s separated from the churchyard by a road, and wondered what could be of interest to them there. Then on the corner, we saw a fingerpost pointing to, among other things, “Anne Bronte’s Grave” (with no diaeresis on the “e” in “Brontë”); so we went in there and found it.


Sunday 5 September 2021 12:46:54
Anne Brontë’s grave in St. Mary’s graveyard


Sunday 5 September 2021 12:47:26
Memorial slab lying on the grave of Anne Brontë


Sunday 5 September 2021 12:47:42
Badly eroded original gravestone


Sunday 5 September 2021 12:48:18
St. Mary’s Church, Scarborough

Our hopes of finding a suitable pub in Castle Road or Victoria Road were disappointed. Even the one that had such excellently maintained flower-baskets outside, seemed sadly neglected within. As Janet put it, “We decided to go for lunch and the first place we found available[ii] was ruddy[iii] Wetherspoon’s (The Lord Rosebery): ‘same old’ — a completely ‘underwhelming’ experience. I had to a[nti]b[acterial] wipe the table as usual. [John] had pizza[iv] and San Mig[uel], and I had salad and bread, and Pepsi.”

[ii] Available: Perhaps the word here should have been “tolerable”.
[iii] Ruddy: a very mild intensive! The coarse-slang “sodding”, used earlier, would have been more appropriate. At Wetherspoon’s establishments, with very few exceptions (e.g. The Angel Hotel, Whitby), one invariably finds uncleared, uncleaned, sticky, filthy tables.
[iv] Conscious of needing to retain an appetite for dinner, I chose a “Small Plates” 8" Pepperoni Pizza instead of the standard 11".

Receipt from The Lord Rosebery, 85–87 Westborough, Scarborough YO11 1JW, issued “13:20”
I logged on to the Wi-Fi while we were there (13:37–13:38).


Sunday 5 September 2021 14:01:02
The Lord Rosebery, 85–87 Westborough, Scarborough YO11 1JW

“Then to the Spa,” was all that Janet wrote next. From Westborough, on which The Lord Rosebery is situated, we turned right and went down Vernon Road to its end in Valley Road. A disused footbridge, under which we passed on the way down, reinforced my impression of widespread urban decay and lack of maintenance, that the unusable and barred footpaths had engendered on Oliver’s Mount yesterday. The cliff lifts, no longer in use (“14:16:22”, below), were another example. We had in mind to visit the Rotunda Museum just at the end of Vernon Road,—


Sunday 5 September 2021 14:07:48
Proceeding down Vernon Road, Scarborough


Sunday 5 September 2021 14:11:04
The Rotunda Museum, Vernon Road, Scarborough YO11 2PS

—but when we got there and I saw that it was a museum of geology, I didn’t fancy it. We went to the end of Valley Road and turned right, southwards along the road as far as the Spa. I thought it was there that in 1962 we went to see a show featuring Lenny the Lion, with Helen Shapiro topping the bill.[v]

[v] The show was indeed in 1962, but it was at the Floral Hall not the Spa.

Sunday 5 September 2021 14:12:00
Proceeding under Cliff Bridge, Scarborough


Sunday 5 September 2021 14:12:18
Proceeding under Cliff Bridge, Scarborough


Sunday 5 September 2021 14:14:34
Castle Hill, Scarborough


Sunday 5 September 2021 14:16:22
Cliff Bridge, St. Nicholas Cliff Lift and Grand Hotel, Scarborough


Sunday 5 September 2021 14:22:00
The Spa, Scarborough


Sunday 5 September 2021 14:22:12
The Spa, Scarborough


Sunday 5 September 2021 14:26:26
The Spa, Scarborough

We went into Farrer’s Bar & Restaurant for a drink. I was waiting at the bar for one of the staff to finish serving a customer, when another young man offered to help (or he asked “Are you all right?”, which means “How can I help you?” nowadays). But almost immediately afterwards, he was distracted by the computerised till. He’d dealt with a £30-some card payment from a customer, but found that the money somehow hadn’t been taken. He was fiddling about with the computer, and called someone else over to look at it. He discussed the problem with her, and she said the customer would have to be asked for the payment again; and I was ignored and completely forgotten. I waited one minute, two minutes; then I lost patience, went back to where Janet was seated, to say I didn’t want to be there, invisible, any more, and we left.
 “We caught a bus up the coast and got off at Peasholm Park,” Janet wrote. When I took the photo “14:26:26” from close to the far end of the Spa, I didn’t notice that there was an open-top bus waiting at the other end, on a roundabout close to the building.


Sunday 5 September 2021 14:26:26 (detail)
“Beachcomber… Route: RED” bus

But now we saw it, or the one that came after it, and decided to board it, if we could reach it in time. It was like the bus that we got from Bridlington to Flamborough Head on Wednesday 1 September 2021, only that one was “Beachcomber… Route: BLUE” and this one was “Beachcomber… Route: RED”. The same conditions applied — a concessionary day ticket was £3 each — only, on that bus, we paid by card; on this, we had to pay in cash.


“Beachcomber… Route: RED” tickets, issued “14:39”


Sunday 5 September 2021 14:41:56
Aboard the Beachcomber “Red” bus


Sunday 5 September 2021 14:42:18
Scarborough Pier Lighthouse, Vincent’s Pier, Scarborough

Anyway, I got to see the Hispaniola from it.


Sunday 5 September 2021 14:45:00
The Hispaniola, sailing past the East Pier, Scarborough


Sunday 5 September 2021 14:45:00 (detail)
The Hispaniola


Sunday 5 September 2021 14:45:20
The Hispaniola, sailing past the Scarborough Pier Lighthouse


Sunday 5 September 2021 14:45:20 (detail)
The Hispaniola, and (above) “diving Belle” by Craig Knowles

Before we rounded Castle Cliff, I decided to go upstairs, the cool breeze notwithstanding. I didn’t find much worth photographing from there, though.


Sunday 5 September 2021 14:56:54
Rounding the Castle Hill headland


Sunday 5 September 2021 14:58:42
Upstairs aboard the Beachcomber “Red” bus

When the bus turned left at Peasholm Gap, we decided to get off. In Peasholm Park, we warded off a couple of herring gulls that were stealing bread that had been given to a duck and her two ducklings.


Sunday 5 September 2021 15:06:52
Duck and ducklings in Peasholm Park


Sunday 5 September 2021 15:08:08
Mute Swans in Peasholm Park

There was a band playing, not quite in tune, on the bandstand out in the lake. How they got there, and how they’d get ashore again, was not revealed.


Sunday 5 September 2021 15:14:14
Bandstand, Pagoda and Cascade, Peasholm Park

“We had a drink, then went to find ‘The Little Train’,” Janet wrote. We went to the café, then going out of the Park we made our way north-westwards, across Burniston Road, to where the 20" gauge miniature railway, the North Bay Railway, terminated at Peasholm Station.


Peasholm Café receipt, issued “15:19”


Sunday 5 September 2021 15:38:04
Grey Squirrel in Peasholm Park


Sunday 5 September 2021 15:38:12
Grey Squirrel in Peasholm Park


Sunday 5 September 2021 15:38:38
Grey Squirrel in Peasholm Park


Sunday 5 September 2021 15:44:16
North Bay Railway, Peasholm Station

At the ticket office-cum-shop, we bought tickets and a souvenir guidebook.


Tickets, issued “15:45”


“Souvenir Guidebook”


Receipt, issued “15:46”

…Before the train was due to depart at 4pm we went back across Burniston Road, where there were some public conveniences. From Burniston Road I saw the train arrive.


Sunday 5 September 2021 15:53:18
View from Burniston Road of the arrival at Peasholm Station of a North Bay Railway train hauled by Robin Hood

By the time we got back, the locomotive had been uncoupled from the train and had gone around the balloon loop so that it was at the other end of the train and facing in the opposite direction.


A sketch map (not to scale) of the North Bay Railway, Scarborough, showing the track plan, and buildings associated with the railway — from the Wikipedia article “North Bay Railway”
Credits: Svitapeneela / CC BY-SA 3.0


Sunday 5 September 2021 15:55:50
Robin Hood, now coupled to the opposite end of the train


Sunday 5 September 2021 15:56:16
Robin Hood


Sunday 5 September 2021 15:56:42
Aboard the North Bay Railway train


Sunday 5 September 2021 16:02:32
Approaching the Boating Lake and Water Chute


Sunday 5 September 2021 16:03:14
Boating Lake and Water Chute


Sunday 5 September 2021 16:07:06
Triton passing at Beach Station

At the terminus, Scalby Mills Station, a turntable took the place of a balloon loop.


Sunday 5 September 2021 16:12:32
Robin Hood, proceeding to the opposite end of the train at Scalby Mills Station


Sunday 5 September 2021 16:14:56
Turntable at Scalby Mills Station


Sunday 5 September 2021 16:23:02
Scalby Mills signal box


Sunday 5 September 2021 16:26:36
North Bay and Castle Hill, Scarborough


Sunday 5 September 2021 16:27:28
Triton passing at Beach Station


Sunday 5 September 2021 16:30:18
Entering the tunnel


Sunday 5 September 2021 16:30:50
Passing the Boating Lake


Sunday 5 September 2021 16:30:50 (detail)
Approaching Peasholm Station


Sunday 5 September 2021 16:31:32
Approaching Peasholm Station


Sunday 5 September 2021 16:36:18
Robin Hood being coupled to the opposite end of the train


Sunday 5 September 2021 16:44:28
View from Burniston Road of Neptune at the North Bay Railway shed


Sunday 5 September 2021 16:44:38
North Bay Railway shed

We returned to Peasholm Park. A grey squirrel actually approached us and begged, with its two forepaws together in front of it. We started to go through the south-westward extension of the park, Peasholm Glen. But Janet was feeling very weary and just wanted to return to the hotel. So I gave way, not very graciously, and we left the park by the nearest exit. That was in Peasholm Drive, though, so even then there was a walk of some 250 yards to get to Columbus Ravine, the road back to the hotel, and more than a mile from there to the hotel. I’d attempted to take one or two photos at the start of Peasholm Glen, unsuccessfully because the sun was moving into the west, so that was contributing to my annoyance. Janet wrote: “We did that [i.e. ride on the miniature railway train] and it was 4.30pm so we headed back to the hotel. We were both knackered and it was a real effort to get up the stairs. I made coffee…” I transferred no fewer than 122 photos from the camera’s SD card to the WD Elements HDD (17:45–17:47), viewed them in Windows Photo Viewer, and rotated seven that needed it (17:49–17:52). Janet wrote, “I made coffee then we had dinner. Those two ladies were there [again].” Janet and I both had chicken again. I had a pint of Birra Moretti and she two Coke. “We returned to our room…” I [did this and that on the computer] (19:42–…20:51). “…and we fell into bed completely exhausted at 8.30am” — more like 9 o’clock, judging by the timing of my other activity.

[Monday 6 September 2021]