Bra Recycling

The local Women's Institute (Marsh, Huddersfield - aka Cupcakes & Cocktails)  have been making planting 'braskets' out of bras.  They have made a display of the results alongside the main road through Marsh, outside the Junction pub - very eye-catching.

It's all to encourage recycling of old clothes, allegedly.  Though this particular approach works best with larger sizes - the less well-endowed will have to find some other use for old bras.

 

The Tour de France in Huddersfield

Yesterday we carried our garden chairs to the nearest point of the Tour de France route and sat on the pavement (which would normally be a very odd thing to do) to wait for the race to pass by.   It was not a prime position, compared with the climbs, such as Holme Moss, so there was plenty of room for everyone.

We had quite a long wait before anything much happened (although every police motorbike or police car going past got a wave and a cheer), and then the publicity caravane came through.

The head of the caravanne - Y for Yorkshire

And finally the cyclists arrived.  At this point, there was a small breakaway group at the front and a couple of stragglers at the back, so it took a bit longer for them to pass than it might have.

The breakaway group

The peloton

Earlier, before anything happened, I walked along the route a little way to chat to friends and neighbours and to take a photo of our historic tram shelter (now a bus shelter) which has been refurbished for the Tour.

And after the cyclists had gone, we went home and watched the live broadcast of the rest of the stage - over Holme Moss, and on to Sheffield.

After the stage was over, we went to a soiree at the house of some friends, Margaret and John, who are keen followers of the Tour de France.  They were thrilled that today's route went past the end of their road, and held the party to celebrate it.  There was French-Yorkshire fusion food (boeuf bourguignon and Yorkshire pudding), French wine and Yorkshire beer, and appropriate condiments (Dijon mustard and Henderson's Relish).

Margaret and John have a collection of Tour de France memorabilia (i.e., the freebies distributed by the publicity vehicles in the caravane) that they have acquired over the years, and had put them on display for the occasion.

The mantelpiece arrangement featured the highly-prized green foam hands (acquired 2008), handed out by PMU, sponsors of the green jersey.

(Click to enlarge)

Another gem of the collection is a model of the Astra satellite, from 2002.

A hat from Champion supermarkets was acquired in 2008 - at that time Champion were sponsors of the polka dot jersey.  They have since been taken over by Carrefour, who now sponsor it. 

  
Credit Lyonnais sponsor the yellow jersey; the musette, or cloth lunch bag, is also from 2008.

It is a unique collection, of incalculable value I am sure, and was displayed to very high standards (says my household museum curator). 

So that's the end of a really good weekend:  the weather was kind, the Tour was exciting, and the Yorkshire countryside looked wonderful.  And there had been such a lot of effort put into arranging other events and displays before and during the Tour - it was all worthwhile and made it even more special.  

Huddersfield Architecture

The Christmas decorations in the Kingsgate shopping centre in Huddersfield this year feature a series of panels hanging from the roof, showing some of the local buildings that are important architecturally.  It was good to see architecture being celebrated, though I can't help feeling that the panels look a bit out of place surrounded by greenery, red ribbons, etc.

It was good to see Neaversons featured - a lovely Art Deco china shop, which is now a "tea house and restaurant".   

Neaversons

Two of the University buildings are shown - the Ramsden Building and the Creative Arts Building. The Ramsden Building is the original building which developed eventually into the University from the Technical School and Mechanics’ Institution, while the Creative Arts Building is one of the new buildings on the campus.

Ramsden Building

Creative Arts Building

The George Hotel is famous as the home of Rugby League.  It is also the home of Tuesday Knit Night (though not quite so famous in that role).
 

The George Hotel

The other buildings shown on the panels include the railway station, the parish church and the town hall, all in the town centre. The Victoria Tower on Castle Hill is 2 or 3 miles away, but it's a local landmark and can be seen from most places in the town. 

Westgate House

The local building material is sandstone - very good quality sandstone is still quarried near Huddersfield.  So when Westgate House was built in the 1920s, it was probably the only building in town not built of stone.  It's mostly glass on, I think, a steel frame - it still looks surprising.  

And one of our favourite buildings is there - Lindley Clock Tower, designed by Edgar Wood in 1902.    

Lindley Clock Tower

A Yorkshire Garland

There are two Art Deco statues in front of the library in the centre of Huddersfield.  Earlier this month, one of them had a garland of knitted white roses.  I assume that it was put there for Yorkshire Day (1st August), the white rose being the symbol of Yorkshire.    If so, it had been there for a couple of weeks when I took the photo, so was perhaps past its best.  And now it has disappeared.  A pity - it was nice while it lasted.   

Pillarbox Gold

Whenever Team GB has won a gold medal in the Olympics, the Royal Mail has painted a postbox gold in the town that the medal winner comes from.  So we now have a gold-painted postbox in the centre of Huddersfield (on Railway Street) for Ed Clancy, who was one of the winning team in the men's team pursuit in cycling.  

Strictly speaking, Ed Clancy doesn't come from Huddersfield but from Holmfirth, a small town 8 miles away, or even more  precisely, from Upperthong, a village on the edge of Holmfirth. But the Royal Mail has evidently decided that Huddersfield is near enough, and for those of us that live here, it's good to see the gold pillarbox and think of a local person doing so well.   (What's more, Yorkshire athletes have done very well indeed - the county has done better than many countries, and would have a respectable place in the medals table in its own right.  But Yorkshire folk are famously modest, so I won't dwell on that.)    

A Local Spinning Company?

Greenwoods ad in Vogue Knitting, 1946

We have a set of Vogue Knitting Books in the Knitting & Crochet Guild's collections at Lee Mills, and I have noticed ads from a Huddersfield company in the issues dating from the later 1930s to 1950s.  I live in Huddersfield so I was particularly interested in these ads - although many of the well-known  British spinners of knitting yarns were, and still are, based in West Yorkshire, and Huddersfield is an important producer of woollen cloth, I don't know of any existing knitting yarn spinners based in Huddersfield.

Greenwoods (of Victoria Street, Huddersfield) initially advertised a mail order service:

"Greenwoods can supply you with all the Wools and other threads mentioned in this and other Vogue issues.  ... In addition, any of the garments can be supplied COMPLETELY HAND-KNITTED & READY TO WEAR at reasonable prices from 12/6 upwards. Ask for a quotation for your favourite garment made to measure."

It seems a bit odd to read a knitting magazine and then pay someone else to do the knitting for you, but the ad appeared for several years, so I assume that it was a successful service.

The Victoria Street business appeared in a 1937 Huddersfield trade directory as "Miss Greenwood, Wool and Handicraft Depot".  So it appears that at that time, the company was only supplying yarns made elsewhere - interesting that it was owned by a woman.  Towards the end of the war, Greenwoods started advertising their own yarns, and then from 1946 the Vogue Knitting ads featured their own designs as well. In 1946 (between the two issues of Vogue Knitting) the company changed its name to Wakefield, Greenwood, and moved to Railway Street.  I wonder what had happened?  Was Miss Greenwood still involved in the business?  Had she got married to Mr Wakefield?

W.G. pattern leaflet 119, early 1950s

Back of W.G. leaflet 119

Wakefield, Greenwood continued to advertise into the 1950s, and I hoped to find one of their patterns at Lee Mills. One eventually appeared a couple of weeks ago - from the early 1950s, I guess.  But it was still a bit mysterious.  They claim to manufacture the yarns they are selling, but there cannot possibly have been a spinning mill on Railway Street, or even a warehouse - there is nowhere to put one.  So either they were actually buying in yarn from other companies, or their mill was somewhere else - but then why wasn't their office at the mill?

Then this week, I found a whole box of W.G. patterns.  The styles appear to date from the 1950s and early 1960s.  By sorting them into numerical order, and looking at the ads in Vogue Knitting too, it's possible to follow the development of the company.  At some time in the late 1950s, the company was renamed W.G. Spinners Ltd, but remained at Railway Street. And then a little later, in the early 1960s, the address changed to "Wakefield Mills, Thornhill Beck Lane, Brighouse".  

Ad for W.G. Spinners, 1962

Brighouse isn't far away, but it's not Huddersfield.  I felt quite proud that Wakefield, Greenwood were a Huddersfield company, but it turns out that they decamped to Brighouse - or maybe the spinning was done in Brighouse all along.  A bit disappointing.  Still, Miss Greenwood's original business was definitely Huddersfield based - I like to think of all those posh Vogue Knitting readers who couldn't knit paying to have their knitting done in Huddersfield.

New Yarn Shop in Town

Today was the Grand Opening of a new yarn shop in Huddersfield town centre, in the Byram Arcade.  The owner is Lydia, who set up the Huddersfield knitters group that meets on Tuesday evenings in the bar of the George Hotel (home of Rugby League). 

The shop is called Spun and (of course)  has hand-knitted shop signs.

It is a lovely shop - spacious and light, with a gorgeous array of yarns.  There is a separate room for demonstrations and workshops - today there was a spinning demonstration. I'm looking forward to the workshops - there is one planned for November on dyeing, though I am trying to convince myself that I'm quite busy enough knitting ready-made yarn without taking up spinning and dyeing as well. 

 
There is a table and chairs by the window in the main shop, looking down onto Westgate (the shop is on the 2nd floor).  I sat there with my knitting, chatting to other knitters and shoppers - it will be a handy place to drop in while I'm in town.   It was good to see so many people there today.  

Byram Arcade is a Victorian building with shops on three floors. There are other interesting independent shops in the arcade, including a delicatessen and cafe on the ground floor, and a very nice restaurant on the first floor of the Cook and Bakeware Company shop (my sister's favourite).  

Lydia stocks some wonderful yarns, including Artesano and Manos del Uruguay.  She is specialising in British yarn as well - there is a range of Blue-faced Leicester yarn in some gorgeous colours, for instance.  She has a selection of KnitPro needles, too, that might convert me to knitting on circular needles, if anything can.   Lots of temptation.  I shall have to hurry up and finish my current projects so that I have a reason to buy more yarn.