After my visit to see the Steam Locomotives at Grosmont (see previous blog posts) I went back to Whitby to take a short boat trip on the old Lifeboat which has been saved from decay and used as a pleasure boat and to promote the work of the RNLI.
As you leave the harbour you pass by the lifeboat station and the current lifeboat which was purchased at a cost of £1.2 million. The RNLI is a vital service run by volunteers and funded entirely via donations. Apparently this boat was paid for by a very generous donor who walked into the lifeboat station and asked how much a new boat would cost, she was told the cost and she promptly wrote a cheque for the full amount. What an amazing gift to the people of Whitby who will rely on this service to save lives at sea along this beautiful stretch of coast.
Hoylake is a small seaside town on the Wirral Peninsula with a population of around 6,000 people (13,000 in the council ward which includes Meols). The town has a long history including being the place where in 1690 King William 3rd set sail for Ireland with an army of 10,000 men. More recently the town has hosted the British Open Golf Championship at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club.
The pictures I have posted in today's offering show scenes of Hoylake's past. The Town Hall Clock remains the only indicator of the local council office which is now a job centre. The chocolate shop has long since ceased trading and the lifeboat has now moved to a spanking new boathouse further along the promenade. The fire house which in this picture was a mortgage brokers and antique centre is now a gym.
Hoylake like most other towns is constantly changing and evolving so when I stumbled across these pictures which I had taken over 10 years ago I thought it was good to share them with you.
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As promised yesterday I have picked a few colour images from my trip to Hilbre Island last summer. The first and last pictures are of the RNLI Mersey Class Lifeboat Lady of Hilbre which is based at Hoylake. They were out on an exercise in the Dee Estuary and passed close by the end of the island. The conditions were perfect for messing about on a boat, far better than most of the time when these guys get called out for real. I have such respect for the commitment of the RNLI who are all volunteers and funded by donations.
The other three images show different rock formations showing the different layers of rock which make up Hilbre and the other islands in the group.
The third picture is of Middle Eye the second largest of the islands with Wirral and North Wales coast in the background, this was shortly before the tide came in and you can see people are walking towards the shore to get back before getting cut off. It was several hours later before I left the island. Looking at these pictures I am thinking about another trip out there, but maybe when the weather warms up a little.
For November I have chosen to change the background for my blog as a mark of respect and to show support for the Royal British Legion poppy appeal.
I have also decided to post a couple of pictures of one of my favourite aircraft, the Spitfire. These pictures were taken during a display at the Hoylake Lifeboat Open Day in August 2013. The RNLI is another fantastic organisation that most of us take for granted but deserves our support.
Anyway you may have seen these pictures before but it is an iconic plan and I am posting them as a tribute to British servicemen past and present.
