Easter in Holland

It's Easter and for us that means a trip to Holland to watch the Euro Hockey League  - this is the third year we have watched this stage of the tournament. This year Rotterdam Hockey Club were hosting the tournament and we decided that we would stay at a campsite in Delft and cycle to the hockey stadium - a round trip of some 15 miles.

We ferried from Harwich to Hook of Holland - it's so much cheaper than from Hull to Rotterdam.

We arrived a couple of days before the hockey started, so took the opportunity to do a bit of sightseeing in Delft

Delft is a small city located in the west Netherlands about halfway between Rotterdam and The Hague. It is one of Holland’s historical centres and home to the Dutch royal family, The House of Orange. William of Orange also known as William the Silent was killed and buried here in 1584 at the end of his struggle against the Spanish in the 80 years war.

Historical buildings and other sights of interest include:

Nieuwe Kerk (New Church), constructed between 1381 and 1496. It contains the Dutch royal family's burial vault, which between funerals is sealed with a 5000 kg cover stone.

A statue of Hugo Grotius - (1583–1645), a lawyer who laid the foundations for international law - made by Franciscus Leonardus Stracké in 1886, located on the Markt near the Nieuwe Kerk.

City Hall on the Markt.

Delft is probably best known for the blue and white porcelain and pottery that originates from the area known as Delftware.

Cheese is also much in abundance!

Not sure what this statue is supposed to represent

We stayed at a campsite in Delfte Hout ...

... and also took the opportunity to cycle to ...

... a windmill.

Details of our visits to the Euro Hockey League will follow later

Another sunny Sunday in Birmingham

On Sunday 25th March - another sunny Sunday - University of Birmingham played host to Lichfield Hockey Club in their last match of the England Hockey League's Conference West. Lichfield desperately needed a win if they were to stand a chance of avoiding the relegation play-off spot. If Birmingham won they could end up Runners Up - depending on the result in the Havant game.

Birmingham set off at a cracking pace ...

... and were three goals up in the first quarter of an hour

Peter (Jacko) Jackson opened the scoring then Rich grabbed two more goals

Aathavan (Aardy) Lingeswaran extended the lead to four by half time.

Two quick goals by Lichfield brought them into the game before Rich scored his third and Birmingham's fifth to make it 5-2.

However, two further Lichfield goals made for a tense final ten minutes ...

... until Will Byas eased the home fans' nerves with a strike in the final minute.

With Havant (surprisingly) losing 2-1 at Cheltenham, Birmingham finished 2nd in the League by a clear 2 points (albeit some 14 points behind Champions, Bath). Well done to the entire squad in what has been their best season for many years.

Well done and thanks to coach, Steve ...

... and manager, Norman

A sunny day in Birmingham

This afternoon, University of Birmingham Hockey Club played Havant HC in an England Hockey League Conference West clash at the University's Bournbrook Pitches.

Havant and Birmingham both had 27 points from 15 games - 13 points adrift of Conference Champions, Team Bath Buccaneers.

Havant, who were lying 2nd in the table at the start of the game, were quicker "out of the blocks" ...

... and were two goals up within 8 minutes against 3rd placed Birmingham.

After 12 minutes, Birmingham pulled one back. Rich - in only his second game since keyhole surgery on his knee about 6 weeks ago - latched on to a superb through ball from Will Byas and buried the ball in the net giving keeper Andy Isaacs no chance.

Birmingham continued to pile on the pressure ...

... and Ben Stoney grabbed a deserved equaliser from a penalty corner. So all square at half time.

Birmingham took the lead some 5 minutes into the second half. Captain Pete (Jacko) Jackson scored one of his trademark penalty corners

Birmingham ran out winners 3-2 and moved into second place in the league. A trip to champions Bath awaits them next week before the final match of the season on 25 March at home against Lichfield.

Well done Brum

Along the old Duke's Road

This week we met outside the Plough in Low Bradfield to the north of Sheffield.

We would be returning here for some of its excellent Farmer's Blonde ale - but more of that anon; we had a twelve and a half mile hike before we were allowed such refreshment!


Dave, our leader today, marched us up to High Bradfield - it was formerly known as Kirkton - and here he gave us a potted history of the villlage including how it grew up around the church and the motte and bailey castle (see last week's blog for details of motte and bailey castles)

The parish church, St Nicholas Church, is in the Gothic Perpendicular style and dates from the 1480s. It incorporates elements of an earlier church that may have been built in the 12th century.

This unusual building is the Watch House - it was built in 1745 to allow relatives of the deceased to watch over the graveyard and apprehend body snatchers. Very few other buildings of this type now exist in Britain. In the 18th century, newly buried bodies risked being disinterred to be sold to medical schools for the study of anatomy. As stealing a corpse was only punishable by a fine or imprisonment, rather than transportation or execution, body snatchers found it sufficiently profitable to run the risk. The Anatomy Act of 1832 ended the trade by allowing bodies to be donated to medical schools.

View over Low Bradfield from St Nicholas's Church

Agden Reservoir - on route to The Duke's Road

The track is named after the Duke of Norfolk, who owned large parcels of land in this area. It is likely the track was used to allow access for grouse shooting, although it probably followed an earlier ancient route over the moors. G.H.B Ward, the well-known Sheffield rambler, once described the walk over the Duke of Norfolk’s road as the ‘wildest Yorkshire moorland walk south of Wharfedale.’ 

It was also the scene of a mass trespass in September 1932, when 200 ramblers walked from Bradfield to Abbey Brook in protest against the lack of public access to the moors. Since the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, there has been open access to much of the moor

Dave had forewarned us that the going would be a bit boggy at times ...

... but it also got a bit foggy

After a brief lunch in the shelter of some weathered rocks we headed towards Derwent Edge

Chris considered whether he should leap, gazelle-like, across this ravine to the trig point at Back Tor - but decided against it

Andy found a much safer route to the trig point - flush bracket number 2145 and joint 471st in the "triggy charts" for those of you with an interest in such matters

Dave needed a quick check that we were still on course ...

... and he reliably told us as we turned east back towards Bradfield that "it was all downhill from here"

Strines reservoir which was constructed in 1871. It is the smallest of the reservoirs in Bradfield Dale with a capacity of 453 million gallons. The name Strines may derive from the Old English word ‘strynds’ or ‘strinds’, meaning a rivulet or stream

Boot's Folly, also known occasionally as Strines Tower or Sugworth Tower, overlooks Strines reservoir. It was constructed in 1927 by Charles Boot who resided at nearby Sugworth Hall. The 45-foot-high square tower with castellated top and flag pole was built from left over stone when the nearby Bents House was constructed. The Folly was constructed to provide work for Sugworth Hall’s workmen during The Depression. Today the interior is bare but it originally had wood panelling and a spiral staircase, the staircase was removed some years ago after a cow climbed the stairs and became stuck.

Then on to Dale Dike reservoir - site of the Great Sheffield Flood

In 1864, the newly-built dam burst, causing the Great Sheffield Flood, which caused massive damage downstream along the rivers Loxley and Don and through the centre of Sheffield. Around 250 people lost their lives. The dam was rebuilt in 1875 on a smaller scale and holds 446 million gallons of water. Below the dam is a stone engraved C.L.O.B. (centre line old bank), which marks where the original dam wall would have stood, and a flood memorial stone erected in 1991 by Bradfield Historical Society to commemorate those drowned. Thornseat House was built after the disaster to house the Chief Engineer of the Sheffield Water Company so that he could oversee the reconstruction of the dam.