Our World Tuesday - A Step Back in Time - Pickering War Weekend Part 2

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Sunday morning I set off walking from our village to the next one, roughly a mile away, to catch the bus into Pickering.  It was promising to be another lovely day in spite of the not so promising weather forecast.  Pickering was already busy with tourists and re-enactors in their costumes and uniforms.  The first photo I took was of the group on the right, then I finally spotted a German uniform, the man wearing it posed for me , then told me he represented an

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                                                               SS Panzer Tank Commander, Heinz Joachim Meyer, who had commanded tanks on the Russian Front for three years before being sent back to France, where he was finally killed at the Battle of the Bulge.  He looked remarkably fit and well for a ghost.  Then I met three more German soldiers, in the photo below, all SS Panzer tank drivers.  It seems most of the German contingent were at LeVisham that day. (Levisham turned into an occupied French village for the weekend!)

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Then I spotted my favourite car, of all the lovely old vintage cars on show during the weekend I had fallen in love with this beautiful cream coloured open topped Bentley.  I was offered a glass of wine by one of the Officers standing around it, but had to decline, I have enough problems with camera shake as it is!



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 It is a gorgeous car, if I ever win the lottery...!

The next photo is of the wonderful old traction engine, The Iron Maiden.

We have a traction engine show in Pickering every year, usually in September.  I remember seeing old steam rollers as a child, but nothing as splendid as this vehicle. 

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 There were several old style 'coppers' - 'bobbies' - policemen about, this one was keeping an eye on things with his ARP colleague, and it seems an interested lady was keeping an eye on them!

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This Home Guard soldier is carrying a basket of Messenger (Carrier) pigeons.  During the war over 7000 pigeon fanciers handed over their birds to help with the war effort.  These heroic birds carried messages in special containers far and wide, they often flew in extreme weather, sometimes under fire, and they saved countless servicemen's lives.  Every military aircraft leaving Britain was recommended to carry two birds, in watertight baskets, in case they needed to ditch in the sea.  Pigeons were often dropped by parachute to help the war effort and large numbers died through starvation, exhaustion, exposure to harsh conditions, or killed by enemy fire.  So next time a pigeon does the dirty on your car, don't curse him, bless him instead for his ancestors invaluable service to our country.


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The beautiful old Chrysler in the next photo caught my husband's eye, I think he would like one just like it.  A Bentley AND a Chrysler, now that would be nice...!





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 The soldiers lounging on Platform 2 look rather tired, too exhausted to bother chatting up the WAAF standing beside them apparently. 

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The lady singing on Platform 2 was one of the many entertainers taking part in the weekend, a lot of the old and well known wartime songs were heard in the streets of Pickering, and on the station's re-enactment programme.












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The Combat Soldier below looks ready for action, I think he really means business and I'm glad he is on our side!  I just hope the pins in those grenades are not loose!



 The Airmen studying the map look like they just parachuted in and don't quite know where they are!  During the war most place name signs and road signs were removed, so that if the enemy succeeded in landing an invasion force, hopefully they would get lost!  I wonder how many of the indigenous population found it very hard to find their way around the country.




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This beautifully restored wooden carriage transported travellers to Levisham (excuse me, I mean LeVisham!), Grosmont, Goathland, and Whitby during the weekend, pulled by one of the steam engines.  A lot of restoration work on carriages and engines takes place at Pickering Rail yards, carried out by dedicated volunteers and NYMR workers.  Anyone interested in getting involved should contact the NYMR Office in Park Street, Pickering.



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I caught up with the young Home Guard soldier who had been playing his ukelele the day before when I took his photo, camera shake, or rather wobble, caused it to come out blurred, so I took this one, I think he was on his way home.

Many men and women who gave service during the war did not receive recognition for a great many years.  The Merchant Navy and the Land Army Girls are two branches that spring to mind.  Also the women ferry pilots who delivered aircraft but had no means of defending themselves if attacked by enemy planes.  There were many others doing diverse jobs, factory workers, munitions workers, farmers, firemen, nurses and doctors, and the ordinary people who carried on and pulled together in a time of great devastation.  We owe these people and our Armed Forces a great debt of thanks for their service and sacrifice. 



Memorial Garden - Pickering Station



Memorial Plaque dedicated to Railway staff

I have made up a slide show of a number of the photo's I took over the Saturday and Sunday, of people, station scenes, steam engines and vintage cars.

For more photo's from around Our World visit

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Our World Tuesday - A Step Back in Time - Pickering's War Weekend

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Pickering’s War Weekend took place from Friday 14^th through Sunday 16^th October this year.  In the 20+ years I have lived in this area, this year was the first time I was able to visit for this special weekend, over the Saturday afternoon and most of Sunday.  The town was heaving, hundreds of people, from the local area and from far afield dressing up in 1940’s fashions or uniforms and taking part or attending as spectators.  The atmosphere was charged with jollity, bonhomie, and felt much as I would imagine it might have been on VE Day.  I was told by one visiting re-enactor that at least one pub ran out of Bitter by Saturday night.  

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There were uniforms from all branches of the military, British, American and Anzac as well as others.  Nurses, Waitresses and ladies and gents wearing 1940’s civilian clothing, and I must say that compared with some of today’s sloppy fashions, they looked very smart indeed, coupons and make-do and mend notwithstanding.  One gentleman I approached was dressed as a Spiv, dark suit, white tie etc., very flashy, and he flashed the black market goods lining his jacket at me!  Unfortunately I cannot show his photo as he is contracted to a theatrical agency.  Other individuals pictured here gave their permission for their photo’s to be shown on my blog. 
                                  Click on photo's to enlarge.

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I noticed quite a large number of the military personnel had been 'decorated' by the local ladies, with red kisses on their cheeks.

It's the uniform that does it every time.

All the photo's shown here were all taken on Saturday afternoon.  If you spot yourself here, and would like a copy of the photo, take a note of the code number beneath it and email me.  I will send you a .jpg copy via email.



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There were a large number of wonderful vintage cars on show along the main streets,

along with military vehicles of all types, jeeps, tanks, trucks, military motorcycles, and a beautiful old traction engine.

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 The next photo is of a beautiful cream coloured Bentley, occupied by two lovely, and well dressed ladies.  What a wonderful way to travel.  There seemed to be some doubt about whether the lady in the driving seat had legs, though she kept assuring teasing friends that she had actually left the car for a few minutes! 

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Now how about these two
impressive moustaches!  I couldn't resist them, I happen to like beards and moustaches, my husband has both, I threatened to divorce him if he ever tried to shave them off!  




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                                                                        Yup.... they're over here .. but I can't say too much

                                                                 cos I am married to one..!

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I loved the little produce van that was parked near the station, that's a friend standing in front of it.



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As I was about to take a photo of this US Army vehicle, this handsome young soldier strolled over, I gather it is his so he is in the picture too.  



The soldier on the right is on sentry duty I think.         

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     As the air raid siren sounded, the crowd on platform 2 at Pickering Railway Station calmly made their way to the air raid shelter, chivvied by the ARP's, whilst the Home Guard (lovingly known as 'Dad's Army') get ready to fire on any dive-bombing enemy aircraft.
 

                                                                              Members of our Senior Service

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This young man from Sidney, Australia is representing the ANZACS, where would we have been without all our brave allies.  He seemed to have an inkling of the future, knew all about computers...!

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Unfortunately, due to camera shake, the photo of this young boy soldier is blurred, but I got a better one next day.  He wasn't playing his ukelele though.  Here he was collecting for Platoon funds.

More photo's next week, from Sunday the 16th. including 'capture' of four SS Panzer Tank personnel, and if I can figure out how to do it, possibly a slide film of other pics I took on both days, featuring vintage cars, trains and other scenes.

                  For more photo's from around

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Our World Tuesday - Pickerings Medieval Church

St. Peter & St. Paul is the oldest church in Pickering, 900 years ago a Saxon church was built on this site, the only remains of that church is a carved cross shaft and the stone font now residing in the present Norman church which was built around 1140.  Around 1200 the tower collapsed destroying part of the church, rebuilding took place and a massive tower was erected, it was completed in three stages over a period of 300 years.  The church contains one of the most complete sets of medieval wall paintings in Britain, thought to have been commissioned in 1450 and painted over a period of ten years.  100 years later they were covered over with a thick coat of plaster during the Protestant Reformation, but were eventually rediscovered when the plaster was removed.  Unfortunately one of the incumbent vicars decided they were a distraction from his sermons and full of "Popish superstitions" so he had them covered again with a thick coat of whitewash.  The main reason for the paintings in Medieval times was as an aid to worship as the congregations were largely illiterate, the pictures helped them to understand the Bible stories.  In 1876 the then vicar, Rev. G.H. Lightfoot, had the whitewash removed and the paintings were restored to their former splendour.

 The first set of pictures are in the North Aisle, opposite the entrance, and the first photo represents St. George and the Dragon and St. Christopher.  St. George was born in the place now known as Palestine in 280AD, he served as a Roman soldier, became a Christian and was persecuted eventually suffering matyrdom in 303AD,  He is Englands Patron Saint, the symbol of the struggle between good and evil.
St. Christopher is the Patron Saint of Travellers, originally named Offero, he set off on a quest to serve the greatest king, he travelled the world, finally reaching a monastery where he wished to serve King Jesus but as he knew nothing of prayer he was given the job of carrying people across the river to the monastery.  According to legend, one day he heard a child on the opposite bank crying, he took the child on his shoulder and carried him across, but was amazed to find the child heavier than anyone else he had ever carried.  The child said "Your load is heavy because you are carrying someone who carries the sins of all the world."  So thereafter Offero was known as Christopher - The Christ-bearer.  On the right hand side of the second photo is the story of the beheading of St. John the Baptist and shows Salome dancing and Herod presenting her with John the Baptists head on a plate.           

                                                                  The right hand side of the third photo shows scenes from two martydoms. the first one on the bottom is of St. Edmund born in 840 who at age 14 became the Christian King of East Anglia.  The Vikings invaded in 869, marching through Mercia and into East Anglia, destroying the abbeys of Peterborough and Ely on their way.  Edmund fought them at Hoxne on the Waveney and the Danish leader offered to set Edmund up as a 'puppet king' if he would renounce Christianity.  Edmund refused.  On November 20th 870, they stripped him naked, tied him to a tree and shot him with arrows.  The scene above that is of the murder of St. Thomas Becket, appointed Archbishop of Canterbury in 1162 by his friend King Henry II.  Henry wanted to bring the church under state control but Thomas refused to co-operate.  Henry was furious and in a burst of temper was heard to say "Will no-one rid me of this turbulent priest."  Four knights who overheard took him at his word and murdered Thomas in the cathedral of Canterbury.  Pope Alexander III declared Becket a saint, and his shrine in Canterbury became a most hallowed place in England.

The Chancel & Sanctuary

Stone Saxon Font

Close-up of Effigy of Sir William Bruce

Effigy of Sir William Bruce

To the right of the Chancel the late 18th century Hepplewhite pulpit can be seen. To the left is the alabaster effigy of Sir William Bruce, a Knight, depicted wearing mail and plate armour of the 1340-50 period.  He established a chantry in the church in 1337.

Next week I will show photo's of the paintings on the South Aisle wall along with other items of interest in this beautiful and well used Parish church.

Also the reason why an American flag is on display in the Sanctuary. 

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                            visit: http://ourworldtuesdaymeme.blogspot.com/