Marsden

We took some time today to explore family history in and around Huddersfield, where both Pam and Rob are from and where a lot of the Marsden name originated.

Rob drove through Huddersfield first to show us where his mother had lived and then followed by a tour through town to Castle Hill, one of the most prominent landscape features.  It can be a steep climb to the top but in relatively short time we got to the level top and the tower built for the jubilee of Queen Victoria.  Pam stopped briefly ahead of me while we were climbing the stairs and I had a great shot of the tower in perspective.

The view is really beautiful and you can see the day was clear and bright.  The varying greens show different fields separated by the characteristic dry stone walls of Yorkshire, of which there are thousands of miles that weave across the hillsides.  It's easy to see how this would been an important fortification.

A beacon at the top was restored for the jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, but was originally used in the time of Elizabeth I as a beacon to notify of the approaching armada.  It could be seen for miles around and used as advance warning to be ready for a possible attack.

For lunch we found a different part of the history of Huddersfield at a pub called The Golden Cock.  While being known for locally-sourced food it's more known to Pam and Rob as the site of their first date.  At the time it was the nicest place that Rob could take her to be able to get to know her better, after first meeting her at a wedding of a friend.





While waiting for our food I overheard some conversation among some men who had gathered around the bar direct from a funeral.  I only heard the first part, which began "I'm telling you as a Yorkshireman...."  Rob and I talked about it a little and decided that it's the latter part of the sentence that could be the most variable and interesting, but the first part tells you a little about the directness of someone from Yorkshire.

After lunch we traveled to Marsden, location of the Marsden station where Richard staked his claim.

The station was near a canal, where we walked down a towpath to the Standedge Tunnel and associated museum and canal boat ride.  Canal boats are still used today and rely on fuel-driven engines to move back and forth.  Historically the boat would have been pulled by horses walking along the towpath.  There are locks to move the boats up and down changes in elevation of the canal, and some people live completely on a canal boat.

The walk along the canal (called the Huddersfield narrow canal) was quite pretty and quiet.

The tunnel was built in 1811 as a speedier means of getting people and goods closer to ports and is over 3 miles long.  It was a long and arduous effort to get the tunnel built with the technology of the time, and it is Britain's longest tunnel.  There is no towpath in the tunnel because it would have been too expensive, so tugs are used to move the canal boats through the tunnel now.

If you were moving the boats through in the 1800s you would have had to "walk it through", meaning you had to have two people literally holding the boat and pushing against the top of the tunnel.  To get through the 3 miles of tunnel would have taken four hours or more for a boat loaded with cargo.

Richard has a dream of traveling by canal boat on a holiday at some point, but I believe I will insist on an engine.

Rob described this man, who was working on one of the boats, as being dressed a quintessential Yorkshireman.  I wonder how he would have ended the sentence heard in the pub.

Altogether it was a great day out--to see a bit of Marsden family history and a bit of the history of the Marsden name.