Author name: Richard Clarke

Currently taking dog first thing to Middlegate on the side of the scarp slope of the Lincs. Wolds as the rights of way across to the Humber bank from Sluice Road are blocked-off with the construction of a reserve clay-bank as part of the Humber Estuary Flood Alleviation Scheme implemented by the Environment Agency. In […]

Two essential elements to making churchyards ‘places of resort’ are benches (seating) and a hard-surface perimeter path around the church building, this latter to facilitate a visual taking-in/study of the external features of the building – building stone/brick, roofing material, architectural style (often varying in one part from another), curious features etc. It is almost certain

The photo above shows a section of Paull churchyard, south-east of Hull. Looking south the view shows a section of the Humber Estuary in the middle distance with one of the industrial sites on the south Humber bank beyond. It shows that the southern part of the churchyard has been left for Nature to colonise,

Having, for some months now, discussed the issue of cemeteries as places of resort, as well as municipal parks and recreation grounds, it seems reasonable to discuss churchyards in the same context. By places of resort we mean places where some detachment from the home and the hustle and bustle of the street can be

As far as I know the only remaining formal flower beds still maintained by the Hull Council Parks Dept. are at the western end of Queen’s Gardens in the town centre (see above). Bedding plants are regularly planted or replaced, these, I am sure, propagated by the Parks Dept. In the early days of Hull’s

When considering birdsong a distinction needs to be made between ‘song’ and ‘call’. The former is more complex and often has melody, whereas the latter is usually more strident and monotonous, an alarm signal warning of an approaching threat. Blackbirds have a particularly loud alarm call which, in my experience, is recognised as such by other