Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn (1767-1820) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A number of members of the British Royal Family have been closely connected with Canada.  Edward, Duke of Kent, was commander of the garrisons at Quebec and Halifax.  King William IV was noted for his escapades in Halifax and other Canadian ports when he was  a member of the Royal Navy.  King Edward VII, as Prince of Wales, toured Canada in 1860 and laid the cornerstone for the first Parliament Buildings.  Edward, Prince of Wales, later the Duke of Windsor, served with Canadian forces in World War I; he laid the cornerstone of the present Parliament Buildings and owned a ranch in Alberta.  King George VI and Queen Elizabeth paid a memorable visit to Canada beginning on this day in 1939.  Since then, the present Queen and Prince Philip have made several visits to Canada.

On May 17, 1799, Edward, Duke of Kent, was made Commander-in-Chief of British forces in North America, with headquarters in Halifax.  He tried to make the old port into a fortress as a powerful as Gibraltar.  He also tried to set up a signal system from mountain top to mountain top all the way to Quebec, a route now used by microwave telephone.  The visual signal system was never completed, because fog often obliterated the signals between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick!

The most romantic part of Edward’s stay in Canada was when he was commander of the garrison at Quebec in 1791.  He fell in love with Alphonsine Thérèse Julie de Montgenet de St. Laurent Baronne de Fortisson whom he called “Julie” for short.  As he was a king’s son and could not marry a commoner, they lived as man and wife for a many years.  Through “Julie,” Edward made lasting friendships with many leading French-Canadian families.  He quelled a racial riot in Quebec by shouting in his military voice: “Let me hear no more of these odious distinctions of French and English.  You are all His Britannic Majesty’s beloved Canadian subjects.”

When the time came for him to give up “Julie” so that he could marry someone of Royal blood and give an heir to the throne, “Julie” retired into a convent in Belgium.  The heir Edward produced was Queen Victoria.

I am pretty sure you would like to read more about this love affair, so I have found a few special pages for you to experience.  A great place to start you off is at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online to read about Julie, and then the Duke of Kent at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. Then there’s Canada’s Constitutional Monarchy Online Resource for a fun read. Finally, there is a fantastic article at the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

I came up with this post one night while watching this movie (one of my all time favorites.) I believe that taking note of what your most loved, and not so loved moments of the day (or week) allows you to become more in tune with yourself and helps you remind yourself of the little things that make you happy, and not so happy. Both your high moments and your low moments of the week will eventually define your year, which will evenetually define your life. Make the best of each moment because they will pass you before you know it.
Here are my highs and lows of the week:

Highs:

A bronze necklace, (that will be worn as a bracelete) purchased for my sister from Wildflower Clothing, that goes perfectly with her nude coloured prom dress.

The interior at Sweet Hereafter Cheesecakery. I also have to mention the great soundtrack that played while we enjoyed (devoured) our tasty treats.

A gift set from L’Occitane and card from Papyrus for my mother from my sisters and I that matched perfectly together.

A beginning of the week manicure and pedicure in contrasting colours that I enjoyed with my oldest friend who I hadn’t seen in a very long time.

Lows to note:
-A great girl leaving work to move on to another job (good luck!)
-Not seeing my family as much as I’d have liked.
-Giving advice that is not so well received.

Police say it appears the car rolled and caught fire at Exit 4 near Balls Creek.

Emergency crews were called to the scene early today.

A 41-year-old man was taken to hospital in nearby Sydney with serious injuries.

The investigation is ongoing.

photo by walter briski (from Facebook)

Jont is a singer-songwriter from England who moved to Nova Scotia in 2012 following a life-changing journey around the world and an even bigger discovery in Halifax.  Jont’s biographary is a fascinating read.  I encourage you to take a look.

Jont released his 6th album Hello Halifax on May 14th.   Jont is sharing this album digitally for free and if it resonates with you, donate what you can.

My introduction to Jont’s music was on Monday morning, when I first played Hello Halifax in preparation for a CD review.   My immediate reaction was Wow!  Hello Halifax has been on constant play since.  On Wednesday, I attended a house concert performance by Jont and Kim Harris.  Needless to say, this concert was exquisite.

On Thursday, Jont recorded a video for “Lucky Leaf Falls” with Analog Songs.  Keep an eye out for it in the near future.  In the meantime take a listen to the song.  It features the beautiful voice of Jennah Barry.

My review of this album is forthcoming, but Bob Mersereau’s review of Hello Halifax is available to read now.  Take a look.

To find out more about Jont visit

Jont Website
Jont’s You Tube Channel
Jont on Twitter
Jont on Facebook
 

Not only are 14,000 runners expected to register for Sunday’s events – the largest number yet – a handful of those won’t even be here in Halifax.

“HMCS Toronto is in Bahrain right now and about 50 crew members are running the Bluenose in a combination of on the ship and on land,” chuckled event chair Gerry Walsh. “That’s never been done before, that’s kinda cool.”

Walsh said this year’s event will also include six Inuit youth who raised funds to make the trip from the far-flung northern territories.

The running world is still reeling from the tragedy of the Boston Marathon bombing, and Walsh said the victims and survivors will be honoured, starting with a moment of silence at the beginning of each race.

“As well, on our bib we have a little square that says ‘Boston Strong,’” said Walsh. “Also, all those Nova Scotians who were running but could not finish have been admitted free to our event.”

Although it’s the tenth anniversary event, Walsh said at this point it feels like any other race coming together.

“I always get really excited during this week because it’s so much fun and it’s really the culmination of a year of hard work and planning,” he said.

Full details on weekend events, last-minute registration and the course maps are online at bluenosemarathon.com.

Retired Capt. Medric Cousineau and his service dog Thai will walk the half-marathon in preparation for a much longer walk later this summer, in the name of challenging federal government policy.

“The Blue Nose marathon is kind of home,” said the former Air Force Navigator. “I’m going to do a whole bunch more down the road, but in some ways for me, this is the kickoff.”

Cousineau and Thai will embark on the “Long Walk to Sanity” on Aug. 1, a 50-day march from Dartmouth to Ottawa, covering the equivalent of a half-marathon a day to raise awareness of the impact of service dogs on veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Veterans Affairs Canada doesn’t currently fund service dogs for PTSD, a position Cousineau calls a “complete disconnect.”

Cousineau was injured during an ocean rescue in 1986 and suffered decades of mental illness due to PTSD as a result. He was paired with Thai through the American agency Canine Assistance and Rehabilitaion Services in 2012 – and the difference has been life-altering.

“I’m one of the lucky ones, I came out the other side on the end of a leash,” he said.  “She gave me a reason to live.”

Thai interrupts devastating night terrors, and overrides dissociative episodes and flashbacks, slowly bringing Cousineau back from the razor’s edge of depression, anger and paranoia.

“I spent years struggling with some of this stuff, and it’s a horrible landscape,” he said, adding the possibility of suicide was a “coin toss” on any given day. “I go out in public now and I do things I haven’t done in years.”

Cousineau said Thai is responsible for physical improvements too, helping him drop more than 160 pounds in the last two years – and making this weekend’s venture possible.

“If you’d told somebody a couple of years ago that I was going to do the Bluenose half-marathon, they’d have looked at you and said what, in a taxi?” he said.

Cousineau is hoping to raise enough money through the awareness campaign to buy dogs for 50 veterans.

A recent Ottawa Citizen article reported that 50 military members took their own lives in the last five years, and Cousineau said he’s baffled by the government’s refusal to embrace a proven and life-saving solution to PTSD.

“Do you know how many veterans who have been paired with service dogs, who suffer from PTSD, have gone on to hurt themselves?” he said. “We haven’t been able to find a case of it happening.”

Cousineau said the Long Walk and the advocacy campaign are the next steps in his personal recovery, and he’s not expecting the journey to be easy.

“I feel motivated,” he said. “I’m trying to change a country, and I find that a little bit daunting.”

Donations to Cousineau and his cause can be made online via the Scotiabank charity challenge.

This scene hasn’t happened just yet, but on Thursday night over 400 people brainstormed about how to make it a reality, and what else should occupy the Cogswell interchange.

“Bike lanes, gardens only made for kids -  no parents, and more trees,” said eight-year-old Carmen Owen as she looked at the planning ideas during the Cogswell Shakeup at the Marriott Hotel.

About 18 groups laid out their ideas while the public gave feedback in many forms such as writing notes, placing stickers on their favourite outcomes, or debating with HRM planning staff.

Mayor Mike Savage said the project is one of the most exciting he’s been involved with since being elected.

“It speaks to Halifax as it could be, and not Halifax as it is and I think we all want to do that,” Savage said.

Ideas for the roughly 15-acre space ranged from dog parks, playgrounds, open space for performances and public art, to mixed-income housing, a stadium, shopping district, offices, and an aquarium.

For Tracy Jackson of the North End Business Association, it’s time to change the spot that cut the city in half for 40 years.

“It’s just not fun,” Jackson said.

“It’s not walkable, there’s nothing appealing or pretty about it. You don’t think to yourself ‘oh it’s a beautiful day, I think I’m going to take a walk around the Cogswell interchange.’”

Andy Fillmore, co-founder of the Strategic Urban Partnership, said all feedback will be compiled into a report to go to regional council this fall.

The most common thread he saw Thursday was an emphasis on green space and “room to breathe.”

Cities who are thinking seriously about their future around the world are removing wasteful land-gobbling infrastructure like that, and making better use of  that very, very valuable  urban land because all the services are already there,” Fillmore said.

“It’s ready to go, it’s like all you have to do is plug the neighbourhood in.”

Cabot Trail, Cape Breton Island (Photo: cbc.ca)

Most of you know I live on Canada’s East Coast, but not everyone is familiar with what it’s like to be a Maritimer, so I thought I would write this for my further-away readers. Last year I created a website to advertise a job, and part of it was to promote my area as a place to live. We hired someone who seems to like it so far! Let’s say you’d never heard of Halifax or Nova Scotia before. Would this entice you?

15 minutes from my place

Closest beach to my house

Nova Scotia is the eastern-most mainland province in Canada, and is almost entirely surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean. We don’t benefit from the warming Gulf Stream, but we are far, far below the Arctic Circle! No matter where you go in Nova Scotia, you are never more than 40 miles from the ocean – that’s only 40 minutes on our low-traffic highways. But most of us live much closer to the water – I can zip out for a walk on the beach in just 15 minutes! We have 5 types of shoreline (I am making this up from my own observations): sandy beaches, of which there are many; rocky beaches; rocky cliffs; forests that go to water’s edge; and industrial uses such as fishing, container shipping and The Navy.

Tourism photo, source unknown

Canada has lots of big cities like Toronto and Vancouver; Halifax isn’t one of them. However, if you grew up in a rural area or a small town, you’d find Halifax has enough amenities that you feel like you’re living an urban life. The “city” part of Halifax (comprising two cities and two towns) has about 240,000 people, with another hundred thousand in the surrounding countryside. Because the city was incorporated over 250 years ago to defend a harbour, it certainly doesn’t have a modern grid layout, but way-finding is easy: all roads are either parallel to the water, or lead to the water! Halifax was always a military and government centre, not a manufacturing one; so we don’t have the “brown sites” that you see in some older cities. While an old downtown area has faded, new waterfront developments are thriving.

Fishing Village at Peggy’s Cove (Photo: gocanada.about.com)

Nova Scotia is known for being small, quaint and picaresque once you get outside Halifax (or maybe inside too, depending on your point of view!) Tourist web sites will tell you all about our scenic lighthouses, winding coastal highways with dazzling sunsets, and launching out for a day of ocean kayaking. You can take pictures of colourful dories and chat with fisher-folk on the wharves and buy a couple of lobsters or a whole fricking tuna. What you won’t hear is that you’ll do so in cool, foggy weather, and the muddy ocean floor at low tide has a bit of a pong, but we’ll keep that quiet!

Nova Scotia has 2, maybe 3, big tourist attractions.

Typical pic of Peggy’s Cove lighthouse

Approach to Peggy’s Cove

The hidden side of Peggy’s Cove

Peggy’s Cove is known for its lighthouse, but for locals, the fascinating thing about Peggy’s Cove is the rocks. The lighthouse is perched on a wide expanse of rounded, weathered rock. It is really fun for families to go there and spend an hour scrambling up and down all the mounds and crevasses – you can cover a lot of ground without risking yourself at the water’s edge. Real geology fans will be even more interested in the glacial terrain approaching Peggy’s Cove – the fields look as though they were seeded by stones which sprouted into random boulders. It doesn’t hurt that the route to Peggy’s Cove is lined with folk art studios. And there are plenty of sea-themed gift shops and fish n’ chips offerings. By the way, all of our better fish n’ chips shops feature fresh battered haddock!

The Cabot Trail is a 300 km scenic coastal highway on the island of Cape Breton. You cross a causeway off the mainland and take the route counter-clockwise so you stay on the water side. As you drive along the cliffs, there are lots of look-out points where you can pull your car over. The coast is rugged, but not “terrifying rugged,” although I certainly wouldn’t drive it in a snow storm. The only place in the world I’ve seen that rivals the Cabot Trail in coastal beauty is California’s Highway 1 from Monterey to Morro Bay. If you like perching on a cliff and being able to see hundreds of miles of forest and rock and sea (I do!), then you must visit. Science geeks like me will also visit the Alexander Graham Bell Museum to see his many inventions including flying machines!

Tall Ships in the Halifax Harbour

I’m only rating the Parade of Sail a “number 3 status” because it’s a festival that occurs every few years! Halifax is one of the deep harbours that plays host to dozens of reproduction sailing ships. The Tall Ships festival lasts for a few days in July. The ships dock and allow visitors aboard. The city has a party atmosphere and is awash with costumed pirates and sailors! When the ships leave town, they sail together as a flotilla in a graceful arc around the harbour.

Fossils lying around at Blue Beach

I haven’t even mentioned the fossil cliffs at Joggins and Blue Beach, because I’ve already gone on about rocks far too much!

I’ve just described the big ticket items. Most of what I like about my home province is more “down-home,” as we say. I like it that Nova Scotia is hilly and covered by forest. I like that there are thousands upon thousands of lakes, rivers, and streams – my part of the city has 23 natural lakes. Where my parents live, just ten minutes from the city, they regularly spot otters, mink, muskrats, great blue herons, bald eagles, kingfishers and osprey. In the woods around their home are beautiful wildflowers like lady’s slippers and trilliums. Deeper in boggy woods, you can find the carnivorous pitcher plant!

Having lived away from Nova Scotia for 15 years and come back, I find the people here uniquely humble and matter-of-fact. Government, tourism and service industries are our biggest employers since the collapse of the cod fishery. With a population of less than 1 million, we can’t create a big economy. The elders are sad to see young people get educated and move away to technical professions elsewhere. But lots of us like it here, get educated, and stay put. The monetary fallout is the price we pay. An interesting  side effect is that people are rarely judged by their jobs or incomes. I find people don’t ask, “Where do you work?” or “What do you do?” – in deference to the fact that many people are employed outside their profession, or are struggling to find work in their geographic area.

In my grandparents’ time, women moved away to “the Boston states” to work as domestics for wealthier families, or work in the mills. In my time, young men move to Alberta to work on the tar sands, and we all grimace and hope they’ll come back.

The cost of living here, outside the city centre, is very affordable – for example, a house in central Halifax would cost $400K while a suburban one can be had for $200K, and in rural areas even less (if one can do without city services). And people are proud of their thriftiness, which I found refreshing when I came back!

The only tough thing about Nova Scotia is that, if you’re not from here, you are forever a CFA – a Come From Away. After twenty years, you’ll be accepted as “that guy; he’s from Ontario” without a dismissive wave, because you’ve stayed the course. While everyone is friendly out in public – and we all talk to strangers – it’s rare you’ll be invited to someone’s home. That’s because we don’t want a CFA to look down on us for our messy living rooms and lack of home-baked treats to offer you. When you “have company,” you have to do it right!

I bet everyone out there thinks that no one out in Blog Land wants to hear about their “boring” home county, state or province. But trust me, I do, and I would love to read your take on where you live!

Come back tomorrow and I will guide you through a weekend in my city!

“We feel like kings right now,” said the Mooseheads forward after the team’s first skate at the Credit Union Centre on Thursday. “We don’t even take our own bags to the rinks.”

The Mooseheads are in Saskatchewan aiming for junior hockey supremacy at the four-team Memorial Cup.

They got there in style, taking off from Halifax in a 747-chartered plane. On arrival the media frenzy started and took direct aim at Mooseheads’ stars Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin, both projected top-five NHL draft picks in June.

The team’s also been taking advantage of some first-rate accommodations.

“At our hotel we have so many people taking care of us,” said Boudreau. “We have some private suites for us to just relax. I just looked out the window of the hotel this morning and I can’t believe how flat it is.”

As for the host rink, he says everyone on the squad is enjoying it thus far.

“It reminds me of Saint John’s rink, but a lot bigger.”

Mooseheads’ veteran defenceman Konrad Abeltshauser is loving the venue and can’t wait to get going against Portland Winterhawks on Saturday.

“We tested out the ice and the boards, it is a beautiful set up,” he said.

After playing in two world junior tournaments, Abeltshauser knew what to expect arriving n Saskatoon.

As for the media storm centering on MacKinnon and Drouin, Mooseheads head coach Dominique Ducharme said it’s nothing new.

“It’s a bigger stage for Nathan and Jonathan,” he said. “But it doesn’t change anything, they want to win.”

Halifax’s largest post-secondary school wrapped up it’s five-year Bold Ambitions campaign Thursday, which raised $280 million for dozens of projects.

“It’s been a long journey and it’s been a rewarding one,” said Floyd Dykeman, vice-president external of Dalhousie.

Dykeman said the “serious fundraising” began in 2008, when the school set a goal of $250 million for 51 priorities.

The campaign brought in $75 million for scholarships, which Dykeman said was one of the most important parts.

“(That) now generates probably about another $3 million in scholarships that we can disperse every year,” he said. “It attracts really good students, and it attracts students who are really smart but couldn’t otherwise come to university.”

The school received four gifts over $5 million and four over $10 million, the latest of which was a donation by the Fountain family this week to establish a new performing arts center.

A new student learning commons will eventually be added to the Life Sciences Building, Dykeman said, which is an example of “adding value” to existing spots on campus

He said that the campaign will hopefully help other universities by showing philanthropists in Nova Scotia how much can be done by helping an institution.

“It allows us to do the extra things for our students that wouldn’t otherwise be able to do,” Dykeman said.

On May 4, Windsor RCMP was called to an assault complaint in Lower Vaughan, Hants Co. that allegedly involved an off-duty HRP officer.

Following an investigation, police say Const. Daniel Kavanaugh was charged with assault.

Kavanaugh has been a Halifax police officer for the past six years and will remain on active duty while an internal review takes place, a HRP release states.

The officer is scheduled to appear in Kentville provincial court on June 18.

The beach volleyball tournament started three years ago as a junior event is returning to the Halifax waterfront this August as an international professional competition.

“It’s kind of the evolution of the fans who have supported us the last two years, they saw the best in the world at (under-21,) and now they’ll see the best in the world, full stop,” said Derek Martin of Sports & Entertainment Atlantic on Thursday.

Martin said the four-day tourney, taking place in the Salter parking lot Aug. 15 to 18, will feature teams from Canada, U.S., England and Germany, competing for the inaugural Canada Cup.

“This is Volleyball Canada’s new tournament to challenge the world,” he said. “It’s guaranteed that we’ll have a number of athletes who played at the London Olympics last year…so we’re really excited about that.”

Martin said the stadium will remain roughly the same size, at about 2,000 seats, and ticket prices will remain between $10 and $20.

However, fans will now have the option of taking in a nighttime game during round-robin play.

“After work you can come out on a warm summer evening and go for dinner downtown and then come check out some really cool volleyball and then maybe head out on the town afterwards,” said Martin.

The event will kick off on Aug. 12 with a professional tennis exhibition match, featuring former world-ranked #1 player Jim Courier playing another former legend.

Prior to the game, Courier will host a tennis clinic with local young tennis players, and Tennis Nova Scotia is hosting an exhibition match for amateurs before the main event.

“Our hope, is that it opens up a completely different demographic,” said Martin. “It’s a great way to expose the entire event and experience to a new group of people.”

The incident happened at 12:48 p.m. in the intersection of Robie Street and Spring Garden Road.

The victim’s injuries aren’t life threatening, and he was taken to hospital by paramedics.

Metro Transit says there were about 20 passengers on the No. 80 bus when the accident happened, but no one on board was hurt.

On April 24, 2011, 21-year-old Nathan Cross was shot standing with a group of people outside of a home on Churchill Terrace. Police say Cross, who was wearing body armour, was shot several times and died en route to hospital.

Halifax RCMP spokesman Cpl. Scott MacRae told Metro last month that police have received “a little bit of information” related to the case but investigators “still believe that there’s more information and valuable details out there.”

He said there were witnesses in the area at the time of the shooting and their information could help solve the crime, and result in charges being laid.

Under the province’s awards program, anyone who gives information that leads to an arrest or conviction could receive up to $150,000.

“I urge anyone with information related to Nathan Cross’ homicide to please come forward,” Justice Minister Ross Landry said in a statement Thursday. ” No piece of information is too small and could be just what the police need to solve this case.”

This isn’t the first tragedy to strike the Cross family.

Nathan’s mother, Laura Lee Cross, is also part of an unsolved homicide case. The remains of the 33-year-old Dartmouth woman were found at a logging road near Halifax Stanfield International Airport in 2002, one year after she was reported missing.

MacRae said he couldn’t comment on whether police believe the two cases were related.

Anyone with information on the Nathan Cross murder investigation is asked to contact police on Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

Just before 6 p.m. on Wednesday, police were called to 287 Lacewood Dr. after a 73-year-old man was hit by a van as it was leaving a parking space near Lawtons Drugs.

Police say the victim’s injuries weren’t believed to be serious at the time. He was taken to hospital by paramedics and ended up dying overnight.

“We can’t determine at this time if there was any fault,” said Halifax Regional Police spokesman Const. Pierre Bourdages. “It will be part of the investigation into the collision.”

Police say no charges have been laid at this time.

Bourdages said an autopsy is taking place Thursday.

Around 30 Chronicle Herald employees gathered outside the Herald building on Joseph Howe Drive for the demonstration.

Ingrid Bulmer, president of the Halifax Typographical Union, downplayed Wednesday’s walkout as “collective 15 minute break.”

“We’re entitled to our breaks, and we’ve decided to all come out together as a sign of solidarity because of a disciplinary action that has come down for a couple of our members,” said Bulmer.

Bulmer wasn’t able to give further details about the disciplinary action.

“We just wanted to show that we’re in support of one another,” she said.

A source told Metro management gave out disciplinary notices to some union members regarding a misspelled headline which appeared in Monday’s paper.

The typo referred to the paper as the “Chroinicle Herald” in an article praising the Herald’s six wins at the Atlantic Journalism Awards on Saturday.

The typo went viral immediately, sparking a Reddit thread and appearing on the Poynter Institute’s website.

A picture of the article posted to imgur.com had more than 5,100 views Wednesday.

“The copy editor must have been smoking some chronic-le,” wrote user Democedes to the Reddit thread.

The Mixed (Coloured) Cloth Hall, George Walker, 1814.

Writing of Leeds’ White and Mixed Cloth Halls, in 1814, Seacroft man George Walker said:

“They are both open every Tuesday and Saturday morning for one hour; in which very limited time all the business is transacted. The cloth is arranged on low wooden stands; the manufacturer behind it, and the merchant or buyer passes in front. As the bargains are made in a half whisper, strangers are much surprised with the silence which prevails in such a crowd.”

At first, Leeds had just a White Cloth Hall but as other West Riding towns started to vie with it for the trade, it built a bigger and better White Cloth Hall and then a Mixed Cloth Hall, too.

“By 1758, however, the [wool]  trade had outgrown that old‑fashioned mart, and, accordingly, a commodious building, now known as the Mixed Cloth Hall, was set up a little to the west of Trinity Church. This structure, thought preposterously large at the time… formed a quadrangle three hundred and sixty‑four feet long, and a hundred and ninety‑two feet broad, with an inner court measuring three hundred and thirty feet, by ninety‑six. It was accessible by seven doors, was lighted by a hundred and sixty‑seven windows, and was large enough, it was reckoned, to hold 109,200 l.‘s worth of cloth at a time. Within seventeen years from its opening, it was found necessary to build another meeting‑place. The White Cloth Hall, be­tween Briggate and Saint Peter’s Church, was completed in 1775; and within a few years, nine similar structures were opened in all the trading towns of the West Riding of Yorkshire…”

[H. R. Fox Bourne. English Merchants: Memoirs in Illustration of the Progress of English Commerce, 1866, II, 217‑18, 219; in J. T. Ward, ed., The Factory Syste

m, Vol. I, Birth and Growth (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1970), pp.37-38].

Leeds’ coat of arms

Yesterday I was in Leeds for the day so thought I’d go on about this important ‘wool’ city and its history.  For some of the day, I was in the Local History Library, researching a Napoleonic mill owner’s diary. For the rest of the day, we visited the Art Gallery, Museum, and Royal Armouries and got some great pics.

Like everyone who grew up in my village in the 1960s, I was born at St James’ Hospital, in Leeds. So technically, am a ‘Loiner’ like my father, grandfather and great grandfather. Even if I only “lived” there til I was ten days old!

Croppers, from ‘Costumes of Yorkshire’, George Walker, 1814

My family, the Listers, were alternately wool weavers/clothiers and croppers right down to my great grandad who broke with tradition and became a printer.

Recently mentioned this to a curator of a West Riding Museum, when we were documenting some Great Wheels in his reserve collection, and he commented “They were the elite of the West Riding wool trade” (the croppers). The croppers  were so skilled at finishing the woven cloth, their work added a great deal of value to the cloth’s price.  My great great grandad, Tom Lister, came to Leeds from Huddersfield. He was a cropper, his father a weaver from Halifax who came to Huddersfield around 1816, just a handful of years after the Luddite croppers had been active in Huddersfield and Halifax.  So far as I can trace, this lot go back and back in Halifax, as wool weavers/croppers. This had been the biggest brick wall in our family history, and we only finally broke through it in December, 2012, so I am still coming to terms with the fact my wool love is in the blood!

Somewhere round about 1971, we had a student teacher come to teach us for part of a term. She came in one day having looked up the meanings of all our names. When she got to me, I was intrigued to hear my first name meant “weaver of cloth” and my surname, by coincidence, “dyer of cloth”.  Lister is a name thought to originate in medieval Leeds, so it seems my West Riding weavers went full circle, returning to Leeds in the mid 19thC.

Decoration from County Arcade

I can do the Leeds  equivalent of “I remember when it was all fields round here” – as the glassed over shopping area in the Victoria Quarter, next to County Arcade, I can remember when that was still a road and can remember being driven down it! I have always loved Leeds’ arcades, and long been fascinated by this particular gilt mosaic on the dome of the County Arcade. All of this along the usual grand civic lines of Industry, Labour, Prosperity, etc.

County Arcade

Leeds must have the most stunning late Victorian and Edwardian civic architecture, in the country. Endless classical and progressive themes explored on various buildings, around Briggate and beyond. And this is just one of many references to the wool industry; romanticised and slightly illogical as it is. The spinner appears to have some kind of distaff but no discernible spindle.  By the time this mosaic was made, hand spindles had fallen out of folk memory, in England and the spinning jenny had enjoyed a good hundred years or so pre-eminence. My own Halifax hand-weavers came to Leeds to work in vast, mechanised mills. That was the way of it.

Nothing to do with spinning whatsoever, but Thornton’s Arcade holds many happy memories, for me. As a child, I would go into Leeds on the bus with my mum and many is the time she’d race across town from the bus station, to get to Thornton’s Arcade as the clock struck the hour. Apparently, it is called ‘The Ivanhoe Clock’ but we always knew it as ‘the Robin Hood Clock’. The clock was made by William Potts and Sons of Leeds and shows Robin Hood, Ivanhoe, Frair Tuck (in the skimpiest monk’s habit ever) and someone called, remarkably, Gurth the Swineherd all characters from Sir Walter Scott’s ‘Ivanhoe’. Leeds seems to have had a love affair with Sir Walter, as his head is one of the literary greats depicted in bas relief in the magnificent Tiled Hall, at the Art Gallery.

Another place that holds great memories is Leeds City Market. My grandfather – the one whose grandfather was the cropper – walked into the city centre most days and went to the market. I never go in there but I think of him. Leeds’ symbol is the owl, of course, and also sheep pop up on various coats of arms and insignia around the city, given the city’s proud woollen industry history. But the third most common bit of Leeds iconography is the dragon. The market’s wrought iron dragons are the first thing I think about, when I think about Leeds.

My grandfather was incredibly active and fit for a man in his seventies; and was on his boat on the Ouse near York when he wasn’t walking rapidly through the streets of central Leeds. The time we spent on the river with him, is part of the reason I got interested in the inland ganseys.

Next, we were on to the Royal Armouries, by the Aire and Calder canal’s wharf – another relic of Leeds’ once mighty industry. The canal joins with the Leeds & Liverpool around this point, as well. Those of you awaiting ‘River Ganseys’ should know we have documented a number of gansey motifs from the canals. These boats carried all kinds of freight and were the arterial routes that held the life-blood of the West Riding’s commerce. Now of course, only a handful remain, mainly as pleasure boats of one kind or another.  Of course, canal boats weren’t the only form of transport for the wool packs.

On our travels yesterday, we wandered through Leeds’ new shopping centre, Trinity.

Here we found the stunning fifty foot high, two tonne sculpture, ‘Equus Altus’, (‘high horse’), by artist Andy Scott.  Andy wanted to show Leeds’ wool heritage, and how the pack-horse was “the HGV of its time”.  Another line of my Leeds ancestors came to the city, also mid 19thC, from the Dales, where they had reared working horses; fell ponies and pack horses amongst them.  Yesterday, I passed an hour or two in Leeds Library trancribing parts of the diary of a Bramley mill owner, who wrote, about visiting Leeds Cloth Hall in January 1808:

“5th  January.  John , Josh & Father at Leeds, a soft morning but very slippery. A Bad Market for Cloth but a good many Merchants in the Cloth Hall. One Waggon and four horses might have pulled all the Cloth that has been bought today, or any market day lately…”

Equus Altus, by Andy Scott

Although our wool trade – once the greatest in the world – is long gone, its place in our hearts will never be erased, and ‘Equus Altus’ is keeping our heritage alive in one way, as today’s textile craftsfolk do, in another.

All photos except final one, credit: Nathaniel Hunt

Dad outside home, Harehills, Leeds, 1930s

Ashley Gallant, a spokeswoman for the Halifax Stanfield International Airport, says there were seven crew members but no passengers on board the aircraft.

She says Sunwing flight 9581 was headed to Cancun when crew radioed to report a problem with a front engine shortly after getting airborne.

Airport fire crews were dispatched to meet the aircraft as it circled and landed safely about 10 minutes later.

There were no injuries or damage reported.

I cannot be the only person who has noticed an increase in the level of overly-friendly “customer service” provided by the counter staff, and how it is directly proportional to the financial mess that the banks have left the entire country in. I do not want to be engaged in this transparent distraction technique by some excessively-polite, smiley do-gooder. This is a business transaction, not a social interaction. I do not want you to try and be my pal.

It began with the blonde woman marching up and down the queue of four people, enquiring if we are “just paying in?” I am not sure how much time it would really save, in such a small queue, to be directed to the faster-payments thing. At least it is keeping her in a job, even if it does mean that I have to reveal the nature of my business in such a way that the earywigging people around me become aware of private details. I resent that. If she would just hold her horses, the reason for my presence would be made quietly known to the teller.

As bad luck would have it, I was called to one of the two tellers at the low desks. I was not really in need of a seat, and having to sit down when making the quickest of withdrawals is an unwelcome chore. I aim to be in such unpleasant places for the briefest amount of time, and needing to sit in order to be at eye level feels like they have added an element of captivity, not comfort. Worse still, the teller had evidently been a model student in his customer-facing training. He wanted to know if I was having a good day.

If this question felt in any way sincere or unscripted, I would be less annoyed by the persistence with which their staff always ask it. Instead, I find it to be intrusive – it is no concern of any stranger’s whether I am having a good day, a bad day, or an indescribably mediocre day. It has no bearing on whichever of my affairs I am in the process of conducting.

Bank staff are singularly bad for this. I will happily converse with the checkout staff in my local supermarket, with the conductor on the train, or the ticket office staff, and with just about anybody else who conveys any genuine warmth during the course of our encounter. By way of example, my supermarket staff unfailingly ask me if I “need any help with packing?” I always reply in the negative, and if I am in a reasonable mood I jokingly add “but you can help me pay if you like.” This usually elicits a smile and, more than that, everybody declines with good humour but  in a different way. My point being that I am not above a casual conversation and a smile, provided there is some human depth to it. The banks, perhaps to nobody’s surprise given the crisis they created, lack humanity.

I find myself, then, entering into terse and largely one-sided dialogues with courteous but target-focussed individuals, whose individualism is denied them by their corporate masters and by the script they have rote-learned and from which they must not stray. If they thought about what they were asking, then they might stop and ask something else instead – something relevant, something less personal, or something that did not immediately lend itself to having its stupidity highlighted.

“Are you having a good day?” I was asked.

“So-so,” I replied.

“Could be better?”

By definition, if my day can be described as so-so then yes, it could be better. I neglected to point this out, instead telling him matter-of-factly:
“Better if I wasn’t taking out the last of my money.”

“Okay,” he said without listening, checking the balance of my account. “You have nine pounds thirty.” He began counting it out, continuing the line of questioning.
“Are you up to much today?”

Drily, I answered “Not with nine pounds thirty.”

He smiled. It was the smile of a man satisfied that he has done as his job requires of him. It was a smile that did not belie any indication that he had appreciated my attempt at injecting a little bonhomie into his day. Perhaps the possession of a sense of humour is seen as subversive. They trained him on which questions to ask, but not in how to respond adequately to the answers.

The moment can be traced back to when the NHL veteran of 12 seasons was just a spry 18-year-old attending the Herd’s training camp.

A few days and fights in he figured he’d embrace his offensive side at the expense of his physical game.

The assistant coach at the time, Shawn MacKenzie, noticed and promptly took him aside.

“He said ‘you’re six-foot-two but if you want to play like you’re five-foot-eight then we’ll get a five-foot-eight in to play that way. If you want to stick around, play big,’” recalled Shelley.

That’s just one reason why the legendary Moosehead, who’s still the Herd’s all-time leader in penalty minutes, remains forever indebted to the organization he played for from 1994-97.

“I learned right there never to be comfortable and never try to stop getting better because there are so many guys looking to take your job,” said Shelley.

On Tuesday, Shelley, who as much an NHL warrior as any, racking up over 1,500 penalty minutes in 627 regular season games, spoke with a childlike zest and sincerity about the Herd’s first QMJHL title.

“Being a Moosehead is such a big part of my life and to see them win it was so special for me,” said Shelley, who in his career with the Herd never made it past the semifinals. “To see these guys accomplish more than I was able to and who knows what else, I’m just so excited for them, the organization and the city; it makes you pretty proud to be part of the Mooseheads family.”

The all-time fan favourite’s jersey hangs from the Metro Centre rafters. He’s since built his career on guts and selflessness.

“I am proud of being among not a very big group who have had the privilege of wearing that jersey and representing a city like Halifax.”

In essence, he said, being with the Herd was a coming of age experience.

“People were asking for my autograph for the first time. You learn how to carry yourself, be respectful and represent an organization.”

And as the present Mooseheads push for junior hockey supremacy at the Memorial Cup, starting Saturday, his piece of advice to the players is simple.

“You just enjoy every last second of it, of being a Halifax Moosehead,” he said.  “Those players will have a very good basis for moving on in life. If they don’t know that now, they certainly will soon enough.”