Remembrance in Yorkshire
10-14 November 2023
Lawrence is a true Yorkshireman, having been born in the seaside town of Bridlington. He spent his childhood in London but holidays were invariably in Yorkshire. And when I joined the Gray family, I too had many holidays in Flamborough when his parents retired there. Now though, his parents are gone, as is his Uncle Reg who lived in nearby Bempton, and also his younger brother Robert who was lost at sea off the coast near the South Landing, Flamborough, shown above. So now when we visit the area, there are things to do which have been part of the tradition of visiting this beautiful piece of the North Yorkshire coastline, and now additional activities to continue at the request of his parents. So, for a change, we stayed in Beverley in a charming hotel (The Beverley Arms hotel) along with Elaine and Robert.
Our first day was forecast to be the best sunny day of the trip, so Lawrence and I drove to the RSPB site at Bempton Cliffs. Although we had visited our uncle in Bempton many times, we never had the chance to visit this famous seabird sanctuary. I knew the puffins would have left by now, but was surprised how few other seabirds were visible. Indeed we saw more pigeons than anything else, and I certainly hadn't expected to see them perched on the cliff face.
The cliffs here are spectacular, but we could not walk too far along the cliff path as the recent rains had made the path muddy and very slippery, and we did not have our hiking boots on. Besides, we could see the rains coming in from the north (Scarborough) and the winds of Storm Debi were picking up.
And, those in the know could see dolphins in the sea beneath the cliffs. I simply pointed my camera at wave splashes which I assumed were the dolphins, and hoped I might see something of interest when I got the images into my computer. You should just be able to make out a dolphin jumping out and diving back into the sea.
The next day was Remembrance Sunday (12th November 2023) and we attended a special service in Bridlington Priory. Lawrence's father had served in the 23rd Hussars regiment during WW2, and every year he had laid a wreath at their war memorial inside the church. None of the 23rd Hussars regiment remains today, but a few of their descendants were in the church with us for the Remembrance Day service.
On the Monday we came back to Flamborough to check the memorial to Lawrence's brother Robert George Gray in the graveyard of St. Oswald's church. He had been working on a crab-fishing boat on May Day Bank Holiday 1984, when a freak storm sank his boat the Carole Sandra. Tragically, the North Wind III boat was also lost when attempting a rescue. Altogether seven lives were lost that day and Robert's body was never found; he was only 19 at the time. More than 500 people attended the memorial service in this small church later that month.
The other traditional activities are a visit to Notorianni's ice cream parlour and eating fish and chips on the harbour side in Bridlington. Well, Storm Debi put a stop to that! The winter season seemed to have arrived early with many food establishments closed, and the strong cold wind meant there was no way we were going to sit outside and compete with the seagulls for our food! Thankfully we found a traditional fish and chip cafe (Audrey's) to dine in, but still not what we'd hoped for. As you can see in the photo below, the sea in Bridlington harbour was fierce and a muddy brown in real life.
We had intended to explore Beverley's grand churches (St. Mary's and the Minster) but to weather put us off and the warm cosy hotel was far too inviting! We had a brief walk in the town centre before we went to Flamborough and you can see how the gorgeous winter sun lights up the old buildings.
