June 18, 2005
Buckets at the ready?
For the last time the royal procession clip clopped its way to the Knavesmire past the Palace Grounds.
Local people line the road awaiting the procession
The Windsor greys lead the landau past the Archbishop's walled garden
The Queen and guests - the camera has almost captured the Queen's costume as they tackle the rise past the crematorium
The friendly police chat to locals
Posted by bishopthorpe at 02:33 PM | Comments (0)
Day Five
For the fifth time the start is grey, yet warm. The forecast is for the skies to brighten up steadily, with a hot and muggy afternoon with a high of 77F.
Yesterday turned out really fine in the afternoon, though it did take a while for the sun to come out.
The going today is likely to be firm.
Posted by martin at 08:23 AM | Comments (0)
June 17, 2005
Helicopters? Insects?
I know it was sunny this evening (wasn't it wonderful?) but where did all the helicopters go? I was expecting them to stay on later than they've been doing the past few grey evenings, but I heard only a few pass at all. Any thoughts?
And insects weren't around either. We had the kitchen door open till well past twilight, with the electric lights blazing; normally squadrons of little beasties would have invaded. Not one did. The same up here in my study - I have all the windows open, it's a warm humid night, but there are no insects!
Something is wrong: very, very wrong....
Not to worry: if the world is still here tomorrow, I'm off to the races again with my litle tribe and various tribal extensions. As, I suspect, is half the village. See you there - or if not, I'll let you know how we got on!
Posted by Andrew at 11:42 PM | Comments (0)
Day Four
Its a mild and breezy start, with warm humid weather forecast for the day. Its cloudy but this is expected to beak up with spells of sunshine and a maximum of 75F. The outlook is for further cloud and sun, hot and humid. Going still good to firm.
Reports are that Ascot has had much wetter weather this week, so there!
Posted by martin at 07:46 AM | Comments (0)
From the Papers (Friday)
Quick thinking
The spirit of free enterprise is alive and well in Yorkshire. A racegoer in a smart car blagged his way into one of the car parks closer to the action by dropping the gateman a crisp £50 note. "Find this man a good spot," yelled the gateman to his colleague across the car park. "He's given me £20 and we'll split it between us."
That sounds like a very old story to me, but it's in today's Torygraph - Ed.
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Royal procession
Getting around the racecourse yesterday was considerably harder than it had been for the first two days because of the significantly larger crowd. The trick was to follow the Queen, whose path was cleared ahead of her.
"It's a bit like chasing an ambulance up the hard shoulder but at a slower pace," said one racegoer who had got leaving the paddock and over to the stand down to a fine art. "At least you get a clear run through."
From today's Telegraph again. The same applies if you want to get up Bishy Road between 13:40 and 13:55 (approx) - Ed
Posted by Andrew at 12:57 AM | Comments (0)
Helicopters
Martin said we should do a helicopter count, and living where I do at the south end of the village it's difficult not to! They come over, morning and evening, in bunches of five, with each bunch spaced five minutes apart. This is much more noticeable in the evening: they come from the heliports between Knavesmire and the river, north of Manor Farm, and are routed south over the bend in the river - until they get near us, when they mostly turn south-west.
The nearest I can get to a count is a report from a fairly reliable source that there were 220 helicopters on the ground at one point on Wednesday, and presumably more on Thursday. I'll investigate further if I can!
Posted by Andrew at 12:33 AM | Comments (0)
Day Three - iii - a cause for celebration?
Today (Thursday) for the first time the local traffic plan has been impemented as we were told it would be: from 4pm Bishopthorpe Road was open into the village - one way - instead of being competely closed. We'll have to see what difference that has actually made to the village this evening but the buses seemed happier. Have you ever seen a bus smile?
The late forecast for tomorrow is warmer and again dry, but still quite cloudy with some sunshine. We'll see!
Posted by Andrew at 12:23 AM | Comments (0)
June 16, 2005
Day Three - ii
Attendance today is much higher, perhaps 55-56 000 people, although the Rails Enclosure looks quite comfortably uncrowded unless you want to be right by the rails. There was also a big crowd outside the Palace for the start of the Royal procession, on both sides of the road; half the village must have been there! We'll have some pictures soon.
However despite the Lady's Day crowds, the village and York itself are still very quiet, and trade is well down. Many shopkeepers, restaurant owners and publicans have geared up for this week, with extra stock and/or extra staff and they are not at all happy.
It seems both that two things have happened: the traffic management plan has been extremely successful in sealing Ascot traffic off from the surrounding city and villages. Vehicles coming down Bishy Road in the evenings are forced right into Church Lane, and when they reach Sim Balk Lane, a copper signals them to turn right. Unfortunately that makes people think they cannot get into Bishopthorpe, where good food and refreshment awaits. Meanwhile other people who might ordinarily have come here think it is not even worth trying.
Posted by Andrew at 04:21 PM | Comments (0)
Good neighbours
One of the good things about Bishopthorpe is the way people still have time for each other in the street.
Today we celebrate an unnamed and unidentified hero. Passing in his car, he jumped out and righted the yellow diversion sign on the corner of Acaster Lane. As you can see, it had fallen in the path of someone quite unable to help herself.
Well done Sir!
Posted by martin at 07:52 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Day Three
A mild start with fairly high cloud cover. Forecast is for 'a little rain' and brighter later, with a high of 70F. The outlook is dry and warm with some sunshine. Today is Lady's Day, so hats off to them!
The going is good to firm.
36 000 people came to the races yesterday, but traders around York, despite perhaps unfounded hopes of a trading bonanaza, are talking of very low sales. Bishopthorpe was very quiet - locals away, people taking time off work, people keeping indoors for fear of crowds?
Or perhaps the whole management traffic plan is designed to get people in without actually 'touching the sides' and just spending their money on-course. The two-way blockage at the end of Main Street remains in place.
Posted by martin at 07:39 AM | Comments (0)
June 15, 2005
Day Two
A cool start with greying skies. Weather forecast is for showers of light rain, with brighter spells later, and a temperature of 66F. Going good to firm (with a sandy bit on the turn).
Posted by martin at 11:22 AM | Comments (0)
Day Two - II
Its 11.30 and the helicopters are thudding in under the low cloud and windy rain, and at Sim Balk / Church Lane the damp traffic cop across the road has little to do but stare at the enterprising sign put up by two of our pubs to attract trade in to the village.
Posted by martin at 08:48 AM | Comments (0)
Day Two - III
Although it was raining, a small crowd gathered at the Palace gates at lunchtime, and watched as first the royal procession waited to let a Coastliner and a no. II bus, plus a man in a white van, through, then proceeded under cover to the course.
The Queen's landau leads off
Its a bit damp but she waves to local people
Posted by martin at 07:20 AM | Comments (0)
June 14, 2005
I went to the races today - with 175 children
I went to the races today. I've never been to the races before. I don't know about these posh folks in the horse and cart, but I had a terrific time!
I went to the races today. I’ve never been before. I really, really enjoyed myself. I was supposed to scout out the conditions at the rails ahead of the junior school hordes arriving: if the Rails Enclosure were crowded, then they might get a better view of everything from outside the rails.
I walked up from the village at about 11:40. The sky was very grey, low and occasionally leaking. The village itself was quiet, and apart from a few bored policemen and women dotted about, so were the roads. Only the sky was busy, though I never saw more than three helicopters at once. There was a waterproofed press photographer outside Bishopthorpe Palace (he’d already been there more than an hour) and small but growing clumps of locals, mostly women with umbrellas, on the pavement opposite. The infants were due later. Between the Palace and the Crem, there was another gaggle of three old ladies on the verge, with garden chairs, raincoats and plastic rainhats. I wished I had my camera, but Romy had it at school.
A policeman or woman was stationed every fifty yards or so, but very little traffic. As I crossed the bridge over the A64 a convoy of cars, flanked by blue-lighted outriders passed me towards the Palace. One, a dark L-reg Jag or Rover, contained a friendly-looking old lady in pink who gestured excitedly at something through the window (I don’t think t’was me).
I clambered down the embankment from the bridge towards the 7 furlong start, and walked outside the rails towards the grandstand; then backtracked and crossed over to the Rails enclosure. Packed? It was almost empty. So I went to along by Car Park B towards Sim Balk Lane. The car park portable loos were out of action – no generator had arrived – but the two loo-keeper guys had nothing to write a sign with, so frustrated posh-frocked ladies kept trying the door-handles. These loo guys were hiding. There were plenty of bushes.
Everyone but everyone was incredibly relaxed and friendly, picnicking in the car park under gazebos or in their cars in the intermittent rain, some really quite elaborately; one table had a mini-candelabra. It was quite dark under those skies. I asked a passing motorcycle copper if he’d seen a large party of schoolchildren. Oh yes he said, they’re not far behind. I bumped into him again later, he lives in Copmanthorpe, but with a daughter at our Infants’ School; his wife was helping with the Palace outing.
And so I met them, the first of 175 children – and nearly 50 adults in orange vests (thanks to Stewart at Jarvis) – “walking” alongside the cars trying to get to the parking areas.
The children waved and called to the posh folks with their hampers, and the picnickers, who’d no doubt opened their champagne hours earlier, waved and yelled back. Everyone was smiling despite the still miserable weather.
We corralled the children on and into the enclosure and they found a long stretch of fence. They cheered anything that moved, and at least one grizzle-haired main in a BBC OB Range Rover waved regally as he passed. There were loos a-plenty, bars, and hog-roast/burger/chicken stalls too, though the kids were having none of that (I had a mammoth bacon buttie for £3). There was also a huge TV screen the size of a house-wall just by us in the corner.
And there was the long line of bookies. Romy and a friend had already placed a bet on a horse each, so I put a few quid on another horse at random: Red Clubs, at 9-2 to win.
The royal procession appeared on cue, at first on the big screen, then we could see the horses and plumed riders heading our way, and then they passed us: the Queen and Duke, Charles and Camilla, and two more Landaus carrying unidentifiable Royals. The kids cheered them all, and the Royals waved and smiled back. Regally.
The children were to head back to school after the first race, but there was more excitement when a colt broke free from the start, thundered past us and galloped a long way round the track on his own before he was caught. And the sun came out for a moment.
The race itself was an anti-climax really. Well it would have been, but my horse won!
And I’m going again on Saturday…
Posted by Andrew at 09:11 PM | Comments (0)
On the map
In 1949 the young Elizabeth and Phillip had tea at the Palace with the Archbishop and his sister, and local school children were allowed in the grounds to wave to them. Half a century later, after the end of Empire, our local children will be back to wave again.
And in keeping with the times, this will be a media event, so it was no surprise to see the vehicle below parking early this morning in Main Street.
Posted by bishopthorpe at 10:15 AM | Comments (0)
And they're (nearly) off!
Tuesday morning. A cool grey damp start but the weather is set to improve by midday with clearing skies this afternoon. Maximum temperatures of 63F. Tomorrow - heavy showers around the middle of the day followed by sunshine and showers.
The going is good to firm.
Posted by bishopthorpe at 07:35 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 13, 2005
One day to go
One day to go and the clouds are low, the air is cold. Weather forecasts say it will improve, but it certainly does not yet look like a day to be about in a big hat. Still, all will change no doubt. Going - looks like green to me.
Posted by bishopthorpe at 01:16 PM | Comments (0)