Gargrave Autoharp Festival - Accomodation

Accomodation

Gargrave Autoharp Festival

Weekend of Friday May 31, Saturday June 1, Sunday June 2, 2013

Gargrave is a pretty  village, on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales, not far from the market town Skipton.  The main road through the village is the A65.  The Pennine Way, long distance footpath, comes down to the village, before climbing to Malham.  The Leeds & Liverpool Canal, one of the 3 trans-Pennine canals, goes through the village.

Gargrave has its own railway station, on the Leeds-Morecambe line - which also connects with the Settle-Carlisle line.  The local large and busy station is Skipton, ten minutes drive away.  If you travel by train and you let us know your time of arrival, we can meet you with a car.

Remember that the Gargrave Village Hall is the main venue, and the Masons Arms, Gargrave, is our main pub. 

See the simple map on

http://www.gargrave.org.uk/streetmap.htm

The Masons Arms does not seem to want an apostrophe...

Accomodation

A:  Gargrave

1.

Masons Arms - pub and B&B

http://www.masonsarmsgargrave.co.uk/Masons_Arms_Gargrave/Welcome.html

John Baker, the landlord, is very helpful and supportive.

Tel: 01756 749 304

info@masonsarmsgargrave.co.uk

2.

River Cottage B&B

Kath and Keith Bradley, very helpful and supportive.

http://rivercottagebandb.com/

Contact Information

Tel: 01756 749541

Email: keithbradley1953@yahoo.co.uk

3.

The Old Swan Inn - pub and B&B

The future of this pub is not really clear - various refurbishments are planned, and the position might be clearer before May 2013.

Check the state of play by phoning Tel.  01756 749232

4.

Premier Inn

http://www.premierinn.com/en/hotel/SKIANC/skipton-north-gargrave

The Premier Inn, run by Leanne Richardson, is on the western edge of Gargrave, where the A65 crosses the Leeds & Liverpool Canal.  It shares a site with the Anchor Inn, a Brewers Fayre pub restaurant.  There is a safe walk to the centre of the village, along the towpath.

B:  Camp and Caravan

Generally caravan and camper van people have their own contacts and lists.  But, briefly, Eshton Road Caravan Park is quite small, on the eastern edge of Gargrave, next to the Leeds & Liverpool Canal.  There is an easy walk into the village, along the canal towpath.

Eshton Road Caravan Park

Eshton Road

Gargrave

Skipton

North Yorkshire

BD23 3PN

Contact Details

Tel: 01756 749229

Fax: 01756 748060

http://www.ukparks.co.uk/eshton/

There are many other Camp and Caravan sites nearby, in Skipton and in the Yorkshire Dales generally.

C:  Further Afield

Skipton is nearby, and has very many hotels and B&Bs, of every standard...  See

http://www.yorkshirenet.co.uk/yorkshire-dales/skipton.htm

...and many other web sites. 

Gargrave is about 10 minutes drive from the centre of Skipton.  There is a Travelodge on the Gargrave edge of Skipton, on the Skipton by-pass - so 5 minutes drive.  The Travelodge is a bit isolated.  On the bypass.

If you do book accommodation in Skipton make sure that the parking problem is solved.  The more established hotels, like the Heriot and the Rendezvous, have their own car parks.  Otherwise, parking in Skipton is annoying and/or expensive.

Near to Gargrave, but NOT walking distance, are other possibilities - depending on budgets.  For example

The Coniston Hotel

http://www.theconistonhotel.com/

Newton Grange

http://www.newton-grange.co.uk/

All of the villages and towns around Gargrave, especially within the Yorkshire Dales, have hotels, B&Bs, camp and caravan sites.  There are also many holiday cottages, but they are usually let through agencies/web sites, and usually by the week.  Weekends are sometimes available - I am trying to talk directly to the holiday cottage owners through our local contacts, but cannot promise anything.

For those in an extravagant or adventurous mood it is possible to hire a canal boat in Skipton, or nearby, bring the boat up the locks and moor in Gargrave.  But canal boat hire is not cheap.

For those who want to experience the most beautiful stretch of canal in England...  I will be bringing my boat down from Barnoldswick (pronounced Barlick) to Gargrave a few days before the Gargrave Autoharp Festival, and we can take about 8 passengers.  The journey takes a whole day by boat, 20 minutes by car.

Patrick O'Sullivan

SHORT FILM Paraski in Tignes, why don't you

This short film is now on YouTube.  The starting point here is very prosaic  – my wife wanted to share her holiday snaps and videos…

Paraski in Tignes, why don't you
A film by Patrick O'Sullivan
© Patrick O'Sullivan 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gxy0DXVNM08


There was no time to do a detailed sound edit  – and indeed no point in going into one.  I took what sound I had been given, and in the background put a meditation by Marin Marais on a chord sequence.  And let the music seem to follow movement on the screen. 

It is a famous chord sequence which has its own name, La Folia (Madness, Folly), its own history, and its own Wikipedia entry…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folia

See also this labour of love…
http://www.folias.nl/

As well as the Marin Marais you will find versions by Lully, Vivaldi, Corelli, and so on.  But it turns up in all sorts of places – I think you can hear it in the fiddle tune that became the theme for the movie, Last of the Mohicans.

In Dm all the chords are available on a standard chromatic autoharp.  One chord per bar, except for bar 15.

Dm A7 Dm C
F C Dm A7
Dm A7 Dm C
F C Dm/A7 Dm

Patrick O’Sullivan

Autoharp in The Bourne Legacy

Autoharp sighting...

Whilst moving my boat home, from Llangollen, I had a few evenings by myself. And one night I went to the cinema, to see The Bourne Legacy - the Bourne movie without Jason Bourne, written and directed by the usual Bourne scriptwriter, Tony Gilroy. The movie has had very mixed reviews - but I enjoyed it as a further exploration of the 'Bourne world'.

Anyway... The movie has an autoharp in it, just part of the set dressing - in a cabin in the snow, propped against the wall, never explained or mentioned. There is no reason for an autoharp to be there. You have to think that maybe - because the scene IS set in a cabin in the snow - this is a cineaste's reference to the W.C. Fields short, The Fatal Glass of Beer.

view-source:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDB1htp07Ms

Shortly after you see the autoharp (spoiler alert!) the cabin in the snow is blown up by a missile launched from a drone. And the autoharp too, we must suppose...

Patrick O'Sullivan

The Wharf in Castlefield Basin is up for an award

Visitors to the Castlefield Canal Basin, Manchester, on the Bridgewater, at the bottom end of the Rochdale Canal, will know that the large pub building, on the Slate Wharf, next to the Middle Warehouse, has been rescued by Rob Broadbent and his team.  It is now open as a busy upmarket pub, called The Wharf, with good food and well cared for beer.  There is more information on the very interesting web site...

http://www.brunningandprice.co.uk/thewharf/

The Wharf is up for an award and would like our support...

The Wharf has been nominated in the ‘Newcomer of the Year’ category of the Manchester Food and Drink Awards, part of the annual food and drink festival.

There are two stages to the judging process: firstly they are visited by a mystery diner, who will assess the quality, flavour and presentation of food and drink, value for money, and the standard of the furnishings and finishes etc.

No, I don't know how you get to be a mystery diner...

The second part of the judging process is where they need our help.  You can vote on the Food and Drink Festival awards page here:

http://foodanddrinkfestival.com/awards

You just add your email, scroll down to the 'Newcomer of the Year' section, and enter your vote, then click on the link in the confirmation email you will receive.

When so many canal side pubs have disappeared I think it is right to say Thank You when this one has been rescued, and is being run so well.

Patrick O'Sullivan

New Song: Sherman Tank

Sherman Tank

Tune:  Wildwood Flower

I will drive in my Sherman to the gates of Berlin,

or dance with an angel on the point of a pin.

Be you Tommy or Frenchie or Polack or Yank

you are welcome to shelter by my Sherman Tank.

If we meet with a Tiger we will hide in the wood,

for a seventy five mill won't do us much good.

We will hide in the wood, lads, and keep out of reach

till the seventeen pounders come up from the beach.

I don’t hate the German as much as I should.

I don’t love my Sherman as much as I could.

For to tell you the truth, in the midst of a war,

I would far rather be in a T34.

To cross that wide river you need a strong bridge,

To cross that high mountain just follow the ridge,

To cross that wide plain you will need a good road,

And always my Sherman to carry your load.

I will drive in my Sherman to the gates of Berlin,

or dance with an angel on the point of a pin.

Be you Tommy or Frenchie or Polack or Yank

you are welcome to shelter by my Sherman Tank.

I think it is generally agreed that we do not have enough songs about the tanks, and other armoured and tracked vehicles, of World War II.

This song attempts to fill that gap.

This song will go to the tune of Wildwood Flower, the same tune that Woody Guthrie used for his song Reuben James.  Woody Guthrie adds an extra element to the tune, a little 2 line chorus.  If we need that chorus just adapt the Tommy and Frenchie couplet.

© Patrick O’Sullivan 2012

BBC RADIO 3, Tristram Hunt on Robert Malthus

Tonight I will be listening to BBC Radio 3 - Tristram Hunt on Robert Malthus...

Below, text from the BBC Radio 3 web site, and link...

'Robert Malthus

Episode 1 of 3, Great British Ideas

DURATION: 45 MINUTES

In this new series for BBC Radio 3, historian Tristram Hunt rediscovers the stories of three ideas that emerged in Britain - and then traces how their impact has spread far beyond our shores.

In the first programme, Tristram explores how the insight of the great British economist, the Reverend Robert Malthus (1766-1834), wreaked havoc in 19th century India - and yet was later adopted by Indians themselves. Malthus argued that the number of people in the world will always tend to increase faster than the supply of food to feed them. The only way to prevent this was to act to lower the birth rate. Or to wait for famine, war and disease to intervene...'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00yrhff

In a chapter published some time ago I laid some ground rules, giving a wider context to the study of the Irish Famine, mapping out the obvious connections with British India, and exploring the ways in which Malthus' theories were put into practice.

See
O'Sullivan, P. & Lucking, R.
The Famine world-wide: the Irish Famine and the development of famine policy and famine theory
1997, The Meaning of the Famine, Volume 6 of The Irish World Wide.

I am now in the middle of writing up two research projects on the experiences of Irish Famine victims and refugees.  We will see where Tristram Hunt goes with this.


My thanks to my friend, Kenneth E. Smith, for bringing this radio programme to my attention.


Patrick O'Sullivan

Farewell H-Net

As an example of the ways in which problems can be cumulative, and you can make cumulative problems for yourself...

I had become a member of EIGHT H-Net discussion lists...

http://www.h-net.org/

'H-Net is an international interdisciplinary organization of scholars and teachers dedicated to developing the enormous educational potential of the Internet and the World Wide Web. Our edited lists and web sites publish peer reviewed essays, multimedia materials, and discussion for colleagues and the interested public...'

The 8 lists were 

H-Net List Names

      H-ALBION H-Net List for British and Irish History

      H-ATLANTIC H-NET List on the History of the Atlantic World, 1500-1800

      H-CARIBBEAN H-Net Network on Caribbean Studies

      H-CATHOLIC H-Net Discussion List on International Catholic History

      H-ETHNIC H-NET List on Ethnic History

      H-FOLK H-Net Discussion List on Folklore and Ethnology

      H-HISTGEOG H-Net Network for Historical Geography

      H-MIGRATION H-Net Network on Migration History

The list could have been even longer.  I think you can see me trying to map the interests and research areas of Irish Diaspora Studies on to the very different maps of the H-Net and the (mostly US) academic communities.  One of the tasks I had given myself was to make appropriate Irish Diaspora Studies interventions into these H-Net discussions, as need and opportunity arose.

(A background problem in the study of the Irish Diaspora is a tendency to claim too much, and offer too little - when we have much to offer...)

I will not here talk about all the wonderful work that H-Net does.  I will just note some of the problems I had created for myself by trying to track, and intervene in, 8 discussion lists.  I had given myself a lot of stuff to wade through.  Most of it was geared to the needs of career academics.  Much of it was repetitive - as the same message was passed around a number of H-Net lists.  

Especially irritating was when some student, beginning a project, would send an email to one H-Net group, asking for help with his bibliography.  And send the same email to another group.  And a third.  And our sweet innocents would helpfully pile in - and I would find that I had read the same request and very similar replies in three different places.

One recent example was a request for information, a vague request, about possible Irish involvement in the Royal Navy mutinies of 1797.  This was my reply...

It is difficult to deal with this sort of query unless we are given some idea of research already undertaken or works read.

The theme of the special role of the Irish in all the Napoleonic era mutinies rumbles along, in sources and cases at the time, and in scholarly comment since.

For opposing views see see N.A.M. Rodger, “Mutiny or Subversion? Spithead and the Nore” in 1798: A Bicentenary Perspective, ed. by Thomas Bartlett, David Dickson, Dáire Keogh and Kevin Whelan (Dublin, 2003), 549-64; and Roger Wells, Insurrection: The British Experience, 1795-1803 (Gloucester, 1983) 79-110.  More recently see Anthony G. Brown, “The Nore Mutiny – Sedition or Ships’ Biscuits? A Reappraisal,” Mariner’s Mirror 92, no. 1 (2006), 60-74.

I have found very helpful the references in Niklas Frykman, The Mutiny on the Hermione: Warfare, Revolution, and Treason in the Royal Navy, Journal of Social History (2010) 44(1): 159-187.

Mutinies are of great interest to all of us who study people hidden from history - especially using the Subaltern Studies approach.  But really, nowadays, instead of trying the patience of good-natured people, we are better off just going to Google Scholar and thinking about search terms.


So, farewell then H-Net.  I will still visit the web site to read a book review.  And read it only once.


Patrick O'Sullivan