retiredmartin

August 2023. Marske-by-the-Sea, North Yorkshire.

It’s so close ! (though an expect a 90 minutes delay on the A1(M) this weekend).

Ticking new pubs with a pink pen is nice, but discovering hidden gems in Ye Olde England is nicer.

Mrs RM, on Day 2 of her 100 day challenge (you’ll never guess) joined me as we headed up the A1 into Teesside, turned right at the banked Bass at Stockton, and parked up in Marske-by-the-Sea.

One of our most unsung seaside places (along with Jaywick), which I cruelly described as “a workaday village” back in 2016 after a flying visit to tick the Clarendon.

How wrong I was. With nearly two hours before the micro opened we could have taken a train to Redcar or explored the Middlesbro-ugh smog collection,

Mrs RM said “What’s that ?” as we passed the little cottage, and a minute later we were handing over £3 to explore a 17th century cottage filled with that. Bit like that Yew Tree in Cauldon, I guess.

One of the joys of the new football season is a return of Blackpool Jane’s wonderful blog capturing the minutiae of the UK’s many tourists sites. Jane would love Winkies.

The volunteer-led local history museum, what a joy. It was little places like this in Royston and Leatherhead that got me into the idea of blogging a decade ago.

Oddly, I’m not that fussed about old stuff,

but I do like the curation aspects of places like Winkies (named after the cat on the roof in the first pic).

And I’d much rather this than a stately home. Loads of lovingly put together displays of life before micro pubs came along and ruined everything, all the work of a master shoemaker.

I’d left Baa Baa Toure in the car; not sure what they’d have made of Bill & Ben.

Among the household implements and valve powered vacuum cleaners there’s a bit of pottery,

and pantry,

and polish,

and of course a netty. A rare single seater, apparently.

No idea who this chap is.

We had a good chat about the new A14 with a chap who goes to Felixstowe on holiday, compared village growth stats, agreed the British summer was much better than those nasty foreign ones, and asked (in innocence) if Marske has a decent beach.

It turns out that, yes, Marske has a decent beach…