Morley.

Morley today. We have not been here for a very long time. We still travelled around and lived by Rusty the van on our last visit. This day was not hot. It was cloudy and dull so Monza  dog was okay in the car.

We started our visit at the town hall.

The building was closed but from the outside it is very impressive. This is sometimes used in the soaps Emmerdale and Heartbeat.

Usually court scenes from Emmerdale or weddings..........

Outside the town hall are these statues . Morley was made by two things. The mills and the mines.

As the town hall was not open to the public we headed off up the main street....

Loads of Charity shops!!!!!

Morley is a Victorian town centre. Most of the buildings on this street show signs of this heritage.
AND.... Like Rome Morley is built on seven hills.    Scatcherd Hill, Dawson Hill, Daisy Hill, Chapel Hill, Hunger Hill, Troy Hill and Banks Hill.
Morley means "wood by the hill" and was an isolated place until the industrial revolution in the 19th century.

Morley became known for coal mining and quarrying and for Textile mills. Domestic woollens and good wool known as German twills were produced in Morley for the German Market. After this Haberdashery cloth and a cloth known as " shoddy" Which was worn by both sides in the American civil war. Yep that was produced in Morley, Yorkshire.

So we started in the "junk" shops and worked our way along the street to the market....

Inside we found a warren of shops and stalls. Lee found a model car shop intended for kids. These are rather gorgeous petrol driven cars( i think) I had one when I was little. The only thing was mine was a peddle car. Times have moved on a bit. Lee had a pedal car too and stayed to tell the owner of the shop all about his Vauxhall Frontera that he is doing up (the fact that it is not even started is besides the point...)

There is even a little Lamborghini with electronic doors....

I found this doll in a charity shop....the label says 1950's with original clothes. I can go with that!! possibly Woolworths "little beauty". I have put her in my birthday stash for next week. After last years massive disappointment on birthday I have made sure I avoid all that embarrassing stuff. I am just buying all my own presents and I have got cards too. they are what I want.
Last year I wanted a trip to Whitby and a new camera. I only wanted a day out! And so I booked the time off and looked up parking in Whitby. ....What did I get?  A television(was a smart telly!) to watch my DVDs on and a walk around the tarn...where I had already been at dawn....and an ice cream.(£5.00 !!!!for two ) As we live about an hour and a bit from Whitby this was a huge huge disappointment. Then to add more into the mix I was given a bottle of wine (I don't drink) and money (the person could not be bothered) Ungrateful cow aren't I?
I would have loved to go out for dinner too....but that was pushing it way too far. So this year quite simply I am buying all my own stuff.....

We came to the statue of Ernie Wise. he was from Morley. Morcombe and Wise....
BRING ME SUNSHINE....    Eric and Ernie. " an iconic comedy duo" well yes!! who remembers the Christmas shows?

A bit further alog...a Yellow bike left from the Tour de Yorkshire......

Morley famous clock tower.....

We had gone off the main street to see a memorial garden. There was not much of a garden but we did find this.......

All over grown it is too... The protestant truth society. Was founded in 1889 by John Kensit. To take a stand against Romanticism in the church and Nation.  They became known as the Wycliffe preachers. I have just looked them up. John Kensit was basically a rabble rouse organising protests against the Catholic Church who were trying to take their church back to how it was before the reformation. Some of their rituals were to be included in some protestant services(this is as far as I can tell...) 1902 in Birkenhead John Kensit and his preachers were met by an angry mob. an industrial file was thrown at John Kensit and it hit him on the forehead. This killed him. This shut him up.
"oh....that's one way of doing it" said Lee. As I told him that I had found out what the funny over grown church/chapel was that we came across...

We headed over the car park at the back where we found the over grown church and went past the clock tower to buy lunch and rescue the Fonz car.

Once home I dug another hole in the garden. Knackered myself out again and planted my new Cordyline tree.