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Saturday 29th July 2023
The things we do for football. Callum found out that Barrow AFC were playing Newcastle U21s in Barrow and really wanted to go. Just a little 6 hour / 550 mile round-trip over a weekend! One the plus side, it meant that Mum could come with us and catch up with Aunty Julie & Uncle Bob.
Saturday morning we ended up going to the Dock Museum right next to the Premier Inn. The last time we went, Callum was about 2 years old and was making a little too much noise for our liking so bid a hasty retreat.
Along with shipbuilding exhibits, they also had an exhibition of Barrow in the War – specifically the time when Barrow was bombed which was very interesting. Like many of her generation, Nan rarely spoke about wartime Barrow so we knew little about it.
From the shipbuilding exhibits, the model of Oriana, built in Barrow in the late 1950s was of interest; Mum and Dad often spoke about her being built as they were growing up in Barrow. Whilst they didn’t get to sail on this Oriana, their first ever cruise was on the newer Oriana, and she started their love of cruising.
There was also an exhibit on HMS Sheffield. She was launched on the day my brother was born; Grandad was a councilor at the time so was part of the welcoming party for HM The Queen and Prince Philip at the Town Hall. I know Dad was really saddened when the news broke that HMS Sheffield was hit in the Falklands War and sunk, with crew lost.
Outside the dock museum is the Herbert Leigh lifeboat, now retired and donated to the museum.
There’s also an interesting exhibit featuring a propellor, with the names of many of the ships built at Barrow over the years.
It was a brisk walk to the So Select Stadium (aka Holker Street Stadium!) and took us about 30 minutes to reach there. We weren’t sure how many people would be at the match for this must-watch fixture!!
The Travelodge is right across the road (although it’s just a Costa Coffee and Domino’s Pizza on site – no restaurant).
The Away Entrance was around the back. We found the turnstiles and entered. It was all looking a little temporary, but we found out later that a new away stand had just been built but not yet signed off to be used.
On the off-chance, I texted Sue to see if Ken was at the match. He was! He came around so we had a catch up before the match. He’s only just gone back to getting a season ticket and never dreamed that Barrow would be back in the Big League after being voted out so many years ago.
There were about 1500 supporters in the stadium for the match – 290 of them Newcastle fans.
Barrow raced off to a 4-0 lead by half time – they were making it look easy. Ken said that most of the new players brought in for the new season would be playing – four were ill so didn’t make it. Second half was a different story. Newcastle’s goal was an exact replica to Barrow’s second from a free kick – more or less down to the same blade of grass. Alas, that was the only goal for that half (so you could say, Newcastle won the second half).
We walked back to the hotel with Ken for most of the way. Made it back with seconds to spare before the heavens opened.
In the evening, we met up with Mum and the rest of the gang at The Bay Horse for a meal. Lovely meal – generous portions and great company.
Heading home the next day via Aunty Margaret & Uncle Ronnie’s. Mum wanted some Echeveria’s for home. We arrived and Uncle Ronnie needed some help sorting their TV out. Someone had pressed a button in some menu deep in the system to add a running commentary to everything you were doing. Volume 1, Volume 2 … ITV, BBC1 … it drove us nuts so can understand why they wanted it sorted.
Uncle Ronnie had said that a plant trader that gave Grandad Muddiman the Echevarias, said they were from Kew Gardens and a rare species. Apparently, the conditions locally seemed to suit the plants as they grew much larger than down at Kew.
