Monolith

From Manchester we travelled north east to the coast. We had quite a late start as we had been up very late last night watching the voting for Eurovision, which we had arrived back from the excellent Oysterband in time to see. We have always watched Eurovision, usually with friends or family, not taken at all seriously - just a fine bit of entertainment. I always said that the one year we didn’t watch we would win - and so it happened. Ukraine first and UK second - perfect!

We stopped at Rudston, a village not far from Bridlington, as I wanted to see the Rudston Monolith - I have seen pictures of this, but never actually been to see it. And what a thing it is - this massive hewn stone of rough conglomerate millstone grit came from Cayton Bay, about 12 miles away. It is thought to be neolithic and is also thought to be the tallest standing stone in the country. It’s impressive.

The monolith is in the churchyard of a lovely church with a Norman tower. There is an excellent exhibition charting the history of the village and the area. There is also the grave of Winifred Holtby in the graveyard as she was born and grew up in the village. ‘South Riding’ is one of my favourite books, I have read it several times and I remember the TV version from way back.

We had Sunday lunch at the local pub, which is now community owned through shares. A fine effort and it looks to be very well used.

We are now in Bridlington. The plan was to go to Bempton tomorrow but, looking at the weather, there may be a change of plan.