Monday 13 June 2011

4. Mr Straw's House, Worksop, Nottinghamshire



‘Worksop!’  The very name sounds like a seedier character from a Dickens novel – “have you given the urchins their gruel and daily flogging, Mr Worksop?” is a line I’m sure I’ve read somewhere.

I have decided not to visit the obvious Nottinghamshire destinations choosing instead a quirky National Trust property in Worksop – this is also Day 1 of my week’s excursions at the end of May so I have limited time in the county as I pass through on my way North (sorry Notts!, I promise to come back one day and have a good look around).

The whole expedition, the success of which relies somewhat on perfect timing for the outward journey and the necessity to be able to get my bike on the train with me, nearly falls at the first fence when the station master at Andover asks me gruffly whether I have ‘reserved my bike, as there had been a load of bikes on the earlier train – must be something going on in London’.  My heart sinks, as I have a place reserved for my bike on virtually every other journey in the week but not for the short journey from Andover to Basingstoke!   One disadvantage of our splendid privatised rail service is that each operator has a different cycle policy.  Cross Country is the most cycle friendly as you are able to book your bike well in advance over the phone.  Even then, they cannot provide any email confirmation so you are relying on the computer to do it's job properly.

I need not fear – the 0807, while a tad late, is devoid of two-wheeled vehicles so I have no trouble.  I wait for my connecting train at Basingstoke making a cup of coffee last 30 minutes.

Just what is at Worksop to interest me? The answer is 'Mr Straw's House'.  This is one of those 20th century small houses acquired by the NT.  Mr Straw was no-one famous but the family never threw anything away, updated or redecorated their house since 1923.  So you are left with a time capsule of an Edwardian middle-class family home filled with contemporaneous chattels.

0847 the train arrives - I have difficulty hanging my bike in the vertical bike holder but am helped out by a fellow passenger.  (I later discover there is a nack to it – you hold your bike vertically, brace your knee against the saddle and the law of leverage does the rest).

0942 watching the Oxfordshire countryside slip by while listening to something by Astor Piazzolla on my iPod – it goes rather nicely – there is something train-like in his rhythms..

0954 weather overcast.  Bit mixed for later in the week last time I looked.

1030. Coventry.  Glancing at my travelling companions: a youth with a hangover reading The Sun.  two girls (sisters?) with a mountainous bag of junk food;  a man with huge rucksack and a minute terrier. The train is very crowded for this Bank Holiday weekend and I would not have got a seat if I hadn’t booked.

1203 Easily make the swop to another train at the troglodytic space that is Birmingham New St station in spite of being misinformed about the platform.  This is a breeze, though my seat reservation did not appear to have made it out of the other end of the  computer onto the seat display, but before the carriage fills up I manage to grab a seat beside a bunch of tattoos and leather with a young woman lurking somewhere underneath.

1353 Surprisingly, Sheffield station is a thing of beauty in my opinion: airy, with lots of the original architecture intact.  The facade looks onto a plaza with a modern water feature - quite impressive with lots of stainless steel which I presume is a deliberate statement given the city’s history.  I change trains to a Northern Line two-coacher that seems to have come off the ark.  Really run down, with no dedicated bike space but I make the best of it.  Peculiar mottled upholstery covers the seats such as you only find on public transport reminiscent of those 3D pictures where you look at them cross-eyed.  As an experiment, I try it....interesting effect but no 3D image – boring!

1413 Into Nottinghamshire and sunshine has broken out!

1650 On my way back to Sheffield bound North after my visit to Mr Straw's House.  Fascinating place.  I was greeted at the door by one of the two volunteer guides.  My tour was not timed for another 30 minutes so she directed me to the garden and the toilets where I had a choice of ‘modern’ or ‘historic’!  The latter was allegedly ‘much more comfortable’ though I did not have cause to test this theory.

The house itself is a semi, but both halves were owned by the Straw’s so the NT have turned one of the houses, which the family rented out, into the visitor centre/shop/museum with the house that they lived in with the collection in it next door.  They have set out the museum quite nicely with a history about the Straw family and the house, audio reminiscences from acquaintances and their life and times.   The guided tour of the house is interesting and sobering to think that the oldest surviving brother was living in it, untouched and full of clutter from the grocery shop that they ran in the town.  In so many ways, it was not beautiful, but definitely has that ‘Marie Celeste’ quality.   For example – four hats and coats hanging neatly on hooks in the hall exactly where they were when each of the Straw brothers died years before.  Newspaper on one of the beds which had been put there as a dust sheet when one of the brother’s wife died in the 50’s.  Most peculiar of all – a store cupboard on the second floor full of old groceries – about as far away from the kitchen as you could get.  The speculation is that it was a hoard that they built up during the war which they never bothered to move again!

Sadly I don’t have any time to look around Worksop itself which is a pity.  Apparently, according to the NT guide, the local area is called ‘the Dukeries’ because of the landed gentry that lived in the area until recently.   Selling groceries at inflated prices to these families is how Mr Straw made his £1.5m he left to the NT.

1855 Continuing my journey to my B and B stopover in Thirsk...a very nice Northern Trains guard helps me catch an earlier train than my itinerary so I am now on my last leg today from Leeds.

2000 Arrive at my B and B – the ‘Old Red House’ pub.  Really handy for the station for which I was grateful.  Asking where I should store my bike they tell me ‘in my room’!  Truth be told it isn’t the most salubrious of places but the room is massive room with a huge telly in the corner.  The pub is obviously set up to cater for race meetings and I would imagine that the clientele wouldn’t care so much if the basin had a crack in it but they do want a BIG telly to watch the gee gees.    Tonight though, the bar is full of footie fans watching the euro cup final so I join them, munching my way through a large plate of steak and mushroom pie, chips and veg.  Mmmm...food not bad, not bad at all.  A good start to the week.  Tomorrow...Shildon and the National Railway Museum collection there.





1 comment:

  1. Afraid you didn't miss anything in Worksop, with the possible exception of the Priory. It's a scruffy little town with little of interest apart from its position, as you noted, of being the "Gateway to the Dukeries". Having said that, I do like it - I'm an incomer having been here only five or so years. Not been to Mr Straws house - must give it a look.

    Bon voyage.

    Roger

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