BILLINGE

Sunday 11th July

We woke up in Scarborough to a cold howling wind, but it didn't really matter because today was the day we were going to Billinge.

The drive was scheduled to take about two and a half hours and turned out to be motorway pretty much the entire trip.
The motorway we came on for much of the trip (M62 if you really need to know), is the highest motorway in the UK. 1221 feet at it's highest. It crosses the Pennines Mountains. The wind was quite strong in a couple of places, scarily so and worse than anything I have ever encountered in Australia.

Anyway, we made it to Billinge and Ray gave me a running commentary of all the things we passed on the way in. Fishing in that lake......stealing fruit from an orchard that was over there...... so many happy childhood memories for him.

We checked into the Stork Hotel and then went for a walk around the immediate vicinity. First stop his old home.................. all the way he was pointing at houses and naming the mates who had lived in them. I was astounded that he could remember so many names from 45 years ago.



We walked past his grandmother's house, back to the hotel and across the road to the church he attended as a kid. He went to 'evensong' service there this evening.

Ray has chatted up lots of people in the pub and has met up with some who knew his mates from childhood, one woman who knew and remembered his sister Susan, and the same woman's mother knew his grandparents!

He's having a ball! He's rung his Auntie and she and her husband will be having dinner with us on Tuesday.

Tomorrow I will be getting my first real tour of Billinge - so - 'til then........