A Collection of Arcs de Triomphe (None of them in Paris) Part 2, Post-1900

Triumphal Arches - What is and What is Not

This is the third iteration of this post. The original, published 01-Apr-2014, was ‘Four Arcs de Triomphe (none of them in Paris). The second, 29-June-2018, included newly collected arches, but also omitted Lutyens’ India Gate from the earlier post on the grounds it was a War Memorial, not a Triumphal Arch.

Defining a Triumphal Arch is difficult. Some arches called Triumphal have no associated triumph, and then there are Monumental Gates and War Memorials which can look very similar.

Although retaining the title, I have chosen a new and more inclusive definition for these posts (there are now two of them, this one and pre-1900). For the purposes of this blog an ‘Arc de Triomphe’ is an arch with no structural purpose. This definition includes war memorials built in arch form – like the India Gate mentioned above and also Monumental Gates as long as they were built to be symbolic i.e. not city gates built as part of a wall, even if the wall has long gone. The other qualification of inclusion is that I have been there and taken the photograph.

Arches of the 20th and 21st Centuries

For Classical Arches and modern arches built before 1900, see part 1.

All the arches below owe a debt to the Parisian Arc, (almost) the first modern Arc de Triomphe. In some cases the debt is very obvious, for others it is more in spirit than in substance.

So, In order of construction:

The Gateway of India, Mumbai

Completed 1924, Visited 14-Mar-2019

India

In 1911 George V became the first British monarch to visit the Jewel in the Crown. The Gateway of India on the Mumbai (then Bombay) waterfront was conceived as a symbolic entrance to the sub-continent for the King-Emperor and Queen-Empress.

Careful planning is not just a feature of the current British government. In 1911 the King and Queen passed through a world-beating cardboard gate, the stone version would be built once the design.was agreed.

The Gateway of India, Mumbai

The foundation stone was laid in March 1913 but another year passed before George Wittet’s Indo-Saracenic gate was given the go-ahead. Work was completed in 1924.

The gateway was subsequently used as a symbolic entrance to British India by important colonial personnel and the last British troops left through it at independence in 1948. Once unpopular as a representation of "conquest and colonisation" it is now a symbol of the city and an attraction to tourists and the army of street vendors that prey upon them.

The India Gate, New Delhi

Completed 1931, Visited 16-Feb-2013

At the start of the 20th century Edwin Lutyens had the rare privilege of designing a new capital for Britain’s most prized possession. The ceremonial Kingsway, leading to the Viceroy’s palace through the administrative heart of his new city, was modelled on The Mall, but with a nod to the Champs Elysées.

The India Gate, New Delhi

In 1921 he was commissioned to build a memorial to the Indian soldiers who died fighting for the Empire in the First World War. It is now a memorial to the 70,000 who died in conflicts between 1914 and 1920. Completed in 1931, The India Gate was placed at the opposite end of the Kingsway (now Rajpath) from the Viceroy’s Palace (now the President’s Palace). If the Kingsway nodded toward the Champs Elysées, the India Gate bows deeply towards the Arc de Triomphe.

Arcul de Triumf, Bucharest

Completed in 1936, Visited 25-Jun-2023

Romania

With the world organised as it is, we do occasionally have to remind ourselves that it was not always thus, and most nation-states, even in Europe, are creations of the 19th century; there was no Germany before 1860 and no Italy before 1861. A Romania, smaller than the present country, achieved recognition as an independent state in 1878 and a wooden Arcul de Triumf was constructed on what would become a roundabout in north east Bucharest.

The end of World War One saw the creation of a larger Romania that included most speakers of the Romanian language. This required the construction of a new arch on the same site. It was designed by Petre Antonescu with a concrete interior and a heavily sculpted plaster exterior. The plaster became badly eroded, so in 1936 Antonescu designed a new, more durable and less flamboyant arch and that has survived to this day (with restoration work in 2014).

Arcul de Triumf, Bucharest

It is not the grandest of Arcs de Triomphe, and rather outside the city centre, though its roundabout is negotiated by all visitors being driven into Bucharest from the airport. Military parades pass beneath it every 1st of December, Romania’s national day.

Monumento a la Revolución, Mexico City

Built 1938 Visited 18-Nov-2017

Mexico

Intended as a neo-classical home for the Federal Legislative Palace, building started in 1910 but was halted two years later by the revolution. In 1938 the completed first stage was adapted as a monument to the revolution that halted the building and it now contains the tombs of five revolutionary heroes including Pancho Villa.

Monument a la Revolucion, Mexico City

Transforming the core of a parliament building into a triumphal arch altered the neo-classical intention into something that has been described as Mexican socialist realism. Whatever the label, I think it’s ugly (sorry Mexico). At 75m high it is the world’s highest triumphal arch, but please don’t tell Kim Jung Un, he would only make his bigger.

Independence Monument, Phnom Penh

Cambodia

Completed 1958 Visited 17th of February 2014

This 37m high sandstone arch was built in 1958 to celebrate Cambodian independence from France some five years previously. It now also commemorates Cambodia's war dead - and there are a vast number for such a small country.

The Independence Monument, Phnom Penh

Designed by Cambodian architect Vann Molyvann to resemble a lotus shaped stupa, it sits at the intersection of Norodom Boulevard and Sihanouk Boulevard, and is the ceremonial, if not geographical, centre of the city. A flame is lit on the inner pedestal, usually by the King, at times of national celebration and commemoration.

Patouxai, Vientiane

Laos

Built 1957-68, Visited 1st of March 2014

Ironically, this Arc de Triomphe was built to commemorate victory over the French. Laos gained its independence in 1954 after the first Indo-China War and Patouxai (Victory Arch) was built in the late 1950s. Less reverently it is known as ‘The Vertical Runway’ as there is a story that it was built from concrete donated by the Americans for airport construction.

Patouxai (Victory Arch), Vientiane

There are stairs inside and shops at three levels. From the top there is a good view over the gardens below one way and down Lan Xang Avenue – Vientiane’s Champs Elysées the other.

The Arch of Triumph, Pyongyang

Built 1982, Visited 9th September 2013

North Korea

North Korea’s Arch of Triumph, in Triumphant Return Square, commemorates Kim Il Sung's return to the capital (in 1948) and his founding of the Democratic People's' Republic of Korea after almost single-handedly driving the Japanese colonialists from his country (DPRK history avoids mentioning the global conflict and ignores contributions made by other combatants, including the Chinese, British and the hated Americans).

It was built in 1982 to celebrate his 70th birthday and is is blatant rip off of the French ‘original’. Two interesting details are that a) it is 10m taller than the Parisian Arch and b) that fact was the first thing we were told when we arrived in the square; delusions of grandeur and a chip on the shoulder being most obvious attributes of Kim Il Sung and the dynasty he founded.

Arch of Triumph, Pyongyang

Pyongyang’s sparse traffic means that it is perfectly safe to stand in the middle of the ‘Champs Elysées’ to take a photograph.

Eternal Flame, Martyrs Alley, Baku

Opened 9th of October 1998 Visited 12th of August 2014

Azerbaijan

The events of Azerbaijan’s Black January are little known in the UK.

In 1990 in, the dying days of its empire the Soviet Union declared a state of emergency in Azerbaijan. The Popular Front responded by imposing roadblocks around Baku which Soviet troops broke through, killing some 130 unarmed protestors. The Russian claims that the first shots came from the Azeri side, are hotly disputed. What our otherwise admirable Azeri guide did not tell us was that the state of emergency was declared to stop a pogrom which had killed 90 of Baku’s Armenian residents. What the Armenians never mentioned when we were there, was that the pogrom was provoked by Armenia granting citizenship to ethnic Armenians in the Azeri district of Nagorno Karabakh. What the Azeris forget to mention..... and so on in a time-honoured chicken-and-egg argument. The resulting Azerbaijan-Armenia war ended in 1994 with Karabakh becoming a de facto independent state (now called Artsakh) and Azerbaijan feeling miffed. Negotiations – and occasional shootings - continue. [Including a major outbreak in 2020.]

In Martyr's Alley the 130 who died in Black January are commemorated with names and photographs in black marble. At the end is an eternal flame.

Eternal Flame, Martyr's Alley, Baku

The eternal flame is the biggest test of my new rule for deciding what should be in and what out. Can it really be called an arch? Is it more of an elongated, heavyweight gazebo? I said I would be inclusive, so it is in.

The Arch of Bender

Built 2008 Visited  27th June 2018

Transnistria

Bender (or Bendery, sometimes Tighina) is a city on the right bank of the River Dniester in the breakaway Republic of Transnistria, officially part of Moldova. Bender was on the front line in many of the wars between the Russian and Ottoman Empires, its fortress being taken by the Russians in 1779, 1789 and 1806 (and lost in between). An arch commemorating the Russian capture of Bender Fort in 1806 was erected in Chişinău, the Moldovan capital, but was destroyed, along with much else, in 1944.

The Arch of Bender, Bender, Transnistria

This arch in Bender is a 2008 replica of that destroyed arch. The major result of the 1806-12 war was the Russian Empire’s gain of Bessarabia (approximately Moldova and Transnistria), so the arch is a message, or warning, from the Russian orientated Transnistrians to the Moldovans and their European ambitions.

Porta Macedonia, Skopje

North Macedonia

Built 2011 Visited May 2015

The Porta Macedonia was designed by Valentina Stefanovska as part of the then Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski’s ‘Skopje 2014’ project which saddled the capital with a series of grandiose monuments at great expense. Despite its name it is not a gate, nor is it a war memorial, but the design is classic Triumphal Arch, so that is what it must be, though apart from commemorating 20 years of Macedonian independence it is unclear what the ‘triumph’ was.

Porta Macedonia

I am unconvinced that spending €4.4m on a triumphal arch was the best use of money, which is not overabundant in Skopje. Gruevski was prime minister from 2006 until forced to resign in 2016. In May 2018 he started a two years prison sentence for corruption.

and finally....

This space is available free to any country willing to build itself a pointless arch

A Collection of Arcs de Triomphe (none of them in Paris) Part 1: Pre 1900

Triumphal Arches - What is and What is Not

This is the third iteration of this post. The original, published 01/04/2014, was ‘Four Arcs de Triomphe (none of them in Paris). The second, 29/06/2018, included newly collected arches, but also omitted Lutyens’ India Gate from the earlier post on the grounds it was a War Memorial, not a Triumphal Arch.

Defining a Triumphal Arch is difficult. Some arches called Triumphal have no associated triumph, and then there are Monumental Gates and War Memorials which can look very similar.

Although retaining the title, I have chosen a new and more inclusive definition for these posts (there are now two of them, this one and post-1900). For the purposes of this blog an ‘Arc de Triomphe’ is an arch with no structural purpose. This definition includes war memorials built in arch form – like the India Gate mentioned above and also Monumental Gates as long as they were built to be symbolic i.e. not city gates built as part of a wall, even if the wall has long gone. Another qualification of inclusion is that I have been there and taken the photograph.

Almost all modern arches owe a debt to the Parisian Arch, because it was (almost) the first modern Arc de Triomphe; but it was not, of course, the original. Like so much in Europe, Triumphal Arches are a Roman idea.

Classical Arches

None of my modern arches are in Paris, so none of my classical arches are in Rome.

In order of construction they are:

Hadrian's Arch, Gerasa, Jordan

Built 129 CE Visited 10th of November 2019

Jordan

There site of Gerasa (modern Jerash) in northern Jordan has been inhabited since prehistory. The city, though, was founded by Alexander the Great who breezed through in 333 BCE, or by one of his successors. The Romans arrived in 63 BCE and Gerasa became part of the Roman Province of Syria. Set in a relatively fertile area, with iron-ore deposits nearby the city could not but thrive. In 106 CE it became part of the Province of Arabia and became even richer thanks to the Emperor Trajan's road building programme. The start of the 2nd century saw much new building and a new grid plan, and then the honour of an imperial visit. Trajan, who had been responsible for much of Gerasa's recent prosperity, died in 117, so it was Hadrian who made the visit in 129, and thus the Triumphal Arch bears his name.

Hadrian's Arch, Jerash/Gerasa

The Arch of Marcus Aurelius, Tripoli

Built 165 CE, Visited April 2006

Libya

We visited Libya in 2006, the home of two well preserved/restored Roman arches. The Arch of Marcus Aurelius in Tripoli was built to commemorate the victory of Marcus's adopted brother, Lucius Verus, over the Parthians. It seems a thin excuse for building an arch so far away from the events, but perhaps he felt in need of a monument.

The Arch of Marcus Aurelius, Tripoli

The Arch of Septimius Severus, Leptis Magna

Built 203 CE, Visited April 2006

The ruins of Leptis Magna lie 130 km east of Tripoli. Septimius Severus, Rome’s only African emperor, was born here in 145 CE. He became emperor in 193 and ruled until he fell ill attempting to conquer Caledonia, and died in York in 211. He is honoured by an arch in Rome commemorating his victory over the Parthians (it seems Lucius Verus failed to finish them off) and this one in his home town.

The Arch of Septimius Severus, Leptis Magna

The Modern Link

Napoleon in a Toga, Bastia

France

After the Romans, triumphal arches went out of fashion until the days of Napoleon who rather fancied himself as a latter day Roman emperor. The wonderfully camp statue below is in Bastia the capital of northern Corsica. Napoleon was born in Ajaccio, the capital of southern Corsica – is it possible that Bastia was taking the mickey out of their rival’s favourite son?

Napoleon in a toga, Bastia

Planning the Paris Arc de Triomphe started in 1806 but it was not completed until 1836 by which time some of the shine had come off Napoleon’s triumphs. That did not deter the Parisians, nor indeed many others, as where Paris led the rest followed. St Petersburg has one (1829), as has New York (1892) and Mexico City (1938). London hopped on the bandwagon early, the Wellington Arch in Green Park dates from 1826 - though before I began researching triumphal arches I had never heard of it.

Modern Arches pre-1900

For 20th and 21st Century Arches, see Part 2

So, in order of construction....

The Corinthian Arch, Stowe, Buckinghamshire

Built 1765 Visited 30th July 2014 and subsequently

United Kingdom

The Napoleonic era may have re-invented Triumphal Arches, but my first example is an outlier. Built 4 years before Napoleon was born, it was a product of the 18th century fascination with everything classical, even when they misunderstood the context.

The Temple Family became rich from sheep farming. In 1683 Sir Richard Temple started building the first Stowe House. His son, who married into more wealth and became Lord Cobham started work on the garden. Over the next few generations as they married into more and more wealth, and acquired more names and more titles, they built one of the finest houses and the finest garden of its type in England.

And a great garden needs a great entrance. The Corinthian Arch was built in 1765 at the end of the long drive.

The Corinthian arch at Stowe, photographed from half way down the drive

Visiting great gardens was popular in the 18th century, but the casual visitor did not enter through the arch, they were diverted via the family’s New Inn. The same is true today, the road swings right to the National Trust car park behind the (not so) New Inn. Once inside, you can approach the arch on foot.

The Corinthian Arch, Stowe

The arch represents a triumph over the ‘little people’ – anybody who had less money than the Temples – which was just about everyone. Arrogant and high handed they kept on spending and in 1848, four generations after they had been the richest family in the country, Richard Plantagenet Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville (I said they collected names!) eventually spent them into bankruptcy. The rest of the British aristocracy smirked quietly.

Arcul de Triumf, Chişinău

Moldova

Built 1841 Visted 24th June 2018

The modest capital of Moldova has an appropriately modest triumphal arch, 13m high and sporting a clock that would not look out of place on a railway station.

Arcul de Triumf

There were 12 Russo-Turkish Wars, the first 1568-70 and last World War One which ended the Ottoman and Russian Empires. Designed by Luca Zauşkevici the arch commemorates the Russian victory in the 1828-9 version of this fixture. It was built to house a 6.4t bell made from melted down Ottoman cannons originally intended for the cathedral bell tower (the predecessor of the one in this picture), but it would not fit. It strikes the hour with a rather unmusical ‘dunk’.

Arc de Triomf, Barcelona

Spain

Built 1888 Visited 29th March 2008

A whimsical piece of modernista architecture with Islamic-style brickwork, Barcelona’s Arc de Triomf was designed by Josep Vilaseca and built in 1888 as the entrance to the Barcelona World Fair.

Arc de Triomf, Barcelona

The arch represents no military triumph, real or imagined, and the sculpture on the front frieze is called Barcelona rep les nacions (Barcelona welcomes the nations). It was a marginal inclusion under the previous criteria, but I felt it represented an altogether healthier expression of national (in this case Catalan) pride than any of the other Arcs de Triomphe.

Aysgarth and Kettlewell: To Upper Wharfedale and Beyond! Part 2

A Waterfall and an Anniversary Dinner in Our Favourite Village

North Yorkshire

Craven

The 26th of July 2020, our 45th Wedding Anniversary, dawned cool and damp.

Breakfast at the Racehorses, Kettlewell, was appropriately socially-distanced, but that is not difficult when only three of 17 rooms are occupied. Still, I was pleased we were not the only ones unafraid to venture out and cautiously exercise new (and, it turned out, rather temporary, freedoms.

It was not a great breakfast. When we were here in 2017 breakfast included a slab of black pudding, now replaced by a triangle of greasy pap. That is really not what hash browns are meant to be.

Here is a reminder from the yesterday's post (Skipton, Grassington and Kettlewell) of how we were when we came to Kettlewell on honeymoon in 1975 when hash browns (the good and the bad) were still confined to the far side of the Atlantic.

Lynne, Yorkshire Dales July 1975
Lynne's hair is still this colour, and no, it does not come out of a bottle

How we are now will become painfully obvious as this post progresses.

Me, Yorkshire Dales July 1975.
My hair seems to have changed colour

Kettlewell to Aysgarth

It was a dismal morning so we got in the car and set off up the dale. The narrow bottom of the V-shaped valley has to accommodate the river as well as a B-road and I had forgotten how narrow that road is. The four miles to Buckden required several stops to pass oncoming vehicles.

The River Wharfe at Kettlewell, photographed on a sunnier day in 2017

On the valley sides the fields, hay meadows and grazing for cattle, were all neatly divided by dry stone walls. Each field has its own barn, a practice unique to this area. Most are of two storeys with cattle sheltered below and fodder stored above. Farms and farming methods change, many barns are now derelict, though some of the more accessible have been converted into tourist accommodation. The higher ground above, with no barns and fewer walls is rough grazing for sheep.

Another photograph from a finer day. No field barns but plenty of walls. The parallel walls at the top enclose a drover's road.

Changes in national drinking habits have seen vast numbers of pubs close over the last two decades. I am delighted that all three of Kettlewell’s are still in business, as is the Buck in Buckden and the Fox and Hounds in tiny Starbotton half way between. Starbotton has less than 50 permanent residents and over 60 houses, the ‘extra’ accommodation being second/holiday homes.

Richmondshire

Buckden is the end of Wharfedale, the Wharfe here emerging from a side valley known as Langstrothdale. We followed the B-road north through the hamlet of Cray where The White Lion, a former drover’s hostelry, is also still thriving, then steeply up the head of the valley and steeply down into Bishopdale on the other side.

Kettlewell to Aysgarth, 30 miles of Yorkshire's finest countryside (on a nice day)

Bishopdale broadens and runs into Wensleydale near Aysgarth.

Aysgarth Falls

Aysgarth is a small village lining both sides of the main road through Wensleydale. Unlike Wharfedale, Wensleydale is broad and U-shaped, the River Ure having had considerable help digging its valley from glaciation in the last ice-age. Consequently, the Ure is a much wider river than the Wharfe – and there is plenty of room for a much larger road – an A-road, in fact.

The parish church is half a mile down the dale from the main part of Aysgarth, just above the bridge giving access to the Upper Aysgarth Falls.

Upper Falls, Aysgarth

The river Ure drops 30 m east of Aysgarth. In one drop that would be big waterfall, but the Falls are in three sections over a mile of river, and each section has multiple steps. They are renowned for their beauty rather than height; whether the same can be said for two old codgers below, the crumbling remnants (speak for yourself, L) of the youngsters at the top of the post, is laughable debatable.

At Aysgarth Upper Falls

The Upper Falls have been a popular film location. In Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves Kevin Costner’s Robin having travelled to from Dover to Nottinghamshire via Hadrian’s Wall, met Nick Brimble’s Little John in North Yorkshire - director Kevin Reynolds had little respect for English Geography. They fought across the falls, and you can’t do that at Niagara.

Ten minutes walk downstream through the National Park car park and some pleasant woodland…

Near Aysgarth's Middle Falls

….are the middle falls. This is the biggest drop, though it is divided into seven steps, each so sharply cut they look artificial, though they are not.

Middle Falls, Aysgarth

The rain was holding off so we were happy to make the ten or twelve minutes stroll down to the curved lower falls.

Lower Falls, Aysgarth

Hubberholme

Craven

Leaving Aysgarth we headed back up Bishopdale, over the top and down to Buckden where we turned right for a short trip along the smallest of minor roads to the village of Hubberholme. It was a sentimental journey; we lunched at the George Inn on the first full day of our marriage and I was delighted to see the pub still thrives.

Tiny Hubberholme is also, slightly oddly, the site of Buckden parish church. The pews are the work of Robert Thompson of Kilburn who started carving mice into his work in 1919. Thompson died in 1955 but Robert Thompson Craftsmen Ltd continue the tradition of ‘mouseman’ furniture on the edge of the North York Moors.

The 13th century Parish Church of St Michael and All Angels, Buckden - in Hubberholme

The mice are small, discreetly placed and integral to the furniture, not stuck on like an afterthought. In 1975 we spent some time locating as many as we could but that is not possible now; these are the days of Covid and the church was firmly locked with the mice on the inside and us on the outside.

Kettlewell

Back in Kettlewell we had lunch – a sandwich and a cup of tea - in a café much frequented by cyclists. Here we encountered careful social distancing, disposable plates, and cutlery lobbed straight into a bowl of disinfectant after use. We are getting used to not being able to buy a beer or a cup of tea without giving a phone number, but I will be glad when that eventually disappears along with other Covid inconveniences. It is true, though, that apart from the return of the single-use plate, the effects of Covid – less driving, less flying, less generally - have often been environmentally beneficial. Even a grumpy old git must occasionally pause to appreciate a dark cloud’s silver lining.

Kettlewell

We spent much of the afternoon wandering round the village – apart from a short spell standing in the doorway of the village shop (closed on Sunday) hiding from the rain. Dale’s villages, like everywhere else, look best in the sunshine, but the relatively light-coloured limestone means they do not look overly depressing in the wet.

Kettlewell

There have been changes since 1975, the plethora of parked cars in the pictures above is an ugly but inevitable consequence of increasing affluence. Other changes are for the better. Most buildings today are in good condition and there are several that were once tired, or even on the verge of dilapidation. that have been rebuilt and updated. They look good from outside, while I would expect the comforts and convenience of the interior are beyond the imaginings of the original builders.

Restored Building, Kettlewell

There are spots without parked cars…

Kettlewell without parked cars

…but even road signs can take you down memory lane. A metal post near where the village roads meet the ‘main’ road may carry four modern signs, but the top one to Burnsall and Skipton is a 'pre-Worboys' as road sign aficionados (yes, they do exist) call them. The Worboys committee reported in 1963 on the shortcomings of the road signage of the day and suggested a complete overhaul and re-design. Their suggestions were put into effect from January 1965. I passed my driving test in 1967 so there were still plenty of pre-Worboys signs in those far off days when a gallon (4.5 litres) of petrol cost 5/11d (just under 30p) but they are vanishingly rare now.

Pre-Worboys road sign, Kettlewell

The (almost) famous and (almost) infallible Kettlewell weather stone was not, I think, here in 1975, but it is hardly new. You do not have to smile, as they would say in Yorkshire, but most people do.

The Kettlewell Weather Stone

At the east end of the village, where the path sets off to climb Great Whernside, (the summit is 3.5 km beyond and 450 m above the ridge in the photo)…

The eastern corner of Kettlewell

…there is a bridge over the Kettlewell Beck. Tradition demands we stop here for a game of Pooh Sticks. Tradition was maintained and I was, as ever, a magnanimous loser.

Pooh sticks bridge over Kettlewell Beck

Late in the afternoon the village became jammed with cars. The ‘main’ road to Skipton was closed at the Wharfe Bridge and the police were attempting to funnel southbound traffic onto an alternative, single track, road. Police at the southern end of the closure were attempting to do the same with northbound traffic. They were co-ordinating their efforts, but hold-ups were inevitable. Summer weekends always bring out the bikers, largely groups of middle-aged men attempting to re-capture their youth. Tragically, one had fatally misjudged a corner between Kettlewell and Kilnsey causing a temporary road closure.

Dinner at the Blue Bell

We may have been staying at the Racehorses, but it was at the Blue Bell we spent our honeymoon, so we had dropped in there earlier and booked our anniversary dinner. In 1975 there was little choice, regular pubs did not serve food, beyond a bag of crisps; those who stayed at the Blue Bell dined at the Blue Bell, those who stayed at the Racehorses dined at the Racehorses and nobody wandered in from outside.

Blue Bell Inn, Kettlewell

Social-distancing currently limits the number of diners so booking was essential, but there is still a problem for those eccentrics who wish to dine on a Sunday evening. Sunday lunch is big, but many pubs and restaurants close their kitchens late afternoon. Fortunately, the Blue Bell was serving in the early evening.

Pubs are all different and have been left to work out their own Covid salvation (or not bother, in some well-publicised cases). At the Blue Bell drinkers were outside, diners inside, and we had a room to ourselves. ‘There are no individual menus,’ we were told, ‘photograph the blackboard, go to your table and we will come and take an order.’ Now, that would have been a problem in 1975!

Blue Bell menu, Kettlewell

I lack the patience to go right through the menu listing everything unknown or unavailable in 1975, but the starters are:- garlic bread! 45 years ago garlic was irredeemably foreign (though the pretentious could buy it in our local supermarket – by the clove): Carrot and coriander soup (coriander? fancy foreign stuff, what’s wrong with parsley?): sweet chilli sauce (spicy foreign muck): haddock goujons (what in God’s green Yorkshire is a goujon?). British food was among the worst in the world, it is not yet among the best, but it has come a long way in the 45 years of our marriage.

Dining at the Blue Bell

The Blue Bell appeared to be trying much harder than the Racehorses whose menu was marooned in the 1990s. I had belly pork with apple purée, black pudding croquette and cider sauce, Lynne had a lamb kofta with feta and olive salad, yoghurt dip, flat bread - and chips (some things will never change). It was good pub food and we enjoyed it; the menu had been written with thought and imagination and the food prepared with care. Was it perfect? No, but we were not paying Michelin star prices. Was it value for what we paid? Yes. Would we go back? Yes.

27/07/2020

We had enjoyed a good weekend in a place of happy memories, and although both days had been disappointingly overcast, we had not been rained on that much. Our return journey was another matter. Dire from start to finish.

A lovely day on the M6