By the numbers
13658 Steps
10.04kms
I had set today aside for Archives family history research
in the Durham Archives located at the County Hall. I had heard that it would be
a wet day today, but didn’t really believe it until I walked outside and it was
a touch wet as in drizzle. I thought I could get away with not having a brolly
out until I decided that I probably should as I don’t want to be damp while
researching in Durham. I had to book a specific time to use one of the micro
film readers as I was wanting to look at some records or to find people. I had
to get a ticket before leaving on the train and found the one I wanted was
actually already full of people with standing room only. I decided to head to
another train, but walked back and hopped onto the original one anyway. I think
that was a touch of fear from what happened last week. The train was only 15
mins into Durham and it was raining there too. They had decided to do some
works on the tunnel between platform one and two, so you had to basically walk
half way up the drive way to the platform you wanted..
I found my way to the county hall office in the rain, where
I let them know at the front. I had to wait around 5 mins before they could let
me inside. I went alright using my pass through the door, but got stuck when I
stupidly thought I had to scan my card again. Turns out I needed to press the
bussing to let the door open.. It was funny at the time, but I cannot believe I
did that. I had to put my bag into a locker and I couldn’t even bring in my
folder. I bought in my note pad and what I was wanting to research. I tried
with the great grandparents bakery / sweet shop, where I confused an archivist
when it said dad and the picture was from the 1920s. I did explain, I am not
that old. I had a look through several directories and couldn’t find anything,
but I was kind of expecting not to find anything as I might not even be in the
right archive centre.
The next record I went hunting for was through old
newspapers and that sounds easier that it actually was. I chose specific dates
and looked at them, but I never found the death or burial record, I had wanted,
but found there was stuff going on with the mines around 1940s during the war.
I had spent several hours looking at records and jumped into the electrol
registers. They were more annoying as they were not in alphabetical order. You
had to look at them from the town, but while there were several Watson’s in the
locations, they were not the ones I was after. I looked through several years,
but didn’t find them. I now know where they were not, but the Durham Archives
do not hold everything as I might have to visit the Tyne and Wear Archives
again in the morning, but I don’t know yet. I do want to visit some Roman ruins
along Haidrians Wall. I decided I had done enough hunting and wanted to see the
town before I headed off back to Newcastle.
When I walked out of the building after collecting my
belongings, I found that the rain was now gone and the sun was shining and
brigfht. I havnt really been wearing sunnies here, but there are times when the
sun has been too bright. I took a walk up to the Durham Cathedral grabbing two
pies that didn’t seem to be pies, but they were pies. They had the front door
of the Cathedral closed off as they were doing some works that would expose the
stonework around the door. There was another entrance. I kept on walking past
the castle. There was one thing that I really wanted to do and that was to get
back so I could wash my clothes or else I would be doing that over my afternoon
of the day before I leave. I wanted my bags to be mostly packed by then as I
leave early in the morning on the Friday for York as I want to visit the train
museum.
I ended up on the long walk between platforms and the good
thing was there was a train going north so I had no problems waiting. The train
was heading to Edinburgh. I can spell that now. Once I got my clothes into the
machine, I was happy that it was the cheapest wash so far on this trip. Two pound
fifty pence as the others had all been more expensive, between 7 and 5 euro. I
last washed in Paris, so I was at the point of needing to do so. I did fill the
machine, but the dryer took longer as the first time around the clothes were
still wet. I even cleaned out the lint that the instructions tell you to do,
but no one ever does. After drying the clothes, I went to get money out as I
needed some more cash. I am stashing some elsewhere just in case something
happens. I got to the UK without knowing if my card would work and no cash on
me apart from Singapore dollars and Swedish crowns. After sorting out my cards
yesterday with the fraud there was the fear the fraud guy had cancelled the
wrong card. He hadn’t, but I was worried by that. I did go out for tea while my clothes cooled
down after the dryer. I have noticed there are lots of people with tattoos here
so I probably don’t standout that much.
No comments:
Post a Comment