Copying old documents

One on my interests is transcribing old baptism/ confitmation and other registers. I do this for a variety of reasons, some of which I will go into in future posts. At the moment I am transcribing the baptism registers of Our Lady& St Michael's Workington onto a searchable spreadsheet. Microsoft Excel for those who are interested. I started with the year 1838 I have now reached 1909. It has taken longer than I expected. One of the reasons being that not all priests in Victorian and Edwardian times had wonderful handwriting.

The above volume runs from 1904 to 1918 and gives you a flavour of the entries. One of the fascinations for me is that each entry tells a story. Sadly I don't have the time to follow through every entry! Copying or transcribing is not everyone's idea of fun - but I really like it!

A new Bishop for my diocese

Congratulations to Canon Paul Swarbrick who Pope Francis has chosen to the 7th Bishop of Lancaster. I have worked with him for the past seven years. I can honestly say he will be a good and pastoral bishop. Our Diocese, like many others, faces many challenges in the years ahead. Not least being a shortage of priests and the dramatic decline in Mass attendance and people practising the faith.

I ask the prayers of Our Lady of Lourdes and St Cuthbert for him.

My mothers anniversary

Today, February 12th marks the anniversary of the death of my mother, Helena Harrison. She died in 1959 when I was about 18 months old. To be honest I have no memory of her. All my memories of her via either my late father or people who knew her. I also have a few precious photographs of her, my dad was a keen amateur photographer. My brother Edmund and myself always mark her anniversary

"Eternal rest give unto her O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon her. May she rest in peace"

Rail Rover Day 2

My day began at Birmingham New Street. The above is Voyager and formed the 9.30 to London Euston. There is only one First Class coach and it was already heavily booked. I had to have a backward facing seat. For some reason I sometimes get a little nauseous with those seats. This time I was fine. It was an uneventful journey. I then went to London Kings Cross.

Ar Kings Cross I boarded the 12noon service to Inverness, I was getting off at Edinburgh. I had the end seat in the last coach, next to the trailing power car. It proved to be a bumpy ride!. At one point my cup of tea jumped, spilt its contents and just missed my rail ticket. Although there were a couple of slow bits, I think we caught up with the train in front of. it was a fast journey. Once we left Newcastle, First Class was half empty. Below are a couple of photos of the journey taken from the carriage.

First a general photo of the HST speeding through the flat East Anglian Country side

Next is Durham Cathedral

Crossing the river Tweed at Berwick

Finally, the HST I was on

Rail Rover Day 1

Now that I have reached the grand age of 60 I have a Senior Rail. To celebrate this great even I have purchased a 7 day First Class All Line Rail Rover. I began my journey in Workington on the 9.20 service to Carlisle. This was pretty busy, and it was a re- branded Northern Rail DMU. Below is a photo of it at Carlisle.

My next train was to Glasgow Central, just a 20 minute wait. This arrived at Glasgow at 12noon. It then formed the 12.40 back to Euston. First Class was almost fully reserved. I did not have a seat reservation - what should I do? I bagged one seat that was reserved from Oxenholme. However, one of the Virgin Staff asked me to use a reserved club class seat. This was a window seat facing, I was happy. I had this seat all the way to London. The train was delayed just south of Milton Keynes.

The last part of my journey was from London Euston to Birmingham New St. As it was the 17.43 service, I was fully expecting more seating problems, but no!. First Class was almost empty, I was surprised.  I arrived in Birmingham in a heavy shower.

Tomorrow I am off to Edinburgh. hopefully there will be a few more photos.

The journey to Lourdes

The journey to Lourdes began with a 9am flight from Manchester Airport. The check in was very well handled considering how busy the airport was. Once we were ready for boarding things slowed down a little. There was a fault on the loading equipment. So we were delayed for about an hour or so.

The flight went well, we arrived in Lourdes in heavy rain. There was a long wait for the luggage. Then there was as problem with out hotel coach, which meant another delay. We did not arrive to hotel until 3.45pm.

At 5.30 there was a quiet Mass in the upper Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, Fr Peter Groody being the main celebrant.

After Mass had finished I went for a brief visit to the Grotto. It was busy!

My pilgrimage to Lourdes begins

This year I am joining our Diocesan Pilgrimage to Lourdes led by our Bishop: Bishop Michael Campbell OSA. The pilgrimage actually starts tomorrow, but as the flight to Tarbes is rather early I have travelled down to the airport  the night before. I decided the best plan was to take the train from Penrith to Manchester Airport.

This is my train arriving at Penrith - a class 350 emu operated by TranPennine Express. The journey was uneventful except for one of the mysteries of train travel. The seat next to me was reserved, but the person didn't show up. I checked in to the hotel. It's on the 6th floor and overlooks the airport. I have a good view of take offs and landings.

The flight tomorrow is at 9am, with a 7am check in, hence my decision to come down the night before!