CYHA News

As chilly as it was at New Year, it wasn’t really all that much warmer for our Burnham Deepdale trip. Still, we managed a fun-packed weekend before the snow blew in.

Saturday saw us head for the coast for a bracing walk out to Titchwell and Brancaster, returning to a spectacular sunset over the sea. We also had the pleasure of Claire, Ian and Hollye’s company Saturday night for a bite of dinner and to catch-up on news.

For Sunday’s walk we headed a little further south to the sensational Castle Rising. It was chilly and a little wintry, so there was no hanging about. We parked at the castle and walked out through the village and into the wilds of Norfolk. A few miles later we were ready for a warm up and Castle Rising had just the tea shop we needed. After a round of teas, soups and ludicrously large portions of cake we were ready to face the elements again - for some of us only for as long as it took to walk up the hill to the car park, for the rest a tour of the castle was in order.

Castle Rising is the pretty well preserved former home of Queen Isabella (the She-Wolf of France, who had it off with Mel Gibson in the film ‘Braveheart’), and according to the site manager it’s also haunted. Disappointingly there were no spooks on any of the pictures I took, so I’ll have to find another way to make my fortune.

The drive home proved to be pretty snowy and dramatic, but everyone seemed to get back OK. It was a bit of a struggle getting into work Monday morning though!

Ali

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Walking the Chignal Uplands

George led a splendid walk taking in the highlands north of Chelmsford. Starting off at Chignal St James village hall, we had a lovely walk through the fields, arriving at The Walnut Tree unfashionably early for opening time. Suitably refreshed, we headed off to Partridge Green, taking in the grave of the Quaker, Ruth Marriage, who "died at this farm in 1772 and was buried here at her request", by one of the hedgerows. After that we walked towards Broomfield Hospital, where George lived in the staff cottages up to about 1970. The hospital is now vastly expanded, but you can still see the original TB hospital where George’s father used to work. In the wooded strip between the hospital and Chelmer Valley High School there was a chain of small ponds, at least one of which was dramatically deepened but a V2 rocket in WWII, which also affected the foundations of the old hospital building. Passing along behind the school playing fields, we approached the site of the former Broomfield Airfield and George told us the story of the German pilot who worked there between the wars only to leave suddenly just before WWII leaving a pile of burnt plane parts in the pond by the side of the airfield (still visible when George was roaming the area as a kid). After a fine meal at the Three Elms, we returned to the cars taking in the site of the Roman villa, the last site on our historical tour. Many thanks to George for a enjoyable and informative walk.

Ali

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Triumph of the YHA Remnants

The appropriately named ‘YHA Remnants’ entered the Chelmer Tavern Quiz with high hopes of bettering the 2nd place of last year. It started well as the team coped with such toughies as “who wrote a midsummer night’s Dream?”, and Mike’s musical knowledge ensured top marks in the chart hits round. Where we fell down was on the sports questions including a rather difficult set of questions where we had to name the favourite football teams of a selection of ‘top’ (?) English cricketers! Even consultation (aka cheating) by text message to Dave ‘The Sports Oracle’ Julian (on a business trip to Lichfield) failed to get us even one point and we had to settle yet again for 2nd spot. Thanks and congrats to all brains who turned up on the night and attention all sports fans, your quiz team needs you for next year’s challenge.

Helen B

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Sports News

Our taster badminton session went well and some people showed real potential, particularly those who managed to hit the shuttlecock.

Trudi

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WORDSEARCH  by Helen B

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