Another Yorkshire Post

Part two of our trip to Yorkshire and this time we were heading for Leeds and Wakefield.  Whilst we were living in Yorkshire we often went to Wakefield and I had a couple of temp jobs there, so a return visit.

First stop in Leeds was at Roundhay Park, which we never got to when we were in Yorkshire.   A lovely great Victorian park to walk around with it's mansion house and nearby lake and fountain (there is another larger lake in the park) and going out of there and across the road by Butterfly World was an Italian style garden and a further rose garden.  But the gardens we wanted to see were the specialist gardens which had been shown in recent years at the Chelsea Flower Show, so back across the road and we found them

First was called Monet's garden, with archways to walk through to get to the other garden displays and the bottom photo shows just a part of the flower beds.

And just to prove we were here - there's David.  The weather was really drizzly, so that's why the photos don't look as bright.  I have found that Roundhay Park have 360 degree photos to look at here
though the gardens are more established now that when they were taken. They were fabulous gardens and pleased we took the time to visit them.

It was on to Wakefield and to see The Hepworth Wakefield gallery which opened May last year, by which time we'd moved back down South.  On our travels through we'd seen the construction of this curious looking building on the banks of the River Calder.  It seemed strange that some parts of the area were smartened up to revitilise the area, but some parts look neglected. 

A group of Barbara Hepworth's sculptures with the river behind.  There is a road bridge and you can see in the middle of that a building just sticks up above that.  More about that in a bit.

 Main entrance

An outside meeting area.

View from the road (sorry I tried to get the van out of the picture!)

Photography can be taken in some areas which answered my questioning about the sloping roofs on the building.  It was to direct the light in angles into the galleries.

These were casts for her sculptures, the one above being that for (I think) Peter Jones in Oxford Street.  I'm pleased we found time to visit this and spent quite a bit of time here.  It's was buzzing with people, not just a quiet gallery. 

Across the road from the Hepworth was a building that had us wondering for ages what it was.  The other side of the road bridge is an old bridge with what looked like a small church, which it turns out it is, called the Chantry built into the old bridge.  It was even painted by Turner (I'll try and search the link to that) more about it here.

Turner painted the chapel with the spire of Wakefield Cathedral in the background and you can just about see it next to the lamp post on the road bridge.  It is still used occasionally for services.

A nice day was rounded of by a fish and chip dinner at the Wetherby Whaler in Wakefield, one of our favourite places to eat.