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Follow the Brown Signs Blog - June, 2012

The Brown Sign Torch Relay Day 41: White water rafting in Britain’s most landlocked county

June 29, 2012
The Olympic torch travels from Lincoln to Nottingham today and along the way passes through the town on Newark on Trent. I was happy to see that this town has a brown sign pointing a destination I haven't featured on the alternative torch relay - a water sports centre. But this is no ordinary water sports centre, no no, this is The National Water Sports Centre. They say: "Despite Nottinghamshire being the most land locked county in England, NWSC boasts some of the best white water and flat water you will find...

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The Brown Sign Torch Relay Day 40: Cleethorpes to Lincoln

June 28, 2012
The torch relay continues it's journey south and then east today from Grimsby to Lincoln. One of my most surprising visits when I was round this neck of the woods was Heckington Windmill, the only 8 sailed windmill in the UK sitting in what can only be described as a rubbish dump. I wrote about it as well as a walk around a wood, pottling around an abandoned 16th Century country house and my stay at a brown signed youth hostel here :)...

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The Brown Sign Torch Relay Day 39: From the archives – Sheffield to Cleethorpes

Very behind on the brown sign torch relay this week, having 2 jobs and an all consuming project is taking it's toll on my self imposed target of metaphorically trotting around the country keeping up with the Olympic Torch. Anyway the torch travelled from Sheffield to Cleethorpes on day 39 and as luck would have it I covered that whole route when I was doing my big brown sign trip of Britain, the blog is here. It's packed full of diverse and interesting destinations, as ever, enjoy :)...

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The Brown Sign Torch Relay Day 38: The answer always lies in education and engagement. Always.

June 27, 2012
Day 38 sees the Olympic torch heading across from Leeds to Sheffield and I've chosen a rather hidden and more unusual type of brown signed destination today (but no less important, far from it I'd say). Featherstone is a town just off down the road from Pontefract in Wakefield and has been around since the Doomsday Day Book days (1085). The town had a strong mining history and grew up around the mines that were opened here during the 17 and 1800s. More recently through the town has seen a...

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The Brown Sign Torch Relay Day 37: Gangrenous limb hacking

June 26, 2012
From Manchester to Leeds our Olympic torch travels today. Along the way lies the community of Harehills in Leeds and on the grounds of St James' University Hospital lies the Thackray Museum. Being located right inside a hospital you won't be surprised to learn that this museum is dedicated to medicine and the health sciences. The museum delves into the history of medicine and the way advances in science, surgical techniques and treating infection using antibiotics have changed our lives beyond all recognition.     Exhibitions that explore this in gruesome detail show how the...

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The Brown Sign Torch Relay Day 36: The beginnings of my brown sign project, football museums and Thierry Henry

June 23, 2012
That blessed Olympic torch was making it's way through Preston when I woke up this morning (it gets up early and so must I apparently). Preston has some interesting brown sign related history that I thought I'd share with you today, but rather ironically the place I'm going to blog about doesn't technically qualify as a brown sign to be blogged about. Let me explain... Right at the very beginning of this project, when I decided to plough all my efforts into the brown signs stuff properly, to turn it from...

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The Brown Sign Torch Relay Day 35: A shining bright star in Morecambe’s future

June 22, 2012
Wow, I've caught up and am actually writing a blog for my Alternative Brown Sign Torch Relay on the day it's supposed to be written and, joy upon all joys, that means I can use my favourite ever live location tool on the London 2012 website to decide my destination of the day! As I wrote the torch was just making it's way along the seafront at Morecambe so I began my daily research into the interestingness that my destination had to offer and stumbled upon this article from February this...

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The Brown Sign Brown Sign Torch Relay Day 34: Modern solstice marking sculptures

Right, I've been huffing and puffing and trying desperately to keep up with the Olympic torch for the last few days and now I'm only a day behind on the blog, who knew it was possible during a time of redundancy, taking on 2 new jobs and general massive upheaval? Not stressful at all as you can imagine. The Olympic torch travelled from Carlisle up into Scotland for a quick visit to Dumfries, then back down into England again to the Lake District where it rested for the night at Bowness-on-Windemere....

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The Brown Sign Torch Relay Day 33: Skittish squirrels, R.E.M. and B&B watermills

June 21, 2012
The torch covers another significant distance today, York all the way up to Carlisle. A community that stuck out along the route was called Appleby-in-Westmorland. I grew up on a Westmoreland Road, and maybe at some point the road I used to live on really did lie in the west of some moor land but it definitely doesn't now and currently serves as the busiest road into the congested town of Bromley, not a piece of moor to be west of in sight, Primark would have built over it years...

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The Brown Sign Torch Relay Day 32: Crying and Vikings

June 20, 2012
Hull to York for the torch today and crying while clearing out my closing restaurant for me. Oh Joy. The blog of the day is a another quicky but brilliant and unique-symbolled brown sign along the torch relay, Yorvik Viking Centre in York. It's not only a great attraction with a brilliant brown sign it's also all about scary Vikings, and who doesn't like scary stuff about Vikings? No one is the answer :)...

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