Travels Through History - Armenia and the UK: Journeys in Armenia and the UK

By Julian Worker

Armenia is full of monasteries, fortresses, and people who are passionate about their past. The traveller is always aware of the importance of religion and history in this little-visited country, whose only open borders are with Georgia and Iran. The borders with Turkey and Azerbaijan are closed due to past differences.

In the UK, visits to Leicester, Derby, Manchester, Bristol, and Cardiff are described. The first factory in the UK, a recently buried King, and stunning new buildings by the sea are given equal prominence.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AG Books
• Release date: Jul 16, 2019
• ISBN: 9781785385193

Julian Worker

“Little Known British Traditions” is my first book of humourous stories. One of my stories, Safari Sickness, has been recently published in an anthology called “Leave the Lipstick, Take the Iguana” by Travelers’ Tales. Other articles have recently appeared in the Expeditioner online e-zine, and in Americas the magazine of the Organization of American States. My travel stories have appeared in The Toronto Globe and Mail, The National Catholic Register, International Travel News, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Southern Cross newspaper in South Africa. On the Internet my writing has appeared on the following websites: In the Know Traveller, Go World, Paperplates, Intravel, and GoNomad. I have also taken many photographs that have appeared in travel guides/articles by National Geographic, Thomas Cook, The Rough Guides, and The Guardian.

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UK.

The United Kingdom

The Silk Mill- England’s First Factory - Derby

I was visiting Derby for the first time. I parked my car at the Parksafe car park in the Cathedral Quarter. This place styles itself as the safest car park in the world. When you arrive, you are issued with a plastic token, slightly larger than a credit card, and before you can leave the building as a pedestrian, you have to activate your parking space by placing the token against a reader and keying in the number of the bay you’re parked in. A voice indicates your parking space has been activated, which I believe means a motion indicator has been set underneath your car. To get yourself out of the building, you have to place the token against a reader on the exit door and another voice tells you the door is now unlocked and you can leave the car park.

Having negotiated the various readers and voices, I found myself outside standing by a detailed map of the centre of Derby. I was able to quickly work out where the Cathedral was and I duly headed there. The Cathedral of All Saints was largely being ignored by all the passers-by, apart from myself, who was admiring the freshly cleaned 600-year old tower built in the Perpendicular Gothic style. On the other side of the cathedral was a statue of the Young Pretender, Bonnie Prince Charlie, on horseback. I smiled when I remembered Billy Connolly’s remark that Bonnie Prince Charlie was the only royal person named after three sheepdogs.

This statue commemorates his arrival in the city on December 4th, 1745. This was the furthest south the main part of the Jacobite army reached. About seventy highlanders were sent to the Swarkestone Bridge near Melbourne a few miles further south, the only route to London. These troops secured the bridge against British soldiers, whilst Charlie and his generals held a council of war.

Against the Prince’s better judgement, the council decided that, in the face of advancing government troops, the Jacobites should withdraw from Derby and head back to Scotland, where, of course, they met a fateful end at Culloden in 1746.

Next, I walked about fifty yards to the five-storey high Silk Mill next to the River Derwent. The museum is housed in Lombe’s Mill, an historic former silk mill which marks the southern end of the Derwent Valley Mills UNESCO World Heritage Site. In this mill, on the upper three floors, the silk was twisted into thread by winding engines that spun the raw silk. On the lowest two floors, eight spinning mills produced basic thread. The single source of power was water from the river. The mill employed between 200-400 people. The fact that the mill turned raw silk into thread, as a complete process in one place, has led Lombe’s mill to be described as the first successful use of the factory system in England.

I followed the riverside path, past the mill and under two bridges carrying road traffic, and found myself in another world away from the city. I was in Darley Park, with grass and trees stretching for a few hundred yards to the horizon. This park, by the river, is exceedingly pleasant and separates the city centre from the pretty and exclusive village of Darley Abbey.

Back in Derby I enjoyed looking around the rest of the Cathedral Quarter with its narrower streets and older buildings. I can recommend the coffee and cake in the Good Green Cafe at one end of the Strand Arcade. I then headed to the world’s most secure car park having thoroughly enjoyed my time in the city of Derby.

The Animal Wall - Cardiff

My recommendation for a good cafe in Cardiff is ‘Coffee Barker’ in the Castle Arcade. This arcade has two entrances, one of