Oop North- Day 2

The fan heater did sterling service overnight in the ‘van. It was noticeable that the temperature must have dropped about 4am as the heater then ran almost continuously, earlier the thermostat kept cutting in and out. I had a fairly early start to get the train in to Leeds for the day but I’m glad I don’t commute by rail, I was fortunate to get one of the last remaining seats and the train ended up so full that they cancelled the last two stops for safety reasons. The first stop after arriving in the City was Wetherspoons for coffee and breakfast before I set the SatNav for the walk to The Armouries museum, the main target of this part of the trip.

I have to admit I didn’t realise just how big the museum actually is. It was quite enough for me to walk round, and I’m not sure I didn’t miss a bit whilst dodging untethered children. The collection is split into themed areas such as Hunting, War, etc. arranged around a central atrium. It works well in my view. The only issue I have, and it’s a personal view, is that it’s very easy to get caught up in the magnificence of some of the weapons and forget that, with the exception of some purely ceremonial and presentation pieces, they’re all aimed at killing or harming people and animals. To be fair to the museum there was a display section aimed at street crime, pointing out the blades that are (or may be, depending on circumstances) illegal to carry. You do have to be careful, many multi-tools have locking blades which means they are not classed as having folding blades and therefore largely exempt from knife laws.

I think the most magnificent guns were not actually the most highly decorated, a pair of pistols with exquisite blued Damascus steel barrels. Anyone who watches Forged in Fire on TV will know that Damascus Steel is made by forge welding multiple layers of metal together, they’d also recognise quite s few of the blades on display, particularly in the Oriental section.

Lunch was a reasonable baked potato and coffee before I looked round the last couple of floors. I nearly missed a whole floor which included the First World War display. This highlighted the transition from man-to-man fighting to machine guns and mass killing, but with reference to the hand-to-hand fighting in the trenches where knives, clubs and even lances were used. I timed my departure just right to hear the peace of Leeds Dock being disturbed by a demonstration of the iconic Lee Enfield .303 rifle. I should point out that it was a deactivated rifle firing blanks but it was still blooming noisy.

I didn’t want to be too late back to the station, bearing in mind the crowded train of the morning, but I wandered up through the shopping quarter on the way without seeing anything of interest. There wasn’t too long a wait for a train, they’re fairly frequent during the day, and this time it was only moderately full. It does get a bit confusing on that line as the train reverses direction at Bradford Interchange! I had planned to walk up to the pub for supper but after a long day just couldn’t be bothered so a tin of chicken soup and a couple of bread roles sufficed. I’ll definitely be having an early night, I’ve got a couple of options for tomorrow depending on how I feel.