MonoMonday: Patriotic

After popping in to say "Goodbye for now" to Mum-in-Law we headed off for home, but with a planned stop at Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire on the way. It was a good choice weatherwise: as we crossed the Pennines we left rainy weather behind and drove into beautiful sunshine.

As usual I took far too many photos at Fountains Abbey so it was hard to select my blip. However I thought this photo of a display at the Abbey showed off the MonoMonday theme of "Patriotic" in the broadest and best sense, with folks demonstrating altruism and philanthropy to improve the lot of their fellow citizens in the country.

The display board was on a stand as you can see; as the writing may be a bit small I've added an inset showing an enlarged version of the story. I hope you can read it. In essence, the owners of the estate set up a society to help unemployed young men from South Tyneside during the depression of the 1930s when unemployment in that area was almost 100%. Not only did they provide training in forestry, agriculture etc but they then found suitable jobs for them. They went on to build a new village at Swarland, in Northumberland, to rehouse 140 families from Jarrow in an area where they could find agricultural work.

Around the room was a big collection of socks, bearing the names of all the lads who'd been helped: the photo shows a small selection of these.

I've added an extra of "The Light at the End of the Tunnel", taken as my Editor was walking out of the dark "Serpentine Tunnel" of the estate into the light.

Many thanks to blipper Carolina for hosting MonoMonday this month.