1066 and all that...

A while ago we planned a Sunday train trip to "somewhere". The advantage of a Senior Railcard is that on some routes and at certain times, travel for two is cheaper than the cost of the fuel to get to a destination. Hastings was somewhere that neither of us had been to for more than a "passing through" visit, so enquiries were made. It turned out to be something of a "Cook's Tour" (Cook, the travel agent that is, not the person who prepares food!) and in the end, we went to Poole.

But a trip to Hastings to explore was in the planning folder, especially as we both enjoyed watching "Foyle's War" when it was on the telly. Although Hastings is only a few towns and 100 miles to the east from home in Fareham and both towns are joined by what I can recall being described on those big displays that were erected when road improvements were underway as "The Folkestone to Honiton Major Trunk Road" and otherwise known as the A27 / A259 for most of the route it is little better than it was when first classified as a trunk route in the 1930s.

A week at a caravan site was booked, everything loaded and away we went. The weather forecast for the week looked at best to be challenging. Have you ever noticed that when unseasonably poor weather is forecast, the forecasters are 100% right, but the inverse rarely follows? Three hours later, we arrive, park the caravan and erect the awning. We only took our small porch awning; just as well as I don't think the big one would have fitted with the caravan and car on any of the available pitches. So much for advance booking with dimensions. Although I should add in defence of the Caravan Club that it is probably an old site dating from when a 14 foot length caravan was the norm and the 25 foot monster that we have was usually only seen accompanied by fun fair rides or travelling circuses. And cars were modest sized Cortinas, not humongous 4x4 SUVs.

FOYLE'S HASTINGS

Hastings, we discovered is really two towns; the original fishing village now known as "Old Hastings" and the modern resort town known with some imagination as the new part. The old town is where parts of Foyle's War were filmed, including his house and the episode set amongst the fishing huts on the beach. With little information available on line and no obvious tourist office, first stop was to be a trip to the top of the cliff railway to get a good view

somewhere down there is Mr Foyle's house...

The view over the old town is impressive with Beachy Head in the background and the pier showing the location of the new town. The little information I had found about filming locations led us back down the cliff and a fair walk later got us into the middle of what had clearly started as a fishing village and grown into a prosperous seaside town, even though there is no harbour. It is full of back alleys, narrow streets and many old buildings - and it has mostly been well preserved.

Mr Foyle's house taken from what must have been one of the camera positions used in filming. A wider shot would show how narrow the road was and also some modern street furniture.

We found the house and I think a couple of the passageways that appear in some of the episodes. What you don't really appreciate from the filming is the narrowness of the roads and the steepness of the hills. And of course, nothing is where you might think it should be with many of the locations being either studio backdrops or filmed elsewhere. I was looking for a suitable Wolseley 14/60, but none were around.

A wander back to sea level and along the prom led us to the lifeboat station (a charity we have supported for many years) and into what we thought would be the village of wooden huts in the fishing "harbour" - but most of these are built from cinder block and seem to house the winches used to haul the boats up onto the beach. And as you might expect, the stench of rotting fish is quite, shall we say, fragrant!

HOUSES AND CASTLES

There are a number of interesting places to visit and we were lucky enough to dodge the worst of the weather. If you were to ask a child to draw or describe a castle, you'd probably find a moat and towers set in each corner of a square building would be the result. Such a building is Bodiam Castle. It's a National Trust property, so yet another opportunity to amortise our membership!!

The visitor's first view of Bodiam Castle approaching from the site entrance

Entrance to the castle. Originally, there would have been a bridge at right angles to the current bridge to reach the octagonal island in front of the Barbican. Usual castle fittings including holes to drop boiling tar, molten lead and other inviting substances on uninvited visitors.

I climbed to the top of one of the towers. Why? Because I thought I could! Who cares about bad backs and creaking joints? Here's a view of what remains of the castle's interior.

Rye is an interesting little town just along the coast from Hastings. We did several orbits of the town centre trying to find a par park. There is plenty of parking and well signposted, but somehow we managed to miss several opportunities. Looking back, we found that the signs were right on the junction, with some of the entrances looking more like footpaths. Parking on the edge of town, our walking route took us across the railway line at an unguarded crossing. It's a sad reflection that the gate has a sign advertising The Samaritans.

The older part of Rye. Proper cobbled streets and timber clad buildings

Lamb House, the opposite view of the image above. Unofficially the Mayor's House as it seems that whoever lived in this house frequently became the Mayor

We found Lamb House and took a look around, followed by the obligatory cup of tea and slice of cake. For a period, this was the home of celebrated US writer Henry James and has many literary connections. It's a beautiful Georgian property that is slowly being conserved to allow more to be viewed. There's a large garden at the side, which is where we found the tea room.

He did write exceedingly good books

Dodging more rain, we found another NT property to visit withing easy travelling distance, namely Batemans, the home of that exceedingly good writer, Rudyard Kipling. While most NT properties are interesting, this one is definitely worth a visit if in the area. It has been left as it was when RK lived there and is like walking into someone's house.

Chez Kipling from the front garden

Main reception room in the house. It looks like we've just dropped in for tea

RK's study and desk

Looking back at the house from the garden

Originally, the house came with about 30 acres of land. Over the years, Kipling bought up surrounding farmland that was tenanted and ensured that the peaceful ambiance was not disturbed. It remains so today and makes for a very tranquil garden. a walk through the garden brings you to a watermill that is undergoing restoration. Expectations on when restoration will be complete and milling will recommence are a little fluid as the work has proved to be difficult and, being a listed building, every change to the original planned restoration to circumvent the challenges faced has needed further listed building consent.

A tree sculpture of RK in his garden

The water mill under restoration

 Final stop on this visit had to be the tearoom where they served..... Exceedingly Good Cakes.

Of course, no visit to this part of the world would be complete without a trip to Battle. I've often wondered what the place was called before 1066, but it appears that there was nothing there and it was just a random location for William to gather his troops prior to Harold showing up and battle commencing. The Abbey and battlefield are under the care of English Heritage and - lucky us - we have free admission to their properties. The visitor centre gives a good background to events leading up to the battle and tells it from both the Anglo-Saxon and Norman viewpoint. Both thought they were in the right and so the battle was inevitable. Having routed Harold's forces, William the Conqueror had the massive Abbey built on the site of the battle and the remains are still there to be seen today. A town eventually grew up around the site of Battle Abbey, hence the name - Battle.

The town of Battle as seen from the entrance to the Abbey

William stationed his troops near to the position of the trees, while Harold's were close to the point where the photo was taken. What isn't clear is that this is on a steep hill, with Harold holding the advantage of the high ground. Something akin to what Capt. Mainwaring would call "a shabby Norman trick" turned the tables and the result is, as we know, history

Not much of the Abbey remains

At first glance, you might think this is the main part of the Abbey. It turns out to be the remains of the accommodation for the Monks

The gravelled area give a representation of the Nave of the Abbey. Ann is standing at the point where Harold fell. Whether he really was hit in the eye with an arrow, or whether this is just the stuff of which legends are made, we shall never know

NO TRAINS???

Can we really have a week away and not find either a car museum or a steam railway? No - of course we can't! Leaving Bodiam Castle earlier in the week, we were just about in time to do the last round trip on the Kent & East Sussex Railway, somewhere that I visited a year or so ago (and there's an entry for this elsewhere in this blog). There wasn't any parking at Bodiam, so following road signs we headed to Northiam to join the train to Tenterden for a proper "there and back" trip. In brief, the K&ESR was built as a light railway and retained its independence until nationalisation in 1948.It was run on a shoestring with no expense incurred if it could be avoided. This gives it a charm of its own and because of the lightness of the track, they run small locomotives, frequently hauling heavy trains. On our visit, this was the case with a small "Austerity" saddle tank locomotive hauling five coaches, four ex BR Mark 1 standards and a Southern Railway Maunsell design of the 1930s. The gradients are few, but they are fierce and the little loco was working exceptionally hard.

The top picture shows our train arriving at Northiam and this one shows the loco, having arrived at Tenterden, running around the train for the return

There is a £2 supplement to travel in First Class on most services. Ann is enjoying the style of travel to which she has become accustomed

First Class on this railway always seems to be in the best of the coaches that they operate. This fine example of a 1930's Maunsell design is a good example. Some like this ended up on the Hayling Island branch line which is most appropriate as one of the final engines to work on that branch - 32678 - is also at this railway. Similar designs of coaches formed the electric trains that ran on the "Coastway" line between Portsmouth and Brighton and also on stoppers from Portsmouth to London and were not withdrawn until the later part of the 1970s

That just about rounds out this trip. Our next jolly takes us to Northumberland and the borders of Scotland in a couple of weeks time. The first part is a car club event, so stand by for pictures of classic Triumphs

Hev Yew Gotta Loight Boy?

If you are old enough, you might recall a novelty act called the "Singing Postman" who shot to short lived fame on Opportunity Knocks, or New Faces. I can't remember which, but it was back in the 1960s and was the talent programme before Simon Cowell got in on the act.

Sadly, I am old enough, but if you're not, here he is in full glory if you click on the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqmXLkJ8Bwk

When I was in the Army, I had the dubious pleasure of sharing a room with a few lads from East Anglia; two from rural Norfolk and one from the wildest part of the Fens. I discovered that I could do a passable impersonation of an East Anglian accent. Well, to be honest, more of a parody. Ann's Mum also had a slight Norfolk twang on account of her own mother originating from Norfolk and despite living in the leafier suburbs of London, still spoke about going to a "Foo-neral on Toos-dee" and eating "Cooo-k-umber Sa-a-a-a-nd witches". Not that someone with a vestigial rural Hampshire accent is any position to take the Mickey of course!

What, you may ask has any of this to do with the usual theme for this blog? I was just getting to that: we thought a few days away in North Norfolk would make a nice break. It still being a major holiday area, we thought we'd avoid Easter and head off for a week or ten days around the May Day Bank holiday. With the heatwave last May day and the warm spell over Easter, we were looking forward to scorching temperatures and wall to wall sunshine. We got that slightly wrong with storms, torrential rain and temperatures well below average. In fact, the coldest early May Bank Holiday since records began.

So, on the Friday the week before the Bank Holiday, we hitched the caravan to the car and headed off, joining the M25 traffic jam at Wisley and not escaping until the A1 junction at South Mimms. Strange how the M25 was originally dismissed as a white elephant that nobody would ever use. The traffic jam continued through Hertfordshire following an "incident" requiring a couple of Police cars, a traffic "Womble" (I think they are called "Highways Officers", really - but they clear up all the stuff that the everyday folk leave behind, so Womble seems quite appropriate) and an ambulance. It all looked like a false alarm by the time we passed. Heading off at Baldock, passing Duxford and heading into rural East Anglia, the journey improved and we eventually arrived at the small village of Barney not far from a town that is spelt "Fakenham", but pronounced "Fa-a-a-a-k'num. Home for us was to be the Old Brick Kilns Caravan Park and we had a serviced pitch in an area reserved for Caravan Club members.

We've been to Norfolk before on a few boat holidays on the Broads; two in the 80s pre-children and once again in the 90s when the children were old enough to act sensibly around the water. Allegedly...

Many years later with children doing "jankers". David is now (May 2019) 31 and Lisa 35, so that gives a clue to how long ago this was taken.

With the weather forecast looking decidedly miserable, we revised our plans a little. Sunday took us to the small village of Thursford, home to a huge collection of traction engines, steam rollers, fairground organs and carousels, and the location of a huge Christmas Fair. Not in late April, obviously... It also houses a rare cinema organ with a virtuoso player who performs twice a day. Not entirely my choice in music, but the skill of the musician has to be admired, as does that of the craftsmen who built and maintain the organ. Naturally, at the end of the performance, it slowly sinks into the stage.

Someone just couldn't resist a ride on the Galloper

A Foden steam wagon, owned and operated by George Cushing who set up the collection

A magnificent fairground organ, just one of several in the collection

A Few National Trust Properties... And tea with Phil & Betty

Determined to get value from our National Trust membership, we found a selection of NT places to visit. First was Felbrigg Hall; dodging between showers, we were just about able to visit the walled garden - all 4 acres of it - and then do the tour of the house. A very informative guide told us that the house was owned for many years by the Wyndham family, amongst whom was the captain of the Mary Rose and the estate stayed in he family until lost by the last of the Wyndham's, known rather politically incorrectly as "Mad" Wyndham, he liked to dress up as a railway guard and cause mayhem on the local railway station. Once the Great Eastern Railway banned him from all their premises, he bought himself a Policeman's uniform and eventually formed a relationship with a lady of dubious repute who assisted him in bankrupting the estate.

The centre piece of the walled garden with a rare appearance of blue sky

Felbrigg Hall viewed from the front.

 We also visited the Blickling Estate on a thoroughly miserable day, hoping to see the gardens but the weather rather put us off, so it was just the house. This is the birthplace of Anne Boleyn. Eventually, it ended up as the home of the Marquess of Leith. A member of the appeasement Governments of the 1930s, he was significant in the formation of the National Trust, allowing properties of significance to be left to the Nation rather than being broken up to settle Death Duties. The house contains a massive library.

Blickling Hall

Just part of the library. Didn't see any of my books here, though...

We realised that we have elderly, distant relatives with a nice country home in Norfolk. We call them Phil and Betty; we thought we'd pay them a visit. Oh, alright then... the house is Sandringham and we're as closely related as just about anyone reading this. No photography inside the house, I'm afraid...

Sandringham, main entrance. Us riff-raff are only permitted access to the ground floor 

Exquisite grounds. This is looking over the lake

...and looking over the lake to the rear of the house

You can't visit Sandringham and not visit the Church and there's a museum that does allow photography and which houses a collection of royal motor carriages.

the tower isn't really falling over - it's an optical illusion caused by taking the picture from a low angle. It's just an ordinary Parish Church that gets a very good attendance on certain services

The earliest car in the collection is a Daimler chosen by King Edward VII

I always wanted an Austin J40 when I was a boy, but sadly well out of my family's price range. This, allegedly, was Prince Charles' first car. It would appear he can drive better than his father

The estate used a number of coach built cars for transport on the estate (hence the term estate car). This Zephyr is longer and taller with an extra row of seats

A Ford V8 Pilot "Woody", ordered by King George VI with various modifications such as a floor mounted gear change. the roof mountings are for guns or fishing rods, but I'm sure it would be better with a surf board fitted and Jan and Dean blaring from the radio. "Well, I've a '52 Pilot and I call it a Woody. Surf City, here we come, etc."

Not all the Royals were provided with Daimler or Rolls-Royce cars for transport, minor Royals had to slum it in an Austin Princess. This is the car from which the kidnap of Princess Anne was attempted. It is said that having been educated in the correct use of English by her father, her response to the kidnapper was to "F*@k Orff"

On the subject of Austin Princesses it's time for a little anecdotal story. When Ann and I were first engaged, I was given the introductory tour of her family. We went to visit Auntie Ede and Uncle Terry, who lived in a vast mansion flat in Hampstead. Knowing of my interest in cars, my future Mother in Law said I should ask Terry to show me his car as he had "a lovely Austin Princess". At the time, the things that looked like this one below were current and so, out of politeness, I asked Terry if he would show me his car, fully expecting to see an almost new Leyland "wedge". Heading down to the garage block at the rear of the mansion block, he opened the double doors to reveal a "proper" Princess, complete with cocktail cabinet in the rear. It was their everyday car!

This Rover P5 3 litre is the personal property of the Queen and hence wears a set of number plates. It was used when at the estate to go our on little trips in her private capacity

Norfolk and no Boat Trip?

You can't come to Norfolk and not have a day on the Broads, can you? So we hired a boat for the day. Starting from Martham Ferry, we managed to take in Hickling Broad, Horsey Mere and the River Thurne as far as Potter Heigham bridge. We weren't permitted to pass through the bridge without a pilot as it was a hire boat. Although the first time we went through, it seemed small, compared to many canal bridges it is positively huge.

our little plastic Noddy boat for the day. I think it had started life as a holiday cruiser some years ago, but it made a very nice day cruiser for two

We thought we might see some wildlife, but had to settle for a large number of Great Crested Grebes and a few Cormorants perched atop navigation poles

a Cormorant having a rest on a pile at the edge of the channel across Hickling Broad. It is very close to the sea here, hence the sight of what are normally sea birds

A male Great Crested Grebe. Hunted almost to extinction for their head feathers that were used for ladies' hats, they are now back in substantial numbers

At the top of Horsey Mere, there is a narrow dyke that heads to a restored wind pump. Owned by the National Trust, we again amortised our annual membership fee! We both climbed to the top, but only I went out onto the balcony. I was about as impressed with the view as Mrs Richards was with the view from a Torquay hotel window. But I could see the sea and, yes, it was between the land and the sky.

Horsey Wind pump

No Steam Train This Time?

Don't be silly!! There's a preserved line between Sheringham and Holt: the North Norfolk Railway. Normally, we would have gone for a trip at the weekend, but they were expecting a visit from a certain cheeky blue tank engine and a few of his friends. So, instead, we went for an evening meal, after spending the day in Cromer. A  town that describes itself as a traditional seaside resort. Think "Hayling Island", but with a bit less to do... We parked the car in Sheringham and took the modern train to Cromer. Or rather, we didn't as the entire line is being reconstructed, so we went on a rail replacement bus. Which was a bonus as it was free!

Cromer Pier. It faces north, so for someone who has lived almost all his life on the south coat, to be beside the sea with the light coming from behind is most strange

Sheringham is another traditional resort. It, too, was mostly closed.So we just hung around and enjoyed our meal on the train.

The "Blood and Custard" coaches in the rear will form our dining train later in the evening. Power for the train will be the loco shown here. For once, it is not one of those boring "Grease, Water and Rust" things, but an LNER, former Great Eastern engine. You just had to ignore the visitors who, seeing a green loco with the letters LNER on the tender automatically assumed it was Flying Scotsman. It is in fact no 8572 of the LNER, latterly 61572 in BR ownership and is of class B12, originally built to haul expresses from London, Liverpool Street to East Anglia

And, to finish this entry on another railway topic, the nearest town - if you could call it that - to where we stayed is Melton Constable. A sleepy, one road in and out large village that was home to a major four way railway junction, a railway company headquarters and locomotive works. Once it was the "Crewe of East Anglia", but now nothing remains from what was the home of the Midland & Great Northern Joint Railway.

A Week in the Cotswolds

My regular reader will know that I like photography and steam trains. A frequent pursuit is joining in group photo charters on preserved railways and the opportunity to join such an event on the Gloucestershire & Warwickshire Steam Railway was one not to be missed. How it works is like this: first, find 30 or so willing people prepared to chip in around £70 for the day which will fund the hire of the line and a train for the day. Then head off, taking photographs of the train during the course of the day. Of course, it is rather more involved, particularly as some of the photography takes place on a running railway, so a great deal of common sense is needed, plus complete compliance with the Regulations and directions of the safety marshals.

Rather than a mad rush to the railway for the day, it seemed like a good idea to combine the day's picture taking with a week away in our caravan exploring the northern edge of the Cotswolds.

We set ourselves up at the Caravan & Motorhome Club site on the edge of Broadway. That would be Broadway in Worcestershire, not the one in New York, just in case anyone is confused. We thought we would try out our circus big top sized awning as well. Being a traditional awning utilising steel poles to hold it in place, rather than the more recent innovation of using an inflatable frame, these awnings are sometimes known as "Divorce in a bag" as they have a reputation to be "challenging" to erect. Ours is an absolute doddle - but we did cheat a little by assembling most of the poles prior to leaving home.



We wandered into Broadway, a typical honey coloured stone village with more than its fair share of tea rooms, antique dealers and souvenir shops. But it all looks in keeping with the area and is quieter than other Cotswolds hot spots such as Burford or Bourton on the Water.  While walking into the village, we noticed a vintage Bentley being driven around the village. A little later, we spotted a second, this one had pulled up at the Lygon Arms Hotel (if you need to ask the price, you won't be able to afford it) where the driver declined the offer for the car to be valet parked. With a value in excess of £800,000, it wasn't surprising. It looks as though there was a Bentley Club event in the area.

The village centre at Broadway. Exactly how you expect a Cotswold village to look

Then, the main event....  A day on the railway. Starting from Toddington, the headquarters of the Railway, we joined our train and the star of the show for the day, number 7903 "Foremarke Hall". To all intents and purposes, it looks like a Great Western engine, but was not built until 1949 by which time the GWR had ceased to exist and was then part of British Railways. But it is a GW design with every detail that company was famed for, was built at Swindon, spend most of its working life based at Old Oak Common  running on services from Paddington and was finally withdrawn in 1964 and taken to the famous scrap yard at Barry to be cut up. Which obviously never happened and Foremarke Hall was fully restored to running order in 2004. 

Let's have some pictures:

Pulling away heading northwards from Winchcombe, the slope and curve creates a challenge for 7903 and its 8 carriage train

This young lady's quite picnic was interrupted by first by a horde of photographers and then by a steam train

7903 and train burst out of Greet tunnel

Our lady picnicker waits for her train.

The Great Western built a large number of "Hall" class locos and it was rumoured that the final one to be built was to be called "That's Hall".

On Saturday, Ann also wanted to visit the railway - so I had to go back for a second go. Life can be very hard and the things that we do for marital happiness :-)

Saturday's Motive Power is a more work a day 2-8-0 goods engine, more at home on heavy coal trains, number 2807 was built in 1905 and is thus 114 years old. Another to have been rescued from Barry.

Rather more modern, D6948 is an English Electric Type 3 diesel-electric loco, later to become a member of British Rail's class 37. Quite a youngster - it is only 54 years old.

At last - a former Southern Railway loco, this one being 35006 "P & O Line", a member of the "Merchant Navy" class and regularly used on express trains from Waterloo to the west of England. These magnificent locomotives were used on the last regular steam hauled express passenger services in the UK

So, what should we do on Sunday and Monday? We've recently joined the National Trust and are suitably motivated to take advantage of our free entry into their properties. One local to Broadway is "Snowshill Manor", the former home of a certain Charles Wade who was an avid collector of stuff. The Manor house holds his collection, while he used a small estate cottage as his home and workshop. We thought we'd make a visit. 

Well, that was the plan...

The sign at the entrance saying that they were expecting to be busy was a bit of a give away. The full and overflowing car park was another. It is Mothering Sunday, it is a bright sunny day and everyone has turned out for a visit. So we'll abandon that visit until Monday and visit Evesham instead. I always find it interesting that the locals pronounce "Evesham" with 3 syllables - "E-ve-sham". It was a regular stopping place for us when we had our narrowboat.

Not much of the Abbey remains, just this huge bell tower which still houses working bells. To the left and right are two Churches; the one on the right dating back to Saxon times

A lovely black and white timber framed building that is now a branch of Nat West Bank. How on earth did they ever get permission to put that sign up?

And then we made it to Snowshill on Monday

The Manor House at Snowshill

and the small cottage that Charles Wade used as his home so that the main house could house his collection

Just one of thousands of items in his collection

Our next trip will take us to Norfolk for a week or so. Watch this space...