The Blitz Memorial, St Paul's Churchyard, London

This memorial is to the 1002 fire-fighters who lost their lives during the London Blitz which lasted from September 1940 to May 1941. In all there were 71 attacks on London, 57 of them being on consecutive nights. More than a million homes were damaged to a greater or lesser extent and 20,000 people were killed.

The toll of death and destruction would no doubt have been considerably greater were it not for the efforts of the London Fire Brigade, and it is therefore fitting that the sacrifice of so many of their members is recognised in this way. The bronze, by John W Mills, shows three fire-fighters in action, two of them pointing a hose and the third directing operations. The statue was unveiled by Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother on 4^th May 1991.

The location of the monument is entirely appropriate. It is in Old Change Court, which is on the south side of St Paul’s Cathedral (on the other side of St Paul’s Churchyard). One of the iconic images of World War II is of the dome of St Paul’s rising out of the smoke of burning buildings on all sides. Although St Paul’s did not receive a direct hit from a high explosive bomb, many incendiary devices landed on its roof and were dealt with by firemen and cathedral staff, despite the difficulty of getting water up to that level (sandbags and water pumps were used to good effect).

Winston Churchill had decreed that St Paul’s must not be allowed to burn, given the boost to morale that saving the Cathedral would provide. The fact that the second St Paul’s survived the second “Great Fire of London”, whereas the original building perished along with much of London in 1666, is down to the heroics of the men commemorated by the memorial in Old Change Court.

© John Welford

The statue of Eros, Piccadilly Circus, London

The statue of Eros in Piccadilly Circus is one of the best-known “sights of London”, especially since it ceased to be in the middle of a roundabout at one of the capital’s busiest junctions. It has several features of interest that relate to its construction and significance.

A memorial to a remarkable man

The statue is part of a memorial to the 7^th Earl of Shaftesbury (1801-85) who worked to improve conditions for children who worked in factories and mines. Shaftesbury Avenue, which is one of the streets that leads into Piccadilly Circus, was also named in his honour.

Anthony Ashley Cooper came from a highly privileged background but was horrified when he discovered the conditions under which some of the poorest people in Victorian England were forced to earn a living. He was particularly concerned with the plight of children, some as young as seven or eight, who were forced to work for long hours in unsafe and insanitary conditions in mines and factories.

It seems incredible to us today that he faced strong opposition to his proposal to limit the working day of children aged nine (and up to 13) to only ten hours, but that was the case. Eventually he won through, and he also instigated major reforms in education for the poor and in provision for people with severe mental illnesses.

The statue of Eros

The statue dates from 1893 and was the work of Sir Alfred Gilbert. He used as his model a 16-year old boy who was his studio assistant.

Oddly enough, the statue is not really “Eros” at all. The image of a winged boy armed with a bow and arrow, who makes people fall in love when an arrow finds its mark, is a familiar one from works of art going back to classical times. However, the statue in Piccadilly Circus was intended to portray the “Angel of Christian Charity”.

Sir Alfred had already created a statue of Anteros, who is Eros’s twin brother in Greek myth, and he simply made another Anteros when asked to produce a suitable memorial to Lord Shaftesbury. Anteros, as the god of selfless love, was a far more suitable image to commemorate a man who displayed that sentiment so openly, but in the public mind the statue was always that of Eros, the much less appropriate god of physical love!

The name Eros is the root of “erotic”, and there is a strange coincidence in that this district of London has long been associated with love of a much earthier kind than is commemorated by the memorial. Only a few yards away are the remnants of London’s former red light district, with its still existing peepshows, massage parlours and other such entertainments.

Sir Alfred may also have had in mind a pun on Lord Shaftesbury’s name, given that the figure is seen “burying a shaft”.  Needless to say, this supposed meaning has nothing at all to do with the origin of the name of the town in Dorset from which the family took its title.

A novel feature of the statue is that it was cast in aluminium (the first public memorial ever to have been made from this material) and is thus very light in weight. Despite being seven feet tall it could be carried around Sir Alfred’s studio by one person.

The lightness of the statue is one reason why it can be displayed as it is. It stands atop an elaborate fountain, supported on the ball of one foot with the other leg extending in one direction and the bow arm in the other, and the two huge wings stretching upwards and outwards. Had the statue been cast in bronze it is doubtful if Eros’s ankle could have stood the strain of wind and weather for more than a century.

That said, the statue did require repair in 1993 after a drunken reveller climbed up the fountain on New Year’s Eve and swung from the outstretched leg!

© John Welford

The Severn Bore

The Severn Bore may sound like the guy in the pub who goes on and on about the River Severn, but that is not what I mean here! It is a natural feature that has become a tourist attraction and an opportunity for surfers to do something that is a bit out of the ordinary.

A bore is literally a tidal wave. Many rivers around the world have bores, which are waves that travel up the river for a certain distance whenever the tide is high enough, but the one on the River Severn in Gloucestershire (England) is particularly pronounced and remarkable.

The River Severn, which is the longest river in Great Britain, reaches the sea at the head of the Bristol Channel. This is the piece of sea that separates Southwest England from South Wales, and it gets narrower the further east it goes. The Channel merges imperceptively into the mouth of the Severn, such that the tidal surge coming up the Channel is funnelled directly into the river.

The funnel effect is in two dimensions. Not only is the river mouth getting narrower (five miles wide at Avonmouth and only a hundred yards at Minsterworth) but the river gets shallower further inland. This means that the body of water being forced upstream against the flow of river water coming down has no choice but to rise up to form a wave.

Another factor that makes the Severn Bore so spectacular is that the tidal range in the Bristol Channel is one of the largest in the world at up to 50 feet (15.5 metres).

The Bore is seen to best effect during the highest tides (spring tides) that occur on five consecutive days each month, twice a day.

The Bore moves upstream at about 8 to 9 kilometres (5 miles) per hour and will take up to two and a half hours to reach its furthest extent near Gloucester, some 34 kilometres (21 miles) from where the Bore usually starts near the village of Awre.

The height of the Bore varies according to the height of the tide and other factors, but a typical Bore is over a metre high in midstream (and higher at the banks).

The Severn Bore is a popular attraction, but it is virtually impossible to see a really good Bore in its ‘natural’ state because it is always highly popular with surfers and canoeists. The challenge is to ride the Bore for as long as possible, and it is sometimes possible to lose the wave at one point but be taken by boat or road to a point further upriver in order to catch it again when it arrives.

© John Welford

Stately homes and gardens in Norfolk

Norfolk is an excellent county to visit if you are a devotee of stately homes and gardens, as it has plenty to offer. A short article can only offer a taster of what you can expect.

Blickling Hall

Near Aylsham, which is between Norwich and Cromer. The house was redesigned in the early 17^th century but incorporates elements of a much earlier building that had been owned by the family of Ann Boleyn (whose ghost is said to haunt the house once a year!). A particular feature is the Long Gallery with its collection of rare books. Visitors can trace the history of the estate through four centuries, including its role during World War II.

The gardens and grounds are particularly noteworthy, including formal and wilderness gardens and an 18^th-century landscaped park.

Bradenham Hall

Near East Dereham. The Georgian house is not open to the public, but there are four acres of gardens and seventeen acres of woodland to be enjoyed. The gardens are divided into “rooms” by yew hedges and include a courtyard garden, a kitchen garden, and several beautiful walks. The arboretum contains specimens of more than 800 tree varieties.

Fairhaven Gardens

Fairhaven Woodland and Water Garden is in the grounds of South Walsham Hall, between Norwich and Great Yarmouth. The 131-acre garden was the creation of Major Henry Broughton, later Lord Fairhaven, who died in 1973 and requested that it be opened to the public, which happened in 1975.

The garden features shade and water-loving plants, and is 100% organic. Visitors can take boat trips on the broad (i.e. lake) and get a close view of the abundant wildlife. Among the trees is the “King Oak” which is 950 years old and was growing at the time of the Battle of Hastings!

Felbrigg Hall

Near Cromer. This is a Jacobean house built on older foundations and with some later alterations. Most of the main rooms are open to the public, including the dining room which is set for an 1860s dinner party.

The gardens include a walled garden that provides fruit and vegetables for the restaurant, an orangery and a working dovecote. The estate includes a landscaped park with a lake and 520 acres of woodland, through which run several miles of waymarked paths. One unusual feature of the facilities at the house is a second-hand bookshop.

Holkham Hall

Near Wells-next-the-Sea close to the North Norfolk coast. This is one England’s great country houses (see picture), having been built by the 1^st Earl of Leicester (Thomas Coke) between 1734 and 1764, although he did not live to see its completion. As the Hall is still a private home not all the rooms are open to the public, but those that can be viewed are truly breathtaking in their opulence.

The idea of 1^st Earl was to build an Italianate villa in Norfolk, copying many of the styles that he had seen on his travels. The magnificent “Marble Hall” (which was actually built using Derbyshire alabaster) shows how this ambition was reached, being based on the Pantheon and Temple of Fortuna Virilis in Rome.

As well as the many valuable works of art and pieces of furniture on display at Holkham Hall, there is a “Bygones Museum” and an exhibition devoted to the history of farming, given that the Holkham Estate was at the heart of the 18^th-century Agrarian Revolution.

The walled gardens are undergoing restoration, but visitors can walk around those that have already been restored, including the adjoining glasshouses.

The Park, including a lake, covers 3,000 acres and there are extensive paths and trails that visitors can take.

As well as the wildlife in the Park there is plenty to be seen on the nearby beach and nature reserve.

Houghton Hall

Between King’s Lynn and Fakenham. The house was built by Sir Robert Walpole who became Britain’s de facto first Prime Minister in 1721. The house was designed in the Palladian style by Colen Campbell and the interiors were largely the work of William Kent. Walpole originally wanted a luxurious residence in which to display his large collection of paintings by the old masters, but many of these were sold when his descendants fell on hard times. However, the furniture was retained, and many original pieces can be seen today.

The 6^th Marquess of Cholmondeley (1919-90), a descendant of Sir Robert, was a collector of model soldiers, and his collection of 20,000 models is now on display at Houghton Hall, many of them arranged as battle tableaux.

The gardens at Houghton Hall are particularly good, the restored 5-acre walled garden having being awarded the “Garden of the Year” title in 2008. The 420-acre Deer Park contains a herd of white fallow deer.

The stables, with their superb brick vaulting, should also be visited, as they demonstrate Walpole’s concern that his horses should be housed in as much luxury as his family.

Hoveton Hall

The Hall, to the north-east of Norwich, dates from the early 18^th century, but is not open to the public. However, 15 acres of gardens can be visited, including walled kitchen gardens, a clematis walk, rhododendrons and azaleas along a woodland walk, and two lakes that are notable for their wildlife. Also to be seen is an “ice well”, dating from the 18^th century, that would have been able to store 18 cubic metres of ice.

Mannington Hall Gardens

Near Saxthorpe, not far from Blickling Hall (see above). The gardens surround a medieval moated manor house and are notable for their roses, of which there are thousands of specimens. There is also a knot garden and a “sensory garden” that features plants that can be appreciated for their touch, sound and taste as well as scent and colour.

The Hall is only open by appointment and on special occasions.

Oxburgh Hall

Near Downham Market. It is a 15^th-century moated manor house that was built by the Roman Catholic Bedingfield family and is still occupied by them. It is notable for its splendid brick gatehouse, from the roof of which there are excellent views across the Norfolk countryside. In the house, visitors can go inside the “priest hole” that was a hiding place in the 16^th century for any Catholic priest who happened to be present should Queen Elizabeth’s soldiers have wanted to search the place. There are also examples of needlework by Mary, Queen of Scots.

The 15-acre gardens include a Victorian parterre and kitchen garden, and a long herbaceous border.

Sandringham House

Near King’s Lynn. This is the only house in the personal possession of the royal family, having been bought for King Edward VII when he was Prince of Wales. The house then on the site was demolished and the present house, designed and built by local architects and builders, was completed in 1870. The house and gardens are open from late spring to the end of October, and the country park is open throughout the year.

The main ground-floor rooms are open to the public, and they contain many items collected by members of the royal family on their travels or presented to them. The walls are adorned by royal portraits.

The Museum, housed in the former coach house and stable block, includes a collection of vintage royal motor vehicles.

There are 60 acres of gardens which reflect changing royal tastes over the years. The rockeries, water features and peaceful walks are particularly notable. The country park can be explored via waymarked nature trails.

Sheringham Park

Near Sheringham on the north Norfolk coast. The house is privately occupied, but the park is managed by the National Trust and consists of 50 acres of woodland gardens that were originally laid out by Humphrey Repton in 1812. The gardens are noted for their rhododendrons and azaleas, of which some 80 species are on display and are at their best in May and June.

There are walks and cycle trails through the Park, and stunning views from the treetop gazebo. The wildlife to be seen includes woodpeckers and nuthatches, and butterfly species include purple hairstreaks and white admirals.

© John Welford

Dundee, Scotland

Dundee is a famous old city, now the fourth largest in Scotland, that is renowned for many things including being the former home of Britain’s worst-ever poet (the Victorian William McGonagall) and the three “Js” of jute, jam and journalism.  It is ideal as a holiday location, a short trip or as part of a tour.

The city lies on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which opens into the North Sea. There has been a settlement here since before Roman times. Dundee’s current population is close to 150,000.

There is plenty for the visitor to see, beginning with some magnificent views across the River Tay and the sweep of the rail and road bridges (more than  a mile long) that connect the city to Fife and the South.

Dundee’s industrial past can be appreciated by visits to the docks and former factories, especially the Verdant Works which is a preserved jute mill with some of the old machines still in working order. Jute is a fibre that was imported from India during the 19^th century and processed into yarns that were used to make hessian cloth.

Shipbuilding was another important industry in Dundee’s past and one of the most famous ships built here can be seen on the waterfront. This is “Discovery”, on which Captain Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton sailed to the Antarctic in 1901. Visitors can “go below” and see where the explorers and crew lived, ate and slept.

Another preserved ship that must be seen in Dundee is HM Frigate Unicorn, moored in Victoria Dock. This ship was launched in 1824 and is the oldest British warship still afloat.

Dundee is the home of D C Thomson, publishers of newspapers and magazines including the Beano and Dandy childrens’ comics. Statues of Minnie the Minx and Desperate Dan can be seen in the city centre.

If you are touring Scotland, Dundee is not to be missed!

© John Welford

Salisbury Cathedral

Salisbury Cathedral is one of the finest buildings to be found anywhere in England. The story of how it came to be built is as fascinating as the cathedral itself.

Salisbury Cathedral

Great cathedrals usually take several centuries to reach completion, with new additions being made as circumstances dictate, sometimes involving the demolition of earlier walls or sections. Their appearance today is therefore a mish-mash of various periods and styles. However, this is not the case at Salisbury, which is unique amongst English medieval cathedrals for being constructed in the same architectural style throughout, namely that of Early English Gothic. The main building work took a mere 38 years to complete.

The old cathedral

There is little to be seen today of the original Salisbury Cathedral, built around 1075-92 within the earthwork now know as Old Sarum, about two miles north of the present cathedral. The first cathedral was burnt down only five days after its consecration in 1092 and the rebuilt cathedral was only completed a century later around 1190. However, it too had a very short lifespan.

The walls of Old Sarum contained not only a cathedral and city but a castle and royal palace. Constant friction between the church and castle authorities led Bishop Poore to the conclusion that a new cathedral must be built in a location where there would be less interference from the castle inhabitants, and the water meadows near the confluence of the Avon and Wylye rivers seemed to be an ideal place.

There is a legend that the site was decided by shooting an arrow from Old Sarum, but it would have been a remarkable shot to travel that far. Another legend has it that the arrow hit a deer, and the cathedral site marks the spot where the deer eventually died. A more prosaic deciding factor might have been the better access to water supplies away from the windy hilltop of Old Sarum, where only the outline of the walls of the old cathedral are visible today.

A new cathedral rises

Nobody knows for certain who the architect of Bishop Poore’s cathedral was, although the name of Elias de Derham is sometimes mentioned. Whoever he was, he must have been a master of his craft. On the gravel (overlaying soft clay) of the water meadows, with foundations that only go down four feet, 70,000 tons of stone and 3,000 tons of timber were erected in a structure that has stayed in place for more than 750 years. Other early cathedrals, such as Winchester and Lincoln, have suffered major collapses, but Salisbury has not, even when an extra 6,500 tons, in the form of the famous spire, were added as an afterthought.

This is not to say that all that weight has not had its consequences. The central columns that support the tower and spire now bow inwards by about ten inches, and action to prevent a possible collapse has had to be taken at various junctures.

The ground plan of Salisbury Cathedral is the standard pattern of a nave and choir with transepts where the nave and choir meet. There are two, shorter, transepts leading off the choir, and an extended east end behind the high altar. The main crossing is therefore half-way along the length of the building, which adds to the symmetrical appearance that is emphasised by the tower and spire that rise from this point.

Salisbury Cathedral is the epitome of the Early English style, which was actually introduced from France. The chief characteristic of the style is the lancet, meaning the tall pointed arch that is usually found in groups of two or three. These lancets are seen in the internal stonework and also in the windows, which are unbroken by internal stone traceries. This feature gives an even greater impression of height than the reality, which is 85 feet from floor to ceiling in the nave and choir.

The slender columns, which do not block light from the aisle windows, plus the light coming from the high clerestory windows, serve to give the interior a sense of lightness and airiness, as does the light colouration of the stone used in the construction. This is mainly fine-grained Chilmark limestone from quarries not far from Salisbury, and Purbeck stone from Dorset which can be polished to make excellent stone for columns and pillars. One variant of Purbeck stone is the so-called Purbeck marble which is very dark in colour and provides contrast at Salisbury. It is said that the cathedral has as many windows as days in the year (365) and as many columns as hours in the year (8760).

Construction at Salisbury began in 1220, and by 1258 the main part of the building was complete and the dedication to St Mary took place. The cloisters, which are the largest in Britain, were built between 1240 and 1270. The chapter house was built between 1263 and 1284, and the bell tower in 1265, which is about when the west front, with its 67 statues, was finished.

The famous spire

However, the feature that marks Salisbury out from all other cathedrals is its spire. It is hard to think of Salisbury Cathedral not having a spire, but that was indeed the original plan, with only a low tower being in the design. Construction of a higher tower began in about 1310, and the spire was finished by 1333. The spire itself is 180 feet high, octagonal in shape and with a base diameter of 30 feet. The total height of the cathedral is therefore 404 feet, which makes Salisbury Cathedral the world’s tallest surviving medieval structure.

As noted above, the extra weight of the tower and spire caused some problems, and extra buttresses, internal supports and iron ties had to be added (at the time of construction and in later centuries). This was despite the deliberate use of thin slabs of stone to form the fabric of the spire and keep the weight down.

Much of the spire was damaged by a severe storm in 1362, and recent research has shown that the timbers that form the internal scaffolding of the spire are younger than the age of the original spire, which was probably built using external scaffolding. Other major repairs were carried out in 1945-51, when the top 30 feet were rebuilt, and between 1986 and 1992.

Given the relatively primitive techniques available to the medieval masons, and the Cathedral’s shallow foundations, it is hardly surprising to learn that the spire is not aligned perfectly, and that it has a lean of about 30 inches from the vertical. In 1668, Sir Christopher Wren was contracted to survey the spire. He inserted iron tie-rods to prevent any further movement and, when these rods were replaced in 1951, it was found that no more movement had occurred.

The work of Wyatt and Gilbert Scott

Apart from general repairs and replacement of such things as window glass, two major events that affected the fabric of the Cathedral were the restorations by James Wyatt in 1788-91 and Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1860-78. The debate continues over whether their changes, which reflected the taste of their times, were to the benefit or otherwise of Salisbury Cathedral.

Wyatt’s main change was to demolish the bell tower, which stood in the Cathedral Close, and to replace the original choir screen. He also demolished two porches and re-arranged the medieval tombs into symmetrical lines on either side of the nave. His tidying extended to the Close where, as well as removing the bell tower, he raised the overall level and flattened all the gravestones. Undoubtedly this improved the exterior view of the Cathedral, but whether the internal change from medieval clutter to neo-classical purity was justifiable is another matter.

Gilbert Scott, who was a keen exponent of the Gothic revival, sought to undo some of the work done by Wyatt, but some of his efforts have in turn been removed in later years. In particular, he installed wrought iron screens that had more to do with his own ideas than those of the cathedral’s original builders, although the screens were indeed masterpieces in their own right and have been preserved elsewhere. However, his pure restoration work, such as to the west front where many missing statues were replaced, must count in his favour.

The future of Salisbury Cathedral

Given today’s preference for preserving ancient monuments in the style originally intended, rather than constantly “improving” them, we can be assured that the overall appearance of Salisbury Cathedral is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future. However, the expensive work of maintaining a fragile fabric goes on, and it is to be hoped that many future generations will be able to marvel at the magnificent edifice that has been already been admired for three-quarters of a millennium.

Incidentally, one of my own abiding memories, from the 1980s, is of working in a room that had a clear view of Salisbury Cathedral from a distance of no more than a quarter of a mile. To be able to glance out of the window at any moment and see such a magnificent building was a huge privilege, not to mention a considerable distraction!

© John Welford

Queens' College, Cambridge

Queens’ College is so named, with the apostrophe after the “s” rather than before it, because two queens were involved in its foundation. These were Margaret of Anjou, the wife of King Henry VI, and Elizabeth Woodville, who was married to King Edward IV. The two queens, being married to the main protagonists of the Wars of the Roses, played entirely separate roles in the College’s foundation (in 1448 and 1475 respectively) but both are commemorated in its name. The full name is The Queens’ College of St Margaret and St Bernard.

Most of the oldest colleges in Cambridge form a row in a north-south line along the River Cam, the northernmost being Magdalene with Queens’ being at the southern end, alongside St Catherine’s. Queens’ is one of two colleges (the other being St John’s) that has buildings on both sides of the river.

  

Visitors are welcome throughout the year, apart from during a four-week period in May and June that coincides with University exams and a few other dates. 

Visitors to colleges at Oxford and Cambridge need to be aware that these places are working institutions, even outside term time, so what you can see and do is limited. Most of the buildings at Queens’ can be admired only from the outside. The Fellows’ Garden is also off-limits. At Queens’ the buildings you can enter are the Old Hall and the Chapel.

The Old Hall dates from 1449, being part of the original buildings on the quadrangle that is now known as Old Court. Various changes have been made down the centuries, but work done in recent years has mostly been aimed at preserving the Hall as it would have appeared originally, apart from the decorations added in the 19^th century by William Morris. These make the interior extremely colourful and intricate, including gilded angels and wall tiles designed by artists including Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. There are portraits, donated in 1766, of Erasmus (a former student), Elizabeth Woodville and Sir Thomas Smith (a 16^th century scholar and diplomat who was educated at the College).

Also in Old Court is a large and complex sundial, dating from 1642, that is designed to give the date as well as the time. However, reading the sundial is not easy, partly because it predates the move to the Gregorian calendar in 1752.

The Chapel is in Walnut Tree Court, which dates from 1616-18 but was largely rebuilt in 1778-82. The Chapel itself was built in late Victorian times, being dedicated in 1891. It is notable for its stained glass windows and statues of St Margaret of Antioch and St Bernard of Clairvaux, the patron saints of Queens’ College.

The President’s Lodge, on Cloister Court, was built in 1460 and is the oldest surviving building anywhere in Cambridge University. It is a Tudor half-timbered house that fronts the river on one side. As it is the private residence of the College’s President, it is not open to the public.

To the left of the President’s Lodge is an archway through to what is probably Queens’ College’s best known feature, namely the “Mathematical Bridge”. This is a wooden footbridge that leads to the parts of the College (mostly student residences) on the other side of the narrow River Cam. The students refer to the two halves as the “dark side” and the “light side”!

All sort of stories have arisen about the origins and properties of the bridge. One myth is that it was built by Sir Isaac Newton, but as it was first built in 1749 and Newton had died in 1727 that seems highly unlikely! Another story is that it was designed to stay in place without the use of any nails, screws or bolts, the laws of mathematics being all that was necessary to prevent its collapse. This myth was compounded by the story that it was dismantled at one time by a group of students who were then unable to put it back together without using metal fixings. However, this is also complete nonsense.

The structure of the bridge is best appreciated from the nearby Silver Street road bridge, from where it can be seen that the curve of its underside is created entirely from straight timbers that form parts of a tangent to an imagined curve. These have then been held in place by being fixed to short cross-members. The bridge, being wooden, has twice needed to be completely rebuilt, most recently in 1905. The original metal fixings were hidden from view although that is not so with the current construction, and this was no doubt what gave rise to the myths referred to above.

Visitors to Queens’ College usually use the Visitors’ Gate on Queens’ Lane, but during the winter they must enter via the Porter’s Lodge on Silver Street.

© John Welford

Lundy Island, Devon

Lundy is one of many small islands around the coast of Great Britain. Although it is visited by far fewer people than is true of many other such islands, it is certainly worth the effort, especially for people who are interested in wildlife.

Lundy Island

Lundy lies ten miles off the coast of North Devon. It is three miles long and half a mile wide, aligned north-south, so its western side faces out into the Atlantic and its eastern side up the Bristol Channel. It is a rocky outcrop, rising to over 400 feet, with cliffs all round and a relatively level plateau surface.

Lundy has had a colourful history, being at various times a haven for pirates and smugglers. The castle at the southern end of the island was built by King Henry III in the 13^th century in an attempt to control piracy, but with only limited success.

A haven for wildlife

Visitors to Lundy today are most likely to be interested in the wildlife that abounds here. Some of it was actually introduced to the island by various past owners, hence the soay sheep and sika deer. The Lundy pony is a recognised breed that originated from a herd of New Forest ponies brought here in the 1920s.

However, it is the natural wildlife that is of most interest. Lundy was known to the Vikings as Puffin Island, but unfortunately there are not as many to be seen here today as formerly. There are, however, large numbers of razorbills, guillemots and kittiwakes that nest on the cliffs, and birds to be seen inland include curlews, meadow pipits and lapwings. This is a good place to see rarer migrating birds that might have been blown off course and have landed on Lundy to recuperate before flying off to their final destinations.

The flora of Lundy is particularly interesting, with more than 400 species of flowering plant having been identified on the island. These include the Lundy cabbage, which is indigenous to the island and was only discovered as late as 1933.

Grey seals breed around the coast, where they can be seen resting on the rocks, and there are often dolphins and basking sharks in the waters offshore. The area around Lundy is especially rich in marine life and has been designated as the United Kingdom’s first Special Marine Reserve. This restricts commercial fishing in order to preserve the rare cold water corals, together with their ecosystems, and also to prevent damage to the many historic shipwrecks around the island. Divers therefore have much to discover in the waters around Lundy.

Places to see

On the island itself, walkers can take the seven mile coast path to see the spectacular views in all directions, and also to visit the various buildings on the island. These include the abandoned granite quarries on the east side, the “Battery” from which warning rockets were fired during foggy weather in the 19^th century, and the old lighthouse which can be climbed for even better views than are available from the cliff path.

Although there is a small resident population on Lundy, mostly wardens and volunteers for the Landmark Trust which administers the island on behalf of the National Trust, many of the cottages on Lundy are available for self-catering hire. The aforementioned castle is also used to accommodate visitors. There is also a campsite.

Access to Lundy is by boat/ship from Bideford or Ilfracombe between March and November and by helicopter during the rest of the year.

© John Welford

Take a seat between two great men!

There is a short stretch of New Bond Street, in London’s fashionable West End, that is pedestrianised. (It is very short – just a few yards between the junctions with Clifford Street and Grafton Street). There is a bike rack here, a couple of trees, and a bench on which to rest your weary limbs as you pause during your upmarket shopping spree between Watches of Switzerland and Aspreys.

But wait – there’s not much room here! The bench is already occupied by two familiar looking gentlemen! There is just room to squeeze between them, and many tourists do exactly that to have their photos taken between Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, who are the gentlemen in question.

This imaginative piece of street sculpture, called “The Allies” was created by an American sculptor, Lawrence Holofcener, and placed here by the Bond Street Association in May 1995 to commemorate fifty years of peace since the end of World War II.

Some people might object that the allies should have included Joseph Stalin, given that the Soviet Union’s sacrifices were greater than those of any other nation during the war, and that the three allies famously sat together at the Yalta conference in February 1945, but Joe Stalin taking a rest in New Bond Street? That would have been more than a bit incongruous, given Stalin’s record and the fact that this area is oozing with conspicuous capitalism, which the Communist leader would hardly have found to his liking.

As it is, a smiling Roosevelt sits in a relaxed pose and Churchill, cigar in hand, leans towards him as if trying to catch the President’s latest quip. Stalin would have been a complete party-pooper, apart from taking up room that a star-struck tourist would probably like to occupy!

©John Welford

Eastnor Castle

This apparently medieval castle, complete with towers and battlements, is not what it appears to be at first sight.

Eastnor Castle is two miles east of the Herefordshire town of Ledbury and is therefore in the “Marches”, which is the name given to the border country between England and Wales that was – in medieval times – a lawless region in which private armies fought each other for domination of the land.

A number of castles were therefore built by local landowners to protect themselves against potential enemies. However, Eastnor Castle was not one of them!

Although the Cocks family that owns the Eastnor estate were established there in the 16^th century, it was not until 1812 that John Cocks, the first Earl Somers, commissioned a castle to be built in the neo-Gothic style that was popular at the time. It was completed in 1820, although later alterations were made by his descendants.

The castle contains antique furniture, armour and tapestries and the grounds include a lake, deer park and arboretum.

The site has been developed as a tourist attraction that is suitable for the whole family, including an adventure playground, maze and junior assault course.

© John Welford

The Angel of the North, Gateshead

Although it has only been in place since 1998, the Angel of the North has become a familiar landmark and an iconic symbol for the north-east of England. It is the best-known sculpture by British artist Antony Gormley (born 1950), and is one of the few pieces of British modern art to be regarded with almost universal acclaim.

  

The Angel is a steel structure that stands 65 feet (20 metres) tall with a “wingspan” of 175 feet (54 metres) that is similar to that of a jumbo jet. It stands on a grassy mound near the junction of the A1 and A167 to the south of Gateshead, and can be seen by north-bound travellers on the A1, rising above the trees (it is not so easy to see when driving south). When first seen, you know that you are entering “Geordieland” and are being welcomed with “open wings”.

The site of the Angel is a former coalmine, the products of which fuelled the prosperity of Gateshead in the 19^th and 20^th centuries, but the last pits closed in the 1970s amid a period of industrial and social decline. The Angel therefore serves as a memorial for the region’s past industries and the people who worked in them, but it is also a symbol of more recent regeneration. The mound on which the Angel stands is actually where the pithead baths used to be, and the structure is fixed on piles that go 72 feet (22 metres) into the ground. It therefore links the earth and the sky very effectively.

The Angel weighs 200 tons and must withstand the high winds that frequently blow in from the North Sea across this exposed site.

The project dates from a commission that Antony Gormley was given in 1994 to create a feature that would complete the reclamation of the colliery site, and it was four years later that the steel sections began to arrive, having been manufactured by Hartlepool Steel Fabrications, a company renowned for making sections for bridges and oil rigs. The ribbed body and wings therefore resemble the steelwork to be found on such constructions. The building of the Angel was engineered by Ove Arup and Partners.

The Angel was built from Corten steel, which is an alloy that weathers to a natural rust-red that adds a warm colour. Although the Angel has no face, her body is shaped in a female form, and the wings are angled slightly inwards to suggest an embrace.

The Angel can only be visited on foot, and car parking in the vicinity is limited. Visitors must park in a lay-by on the A167 and walk back to the Angel. They can then stand underneath the Angel’s wings and clamber over its massive feet. There is no visitor centre, and only an information board to give basic facts about the statue. The Angel therefore speaks for herself and is not spoilt by the trappings of tourism.

The Angel of the North, due to its position, can claim to be the most frequently seen piece of art in the United Kingdom. Apart from the 150,000 visitors a year, 90,000 people see it every day as they drive along the A1. It is also clearly visible from trains on the East Coast main line railway as they approach Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Despite its relative newness, it is now firmly established, along with the Tyne Bridge, as an enduring symbol of Tyneside.

© John Welford