Ebenezer Place, Wick

Ebenezer Place, in Wick, northern Scotland, has the distinction of being the shortest named street in the world, at 206 centimetres (81 inches).

This situation came about when Mackays Hotel was built in 1883. The building was wedge-shaped, which meant that it had one very short side. The town council decreed that, because this side also contained the main entrance which was on neither street that ran along the two long sides, the street on that short side would need to be given its own name.

 Not surprisingly, there is only one address on Ebenezer Place – Mackays Hotel at Number One!

Picture credit: ‘Noudbijvoet’. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported licence.

© John Welford

Clouds Hill, Dorset

This tiny cottage was the final home of Colonel T E Lawrence (1888-1935) who achieved fame as “Lawrence of Arabia”. It is an isolated former forester’s cottage a short distance from Bovington Camp, which is a training centre for the British Army’s Royal Armoured Corps, in the Wareham Forest of east Dorset. T E Lawrence was an archaeologist who had worked in the Middle East before the outbreak of World War One. In 1914 he was recruited by the British Army and became the leader of an Arab brigade that used guerrilla tactics against the Ottoman Turks. He later wrote of his exploits in his book “Seven Pillars of Wisdom”.

Lawrence first rented Clouds Hill in 1923 and bought it in 1925, although he did not live there full-time until shortly before his death in 1935.

He died in a motorcycle accident near Bovington Camp when he swerved to avoid two boys on bicycles and was thrown off. The cottage at Clouds Hill is now preserved exactly as Lawrence left it, even down to the absence of electric light. 

© John Welford

Chislehurst Caves, Kent

The caves at Chislehurst (Kent, England) are not as well-known as those at Cheddar in Somerset, but they are certainly worth a visit. They are within Greater London and therefore offer an alternative to the usual “sights” that tourists normally flock to see.

The caves are man-made, having been created as mines for chalk and flint in the Middle Ages. They were last used commercially in the 1830s but saw service as weapons stores during World War One and air-raid shelters in World War Two.

The complex of tunnels extends for more than 20 miles under the North Downs, but today’s visitors are limited to what they are shown during a 50-minute tour by experienced and knowledgeable guides, armed with oil lamps.

The features to be seen include wall carvings and the Cave Church that was established for Londoners who sheltered here during air raids.

The caves are privately owned, but the charge for admission is reasonable.

© John Welford

Burns' Cottage, Alloway, Ayrshire

Robert Burns was undoubtedly the greatest poet that Scotland ever produced. He wrote many memorable works in his native lowland Scots dialect, including “Auld Land Syne” that is sung throughout the world as each New Year begins.

He was born on 25th January 1759 in a modest three-room thatched cottage in Alloway, Ayrshire. His father, a gardener, had built it himself two years previously. However, Robert was the first of seven children and as the family grew the cottage clearly became impractical as a family home. They therefore moved away when Robert was only seven years old.

The cottage was owned by many other people throughout the years, and was at one time a village pub. However, the association with Robert Burns became known as his fame spread and visitors from far and wide came to see the place where Scotland’s National poet had started his life.

Robert Burns was only 37 years old when he died in on 21st July 1796. On the fifth anniversary of his death a group of friends met at the cottage to celebrate his life by holding a supper in his honour. The tradition of an annual “Burns Supper” has been maintained ever since, although the date has been moved to that of the poet’s birth, namely 25th January. Burns Suppers are held throughout Scotland and in many other parts of the world.

The cottage has been fully restored and is now the centerpiece of the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum and the Burns National Heritage Park, under the overall management of the National Trust for Scotland. The presentation of the cottage’s interior was been done as authentically as possible, so that the visitor can see where young Robert Burns would have ate, slept, and had his first lessons in reading and writing from his father.

Visitors will be able to appreciate the humble background from which he came, as well enjoying some of his poems displayed on the walls and presented in audio form.

As well as the cottage, visitors can immerse themselves in “Burnsiana” by following the path to the main Museum, walking across the Brig o’Doon and visiting ruined Auld Kirk, both of which feature in his poem Tam O’Shanter. 

© John Welford

Bedruthan Steps, Cornwall

In order to get down to the sandy beach at Bedruthan, between Newquay and Padstow on the north Cornish coast, you have to descend a long zigzag stairway, but these are not the steps in question!

The Bedruthan Steps are a group of sea stacks that stand on the beach at low tide. At one time the coastline was beyond where the stacks are now, but erosion of the slate cliffs created firstly caves and then arches which collapsed, leaving the harder bits of rock behind as isolated stacks.

As one might expect, there is a local myth that explains the stacks in far more interesting terms. This is that Bedruthan was a local giant who used the stacks as stepping stones (hence “steps”), although nobody is all that sure where he was trying to get to!

Visitors can make use of the clifftop National Trust shop and café that used to be the office of the Carnewas iron mine. This visit can be before or after the climb down the wooden steps to the stone ones, at the base of which can be found rock pools in which all sorts of small marine life can be found.

The problem with climbing down a cliff is that you have to climb back up again at some point. So maybe the Cornish cream tea at the café can be your reward!

© John Welford

Batholiths: volcanoes that never were

A batholith is a massive upwelling of molten magma that has risen from deep in the Earth’s crust and cooled very slowly before it could reach the surface.

Batholiths are associated with mountain building and are often found within mountain chains. They can be very large, such as the one beneath the Andes of Peru that covers an area covering 1600 by 190 kilometres. After a batholith has cooled and solidified, the overburden of pre-existing rock may be eroded to revel the batholith which often takes the form of a granite dome – this is the origin of outcrops in Cornwall that now form Dartmoor, Bodmin Moor and the Land’s End peninsula.

The magma may not always form a solid mass as it rises. Magma can intrude into faults and weaknesses in the overburden and create sills and dykes (horizontal and vertical intrusions respectively) or subsidiary masses called laccoliths.

Other coarse-grained igneous rocks that originate in batholiths, besides granite, include gabbro and syenite. It is still possible for heat to rise through a batholith millions of years after it has solidified, and some of this can be the result of radioactive decay. If this heat becomes trapped it could be a potential source of energy if it can be accessed.

(The photo is of Hay Tor on Dartmoor)

© John Welford

Must-see items at London's British Museum

The British Museum houses more than 8 million objects. Not all of them are on permanent public display, but there are enough there to keep you busy for many days, should you have the time. However, this is unlikely to be the case, especially if your time in London is limited. What you will regard as a “must see” item will doubtless depend on your personal interests, but there are a number of objects that it would be a shame to miss, and some of these are suggested below.

These suggestions are from the Museum’s permanent collection, as opposed to the temporary exhibitions that are mounted from time to time. Such exhibitions often include treasures from private or overseas collections that are only viewable on very rare occasions, and it is therefore a good idea to plan your visit so that you can take in a temporary exhibition as well as your selected items from the main collection. One factor to bear in mind is that the permanent collection is free to view, whereas an entrance fee is usually charged to view a temporary exhibition.

The Elgin Marbles

The Elgin Marbles is the name usually given to the Parthenon sculptures that were acquired in Athens (Greece) by Lord Elgin between 1799 and 1810 and bought by the British Museum in 1816, although Elgin brought back objects from buildings other than the Parthenon, and some of these can be seen elsewhere in the Museum.

There has long been talk about whether the British Museum should continue to house the sculptures, or if their rightful home is in Athens. Although it is unlikely that they will be returned to Greece in the near future it is possible at some stage, so if your visit to the British Museum is a once-in-a-lifetime event, the opportunity to see them should not be missed.

The sculptures are housed in the Duveen Gallery (Room 18), which is on the extreme “left” of the building from the main entrance. The visitor with little time will therefore have to avoid the temptation to look at all the other treasures he or she will pass on the way!

Having reached the gallery, you could easily spend an hour or more taking everything in. What you have here is a huge collection of reliefs and three-dimensional sculptures that were carved in about 440 BC to adorn the upper walls and pediments of the Temple of Athene (known as the Parthenon) on the Acropolis at Athens. You can see these sculptures at eye-level, whereas the original viewers would have had to look far above their heads. The collection is far from complete, many pieces having been lost before Elgin’s time and others being housed in museums in Athens, Paris and elsewhere.

You will be rewarded with a view of beautifully carved marble figures of men, women and animals. Some of these, from the frieze of the temple, represent a ceremonial procession that presents a picture of life in ancient Athens in considerable detail. Other pieces show scenes from Greek mythology, the most dramatic being of the battle between the Centaurs and the Lapiths. This is sculpture of the very highest quality which, even in its damaged state, for example with heads and limbs missing, cannot fail to impress.

The Rosetta Stone (see photo above)

This is a stone slab (or “stele”) that is of immense importance to Egyptology. Consisting of a form of granite known as granodiorite, it measures 45 inches (114 cm) in height and weighs about 1,700 pounds (769 kg), although it is not complete and it is easy to see where parts of it have broken away. It dates from 196 BC but was only discovered in 1799 during Napoleon’s occupation of the Nile Delta, at the town of Rosetta (Rashid).

Its value as an object comes from the inscription on it, which the viewer can easily see is in three distinct sections. These represent the same text (a decree issued on behalf of Ptolemy V) but in three languages, namely Ancient Greek, Egyptian Hieroglyphics and Demotic (a script used in Egypt after hieroglyphics fell out of general use). Despite the fact that the amount of hieroglyphic text is relatively small in comparison with the other scripts, it was enough to provide the key to a lost language.

As it happens, the Rosetta Stone is not the only example of a trilingual or bilingual ancient text, but it is certainly the best known. Like the Elgin Marbles, it has been the subject of conflicting claims as to where it truly belongs, but it has been a central feature of the British Museum’s collection since 1802 and is now displayed in Room 4 (Egyptian sculpture), which runs alongside the Great Court at the centre of the building.

Also in this room is the massive statue of Ramesses II which weighs more than seven tons and was carved from a single piece of granite in about 1250 BC.

Sutton Hoo ship-burial

The discovery in 1939 of the burial site of a 7^th century Anglo-Saxon king or warlord was one of the most important in the history of British archaeology. The dead man had been buried in a ship together with many of his possessions, the whole being covered with earth to form a barrow. The finds were presented by the owner of the land, at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk, to the British Museum, where they are now one of its greatest and most visited treasures.

Pride of place goes to a ceremonial helmet which was originally found in about 500 pieces but which has since been reconstructed, and replicas have been made to show how it would have looked originally. The workmanship is extraordinary as is the decoration; for example, the nose and eyebrows of the mask form the shape of a bird, and it also has a moustache.

As well as the helmet, the display in Room 41 (upper floor) contains some other remarkable objects from the burial, including a sword, bowls, spoons, a magnificent gold belt buckle, an intricately decorated purse lid, and a reconstructed lyre.

Next door, in Room 40, are the Lewis chessmen that were carved from walrus ivory and whale teeth in the late 12^th century, probably in Norway. The detail on these pieces is fascinating and bound to bring a smile to the face.

Hinton St Mary mosaic

This was found in a field in Dorset in 1963, having originally been part of the floor of a 4^th century Romano-British villa of which hardly any trace remained. However the mosaic was in excellent condition and was carefully lifted so that it could be transported to the British Museum, where it is now on view in Room 49 (upper floor).

This is one of the most complete mosaic floors ever found and is remarkable in several respects, including its size (about 26 by 17 feet, 8 by 5 metres) and its excellent condition. However, what makes it stand out is the inclusion, in the central roundel, of a head and shoulders that could have been intended to be a representation of Jesus Christ. The clue is in the Greek letters “chi” and “rho” that are the first two letters of “Christ” and are often found in early Christian art.

If this is an imagined portrayal of Christ it is one of the earliest known, and it is certainly the only known example on a mosaic floor anywhere in the Roman Empire.

The rest of the design consists mainly of geometric patterns and hunting scenes, but there is also a mythological scene of Bellerophon slaying the Chimaera, which can be interpreted as good conquering evil. It is possible that the four heads within the corners of the main design are those of the four evangelists. Even if this is not the case, and there is no way of knowing, the combination of Christian and Pagan imagery provides a fascinating glimpse into the mindset of wealthy Romano-Christians of this period.

Other “must-sees”

If time permits, other items that might be high on your list could include the Easter Island statue in Room 24, the Egyptian mummies in Rooms 62 and 63, items from the Oxus Treasure in Room 52, and the 16^th century mechanical galleon clock in Room 39.

You will soon decide that one visit to this amazing museum is not enough and you will want to come back as often as you can and stay for much longer!

© John Welford