Thursday 30 December 2010

Christmas adventure 2010: Southport by train.

It has become a bit of a Christmas tradition for Steve W and myself to plan a train journey. In the past two years we have been to Blaenau Ffestiniog and Shrewsbury - during the year we do other trips too. Most people can't understand the pleasure of spending the day on a train, but we seem to enjoy it. Today turned out to be a great bargain as we only paid £4 for our tickets which allowed us to travel all day on the Merseyrail network. So having driven to Hooton we set off for Southport. I have only been to Southport by bike  and that was in a state of exhaustion, so I had only a vague idea of what the place would be like. Southport turned out to be very pleasant indeed. The sea front is watched over by an excellent statue of Victoria:
Like Monarchs in  Elizabethan times, Victoria in Southport is holding a globe in her hands to symbolise British imperial power and influence.

The highlight in Southport is the very long board-walk. It is so long that a tram service runs the whole length; we bravely walked. At the end of the pier is an amusement arcade full of games from the Victorian and Edwardian eras. You can exchange your modern 10p for an old penny and play away. I particularly liked the peep shows like this:
I can confirm that the Butler did not see very much!
This screaming Jack tar (not Bethan) was rather annoying.
I spent the rest of the journey trying to do impressions of Alfred Hitchcock. The first on the pier in Southport also gives some idea of length of the boardwalk (and the need for me to diet in 2011).

The second 'Hitch' was taken on the waterfront in Liverpool in the gloaming. The whole waterfront area is hugely impressive; the new Museum is due to open in 2011 so I will be there again soon.
This was taken around 4pm with the light fading fast; a mist on the river added to the atmosphere.
The final part of the day was the 'ferry across the mersey'. After the arctic winter of recent weeks, today was mild and calm;we were able to stand on deck as the ferry plied across the water.
That ended our Christmas adventure for 2010. The next plan is to take the Wrexham and Shropshire railway into London. Thank you to Steve and Bethan for a memorable day.

Wednesday 29 December 2010

Suppose nobody came to the lecture...

Caerwys Town Hall pretty much empty.   
Thankfully this shot was taken half an hour before the start of the Victorian Caerwys lecture. In the end about 80 turned up and despite my manflu it seemed to go well. There was one hitch; nobody except the front row could see the screen. So with some  ingenuity a piece of staging was rigged up and the projector balanced on a recycling bin. It was a promising start to the Caerwys Historical Society.

Tuesday 28 December 2010

Victorian Caerwys lecture

This evening I am due to deliver a talk on the theme of Victorian Caerwys. It has come about as a result of the book I have written entitled 'Caerwys Since Victorian Times' that is due to be published early next year. With Christmas it has been hard to focus on the task, so I have left it rather late to finalise the slides and decide exactly what I will talk about. As luck would have it I have been struck with down with a dose of manflu. Obviously any woman would not even notice it, but I feel pretty awful today. However the show must go on and I have dosed up on decongestants. The poster below is all around Caerwys! I wonder how many will turn up!

Friday 24 December 2010

The last train to Caerwys (ville)...

Yesterday I went to the local railway station ticket office. I asked for a return ticket. 'Where to?' asked the ticket officer; 'back here' I replied. Ah the old jokes. The ticket office in question can be seen below:

Unfortunately I was unlikely to get a ticket anywhere as Caerwys station has been closed for over 50 years. Yet the ticket office window still remains and the whole place is remarkably atmospheric. Today the station is home to a timber yard and the man in the picture manages the business. To me closing this line (Mold to Denbigh) was nothing short of a crime. It was compounded by selling off the land making any other use of the railway site impossible.

I should add that the photograph was taken by Tom Wood of Caerwys.

Wednesday 22 December 2010

A fobile moan!

On Sunday my beloved Blackberry breathed it's last breath; ever since I have been mobile phone free. It has been quite odd adjusting to living without my little companion, but I wonder if it should become a permanent thing. How did we cope before these pesky phones were invented? Anyway I would like to share my observations of living without these 'necessities' of 21st century life.
I have definitely become more socially inefficient; twice this week not having a phone has resulted in inconvenience to me: first, I waited well over an hour for a friend on Monday (a simple text would have allowed me to plan my time better and avoid almost catching hypothermia), and second, earlier tonight I went carol singing but lost the choir, again, a text or quick call would have rectified matters. I have got lazy in making arrangement knowing that everything can be rectified en route with a text or call. The other major thing has been keeping in touch with my son and daughter - well to be more accurate them seeking lifts hither and thither is not so easy. We have become used to instant communication and I find it hard to imagine that when I left home for university we were still actually writing letters to keep in touch with friends in much the same way as the Victorians did when the Post Office was invented. Now we facebook.
Instant communication may make us socially efficient, but the quality of it is not the same as a considered letter. Instant messaging does not allow for reflection and considered thoughts. So will I take this opportunity to ditch the mobile and purchase large quantities of writing paper and stamps? Tempting, but an iPhone is at the top of my Christmas list. I fear that there is no going back.

Tuesday 21 December 2010

Advertising 1900 style.

Yesterday I was reading some local newspapers from 1900; I especially enjoyed the coverage in the run up to Christmas last year. To those living at the time Christmas and New Year 1900 was the last of the 19th century - as we celebrated the end of the century in 1999 we were in fact cheated of a whole year in the 20th century. If you are ever asked 'how long was the 20th century?',  the correct answer is not 100 years! The advertisers at that time  made far more amazing claims for their products than they do today. I made a copy of a couple that caught my eye (these are from the County Herald newspaper, published in Holywell, at the end of the year 1900).
There was not much these little pills did not cure; where are they now?

This was an advertisement repeated for a few weeks based upon some Dr's claim that people had been poisoned by bad beer - the beer makers had counter claimed that it was in fact from cheap tea. The answer according to the ad was to drink Mazawattee tea!

Monday 20 December 2010

The coldest day.

I am not sure that I can ever remember a colder day than this one has been. In Mold by mid afternoon the temperature had not risen above -8 degrees. The cold took my breath away. On the way back from the Record Office I stopped to take these photographs of a glorious sunset looking across the Moel y Parc. The other one is of the full moon before 4pm looking east. The forecast suggests that the cold weather will stay with us until after the Christmas weekend.


Sunday 19 December 2010

I'm all lost in a supermarket...

They are the words from a song by the Clash on their 'London Calling' album. Perhaps as we face Christmas shopping many of us feel lost in the supermaket - although they have now become superstores, which sounds even more scary. Before I get to the main point of this (which is not very profound, so don't expect much) I wonder if anyone else is puzzled by the word (s) found in many Tescos and Asdas - 'Instore'. Is that meant to be a joke, or just a play on words. It sounds quite frightening to me...like Bargains Instore! Anyway, although I know supermarkets (or superstores) are an essential part of our modern life, I do like to get my revenge on being made to walk along the everlasting aisles of spending temptations by spotting silly things. Both of these come from Tesco Broughton - though in most respects a fine establishment -  they are prone to blunders such as these:
What kind of bargain is this box of washing powder?
I have already put this on Facebook, but I especially like the Santa outfit being part of the Tesco Nativity range.


Sunday 5 December 2010

The 2010 freeze continues...

The temperatures hardly rose above freezing this week, but somehow or other I think we are all getting used to it. Perhaps with the recent experience of last winter we are getting better at adapting to the snow and ice. Prior to last winter we had a decade or more of mild winters when snow became a novelty. It is almost as if  these harsher winters chime with the difficult economic climate; back to the 70s. The silly tabloids cry out that this weather means global warming is nonsense; but as anyone knows weather is not the same as climate (well actually they probably don't know). In fact globally this year will be the second warmest since records began. To finish on a better note, the following two photographs show views from the Caerwys golf course.
Alpine Caerwys? I apologise for yet another view of Moel y Parc.

This oak tree still has most of it's leaves intact, reminding me that we are only a few days out of autumn.

Sunday 28 November 2010

The November snowfields of Caerwys.

This November it seems that I have become obsessed with the weather. In my defence though the weather in the past three weeks has been remarkable, as can be seen in my blogs since November 7th. Just three weeks ago we had a balmy weekend with the leaves still golden on the trees. Last weekend, as I wrote, it was the typical November mists. However this weekend artic snow has fallen on Caerwys. The ITV national news even carried their weather forecasts live from outside the church on Friday. It is the snowiest November for 17 years. My weather station measured minus 7.1 first thing today. Everyone seems to predict that this will be the coldest winter since records began (you can get 10/1 on that from the bookies). I am not predicting anything, but here are some snow photographs that I took earlier today.
Stile leading to Station Woods.

Looking east.
Icy and dangerous pavements - this is where ITV did their outside broadcast on the weather.

Saturday 20 November 2010

Season of mist and mellow fruitfulness....

I think that is how the the famous John Keats poem on Autumn begins... I blogged a week ago that I thought that was the last weekend of autumn as the gales that we forecast would strip the trees of their beautiful colours. Well that was about right, but today we had the autumnal mists. It was perfectly still around Caerwys this morning as Mary and I did the circular walk from Caerwys to Ysceifiog. It was the kind of late autumn day when I don't think any evaporation takes place. Anyway on the Station Woods path I took this photograph. If you look very carefully you can just about spot the mast on Moel y Parc.

Thursday 18 November 2010

12,000 soldiers.

In previous blogs I have referred to the time in 1909 when 12,000 soldiers arrived in Caerwys to play war games. Some of the hills around the town are still Ministry of Defence property and I have seen soldiers (including the Ghurkas) carrying out training exercises on the slopes of Moel y Parc. I doubt though that any have been on the scale of those held in 1909. In charge of the whole exercise was General Bethune; he gave an interview to the local press in which he stated his wish that the training should be a realistic as possible. The General even admitted that the normal times for dinner would not be observed as 'the soldier on active duty eats when he jolly well can'. As my previous blog showed, the soldiers did take a break for religious services as is shown by the remarkble photograph of the priests carrying out the service on the mountain side in front of thousands of soldiers. I have come across another photograph from a slightly different angle; here it is:
If anything this photograph gives an even greater appreciation of the scale of this event; it is hard to imagine how those on the periphery of the crowd could have heard the words of the church service. It is interesting to observe the woman in the foreground of the image in her typical Edwardian dress.
As mentioned above, the entire exercise was commanded by Lieut. Colonel Edward Bethune. He was a well known army leader having seen action in Afghanistan (what changes?) and South Africa. The following is a painting commissioned of the man himself:

 As can be seen, Bethune was a cavalryman. He would later play a role in the Great War, but in the age of the machine gun his speciality of fighting on horse back would soon be completely redundant.

Sunday 7 November 2010

Last weekend of autumnal colour.

Who needs to go to New England in the fall? Is it just me or has this been one of the best autumns ever. The weather has been relatively kind - certainly not very cold. Perhaps as a result the colours in this part of Wales have been magnificent. However the forecast for the next few days is for some stormy weather, so I think this might be the last weekend when the leaves are on the trees (at least until next spring anyway!). So yesterday Mary and I went out with my camera and took some photographs of the trees around Caerwys. Here are two of them:
Looking south west towards the Vale of Clwyd.

View towards Afonwen and the slopes of Moel y Parc.

Sunday 31 October 2010

Alistair Campbell

Last Friday I went to a function room at Chester Race Course to hear a talk given by Alistair Campbell, the former director of communications to Tony Blair, and one of the key architects of new Labour. It was a brilliant evening; Campbell is the master of presentations and his anecdotes from his years in power were illuminating and candid. He took questions from the audience and answered with honesty and humour.
Alistair Campbell at the Chester Literary Festival
 Campbell is in the process of publishing his extensive diaries that cover the Blair period. They are bound to be important when historians come to assess the achievements of New Labour in power. I am sure to read them. However, it is not always the diaries of the main players that capture an era in politics. Take, for example, the Thatcher years. How many have read Maggie's autobiography? Were there any significant diaries produced by those close to Thatcher? Probably not. It is the diaries of the much lesser known figure Alan Clark that has provided the best insight into politics during the 1980s and 90s. The same maybe true of the Blair years. Long after the autobiographies of Blair, Mandelson, and indeed Campbell, have faded on the shelves, it may well be that the diaries of Chris Mullin entitled 'The View from the Foothills' is the literary work that captures the essence of New Labour. They are beautifully written and always self deprecating. If you have not read this book, then do so.

The Past is another country.

High Street in the first decade of the 20th century.
I have been wandering Caerwys looking at the modern day places where the old photographs (from the collection that have been gathered to go in the book) were taken. However, try as I might it just does not seem the same place. Black and white (or sepia) images do create a sense of antiquity; it hard to grasp sometimes that the 19th century was in colour. Anyway, I am going to try and recreate some of the earliest images to show what I mean. The above image is the view I have from my front garden, if my front garden had been there in the first part of the 20th century, that is. Last week I went out and tried to stand in pretty much the same place, but even with the sepia tones added the same view is almost unrecognisable.
The same street in 2010.


Monday 25 October 2010

Gone to the birds.

Today I have been to the Red Kite feeding station in Rhayader, Powys. The farmer at Gigrin Farm has been feeding the Red Kites for many years; it has boosted the population of the birds and made them the symbol of the entire county. The birds know the time when the farmer puts the meat out on the field; they circle high above watching for the tractor with the food. The public can watch from a number of hides. The scene when the birds descend from the sky is breathtaking. I took some photographs, but they don't justice to the spectacle.




Saturday 23 October 2010

The 1950s and the 11+.

I have been thinking about the 1950s. The decade before I was born seems a strange unfamiliar place; take, for example, the 11+ examination. In their last year  in primary school all the children sat an examination to determine which secondary school they would attend. Those who passed (around 20 to 30%) went to the grammar school, and the others went to the secondary modern. Passing or failing the 11+ could shape the rest of your life. My parents recall the precise moment they received the momentous news; a new bike was normally the reward for success. However it also meant that friendships developed during the primary school years were often ended as in many respects the grammar school child and the secondary modern child would move in different circles.
Even today there are counties in England that still run the 11+; some campaign to bring it back nation wide (although of course they are the people that assume their child or grandchild will be amongst the successful ones). The 11+ was phased out in most places during the 1960s to be replaced by the comprehensive school. I have a copy of the Flintshire 11+ examination for 1954; it is a measure of historical change that few children of 10 or 11 in 2010 could even attempt many of these questions. We should not worry though as the modern child can achieve things that were unimaginable to their counterparts in the 1950s. The following is a small selection of questions from the Maths and English section of the paper. How many can you do?


Monday 18 October 2010

Photo mystery solved!

This photograph is rather a mystery. The inscrption on the bottom of the image reads 'CHURCH PARADE CAERWYS 1909'. It was probably associated with the military training camps held around Caerwys in the years before the First World War (the Ministry of Defence still holds training exercises on land around Moel y Parc). However, the sheer scale of the event captured in this picture is intriguing. It shows at least 8 priests and what appears to be hundreds of soldiers on the hill side. It is not obvious where this event took place, although I am inclined to think it is on the slopes of Moel y Parc. Military camps were a feature of life in Caerwys in the Edwardian years. Can anybody can shed light on this image?

UPDATE!
The mystery is solved! I was shown an article from a magazine published nearly 20 years ago entitled 'The Great Battle of Caerwys Camp' written by the late Tom Lloyd Roberts of Caerwys. The troops shown on the field near Moel y Parc (I was right there) were part of an enormous military exercise taking place during August 1909. In all 12000 soldiers and officers took part, and many were on that hill side photograph. Considering that the population of Caerwys was only around 600, the arrival of such vast numbers must have placed a strain on the local population. I will find out more as soon as possible. My thanks to George Gallagher for drawing this article to my attention.

Sunday 17 October 2010

My day at the football.

Restricted view from my seat. We also gave Liverpool two goals to aim at - still they could not score.
Who ate all the pies?

500 balloons.

Shaking hands (for now anyway)

Look carefully - only Liverpool on the pitch! They still could not score.

The offending item.
I can't begin to define why I like going to the football. I first went to see Everton in the early 70s; then in the later years of that decade I hardly missed a game. I continued to support the blues through the 80s - even attending the 1985 FA Cup Final on the eve of my university finals. In the 90s I hardly went at all, In recent years though  I have rediscovered the habit of going to Goodison Park and supporting the mighty blues. Today was an especially good game, with Everton beating their neighbours Liverpool by two goals to nil.  As I said, it is hard to define why I like going; after all, it costs around £50, the seats are the size of table spoons, and the facilities leave much to be desired. But for 90 minutes I can stop being Mr Responsible and yell totally unfair things at people I don't know. The referee is always short sighted, and always wrong (except when giving Everton a penalty). The opposing team are always vicious thugs, and my team always innocent of any misdemeanour. So in short I can pay £50 and become an irrational fanatic, and later, feeling relieved of the tension, return to Normalville, carrying on as if nothing had happened.

Tuesday 5 October 2010

Caerwys Dad's Army - they don't like it up 'em!

This is one of my favourite photographs to be included in the book. It shows Caerwys Home Guard marching through the town in 1941 - it was the funeral of one of their comrades. They were nothing like their hapless counterparts on TV as by the end of the war they were well trained in the use of many weapons. This 'D' Company was composed mainly of men from the town; by the time they stood down in 1944 they numbered 26. If the Germans had invaded in 1940 these men would have been in the front line.

Sunday 3 October 2010

Caerwys History Book

Lloyd George and Herbert Lewis.
                                            
The meeting with the publisher of the Caerwys book turned out to be rather interesting. I had a dispute with another member of the committee about the balance of images and text. The issues though go down to an understanding of what is meant by 'History'. I was engaged to write a semi academic History  and for me that always means an investigation into the past. In other words, why things happend, and why they happened in quite the way they did. The other side of the 'past' is heritage. That includes National Trust type things. I enjoy visiting grand houses and the like and appreciating our heritage; but that is not the same as History. I wonder how many think of that? Perhaps the Caerwys Heritage Society might be better.

Caerwys Book

Tonight I meet the publisher of the Caerwys since Victorian times book. I hope it will be a success. There are some great images to compliment the text. This is one - it provides a pleasing optical illusion - is the man pushing his bike up the hill, or down it?

Saturday 2 October 2010

Gwyl Famau

Sang with Cor Meibion Caerwys in Cilcain tonight. Very enjoyable. Two photographers caught my attention, both snapping away annoyingly. Digital photography with endless images at no cost is worrying.