I thought i had never been on a train on leap day before so booked today off to rectify that, in fact i did travel on trains four years ago anyway, but i still had a nice rail photography trip today to Derby! You can see my photos here, now i shall wait another four years for the chance to take railway photographs on February 29th!
Oddly enough the worst story here is by the most famous author. I found Anton Chekhov's story a bit impenetable.
Highlights of the collection include Koga Saburo's fun but bizarre story about a rotating spider lab which is probably the best story in the collection.
Also involving spiders is a good story by Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay. Another highlight is Maria Elvira Bermudez's tale of murder and family secrets. A great and varied collection of stories.
Complicated railway connections are a bit of a, as Americans say, crap shoot these days (some sort of card game i believe, i only play gin rummy). I had intended to spend two hours up in Kirkby-in-Ashfield in Nottinghamshire to properly explore the area and visit two stations. My visit was cut short by an hour so i only visited one station and the area around it! Still it was nice to go somewhere new even if i didn't really see anything that exciting, you can see my photos here.
The parish church of All Saints in Little Kimble, Buckinghamshire dates from the 13th century. The small church has a nave, chancel and north and south porches. The church has a bellcote at it's western end. This was added in the 19th century. The church was altered in the 14th century when the porches were added. The church was restored in 1876.
The church is built from flint and rubble stone with a stone dressing.
Penarth Marina, on the other side of Cardiff Bay from Cardiff, is a prime example of how the waterways have changed from commercial to leisure use. The site was originally Penarth Dock, a port which was very busy in the late nineteenth century though slowly declined throughout the twentieth to finally close in 1960.
While some of Penarth Dock's old basins were filled in and lost for continued marine use to be used for housing, some of the docks were redeveloped to create a marina for leisure craft that now opens out onto Cardiff Bay. The marina opened in the late 1980s and now has berths for over three hundred small boats.
Although the book was apparently a success when released in the late 19th century, and was adapted into a stage play, i found this a troublesome and frequently annoying read.
The story moves on at a pace though i found it rather melodramatic and the plot a bit too fanciful, though a common fault/feature (delete depending on your point of view) of the time.
After last weekend's fiasco i went into this week's attempt at a railway adventure with a little trepidation, luckily everything went without a hitch (well ok maybe the odd train was a couple of minutes late). I went to Congleton in Cheshire. First of all i walked part of the Macclesfield Canal (which was more a mudpath than a towpath in places but still very interesting) then into the nice little market town itself.
The parish church of St Gregory in the aptly named Offchurch in Warwickshire dates from the 12th century. It probably replaced a Saxon church which may have been built during the reign of King Offa of Mercia in the late eighth century. No trace of the Saxon church remains though the local legend has it that if you jump off the roof of the church then King Offa will rise out of the ground and catch you. I have not tested this.
The church has a west tower, north vestry, chancel and a nave with a south porch. The church is built from local red sandstone and grey ashlar. Much of the church is Norman including the nave and chancel.
Today is the official release date for my first book, on the railways of Birmingham and how they have changed over the last ten years. Although the book has been on sale online for a while now, hopefully soon i will be able to see it in the shops. Is this the end of my new career as an author, by no means. I am sure there will be more to come.
I had planned to go to Bedfordshire on Saturday but my train broke down and i spent two hours stuck just outside Northampton, there wasn't time to thus go onto my intended destination so i aborted the trip. On Sunday instead i went to Landywood in South Staffordshire. Not so far, though my train was delayed an hour! I am wondering if i have a curse at the moment? Anyway you can see my photos here.
The amateur detective in this Golden Age novel is Boddy, a former Army officer. He begins to investigate a varied set of suspects, who all possibly had competed for the artist's affections, including a missing priest and the victim's partner.
An interesting murder mystery, though maybe not one for many surprises. The mystery works more for it's ingenuity of how the fairly obvious culprit carried out the crime than anything else but it a perfectly decent story.
The parish church of St Michael and All Angels in Marden in Kent was first built around 1200. There were additions and alternations in the following centuries and the church was restored in 1868 and 1909. The church has a nave with north and south aisles. The chancel also has chapels on the north and south sides. There is a tower to the west which was one of the additions to the church in the 13th century.
The church is built from coursed and random sandstone, rag stone and pudding stone.
Last year my model railway was completely shut down as i wanted to use the space for my typewriter workshop. However, i think it is possible the space could be shared with a cut down small railway layout and i have begun some design work on it in a possible tiny space (about half the size of the old layout). It may require some innovation with the design to get a good layout. The layout will use my British N gauge stock.
The county town of Northamptonshire is located towards the south of it's county. The place is first mentioned in 914 as Ham Tune. North was added to the name to distinguish it from Southampton! By the time of the Domesday Book the town was known as Northantone, the current spelling did not appear until about the 17th century.
Northampton was a Saxon settlement (though there have been earlier settlements found in the area dating back to the Bronze Age. Northampton was attacked a number of times by the Danes in the 10th century including being burnt down a couple of times. However, the town survived and after the Norman Conquest became an important strategic location.
A castle was built in Northampton by the first Earl of Northampton in 1084. The castle was used as a royal residence by a number of monarchs including King John who kept his treasury there. Little of the castle remains these days, the railway station has largely been built on the castle's site!
The town became a centre for religious dissent in later centuries including Puritanism and became a Parliament stronghold in the Civil War. Fairfax marched from Northampton when the Roundheads defeated the Royalists at Naseby in 1645. Supporting the Parliament war effort helped kickstart the town's boot making industry, this remained an important industry for the town until the 19th century.
In latter years Northampton has continued to grow though the boot and leather industries which once employed over a third of the town's men has now mostly gone apart from some specialist manufacturers. Many people now commute to London thanks to the railway and other transport links.
I was supposed to go to London yesterday (and do the Baker Street Hidden London tour i had to cancel due to illness last year) but guess what... i am ill again so didn't go (and there was a rail strike too anyway). I think this tour is cursed for me so i probably won't try for a third time (lucky).
Instead i walked the canals in central Birmingham, walking the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal from Farmer's Bridge Junction through to the Worcester & Birmingham Canal as far as Bath Row. Its an ill wind, the canal walk was finr though i was looking forward to the Baker Street tour but that is life.
The parish church of St Peter & St Paul in Steeple Aston, Oxfordshire dates from the 13th century with additions in the following centuries. The chancel was rebuilt in 1684. The church was restored in 1842 and 1873, the north aisle being partially rebuilt. A vestry was added in 1909.
The church has a nave with north and south aisles, a chancel and a west tower. The church is built from limestone and coursed marlstone rubble.
Wootton Wawen aqueduct, in the Warwickshire village of Wootton Wawen, is one of the three aqueducts on the southern section of the Stratford-upon-Avon Canal. Like the other two aqueducts (called Yarningale and Edstone) the Wootton Wawen aqueduct is unusual in having the towpath on the same level as the canal bottom, thus the water is roughly at human waist level!
The aqueduct was erected in 1813 by the Stratford Canal Company. It is a cast iron trough with an integrated towpath.
