It has been sometime since i last went to Wales (indeed, over a year since i went to Chirk!) So, it was high time i returned, especially as it was St David's Day on Saturday. I went to Caldicot / Cil-y-coed in south eastern Wales, Monmouthshire to be exact. Caldicot is a nice little place with a superb castle to explore and also a rather fine church. You can see my photos here, lets try and make the next trip to Wales soon.
Sandhurst is a town on the south eastern edge of the county.
The town has Anglo-Saxon origins, the name is probably derived from the sandy soils and hursts (or tree covered hills) in the area. However, Sandhurst is not mentioned until 1175. For centuries Sandhurst remained a small farming village on the edge of Windsor forest.
The big change came to Sandhurst in the 19th century when the Royal Military College moved to there from Marlow in 1812. This helped the village grow into a town with expansion continuing into the 20th century with the building of new housing estates.
Sandhurst gained a railway station in the 1850s though this was only temporary, the current Sandhurst station dates from 1909.
The parish church of St Giles in Cheddington, Buckinghamshire dates from the 1130s. The church was rebuilt in the 14th century in the Gothic style. In the 15th century it was enlarged, the north aisle was added, the nave extended (to three bay) and the tower was built. The church was restored in the 19th century, and gained a vestry.
The church is built from coursed rubble limestone.
On Saturday, for the final trip of the month i decided to stay local again and update some more local stations, ready for my third book on West Midlands railway stations. I visited Lea Hall, Stechford, Birmingham International (including the Air-Rail link to the airport for the first time) and Hampton-in-Arden.
Revisiting Stechford had some good memories for me. The station is where i used to mainly go when i was a young train spotter in the 1980s. Of course, back then it was quite different, endless Class 86 hauled expresses going to and fro between Birmingham and London. The expresses remain but not quite as exciting. You can see my photos here.
The county town of Berkshire, Reading, has it's origins in the 9th century Saxon settlement of Readingas, though there has been settlement in the area for a lot longer. Readingas probably comes from a Saxon tribe of the same name. In 871, Reading was the scene of a battle by the forces of King Ethelred and Alfred the Great against a Danish army.
In the early Norman period Reading was already a notable place, with six mills listed in the Domesday Book. Reading Abbey was founded by King Henry I in 1121, he was later buried in the Abbey grounds. Reading was the largest town in Berkshire by the early 16th century, and amongst the richest towns in the country. In 1867 it replaced Abingdon as the county town of Berkshire.
Good transport links, including the river Kennet and later the railways helped Reading grow as a manufacturing and business hub. Three industries very important to Reading in the 19th and 20th centuries were known as the three Bs: beer, bulbs (as in plant roots) and biscuits. Nowadays, Reading is the location of many major company headquarters, helped by the proximity of London and Heathrow Airport.
Model project #112 is a Boeing P-12E and is progressing steadily. Building is now complete, and has featured the usual frustrations and mishaps of building a biplane. However, it has turned out pretty well and now painting can begin.
The parish church of St Mary in Acton, Cheshire is Norman, though a church has been on this site since Saxon times, a church being mentioned in the Domesday Book. The tower of the church is from about 1180 and it is the oldest church tower in the county. However, the top did collapse in a storm in 1757! The tower was rebuilt though is not as tall as it was originally. The north aisle was added in the 14th century.
The four bay nave has six bay aisles. There is also a three bay chancel with a vestry to the side. There is a chapel on the east side of the north aisle. The church is built from red sandstone.
Originally, i planned to go to Derbyshire last weekend but a train cancellation forced me to change my plans. Instead, i went up to Runcorn in Cheshire on the Mersey. Runcorn and Widnes are linked by the rather fine Silver Jubilee Bridge. When i was a kid, and i went up to Liverpool to see family, my Dad often drove across the bridge. This time i walked across!
You can see my photos from both sides of the bridge here, Runcorn and Widnes. There are also some photos taken along the Manchester Ship Canal.
Crowthorne is a village at the south eastern edge of the county.
Until the second half of the nineteenth century Crowthorne was a small hamlet with just a handful of dwellings. The name comes from a local landmark known as Crow Thorn. The centre of the hamlet was at the junction of the Roman road, the Devil's Highway and a road between Sandhurst and Bracknell.
In the 1860s the opening of Wellington College and Broadmoor Hospital helped Crow Thorn greatly expand. It was proposed to give the fast growing settlement a new name in the 1890s, Albertville after Prince Albert was proposed, but in the end Crowthorne was chosen.
Crowthorne railway station was opened in 1859 to serve the college. In latter years Crowthorne has also gained the Transport Research Laboratory. A notable manufacturing company C.F. Taylor produced parts for aviation and road vehicles. it later became part of British Aerospace.
A new typewriter has joined the collection, and it is pretty different to all of the others in there. It is a Petite International Deluxe and is a typewriter for children or juniors. The typewriter is fairly compact and lightly built from mostly plastic. It is a fully functional machine though and seems to work pretty well (if a bit stiff at times). However, the ribbon is completely shot so that will need replacing.
The parish church of St Olave is one of the few medieval churches in the city which survived the Great Fire of London. The church dates from the 13th century (as St Olave-in-the-Tower), St Olave (King Olaf II) was a Norweigan king who fought alongside Æthelred the Unready against the Danes in 1014 at the Battle of London Bridge.
The original church was wooden, and replaced by a stone one at a later date. The church was rebuilt a number of times, much of the current church dates from a rebuilding in 1450, though the tower was added in the 18th century. Although the church did survive the Great Fire it did not survive the Blitz but was rebuilt and restored in 1954.
The church is in the Perpendicular Gothic style and has a three bay nave and north and south aisles. The church has a clerestory. The tower is to the south west. The entrance to the graveyard is notable for it's grinning skulls!
After last week's train issues, at the weekend i headed back out on another journey into the shires. This time down to Charlbury in Oxfordshire and everything worked perfectly! Charlbury is a lovely large village (or town?) in the Cotswolds (and unlike a lot of places in the Cotswolds not yet ruined by endless traffic). Charlbury has a good looking church which was open too!
Woolhampton is a village in the south central part of Berkshire between Newbury and Reading.
The village has Saxon origins, the original name of the village was Ollavintone and may be derived from the Old English for Ridge Place. Woolhampton is located on the Kennet valley and nowadays is passed by the Kennet & Avon Canal.
Woolhampton was a stop on the stagecoach route to the west known as the Bath Road. The village had a number of coaching inns but only one, The Angel, survives as a public house. Woolhampton railway station was opened in 1847, however due to the possibility of confusion with Wolverhampton (apparently!) the station was renamed to Midgham in 1873, Midgham is a separate village about two miles away from Woolhampton.
The former parish church of Old High St Stephen in Inverness mainly dates from the late 18th century though the site has been used for worship since the Saxon period, it is said to be on the site that St Columba converted a Pictish king in 565. The clock tower is 16th century though the top is a 17th century addition. The nave has seven bays with porches to the south east. There is a semi-octagonal apse.
The church is built from rubble, reusing material from a medieval kirk. It is no longer used for services.
Work on the first model kit of 2025 has begun, a Boeing P-12E. This is the first Matchbox kit i have done for years, i always liked doing them as a kit as they used multiple colours with the plastic moulding, as i seldom painted the kits back then this meant the finished models looked a bit more fun then the usual grey Airfix ones! I will paint this one though, but i need to get some yellow paint...
On Saturday i went to Grantham in Lincolnshire, but there was a problem. Due to a cancelled train my planned ninty minute trip turned into a thirty minute one. Therefore, i decided to just stay at the station. I'll come back later in the year for a much longer trip to see the rest of the town! You can see my Grantham (station) photos here!
