20th Century
Ostend For Greeneland
According to those better able to describe such things than myself, decades ago the crossing to Ostend was one of drenched decks, the smell of steam and oil and of stale Bass from the bar. [more…]
1950s
20th Century
This Is My England, 1950 – Part Three
I have had a particularly soft spot in my heart for Nottingham ever since an evening in June, 1940. There were about a thousand of us, dribs and drabs of a British Expeditionary Force, scooped [more…]
Arts
The View From Sunnegga
It’s difficult to tell exactly where we are in old Zermatt, pictured below during my grandparent’s 1950s road trip. These days the town is short of public squares given what has to be squeezed onto [more…]
20th Century
This Is My England, 1950 – Part Two
From Haddon Hall to Tideswell is only about ten miles. But to get from one to the other you have to travel across some of the bleakest, wildest, most God-forsaken country in England. On these [more…]
Arts
Trag In Ruh (Take It In Your Stride)
Puffins will be familiar with a truism of the lower orders ducking and diving through the mean streets of Zermatt with a dagger between their teeth looking for a cheap room while the officer class [more…]
20th Century
This Is My England, 1950 – Part 1
Since this journey must begin somewhere, let it begin here in Bakewell with the story of a tart. A Bakewell tart, which, of course — as they are quick to point out — isn’t a [more…]
19th Century
His Monument, The Matterhorn
We shall continue our trip towards the source of the Matter Vispa, heading south towards the mountain town of Zermatt. However, we shall no longer call it a road trip. The evidence suggests, given a [more…]
20th Century
Buried Treasure
Amongst a century of detritus at the BBC there lies some buried treasure. Between layers of fake news, preachy left-wing documentaries and un-funny comedy, the BBC’s iPlayer hides a gleaming gem of an old archaeology [more…]
20th Century
Deluge at Lynmouth
Over breakfast on the morning of Friday, August 15th 1952, readers of the letters page of the Ilfracombe Chronicle and North Devon News may have noticed the following correspondence from a Mr Cuthbert Burgoyne of [more…]