Ruthin Castle

As was common, Ruthin Castle started life in wooden form. It was rebuilt in red sandstone between 1277 and 1282 as part of Edward I's iron ring of fortresses, which included the castles of Caernarfon, Harlech and Conwy. Dafydd, the brother of Prince Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, held Ruthin on Edward's behalf, but proved a traitor.















Reginald de Grey recovered the castle from Dafydd, and the de Greys owned it through to 1402, when Owain Glyndŵr captured and ransomed Reginald de Grey. Ruthin was sold to the Crown in 1508, and remained crown property until sold by Charles I in 1632. In 1646 the castle was subjected to an eleven week siege and subsequently slighted by the Parliamentarians.

































The modern 'castle' was built in 1826 within the mediaeval ruins. During the period that it was owned by the Cornwallis-Wests, Ruthin was enjoyed by the Prince of Wales (Bertie) and his mistresses various, including Lillie Langtry. From 1923 to 1950 the castle was home to a private hospital that specialised in obscure diseases. In the early 1960s it was converted into an hotel. The 19th-century portion houses comfortable public rooms and a good number of pleasantly grand bedrooms, the whole faded enough not to overwhelm.

The mediaeval remains provide for plenty of exploration - a spiral staircase (embrasure above) runs within the curtain wall between what would have been the inner and outer baileys. Walks around the grounds are likely to be in the company of the resident peacocks, of which there are a dozen or so.

Ruthin Gaol

Ruthin's first House of Correction was built in 1654, and would have incarcerated felons and the unemployed alike. The gaol was rebuilt in 1775 following the prison investigations of John Howard (as in the Howard League for Penal Reform), and by 1837 could hold 37 inmates. Following the Prisons Act 1865, a new wing on the Pentonville model was built to form, in 1878, HM Prison Ruthin.

The four-storey wing housed 100 prisoners. The gaol closed in 1916, when the prisoners were moved to HM Prison Shrewsbury, a scaled-up version of Ruthin, and still in use. Both look and feel much like HM Prison Slade, of television's Porridge. Our desire to seek to drive behaviour through punishment, despite all that we know about how only reward operates effectively to do so, seemingly remains as strong as in the seventeenth century.

Ruthin Town House

Nantclwyd House is understood to be the oldest timber-framed town house in Wales, dendrochronology having dated its earliest parts to circa 1435. It was enlarged in the Jacobean, Stuart and Georgian periods, passing through the hands of a number of affluent families, including the Wynnes. The house became a Victorian girls' school and an Edwardian rectory and judges' lodgings. Restored by Denbighshire County Council, there is a room in the style of each of the ages of the house. Simply beautiful.

Pye in the Sky

Is it possible to watch live the Six O'Clock News on a 63-year-old Pye LV20 elevison? Acquire an Aurora standards converter, supply this with power of nine volts DC at 250 milliamps, and connect it to the video and audio outputs of a digibox or other transmission source. Make up a length of 75 ohm coaxial cable with an F-type radio frequency (RF) connection at the Aurora end, and connect the other end to a balun via a standard coax plug.












Solder two short lengths of insulated copper wire into a pair of wander plugs, crimp onto the other end of each wire a ring terminal, and screw these into the terminals of the balun. Push the wander plugs into the twin line antenna socket of the Pye, and power up this, the standards converter, and the source. Select the correct RF channel on the converter - in this case 61.75 MHz for the picture and 58.25 MHz for the sound. Answer: Yes. But beware the possibility of a live chassis.

Odeon Front Radio

The AC-only Ekco RS3, introduced in August 1931, was the first wireless set to have station names marked on its dial. It benefited also from automatic waveband switching as the cursor is moved between the top and bottom halves of the tuning scale. The Bakelite cabinet, available in walnut, special order mahogany (pictured), or special order dark jade, was designed by J.K.White - this architectural style is known as 'cathedral' or 'Odeon front.'

Its sloped and stepped top, stepped-back sides (into which are recessed carry pockets - the radio weighs about 18 lbs), and pollarded willow tree design grille in anodised copper, are classic Art Deco, with a hint of Art Nouveau. The AC/DC SH25 of the following year used the same cabinet, as a factory fire had destroyed the new season's designs. It can be distinguished by the use of concentric knobs, necessary given that the RS3 cabinet didn't have enough holes for the controls.

Kenilworth Castle

The royal chamberlain Geoffrey de Clinton built the keep at Kenilworth in the 1120s. King John added, in the early 1200s, an additional circuit of walls and a dam in order to provide the castle with a defensive lake. But it was John of Gaunt who developed Kenilworth into a palace, principally through constructing the great hall (above), between 1373 and 1380.

In 1563 the castle was given by Queen Elizabeth I (Elizabeth for Scottish readers) to Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, quite possibly her lover but most certainly her favourite. Dudley lavished money on the palace, making it fit to receive his queen on her progresses through her realm. 

Leicester caused to be built a new gatehouse (above and below) to provide a grand arrival space. Although the interior was solidly Elizabethan, the exterior design echoed the style of a century earlier, and has about it shades of the castle at nearby Kirby Muxloe. The gatehouse is virtually intact.

Dudley also created what is now known as the Elizabethan Garden, for the queen's fourth sojourn at Kenilworth, in 1575. Of 19 days' duration, such a visit would have financially ruined a less-favoured member of the court. The garden was recreated in 2009, and includes a large wooden aviary (below).
















After the Civil War, in 1650, the defensive parts of the castle were slighted. Sir Walter Scott was inspired by the resultant ruins to pen his 1821 novel, Kenilworth. Since 1984 the castle has been in the care of English Heritage, who have carefully restored key elements without making Disney-esque mistakes.

More Myddle Muddle

North of Shrewsbury lies the village of Myddle. Nearby is Myddlewood Garage, which specialises in the repair and restoration of classic and vintage cars.

Currently under the garage's hands is a Morris Twelve-Four, commonly used in the mid-1930s as a taxi-cab. The proprietor, Peter Tanulak, has an interest in all things mechanical and vintage. He has a number of old petrol pumps, some complete with globes, which share the yard with a K6 red telephone box. Peter is also a pilot, has built his own biplane, which he keeps hangared at nearby Sleap airfield. Under construction in the workshop is an aerocar. Amongst the various goodies in the yard is an aero engine, doubtless awaiting a further project.

Kolster-Brandes

Founded in Toronto in 1908, Brandes formed a British subsidiary in 1924 that moved to its Foots Cray, Kent, manufacturing plant in 1928. The subsidiary became Kolster-Brandes Ltd when its parent merged with the Kolster Radio Corporation of Newark, New Jersey.

In 1930 KB supplied 40,000 two-valve sets to tobacco company Godfrey Phillips Ltd as a promotional give-away for their BDV (Best Dark Virginia) cigarettes - the coupons from 500 packets of ten got one a radio. KB later won the contract for the internal communications equipment on the RMS Queen Mary.

The four-valve KB BM20, pictured above, was introduced in 1947. The cabinet is formed of two identical halves that bolt together, and the radio can be found in a wide range of, often speckled, colours, in Bakelite and other plastics. This example has an almost lacquered finish.

More Canals Than Venice

Connecting Birmingham, Wolverhampton and the Black Country is a network of canals known as the Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN). These once extended to about 160 miles, of which circa 100 miles remain navigable. 

Birmingham Canal, now known as the BCN Main Line, was the first to be built, 1768-1772, by James Brindley, linking the edge of the city, near to Gas Street Basin, with Aldersley, Wolverhampton, where there is a junction with the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal. 

Next came, in 1764, the Birmingham and Fazely Canal, linking the city to Tamworth. The companies that owned these two canals were immediately merged, and in 1794 the single company was renamed Birmingham Canal Navigations. 

Depending on which are counted, about 20 canals go to make up the BCN as it exists today. The area around the canals that link up near to Gas Street Basin has seen much improvement work in recent years. Thankfully, it has not been entirely gentrified.

Just visible from the canals is the new Library of Birmingham, under construction in Century Square. In 2013 this will replace the hideous concrete Central Library of 1974. It remains to be seen whether the striking design by Francine Houben, of the Dutch architectural practice Mecanoo, will be more durable.

Royal Leamington Spa III

Developed as it was within a concentrated period of half a century or so - YMGW passim - Royal Leamington Spa's architecture generally has a consistent, quality, look and feel. Many of the largely cream-painted Georgian buildings are ornamented with ironwork railings and porches. Even later constructions, such as Mill Bridge, constructed in 1903, are mostly in keeping.

Stoneleigh Abbey Riverside

Stoneleigh Abbey, Warwickshire, is built close to the River Avon. When ownership passed in 1996 to a charitable trust, funding was secured from English Heritage and other bodies to undertake various restoration works, including of bridges, locks and weirs.

Beside the river is a pump house, circa 1813, and, next to this, a brick-built well-head. The former is in Gothic Revival style, expensively built in ashlar, with moulded rain hoods above the windows, and houses its original waterwheel and a three-throw pump, likely used to drive water up to the house. This too can hopefully be restored.

In the nearby woods is a small pet cemetery, in which is a monument that is surely the product of a guilty conscience. The inscription reads: "Monarch. A favourite setter. Who was shot by accident September XXV. Anno Domini MDCCCXXXIX [1839]."

The Full Monty

What is now known as the Montgomery Canal runs for 35 miles from its junction with the Llangollen Canal at Welsh Frankton, to Newtown in Powys. The canal was originally planned to run between Llanymynech and Newtown - it has never gone to Montgomery - and to be joined at the former with the Llanymynech Branch of the Ellesmere Canal. The 16 miles of the Eastern Branch of the Monty, between Llanymynech and Garthmyl, seven miles out of Newtown, were constructed by 1797.

The Western Branch, the last seven miles to Newtown, was built by a separate company, and completed in 1821. The Shropshire Union Railways and Canal Company bought the Eastern Branch in 1847, and the western three years later, to form part of the Shropshire Union network. Accordingly, bridge numbers on what is now considered as the Montgomery Canal start at 71, with the bridges of the Llangollen Canal being split into two number sequences, east and west of Frankton Junction.

The canal, used primarily to transport lime, prospered by virtue of the fact that railways came late to the rural area through which it passes, but became increasingly run-down during the 1920s. It was disused from 1936, after a breach near the junction with the Llangollen Canal, and abandoned in 1944. It is very slowly being restored, through the efforts of volunteers who refuse to be awed by either the scale of the task or the sloth and blindness of local councils.

Magic Voice

The Sonora Chime Company started out in New York City in 1908, making chiming bells for clocks. The company moved into phonographs, retaining its slogan "Clear as a Bell", and was reincorporated in 1913 as the Sonora Phonograph Company.

The subsidiary of Sonora SA France was started in 1932, in Puteaux, west of Paris. The VM1, the first Sonora known as La Voix Magique, was introduced in 1937. The black Bakelite cabinet of this example is in excellent condition, and the speaker cloth is original.

Sequined Selfridges

Birmingham's Bullring shopping centre of 2003 is one more unimaginative retail development. But it's home to a stunning piece of landmark architecture, the Selfridges Building, designed by Czech architect Jan Kaplický, of Future Systems.

































Construction commenced in 1999, and the building was completed in 2003, at a cost of £60 million. A steel framework supports a sinuously curved façade of sprayed concrete. Six storeys high, the building is dramatic without being overbearing. The treatment of the exterior was inspired by Paco Rabanne's sequined dresses.
















On a background of International Klein Blue are mounted over 15,000 discs of spun aluminium, polished and anodised. Set out in horizontal rows of 282, each row with its own equalised spacing, the 24 inch discs emphasise the curves of the building, as does a wavelike plinth of stainless steel and glass.

































There are few openings. One receives at the third storey the 120 foot-long and curved pedestrian bridge that joins the building to a multi-storey car park. The bridge is of steel box girder construction, supported by cable stays. The polycarbonate canopy rather lets the building down, as it's already discolouring.

Ekco Festival

The Ekco A147 Festival was developed specifically for the Festival of Britain of 1951. Accordingly, its design was determinedly modern - sleek and pared-down. The cabinet is of glorious walnut, with a four-part urea formaldehyde speaker grille, emphasising that the radio provided for a quartet of pre-set stations. It was not otherwise tunable.

In 1951 the set cost 20 guineas, including tax, as advertised in The Trader. The cabinet of this example has been nicely refinished, although the EKCO lettering isn't, unfortunately, of the correct font or kerning. As can be seen from the twin lamp illumination, there's also some work to be done to align the tuning and the station indicator lamps.

Stoneleigh, Warwickshire

About five miles north of Leamington Spa is the village of Stoneleigh, on the confluence of the River Avon and one of its tributaries, the Sowe. It could stand as the epitome of the English village - beautiful houses, some under thatch, and cared-for streets and greens.














There is, though, no village pub. Lord Leigh, of Stoneleigh Abbey, exercising his powers over his estate village, closed the local hostelry in the late nineteenth century, after one of his daughters was whistled by drunken cyclists.

St Nazaire U-Boat Pens

One of five such facilities built in occupied France by the Third Reich, the submarine base at St Nazaire was constructed by the Organisation Todt, within the existing harbour, to provide protected repair and supply facilities for Germany's U-boats.












The base, 984 feet long, 426 feet wide, and 59 feet high, was developed in four phases. Pens 6, 7 and 8 were built between February and June 1941; pens 9 to 14 between July 1941 and January 1942; and pens 1 to 5 between February and June 1942. A fortified lock was built between late 1943 and early 1944, to provide protected access from the Loire.

 
The 14 pens could house up to 20 U-boats. These were protected by a roof 28 feet thick, a layer cake of reinforced concrete, granite and steel beams. A 'Frangrost' layer towards the top provided voids into which the blast from bombs was dissipated.

































Within the fortified lock lies the French submarine Espadon (Swordfish). Built at Le Havre in 1958, the Espadon is not dissimilar to a WWII German U-boat. Home to a crew of over 60, sharing two bunks between three, it remained in service until the early 1980s.