The Power & the Glory

Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station, by the River Trent, was commissioned in 1968, and is now run by E.ON. Coal-fired, the power station has been the focus of much environmental protest, reflected in the miles of crush barriers and WWI-like looped barbed wire that now ring the site. 

Near Newark is Kelham Hall, a Victorian gothic mansion in brick. It was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott, architect of St Pancras Station, and grandfather of Sir Giles Gilbert Scott (YMGW passim). Completed in 1861, the hall was bought in 1903 by the Society of the Sacred Mission. A chapel was added in 1928, atop which sits a impressive Byzantinesque dome. The theological college here closed in 1972 and since 1973 the hall has been home to Newark and Sherwood District Council.

What, When & Ware II

In 1613 the New River, an artificial waterway built to supply London with fresh drinking water, was opened. The waterway starts between Ware and Hertford, supplied by the River Lea, and is still walkable along most of its length to New River Head, Islington. It originally terminated near the current Sadler's Wells theatre. (In the early nineteenth century water from the 'river' was used to fill a large tank to enabling staging of aquatic theatre, one tableau featuring 117 model ships built by Woolwich Dockyard, complete with working guns - like an early Las Vegas!) Broadmeads Pumping Station is a fine piece of Victorian industrial engineering, recognised by its Grade II listing. Built in 1885, it consists of a beam engine house and engineer's house, and still boasts its stack.

Ware is full of alleys and yards, quirky corners that are always worth turning into, as many of them are home to interesting buildings. Bluecoat Yard is named after the blue heavy cloth coats worn by the scholars of Christ's Hospital. The yard features Place House, one of Ware's two mediaeval manor houses, an aisled hall acquired in 1674 by Christ's Hospital Foundation to provide a healthy location for London children; and a row of cottages that provided housing for about 150 boys, each cottage (also known as a ward) under the aegis of a nurse. These are now private dwellings. The original Bluecoat Boy statue is safely inside Place House, that above the yard entrance a copy of 1987, by local sculptor Angela Godfrey.

Of course, the Bluecoat School of Ware is not alone. The most famous is that in Newgate Street, London. This featured in the 1975 edition of the Calendarium Londinense, or London Calendar, engraved on copper by Lawrence Josset, a mezzotint engraver of the very highest standard. His most commonly seen work is his superb engraving of Pietro Annigoni's portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, but his uncatalogued oeuvre is expansive and includes many original works.

Rodney's Pillar

Rodney's Pillar was erected atop Breidden Hill in 1781 by local landowners who had supplied oak, floated down the River Severn, to build Admiral Sir George Brydges Rodney's ships. The monument honours the man who played a key role in expeditions against the French during the Seven Years War, 1756-1763; assisted in the capture of Martinique in 1762; and relieved Gibraltar in 1780. Rodney accounted for 15 of 21 ships-of-the-line destroyed or captured by the Royal Navy during the American War of Independence. The pillar was originally crowned with a 'golden' ball, destroyed by lightning in 1835.

Two Stroke Sir?

In Strensham, Worcestershire, is the Grade II Elizabethan rectory of Peter and Rosemary Read, who run Old Rectory Retreats. Don't miss a trip on the Narnia II, a 30 foot narrow-boat moored at the foot of the gardens. This Beckmeter Multi Mix mobile pump, designed to deliver various ratios of mixed petrol and oil, was recovered from one of the Old Rectory's outbuildings.

Bond Bryan at Broxbourne

Bond Bryan, the Sheffield-based architects, designed the fantastic new buildings of Hertford Regional College at both the Ware and Broxbourne sites, a £41m project in total. Whilst the final phase of the staged development at Ware has been affected by the LSC's financial difficulties, the Broxbourne site is virtually complete, with just landscaping works to finish. The buildings were handed over as operationally ready earlier this year.

The design is bold and confident, a central atrium flooded with light and providing a real sense of space. But it is also, critically, led by student need, rather than by egoism and self-aggrandisement. One feels energised here. The facilities include JetBlueAir, a 18-seat aeroplane cabin complete with lockers and PA system from real aircraft; a restaurant in the atrium; dance, TV and recording studios; music practice suites and a 140-seat theatre; and a fully-equipped gym.

What, When & Ware I

Where? Ware is in Hertfordshire, on Ermine Street, the Roman road that ran from London to Lincoln. The town is famous for the Great Bed of Ware, originally from the White Hart Inn and now in the Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington; and has a long history. Ware was once Britain's premier malting town, but that unfortunately came to an end in the 1990s.

It's an attractive place, with numerous tiled shops, old town houses, along the main street, and a variety of interesting larger buildings. Foremost amongst these are the fourteenth-century Franciscan friary (above) and St Mary's Church, of the same century (corbelled arch pictured below). The friary was converted into a private residence after the first of Henry VIII's Dissolutions. As one of the premier buildings of the town, it is now occupied by the local council, as is often the way.

John Gilpin, Citizen of Credit & Renown

The Ware campus of Hertford Regional College includes the Grade II* listed Amwell House, built near the River Lea very early in the eighteenth century. It originally consisted of two storeys and just the central part of the current building. Samuel Scott bought the house in 1722 and it was likely he that added the third storey. The building retains many original features, including fireplaces, Doric columns, attic servants' quarters - there is said to be a ghost - and an early raised cistern toilet (complete with lead pipework).

In the late nineteenth century Amwell was bought by Mr & Mrs Arthur Tite. Mrs Tite commissioned the Gilpin Window, of painted glass, which features scenes illustrative of William Cowper's poem, "The Diverting History of John Gilpin," citizen of credit and renown, from which:

Says John, "It is my wedding-day,

And all the world would stare,

If wife should dine at Edmonton,

And I should dine at Ware."

In the twentieth century, Amwell House has been home to the Girls' Grammar School for Ware, the Hertford Evening Institute, Ware College and, since its amalgamation with East Herts College, Hertford Regional College. It is flanked on one side by the college's excellent new build, designed by Bond Bryan. It is to be hoped that funds will be found for Phase II, which would place the 300-year-old Amwell House in between, and thus contrast it with, two quality new builds seen through by a college with vision and determination.

Mr Schumacher & Racing Cars

Cecil Schumacher, a brilliant engineer, worked for Hobbs, Borg Warner, and Keith Duckworth at Cosworth, designing transmission systems for both road and racing cars. He now develops and repairs transmissions in the fantastic workshops at his home. Cecil founded Schumacher Racing Products Ltd in 1980, designers and manufacturers of radio controlled cars. Amongst other things, he invented the 'ball differential,' the world's first, and a genuine constant velocity joint.

His workshops and garages are filled to the gunwales with lathes and presses, memorabilia, and serious machines. Amongst these are a stunning 1933 Talbot, rebodied as a boattail in 1937; a 1925 Sunbeam; and a Rolls Royce Merlin engine (below) from a 1940s Kittyhawk, "Swapped for two-and-a-half motorbikes." Cecil has raced in Angoulême and in the Le Mans Classic, and the Talbot has been taken all over Europe. Cecil is friends with the legendary Derek Gardner, who built Tyrrell's first F1 chassis in his own garage, sworn to secrecy.

Corrugations II: Canal Central

Owned and operated by Fiona MacDonald and Iain Campbell, Canal Central is another (YMGW passim) building with corrugations (in this case of the roof) in Maesbury Marsh that's worthy of a mention. The building, partly inspired by the nearby barn and rather reminiscent of a Scandinavian chalet, is designed to be eco-friendly and has a fine wood exterior.

Hard by the Montgomery Canal, Canal Central provides services, including web access, for boaters as well as more static customers. There is a well-stocked village shop, holiday accommodation upstairs, and a comfortable tearoom. One can sit inside or out, including if one chooses in the mobile 'seating wagon,' which takes its design cues from a railwaymen's lineside hut.

Dodgem Logic

When asked what he does for a living, Roy, deliverer of a pair of dodgems, says that he is involved in entertainment for festivals and corporates. He mentions Lost Vagueness but, typical of the skilled, is exceedingly modest about his role. He is Roy Gurvitz, founder of the sui generis company.













The dodgems were used as diner seating at Glastonbury, and at a Banksy exhibition in Stockwell, London. They are 1970s Atlantas, made by Reverchon - founded as coachbuilders in 1927, in the Paris suburb of Gentilly, by the eponymous Gaston. Clients included Renault. The business expanded to include the coachbuilding of dodgems, with lifelike wings, radiator and lights.

Post-WWII production of complete dodgem cars was moved to Samois sur Seine (near Fontainebleau) - the town to which Django Reinhardt retired. 270 workers produced 2,000 cars a year. Gaston Reverchon died in 1982, aged 81. Unfortunately, Gride Reverchon International Design, to give the company its full name, closed in 2008, yet another victim of economic downturn.

Ladybower Reservoir

Ladybower Dam was built by the Derwent Valley Water Board between 1935 and 1943, an incredible achievement at any time, let along during a world war.

Unlike its two cousins in the Upper Derwent reservoirs group, the dam is not of solid masonry, but is an embankment of over a million tons of earth, with a core of 100,000 tons of puddled clay. The dam wall contains as much concrete as the core does clay. The upstream face, looking towards the Ashopton and Ladybower viaducts, is faced in stone.

When full the reservoir holds 6.1 billion gallons of water. It was formally opened by King George VI on 25 September 1945, having taken two years to fill. Two fully enclosed overflows of bellmouth form and 80 feet in diameter, like giant plugholes, carry overflow down to valve houses at the foot of the dam and thence into the River Derwent.

Wacky Racer

Man and his machine. The machine: an ancient Ferguson that has until recently lain dormant in a barn, for over twenty years. Note the highly original use of an old axle stand to connect the collector from the engine manifold to a DTM back box and twin upturned exhausts. The man: Geoff Lowe.

The Land That Time Forgot III

The third area of limestone extraction very close to home is that of Crickheath Hill, which is riddled by quarries of the smaller sort, heavily blanketed in hart's tongue ferns and ivy, and which reward careful exploration. There are dilapidated quarrying buildings and partially blocked adits to be found, and the area is rich with wildlife, which benefits from the various pools that form between the quarry faces and spoil heaps. There is much evidence of badgers (Meles meles) - setts, latrines, and even a skull, evincing the typically pronounced saggital crest to which are anchored the powerful jaw muscles.

The Hoff

At the foot of Llanymynech Hill is the Llanymynech Heritage Area, the most notable feature of which is the Hoffman kiln, one of only four remaining in Britain. The others are at Armadale, West Lothian; Carluke, Lanarkshire; Langcliffe, North Yorkshire; and Minera, near Wrexham.

Traditionally, limestone was burnt in draw kilns such as those pictured above, on the hill, wherein layers of stone and coal were loaded from the top and the resulting lime drawn from the bottom. From time to time operations had to be suspended in order to clear from the chamber any 'unburnt' stone. The Hoffman kiln, by contrast, was operated on a constant basis, using a continuous tunnel divided into a number of chambers. In such kilns, the fire can burn without surcease for years. The design was developed in Germany by Friedrich Hoffman, who first patented it in 1857 for the firing of bricks. Early Hoffman kilns were circular, but later versions were elliptical or rectangular, which enabled them to have more chambers.

The Llanymynech kiln, built in about 1899 of brick in battered section, had 14 chambers. At any one time one chamber was empty, one was being filled, five were pre-heating, two were firing, four were cooling, and one was being emptied. The limestone was brought alongside the kiln on the tramways that ran down from the quarries above, and stacked within the chambers in temporary walls. Between these were left gaps aligned with the numerous coal feed holes in the tunnel roof. The coal was brought straight from the nearby railway siding onto the kiln's roof, again by tramway.

Once a chamber had been loaded, its entrance was temporarily sealed with stacked bricks. Coal was fed from above into the spaces between the limestone stacks, and burned in the hot air that circulated from one chamber to the next, drawn down into and along the central flue that leads to the 140 foot chimney. This circulation was controlled by using the flues and dampers alongside each chamber entrance. Once the lime in one chamber was properly burned, the flue was closed and coal was fed into the next chamber, the flue for which was opened, and so on round the ring. Given the caustic nature of lime, and the need to keep out the damp, the kiln was covered with a corrugated iron roof. This has been reinstated, in mild steel, as part of a sensitive and informative restoration.

Hoffman kilns are still used in 'developing' countries; in Iran there are kilns that have been working continuously for 35 years. That at Llanymynech continued in use only until the outbreak of WWI, in 1914. The introduction of chemical fertilizers, and the reduction in the use of lime mortar, made production of lime uneconomic.

Whixall, 'twixt Wem & Whitchurch

Between Wem and Whitchurch is the widely spread village of Whixall. It is, despite its small population, one of the largest parishes in England. Water defines the place, that in the Shropshire Union Canal, on which lies Whixall Marina, and that in the surrounding mosses. Together, the Fenn's, Whixall, Bettisfield, Wem and Cadney Mosses form Britain's third largest lowland peat bog, and are home to a wide range of acid-tolerant flora, including 92 mosses and liverworts. Funghi addicts come here in autumn to hunt edible mushrooms. The back lanes are punctuated by numerous farmyards, each of which seems to be home to an interesting old tractor, truck or piece of 'junk.'

Where, What & Wem

In 1643, during the English Civil War, 40 Roundheads successfully defended the town of Wem from as many as 5,000 Cavaliers, not the last time that a small number of parliamentarians screwed a much greater quantity of the populace. Wem was severely damaged by fire in 1677, and doesn't look like it's ever quite recovered. Its faded feel is pleasant though, and there are plenty of architectural details to observe, given the wide range of building materials used - principally red sandstone, brick and timber. Wem is definitely a town that rewards those who habitually look above often ugly modern shop fronts. It's a shame that more Victorian display windows, such as the round cornered one in the high street here, aren't preserved in our towns.

 































Wem was home to the essayist William Hazlitt but is probably most famous for its annual Sweet Pea Show, which celebrates the town's connection with Lathyrus odoratus through Henry Eckford, who in the nineteenth century developed over an hundred hybrids of the plant.

Callsign GBZ

Criggion Radio Station, callsign GBZ, was operated by the Post Office and, after privatisation of telecommunications in 1984, British Telecom. It passed coded Admiralty, and later Ministry of Defence, instructions to the Navy's ships and submarines, including those carrying Trident. During WWII, Criggion played its part in the sinking of the battleships Scharnhorst and Bismarck, and the capture of the tanker Altmark. During the Cold War the site was a Category A target for the Soviet Union. It was likely the channel by which Margaret Thatcher's 1982 instruction to sink the General Belgrano was passed.

Criggion was planned in 1940 as a back-up to the station at Rugby, as there were concerns that the latter could be damaged by stray bombs intended for Coventry. When built, it consisted of two high frequency (HF) stations, a low frequency (LF) station, and a very low frequency (VLF) station, spread out across what used to be a 400 acre site. The site was chosen because steel was in short supply at the time, and only three 680 foot pylons could be found, originally bound for the Trincomalee naval station, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). A steep hill next to level ground to provide the fourth and fifth anchorages for the VLF aerial was required. Breidden Hill, at about 900 feet, was perfect for this, and the nearby Severn could provide water for the heat exchangers used to cool all the valves.



Building commenced in 1941. The first HF transmitter was operational by September 1942. Whilst still being tested, in early 1943, the VLF transmitter at Criggion had to be hastily commissioned to take over from Rugby, whose similar transmitter had been damaged by fire (it was out of action for six months). Additional HF transmitters were installed between 1943 and 1945. The military facilities were further added to during the Cold War. A larger VLF aerial was installed in 1967-68, slung from 720 feet stayed masts, the concrete blocks to support which can still be seen.

The station also carried civilian traffic. Until the Atlantic cable was laid, Criggion carried all telephone circuits to America. As cables and satellites proliferated, the various HF facilities were dispensed with, and all 25 HF transmitters and their associated aerials were decommissioned by 1971-72. The facilities were upgraded in 1983 and as recently as 1991, the VLF and three LF transmitters continuing in service until 31 March 2003. The pylons and masts for the VLF and LF aerials were brought down with explosives within months of the site's closure.



The buildings are fascinating. Of course, much of the equipment was removed when the site closed, and subsequently the place has been looted, no doubt for the miles of copper cable that it must have contained, but there are clues to its past. The built-up foundations were designed to accommodate the flooding of the Severn. In the early days transport around the site came in the form of a tractor and trailer, but later a DUKW and an amphibious jeep were provided. Garages, a pumping station, and what look like living accommodation provide a feel for how busy the place must have been at its height, when 160 people worked here.

Llanymynech Quarries

At the southern end of the ridge that forms Llanymynech, Crickheath and Llynclys hills are a number of abandoned limestone quarries. These would once have resounded with explosions from charges tamped into holes drilled into the rock, which have left their characteristic half cylinders in the cliff-face. Now though the only sounds are from buzzards and peregrine falcons, dripping water and, in the summer, the occasional climber pitting their wits against the repeated tiers of horizontally bedded rock. There are three drum brakes here, one (pictured) at the top of the 'English' inclined plane, a second at the head of the 'Welsh' inclined plane, and a third above the short drop into the massive tunnel cut straight through the hill into a lower-level quarry.

The tunnel is signed as dangerous, and it's easy to see why once inside: blocks of limestone larger than family cars have fallen from the ceiling. Similarly cordoned off is an adit that appears to run straight into the hillside and may, thus, be a copper mine that predates the quarries; and which demands a return visit with a good torch. The inclined planes carried limestone down to the canal and the Hoffman kiln at the foot of the hill. Oddly, the two tramways, operated by different companies, crossed each other just before passing, via separate tunnels, under what is now the A483. Steel sculptures by David Howorth represent rockmen and a brakesman.

The Land That Time Forgot II

On the western side of Llynclys Hill, deep amongst the rampant ash saplings and mature silver birch, is an Austin A40 van, a restoration project 'in need of some finishing.' Whatever happened to those old-fashioned junk yards, full of toppling stacks of rusting cars, that, as a kid, one used to come across in the woods? No doubt the health and safety paranoiacs now insist that such yards are securely cordoned off behind weld-mesh fencing on dull industrial estates.

Another victim of the British obsession with 'health and safety' is the once-popular practice of locating and cooking wild fungi. The razor strop (Piptoporus betulinus) grows almost exclusively on birch. Unlike the beefsteak fungus, the razor strop - the cut surface of the fruiting body, the visible part of the fungus, was once used in forming the sharpest of razor edges - is inedible (it's not poisonous, just too woody). Dried, the fruiting body can though be used as tinder.

The Land That Time Forgot I

Crickheath and Llynclys hills are peppered with old limestone quarries grown over with ferns, particularly hart's tongue (Phyllitis scolopendrium), ash and silver birch. There are numerous shafts and adits (some of which are off-limits in order to protect the resident bats), and buildings associated with the task of hauling the limestone down to the Montgomery Canal. Along this the limestone was shipped off to be burnt in kilns, thereby producing lime for spreading on acid soils to improve their fertility. Pictured is the winding house for the tramway between Black Bridge quarry and the wharf at Pant.