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.

Berrington Hall - Upstairs, Downstairs

Neo-classical Berrington Hall, near Leominster, was designed by Henry Holland in 1778-81, and completed in 1783. It sits amidst a grand park, Lancelot 'Capability' Brown's final piece of landscaping. The house has a gloriously austere exterior, and a lavishly outrageous interior.

Upstairs, a fine cantilevered staircase gives onto a gallery landing graced with scagliola columns. But it is the below-stairs servants' quarters that are most interesting - the butler's pantry is rather reminiscent of Van Gogh's The Bedroom.

Bosky Boscobel

Built as a farmhouse in the 16th century on lands that had, prior to the Dissolution, belonged to White Ladies Priory, Boscobel was converted into a hunting lodge, in around 1632, by John Giffard, who gave the house its name. This is believed to derive from bosco bello, the Italian for "amidst fair woods", and the root of the word "bosky." 

The Giffards were recusant left-footers, and it has been suggested that Boscobel was intended to hide persecuted Catholics. It thus boasted at least one priest-hole, but the two described as such at the property would have been too easily found to be considered genuine.

































A priest-hole at Boscobel hid the future King Charles II, the night following a day he had spent hiding in the nearby branches of what became known as The Royal Oak. Charles was on the run after the Battle of Worcester, of 3 September 1651, and later escaped to France.

The surrounding woodland has gone, and the original tree fell victim to souvenir hunters in the 17th and 18th centuries. But a scion of Charles's oak remains, although badly damaged by a storm in 2000. Ten years later it was strapped to prevent splitting of the main trunk.

The three phases of building are very distinct - the 16th-century farm at left in the photograph at top, the large 19th-century additions, in painted brick, to the right, and Giffard's hunting lodge to the rear (second photograph). There are extensive cow byres and stables. Unusually, the farm had its own blacksmith, the forge and bellows still in full working order.

White Ladies Priory

A few miles north-west of Wolverhampton are the sandstone ruins of White Ladies Priory, the name derived from the white habits of the half dozen or so Augustinian canonesses who lived here prior to dissolution in 1538.

































The church, of the twelfth century, was dedicated to St Leonard of Noblac, associated with the liberation of prisoners. Quite fitting thus that the future King Charles II hid here before moving on to Boscobel House, just a mile away.

Bird's Nest Scoop

A nest from last year that dropped out of a tree whilst the latter was being pruned. Eat your heart out Ai Weiwei - nature does it better!

Barmouth

Barmouth, on the north-west coast of Wales, may be tacky, full as it is of shops selling seaside tat, faux hippy emporia, and tattoo parlours, but the light there can be spectacular, and one can soon leave behind those who don't like to get too far away from a burger joint.

The name of the boat at top, Buey 2, is pronounced the way American English (and modern French) pronounces the buoy in the foreground, and that in the second photograph. The word is of Old French or Middle Dutch origin.

The Ampthill Mob

Ampthill is a pleasant Bedfordshire town, boasting numerous Georgian houses, and even more houses of an earlier age to which Georgian fronts were attached. The name has Anglo-Saxon roots, and means ‘ant-heap.’ There was a fifteenth century castle here, of which there are only fragmentary remains. This was famous for housing Catherine of Aragon between 1531, when Anne Boleyn became Henry VIII’s favourite, and 1533, when ‘The Great Whore’ was elevated to queen and Catherine was moved to Kimbolton in Cambridgeshire.

Royal Leamington Spa I

Erstwhile Newbold Gardens, which run alongside the River Leam, were originated in 1831. They opened free of charge between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m., after which time they were restricted to patrons of the nearby spa bath-house, although a sunken right of way, which still exists, was provided to enable transit by the hoi polloi.















A lake was excavated in 1843, and the gardens were renamed, three years later, after Dr Henry Jephson, a promoter of the town's spa waters (which taste rather like St Yorre). A statue of Jephson sits within a Corinthian temple, before which stands the Czech Memorial Fountain, unveiled in 1968 in memory of the Czech Free Army that, during WWII, was quartered in the town.

Another philanthropist, Dr Hitchen, is memorialised by a fountain of 1869 (top). Once in the hands of the local council the gardens declined after WWII, but lottery money won in 1999 was used to successfully return them to full glory. A new sub-tropical glasshouse and restaurant was added to the gardens as part of the upgrade, a fine piece of modern architecture.

Royal Leamington Spa II

In 1800, Leamington Priors was a village of just 300 people. By 1850 exploitation of the local springs had given birth to Royal Leamington Spa, with a population of 15,000. The Royal Pump Room and Baths were built in 1813 by Charles Smith. It was significantly extended in the early 1860s, to include hot, tepid, cold, douche, plunge, shower, swimming and Turkish baths.

The Turkish baths consisted of apodyterium, labrum, calderium, tepidarium, and frigidarium - changing, washing, hot, tepid, and cold rooms. A larger swimming pool was added in 1889. The Turkish baths closed in about 1977 and the remainder of the complex in 1989. Thankfully, the building has been saved to home a museum, gallery and library. Just around the corner is the Art Deco Bath Assembly Hall of 1926, now a music venue.

Bala Lake Railway

Running four-and-a-half miles between Llanuwchllyn ("the village above the lake") and Bala, the Bala Lake Railway operates on two foot narrow gauge track laid on the bed of the original standard gauge GWR railway that ran between Ruabon and Barmouth. The Llangollen Railway utilises another section of the GWR trackbed.

Passenger services ceased in 1965, and the line closed in 1968, but the lake railway was operating just four years later. All of the locomotives are ex-quarry engines, all bar one from the Lanberis slate quarry. Four, including Holy War, were built by the Hunslet Engine Company of Leeds. The signal box at Llanuwchllyn is of 1896.

Warwickshire's Beautiful Waste

Immediately adjoining the parish of Henley-in-Arden, Warwickshire, is that of Beaudesert. The de Montfort family held the manor here subsequent to the Norman conquest: Thurstan de Montfort built a castle in the twelfth century. Unfortunately, nothing remains of this other than the motte, now known as The Mount.

At the foot of The Mount, and of the same period, circa 1170, is the church of St Nicholas, likely built on the site of an earlier edifice. This boasts gorgeous Norman arches and, on the north side of the chancel, stone rope-work that could just be Saxon. The stained glass is of a quality commensurate with a much larger church.

The People's Set

The Philadelphia Storage Battery Company, of Pennsylvania, started making batteries in the early 1900s. The Philco brand appeared in 1919. The development of the rectifier valve, which enabled radios to be powered from the 'mains', persuaded Philco to expand beyond batteries, and in 1928 they started making radios. A UK operation was set up in Perivale, Middlesex. American sets generally used more valves than British ones, which, given that the UK valve manufacturers operated a strict cartel, would have made a British Philco expensive. Philco thus set about developing a radio with fewer valves.

Introduced in 1936, the 444 was the first British Philco, its tombstone-shaped Bakelite cabinet pressed by Ekco. It sold for six guineas (£6.30), and was dubbed the People's Set. Some claim that the cabinet design was influenced by the bonnet of the Volkswagen 'Beetle', the People's Car, but only prototypes of the latter existed by 1936.

In fact, it was Philco that gave the set its name, trading on widespread adoption of the word "people" in the context of the Spanish Civil War. The set had initially sold poorly, but Philco's bit of cynicism turned that around spectacularly.

The set photographed is the 333, employing the same cabinet as the 444, but in this case powered by batteries.

Historical note: Philco was acquired by Ford in 1961, and ultimately by Philips in 1981, who until then had been prevented from using their similar-sounding trademark in the States. Philips still use the Philco brand.

Myddle Muddle

Gently mouldering away in a farmyard just outside Myddle, in north Shropshire, are a number of MG Midgets, MGBs, and a Triumph Spitfire. Doubtless the barns and lean-tos are home to yet more of the same.

The Berth of Legends

Hidden away in north Shropshire, and on private land, is The Berth, a mid-Iron Age 'hillfort' of about 300 BC. The site has been claimed as the capital of the Welsh king Cynddylan, and as the Isle of Avalon, the burial place of King Arthur, though little archaeological work has been undertaken.

In plan, the fort is akin to a memorial ribbon, a smaller enclosure linked by a causeway to its larger cousin. The construction is not atop a hill, but upon marshland, and would have gained its defence by virtue of originally being surrounded by water. A sense of what the site may have been like is provided by the adjoining Berth Pool.

Steaming Ahead

Last in steam in the early 1960s, Peter Clare's 10¼" gauge Canadian Pacific Hudson Class 4-6-4 live steam locomotive, on the move under its own power for the first time in half a century, here driven by its owner. A testament to the quality of its engineering and the determination of those involved in returning it to life.

Matchless BSA

Matchless motorbikes were constructed in London's Plumstead from 1899, making the marque one of the oldest in British two-wheeler history. The marque was retained when, in 1938, Matchless and AJS were both taken under the banner of Associated Motorcycles but continued as separate entities. However, it didn't survive the 1960s, with the last single pot made in 1967, and the twin pot replaced by the Norton equivalent.

BSA motorbikes were just one of many products manufactured by the Birmingham Small Arms and Metal Co Ltd, the first built around 1906. A BSA-engined machine arrived in 1910, and the marque went on to be the largest motorbike manufacturer in the world. Inertia and cost inefficiency saw the market lost to Japan, and by 1973 BSA had been subsumed within Manganese Bronze Holdings, when the marque disappeared. Both machines are run by Leif Evans, British vintage bike enthusiast.

Rhiwargor, Powys

At the far end of Lake Vyrnwy, Powys, is an area known as Rhiwargor. Approached through the valley to the left of the photograph (left click to enlarge to full screen) is the eponymous waterfall, known locally as Pistyll Rhyd-Y-Meincau.

H Van A to Z

The Citroën H van, with its square form, low floor, and significant carrying ability, has been used over the years for virtually every purpose imaginable. Andy Bennett has about a dozen H vans, including those previously used as a betaillaire, charcuterie delivery van (in typical white and red livery, below), and by the Service Départemental d'Incendie et de Secours - the fire and rescue service.

Beating About the Bush

The Bush DAC10 was released in 1950, the same year as its cousin, the DAC90A. It was of a similar size but boasted more modern design cues, notably a louvred wrap-around grille that also featured in the company's TV22 television of the same year. Pre-programmed station settings were accessed by means of push buttons on the top of the radio. One could thus concentrate on other matters.

Brogyntyn Burrowings

North-west of Brogyntyn Hall is a Grade II listed tunnel of the nineteenth century, built of coarsely-shaped limestone, and carrying over the older road the drive that would have led to the hall.

































Nearby is what remains of twelfth-century Castell Brogyntyn, the ringwork recently cleared of trees. The outer ditch is about 18 feet across and 12 feet deep, enclosing a circular area of about 260 feet in diameter, the central part used in the high days of the hall as a bowling green.

With its entrances in the ditch is a tunnel, about seven feet high, that runs right under the castle remains, curved in plan, and likely part of the eighteenth-century landscaping of the park.