Mary Arden's Farm - Confusion's Masterpiece

What is now presented as Mary Arden's Farm, the childhood home of Shakespeare's mother, is actually an amalgam of the house in which Mary was indeed brought up - Mary Arden's House - and the neighbouring farm of the Palmer family. 

The farm, located in Wilmcote, about three miles outside Stratford-upon-Avon, would by the standards of the 1570s have been an affluent one. Its own cider mill and stone dovecote were all part of the huge enterprise needed to sustain the farm's workers.

The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust had for many years preserved as Mary Arden's House the farmhouse discovered, in 2000, to have in fact belonged to Adam Palmer, and now known as Palmer's Farm (below).


The Trust had however bought, back in 1968, the adjoining property, then known as Glebe Farm, to prevent redevelopment next to what had been thought of Mary Arden's House. Glebe Farm is now correctly identified as the Ardens' house.

Lorenz & Colossus

At Bletchley Park is displayed a working replica of the Bombe machines used in the decryption of WWII Germany's signals, encoded through Enigma machines. On the same site is the National Museum of Computing, home to a working replica of Colossus, the world's first electronic computer, used to break Lorenz-enciphered messages. Lorenz was used by Germany's Army High Command to communicate with its Group Commanders, as it provided greater security than Enigma.

Lorenz, ultimately emulated by a machine largely made of telephone exchange components and known as Tunny by the Bletchley code-breakers, used twelve rotors, compared with the three of a standard Enigma machine. It was brought into service in 1941. A Lorenz attachment fitted to a conventional teleprinter added, to the standard five impulses used for each letter - the equivalent of today's 1s and 0s - the five impulses for each letter of the key, automatically generated by the machine. There was a pair of wheels for each impulse, plus two motor wheels that added a degree of randomness.

The coded messages, known as fish at Bletchley, each fish name being one of the communication routes, were transmitted by radio and fed straight into a receiving Lorenz machine. By addition of the same key, this produced teleprinter output in plain text. The key changed with each message, as opposed to Enigma's diurnal key changes. There were 16,000,000,000,000,000,000 possible initial wheel settings. The British could intercept the coded messages, but not break them.

It was not until August 1941, when a long message was sent twice, using the same initial wheel settings, by a Lorenz operator, who in the second message also utilized various abbreviations, that a way into the fish was found. Cryptanalyst John Tiltman took ten days to decipher both messages, and Bill Tutte deduced mathematically how Lorenz worked. From mid-1942 Lorenz-encoded messages could be decoded, but an automated solution was essential to speed the process of determining the ever-changing key. 

A machine - known as Heath Robinson - was designed by Dr Max Newman to determine the Lorenz starting rotor positions, but this was slow. Post Office engineer Tommy Flowers was brought in. Within just nine months he had designed and built the Colossus prototype, which made use of punched tape and optical reader input, and 1,500 thermionic valves. This was operational by December 1943. The coded message was run again and again, each time against a different starting position for a pair of wheels, searching for an output pattern that, based on carefully calculated probabilities, indicated when the correct positions had been determined.

By the end of the war there were ten Colossus Mark IIs at Bletchley, each using 2,500 valves. Colossus was kept secret until 1975, the mechanical assembly drawings having been deliberately destroyed in 1960. Between 1993 and 2008 Tony Sale, ex-MI5 principal scientific officer, led a project to rebuild a Mark II Colossus, with just eight photographs of 1945 and a few fragmentary circuit diagrams, thankfully kept illegally by some engineers, as source material. The rebuilt machine stands where Colossus No. 9 stood during the war.

April Fools' Car Show - in May

The 2013 April Fools' Car Show, again hosted at Canal Central, Maesbury Marsh, was rescheduled to May due to snow on 1 April. The sun brought out over fifty vehicles, of great diversity. Particularly cute was a 1971 VW campervan, towing a Heinkel Trojan bubble car, in Cadbury's trademarked (for chocolate) purple.














There were some real rarities, including a Morris Marina 1.3 estate, a lovely Peugeot 304S cabriolet, and a pair of steam vehicles - a Stanley steam car and a Super-Sentinel DG4 steam waggon, built in Shrewsbury in 1931.

Exotica included a unique special-edition Bentley Arnage Mulliner Black Label, a Ferrari F430, and the pair of gentlemen's expresses pictured above - an Aston Martin DB5 and a Jensen FF (Ferguson Formula), the first road-going production car equipped with four wheel drive.

Echo of an Ekco

In 1931 Ekco introduced the RS2 wireless, available in AC and DC versions, in a cathedral-style Bakelite cabinet by the company's Head of Design, J.K. White. In February 1932 a major fire at Ekco's Southend-on-Sea factory destroyed, amongst other things, the R&D facilities and, with these, the prototypes for 1932/33.

In 1932 Ekco brought out the pictured M23 (AC), also available in a DC version, with medium-wave and long-wave, using the same cabinet as the RS2, but with concentric knobs to provide for the greater number of controls. The new model, using a prior year's cabinet design, was unpopular and had to be heavily discounted, and Ekco only just avoided bankruptcy. The standard cabinet colour was walnut (pictured), but mahogany and dark jade could be had as special orders.

Cambrian Heritage Railways - Steam

Cambrian Heritage Railways is making steady progress against its aim to ultimately operate trains between Gobowen, where there is a mainline station, and both Llynclys Junction and Blodwel, the latter along the Tanat Valley.

Prior to formation of the Cambrian Railways Society, one part of what is now CHR, the last passenger train from Oswestry station ran in 1968. There is an interesting little museum in the old goods shed, around which is stored a selection of parts, large and small, to be used in the CHR's enterprise.

This currently includes short sections of operational track alongside the station, and between Llynclys and Penygarreg Halt, at either end of which have been constructed new buildings in keeping with the style of Cambrian Railways.

Cambrian Heritage Railways - Diesel, Petrol & Tar

Cambrian Heritage Railways each year runs a transport festival in Oswestry. Among the commercial vehicles on display were a 1962 ERF (Edwin Richard Foden) KV and a 1954 Fordson Thames ET6.

At the other end of the size scale was a Paul Smith special edition Mini, registration P5 MNY. Just 300 were made for the UK, from 1998, all in Paul Smith Blue. The one on show tows a fold-down camper trailer, fitted out to match the car.

A 1961 Leyland Tiger Cub bus, ex Trent Buses, now in Tanat Valley colours, ran from Oswestry to Cambrian Heritage Railways' site at Llynclys.

At this last the new-built station and platform has been decorated with vintage enamel signs. One such is clearly from, depending upon one's view, an age either more innocent, or more misleading, or perhaps both.

White Nancy

Built by John Gaskell in 1817 atop the Saddle of Kerridge, above Bollington, Cheshire, White Nancy is a rendered sandstone rubble folly that commemorates the Battle of Waterloo. There was originally an entrance, to a single room in which perimeter stone benches were ranged about a round stone table in the centre; but the doorway is now blocked. Grade II listed, the folly, about 18 feet tall, is reputedly named after the principal horse used to haul the building materials to the site. However, its colour must play a part in its name: the folly was not painted until about 1925, since when it has generally been white.

Hoover, Damned

The Hoover company's UK washing machine factory was established in Pentrebach, just south of Merthyr Tydfil, in 1948. Hoover's British division ran a disastrous promotional scheme in 1992, promising free airline tickets to the USA for customers spending over £100, far less than the cost of the tickets. It was overwhelmed by demand, tried to duck its contractual obligations, was sued in 1994, and by 1998 had lost some £50m on the deal. Candy took over.

The Merthyr plant, (in)famous for also manufacturing the Sinclair C5 - "Built by Hoover, driven by suckers" was a common joke - ceased production in 2009. Although the Hoover brand is very much alive and kicking, and hoovering synonymous with vacuuming despite the rise of Dyson (by whom Hoover were successfully sued for patent infringement), this was an ignominious end for the UK production operation.

Soixante-Neuf, 1938-style

The Ekco all-wave AW69 (alternating current) was introduced in 1938, and boasted short-, medium- and long-wave bands. It's what's known as an upright table model, though at 22 inches high it would have dominated many an average room of the 1930s. The expansive speaker grille cloth has been replaced. The set was also available in AC/DC (UAW69) and battery (BAW69) forms.

Polar(oid)

Shot on a Polaroid 636 CloseUp instant camera, introduced 1996, using out-of-date PX 680 Color Shade film by The Impossible Project, which manufactures instant film at the ex-Polaroid factory in Enschede, the Netherlands.

Hemlock Hillock, Nottingham

The Hemlock Stone is a pillar of Nottingham Castle sandstone. Such rock is normally weakly cemented, but this outcrop is firmly held together by the mineral barytes, which increases in proportion towards the top of the pillar. Over the last 20 million years the softer overlying and surrounding sediments have been eroded, and the barytes-rich 'cap' has protected the strata beneath it. There is a fanciful story about the stone featuring in ancient Celtic druidic rituals, but no evidence.

Joule's Energy

The pale ale that later became Joule's was first brewed by Augustinian monks, in Stone, Staffordshire, from the twelfth century, each barrel 'blessed' and marked with a cross. Joule's later adopted the priory's recipe, and registered the red cross as a trademark - the sixth oldest beer mark in the world. The mark is still used, as it was in use prior to the symbol's adoption by the International Red Cross. (The first trademark registered in Britain was the Bass red triangle, in 1876; the second the Bass red diamond.)

The first Joule-named brewery was in Salford, from the mid-1700s, the second in Stone, from 1779. Bass Charrington acquired Joule's in the early 1970s, demolished the brewery, and dropped the brand. 36 years later, a new Joule's was reformed, the independent buying the brand, brewing notes and methods, and yeast, of the original Joule's from Molson Coors, owners of Bass and its various brands.

The new brewery was built next to the Red Lion, a Market Drayton pub of the 16th century. It draws its water from the Market Drayton aquifer, the same as was used by the Stone brewery. There are three beers - Blonde, the original Joule's Pale Ale, and Slumbering Monk, named for a feature of the panelling that graces part of the brewery tap. This was carved by Robert 'Mouseman' Thompson, and came from the Bradford boardroom of Grattan's, where it had been installed in 1931.

Triumph Carledo

A 1974 Triumph Toledo, fitted with an injected two litre Vauxhall Carlton SRi engine, driving through a Vauxhall Omega gearbox. Finished in Carmine Red, and sitting on MGF wheels. Not to be taken on lightly.

Angels With Dirty Faces

In response to crowded churchyards and urban population increase, private enterprise developed new cemeteries from the 1830s. The cholera epidemics of early that decade, and in the late 1840s, led to the introduction of the Burial Acts, which established much-needed public cemeteries in all major urban areas of Britain.

Brandwood End Cemetery, near Kings Heath, five miles south of Birmingham city centre, was laid out on what had previously been farmland, acquired in 1895. It was opened in 1899, thereby just squeaking into being a Victorian cemetery, and is laid out in the classic pattern for these - a central, tree-lined drive, with pathways at right angles to this.



The cemetery has a Grade II listing, yet the twin mortuary chapels are in a state of serious disrepair. Built of red brick and terracotta, these were designed by Brewin Holmes, and are essentially Gothic, although boast Art Nouveau touches.

































The ever divisive nature of religion is reflected in the fact that one chapel was Anglican and the other Non-Conformist. However, the two chapels are conjoined by a common porte-cochère, topped by a tower and spire. And, of course, everyone ended up in the same earth.

Although thought of as classically Victorian, the angels that grace a number of the graves nearest to the mortuary chapels are, in fact, Edwardian, and are generally of Italian marble.

Karan Anne Porter

Thursday 4 March 1965 to Wednesday 4 February 2009.
Photograph: Lancaster, 1987.

From Little Acorns

Rising at just over 2,000 feet on Plynlimon, the highest point in the Cambrian Mountains, the Severn - Hafren in Welsh - is, at 220 miles, the longest British river.

It is difficult to conceive, from its upper reaches - the Blaen Hafren falls pictured above is close to the source - that it is also, by its end, the river of greatest discharge in England and Wales.

The river's drainage basin covers over 4,400 square miles, and is extensively studied by hydrologists, who have installed numerous measuring weirs. The first waterfall of note is Severn Break-Its-Neck, just a couple of miles from the source.

Devil's Bridge, Ceredigion

At Pontarfynach are three famous bridges piled atop each other, spanning a tributary of the Rheidol - the Mynach. The lowest bridge is of the twelfth, or possibly even the eleventh, century; and was supposedly built by the Devil, the ravine through which the Mynach passes being too challenging for human builders - the river drops 300 feet in five leaps.















The folk tale has it that Old Nick bargained with an old woman, who needed to get to the other side of the river to recover a cow, that he would build the impossible bridge overnight in exchange for the soul of the first living creature to cross it in the morning. The bridge was built but Beelzebub was outsmarted: the old woman threw a loaf across the river and her dog ran after it, crossing the bridge. The dog presumably became a Hound of Hell.












The middle bridge, of stone, as is the lowest, was built in 1753. The uppermost bridge, which today carries the road over the river, is of iron, built 1901. The footbridge pictured is of 1867. Near one end of the road bridge stands an Automobile Association box. There were once over 1,000 of these on Britain's trunk roads, the first introduced in 1911, in Ashtead, Surrey.

































Initially accommodating AA patrolmen, the boxes were later provided with a 'phone, such that an AA member, armed with his or her box key, could call for assistance and shelter from the weather. The boxes were kitted out with maps and a fire extinguisher, and were lit at night. They were phased out through the 1970s and 1980s. The AA closed its private 'phone network in 2002, and no more than a dozen boxes are understood to remain outwith museums.

Analogue, the New Digital

Digital cameras are now ubiquitous, and everyone with a mobile 'phone is a David Bailey. Against every trend however there is a counter-trend, and that against digital is known as lomography. This is both a community, centred around the Lomographic Society International, founded in Vienna in 1992; and a brand name, of Lomographische AG, distributor outside of the old USSR of the originally cheap Lomo LC-A camera made in St Petersburg from the early 1980s.

Lomography has become fashionable and 'lomo' cameras thus expensive: the all-plastic Diana of the early 1960s, available in 120mm and 35mm film formats, was made by the Great Wall Plastic Factory, Kowloon, and often given away as a novelty; the modern copy costs £80 new. Plastic cameras can though still be found cheap, as in the case of this unbranded 35mm made in the Republic of China (Taiwan). No batteries, no reflex mirror, a fixed-focus plastic lens, f-stops of only 6, 8, 11 and 16, and a single shutter speed.

Stoneleigh Abbey Panorama

The Cistercian abbey at Stoneleigh was founded in 1154, dissolved in 1535, and sold to Sir Thomas Leigh in 1561. The house remained in the hands of the Leigh family right up to 1996. The grand West Wing, by Francis Smith of Warwick, was built between 1720 and 1726, under the patronage of Edward, 3rd Lord Leigh.

In 1809 Humphrey Repton developed plans for the park. Although the works ultimately undertaken did not deliver the whole of Repton’s plans, the course of the River Avon was altered to provide a lake to the south of the house. This formality of this and the West Wing acts as a foil to the remaining mediaeval buildings.

(Left click on the photographs to view these full screen.)