It took four years of research for Josiah Wedgwood to come up with the formula for jasper ware and even then it didn’t always work. This blistered pot is one of his failed attempts to copy the Portland Vase, a famous piece of Roman glassware now in the British Museum. In the end, or course, he succeeded. His copies were so perfect that when the original was damaged, they could be used as a model for the restoration. The Wedgwood…
Sometimes the explanation for English town names is quite simple. In the 7th century somebody built a pile of stones to make a grave here and the town has been called Stone ever since. The motto of the town is Sit Saxum Firmum or in English… According to the promotional leaflet the town has a chic and almost Mediterranean feel, and the shops ooze class and individuality. Judge for yourselves. I was always taught that if you have class, the…
As Andrew’s just noted, this is the blog’s third year at Shugborough, so I’m going to assume you’ve either done your assigned preparatory reading on the 2016 and 2017 prequels, or have decided it wouldn’t leave you any the wiser. But for Margaret & me it’s our first visit, and we get two days and nights here before we chug on to Stone tomorrow where we jump ship. We arrived shortly after midday yesterday, which was the last day of…
This is our third visit to the National Trust property at Shugborough. The last time the National Trust had thoroughly buggered it up by filling the public rooms with packing cases, and closing what was formerly the Earl of Lichfield’s private apartment because of a wonky stair rail. The bad news is that the packing cases are still there. The good news is that the staircase had been reinforced. The bad news is that is the only picture I can…
It’s really nice going through a flight of locks with a crew on board. No futzing around with a boathook trying to open or close the far lock gate, just have one person on each side of the lock, and sometimes you can even send someone on ahead to set the next lock. We whizzed up the five locks at Fradley Junction in minutes – well, over an hour actually, but that’s pretty fast for five locks. I even had…
Day 2 back on Wharram Percy and I’m noticing things that weren’t there last year, or possibly yesterday. The shower pump goes “Kevin! Kevin! Kevin!” until it runs out of water, like the head of Orpheus floating down the river Hebrus. Also, one of the walls in the dining room/guest bedroom has a series of knotmarks in the wood that make a little repeating mural of small nervous dogs barking “No, YOU shut up!” at each other. The Trent &…
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs, And towards our distant rest began to trudge. Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots, But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots Of gas-shells dropping softly behind. Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time, But someone still was…
This is the oldest working generator in Britain. It generates up to 400v DC, which is enough to give you a nasty shock. It is still used to run the lights at Claymills Pumping Station on days when they are steaming. Check out the control panel. Those T logos on the fuse boxes are for Tesla – the original, not the tribute band. The generator is driven by this steam engine. The steam comes from a completely different building. This…
The canals system has many memories of the days when canals were used for commerce rather than pleasure. This crane is one of them. There were no electric motors to make lifting easier in those days. If you wanted to get something heavy off the boat and onto the wharf you had to crank it off by hand. We stopped at a chandlery today, in a huge marina. It was a little walk from the towpath, through some parkland, with…
This morning we said goodbye to the Grand Union Canal and the River Soar. The Soar joins the River Trent and the Erewash Canal in a waterway junction so complicated you needs signs to navigate it. We turned upstream on the Trent. Compared with the Soar and then Nene it is a huge expanse of river, but one lock later there is another useful sign. The Trent and Mersey Canal. We have nothing but canals from now on. No more…