25 April 2010: It’s a popular National Trust property just the other side of Bridgnorth, and it was looking good on this showery spring day ten years ago. There are all the usual trimmings – quirky clock tower at the entrance, stable block, modern art statuary, rhododendrons and azaleas, lake, dingle… What more could one ask? Ice creams?
25 April 2004: It’s a super little 15″ gauge railway, running through fields and orchards beside a retail centre just outside Evesham. I’d read about its development a year or two earlier, and we paid a first visit in June the previous year. The locomotive in use is a 1946-built 4-6-2 “Prince William” – quite a substantial machine.
We’re walking through the grassy mounds around the former Caughley colliery, enjoying (yet again!) the sunshine and the colours in the fields and hedgerows. The soil in the fields beside Red lane provides a clue to its name. In the short damp lane, the bluebells are variable in colour, and the garlic is abundant and pungent!
24 April 2003: St Malo to Portsmouth. It’s an early start from our Brittany base, and a long crossing follows. The sun is low in the sky when we dock in Portsmouth – three hours later, it’s good to be home again.
There’s been little change since we last walked this way – perhaps I can do something different with the photos…
23 April 2003: Our last day in Brittany – a wander around La Roche-Bernard, where the river is busy but the streets are quiet, followed by a visit to the Arzal barrage. Tomorrow it’s an early start – we’re sailing from St Malo, on the long slow crossing to Portsmouth.
That’s what those wispy clouds resemble. Some of the old oak trees have antlers too. We’re walking down the Dean Farm lane again, enjoying the warm sunshine (again!), though there’s a bit more cloud today.
Coincidence: we don’t get many main line steam-hauled trains in Shropshire, but 22 April scores heavily with three in recent years. The fourth event, just three years ago, involved a brief look at the Middleton Railway in Leeds.
22 April 2003: a drive out the the Gulf of Morbihan. Port Navalo is on the eastern side of the gulf’s mouth, through which the sea rushes in and out twice a day. Nothing so energetic for us – I think our visit may have included refreshments at a local café, which probably involved crèpes…
Beyond Inett Farm, a kissing gate provides access to a path across rough grassland, through the remains of ancient shallow coal pits. Beyond, a damp, shady way takes us to Red Lane, where the fields are bright yellow. Some of the bluebells are a funny colour too. We’ll survey the scene from Red Lane before heading back through the mines – to continue would be a shorter route home, but we’d have to walk along the road – no thanks!
