Just photos – no particular theme
26 April 2009: a visit to the museum of buildings near Bromsgrove, which is much more interesting than it sounds! One of those places we’d intended to go to for several years.
Afterwards, we appear to have driven on to Evesham, where five years and a day after the visit posted yesterday, we had another brief look at the railway. The locomotive in use on this occasion was “John”, built in 1921 for the Rhyl Miniature Railway
Avoncroft Museum of Historic Buildings
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…
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.
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!
All on 21 April:
2005: Ironbridge on a spring evening
2007: steam on the main line, All Stretton and Knucklas
2013: Bridgnorth – a brief exploration
