With “Goodnight Sweetheart” making a welcome return to DVD, it could almost be D’eja’ vu when you walk into The Royal Oak public house at Columbia road in the East End of London. It was as if I had time travelled through the time portal with Gary Sparrow into Ducketts Passage and wartime London. I half expected to find Pheobe serving behind the bar, Gary at his piano, and Reg supping a pint at a table. Could this wonderful setting have been a seed in the minds of writers Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran? Had they visited The Royal Oak all those years ago? I would like to think that perhaps they did. This lovely old London pub can be found @ http://www.royaloaklondon.com
- The Wherry and The Windmill
Taste of the past… This dramatic picture from photographer Roy Northwood shows a traditional Norfolk Wherry moored alongside a traditional Norfolk Windmill, and thus providing us with a wonderful glimpse of those lost bygone days.
Canal Holidays can be great fun, as Marilyn and I found out recently. Narrowboats, like this one at Leighton Buzzard, Linslade, in Bedfordshire England, provide an insight into the pleasures of canal boating through the wonderful English countryside. Operating the many water gates or Locks is a bit of fun too, and you don’t have to be an expert on boating or Locks as there is always free advice on hand. Britain’s canal system was built by the Victorians for moving cargo from place to place and is still busy today with its leisure and houseboat traffic.
One of the warmest and lovable films in my collection is THE BARGEE made in 1964. Whenever I watch this I just fall in love with the colour and nostalgia of it. Beautifully filmed and set along Britain’s canals it stars Harry H. Corbett of Steptoe fame, as Hemel Pike, a romantic barge owner with a girl at every Lock, and when one of his girlfriends falls pregnant he is chased to the alter by her angry and hot headed father. It’s a lovely and clever comedy that just blows me away. Featured are: Hugh Griffith as the father, Ronnie Barker as Hemel’s cousin and workmate, Eric Sykes as a canal traveler, and Julia Foster as the expectant female. It was wonderfully written by the famous team of Ray Galton and Alan Simpson.
The Lighthouse Building at King’s Cross
King’s Cross in North London was once known as Battle Bridge! Here a bridge once crossed the River Fleet, and it was here that Boudica headed her Iceni tribe in battle against the Roman Army then guarding the city of Londinium and it’s inhabitants.
The name King’s Cross comes from an unpopular monument erected to King George IV and a Cross that once stood on the site of the now King’s Cross station.
Buggleskelly… The year of 1937 began the birth of Buggleskelly, the mythical Irish railway station set on a stretch of disused line near Basingstoke in Hampshire England. The setting was for the film Oh, Mr. Porter starring Will Hay, Moore Marriot, and Graham Moffat… The film was to become a classic!
A tumbledown railway station, representing Buggleskelly was built at an old halt, and even during filming the line was being taken up by The Basingstoke and Alton Railway Company. The film itself is one of the funniest of British comedies in the Music Hall tradition of the 1930′s. The location of the run-down mythical Buggleskelly station was very overgrown when we visited there with our cameras in 1996, but it was still possible to make out where the booking office, rail lines, and signal box had once stood. There are more pictures taken at the location on http://twitpic.com/photos/patricallaghan3
Following up on Will and Jo’s visit to Stockwood Discovery Centre and housed in the same grounds is the Mossman Carriage Collection with original fine horse-drawn transport from the 18th century to the present day. ‘Will and Jo‘ found this wonderful Wells Fargo stagecoach on display there, notable for its appearance in the movie “Carry on Cowboy”
Will and Jo’ enjoying the wonderful delights of Stockwood Discovery Centre in Bedfordshire UK last weekend. Stockwood houses the famous Mossman Collection of horse drawn carriages from the days of Cromwell to the late Victorian period. Once the home of Stockwood House the park has extensive grounds that include Victorian and Italian gardens, a hands on working museum, stables, dinning rooms, gift shop and golf course. It’s a must visit for anyone who can get there… If not, google it! It’s well worth a look!
One of the finest and funniest of films to come out of the Ealing studio in 1953 was The Titfield Thunderbolt. There can hardly be anyone on the planet that has never watched this wonderful little movie. Completely English, and depicting English country life, it’s a rural wealth of interesting characters. When the then British Railways made their minds up to close the Titfield to Mallingford branch line the villagers decide to run the rail line themselves in a very innovative and humorous way…Full of the colour of a warm English summer, the Michael Balcon production features John Gregson, Stanley Holloway, George Relph, Hugh Griffith and Sidney James. T.E.B. Clarke wrote the screenplay and it was directed by Charles Crichton.
I think it is something of an importance to include this picture of Enid taken in 1934 whilst she relaxed with those around her that really mattered in her life. The shot was taken in the back garden of her West London home by Enid’s husband Sidney Colton
