A Trip to the Dorset Seaside

Monday 20th July

I had a brief trip to the seaside in Dorset before all the schools broke up for summer and for a visit to the Swanage Railway. I stayed in Bournemouth which meant I could travel by train - Swanage is no longer connected to the national rail network - rather than sit in traffic heading for the coast. Most of the journey would be on a CrossCountry Voyager so I treated myself to a 1st Class ticket, Standard Class on those trains is hellish, livestock would get better conditions. At Reading I settled into a single seat at a table and just before departure was joined in the seat opposite by a guy who appeared to have been on “a very good weekend in London”. When the ticket inspector arrived he took ages to locate his ticket, emptying his entire wallet including a big wad of cash onto the table before having it pointed out that he was sitting in 1st Class with only a standard class ticket. “Oh, I hadn’t noticed” No, because the seats and doors with ‘First Class’ clearly written on them aren’t a clue, are they? The chancer was dispatched into the next coach and I got the full legroom back. After a nice complementary on-train lunch we arrived on time in sunny Bournemouth.

I had 45 minutes before I could check into my hotel room so walked the long way around via the East Overcliff before turning inland to Bournemouth’s “hotel land” to find the Langtry Manor Hotel.

Built as The Red House in 1877 Edward Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) provided the house for his mistress, socialite and actress Lillie Langtry. Prince Edward was, as the plaque on the wall outside states, “A Frequent Visitor”. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.

I had a nice room, furnished in period style with a four poster bed and a large free-standing bath of the kind with sides so high as to provide a challenge to getting in and out. It also had a balcony with a chair and table on it overlooking the garden. This was accessed via three steps out of a window with a sign reading “Mind your head and the steps” above it. I looked at the mis-aligned unsupported ends of the balcony deck boards and decided I didn’t need to sit on a balcony :-)

Once the heat of the day had started to abate I headed into Bournemouth town centre for something to eat. It’s very “student orientated”, at least the end through which I walked. Also it has either gained a large South Asian population since I was last here (a long time ago and I was here for work) or it has become a favoured destination for such holidaymakers.

Having eaten I headed to Bournemouth Pier and then walked along the prom all the way to Boscombe Pier. It’s an even longer time since I’ve been to Boscombe. I finished my walk along the prom with a pint of cider in the Harvester overlooking the pier because there appears to be a dearth of proper pubs in Bournemouth, especially the Boscombe end. the sun was setting as I walked up through Boscombe Chine and back to Langtry Manor.

Tuesday 21st July

Next morning I was up, washed and ready by eight o’clock for breakfast, served (by the lovely Anna) in the Derby Manor Hotel a short walk across the road. I’ve walked further to the hotel restaurant when it’s been in the same building. Of course it was a nice sunny morning, if it was pissing down with rain it would be less ideal.

Off to the Swanage Railway.

This would involve a bus. I walked to the bus station to catch the Route 50 Purbeck Breezer, operated by an open-topped double-decker. I could have caught it a little closer at its first stop but going to the bus station proved to be the right choice - it was a very full bus that left the bus station, definitely no room for any more up top. It takes the bus about an hour and ten minutes to get to Swanage Station via Sandbanks and Studland, which means you have the novelty of being on an open-topped bus on the chain ferry. The £3 bus fare seems like a particular bargain since the ferry alone would be £1.18 as a foot passenger.

Swanage Beach was very busy as we passed, arriving at Swanage Station in good time to buy a ticket (Adult day ticket £27.50) and await the 1200 departure to Norden at the other end of the line, beyond Corfe Castle. This was operated by an Ex-South West Trains BR class 121 ‘Bubble Car’ No W55028 with two units from a Class 117 Diesel Multiple Unit to make up a three coach train. Unusually for a heritage railway the services appear on Real Time Trains so you can see it left 2 minutes late but made up 1 minute by the time it reached Norden. To my great surprise though by no means empty it was not a very busy train, nor were any of the other trains that day which made for a very pleasant day out.

The Swanage Railway at five and a half miles in length is long enough to feel like a proper train journey and runs a frequent enough timetable that you really can hop on and off at the intermediate stations and feel like you’ve got your money’s worth. From Norden I caught the 1320 to Corfe Castle, hauled by resident steam locomotive SR 2-6-0 - U Class No. 31806. Built in Brighton and a long way from its original working patches of Nine Elms, Basingstoke, and Guildford. It would be fair to say that it isn’t working as hard on the Swanage line. At 1405 having made good use of the Corfe Castle station cafe I took the diesel train to Harmans Cross, a peaceful rural station which happens to be where trains pass each other on the mostly single track line. So every so often there’s a burst of activity although few people seemed to alight. A German couple appeared from who-knows-where and since the ticket office wasn’t open had to buy tickets online. They must have been on a different mobile network to me, Three UK doesn’t acknowledge the existence of that part of rural Dorset.

At 1453 No.31806 took me back to Swanage where it was bloody hot. The Co-op next to the station provided ice cream and a cold drink before I went for a last round trip, catching the 1600 diesel to Norden, sitting in the “Bubble Car” along with a family, all three generations of which were equally excitable and noisy. The busy train emptied out at Norden, most of the passengers making a one-way trip back to the station car park. The handful of us going back to Swanage at 1640 were all in the “Bubble Car”, the other two units having been locked while it was standing in the platform at Norden. Even so it was a quiet run back.

I enjoyed the Swanage Railway. There’s a video too (on PeerTube). 

And a shorter video (on YouTube) as the full one might take a while to load. 

I went for a stroll along the seafront and then to the White Swan for beer (Purbeck Brewery Operation S.M.A.S.H. 4.2%, very nice) and dinner (liver & bacon with gravy and mashed spuds, food of the gods). The next bus back to Bournemouth wasn’t until five past seven so obviously I had another pint before walking back to the station. No trouble obtaining a seat on the open top deck, shame about the group of teenage tossers who also boarded, who carried on the argument with the woman they’d upset before getting on board, throwing insults and misogynist comments over the rail at the back of the bus. By the time we reached Studland the temperature had dropped a bit and once across the ferry it was breezy enough that I was glad I’d put a long sleeved top in my bag that morning.

It had been a long day. By the time I’d walked back to my hotel I was ready for bed but first copied the photos and video clips to my laptop. I backed up my photos to my Synology NAS at home too - by tethering my phone to the laptop because the hotel Wi-Fi was woeful. Then I slept like the proverbial log.

Wednesday 22nd July

I had no particular plan for today but over breakfast decided to visit Weymouth. I don’t think I’ve ever been to Weymouth though we might have driven through back in the 90s and failed to find anywhere to park the campervan. I could have gone by bus or train. Train would be quicker. Walked to the station, bought a ticket, discovered that the train before the one I’d intended to catch was running so late that I caught that and was still later arriving than if I’d been on the one I’d gone for. SWR have already paid out the Delay Repay. Weymouth was hot and busy. I stopped at a cafe in town because there were seats in the shade outside. Walked across the bridge over the Wey into the old town and all the way to the point below Nothe Fort.

I returned to the old town, near the former brewery. Mmm, brewery. Warm isn’t it? Important to stay hydrated and there are some tables outside The Red Lion which are shaded by trees. It would’ve been rude not to. (Otter Brewery Lifeboat Ale, 3.6%, very good)

Weymouth centre was filling up with the sort of people who think a narrow street is the ideal place to all stop and gather round to have a long discussion. I returned to the station and caught a train to Poole. I’ve only ever been to Poole for a brief work visit so decided to stop and take a look around while I was “passing”. I walked down the high street to the quayside, losing count of the number of vape shops, barbers, charity shops, and nail bars. So far just like any other high street then. The Quay was much nicer. Busy with boats going to and from Poole Harbour past the very expensive toys in the Sunseeker boatyard opposite.

I walked along the Quay to the old Lifeboat Station by the boat haven and back to the Baden-Powell memorial, surrounded by Scouts just back from Brownsea Island for a commemorative photo. I considered a boat trip to Brownsea Island myself but there was only one more round trip which meant no time on the island itself. That will have to wait until another time.

I found a seat in a shelter out of the sun. The Scouts were still milling about in a disorganised fashion. “Could you all quieten down and gather around?”, said the Scoutmaster, to no obvious effect. What happened to “Shut up you ’orrible lot and fall in by Patrols!”? It worked on us. Do they even still have Patrols? It’s been forty-odd years since I was involved in The Scouts.

There are some nice pubs on Poole Quay, it had been a long time since breakfast so I went to The Portsmouth Hoy where I had Haddock & Chips washed down by a pint of Fursty Ferret (3.4%, very good). Always impressive when you get two pieces of haddock. Crispiest batter ever too.

Back to the station and to Bournemouth. It had been another long day, which called for a soak in that bathtub. After which I couldn’t be bothered to go anywhere else.

Thursday 23rd July

One last full English breakfast then packed and at the station in good time to catch the 1045 to Reading. Which trundled so slowly along that it arrived 17 minutes late, at exactly the time my connecting train departed. Oh good, another hour sitting at Reading Station. Delay Repay claim submitted to CrossCountry, four days later it’s still “In Progress”. What’s the betting they try to wriggle?

A Trip to Ireland, Chapter 4.

A Trip to Ireland, Chapter 4.

14th May 2026

Thursday dawned and I felt like getting out of the city. The weather forecast wasn’t that great but I decided on a trip to the seaside anyway so took a DART train south from Dublin to Bray. At Grand Canal Dock the station spans the water. This former dockland and gasworks where the Grand Canal joins the Liffey was very run down but has, like the Isle of Dogs in London in the 1980s, been transformed in the 21st century. Now it’s a tech hub, serving as a popular location for multinational technology firms such as Google, Facebook, X-Twitter, LinkedIn, and Airb’n’b as well as technology and consulting behemoth Accenture. I note that before the docks were built the area was associated with lepers. Make your own jokes.

Travelling south out of Dublin there were more blocks of flats and late 20th century buildings than I’d noticed travelling north the day before, though I was on the other side of the train. Just after Merrion the line reached the coast and ran all the way to Dun Laoghaire right beside the water. Through Booterstown the low concrete was separating the track from the water’s edge was continuously graffitied on the track side. That’s a hell of a lot of spray cans, though very little artistic talent displayed. Do better Irish Yoof.

I could see many ships out to sea, all heading north, presumably to Dublin’s docks. Through Dun Laoghaire and still beside the sea the sun came out - somewhat unexpectedly - and I got a view along the sweep of the coast backed by low mountains.

The sun was still out when I alighted at Bray Daly station and walked down the the seafront. It was also incredibly windy! It was a chill wind which meant my coat went back on very quickly as I walked along the promenade. Bray (Bré in Irish) is a proper seaside resort, planned in the 19th century, the railway from Dublin arrived in 1854. Foreign package holidays arrived in the late 20th century resulting in a decline in the towns fortunes but it remains a nice seaside town, not too big and brash. I could still see a queue of ships offshore. “We call that The Strait of Hormuz”, joked the man in the pink and white striped octagonal kiosk where I bought a coffee. We both hoped that the rain that was visible out there in the "Strait" wasn’t heading our way, he’d had to close up the day before due to the weather coming in through the hatches of the kiosk. I sought respite from the wind in a bunker like concrete shelter to drink my coffee.

At the far south end of the prom waves broke on the rocks of Bray Head and there was a brief rain shower. Most of the weather appeared to be staying out to sea and although a mass of dark cloud hovered inland behind the town it soon dried. I decided to follow the cliff top walk up and around Bray Head towards Greystones. So did about three score of noisy school students but they were headed up to the very top of the hill rather than along the cliff walk so soon there was just me. The sun was out, the views were extensive along the well made and mostly tarmac surfaced path and the seabirds plentiful. The Cormorants were sunning themselves on Seagull Rock, presumably clinging on tightly in order not to be carried off by the wind. Below the clifftop the DART trains ran in and out of short tunnels through the cliffs on their way to and from Greystones - just out of Visitor Leap card range alas.

I might have continued all the way to Greystones but after about a mile the path is closed due to significant safety concerns following a number of landslides. There is a big metal gate with warning signs on and many signs and stickers demanding that the route be reopened. There is a big metal fence. There is also a big hole in the fence and an arrow pointing along the very edge of the cliff. Nope, I returned the way I’d come back to Bray. I hope the Bray to Greystones Cliff Walk does get re-opened, from the bit I saw it’s a lovely little trek and ideal with a railway station at each end.

Despite the good surface of the path it was still necessary to watch your step, for many people in Ireland clearing up your dog’s shit doesn’t seem to be a thing. Walking down the hill into Bray I passed three tents on the grass slopes above the town, evidence of the homelessness problem that affects Dublin and the surrounding area. I saw quite a lot of “bin divers” in the city too. The “Emerald Isle” is not isolated from the 21st century social problems of the rest of Europe, including sadly the all too familiar anti-immigrant campaigners 🙁

On a happier note the seaside chips that I had when I got back to the prom at Bray were actual real, fresh-cut not frozen, and absolutely delicious. The gulls stayed away too 😀

Bray had become busier. There were many tongues being spoken because I seemed to have picked a day when foreign school parties had decided it was time to visit Bray. I went to the Spar shop on the seafront to get a bottle of pop, it was a bit chaotic in there, for once I was glad for the self-scan checkouts. In spite of the big black clouds forming in the north I went for a look at the harbour. I got very wet.

I headed back to the railway station. The sun came out. Make your mind up Ireland!

Bray Daly station has an excellent set of murals along the southbound platform depicting the history of the station. I boarded the northbound DART train. Two score of teenage students boarded the train followed by two teachers. “I counted 42” “I counted 45” “Where are the others?” “No! Get on this coach!” “GET ON THIS COACH!” I got off the train and re-boarded at the other end where it was quieter. Except for the weird god-botherer sodcasting religious sermons from his phone.

I alighted at Sandycove & Glasthule, the southern of Dun Laoghaire’s two stations and walked to the harbour. Much of the seafront, around the Baths and harbour looks newly developed with a lot of clean smooth concrete. Development seems to be ongoing with apparently empty units.

I re-boarded the DART at Dun Laoghaire Mallin station and returned to Dublin Connolly, reaching my hotel room at about a quarter to four. A quarter of an hour later the windows were loudly battered by big hailstones for about five minutes. Ireland had produced all the weather today.

Later I walked down to Madigan’s in Earl Street for a last Irish dinner. On the way heads were turned by the sound of a bottle smashing on the pavement and two (or possibly three) drunks squaring up for a bout of fisticuffs. A crowd began to form as a strange circulating dance commenced, the protagonists throwing throwing punches which didn’t connect while shouting “come on then!” at each other. Peak Dublin and it wasn’t yet 7 p.m. 😂

By nine o’clock I’d headed back to my hotel through the dusk, full of Beef & Guinness Stew (and three pints of Guinness). There I backed up the day’s photos, watched some YouTube, had a cup of tea, and fell soundly asleep.

Despite the squealing trains.

Saltburn-by-the-Sea

Looking for something to do for the rest of the day after my visit to Locomotion I decided to stay on the train from Shildon back to Darlington and go to the seaside at Saltburn-by-the-Sea. Being able to buy a ticket from Darlington to Saltburn and back while on the train from Shildon to Darlington using the Trainsplit app helped the decision no end.

 

The journey took about 55 minutes and was through new territory for me so I had an aha! moment passing through Middlesborough when I spotted the famous Tees Transporter Bridge in the distance, confirming that it never did get moved to a Native American Casino resort in Arizona  😀

 

 

 

 Saltburn was very breezy. Also very hot so the breeze was quite welcome. The town sits on top of the cliffs and the beach, prom, and pier are some 120 feet below. The good news is that Saltburn has the oldest operating water-balance cliff funicular in the United Kingdom. The bad news is it isn’t currently operating since suffering a fire in January 2024 and as yet there’s no firm date for its repair and reopening 🙁

 

 

 

 So it was down the steps instead, 175 of them (I counted on the way back up) which as everyone knows is the equivalent of a 15 storey building 😉 I went out to the end of the pier, as you always should, the views are good but the wind out there was blow-your-hat-off strength. 

 

 

 

Then I walked along to Old Saltburn, the original settlement at Saltburn Gill. It’s much smaller than the Victorian town up on the cliffs but importantly right on the front is the Ship Inn so I took the opportunity to get a pint and find a relatively sheltered spot on the terrace to enjoy it.

 

 

 

 A walk along the length of the prom and back followed by obligatory seaside chips (untroubled by seagulls thankfully) and then it was time to climb back up those steps and back to the station to get a train back to Darlington. I liked Saltburn-by-the-Sea, I’ll have to visit again, preferably when the funicular is back in operation because I do like riding those.

 

 

A Trip to Ramsgate

I’d only been to Ramsgate twice before, one afternoon in 2012 while touring Kent and in 1980 to get the hovercraft to the continent so it was essentially a new place for me. 

 

There was a particular place that I wanted to visit, only open at the weekend and it’s too far to go for a day trip, or would make for an unpleasantly long day, so I made a long weekend of it. I travelled by train and scored a rather nice seafront “suite” in a historic terraced house overlooking the harbour. The trains behaved (on the way there at least) and the accommodation was very comfortable with a fine view. 

 

 

  

This Museum Is (Not) Obsolete

 

 I’d been itching to go and visit This Museum Is (Not) Obsolete for some time having watched a lot of the Youtube videos on old electronic music and other noise-making stuff and of particular interest to me, old electromechanical telephone exchanges. The museum is billed as "AN INTERACTIVE MUSEUM CELEBRATING OBSOLETE AND EXPERIMENTAL TECHNOLOGY” and the emphasis is on the interactive, there’s lots of stuff to play with. Some of it truly weird!

 

 

 

 If you’re a musician type (and I’m definitely not) there are a lot of synthesisers here to play. Or if you’re not musical, to play about with and make a noise 😀 

The place is packed with old electronic games, equipment, and computers. There are display cases of all kinds of obscure stuff some of which has been wired up to do stuff at the push of a button. Then there’s the telephone stuff. A working Strowger UAX rural exchange connected to telephones (and some other things) around the museum so that you can make calls and watch the switches connecting the call. 

 

 

 

 You might find yourself having to explain to younger visitors (i.e. those under 40) how to use a rotary dial telephone though. That will remind you that you are old but you knew that already because you used to work on this stuff and now it’s only found in a museum 😀 There’s also an older UAX12 exchange wired into the mix, a GEC Private Automatic eXchange connected to a dial, and dotted about quite a lot of test equipment that was familiar from my working life. If you’ve any interest in this sort of thing I highly recommend  getting yourself down there, it’s only £6 to get in. Be aware though that time is distorted within the building and you’ll find two hours have gone by while you weren’t paying attention. I seem to have been to busy enjoying it to take many photos. And yes it’s tech geek/nerd heaven.

 

Ramsgate Tunnels

 

Having decided not to travel on Sunday because Rail Replacement Buses are not something I’m keen on I had another day in town so booked a tour of the Ramsgate Tunnels.

These are partly a disused railway tunnel that took the London Chatham & Dover Railway down to the seafront Ramsgate Harbour station. This station and the line through the tunnel closed in 1926 when the lines through Ramsgate were reconfigured and linked via the new station on the landward side of town. In the 1930s part of the tunnel was used for a miniature railway serving the amusement park and zoo on the site of the old harbour station. In the late 1930s the local council and the Mayor could see what was coming and that Ramsgate would be a bit too close for comfort to the action - it had been bombed by the Germans during the previous bout of unpleasantness - so they pushed hard to get a network of air raid shelter tunnels built leading in an arc under the town and connected to the former railway tunnel. It’s these, or part of them anyway which form the location of the tours.

 

 

 

 And very good they are too. Following a brief introductory film and a safety briefing (accept their advice to use a hard hat) you’re issued a torch and a couple of knowledgeable guides take you down into the tunnel shelter system, explaining how it all worked and pointing out various things of interest. This includes quite a bit of graffiti from the time before the tunnels re-opened for tours in 2014 and local urbex "enthusiasts" used to get in. Visitors who left their mark allegedly include Charles Darwin and inevitably Norma Stitz. They’ve decided to preserve the existing graffiti but request that no more is added. And yes at the limit of exploration they turn all the lights and torches off for a minute. It’s dark in there.

 

Back at the railway tunnel there’s a recreation of the “tunnel town” that developed to house residents displaced by the bombing with wood and canvas rooms for families who had lost their homes, and ablutions and medical facilities.

 

 

 

 It’s all very well done. Not overdone or Disneyfied, well able to hold it’s place against the large shelters you can visit such as Clapham South in London or Stockport, Greater Manchester. It has the advantage over Clapham in that being entered from the railway tunnel access is level-ish so no long climb down and back up 180 steps! 🙂

It has to be a “must do” when visiting Ramsgate.

 

 

 

 The rest of Ramsgate is worth a wander around too with a lot of interesting nooks and crannies in the backstreets, a busy harbour although it now lacks any cross-channel ferries, and some nice pubs. Although a warning to the easily offended, maybe it was just the fine weekend weather, maybe it was the proximity to Wetherspoons but the harbour front and town centre do seem to attract a noticeable number of shouty, sweary people.

 

I enjoyed my third visit to Ramsgate, there are more photos here on Flickr.

 

 

 

 Oh and the train journey home? Yeah, that was severely disrupted by someone getting themselves under a train at Maidenhead. Terminally 🙁

Exe-ploring in Devon. Part 2.

Sunday 27th March 2022

Off to the seaside, by train from Exeter Central for a scenic ride along the coast to Exmouth. Alas unable to get a suitable window seat since everyone else appeared to have had the same idea! Glorious sunshine and actual tee-shirt temperatures probably responsible for that.

 

 

 

A long walk along the seafront, up onto the cliffs, and back down to the town centre where ice creams and coffees could be obtained without joining the incredibly long queues on the seafront. Exmouth is a pleasant resort and I had considered staying there for the weekend rather than Exeter but the extra cost of seaside hotels helped make that decision.

 

 

 

Nice beach huts but not the best location with a busy road between them and the beach. It was beach and book time for a while then I noticed an interesting local feature on Google Maps:

 

 

 

Well I just had to investigate, didn’t I? One of the good things about Google Maps is that anyone can suggest locations to be added to the map. Now from experience Google don’t always accept even genuine places so it’s nice to see the tables turned and users have a little innocent fun :-) Not that Exmouth’s Rusty Pole isn’t a genuine place.

 

 

 

So if you are in the area make sure you visit this unusual tourist attraction. And make sure you give it a review on Google Maps :-)

 

Part 3 later. Lots of trains.

Oh island in the (unexpected) sun.

Friday 5th November 2021

I gave it a few days for the teething troubles to settle down before deciding that at trip ‘overseas’ was due to see the new trains on the Isle of Wight. The forecast was for dull, overcast weather but in this case the forecast was pleasantly wrong so I got a nice sunny day at the seaside thrown in.

 

TO THE TRAINS

 

 ec

 

Some split ticketing and a Network Railcard secured an off peak return to Shanklin for just under £42 including the Wightlink fast catamaran ferry which I reckon worked out cheaper than the alternative I considered of driving to Southsea, parking for the day, and getting the Hovercraft across. Though at some point I do want another hovercraft trip because well, Hovercraft! :-) A late-running train at Guildford meant I got to the island an hour earlier than planned, having caught a connection I’d otherwise have missed. The same thing happened on the way home too which was a double bonus. Should have bought an extra lottery ticket.

 

 

 

So to the new trains. These started running on the previous Monday, some months later than planned due to you-know-what and the usual software and hardware issues that we now expect with any new trains. The former 1938 ex-London tube trains have finally been replaced. These were much-loved by everyone except I reckon anyone who had to rely on them for their daily travel, at least by the end of their service. 

 

 

 

The replacements also previously ran on the London Underground being Vivarail’s Class 484 electric multiple units, rebuilt/upcycled/refurbished, choose whichever term you prefer from the retired District Line D78 Stock trains. They are however a long way from being just “old tube trains”, with bright modern white and blue interiors.

 

 

 

A new blue moquette on the seats and dedicated spaces for wheelchair users. Who will get a better view out than most of the other passengers except those who manage to bag the few transverse 2 + 2 seats in each car. Hmm, should we still call them cars or should it be coaches/carriages now they aren’t on the Underground?

 

 

 

Anyway apart from the new trains a lot of other improvements have been made to the line, especially the track, so the run down to Shanklin was much smoother than of old and I didn’t feel I was about to be bounced out of my seat even once.

 

 

 

One thing I did notice, and I know I’m not alone in this, is how slowly the doors on the new trains open. I don’t remember them being so slow in their previous life but they open about 6 inches and then pause just long enough that you wonder if you should reach out and give them a helping hand.

 

 

 

Maybe things will free up with use.

 

TO THE SEASIDE

 

From Shanklin Station it’s about a half mile walk down to the beach and this was conducted in very un-November 5th type weather, bright if not as tropical as the following photo might have you believe.

 

 

 

Good for a walk along the prom though back to Sandown Pier (alas closed) and up to Sandown Station to get a train back to Ryde.

 

 

 

The novelty of new trains hadn’t worn off for the sweary schoolgirls on their way home at Sandown, who made everyone well aware that they were actually supposed to be grounded, and regarded the restriction of passengers beyond the platform end a s a minor challenge. (Yeah Ok, at that age so did we.)

 

 

 

Back in Ryde there was enough time to go and get Friday Fish & Chips, eaten on a lamp-lit seafront, before walking down the pier to catch the boat back to the mainland.

 

 

 

I like the Isle of Wight.

Especially when it doesn’t rain.

“Isle be back"

Clevedon

 

22nd June 2021

 

On the North Somerset coast facing South Wales across the Severn Estuary lies the small Victorian seaside resort of Clevedon. Just the place for an extended day trip which since it hasn’t had a railway since 1966 had to be by car. Some online pre-planning identified a hotel for an overnighter and a parking place on the clifftop within a short walk of the seafront and early on Tuesday morning that’s the destination I entered into the satnav.

 

 

 

My main reason for picking Clevedon was to visit the pier, one of the earliest surviving Victorian piers and described by Sir John Betjemen as “the most beautiful pier in England”. My first glimpse from the clifftop footpath revealed the 1024 foot (312m) structure stretching out in to the estuary in the unexpected sunshine and I was struck by how “lightweight" it appeared compared to many other piers, the deck held high above the water on slender legs.

 

 

 

The pier opened in 1869, serving as a tourist attraction in its own right and as an embarkation point for paddle steamer excursions. Two of the spans collapsed during stress testing in 1970 and demolition was proposed, but local fund raising and heritage grants allowed the pier to be dismantled for restoration and reassembled. It reopened in 1989, and ten years later was awarded the Pier of the Year from the National Piers Society. Excursion steamers once again call at the pier in the summer season although I didn’t see any on his particular Tuesday. The pier has now reopened post-lockdown and entry was an entirely reasonable £3.50 per adult including gift aid. Up to date info including opening times is on the Clevedon Pier Website here.

 

 

 

At the end of the piers the Pagoda which operates as a cafe selling teas and coffees and ice creams. There’s also two shelters. And that’s it. No amusements, no funfair rides, no tacky shops. Just a Victorian pier. I liked it a lot.

 

 

 

The tea was very nice as were the views up and down the estuary, you can even see the Second Severn Crossing carrying the M4 motorway from England to Wales. The prom at Clevedon  is almost devoid of the usual amusement arcades and other seaside attractions. There are a couple of seafront pubs and a good few restaurants. There’s also a fish and chip shop as is only right and as is only right I indulged in seaside chips with plenty of salt and vinegar. After which I walked along the front and up onto the south headland following the Poet’s Walk around the Iron Age hill fort and back into the town.

 

 

 

If you are looking for a sandy beach don’t look for it in Clevedon, it’s strictly pebbles and rock pools. This probably keeps most of the families with kids further along the coast at Weston Super Mare. I regard this as a plus point :-) At the west end of the seafront is Salthouse Fields, a large open area (occupied by the circus when I was there) with a children’s playground and a miniature railway (sadly not operating that day). Next to it is the other major feature of the seafront, the enclosed Marine Lake.

 

 

 

 

This was popular with swimmers, canoeists, and model boaters until quite late in the evening. I’m not convinced that it was very warm but they all seemed to be enjoying it anyway. As well as the usual gardens, Victorian bandstand, and shelters there is on the seafront the shiny stainless steel "Millennium Monument - The Spirit of Clevedon AD 2000”.

 

 

I’m afraid that it rather put me in mind of a large paraffin heater :-)

 

If you like Victorian seaside resorts I can heartily recommend Clevedon.