Well that was a lot of fun! The grand opening of the Richard Jefferies Railway Halt.
I’ve mentioned often how much I love a miniature railway, or cable car or funicular or land train. So today was simply lovely. It was all a bit ‘Railway Children’ for sure! But we had flags instead of red flannel petticoats.
The Coate Water miniature railway
I’ve written before about the Coate Water Miniature railway. ‘Tis a wonderful thing and has been so since the 1960s I’m sure. But now – with the extension to the line and the addition of the Richard Jefferies Halt it’s even more fabulous fun. So all aboard, full steam ahead, toot that whistle – you get the idea!
Mike Pringle et al, the Swindon 175 team and Arkell’s brewery made today’s opening very special. I’m so glad I was able to attend. And ride the trains. Twice! 🙂 🙂 🙂 Not forgetting of course the volunteers on the miniature railway.
While not quite up to Disneyland Express standards the route round had been brilliantly peppered with stuffed toys of every kind, gorillas, tigers and teddys. Plus a collection of garden gnomes. A cheeky TIC nod to Disney perhaps? Brilliant fun. Well done.
Gorilla in the undergrowth
Here’s a few photos to give you a flavour:
It’s all a super homage to Jefferies and his work with references to ‘Bevis’ and ‘After London’ around the garden:
A bit about Jefferies
“John Richard Jefferies (6 November 1848 – 14 August 1887) was an English nature writer. Jefferies was noted for his depiction of English rural life in essays, books of natural history, and novels. His childhood on a small Wiltshire farm had a great influence on him and provides the background to all his major works of fiction.
Jeffries’ corpus of writings includes a diversity of genres and topics, including Bevis (1882), a classic children’s book, and After London(1885), an early work of science fiction.
For much of his adult life, he suffered from tuberculosis. His struggles with the illness and with poverty also play a role in his writing. Jefferies valued and cultivated an intensity of feeling in his experience of the world around him. A cultivation that he describes in detail in The Story of My Heart (1883).
This work, an introspective depiction of his thoughts and feelings on the world, gained him the reputation of a nature mystic at the time. But it‘s his success in conveying his awareness of nature and people within it, both in his fiction and in essay collections such as The Amateur Poacher (1879) and Round About a Great Estate (1880), that has drawn most admirers.
Walter Besant wrote of his reaction on first reading Jefferies: “Why, we must have been blind all our lives; here were the most wonderful things possible going on under our very noses, but we saw them not.”
Not so many years ago, well for people of a certain age at least, the garden often consisted of a scrubby patch of lawn with flower borders around the edge and possibly a rose bed in the middle. How times have changed. And Swindon Turf Direct have the answers to your gardening woes.
If the basic principles of grass cutting with a cylinder mower have barely changed since their infancy 100 years ago it’s probably fair to say that the desire for lawns is much less than it once was. But that doesn’t mean we’ve lost interest in our gardens. Far from it.
These days our gardens often have as much time, effort and money lavished upon them as do our homes. Indeed there’s now a crossover in home and lifestyle magazines into garden tips and projects with much talk of making one’s garden an extension of one’s living space: the outdoor room even.
It’s a nice idea. If only the great British weather allowed this fantasy to be a reality more often than is actually the case.
But be that as it may and whether your garden is of the English country garden variety or comprises cool urban decking, a Mediterranean planting scheme or the ubiquitous striped lush lawn – some level of maintenance is required.
If you’re an avid listener to Gardener’s Question Time on Radio 4 then you possibly don’t need to read any further. If however you’re less green fingered and more all fingers and thumbs in the garden – or are simply too busy to give your garden whatever level of attention it needs then help is at hand.
Help! I need somebody!
Carl Taylor of Swindon runs Swindon Turf Direct – a garden maintenance service in the Swindon and Wiltshire area.
And, prior to that, Carl and two others cycled from Swindon to Penzance to raise money for a young Swindon boy with cerebral palsy. So pushing your lawn mower should be no problem to him!
Bespoke Garden Services
A graduate of the family business, Carl cut his gardening teeth with a lawn care and turf laying practice when still in his teens.
Today Carl and his team offer a range of garden services from getting your deck and driveway looking spick and span to tree services, specialised lawn care and landscaping services.
Branching out
NPCT (http://www.nptc.org.uk) qualified, the team have been providing tree management and felling services in Wiltshire for over a decade. Clearly you can get a complete garden and landscape service with the Taylor family.
To find out more about how they can help you contact them on: 01793 340000 or email info@SwindonTurfDirect.co.uk.
Oh listeners. I AM ashamed. All the years I’ve been in Swindon and have walked past the town hall – now the home of Swindon Dance – I’ve never noticed the Swindon town hall railings and how beautiful they are. How on EARTH have I missed them until now? It’s shocking!
And I can’t actually lay claim to ‘noticing’ them even now. I’m only aware of them because my good friend Carole Bent mentioned them on Facebook so I made a point of going to see them.
“Avril Wilson’s studio practice and research interests explores how the interplay between image, material and process affect interpretation of place and notions of identity. “
These wonderful railings were it seems designed to detail hand gestures and dance movements.
“Avril Wilson is a craftsperson, designer and artist, whose specialism is in blacksmithing and steel fabrication.
Avril Wilson was the first female artist-blacksmith to be awarded a bronze medal by The Worshipful Company of Blacksmiths in recognition for her contribution to architectural metalwork. Her work explores identity of place through commissioned work in the public realm and gallery exhibitions.”
NB: Swindon town hall is now the home of Swindon Dance. The building also houses the sculpture of Charlotte Corday and a mural by Carleton Atwood creator of The Watchers at Toothill village centre – part of the West Swindon Sculpture trail.
Well listeners. This is a bit exciting and no mistake. This week I got a message via the blog from a lady called Julie Livsey – the creator of ‘White Horse Pacified’ – part of the West Swindon Sculpture trail. So this post is White Horse Pacified Rides again!
Said Julie: “It was a lovely surprise to see the image of my sculpture The White Horse Pacified in your article about the Swindon Sculpture Trail. In 1987, when artist in residence for Thamesdown CC , the horse got commissioned. The poet Carol Ann Duffy was Poet in Residence the same year.
If you want any further information about the ins and out of this sculpture I‘m happy to answer your questions. With best wishes Julie Livsey”
Wasn’t that lovely? She also kindly scanned and sent across the leaflet about the sculpture. So here it is – straight from the horse’s mouth as it were…
Julie Livsey – The artistThe White Horse Pacified About Julie’s residencyArtist’s statement
In March 2018, Swindon Link Magazine wrote: ‘In early 1988 community artist Julie Livsey aimed to complete her large steel and concrete sculpture, White Horse Pacified, by mid-February.
But gale force winds and heavy rain played havoc with her efforts and the Mayor of Thamesdown Peter Owen and council leader Tony Mayer had to unveil the work under the cover of a large tent.
Julie said her work, funded by the Gulbenkian Foundation, represented the ancient ‘God Like’ horses cut into the landscape around Swindon …
… Although there have been a few attempts to clean the imposing landmark, and large willows which were saplings when the White Horse was unveiled were cut back in 2018, the work needs a major makeover, rediscovered and promoted as an important feature in Swindon’s cultural landscape … ‘
Yes! Amen to that. As do all the rest of the sculptures on the trail.
Feet Artwork Dorcan Mail Office Not being a driver I don’t generally get to the Royal Mail sorting office out at Dorcan. But recently I was there with someone else. I was pleasantly surprised to see this feet artwork on the perimeter fence of the Dorcan office.
Now I’ve searched and searched on Google for some more information about this artwork and its creators but I’ve drawn a blank. So all I have to offer is what’s on the signage:
“This design depicts the four horses of the first mail coach racing over the Downland surrounding Swindon. It is based on the ancient chalk horse cut above Uffington and is made up from a postman’s footprints”
I like it. I think this Feet artwork on Dorcan Mail Office is interesting and rather clever. And it definitely brightens up a dull, utilitarian perimeter fence.
And this one courtesy of Debs Donkersley:
Origins of the first mail coach:
“When a public postal service was first introduced in 1635, letters were carried between ‘posts’ by mounted post-boys and delivered to the local postmaster. The postmaster would then take out the letters for his area and hand the rest to another post-boy to carry them on to the next ‘post’. This was a slow process. And the post-boys were an easy target for robbers, but the system remained unchanged for almost 150 years.
John Palmer, a theatre owner from Bath, had organised a rapid carriage service to transport actors and props between theatres. He believed that a similar scheme could improve the postal service. In 1782, Palmer sold his theatre interests, and went to London to lobby The Post Office. Despite resistance from senior Post Office staff, who believed the speed of the mail could not be improved, William Pitt, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, accepted the idea. An experimental mail coach journey, undertaken at Palmer’s expense, started from Bristol on 2 August 1784, at 4pm. It reached London at 8am the next day, exactly on schedule. A journey that had taken up to 38 hours now took just 16.”
