Those of us of a certain age, that remember scratchy nib pens and inkwells in desks and then the later cartridge pens, could be forgiven for thinking that the Biro and indeed the text message and e-mail had rendered fountain pens obsolete. But not a bit of it.
Recent years have seen a resurgence in their use as this article on the BBC website demonstrates. And along the way the humble fountain pen has gone beyond splodgy, messy function to become a luxury item & a stylish accessory. Along with cufflinks** and designer handbags for ladies of course.
So, rather than heeding the words of Paul Simon who said, “you want to be a writer, don’t know where or when?
Find a quiet place, use a humble pen”
You can instead scribble away with a stylish hand-turned writing implement from the workshop of Simon Webb. Oneupmanship with your penmanship?
In the aforementioned BBC article Sharon Hughes, a buyer for John Lewis commented: “people relish returning to solid, traditional objects to make sense of a difficult and complex world.”
And a solid, traditional and beautifully made object is exactly what you get with a Simon Webb pen. What’s more, no two are exactly the same. It’s not many of us that can afford a Montblanc or a silver Parker Pen. So owning one of Simon’s pens is absolutely the very next best thing.
Indeed, as the company website says: ” Of course pens and pencils are, first and foremost, functional items. But that doesn’t mean they can’t be beautiful too. The writing instruments we produce are a perfect marriage of form and function.”
Pens with history
But beyond being carefully crafted things of beauty, some of Simon’s pens, such as his Lydiard Pens, have unusual back stories. Available via Swindon’s Lydiard House, the eponymous pens available there are crafted from a 300 year old walnut tree destroyed in the 2013 winter storms.
Alternatively you can be the proud owner of a pen made from the mulberry tree in the garden of the Richard Jefferies’ Museum in Swindon. What finer and more appropriate thing can there be than to write with a pen made from the tree that was written about by Swindon’s famous son and writer, Richard Jefferies?
Of course, owning one of these pens is unlikely to improve your handwriting and it might not make the muse anymore compliant. But at least you can scrawl and scribe and suffer writer’s block clutching in your hand a sensuous yet functional object. And one with a bit of history attached to boot. Simon even sells Diamine ink to go with the pens. Handy or what?
Contact Simon
You can email Simon at sales@simon-webb.co.uk or go old school and pick up the phone and call him on: 07834 375628. And, given the ‘old school’ nature of the products – that’s somewhat appropriate.
Bespoke pens
Simon also takes orders for bespoke pens – hence should you happen to have a piece of wood that carries a special meaning to you there’s an excellent chance it can be turned into a very personal and beautiful writing instrument.
Time to dig out the blotting paper and the airmail writing pad methinks?
After many years working in information technology Simon, an engineer at heart, gave up coding and turned to crafting. That said, Simon keeps a finger in the IT pie as curator and director of Swindon’s Museum of Computing.
Born and raised in Wiltshire, Simon comes from a family of craftsmen. His grandfather was a sign writer in Swindon’s famous GWR railway works and his father was also a talented craftsman who taught Simon much of what he knows.
Simon Webb: His Nibs!One of Simon’s many vices!Workbench
Well listeners. This year has so far seen a few new Swindon experiences for me. One of them being the subject of this post – taking a trip on Dragonfly on the Wilts & Berks canal.
Earlier in the summer I visited the Secret Gardenin Queen’s Park for the first time and got a ride on the miniature railway at Coate Water. And today I’ve achieved another first with a trip in the delightful Dragonfly – a narrow boat that ploughs a watery furrow along a stretch of the Wilts and Berks Canal.
And should you wonder why it’s ‘Wilts & Berks’ rather than ‘Wiltshire & Berkshire’ wonder no more. It seems that a one-time lazy draughtsman couldn’t face the effort of writing the county names in full several times over. So he shortened them. The document got passed into law in that form and bingo!
Swindon is mid point of the waterway which linked the Thames at Abingdon with the Kennet & Avon Canal near Melksham.
About Dragonfly
I’ve written about Dragonfly in both Secret Swindon and my Born Again Swindonian’s guide book – thus I’m not going into too much detail here. But I will observe that Dragonfly is a narrow boat rather than a barge. A barge, broadly speaking, is a flat-bottomed vessel. They’re capacious – to carry freight or passengers – and generally get pushed or towed.
Purpose built for the Wilts & Berks canal trust, Dragonfly carries a maximum of 12 passengers with access for one wheelchair. A gang of around 20 volunteers operate the pleasure trips either crewing or skippering.
The Trust’s patron, the Duchess of Cornwall, named the boat on 8th September 2010. That date happens to be my birthday. I share the date with Swindon Battle of Britain hero, Harold Starr and Dragonfly’s Christening date. What illustrious company I keep.
‘The boat trips have a number of important roles to play for the Trust. They raise awareness of the project and provide local people with a way of enjoying their area from the waterway. Without regular boat traffic the canal will quickly become over grown and become neglected. In addition the boat trips hope to generate new members as well as funds for the Trust.’
Chris Barry and Dragonfly
Upstream/downstream
Thanks to Chris and his crew member, Cyan, I had a lovely time floating gently along the canal. It really is the pleasantest of ways to spend an hour. And you get a coffee. Phew!
We were joined by a very friendly – for that read ‘hoping for some bread’ – cygnet who came swimming up if you so much as looked him/her. And how do you tell? In either case he/she will be a very fine swan indeed before too long.
But cygnets, swans, water voles and herons are not the only items of interest on the trip. There’s much to look out for when taking a trip on Dragonfly.
There’s a lovely stone bridge rebuilt and restored by volunteers in the year 2000. Yes listeners – Swindon has it’s very own millennium bridge!
There’s also some gorgeous old railings where it appears that, whoever welded them, had a sense of humour because they worked snails and mice into the railings.
Photos below courtesy of Daniel Thuysbaert.
Millennium bridge over the Wilts & Berks canal
Activities on board and souvenirs
As well as the ‘ordinary’ trips such as I went on today there’s Santa trips. And you can hire the boat for pirate parties. I really want a pirate party! And of course you can buy souvenirs including the ubiquitous mug and tea towel.
Even more apt is the fact that there once existed a very different mural on Cambria Bridge painted by Ken himself. The photo below taken from Ken’s Facebook page with his permission:
The 200 foot artwork depicts key people, buildings and organisations, linked together by an old style police box at one end and the Dr Who Tardis at the other. It has been produced by local artists Ed Russell and James Habgood of The Visual Drop. They did it in collaboration with young people from ‘The Railway Kids’ youth club organised by the Mechanics’ Institution Trust. All in partnership with Swindon Borough Council.”
I LOVE the TARDIS – I really, WANT that on my garden wall. Notice how the chimney on a roof behind the TARDIS section looks like the light on top of the Police box.
The mural also features Edith New the Swindon campaigner for votes for women.
Did I mention that I love the TARDIS?
Community Arts Organisations Represented
Two key community arts organisations got chosen for the wall: 1. The Octobus Project, a mobile youth project which worked with thousands of people across Swindon over a period of 30 years. 2.And Swindon Viewpoint, Britain’s original Community TV service which began broadcasting in 1973 and now offers its vast archive and contemporary material online.”
And this wonderful mural is not the only bit of street art down that area. I also snapped these bits of wonderment. I rather like the Mediterranean looking scene – nearly as much as I like that TARDIS …
The Double Helix of Carfax. Last year I published a post about the Seven Wonders of Swindon as described by the writer Jasper Fforde:
“Welcome to the Seven Wonders Of Swindon, compiled for your visiting pleasure by the Swindon Ministry of Information in association with the City Council and the Swindon Special Committee for Wonders.”
Sadly number three of FForde’s wonders, The Double Helix of Carfax, this literary landmark is no more – due its demolishment by Swindon council.
Described by Fforde thus:
‘Only just pipping the Railway Village to the number three slot, Swindon’s famous and groundbreaking early design in stressed steel concrete laid the groundwork for Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, Gaudi and many others.
Designed by Swindon University physicist Alvin Suggs in 1893 as a friction compensated slope to study Galileo’s theories of conservation of momentum, ‘Sugg’s Marble run’ as it became known gained unexpected fame in the new and untried building technique of steel reinforced or ‘stressed’ concrete.’
Its loss leaves a gap in the market for a new wonder.
Here’s some photographs taken by Mark Kent shortly before its demise:
‘Tunes help you breathe more easily’ so went the advertising slogan back in the day.
Well, should you need it, you now have Julie Nicholls of Body-Mind coaching to help you breathe more easily – and more effectively than resorting to menthol-laden confectionary.
Series of talks
The aim of this post is to highlight the second in a series of free talks that Julie is running over the autumn. The subject of this second talk is breathing and it’s on: 12th Oct at 8pm at Julies’s practice in Swindon.
If, like me, (I’m a chronic asthmatic) you often have breathing difficulties you might be surprised to know that breathing deeply may not be the best thing for you at all.
Attend this talk and learn how to ‘ Ease shortness of breath and help many issues like asthma, headaches, shoulder tension with three simple techniques which will be demonstrated on the night.
You will increase ease of breath and lung capacity if you practice these regularly. If you are on medication, in time you will also find you rely on it less. You will also become more relaxed generally.’
It doesn’t have to be this way
Julie’s objective in running the talks is to give you an understanding of what she can offer, how she can help, and what you might gain from her methods.
She wants to educate on what she believes is possible to achieve in terms of our health. It’s her belief that we don’t have to keep suffering as we may be. It’s her conviction that we shouldn’t have to undergo lifelong treatments and medications—merely an occasional top-up to keep the tank of health full as it were.
Julie is a qualified RGN and definitely knows her stuff but she offers possibilities beyond conventional methods that you probably won’t find from other practitioners. It’s almost impossible to convey in a blog post. The best way is to attend – as I have – her talks and sessions.
The Buteyko Method
Julie’s approach to helping you breath more easily is based in part on methods devised in the 1950s by a Ukranian doctor Konstantin Pavlovich Buteyko.
The premise of the Butyeko method is that many medical conditions, including asthma, are caused by a chronically increased respiratory rate – hyperventilation in simple words.
When our stress levels increase we breathe more quickly and more shallowly which leads to all manner of symptoms such as headaches. Yes – been there and done that!
Julie’s approach is to help your feel in control of your breathing – something like meditation practice.
