Visiting Ironbridge - A World Hertiage Site

By:  Blue Badge Tour Guide - Anne Bartlett

Ironbridge

  I was asked to look after a holiday group from Kent who were      having a short break holiday in the Midlands.  I was delighted, as this was a great opportunity to show them some of the most interesting landmarks and developments of the Industrial Revolution in Central England.
Staying in a hotel close to the River Severn in the canal town of Stourport, we started our study of the area looking at the development of the canal system which revolutionised transport from the mid 18th century.  Stourport was developed approximately 250 years ago as an inland port where the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal joined the River Severn.  As such Stourport was a pioneer town of the canal age and is the only town in the country to have been built as a result of a canal. 

Steam train on the Severn Valley Railway

We travelled on to Kidderminster to enjoy a scenic journey on a steam hauled train along the Severn Valley Heritage Railway. Railways were to transform Britain in the 19th century.  They were originally developed to move raw materials and finished goods to and from the factories in Victorian times. They greatly expanded the economy and stimulated the iron and steel industry.   Railways opened up a new world of travel for everyone.

The River Severn as seen from the
Iron Bridge

The highlight of the group holiday was a visit to the World Heritage site of Ironbridge.  We drove alongside the picturesque gorge, which, back in the 18th century the scenery would have looked very different.  It would have been scarred by heavy industry; blast furnaces were producing iron, factories were involved in the manufacture of bricks, tiles and ceramics and the coal, clay and ironstone mines were lining the banks of the gorge. Forges would have been belching forth smoke and the noise of machinery would have filled the air. Now, a very different view presented itself to us, nature has reclaimed the gorge, the industrial buildings had disappeared, and the wooded banks of the river Severn looked lush and green.   A visit to the Ironbridge Gorge museum was necessary to show us what it was like back in the 18th and 19th centuries.  This was fascinating, a model of the gorge showed us all the industrial sites. More models, photographs, explanations and a video helped to recreate the time of Ironbridge's heyday in Victorian times.

Ironbridge - A World Heritage Site

We moved on to continue our tour and went to the historic iron bridge to take photographs, walk across it and to visit the Toll House at the far end of the bridge. 
This was the first iron bridge in the world, built in 1777-1779 by Abraham Darby III. It was intended to demonstrate the expertise of the ironmasters of the area and it was a spectacular success.  This was cutting edge technology of its time, and artists and engineers came from all over the world to see it.  Even today it's impressive.

A Street Scene at Blist Hill Museum

 We continued to Blist Hill Museum, where they've recreated a Victorian town and where you can experience the sites, sounds and even smells of a bygone era.  We exchanged some of our money into £.s.d, and were able to shop using old money again.  I bought some yeasty smelling freshly baked bread rolls from the bakers, whilst others bought traditionally cooked fish and chips for their lunch.

Taking a ride at Blist Hill Museum

We experienced all sorts of activities. We travelled on the mine railway into a clay mine, we went up the incline and travelled along the streets on a horse and cart.  We had a guided tour around a blast furnace. 

A Squatters Cottage, Blist Hill Museum

We explored various cottages and even saw and looked around a Squatter's cottage, which had to be built in a day and have a lighted fire in the hearth with smoke rising up through the chimney in order for it to be allowed to stay in situ and the Squatter and his family have permanent residence.

The group had a very enjoyable time and the holiday exceeded all expectations.

Visiting Chastleton House - film location for Wolf Hall

By - Blue Badge Tour Guide - Anne Bartlett


Arriving at Chastleton House

Hilary Mantel's award winning historical novel Wolf Hall, chronicling the rise of Thomas Cromwell, was mainly filmed on location in South Wales and the South West region of England. This was brilliant because most of the properties belonged to the National Trust, and were ideal places to visit with my groups.  As always, the preparations were shrouded in secrecy because the BBC production team were paranoid about spoilers.  I discussed the film with my group, which they had very much enjoyed, however we were curious as to how the BBC were going to recreate the Tudor period back in King Henry VIII's time. 


The Courtyard

Having discussed the TV production we decided to visit Chastleton House in the Cotswolds just on the borders of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.  As we arrived there was a signpost in the courtyard pointing out a small exhibition to show how the house was rearranged to cater for the filming some of the scenes, which was very helpful.  I hasten to add, Chastleton House was just one of many locations for the film.  Before we even entered the house, we crossed the courtyard where Thomas Cromwell's father had worked as a blacksmith and a brewer.  The exhibition showed us the changes made to the courtyard and the buildings which really took us back to the film. We remembered and discussed the scenes where Thomas Cromwell had flashbacks to his youth where his drunk and brutal father had kicked and beaten him within an inch of his life. 

Cardinal Wolsey's Bedroom

The inside of Chastleton House was used for several very different scenes.  The photograph on the left is how a visitor would see the great parlour today, it has a particularly fine ceiling and a tapestry depicting a musical party in a country house garden.  In the film this became a guest bedroom in the Seymour's house where Thomas Cromwell slept during King Henry VIII's progress.  You have to imagine the room without the dining table and chairs. Imagine a four poster bed with curtain hangings and bedspreads in front of the tapestry, the wall lights disguised and out of shot, and you have the scene.


The dining hall at the Seymour's house

Chastleton House has a medieval screen passage and hall which was in keeping with a Tudor Manor House.  In the 16th and early 17th centuries the hall would have been used for receiving guests and as a place where the household would have gathered.  In the film Wolf Hall this room was converted to the dining hall of the Seymour's house.  King Henry VIII was having dinner with his courtiers and the Seymour family, when he surprised everybody by falling asleep. It was Jane Seymour who got up from the table and went to wake the King.  A small deed but it got her noticed....

The Long Gallery

This long, barrel-vaulted room was where the family would take their exercise on a cold and wet day.  In the film this is where Thomas Cromwell had a long chat with Anne Boleyn as they looked out of the window to watch King Henry VIII accepting the resignation of his Lord Chancellor Sir Thomas More.

Homemade tea and cakes in the churchyard

The story of the family who owned Chastleton House from 1612 - 1991 before handing it over to the care of the National Trust is a fascinating one.  To have seen the film Wolf Hall and to be able to recognise the rooms as you explore the house is very exciting.  I can most certainly recommend a visit.
Refreshments were available in the church next door and, as it was a sunny afternoon, we sat outside amongst the gravestones enjoying cups of tea and homemade cakes.

 

A Prehistoric Landscape in Wiltshire

By: Blue Badge Tour Guide - Anne Bartlett


Looking across Avebury Stone Circle

To be able to travel back in time and see a man-made Neolithic landscape that is over 5,000 years old is pretty incredible. 
The stone circle at Avebury is the largest in the world. It's 14 times larger than Stonehenge, was built about 500 years earlier, it takes up an area of 28 acres and is a mile to walk all the way around.


Information board showing Avebury
would have looked in Neolithic Times

My coach group were full of anticipation about their visit to a prehistoric henge monument.  However before we got to the village, I was able to point out Windmill Hill, where, as far back as 3,500 years BC, the late stone age people had formed a settled community, and had started farming and domesticating animals. This was long before the stone circles were built.  Although nothing remains of their camp above ground, archaeological digs on Windmill Hill had uncovered lots of buried objects such as stone tools and pottery showing that the local people were trading and socialising with different tribes from places as far away as Cornwall and the Lake District.

Admiring the stones

As we drove through Avebury my group were starting to see large unhewn standing stones. It was a glorious day, perfect for a walk and my group were keen to have a look around.  We parked the coach and walked towards the site.  An information board along the route helped with the interpretation of the stone circle.  Originally 170 -180 stones had been dragged from the surrounding area on wooden rollers and placed upright within a very large, deep ditch surrounded by an earth bank.  Over the years many of the stones were taken away, broken up and the fragments could be seen in walls and buildings around the site, but there were enough stones to get an idea of the importance of area and marvel at the construction and man-hours taken to create it all. The reason for building can only be guesswork, but a museum in the stables of Avebury Manor House was well worth a visit and showed that Avebury Stone Circle was just part of a group of prehistoric sites, so the display helped to put the whole area into context.   We enjoyed the museum and stayed for some refreshments, before continuing our journey.
 

A Guided Coach Tour to the Real Downton Abbey

By:  Blue Badge Tour Guide - Anne Bartlett

Arriving at Highclere Castle

My coach group were all avid fans of the television series Downton Abbey and had admitted to being glued to their television sets on Sunday evenings to watch the popular period drama, and discover the latest developments in the lives of the aristocratic family and their staff that lived there.  There was no doubt they were really looking forward to visiting the stately home used as the set of the fictional Yorkshire pile of the Earl and Countess of Grantham and their family. 
The photos of Downton Abbey, sorry - the photos of Highclere Castle, are of the ancestral home of the present 8th Earl and Countess of Carnarvon, which has been seen in every episode of the five series of Downton Abbey. 


Familiar view of Highclere Castle as
Downton Abbey

First question was where is it?  Highclere Castle is not in Yorkshire as one would imagine but in Hampshire on the Berkshire - Hampshire border, just off the A34 south of Newbury.

A folly known as Jackdaws Castle
built 1743

We arrived at our destination early and caught a glimpse of the now very familiar tower as we drove up the mile long driveway.  We had timed tickets for entry into the house so, with an hour and a half to spare, we had the opportunity to either wander around the park designed by Capability Brown, or admire the gardens and / or visit the Egyptian Exhibition.  An earlier Earl of Carnarvon had been a very keen amateur archaeologist and along with his archaeological expert Howard Carter had spent many years exploring the ancient Valley of the Kings, where Egyptian pharaohs were buried.  They had famously discovered the Tomb of Tutankhamun (1336BC - 1327BC) and the story is recounted in the cellars of the Castle, so I headed for the exhibition and found it very interesting.

Waiting at the entrance

At 12.30pm we queued at the front door to show our tickets to see the house and to look at the rooms, many of which had become very familiar through our Sunday evenings in front of the television. 

Unfortunately photography wasn't permitted inside Highclere Castle, otherwise I would have been snapping away nineteen to the dozen.  The first room that we saw was instantly recognisable as Lord Grantham's study.  It was the library which was a very large room separated by tall gilded ionic columns, surrounded by mahogany and gold bookcases with over 5,600 leather bound books.  A lot of the Castle furniture was used in the film, but a desk that had been put by the window for Lord Grantham during the series, was no longer in place - had it been antique furniture belonging to the Castle or was it a film prop?



The date of building & family motto

The soaring Neo Gothic Great Hall, around which flow the state rooms was magnificent.   It had a feature stone fireplace and arched stone walls with a decorated frieze all the way around featuring carved and painted heraldic shields of the generations of the Carnarvon family. The beautiful 17th century painted and hand tooled leather panels on the lower walls was very unusual and very rare but it softened the appearance of the room and made it look more cosy.  The whole image is even more impressive than how it appears on the television because on the screen you don't see its full height, that it has a glass roof and is surrounded by a stone carved gallery at first floor level.   The state dining room was again very familiar with the large central dining table as well as paintings, including the equestrian painting of King Charles I by Van Dyke, on the walls.  All it needed was the Crawley family to be seated around the table and you'd be back in the period drama.  We saw more state rooms and some bedrooms but not the servants quarters. 
The 'below stairs' area was created at the Ealing studios and many of the actors and actresses playing the servants hardly ever visited the castle.

Afternoon tea in the grounds of
Highclere Castle

After our self-guided tour we all agreed that it had been a lovely day, and to finish we would enjoy a cream tea in the converted stables at the back of the house, part of the original Elizabethan Manor that hadn't had the Sir Charles Barry make-over. 

We found some tables and cast our eyes round for Mr Carson, Thomas or Alfred. There wasn't a Butler or a Footman to be seen.   I reminded everyone of the lovely lines of the Dowager Countess of Grantham "It's our job to create employment.  An aristocrat with no servants is as much use to the country as a glass hammer."   We all had to pitch in and do our own fetching and carrying, which brought us quickly back into the modern world to sitting around sipping tea and discussing which way of life we would prefer.