Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Author: admin

  • Buckenham – Buckenham Railway Station

    Buckenham – Buckenham Railway Station

    Buckenham railway station was opened in 1844 and it is now situated on the line which goes from Norwich to Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft. It’s not a very well used station, not least as there are no trains on weekdays, but a few people use it at weekends to access the nearby walks and bird reserves. It’s the least used railway station in Norfolk, with only a couple of hundred people a year using it, with passengers having to request a stop here.

    The railway building, which seems to have now been converted into a house. This railway station was once frequently used to sell livestock, so I’m sure there was some freight trade here at some time. There was a signal box in the area that is now trees to the left of the gate, which was derelict by the 1980s and has since been demolished.

    The buildings, none of which are listed, that front onto the platform, all of which are now closed off to the public. Not that the handful of passengers realistically need any facilities here.

    The socially distanced bench, along with cat for scale. This is the same cat that was waiting for the train.

    Looking in the direction of Norwich, there is another platform on the other side and further down the tracks, although I’m puzzled why they’ve shoved it down there.

    And the new lights on the automated crossing which has been recently installed. There’s little need for this railway station, especially when considering how many much more needed stations were lost, but it’s a quirky piece of history that it remains and it’s handy for the RSPB reserve. And, should anyone miss the infrequent train on weekends, it’s not far to walk to the metropolis that is Cantley.

  • Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day Eighty-One

    Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day Eighty-One

    The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the Coronavirus crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored…..

    Clover

    I’ve heard this phrase before, but never quite worked out where it came from. The dictionary defines it as “to be, or live, in clover; to live luxuriously. Clover is the most desirable food for cattle”. I hadn’t given much thought to cattle particularly liking clover, although that explains the phrase. It dates from at least the end of the seventeenth century and since apparently nibbling on clover is as good as it gets for cows, hence why the saying moved across to people.

    There’s an American phrase meaning exactly the same, which is ‘to live in high cotton’ or to ‘live in tall cotton’, although this doesn’t seem to have derived from the clover phrase.

  • Buckenham Railway Station and the Waiting Cat

    Buckenham Railway Station and the Waiting Cat

    More on Buckenham railway station in another post, but I liked the cat waiting patiently at the platform.

  • Bristol – Edward Colston Statue (an update….)

    Bristol – Edward Colston Statue (an update….)

    This statue was taken down and thrown into the river today, although since it was a listed monument I imagine it’ll be recovered and then placed in one of the city’s museums.

    Here’s my original post about it, namely as I liked the anti-slavery display around it.

     

  • Hardley – Hardley Cross

    Hardley – Hardley Cross

    I’m pleased that Łukasz showed this monument to me today, which I’ve somehow managed to miss entirely although I’m sure that I’ve likely walked by it many times. It’s near to where the River Chet and the River Yare meet, but it’s more importantly the former boundary between Norwich and Great Yarmouth.

    Once marking the end of Breydon Water, there have been numerous panels and inscriptions added to the cross, this one being from the 1899 repair. The base of the cross is likely medieval and probably dates to the fourteenth century, although repairs have been made in 1820, 1834, 1899 and 1971. There was a wooden cross added on top of the base in 1543, and likely before, with a stone version added in 1676 and that’s the one that is there today.

    And the information sign. And it’s evident why this has survived, because it’s effectively in the middle of nowhere, although it is along the route of the Wherryman’s Way.

  • Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day Eighty

    Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day Eighty

    The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the Coronavirus crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored…..

    Clod Hopper

    Defined by the dictionary as “a country farmer, or ploughman”, this phrase has managed to survive the centuries. It evolved into meaning someone clumsy or foolish and then in turn came to be used for a large and heavy shoe. The phrase was first used in the late seventeenth century and the origins are unknown, but the most recent definition of the shoe might be a return to how the phrase evolved. That would be because clod, meaning a clump of something (and a word that used to mean the same as clot), referred to the mass of mud that could stick to shoes as farmers walked across muddy fields.

    The hopper might be a play on the word grasshopper most dictionaries suggest, but since that word meant ‘to hop’ or ‘a device to collect grain’, both of which were used in the seventeenth century, both seem possible.

    It’s nearly always ‘clodhopper’ rather than ‘clod hopper’ and it’s fallen out of usage somewhat over recent decades.

  • Hotels.com and Why It’s Probably Best to Book Direct

    Hotels.com and Why It’s Probably Best to Book Direct

    One of the biggest problems that the hospitality industry has over the next few months is gaining the trust of guests in terms of their cleanliness, their operations and their financial security. So, I’ve merrily been posting about hotels who have treated me with professionalism over refunds, as I’ll return once this is all over. One hotel that gave me some problems was the Hampton by Hilton in Bristol, with this timeline of confusion:

    18/02/2020 – Reservation made for hotel
    26/03/2020 – Reservation cancelled by hotel, full refund confirmed and would be processed immediately
    15/04/2020 – Hotels.com say hotel is now offering voucher only
    15/04/2020 – Hotels.com say this is in error, a refund will be offered
    06/05/2020 – Hotels.com say they are not currently authorised to offer a refund
    17/05/2020 – Speak to hotels.com, they say they need to refer internally and get back to the hotel
    24/05/2020 – Hotels.com confirm Hampton by Hilton have refused to allow them to refund

    The refund in itself wasn’t much of a problem, there is lots else for hotels to focus on in the world, but it was clear that either Hampton by Hilton or hotels.com was telling me complete nonsense. A delay in refunding is fine, but this playing one off against the other for two months was a little frustrating. And, although small fry, I had posted that Hampton by Hilton had acted professionally back in March 2020 and over 1,000 people had read that (I had trusted the refund e-mail), so I felt that I’d misled people.

    So, on 27 May 2020, I just asked the press offices of hotels.com and Hampton by Hilton to investigate. Then it became apparent to me exactly who was acting with professionalism and who wasn’t.

    E-mails to hotels.com on 27 May and 1 June 2020 asking for the press office to become involved were ignored. No response at all, nothing, so not even the phone number of the press office. Incidentally, the web address provided by hotels.com’s web-site for the press office, http://press.hotels.com/, doesn’t even work. And, I can see why Expedia, who own the company, might well hide their press office details, given the state of https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.hotels.com.

    An e-mail to Hampton by Hilton received a swift acknowledgement, a holding e-mail, an investigation and a reply on 3 June 2020. Their reply was professional, to the point and confirmed to Hampton by Hilton that hotels.com had agreed they should be refunding and they themselves would get in touch with regards to this refund. Apologetic, timely and helpful, it was clear that Hampton by Hilton were acting with respect.

    It’s three days on, and I can’t exactly imagine hotels.com are going to rush to respond, but this is a reminder that booking directly with hotel companies is now much safer in terms of receiving refunds and having that direct contact. Hotels.com take a fair chunk of commission from hotels and in all fairness to Hampton by Hilton, they should be very disappointed in what they’re receiving (my words, not theirs).

    I’ve had around 440 nights booked through hotels.com over the last nine years, but I’ll be using my rewards nights up and won’t use them again after those nights are used. So, the best advice really is just book direct and get the best price and take advantage of the hotel’s own loyalty scheme. Or, perhaps, for those who really want to use an aggregator site, just use booking.com.

  • Mulbarton – Name Origin

    Mulbarton – Name Origin

    Harking back to our second training walk, we headed towards Mulbarton and the village’s only remaining medieval building is the church. The Concise Oxford Dictionary comments on the origins of the village name:

    Mulbarton, Norfolk. Molkebertuna in Saxon period, Molkebertestuna in Domesday Book, Mulkebertun in 1250. Comes from Meolc-beretun, meaning outlying dairy farm.

    According to the same dictionary, the ‘eo’ often became ‘o’ or ‘u’ because they sounded similar. The ‘molke’ section is milk, similar to the current Dutch word and derived from the German ‘milch’.

  • Norwich – Coast to Coast

    Norwich – Coast to Coast

    Sad to hear that Coast to Coast, located to the left of TGI Fridays in the above photo, is closing permanently in Norwich. They bemused me, they were becoming popular locally and their reviews were positive. But they were for months deluging out offers whereby anyone who had a Tastecard, Gourmet Society card or voucher could get 50% off of food. If you were a diner who went in without those cards, you were getting charged twice the amount of everyone else and I’m not sure how that could ever end well.

    They can run their restaurant how they wanted, but why they devalued their product so much never quite made sense to me. Anyway, I hope the space is used for a large Greggs, constantly good value without gimmicks.

  • Bath – Bath Abbey (Clock)

    Bath – Bath Abbey (Clock)

    As part of a tour of Bath Abbey, there’s the chance to see the inside of the clock. There are two small benches so people can sit by the clock for a few minutes, although the guide gave several warnings to not touch anything connected to the clock, which seemed sensible advice.

    Located on the north side of the building, the abbey’s clock, which belongs to the people of Bath, was moved here in 1834 after being lowered from a previous position when the structure of the tower looked a bit unstable. It was originally once backlit by gas to ensure that it was visible at night, but electricity has made that much easier.

    The advent of the railways brought problems to time-keeping in UK cities, as they often had slightly different times and this was problematic when trying to run a railway. Before the railways, no-one much minded if Bristol and Bath were running at different times by five-minutes, but what became known as ‘railway time’ required some standardisation. Bath did this by in 1845 installing a band of metal on the clock which would show railway time. Scaffolding was put up to ensure this addition could be made, although I wonder why Bath didn’t just keep railway time to keep things simple.

    The clock looks relatively small in the above photo, but that’s deceptive, and in 1926, the Bath Chronicle wrote about a refurbishment of the clock. They noted:

    “The diamond-shaped aperture in the face of the clock is due to having been removed in order that the hands might be disconnected. From the ground it does not look more than big enough for more than a fist to emerge, but that is deceptive as George Willis [the man in charge of the project] was able to project his head and shoulders through the opening. The minute hand is 3 feet long, and the hour hand 1 foot 10 inches in length. They revolve on a face having a diameter of 6 feet”.

    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bath_Abbey.002_-_Bath.jpg

    And here’s a photo of the clock from the outside.