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  • Edinburgh – National Museum of Scotland (Girder from Tay Bridge)

    These photos are of a pretty dreadful quality unfortunately, I took them in December 2015 when I visited Edinburgh. A combination of an older phone and Google’s compression of the photos has rather limited any graphic impact which they might have once had.

    This is part of a wrought iron girder from the first Tay Bridge which was later discovered built into a residential property in Broughty Ferry, near Dundee in Scotland. This is the bridge which collapsed during a storm in December 1879, unfortunately carrying a train over it when it fell. Around 75 people were killed in the disaster, destroying the reputation of its designer Sir Thomas Bouch.

    Bouch had to make quick repairs to his other projects, including some changes at South Esk Viaduct. After he had finished making these amendments it was re-examined and it was decided that the whole thing should be knocked down and replaced. The girder on display at the museum still shows the damage caused to it when the structure collapsed on the night of the storm.

  • Edinburgh – National Museum of Scotland (Lewis Chess Pieces)

    These chess pieces are part of a collection discovered in Lewis in 1831, dating from the twelfth century and being made from walrus ivory. There were 78 chess pieces, so enough for multiple sets, and it’s unknown how they managed to end up on the Outer Hebrides. The best guess it seems is that they were lost during transport from Norway to Ireland, so someone probably managed to lose them over the side of a ship.

    Of the 78 pieces, 67 were purchased by the British Museum and 10 were purchased by Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, a Scottish antiquary. He was able to find another bishop piece and these 11 pieces were purchased by Lord Londesborough and later sold by him to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. The Society donated them to Royal Scottish Museum and they’re now on display here. In total there were enough for four chess sets, with all of the other pieces still being on display in the British Museum in London.

  • Atlanta – Georgia State Capitol (John A. Treutlen Bust)

    The bust of John A. Treutlen in the Georgia State Capitol, a German born merchant who became the first post-British Governor in the state. His family’s trip to get to America was an eventful one, with the boat sailing from Gosport in the UK to Georgia. The crew died en route from illness, so another passenger with no sailing experience had to use his knowledge of geometry to get them there. That’s quite a story in itself.

    Treutlen became one of the early revolutionaries who was opposed to British rule over the Americas and he was involved in 1777 with drafting Georgia’s first state constitution. His governorship was a troubled one politically and he made many enemies within the state as factions started to fight each other. He was replaced by John Houstoun in 1778, who was one of the attendees at the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia. Treutlen was killed by a mob in March 1782 and it’s thought that it happened in front of his family.

  • Atlanta – Georgia State Capitol (Jimmy Carter Portrait)

    Around the walls of the Georgia State Capitol are portraits of former state governors. One of the best known of all the governors of the state was number 76, Jimmy Carter, who was the democratic governor from 1971 until 1975. He was the 39th President of the United States, and the only governor from Georgia to go on to hold that role.

  • Atlanta – Georgia State Capitol (Gold on Rotunda)

    A slightly quirky exhibit in the Georgia State Capitol, which is the box which the rotunda’s gold travelled in. The gold was sent from Dahlonega and Lumpkin County in August 1958 and to add some theatre to the proceedings, it was carried in an 1830s train.

    The building’s rotunda wasn’t originally made from gold, it was made from the decidedly less impressive combination of tin and wood. This didn’t last that well and repairs were frequent, so someone had a marvellous idea to use gold instead. Actually, the arrangements weren’t great, as it wasn’t clear that the Governor knew that the gold was coming on an 1830s train and it got a little ignored.

    So, the story ends nicely. Well, it doesn’t quite. The state didn’t quite get the gold to adhere correctly to the rotunda and by the 1970s half of it was missing. In 1979, it was decided to repeat the whole collecting gold and sending by wagon train thing, which worked well. And today the rotunda is safe, with the gold adhering this time, so there might not be a wagon train carrying gold being sent to Atlanta again for some time…..

  • Atlanta – Replica of Liberty Bell

    This feels a little more relevant to me now that I’ve seen the actual Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. It’s a replica of the original bell and this is one of 55 replicas which were cast as part of the Liberty Bell Savings Bonds drive in 1950. The 55 that were made were for one each for the 48 states, one for the District of Columbia and several for the territories. Only one of the bells has gone missing (although goodness knows how you lose a bell like that) and there’s a list of their whereabouts at http://tomlovesthelibertybell.com/liberty-bell-replica-locations/.

  • Atlanta – Atlanta Zoo

    Some photos from my visit to Atlanta Zoo in October 2015. Unfortunately writing this over three years after means I’ve forgotten parts of the visit, but I do remember seeing the pandas close-up. It was all clean and organised, with plenty of space for the animals and I don’t recall there being that many other visitors there.

  • Thetford – Stocks

    The Thetford cage and stocks were located over the road on Cage Lane and were originally opened in 1581. The building was larger and it’s infuriating to know that the council demolished it in 1968, salvaging only the window arch and placing this in its current location over the road as part of a new public toilet complex.

    The cage remained in use until the nineteenth century and the council then decided it would flog off the stocks, which had long since fallen out of use, at the local market. Their whereabouts were unknown for some time, but it transpired that they Mr. Barclay’s Park in Norwich, and they were fortunately returned again to the cage.

  • Thetford – Thetford Mill

    Thetford Mill, located on the appropriately named Watermill Lane, which was used as a corn mill and closed in the late 1950s. It was originally built in the early nineteenth century on the site of a former pit mill. It’s also known as the Coffee Mill which most reliable sources suggest is just because of what was stored there, but some web-sites are saying that coffee was also ground here. Anyway, it’s one of those two options no doubt…..

    Although all of the machinery has now gone from within the building, the mill bridge structure still performs the role of regulating the flow of the River Thet.

  • Thetford – Church of the Holy Sepulchre

    This priory was founded in 1148 and it takes its name from the Augustinian order of the Holy Sepulchre, of which there are no other remains in the country. The order didn’t have the wealth of other religious establishments, such as St. Mary’s Priory, and failed to grow in size and power. They did own the comb of Thomas Becket though as one of their most holiest of relics.

    The Reformation inevitably wasn’t kind to the order  and the building was seized by the Crown and the order dissolved in 1536. The nave survived and was turned into a barn, but the structure of the building continued to decline.

    This entrance was built in the eighteenth century when the building was used as a barn, and then subsequently blocked off. Parts of the building were also used as ornamental gardens.

    There was a lot of structural work going on when I visited in 2018, with some of the information signs being inaccessible. The site is now managed by the English Heritage, with no charge being made for admission.