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  • Birmingham – Barber Institute of Fine Arts (A Portrait of Bartolomeo Savona by André Derain)

    This painting was purchased by the Barber Institute in 1997, with funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the National Art Collections Fund. The notes located by the artwork suggest that this was painted in 1906 and it’s of Bartolomeo Savona, who was a Sicilian student staying in the same guest house as Derain when he was visiting London. In return for acting as a translator during a visit to the dentist, Derain painted the student in three sittings of twenty minutes. A very nice gift….

    Derain was in London during 1906 as he was painting a series of artworks of the city, but he had a quite different style to previous painters. He created 30 artworks during his time in London, of which 29 of them are still in existence. Ambroise Vollard was the art dealer who suggested that Derain go to London, with the artist being 25 years of age at the time.

    The artwork remained in the family of the sitter until it was sold in the 1990s and brought to Birmingham. There was a detailed article written about this painting in 1997 by Richard Verdi and he noted that the family were keen for the artwork to remain in the UK. It was also discovered during cleaning that there were traces of pink under sitter’s lapel, suggesting the Savona at first sat for the painting whilst in shirtsleeves.

    I like the boldness of this artwork, it feels as though the painter had much sympathy for Savona and wanted to portray him in a youthful and positive light. It’s a colourful artwork and it’s the first that Derain is thought to have painted in London.

  • Rochester – Coopers Arms

    This was the nearest pub to Rochester Cathedral that I could see was listed in the Good Beer Guide and it is thought that monks who brewed beer once lived here. There are also records that there has been an inn here since at least 1543, making it one of the oldest pubs in Kent.

    The beer selection, of which nothing particularly excited me, but my half pint of Thwaite’s Wainwright tasted fine and was well kept. I say tasted fine, but it’s a slightly drab beer with little discernible flavour, perhaps some caramel overtones.

    The interior, perhaps a little dated, but that’s hardly inappropriate in a pub of this age. The service was fine, all friendly and efficient. The set-up here rather reminded me of the Adam & Eve in Norwich.

    Nice way to raise money for charity at the bar. Incidentally, the pub doesn’t allow children other than in the garden, but they do make that clear through signage. I didn’t order food, but the lunch-time selections looked good value for money and seemed popular with locals.

     

  • Rochester – Catalpa Tree

    This quirky looking tree near to the main entrance of Rochester Cathedral is a Catalpa Tree, apparently over 150 years old. It snapped in two in 2015, but it appears that the tree surgeons were able to work their magic to keep it going and some new fencing was built around it (it had partly collapsed onto the railings around it).

    This is how I knew what kind of tree it was, as I’m not very good at identifying trees….Most sources do put the tree at over 150 years old, although I haven’t yet ascertained exactly how long it has been there.

  • Rochester – Rochester Cathedral (Golf Course)

    I saw this mini golf course on BBC News last week, although I had forgotten where it was, so this was a nice surprise. It’s a wonderful way of engaging families and children with the cathedral, all funded by the Rochester Bridge Trust. The trust is well financed, primarily through ancient land holdings, so it’s able to look after not only the bridges under its guardianship, but also give grants and support the community.

    One of the cathedral’s staff, who saw me looking excitedly at a medieval book elsewhere in the building, told me that the cathedral was thrilled with all of the publicity. And so it should be, there was a long queue of mostly families waiting to give the course a go.

    Compare and contrast to Ely Cathedral where I’ve seen children not going in because their parents didn’t want to pay…. I’m not suggesting that Ely Cathedral should install a Greggs in its nave (although I wouldn’t oppose such a move), but it’s a shame they have to charge so much.

    The golf course takes up the main part of the nave and the staff member mentioned to me that the seating had been taken out for a deep clean and so the space was easy to temporarily convert.

    And, in addition to the BBC, apparently NBC were also in the cathedral, so this project has attracted international attention. I noted that a few people complained about this on the news, including someone who said it was “desperation”.  This cathedral is one of the most welcoming I’ve been to, I didn’t sense a great deal of desperation here, but quite a lot of hope. How very lovely.

  • Bread, the Story of Greggs by Ian Gregg

    I’m not sure how I missed this little number, especially since it was first published in 2013. Greggs has changed much since even then, but there was an interesting section on the takeover of Baker’s Oven, a company Greggs had been chasing for a long time which I hadn’t realised.

    For anyone who wants it, Amazon sell it….

  • Sittingbourne – Red Lion

    This pub is listed in the Good Beer Guide and in its previous incarnation it is thought to have hosted Henry VII, Henry VIII and Cardinal Wolsey. It has been a coaching inn for centuries, although is now smaller than it used to be.

    The fantastic courtyard area, steeped in history and quite beautiful.

    And this wins my award, which is a new one, for the worst pub redecoration I’ve ever seen. The interior of the pub has been gutted and replaced with a pool table at the rear, in the once relaxed dining area, and the seating has been mostly ripped out. Indeed, there’s little seating left in the pub at all.

    More space is now used on darts boards and there was loud music blaring out during my visit. And there weren’t many customers, which is perhaps fortunate as they couldn’t have all sat down unless some went into the beer garden. The seating that is in the pub isn’t really appropriate or functional and it does feel a complete mess. Wetherspoons may have their faults, but they do seem to understand the importance of a well designed and functional interior.

    But, back to the pub, the service was polite and efficient, although I was told my beer selection was £1.40 and when I handed over £1.50 the staff member didn’t burden herself with giving me any change. I would say it was busy to excuse this, but it wasn’t. The beer selection was limited to two real ales and I opted for the Timothy Taylor’s Landlord, which was well kept to be fair.

    There was no soap in the male toilets and the wi-fi didn’t work very well, although the landlord did come over and tell me that, which I did appreciate. Actually, the landlord seemed quite sensible and welcoming, but I’m really not sure what on earth Craft Union are trying to achieve here.

    This pub should be a goldmine if a decent selection of real ale was served and the interior was ripped out and the pub returned to be a food based venue. Taking out nearly all the seats and filling the rear half with a pool table and darts board is what I’d call brave, but perhaps there is a plan which will evolve and that it’s something that I haven’t understood. But, if that theory does work, why do it in such an historic pub?

  • HS1……

    I’m off to Sittingbourne today and I can’t help but wonder whether the average visitor to this country (or resident of this country) is going to find the information:

    “On specified AGA trains only plus HS1”

    really useful? I assume AGA is Abellio Greater Anglia, which isn’t a name they use now on trains, it’s just Greater Anglia. And I assume HS1 is the section of track between London and Kent which connects to the Channel Tunnel, but it does seem a little confusing to me…….

  • Norwich to Dereham Tickets….

    Next on Julian’s list of things to complain about….

    Why does the live feed for Norwich railway station departures include a service to Dereham, which doesn’t even have a Network Rail station….. There is admittedly a bus that goes there, but there are buses that go to a lot of places from the railway station.

    Just to add more confusion…. The ticket to Dereham, which is a coach ticket, is priced at £2.60. Unless you read the top section which says that the train is £2.60 and takes 48 minutes and the coach is £8.30 and takes 30 minutes.

    As clear as mud….

  • Norwich – WH Smiths Railway Station

    Cheery little selection of books at the railway station bookshop in Norwich. Nice to get some light reading in on the train…..

  • LDWA – Seething Walk

    I thought it would one of my marvellous ideas to lead an eighteen mile walk in the Seething and Brooke area of Norfolk for the LDWA and Legstretchers. It was a very reasonable turnout, although the weather was too hot for my liking, I’ll be glad when the summer comes to an end.

    The route was an old Legstretchers walk and I used the .gpx with pretty much no issues, just one minor rerouting through a wood that was my fault as I was distracted by M&Ms and one minor unclear section, but otherwise brilliant.

    There wasn’t a great deal of history on this walk, just Woodton church and not much else that was obvious. The church was lovely, but we couldn’t go in as there was a Christening taking place. I’ve also discovered that apparently Woodton is pronounced ‘Wooton’, although this isn’t a complete surprise as the village name was once spelled Wootton.

    The walk started at 09:30 and finished at 16:10, which was all within my expectations, coming in at around 18 miles. We also stopped briefly, for around ten minutes, at the pub at Woodton, but as time was pressing we didn’t linger there. I even managed not to get an alcoholic drink there, I thought that would go straight to my head given the heat of the day.

    I didn’t bother asking the others, but I rated my walk as 10/10, so that’s a very good achievement and one that I’m proud of. Ideally the weather would have been cooler, but otherwise it was a very lovely group of people and no-one was injured and that is the main aim of any walk that I lead…. (I mean to avoid injury, not to have an injury).