Seeing as though I have a nice new toy to play with, namely Apple's cool new iPhone I thought I'd see what it was like to blog on the move. So here is my first attempt. The camera is no 1D Mark III but good enough for a reporter in the field like me. Can you guess where I am blogging from right now?
Drunkards singing, belching and shouting in Trinity Church gardens after dark. I was there with my wife and about fifty others but we were silent. Hmmmm what was going on?
Well it was actually a fantastic performance by the Tunbridge Wells Theatre Company of William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. The lovely setting under the shadow of Trinity Church which was beautifully lit after dark under the cover of the huge tree in the grounds was a delight. I must be honest and say that this was my very first Shakespearean experience, and even though probably 50% of the dialogue sailed over my head the actors made it very enjoyable. Sir Toby Belch (Peter Emanuel) and his cronies, particularly Andrew Aguecheek (Humphrey Skett), injected some great comedy into the proceedings and the balmy evening made it a really pleasant evening.
Its still on until Saturday so get on down there and enjoy the fun, before the rain spoils it.
Passing a few minutes reading SO Tunbridge Wells magazine, yes I know but if its got Tunbridge Wells written on it then I tend to buy it, I pondered over the contest to find the Greatest Tunbridge Wellian. Just who would I pick from the list? Should I pick somebody of history who shaped the town we live in, like Decimus Burton or Canon Hoare, or should I pick a modern hero like Sid Vicious or even Tom Baker who just happens to walk down my road on a regular basis.
Bizarrely I didn't make the final shortlist, must've been a clerical error or something. So, who is your Greatest Tunbridge Wellian?
In this prehistoric weather we're having take some shelter in the museum and check out the latest exhibition, The Ballad of Big Al. Who's Big Al? Well he's a famous dinosaur, made famous by the BBC and he's inside our museum. One of his friends from Tunbridge Wells is in there too, well a bit of him anyway. You see, 75 years ago a workman digging in the brick pits of High Brooms struck the leg of a 135 million year old Iguanodon leg with his shovel.
George Latter's discovery that day is now on display in the museum and George is £1 richer, that being the rather paltry amount he sold it to the museum for.
Its a wonderful exhibition and its really fascinating to think of how our local area looked in the Lower Cretaceous period with our Iggy stomping around the marshy watery landscape chomping all the trees and plants. In fact looking out of the window, the landscape is becoming that way today.
Where better to soak up some local culture after a long holiday away than a shopping jaunt around town. Our aim was to walk the length of the once-neglected Camden Road which is now beginning to shine with new specialist stores and thankfully none of the usual High Street fare.
I really suggest a walk down Camden Road if you have some spare time and especially with the upcoming Camden Road in Camera exhibition that starts this weekend. The exhibition is designed to show the road through history by displaying old photographs of shops and buildings in, or close to, the actual buildings in the photographs. There will also be a huge display of all the submitted images which will look fabulous.
As a bit of a challenge to coincide with the exhibition we thought we would try and find some of the old Camden Road amongst all the new shops and frontages. We succeeded, as you can see from the pictures, can you find where the old signs we photographed are?
To polish off a long walk we took some advice from the new SO Tunbridge Wells magazine and stopped into Bean for a refreshing milkshake, and heavens are we glad we did! I recommend the Cadbury's Caramel one, mmmmmmmmmmm.
We're really looking forward to another walk down this great road next week, and another milkshake, I hope you will too.
I'm back!!! You may have noticed my absence over the past couple of weeks. My wife and I have been on our Summer holiday, to the Farne Islands. I'm looking forward to getting out into my local patch to soak my feet in Tunbridge Wells again. Want to see some pictures from our holidays? Click here.
Apologies for the lack of updates this week, I have been busy with amongst other things editing and publishing the Friends of the Common Newsletter. I hope you will take a few minutes to pop along to the website of the Friends and have a look at my work, you'll find a great birding column written by my wife and also some words from online friends who have contributed all of which are new to this issue.
Following all that hard work I now have a good idea how Matthew Edwardes felt. Who is he, you ask? Well, to this day you can still read the work of Mr Edwardes on a weekly basis, that is if you purchase the Kent & Sussex Courier, the paper he founded in 1872.
The only newspaper at the time of launch in Tunbridge Wells was the large dull broadsheets of Colbran's Tunbridge Wells Gazette, remember him? Mr Edwardes felt that the area needed a smaller and livelier paper that also covered neighbouring areas, and he delivered it in an easier to read, prettier and more importantly, cheaper way.
Printing out of humble premises in Grove Hill Road with inferior presses, the steely determination of Mr Edwardes proved itself as The Courier battled for readership with the Gazette, and after a few years its circulation had grown to more than its rival and in 1892 it took over the Gazette completely.
With this and the acquisition of other newspapers published in neighbouring areas, the Kent & Sussex Courier expanded into West Kent and East Sussex over the following years. Mr Edwardes passed away in 1902 and his widow, Susannah took over and played a leading role in the business until her death in 1926.
The passing of the Edwardes' was a sad time for The Courier but the paper carried on, even when on the afternoon of 20th June, 1932, The Courier's premises was destroyed by fire. Even after this disaster, the paper was there on the shelves that Friday as usual, thanks to the efforts of local businesses and townsfolk chipping in to help, and largely I feel to the quick thinking of a neighbour to the printers who thoughtfully threw a tarpaulin over the printing press to protect it. I feel Mr Edwardes would have been very proud of the typesetters who travelled up to London and back to produce lines of type, the workmen who helped the offices move into temporary premises, the cleaners who got every last speck of soot out of the printing presses and even the firemen who battled the inferno against the odds of their inadequate equipment.
Today you can find The Courier on Longfield Road, where they moved in 1974 after the rebuilt premises in Grove Hill Road were finally demolished, and this morning you can find the result of all those years of history and all that effort on my dining room table with a cup of coffee, ready for me to enjoy as Mr Edwardes intended.
Happy reading.
There we were at the supermarket at the bottom of the Pantiles. It was late, the car park was empty, it was quiet. Until we poured our bottles and cans into the recycling bins and created a racket that is. We tried to do it as quietly as mice for the neighbours benefit honestly. But then it struck me, looking around the desolate car park. This place hasn't always been this quiet.
Until 20-odd years ago, this part of town would've been noisy, smelly and thriving with activity. You see this car park used to be home a bustling railway station, Tunbridge Wells West.
Opened in 1866 by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, this station was built in competition with the main Central station which was owned by the South Eastern Railway company. The station ran lines to the coast at Brighton and Eastbourne and also into the capital at London Victoria. You could catch a train along the Cuckoo Line to Polegate, along the Wealden Line to Lewes, or along the Three Bridges line to Three Bridges and East Grinstead. All of these lines were eventually connected in 1876 to the main Tunbridge Wells Central station via a tunnel under the town and then through a link in the Grove Tunnel, allowing both companies to run down the lines. The rivalry between the two companies had cooled off by this point.
You can still see part of the line and tunnel that went to the Central station from the bridge across Montacute Road and also in Warwick Park. Go have a look.
The Grade II listed main station building itself was built on a lavish scale, complete with clocktower with louvred spirelet and weathervane, gas-lit booking hall and elaborate ornamental ceilings. And seeing as though they had plenty of room they also built stable sidings, carriage sheds and a locomotive depot.
The station wasn't always called Tunbridge Wells West. It obtained its suffix following the Railways Act of 1921, also known as the Grouping Act, which the Government passed to move the railways away from internal competition and the stations fell into the single ownership of the Southern Railway.
The station proved to be very popular over the next 40 years, frequently handling 100 trains a day, that was until certain routes from the station began to close. It seems the train just couldn't compete with the motor car. First of the lines to close was the East Grinstead to Lewes line in 1958, then the Three Bridges to Groombridge line fell in 1967, followed by the Cuckoo Line in 1968 and finally the Wealden Line in 1969.
Services were cut back drastically and following years of neglect and a lack of investment in the few remaining lines, British Rail decided that the cost of keeping the station was unjustifiable. The station closed on 6 July 1985.
You can still visit the station, as the main building has become a restaurant/pub and the engine sheds still occasionally smell of steam with the preservation of a small line to Groombridge (hopefully eventually Eridge) providing much pleasure to thousands of tourists every year aboard the Spa Valley Railway.
This is certainly an interesting part of the town's history and one I shall revisit very soon.
I'd borrowed a friends 50mm f/1.8 lens for the weekend, a lens that produces a very shallow depth of field. So to play with it we decided to take a walk in the beautiful sunshine to find some bokeh. Instead of words, follow me in pictures, can you guess where we walked?
You can click for larger versions and some clues/answers if you want, but that's not half the fun is it?
Sign to somewhere.
Bees play in the gorse.
Low down with a poppy.
Buttercup, buttercup.
Another sign, but we won't follow this one.
Better go slow, this is a narrow country road.
Looking back along the road for the odd car.
A walk in the woods with some saplings.
A well-deserved cup of coffee before the walk home.
Where did we go?
Its amazing where a random choice can take you. On the way home from a circular walk to Pembury a small sign advertising a cup of tea took our eye. It was just a small arrow pointing down a country lane, so we took a diversion and followed the mysterious arrows direction.
A hundred yards down the lane some small signs appeared in the flower-filled verges, "Craft Store", hmmm we like crafty things. Further still, "Coffee Shop" turned into "Bedding Plants for Sale", which further on then turned into "Donkeys and Small Animals"!! Now our interest really was pricked.
Finally turning another corner we were greeted by a small farm in the grounds of what we discovered was a residential home for people with learning disabilities called Pepenbury. We wandered into the coffee shop for a well earned cuppa and was really warmly greeted. We purchased our tea, coffee, water and some biccies, paid the grand total of £2.50 and sat outside to relax. Yes you read that right, two pounds fifty!!
From the comfy seats with a great view we followed some more arrows around their advertised Bluebell Walk.
The walk began with rabbits, guinea pigs and lots of birds in pens and then ventured off into the woods. We met lots of the residents of the home on the walk, they seemed to be really enjoying the fresh air and were certainly pleased to see us.
The small circular walk was a real joy, beautiful bluebells and woodland flowers meandering through the forest with lots of carved wooden sculptures to ponder over.
The best thing of all when nearing the end of the walk is the Donkey Field, with five friendly donkeys for you to pet and awww over.
This really was a hidden gem that we lucked over just by following a small arrow, I really suggest you do the same and enjoy the tea and donkeys. I think we'll follow more arrows in future, you never know where you'll end up.
For
a complete collection of over 3,500 historical and interesting images of Tunbridge
Wells, you can purchase this fantastic CD from www.royaltunbridgewells.org
All profits are donated to the Royal Tunbridge Wells Symphony Orchestra. £10
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