Anke: Royal Tunbridge Wells

Great Park, Great Read

It has been a week of coincidences. First was the traffic jam that diverted us down Warwick Park to get home, which actually turned into a nice slow drive to admire the beautiful houses. Secondly was the time spent watching the builders at work on the conversion of the old wine merchants at the end of Warwick Park, which looks like being a fabulous place to live.
And then today I opened the Courier newspaper to read my favourite column by Frank Chapman, to be greeted by the great news of a long-awaited book by John Cunningham, The Origins of Warwick Park. Are you spotting a trend here?
In the 1880's the Marquess of Abergavenny was financially forced to develop his land of hills known as Home Farm which was leased out to various parties over the years. He envisaged a rival development to the other great estates of the time, Calverley, Nevill, Camden and Hungershall. The great Warwick Park.
After a thorough survey of the site in 1893 by William Brackett (a name which still lives on today as an estate agent), the architect Henry Currey proposed a plan. Unfortunately, Mr Currey had neglected to listen to the brief for "superior dwellings on significant acreage" and proposed fitting 248 plots into the 135 acre site. Sent back to his drawing board, Mr Currey proposed twice more with fewer properties but neither plan showed promise. He was replaced by William Roper who, being a local man, understood the site's needs.
The Marquess had no intention of building the plots himself; that task was to be given to a number of independent builders. The Marquess's plan was to provide the basic infrastructure such as roads and drainage and let the Park grow itself. The original proposal was to have six roads in the Park although only four were ever constructed, these being Roedean, Blatchington, Rodmell and the now-named Warwick Park road itself (the road wasn't called Warwick Park until 1900). It was to be one of the biggest estates in Tunbridge Wells.
The southern part of the Park was first developed after a prospectus for the first 65 plots was advertised in 1897, and by the beginning of the Great War in 1914 78 houses had been constructed. Further fine houses were built by many different builders throughout the 20th century. Some of the more significant buildings include the aforementioned wine merchants at No.3 with its stunning facade; No.69, Courtleas, designed by William Hillyer, the architect partly responsible for such treasures as Buckingham Palace and the V&A Museum in London. A rather intriguing footnote to Courtleas is that it was home for eight months in 1941 to Field Marshal Lord Montgomery. Apart from the construction of houses, there was the [erection] of the Nevill Ground Cricket Ground between 1895 and 1898, which, like many of the problems constructing sports arenas today ran to almost three times its initial budget, mainly due to having to lay perfectly flat pitches on the hilly ground.
Okay, I've revealed enough to no doubt whet your appetite for exploring more with the new book. So dutifuly my wife trudged out in the weather to hunt down this new book for me, only to be told that it wouldn't be in for another ten days!!! Like a scene reminiscent of the final Harry Potter release, I'll be queuing very early in the morning for my copy. I suggest you do to.

Ssssssssssummer?

We saw a break in the sun and decided to make a break for it and get outside for a walk. We took the lovely Tunbridge Wells Circular Route that follows down alongside the steam railway, and although this is a rather grim beginning to a really beautiful walk what with all the rows of garages and railway detritus there was a sparkle of joy. We encountered the little fellow in the picture below, a grass snake just sitting on the path basking in his first sight of sunshine too. It's the first time we've ever seen one before and he certainly wasn't scared of us, he let me get within about 12 inches to take his portrait.
In the end, our brief walk just kept going and going. Six hours later we finished our circle, taking in High Rocks and Langton Green. We had heavy legs this morning but it was so worth while to see that little snake. I don't think my wife will be wearing her open-toed sandals on that trip next time though.

On Brighton Pond

Great exhibition currently on at the local museum, Schools Out. It's a collection of images of news events made by school children from the Courier newspaper. I heartily recommend a visit in your lunch hour this week if you can. I was taken with one image in particular of some boys sailing their toy boats on Brighton Lake. If you tend to get around town in the comfort of your car then you probably drive past the lake and miss it every time. This is because even though its about five yards from the edge of the road it's set slightly above so you can't see it.
Fed by one of our famous chalybeate springs, which can be seen on the northern shore, the lake was created in 1858 as part of a scheme instigated by William Law Pope, Minister of King Charles the Martyr Church, to provide work for the town's unemployed. The lake was named after its creator, well sort of, being called Pope's Puddle or Pope's Folly, later changing to its current name of Brighton Lake.
For those who love to watch wildlife, the pond is a great place to sit and enjoy. Its an important part of the common as a haven for wildlife, including frogs, toads, newts, grass snakes, and several species of dragonfly. You can also find fish in the lake, several species such as Perch, Sticklebacks, Tench, Roach and Rudd are also in evidence and you can't miss the giant Carp and there have even been reports of Pike.
So next time you need to pop to Sainsbury's for a pint of milk or loaf of bread, leave the car at home take a walk and stop off for some fresh air at Brighton Lake, and see if you can see who lives on the little island.

Flying Bananas

Unless you have been on Mars for the past few months it won't have slipped your attention that Sunday was the first stage of the Tour de France passing through our lovely town.
I was rather keen to get out and grab some photographs of the historic event so rose with the cockerel. I needn't have got up quite so early though. Standing in my position ready and waiting at 8am was perhaps a tad premature as I shared the road with just a few policemen and some bored-looking workers sweeping up the roads. I'd have to mill about for another five and a half hours to finally see the rampaging cyclists.
Before the main event was the three hour procession of weird and wonderful floats. Hundreds of cars honking their horns as they passed, pretty French girls precariously hanging on to the back throwing freebies into the crowds, I was almost knocked unconcious by a free sample of soap powder and nearly lost an eye from the girl throwing die-cast Skodas. Luckily no French breeze block manufacturer was sponsoring this years event.
Our local Police always got a great cheer as they drove past tunefuly playing their sirens but the loudest cheer of the morning went to the local KMFM Traffic Patrol car.
Minutes before the riders arrived the tension was built to a frenzy by screaming French van drivers hawking their wares from the back of their mobile shops. We could hear the helicopters beginning to circle overhead, until finally the recognisable sight of a man sitting the wrong way on a motorbike with a camera perched on his shoulder rounded the corner, pursued moments later by a small bunch of five riders. A breakaway must have happened.
Four minutes later, the same furore of noise and flag waving greeted the following Peloton. Royal Tunbridge Wells was apparently the official food stop of the Tour, so rather than a pack of determined faces pressing on by fighting each other for position, we were treated to 180-odd riders stuffing their faces with bananas and cereal bars.
Six hours of build-up for six seconds of masticating cyclists. But boy was it worth it. It was a carnival atmosphere in town, with brass bands, street performers, markets, fetes and allsorts happening wherever you turned. It was brilliant fun, but I'd had a long morning so retired home to the comfort of my sofa for a well deserved sit down. Vive La France! If you'd like to see more photographs I took from the Tour click here. Can you guess where I was standing? Where did you stand? Did you enjoy it?

A Natural High

Have you ever found beauty in something ugly?
I did that very thing today whilst scouting out the route for this weekend's Tour de France. I want to photograph the riders speeding past with an interesting background element which makes it obvious that I'm standing in Royal Tunbridge Wells, so I narrowed my choices down to two roads: Crescent Road and Calverley Park Gardens. My decision finally fell upon Crescent Road with the backdrop of the utterly beautiful terrace of Calverley Park Crescent.
With its imposing four storey stone structure looming closely over Crescent Road, it can be said that the rear of the property, the view that most visitors see, is just as impressive as the pretty covered walkway that makes up the front of the building.
The Crescent was Decimus Burton's concept of 1830's shopping, designed to rival the Pantiles as a shopping mecca. The Promenade, as Decimus named his elegant lunular of shops, was designed to entice visitors away from the ageing Pantiles to John Ward's vision of a new Northern part of town. Alas it never fully realised its potential and over time just became another row of impressive town houses.
Following an exhaustive tour around I turned around and cast my eye skyward to the rather ugly multi-storey car-park that looks after our visitors cars whilst they explore our town. Perhaps I could get a different view from up there? And so I climbed the stairs to the roof and under the dark grey rain-heavy sky I looked out onto the town below with trees and fields skirting the horizon in every direction. It was a view of something so similar that I had never seen before. I stood at every corner of the car park for about an hour in total, trying to soak up every detail I could. A glorious vista, a view that could inspire that inner artist in you that is trying to get out.
So I'd say the answer to my question is a very enthusiastic yes. From the top of something ugly I can see my entire town in all its beauty.