Author: jamesclay

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London #50places2025

In 2025 I have planned to visit a minimum of fifty places. Each time I visit a place I will post a blog post and some photographs.

Of the many places across the UK, I actually visit London quite a lot. I have made a trip to London at least ten times this year already. However, all those trips have been for work, either meetings in out London office, or events and conference. However in May we travelled to London for a show in the West End. We went to see Mischief Comedy’s production The Comedy About Spies.

When a rogue British agent pilfers plans for a top-secret weapon, CIA and KGB spies converge on London’s Piccadilly Hotel in pursuit of the elusive file. Add to the mix a clueless young couple, a hapless actor angling for the role of James Bond, and enough double agents to confuse even the sharpest operative, and you’ve got a mission that’s hilariously out of control.

In the past we have enjoyed their productions of The Play that Goes Wrong, and The Comedy About a Bank Robbery. However in both those productions there was none of the original cast. This time The Comedy About Spies had just opened and had the original founded members of Mischief cast in the various roles.

It was an excellent production and I did laugh all the way through the play.

Afterwards we went for a bite to eat before walking along the banks of the Thames. 

We then headed back to the station for the journey home.

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Hanbury Hall #50places2025

After enjoying my National Trust membership in 2023, I decided I would rejoin the Trust for 2025. 

I visited Hanbury Hall in 2023 in a flying visit and had always intended to return. Something I didn’t do with my last membership.

Hanbury Hall

A country retreat in the heart of Worcestershire. The William and Mary-style country house and garden, originally a stage-set for summer parties, offer a glimpse into life at the turn of the 18th century.

Current saving £103.30
One adult £17.00
Parking free
Total saving £17.00
Cumulative saving £211.50
Membership cost £91.20
Net cumulative saving £120.30

So with time to spare I made a return trip to Hanbury Hall. The sat nav sent me down narrow lanes, but I arrived and parked the car. Despite it been a quieter day, the car park was very busy.

Having had my membership card scanned I made my way to the house.

I really love the walk up to the house, the impressive entrance and front lawns.

I really enjoyed exploring the house and the murals are a real highlight of the entrance hall and staircase. I also liked the concept of the green room, where you are able to sit and read for a while.

After exploring the house, I stopped for a coffee in the Stables Cafe, and it was warm enough to sit outside.

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Southampton #50places2025

When we went on holiday to East Dorset in 2018 we did make a visit to Southampton. Since then I made a fleeting visit there for a work meeting last year.

I was back there this week for another meeting, this time I had some time before my train to explore more of Southampton.

This year I have planned to visit fifty places.

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Thatchers Cider Tour #50places2025

Thatchers Cider is a local business to me and are based in the village of Sandford in North Somerset.

They are the second largest cider company in the UK, yet all their cider is still made at the same “farm” where it all started

They do a tour and I was lucky enough to participate.

We’ll take you around the mill, where you will be shown how we make our cider from start to finish, with over 115 years of cider making expertise. The tour introduces you to our working mill and packaging hall, and whilst we always want to show you as much as we can, we can’t guarantee that every line will be operating during every tour. At the end of the tour, you’ll get the chance to sample some of our Somerset Ciders, from the well-known brands, to our limited edition range. A fantastic way to spend a couple hours in the heart of Somerset, the cider-making county.

It was a really interesting tour, from both a cider making perspective, but also if you are interested in the role of technology in packaging and logistics.

The cider tasting was a nice end to the tour.

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Clevedon Court #50places2025

After enjoying my National Trust membership in 2023, I decided I would rejoin the Trust for 2025. 

I have been to Clevedon Court a number of times over the years. It’s only open for six months of the year and only a few times a week. 

Clevedon Court

Medieval manor house and 18th-century terraced garden with wide views of the Mendip Hills. Clevedon Court is an outstanding 14th-century manor house. Purchased by Abraham Elton in 1709, this remarkable survivor from the medieval period has been the ancestral home of the Elton family ever since.

Current saving £73.30
One adult £12.00
Parking – Free
Total saving £12.00
Cumulative saving £194.50
Membership cost £91.20
Net cumulative saving £103.30

I enjoyed my visit to the house and had some interesting conversations with the volunteers.

One interesting aspect of the house was that the Victorian facade which was added in the 1880s was removed in the early 1950s by the National Trust.

When the National Trust agreed to take on the house, the Victorian west wing (but not its Elizabethan south front) were demolished as were a plethora of minor 18th- and 19th-century buildings at the rear.

The Elton family still go and stay there, so though some rooms are open to the public, there are some parts of the house which are private.

The gardens are lovely and well worth walking around.

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Anglesey Abbey #50places2025

After enjoying my National Trust membership in 2023, I decided I would rejoin the Trust for 2025. 

I’ve only really done National Trust visits in the last ten years, I did visit Fountains Abbey in the early 1990s, and joined the National Trust, but don’t think I went to any other property that year. Most of my visits to properties have entered around the South West, the Midlands, and the Thames Valley. My plan for this year is to visit properties that I haven’t been to before and ones that are in other parts of the country.

On a recent visit to Cambridgeshire I decided I would make what I thought would be a quick visit to Anglesey Abbey.

Anglesey Abbey

A Jacobean-style house full of rich history, from a monastic priory to 20th-century home.

Current saving £73.30
One adult £18.00
Parking – Free
Total saving £18.00
Cumulative saving £182.50
Membership cost £91.20
Net cumulative saving £91.30

Though I grew up in Cambridge, when I was there I never went to Anglesey Abbey and I don’t recall even hearing about it back then. However back then I wasn’t really into visiting country houses or ruins.

I parked my car, and put it on charge, I liked how there were EV chargers in the car park. After scanning my card at reception I headed out to walk to the house. At this point I bumped into an old colleague, so we chatted for a while.

I did think the house was a little TARDIS like. I honestly thought we would see a few rooms on the ground floor and then a few rooms on the first floor. However the house appeared to go on and on. You could virtually see all the rooms in the house. A couple of times I was completely thrown, as I walked around the house been surprised by various rooms. I walked into the library and was not expecting the huge open space of the library. It was a similar experience to the gallery spaces as well. As for the dungeon like experience of the dining room, another kind of space I wasn’t expecting. Then there was the bank like vault in the pantry!

I really enjoyed walking around the house and seeing all the different rooms and furniture. As with most National Trust visits, the volunteers were friendly, forthcoming and very knowledgeable. The house itself has a fascinating history and it was a wonderful place to visit.

As well as the house there are some lovely grounds to walk around and an old mill as well. It’s certainly a place I would like to visit again.

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Then and Now Take Two Again – Trinity Lane, Cambridge

This is a regular series of blogs about photographs of the same place taken years apart. The first of the posts in this series was of a council building in Manchester. I always thought I should give then and now photographs a go. However what I have started to notice is that I have been doing Then and Now photographs unintentionally over the years and have been taking photographs of the same thing or place from the same view or perspective years apart. Now this has come to my attention I have started to intentionally take photographs of the same place.

This is the view of Trinity Lane in Cambridge, taken with an iPhone 13 in March 2025.

This is the view of Trinity Lane in Cambridge, taken with an iPhone 13 in December 2023.

I have now taken this shot a fair few times.

I grew up in Cambridge, but moved away when I went to university in York. I remember rarely visiting the University of Cambridge as a youngster, why would I? However I did do some specialist maths classes at Trinity Hall College, so would walk down Trinity Lane.

This is a photograph of Trinity Lane taken in April 2023 with an iPhone 13.

Trinity Lane

This photograph was taken in July 2022 with an iPhone 13.

This was taken in the middle of the day in bright sunshine.

I stayed over in Cambridge back in January 2020 I took this photograph of Trinity Lane.

I took this with an iPhone 8 in late afternoon I did edit and enhance the image with Snapseed, but the iPhone was able to deal with the low light conditions so much better.

It was back in March 2009 when I was at a JISC RSC Eastern event in Cambridge I did take the time the day before to walk around the town and took this photograph of Trinity Lane.

It was taken in the early evening with a Sony DSC-W53 camera, which to be honest struggled with the low light conditions.

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Cambridge #50places2025

I wasn’t sure if I should include Cambridge on my #50places2025 list. There were two reasons why, firstly I grew up in Cambridge in the 1970s and early 1980s, as a result it’s my home town. Can I count visiting a place I know well, as a visit? Secondly this”visit” was rather short, I arrived the evening before and was attending a conference at Downing College.

I did write about the #50places2025 series of blog posts that:

Each visit has to be more than just seeing a place, when I work in London for example, I often see St Pauls’ Cathedral during a lunchtime walk, but that to me is not visiting that place.

However as I had arrived the night before and was up early I had arrived in the centre of Cambridge using the Park and Ride quite early, so I took the time to explore the city before heading off to Downing College for the conference. 

I also spent some time travelling up and down Newmarket Road, I was staying in a hotel just off the A14 (or as I like to call it the A45), so drove down Newmarket Road and also took the Park & Ride bus up and down it as well. There have been some changes on that road, the old brickworks has become a retail park, whilst the location of the gas towers is now a Tesco. There were some places which hadn’t changed. The Cambridge United football ground is still in the same place.

I also saw The Leper Chapel of Saint Mary Magdalene from the bus. I did a school visit there and we made a model of it. That was primary school.

After catching the Park & Ride bus to the centre of Cambridge I had a short time to do some exploring before heading off to Downing College for the conference I was attending.

In some ways Cambridge never changes and sometimes it keeps changing. I remember Robert Sayle department store (part of the John Lewis partnership) which has now disappeared to be replaced by a “properly” branded John Lewis shop in the Grand Arcade shopping centre. Lion Yard which was built in the 1970s and was refurbished the late 1990s. This is still home to the public library, and I remember going there to borrow books. It was also home to a WHSmith. The top floor of which was devoted to music.

The colleges of the university probably haven’t changed that much over the last hundred years and I popped over to photograph Trinity Lane for my photography series.

I walked along Kings Parade to get to Downing College for my conference.