James Clay Stuff

July 8, 2018

Sunny Oxford

I took the time to take some photographs on a visit to Oxford. I had a presentation to give at a recent meeting which was taking place in Oxford. The weather was beautiful and as it was relatively early the roads and pavements were not as crowded with tourists as they can be.

Walking in from St Clements Street by The Plain I walked down the High Street across Magdalen Bridge, taking a photograph of the Magdalen Bridge Boathouse.

There were already quite a few people waiting to hire out punts and boats.

The crenellations of Magdalen College looked impressive in the sun.

My meeting was taking place in the Oxford University Examination Schools, however Apple Maps on the iPhone took me down Merton Street to the back entrance, however I was lucky enough to be able to sneak in, and make my meeting.

I took the slightly longer route back to the car, as I wanted a quick nostalgic visit to the Covered Market. All Souls College looked rather magnificent in the sun.

Hiding behind the tree on the high street is All Saints Church which is now the Library of Lincoln College. In 1971, All Saints Church was declared redundant and the City Church moved to St Michael at the North Gate. All Saints was thus deconsecrated and offered to Lincoln College, located immediately to the north of the church. Since 1975, after conversion, the building has been Lincoln College’s library.

With any city the side street often offer interesting buildings and architecture. Oxford has a range of these side streets of which King Edward Street is just one.

Another view of Magdalen College, it is one of the wealthiest colleges in Oxford.

Looking the other way on Magdalen Bridge there were a range of punts, I expect in the summer holidays and weekends these will be heavily used.

The Plain includes a small but prominent building facing Magdalen Bridge, Victoria Fountain. The fountain is protected by a roof on stone columns. On top is a small clock tower. The fountain was a gift to the city by G. Herbert Morrell.

Though it was a quick visit to Oxford it was nice to be back.

June 28, 2018

So how many do you remember seeing at the time?

All the introductory sequences over the years from Doctor Who.

May 15, 2018

Comrade Doctor

Though they have been removed from most high streets across the UK, in Glasgow you can still find Police boxes, the kind that the TARDIS disguised itself as back in 1963 when it landed in Totter’s Lane junkyard.

There is a police box at 27 Sauchiehall Street in the heart of Glasgow.

It’s red though, not blue.

Ah Comrade Doctor.

April 21, 2018

The Routemaster

Though there are many new buses in London, it still gives me a warm nostalgic fuzzy feeling when I see an old Routemaster still in service, usually as I walk down The Strand in London. These classic old buses epitomise London and though the new modern flash ones are more environmentally friendly, accessible, and “better” I still have a place in my heart for these old red double deckers.

April 17, 2018

We’ve seen the teaser, now we have the trailer

After the teaser, we now have the trailer for Solo: A Star Wars Story.

When I saw the teaser I was impressed with the shiny new Millennium Falcon, however I wasn’t sure about the story, as there wasn’t much to get from the teaser.

The new trailer though does provide a deeper insight into the story and I am now looking forward to seeing the film at the end of May.

I really enjoyed Rogue One and I think Solo has a lot to live up to, to match the quality of that film.

March 30, 2018

Aviation history in Southampton

We were on holiday in East Dorset and it was raining and rather cold. So we decided to drive over to Southampton and with a little trepidation we decided to visit the Solent Sky Museum. The warm and friendly welcome was a welcome respite from the cold weather.

We’re not really into aircraft, but decided because of the weather it was the right time to visit an indoor museum. It was either this or learning about the Titanic at the SeaCity Museum. Solent Sky won out because it was cheaper!

The enthusiastic volunteers were really friendly, helpful and knowledgeable. They really made our visit, helping us to sit in the various cockpits and describing the history of the different planes. As well as history they also talked about the science of flight and flying. Our children were engaged and learnt stuff. Actually we also learnt stuff too, the history of the blitz on Southampton and the Spitfire factory was moving and well told.

Our favourite plane was the huge Solent Sandringham, the Beachcomber, that dominated the museum.

With it’s huge wingspan you couldn’t miss it. What was really nice was that we were allowed inside the plane and sit on the seats and feel like what it would have been to be a passenger on a flying boat in the 1950s. One of the excellent volunteers allowed us up into the cockpit to sit in the pilot seats.

The children trail was fun, yet challenging, and actually a really nice prize at the end. Before we knew it we had spent two hours exploring the various aspects of the museum including a section on the local police and fire services.

It was excellent value at £17.50 for a family of five and nice of them to recognise that sometimes families number five. We had an enjoyable time at the museum and would love to go again (as we gift aided our entry, we get free entry for a year), so we might.

March 2, 2018

Snowing again

We’ve had some heavy snow again, combined with cold winds from Siberia, a storm from Portugal called Emma. This snow is different to the snow we’ve had before in Weston-super-Mare, this was colder, icier and blew around a lot. So in some places we had big drifts and in others the snow had been completely blown off the pavement.

I have over the years (when we had snow) taken a particular photograph so here is the 2018 version.

This with the wind and the cold was actually some of the worst weather I have seen down here, but as you can see it doesn’t look too bad…

This was how it looked in December 2010. Back then we had very heavy snow.

This was how it looked in eleven months earlier in January 2010, again heavy snow.

And here it is in February 2009. At this time this was some of the worst weather we had seen in twenty years.

This time though we are seeing less of the slushy roads, people appear to be taking note of the advice and driving less. Also it is very cold so the snow isn’t melting as quickly. You can also see in the series of photographs how much the tree on the left had grown.

February 22, 2018

A bright sunny day in London

It was sunny, I had a little more time until the train, so I decided to walk from Whitehall to Paddington.

Usually I am rushing so catch the underground, so it was nice to have an extra 30 minutes, so I could walk from the conference venue in Whitehall to Paddington station.

It was cold, but the sun was out and walking in the sun was very pleasant.

Some of the buildings are incredible on Whitehall, but then again it was once a Palace.

I left 61 Whitehall and crossed the road to Horse Guards Parade. Outside Horse Guards were two horse mounted guards getting harassed by tourists who were taking selfies of themselves with the horses in the background.

To think it wasn’t that long ago the tourists would merely take photographs of the guards or would stand next to them as a relative took the photo. The selfie phenomena has changed all that as everyone holds their phone at arm’s length and attempts to get themselves and their family and the horse into the photo. It’s difficult, but much much easier than trying to do that with a 35mm film camera which had no screen to preview the image!

I have walked through Horse Guards a few times and though I am sure I noticed the Turkish Gun before, this was the first time I went up close to get a picture.

The gun was made by Murad, son of Abdullah in 1524. It was captured in Egypt by the British Army in 1801. Now it sits outside Horse Guards the home of the British Army.

Next to Horse Guards is a huge incongruous building that can only be described as a bunker. Compared to the Georgian magnificence of Whitehall this bunker is a very crude and brutal.

Looking up online on the train I found out this was the Admiralty Citadel. It is London’s most visible military citadel, and is located just behind the Admiralty building on Horse Guards Parade. It was constructed in 1940–1941 as a bomb-proof operations centre for the Admiralty. Winston Churchill called it in his memoirs as a “vast monstrosity which weighs upon the Horse Guards Parade”.

What is interesting that it was built with the plan that in the event of a successful German invasion, it was intended that the building would become a fortress, with loopholed firing positions provided to fend off attackers.

I did think about walking through St James’ Park, but in the end walked down the Mall towards Buckingham Palace.

Passing by Clarence House there were two guardsmen, who appeared to be playing a marching up and down the road game, not sure what they were trying to do, but no one was watching except me and a couple of Americans. Maybe they were stretching their legs after standing for too long in their sentry boxes.

I was then in front of Buckingham Palace. I was reminded by how effective the CGI was in the Netflix series The Crown. Their recreation of the 1950s Buckingham Palace is very accurate. It was only after watching this video that I realised how much the series was using computer graphics to recreate 1950s London and other locations.

After passing by the palace I entered Green Park and walked up to Hyde Park Corner. Now I have to admit I did think about catching the tube for the final stretch, but no decided to walk through Hyde Park.

I realised I had never seen the Serpentine before, now I have.

It was a really nice walk.

February 13, 2018

Walking up the Tor

Though I have visited Glastonbury quite a few times over the years I have been living down in Somerset, I had never climbed the Tor. So during the October half term last year we decided to do just that, go to Glastonbury and climb the Tor. There is plenty of cheap parking in the town itself and there are a range of esoteric shops that also deserve exploring (after you have climbed the Tor). As you might expect there are a fair number of teashops too.

Our first attempt was on the wrong path, there were roadworks in the town which had made it challenging to find the right way up, but after avoiding the field full of cows, we found the less muddy path and walked up. Taking the time to turn around now and again to appreciate the view of the town. As we climbed it got windier and colder, so though it can be warm in the town, we were glad we had our winter coats, hats and gloves.

Glastonbury Tor is a distinct prominent hill amongst the Somerset Levels and can be seen from a quite a distance.

It is topped by the roofless St Michael’s Tower. There was originally a wooden church, however that was destroyed by an earthquake in 1275. A stone replacement, the Church of St Michael built on the site in the 14th century and over the centuries has been restored and partially rebuilt several times. Now just the roofless tower remains

The hill and the tower are now managed by the National Trust. Mythically the Tor was thought to be the Isle of Avalon, a legendary island featured in the Arthurian legend. When the surrounding land was swamp, the Tor was essentially an island.

It was back in 1190, that Avalon became associated with Glastonbury, when monks at Glastonbury Abbey claimed to have discovered the bones of Arthur and Guinevere.

It was very windy when we got to the top, but even so the tower provided little protection from the strong winds.

The views though were incredible and it was amazing to see so much of the Somerset levels. Across to the West you can see the Hinkley Point Nuclear Power Station and in the distance to the South West you can see the Quantock Hills.