James Clay Stuff

Back in 1979 I did a school trip to York, as well as visiting Fountains Abbey, we also went to the National Railway Museum. Though I was at the University of York in the late 1980s, I never actually got around to visiting the museum again until 2013 when we went on a holiday to North Yorkshire. I also visited again ten years later in 2023.

The museum is undergoing something of a refurbishment, and the Station Hall, which had been closed for updating, was open again, which is one of the reasons for visiting.

Essentially the place is full of locomotives, steam, diesel, and electric. It covers the history of railways in the UK from their humble beginnings, through expansion, consolidation with the “big four”, nationalisation, and privatisation.

I really enjoyed visiting the museum and for those interested (not just in trains but) industrial heritage it is well worth a trip to York.

May 12, 2026

Then and Now Take Two Once More – Cheddar Yeo Sword

This is a regular series of blogs about photographs of the same place taken years apart. 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.

I took this photograph of the Cheddar Yeo Sword in May 2026 using an iPhone 17 Pro Max.

I took this photograph of the Cheddar Yeo Sword a month before, in April 2026 using an iPhone 17 Pro Max.

I took this photograph in August 2025 using an iPhone 13.

Back in January 2024, I was having a short walk in Cheddar after the storms and the Cheddar Yeo stream was a real torrent of water. I took a photograph of the Cheddar Yeo Sword being bombarded by the water. This was taken with an iPhone 13.

I checked my older photographs of Cheddar after taking that photograph and there was this very similar photograph I had taken in Cheddar in May 2021 from almost the same perspective. This was taken with an iPhone 8.