I'm an Earley bird now but yes, used to live in the Lynmouth Road, backing onto what was still at the time the SSE site - formerly the power station.

On 09/08/2023 at 00:28, LBRJ said:

Sullivans Diner takes me back...

Used to just about have time to get a sausage butty before departing on the Up Portsmouth!

It's a great little place, and seemed to be doing well. I missed the sausage butty, must remember that if I go again!

We also went to Admiral Benbow's. I wasn't sure if it is mostly a tourist place these days or also used by locals, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. For Scandinavians, the concept of dogs in pubs is exotic and wonderful.

22 hours ago, gwr517 said:

Oh to be able to do that fantastic trip. Thank you Mikkel for sharing and Ihope your mum enjoyed it also.

It brought back memories of my own trip to Penzance in 2017. Sadly it was by bus!!!

A well constucted post also.

Douglas.

 

Thank you Douglas, it was all quite an experience. I hope you enjoyed your trip to Penzance too. I would have liked more time to explore the station environs, but we were on a tight schedule.

There are some interesting photos of the station at different times here: 

http://www.cornwallrailwaysociety.org.uk/penzance-area-to-marazion.html

On 08/08/2023 at 16:02, Neal Ball said:

Thanks for sharing your journey. I wonder if we could do Spain to Penzance and whether it would be as interesting.... 😎

I'm currently mulling over Alicante to Shrewsbury this year, although the planning and logistics fills me with dread!

Mike.

Wonderful account of your trip, Mikkel - much appreciated.

20 hours ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

I'm currently mulling over Alicante to Shrewsbury this year, although the planning and logistics fills me with dread!

 

Mike.

I managed to do Alicante to St Pancras with an overnight in Barcelona and then a separate journey PDN to PZ.

Very expensive @350€ just to get to the UK! 

That sounds a most interesting trip, right the way through. Hope your mum stood up to the rigours of West Cornwall.  As to the avoiding line at Reading, the Southern inherited a station from the SER, which from all accounts degenerated into a right dive, before BR brought an extension up into the GWR station, and closed the old place. In living memory it had another platform stitched on, so with the station rebuild it’s now platforms 4,5, and 6, at the south eastern corner.

The train services using it are off the ex LSWR to London Waterloo, South Western Trains third rail, and former ex SER services  through Guildford and beyond in the Redhill direction, now to Gatwick airport, and these were gifted to the Western to run with d.m.u’s. Consequently, the SWR e.m.u’s are stabled from the London end, but the GW d.m.u s have to nest at the new depot, out west of the station on the north side. The goods fly under from the GWR relief lines on the north side to the SR line had been lifted with rundown of goods trains, but with the station rebuild it was reinstated, as good for getting the empty dmus from the depot to the southern platforms without having to snarl up all the GWR routes.

On 10/08/2023 at 16:10, Barry Ten said:

Wonderful account of your trip, Mikkel - much appreciated.

Thanks Al. When the ferry connections from England to Denmark closed down some years ago, flying seemed the only practical option to cross the North Sea, so it was good to see that going via the Chunnel is a realistic alternative.

On 11/08/2023 at 19:28, Northroader said:

That sounds a most interesting trip, right the way through. Hope your mum stood up to the rigours of West Cornwall.  As to the avoiding line at Reading, the Southern inherited a station from the SER, which from all accounts degenerated into a right dive, before BR brought an extension up into the GWR station, and closed the old place. In living memory it had another platform stitched on, so with the station rebuild it’s now platforms 4,5, and 6, at the south eastern corner.

The train services using it are off the ex LSWR to London Waterloo, South Western Trains third rail, and former ex SER services  through Guildford and beyond in the Redhill direction, now to Gatwick airport, and these were gifted to the Western to run with d.m.u’s. Consequently, the SWR e.m.u’s are stabled from the London end, but the GW d.m.u s have to nest at the new depot, out west of the station on the north side. The goods fly under from the GWR relief lines on the north side to the SR line had been lifted with rundown of goods trains, but with the station rebuild it was reinstated, as good for getting the empty dmus from the depot to the southern platforms without having to snarl up all the GWR routes.

Thanks for those insights Northroader, I wasn't sure what the recent development entailed.

I have a side interest in the LB&SCR, so have always been a bit annoyed that it was the SECR who made it to Reading (with all due respect to the lovely SECR) . A GWR/LBSCR exchange siding layout would be interesting!

(hence my long-term idea for such a layout at Battersea:)

4 hours ago, Mikkel said:

 

Thanks Al. When the ferry connections from England to Denmark closed down some years ago, flying seemed the only practical option to cross the North Sea, so it was good to see that going via the Chunnel is a realistic alternative.

 

 

Thanks for those insights Northroader, I wasn't sure what the recent development entailed.

 

I have a side interest in the LB&SCR, so have always been a bit annoyed that it was the SECR who made it to Reading (with all due respect to the lovely SECR) . A GWR/LBSCR exchange siding layout would be interesting!

 

(hence my long-term idea for such a layout at Battersea:)

 

 

Mikkel,

The old SER line down to Guilford is still quite slow and has diesel multiple units.  It is joined at Wokingham for the run into Reading by the old LSWR line.  I was tempted to model the area although my local station would be just two lines in a field in Pre-Grouping times, but the thought of salmon pink coaches  put me off.  (Not sure what number it would be on the 'to do' list anyway even if I was going to do it.)

Fabulous and entertaining (as always) read Mikkel.

Thanks for sharing 👍🏼

In Small Talk at Wreyland (3 Vols., 1918-21), Cecil Torr recounts a dream in which he was frustrated to discover that the Penzance dining carriage did not run through to Brindisi.

Thanks everyone for the comments  - and apologies for the late response, it's been a bit hectic here. 

The trip awoke an urge to do some architectural modelling beyond station facilities. I must restrain myself and wait until the main station building at Farthing is done, but in the meantime I am trying to get familiar with the different period styles. It seems simple when you read about it, but once confronted with real buildings I tend to get confused. Clearly I need to develop "the eye" for this sort of thing.

Below is a surviving warehouse just across from the former Vastern Rd Yard at Reading. As I later found out, the lettering says "Smallbone Ltd":

Here it is in a crop from a 1948 photo on Britain from Above:

Also at Reading, a row in a style that seems very widespread in that town, though I can't quite identify period and style:

This nice row is on Newbury's Bartholomew Street, where it crosses the GWR line.

Also on Newbury's Bartholomew Street, note sagging roof:

A little further down the same street, the building on the right seems Victorian to me, but again I am not sure.

1 hour ago, Mikkel said:

Also at Reading, a row in a style that seems very widespread in that town, though I can't quite identify period and style:

 

Just round the corner is our first house, which being on a side-street is less grand - no attic rooms, bay window to ground floor only, and flat rather than arched porch lintels. As Kit says, late 19th / very early 20th century. Reading's terraced housing is very distinctive through its use of polychrome brickwork - making great use of a grey brick made locally, at Tilehurst. (Though from the place-name, I suppose bricks came second.) 

[From various Estate Agents' websites. The last one is Lynmouth Road, where we lived.]

The same fancy brickwork can be seen in the town centre, if one raises one's gaze above the shop-fronts and the grey brick was used for Waterhouse's Town Hall:

[Embedded link.]

Newbury didn't have the 19th century industrialisation of Reading so much of its architecture is older - as Kit says, likely medieval or 16th/17th century buildings behind 18th century facades. I imagine Farthing to be more like that - unless there's some Farthing biscuit factory we've yet to hear of?

10 hours ago, kitpw said:

 

...and all over late Victorian / turn of the century London as well.

 

...a bit earlier I think: the storey heights suggest it could be pretty old, possibly a timber frame which has had a brick facade added by way of an upgrade or repair. The ground outside appears to have been graded to respect an earlier road/pavement level.

 

A nice collection of buildings.

 

At less than £3 s/h, the Observer's Book of Architecture (I think now out of print) is an excellent investment. Amazon have several for sale: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Observers-Architecture-Forewordby-Written-Illustrated/dp/1854710397. Very good for a general sense of dating and style.

Thank you Kit. Turns out that the book is available from a Danish secondhand dealer - I'm going to see if I can get hold of it!

9 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Just round the corner is our first house, which being on a side-street is less grand - no attic rooms, bay window to ground floor only, and flat rather than arched porch lintels. As Kit says, late 19th / very early 20th century. Reading's terraced housing is very distinctive through its use of polychrome brickwork - making great use of a grey brick made locally, at Tilehurst. (Though from the place-name, I suppose bricks came second.) 

 

 

[From various Estate Agents' websites. The last one is Lynmouth Road, where we lived.]

 

The same fancy brickwork can be seen in the town centre, if one raises one's gaze above the shop-fronts and the grey brick was used for Waterhouse's Town Hall:

 

 

[Embedded link.]

 

Newbury didn't have the 19th century industrialisation of Reading so much of its architecture is older - as Kit says, likely medieval or 16th/17th century buildings behind 18th century facades. I imagine Farthing to be more like that - unless there's some Farthing biscuit factory we've yet to hear of?

Thanks Stephen, I thought you might recognise it! Polychrome brickwork, that's a new term for me but very clear in the photos you show.

The dating is also helpful from both of you, thank you. My efforts have been directed at trying to distinguish the main architectural styles as presented e.g. here: 

https://www.mayfairoffice.co.uk/members-home/British-Architectural-Styles

... although a main point coming out is that the main styles all tended to include great variation, including revival of former styles and adoption of local ones. But that is convoluted nature of history, I suppose.

Thanks Nick, it looks very good even in black and white:

M.E. Fuggles, Christ's Hospital, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

23 hours ago, Nick Holliday said:

The usual term when applied to brickwork is polychromatic. 

Curious. In the various readily-accessible online articles I've looked at [W...] the term used is polychrome brickwork or polychromy; certainly in relation to Ruskin's advocacy and Butterfield's use of it. For a non-W instance, see:

https://www.keble.ox.ac.uk/about/architecture-gardens/.

5 minutes ago, Nick Holliday said:

Sorry if I came over rather too strongly. The first time I was aware of the style, over fifty years ago, it was described as polychromatic, and the term obviously got lodged in my brain and, since then, I must have been using autocorrect whenever I saw the word polychrome. I did check online before posting, and, although the two words are synonymous, it was only in the polychromatic meanings that Oxford actually quoted “polychromatic brickwork “.

Being married to the dictionary I'm alert to these things!