Castle Aching

[Edwardian]

Not a lot has happened. 

 

Bailey Street, so far as it exists (i.e. on the rear board) is surfaced.  The stout workmen of the Castle Aching Rural District Council have not stopped there.  Oh no.  They have been laying paving slabs along each side of the street, but have knocked off today in order to imbibe intoxicants at The Dodo.  Perhaps they will finish tomorrow.

 

Castle Aching RDC has also been at its most officious best, having served notice on J H Ahern that he jolly well needs to decide what it is he sells and to stock his shop tout de suite, as his shop must now be cemented in place before flags are laid beside it.  Parishioners will be notified of developments as and when they occur.

 

I have now found the screws and spring for No.1, so perhaps we shall need to wait another year before an update regarding the branch locomotive. 

 

No pictures of this modest progress, unfortunately, as both camera batteries are flat and I cannot for the life of me remember what a did with the charger.  Spent much of today hunting high and low, to no avail.

 

Searching through a modest stash of old kits I discover that boxes containing Ratio LNWR 50' corridor coaches each contained additional, foreign, sides.  Those of 2 Thirds and 1 6-compartment Brake Third from the Midland Suburban series.  This is serendipity to the point of downright spookiness, coming, as it does, after I was kindly supplied with the conversion article and the sight of some GE 6-wheeler conversions, courtesy of J Wealleans, Rovex, Stewart Ingram and all those who helped. No idea how I ended up with these spare sides.  Will need to buy more roofs!

[corneliuslundie]

We are planning a rail connected dairy on our club layout but have seen that brewery I am seriously thinking of suggesting an alternative liquid producing industry.

Jonathan

[Nearholmer]

although my favourite beer is Harvey's, my favourite brewery is Hook Norton. Not only is the place fascinating, the setting is superb. https://www.hooky.co.uk/visit-us/brewery-tours.ashx. Go to the bottom of the linked page, and you get a sort of google street view of the brewery yard, with the added bonus that it lets you go inside and wander about the place!

 

From a railway point of view, though, Oakhill in Somerset has to be best, in that it had its own 30" gauge line to the "main" railway, or maybe Guinness in Dublin, with a spiral on 18" gauge, to link levels.

 

Kevin

Edited May 20, 2017 by Nearholmer

[Donw]

although my favourite beer is Harvey's, my favourite brewery is Hook Norton. Not only is the place fascinating, the setting is superb. https://www.hooky.co.uk/visit-us/brewery-tours.ashx. Go to the bottom of the linked page, and you get a sort of google street view of the brewery yard, with the added bonus that it lets you go inside and wander about the place!

 

From a railway point of view, though, Oakhill in Somerset has to be best, in that it had its own 30" gauge line to the "main" railway, or maybe Guinness in Dublin, with a spiral on 18" gauge, to link levels.

 

Kevin

 

What about Burtons quite a it of railway http://www.burton-on-trent.org.uk/category/amenities/railway/railway2

 

Don

[Nearholmer]

Standard gauge!

 

(Sorry, I have trouble shaking-off my allegiance to narrow gauge, especially sub-2ft gauge. To get the accolade "very best", I think would require Hook Norton, linked to the GWR by an 18" gauge tramway, but since that never happened, I can only fantasise.)

 

K

Edited May 20, 2017 by Nearholmer

[Northroader]

Beware of "old hooky" if you get to a third pint, you'll find something mysterious has happened to your knees. I liked the way they did the local deliveries with horses and a dray, very picturesque and needing to be modelled.

[St Enodoc]

Beware of "old hooky" if you get to a third pint, you'll find something mysterious has happened to your knees. I liked the way they did the local deliveries with horses and a dray, very picturesque and needing to be modelled.

Marston's Owd Roger has much the same effect.

[Fenman]

Shadow made the excellent suggestion of a Dodo.

 

We have a Ship to represent the Birchoverhams (Market, Town, Staithe, Thorpe, and Next the Sea) an important commercial centre.

 

We have a Mitre to represent Bishop's Lynn.

 

We have a Castle to represent Castle Aching.

 

I stuck a cross in the first quarter as I could not think of anything else at the time, but then Dave mentioned the Dodo, symbol of the Erstwhile dynasty.  Perfect.  So, in it goes.

 

I think you will agree that Phil has excelled himself with this:

 

Apologies for arriving ludicrously late to this party - work interfering with the smooth running of my social life. I love the arms!

 

Someone earlier in the thread posted the current arms for King's Lynn and West Norfolk, a modern confection that dates from local government reorganisation in the 1970s. The seagull on top was lifted from Hunstanton's arms, while the symbolic representation of Lynn chucked into the mix was the cross emerging from the dragon's head - originally the symbol of Margaret of Antioch, who gave her name to St Margaret's church (the foundation monastery in Lynn, created by Bishop Herbert de Losinga and around which the town was built. Now renamed Lynn Minster, for some reason).

 

Anyway, the ownership of the town - by either Bishop or Monarch - would surely be shown in the stuff that was drawn above the main symbol for the town (likely to be a crown of some sort, or a mitre, depending)? The actual symbol of Lynn would still be Margaret's slain dragon.

 

Incidentally, before the seagull flew in to claim dominance, the symbol on top of Lynn's arms was a Pelican plucking blood from its breast to feed its young. A gory (and surprisingly Catholic) symbol. I remember it well: it was used as the badge of office for prefects at my ridiculous grammar school.

 

Paul

[Edwardian]

Welcome back to the party!

 

Quite common, that Pelican feeding its young with her own blood, as, of course, it was taken up as a symbol of Christ's sacrifice. Appropriately enough, it's featured in the arms of Corpus Christi, Cambridge.

 

Sadly, for Castle Aching, the Dodo of legend was associated with no such practice.

 

For my part, I tend mainly to associate the pelican with the verse of Ogden Nash ....

[Northroader]

Since I was going on about Hook Norton brewery earlier, I found a photo I took Feb. 1997 of the dray setting out in the morning with a local delivery. An every day sort of job, rather than the parade they put on at county shows and the rest.

[wagonman]

Welcome back to the party!

 

Quite common, that Pelican feeding its young with her own blood, as, of course, it was taken up as a symbol of Christ's sacrifice. Appropriately enough, it's featured in the arms of Corpus Christi, Cambridge.

 

Sadly, for Castle Aching, the Dodo of legend was associated with no such practice.

 

For my part, I tend mainly to associate the pelican with the verse of Ogden Nash ....

 

 

I can only remember the last line: "his beak can hold more than his belly can". Must dig out my Nash anthology...

[Donw]

Wasn't that written by Dixon Lanier Meritt  but often incorrectly tributed to Nash

 

Don

 

edit 

A wonderful bird is the Pelican

 

His beak can hold more than his Belly can

 

He can hold in his Beak

 

Enough food for a week

 

But I don't know how the Hell he can

 

 

 

for those who have forgotten it

Edited May 21, 2017 by Donw

[ChrisN]

Wasn't that written by Dixon Lanier Meritt  but often incorrectly tributed to Nash

 

Don

 

edit 

A wonderful bird is the Pelican

 

His beak can hold more than his Belly can

 

He can hold in his Beak

 

Enough food for a week

 

But I don't know how the Hell he can

 

 

 

for those who have forgotten it

 

My mum only told me the first two lines, I wonder why......

[Shadow]

And a local CA version

 

The poor dodo is no longer heard.

It is gone, and "extinct" is the word.

It's now famous, it's said,

For the fact that it's dead,

This gentle and comical bird.

 

(Anon.)

Edited May 21, 2017 by Shadow

[Shadow]

A wonderful bird was the Dodo,

But a flight through the air was a no no,

No longer to be found,

Anywhere on the ground,

As dead as the proverbial .... dinosaur!

 

(Shadow)

Edited May 21, 2017 by Shadow

[Edwardian]

Something a little more modest, for Castle Aching, but a useful source of traffic (and on the spot refreshment)

 

Something like this, perhaps?

[ChrisN]

That seems about right.  Where would it go or would it be off scene/on the back scene?

[Nearholmer]

Please, please include the Trunch Brewery, and a figure representing Henry Kipper, who would probably have been a very small boy in your period, outside of it.

 

K

 

PS: having consulted the official record, I find this:

 

"Henry Kipper, younger son of William and Sarah, was born on the day World War I broke out. His father noted in his diary at the time "This is the end of civilisation as we know it". Strangely, though, he made no mention of the War."

 

So, the figures will have to be his parents, in happier times.

Edited May 21, 2017 by Nearholmer

[Edwardian]

Please, please include the Trunch Brewery, and a figure representing Henry Kipper, who would probably have been a very small boy in your period, outside of it.

 

 

 

Oh, all right then!

 

 

That seems about right.  Where would it go or would it be off scene/on the back scene?

 

Good question.  I am thinking front left-hand board, framing the scene somewhat at the front-left, behind the turntable and across the road from the station.

 

Might take a while to get that far, mind you!

[Nearholmer]

And, to add, here is a highly appropriate ditty, from the Kipper Family repertoire:

 

Title: The Innocent Dodo - Album: Like A Rhinestone Ploughboy - Artist: Sid Kipper

 

I prithee good ladies and lordies attend

Give ear to my sorrowful load-o

By means of this ballad I now do intend

To sing you in praise of the Dodo

In far off Mauritia the dodo do dwell

Halfway to the far antipode-o

And if we would serve her then this I must tell

It should not be parboiled a la mode-o

 

For if the poor creature is but to keep goin'

Our slogan must be stop the bloody dodo-in'

 

Well the dodo in the morning she falls from her nest

If she could she would surely have flowed-o

She returns in the evening to take her sweet rest

Though how she ascends I am blowed-o

And all in her season she'll go with her mates

By them she will soon be bestrode-o

And as she may dally with seven or eight

Then 'tis clear that she risks overload-o

 

And as she must put up with all of this stuff

I ask dost thou not think she's suffered enough ?

 

Oh how many roads must a Dodo walk down

Before you can call her a dodo ?

And how many seas must a white dodo sail

Before she can sleep in the road-o ?

Ripe fruit and berries, and nuts that are nice

In the bird's stomach are stowed-o

Be grateful, good people, the Dodo don't fly

For t'would danger you when she unload-o

 

And if you should question on what she has dined

The answer my friend will be blowing in the wind

 

And so on my tunic this message I spell:

God save the king and the Dodo as well.

[Les le Breton]

Since I was going on about Hook Norton brewery earlier, I found a photo I took Feb. 1997 of the dray setting out in the morning with a local delivery. An every day sort of job, rather than the parade they put on at county shows and the rest.IMG_1046.JPG

Whilst considering various breweries, perhaps Wadworth brewery in Devizes is worth considering, their 6X is a dream liquid, well worth falling over with.

 

 

I visited there with my dad a few years ago and I think they still have their team of drays.

[Nearholmer]

No, no, no, I didn't compose the above. Google "Kipper Family".

 

K

[wagonman]

Whilst considering various breweries, perhaps Wadworth brewery in Devizes is worth considering, their 6X is a dream liquid, well worth falling over with.

 

Wadworth dray.jpg

 

I visited there with my dad a few years ago and I think they still have their team of drays.

 

 

I remember the Wadworth drays around Devizes from my school days, but I was strictly forbidden from sampling the product! Also Young & Co in Wandsworth when I was of an age to sample the wares. Actually preferred Fullers.The brewery calculated that with a compact pub estate it was more economical to use horse drays, even in the 1970s, though lorries serviced the further flung parts.

 

The Letheringsett Brewery here in Norfolk – a rather grander affair in its day than the Trunch – used to send its drays out on trips of up to 30 miles or more in a day, the draymen having to also work in the brewery or malthouse, and on the farm. Lots of information can be gleaned from 'Mary Hardy's Diaries' edited by Margaret Bird. My copy is at the bottom of a pile of books behind the sofa so you'll have to look up the reference yourself if you're interested!

 

 

Richard

[Donw]

Whilst considering various breweries, perhaps Wadworth brewery in Devizes is worth considering, their 6X is a dream liquid, well worth falling over with.

 

Wadworth dray.jpg

 

I visited there with my dad a few years ago and I think they still have their team of drays.

 

Sadly I don't think they would have put 6X in the half of shandy I would enjoy with my Grandfather in the Moonrakers but I did enjoy one in the Black Horse having walked from Seend up the Caen locks to Devises a couple of years back. For me as a boy the Station at Devizes was more exciting than the Beer.

 

The Trunch Brewery does look about right for Castle Aching. Perhaps a barrel on tap under the layout?

Don

[Donington Road]

Sadly I don't think they would have put 6X in the half of shandy I would enjoy with my Grandfather in the Moonrakers but I did enjoy one in the Black Horse having walked from Seend up the Caen locks to Devises a couple of years back. For me as a boy the Station at Devizes was more exciting than the Beer.

 

The Trunch Brewery does look about right for Castle Aching. Perhaps a barrel on tap under the layout?

Don

 

The best beer in the East that is worthy of gracing Castle Acre is Adnams Broadside which comes from here

 

 

then delivered in style