I've been looking up some details about the village of Rodmarton - and there's lots of interesting stuff. I'll have to make sure my friend invites me to stay again!
Evidence of a Roman settlement has been found, and several major Roman roads pass close by. Cirencester (a Roman town) is only 6 miles away. There's also a nearby long barrow which looks very interesting. It's called Windmill Tump, and seems to be Neolithic, and is part of the Severn-Cotswold group of long barrows.
While the village was historically inhabited by agricultural workers, the present population of 333 people are mainly in managerial or professional jobs, according to Wikipedia. It's part of the Kemble Estate, and Kemble railway station is nearby. There's even a vaguely local link, as Michael Biddulph, who inherited the Estate in 1884, came from Ledbury in Herefordshire.
There are also strong links to the Arts and Crafts Movement in the area. The nearby hamlet of Tarlton was the site of a pottery which did design work for Wedgewood, and the manor house - well, the manor house is a gem, though it's also very hard to photograph from the road, being very long, and well screened by hedges and walled gardens and orchards.
The present building was built between 1909 and 1929, in the Arts and Crafts style, with Arts and Crafts furniture. Everything was done by hand with local materials and local craftsmen. The stone for the building was quarried locally and brought to the site by a private railway line.
The present owners are the fourth generation of the Biddulph family to live there. Michael Biddulph's son Claud (there's a plaque to his memory in St Peter's Church) provided the money, and the house was built by architect Ernest Barnsley, one of the leading lights of the Cotswold Arts and Crafts Movement, his brother Sidney and his son-in-law. The Biddulphs also wanted to use the house as a place to teach traditional crafts. There are 74 rooms, including one of the last private chapels to be built in England.
Ernest also laid out the 8 acres of gardens, and they are advertising opening times in February to see the snowdrops (I love snowdrops). They also host opera (which I can take or leave) and a rare plant fair.
Friday, 20 December 2019
Tuesday, 17 December 2019
Idyllic Cotswold Weekend
Every year, two old school friends of mine meet up near Christmas to go for lunch at Highgrove, Prince Charles' house just outside Tetbury. For the past three years, I've been going too, and we always have such wonderful fun.
This year was a bit different, because my friend who lives in the Cotswolds is in the middle of moving house, so we decided to camp out at the new place, in the beautiful village of Rodmarton:
This was the original village school, built in 1828, and it's right next to St Peter's Church (which may well have Saxon origins) and looks out onto the village green.
The lunches at Highgrove raise money for the Prince's Trust, but they also have to work around the Prince's diary. In previous years, they've opened for six weeks, and got a lot of extra stock in the shop for Christmas, but this year they were only able to do it for two weeks, so we were quite lucky to get tickets. The food is excellent - I had beef that melted in the mouth, followed by a gingery sweet pudding.
The shop, too, was just the usual shop for people visiting the gardens, with a few extra Christmas things. I was very pleased to see the Christmas Pudding Wine was there, and also managed to get a few Christmas presents.
We also stop at the Honesty shop attached to the Prince's organic farm - you turn up a side lane next to a giant sculpture of a carrot:
So these are the ladies who were in the same class as me at school.
On the way back to the house, we passed a gypsy caravan parked on the grass verge. The chap was selling Christmas wreaths and mistletoe, and we made a fuss of his dog Duchess. The horse was grazing a little way further along the verge.
I've got some lovely mistletoe hanging up in my window now.
This year was a bit different, because my friend who lives in the Cotswolds is in the middle of moving house, so we decided to camp out at the new place, in the beautiful village of Rodmarton:
This was the original village school, built in 1828, and it's right next to St Peter's Church (which may well have Saxon origins) and looks out onto the village green.
The lunches at Highgrove raise money for the Prince's Trust, but they also have to work around the Prince's diary. In previous years, they've opened for six weeks, and got a lot of extra stock in the shop for Christmas, but this year they were only able to do it for two weeks, so we were quite lucky to get tickets. The food is excellent - I had beef that melted in the mouth, followed by a gingery sweet pudding.
The shop, too, was just the usual shop for people visiting the gardens, with a few extra Christmas things. I was very pleased to see the Christmas Pudding Wine was there, and also managed to get a few Christmas presents.
We also stop at the Honesty shop attached to the Prince's organic farm - you turn up a side lane next to a giant sculpture of a carrot:
So these are the ladies who were in the same class as me at school.
On the way back to the house, we passed a gypsy caravan parked on the grass verge. The chap was selling Christmas wreaths and mistletoe, and we made a fuss of his dog Duchess. The horse was grazing a little way further along the verge.
I've got some lovely mistletoe hanging up in my window now.
Monday, 9 December 2019
Star Trek related Deaths
It's been a bad week for the Star Trek community.
First Dorothy Fontana died, and she's been quickly followed by Robert Walker Jr., Rene Auberjonois and the husband of Marina Sirtis.
Robert Walker Jr. played Charlie X in one of the first Star Trek episodes. I also remember him in The War Wagon, a Western starring John Wayne and Kirk Douglas, and he guest starred in several series like Bonanza and The Invaders. He was probably most famous for his role in Easy Rider.
Rene Auberjonois was, of course, Odo in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. A brilliant double act with Quark - and impressive as the editor of the 1950s SF magazine in the episode Far Beyond the Stars.
I was surprised to find, when I looked him up, that he was a direct descendant of Caroline Bonaparte, Napoleon's youngest sister, and Joachim Murat, one of Napoleon's marshals and later King of Naples!
He had a long career in theatre, TV, film, radio and voice work for animated films and series, and video games.
Marina Sirtis, of course, played Deanna Troi in Star Trek: The Next Generation and she will be appearing in Star Trek: Picard. Her husband was Michael Lamper, an actor and rock guitarist.
First Dorothy Fontana died, and she's been quickly followed by Robert Walker Jr., Rene Auberjonois and the husband of Marina Sirtis.
Robert Walker Jr. played Charlie X in one of the first Star Trek episodes. I also remember him in The War Wagon, a Western starring John Wayne and Kirk Douglas, and he guest starred in several series like Bonanza and The Invaders. He was probably most famous for his role in Easy Rider.
Rene Auberjonois was, of course, Odo in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. A brilliant double act with Quark - and impressive as the editor of the 1950s SF magazine in the episode Far Beyond the Stars.
I was surprised to find, when I looked him up, that he was a direct descendant of Caroline Bonaparte, Napoleon's youngest sister, and Joachim Murat, one of Napoleon's marshals and later King of Naples!
He had a long career in theatre, TV, film, radio and voice work for animated films and series, and video games.
Marina Sirtis, of course, played Deanna Troi in Star Trek: The Next Generation and she will be appearing in Star Trek: Picard. Her husband was Michael Lamper, an actor and rock guitarist.
Tuesday, 3 December 2019
Dorothy Fontana has Died
I've just heard that DC Fontana, one of the best writers for Classic Star Trek, and someone who invented almost everything we know about Vulcans, has died. She was 80.
She was the story editor for the original series, after her work on the episodes Charlie X and This Side of Paradise. Other episodes she was responsible for are Tomorrow is Yesterday, Friday's Child, and the wonderful Journey to Babel.
In the third season, as a freelance writer, she wrote The Enterprise Incident, That Which Survives and The Way to Eden (oh, well - the space hippies one was not her finest hour....).
Later she wrote the animated episode Yesteryear, where we finally see Spock's sehlat.
She also worked with Gene Roddenberry on The Questor Tapes and Genesis II (Questor was kind of an early version of Data).
Later she worked on other SF shows, including the original Battlestar Galactica - The Gun on Ice Planet Zero was one of hers, which I remember fondly. It was sort of Guns of Navarone in space. She also worked on Encounter at Farpoint, the pilot episode of Star Trek TNG, and on Babylon 5. She also wrote the Star Trek novel Vulcan's Glory, which I remember snapping up as soon as I saw the author's name.
She attended one of the Star Trek conventions in the 1980s that I went to - I remember being very shy but going up to get her autograph anyway. One of the other guests at that convention was a stuntman friend of Gene Roddenberry's, who had worked on the Errol Flynn film Robin Hood!
She was one of my inspirations when I wanted to become a writer - I've never got any further than self-publishing and blogging, but I know where to look when I want to find out how to write a scene, and how to write three dimensional characters!
Tuesday, 19 November 2019
Sophie Blanchard, Ballooning Pioneer
I went to see the film The Aeronauts last night, in which scientist James Glaisher is taken up in a balloon by Amelia Wren, the widow of a professional balloonist, in 1862. It's based on true incidents - though the ascent in the film was actually made with a male colleague - they broke the record for height, at around 35,000 feet (about 37,000 in the film) and made scientific observations that contributed to the study of meteorology and weather forecasting.
I really enjoyed the film, and did a bit of research when I came home to find that the fictional Amelia Wren was based on some real life women balloonists.
One of the most important of these was the French woman Sophie Blanchard, the first professional woman balloonist. She was married to a balloonist, Jean-Pierre Blanchard, and after he died she continued to make ascents. She also, like Amelia in the film, had a parachuting dog!
She became a favourite of Napoleon, who made her Aeronaut of the Official Festivals, in which role she made ascents to celebrate the birth and baptism of Napoleon's son, as well as at other official occasions. She also crossed the Alps by balloon.
Sadly, her career ended in tragedy, in 1819. She was making a night time ascent from the Tivoli Gardens in Paris, and setting off fireworks, something she had done before. This time, though, one of the fireworks set the hydrogen in her balloon alight and the balloon crashed onto the roof of a nearby house. Sophie was tangled in the netting, and fell from the roof to the street below. She was the first woman to be killed in an aviation accident. Money collected at the time of her death was used to construct a memorial above her grave at Pere Lachaise cemetery, depicting a balloon in flames.
I really enjoyed the film, and did a bit of research when I came home to find that the fictional Amelia Wren was based on some real life women balloonists.
One of the most important of these was the French woman Sophie Blanchard, the first professional woman balloonist. She was married to a balloonist, Jean-Pierre Blanchard, and after he died she continued to make ascents. She also, like Amelia in the film, had a parachuting dog!
She became a favourite of Napoleon, who made her Aeronaut of the Official Festivals, in which role she made ascents to celebrate the birth and baptism of Napoleon's son, as well as at other official occasions. She also crossed the Alps by balloon.
Sadly, her career ended in tragedy, in 1819. She was making a night time ascent from the Tivoli Gardens in Paris, and setting off fireworks, something she had done before. This time, though, one of the fireworks set the hydrogen in her balloon alight and the balloon crashed onto the roof of a nearby house. Sophie was tangled in the netting, and fell from the roof to the street below. She was the first woman to be killed in an aviation accident. Money collected at the time of her death was used to construct a memorial above her grave at Pere Lachaise cemetery, depicting a balloon in flames.
Tuesday, 12 November 2019
The Green Death on Location
I've been watching the 1973 Doctor Who story The Green Death - The One With The Maggots. It's also the one with a very strong environmental message which still looks very topical today.
They did quite a lot of location shooting for the story in South Wales, at a pit head and a disused video tape factory (which became the headquarters of Global Chemicals), and a big slag heap which they covered with giant maggots.
It was a very industrial landscape in those days, but the time of the National Coal Board was coming to an end.
One of the extras on the boxed set was a report from Wales Today, in which Jon Pertwee returned to the area to open a new visitor centre for a nature park. The slag heap had been landscaped, the pit was long gone, and there was a lake.
I looked it up and was pleased to see that Parc Cwm Darran is still there, somewhere near Caerphilly. There's a camp site and various outdoor activities, and they drained the lake in 2006 to turn it into a wetland area for birds.
They did quite a lot of location shooting for the story in South Wales, at a pit head and a disused video tape factory (which became the headquarters of Global Chemicals), and a big slag heap which they covered with giant maggots.
It was a very industrial landscape in those days, but the time of the National Coal Board was coming to an end.
One of the extras on the boxed set was a report from Wales Today, in which Jon Pertwee returned to the area to open a new visitor centre for a nature park. The slag heap had been landscaped, the pit was long gone, and there was a lake.
I looked it up and was pleased to see that Parc Cwm Darran is still there, somewhere near Caerphilly. There's a camp site and various outdoor activities, and they drained the lake in 2006 to turn it into a wetland area for birds.
Friday, 18 October 2019
Space Walk
A friend on Facebook started a watch party today for the first all female space walk from the International Space Station. I wouldn't have realised it was happening otherwise, but she gave me the chance to see it happening live, which was absolutely brilliant!
Women astronauts have been doing space walks for 35 years, but this was the first one where both astronauts were women. Only this March, an all woman space walk was planned, but they found that they didn't have enough space suits of the right size - an unintended consequence of designing for the average man. They tend not to have enough smaller sizes. Mary Robinette Kowal has been eloquent on this sort of design problem.
But, today was the day when Christina Koch and Jessica Meir floated out of the airlock together. Christina Koch is an electrical engineer, and Jessica Meir is a marine biologist - she was interviewed on 'Houston, We Have a Podcast' before she went into space, which was a fascinating insight into her life and career, and how she finally achieved her dream of becoming an astronaut.
They were replacing a battery unit, and once they get into position they have to be tethered to the space station, and all the tools have to be tethered, too. There are rails all over the space station that they use to pull themselves around.
The most fascinating thing to me was that they showed what the astronauts could see via a helmet cam. This really is the closest I will ever come to being in space! There were also good views of the space station itself and, behind it, the Earth in startlingly bright blue and white.
Down on earth, the commentator was also talking to another astronaut about what the space walkers were experiencing, and how they trained - there's an entire replica space station in a pool that they practice on. They can't remove the gravity, but they can have neutral buoyancy by practicing in the water.
Women astronauts have been doing space walks for 35 years, but this was the first one where both astronauts were women. Only this March, an all woman space walk was planned, but they found that they didn't have enough space suits of the right size - an unintended consequence of designing for the average man. They tend not to have enough smaller sizes. Mary Robinette Kowal has been eloquent on this sort of design problem.
But, today was the day when Christina Koch and Jessica Meir floated out of the airlock together. Christina Koch is an electrical engineer, and Jessica Meir is a marine biologist - she was interviewed on 'Houston, We Have a Podcast' before she went into space, which was a fascinating insight into her life and career, and how she finally achieved her dream of becoming an astronaut.
They were replacing a battery unit, and once they get into position they have to be tethered to the space station, and all the tools have to be tethered, too. There are rails all over the space station that they use to pull themselves around.
The most fascinating thing to me was that they showed what the astronauts could see via a helmet cam. This really is the closest I will ever come to being in space! There were also good views of the space station itself and, behind it, the Earth in startlingly bright blue and white.
Down on earth, the commentator was also talking to another astronaut about what the space walkers were experiencing, and how they trained - there's an entire replica space station in a pool that they practice on. They can't remove the gravity, but they can have neutral buoyancy by practicing in the water.
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