A Photo Every Hour - Saturday 21st May 2022

May's photo an hour date was Saturday 21st. It was the other half's birthday a few days previously so we went out for a birthday day trip with his choice of destination being the steam trains at West Somerset Railway!

Here's what the day looked like...

9 lovely others joined in:

Andrea joined in on Instagram 

Jennifer joined in on Instagram

Denise joined in on Instagram Stories

Sarah from Sarah Rooftops joined in on Instagram

Bev from Confuzzledom joined in on Instagram

Christine from Christine Lucas joined in on Instagram

Susie from Second Hand Susie joined in on Instagram

Jennifer from Pastry and Purls joined in on Instagram

Jane from Is That You Darling joined in on Instagram Stories

And myself on Instagram and on this blog post :-) 

June's photo an hour date is Saturday 18th - see you there! 

 

 

The Brutalist Playground

**A note - I wrote the majority of the words to this post back in 2018 but never got round to adding the pictures. So just as a little look back (and because I'd already spent time writing it), for what it's worth, here it is. :-) **

Back in 2016 I think, the lovely Sarah Rooftops mentioned that she'd visited an exhibition/playground up in Aberdeen - The Brutalist Playground.

I thought "sounds interesting", enjoyed reading Sarah's thoughts and then left it as that.

Fast forward a year to 2017 and a poster pops up at the arts centre at my workplace - the very same playground, here, for the whole summer, and only a 10 minute walk from my desk. What are the chances of that?

Me and Lily promptly signed up for the first session of the summer to see what it was all about, on 28th June 2017 (4 years ago today). A week or so later I had an email saying that instead of a quiet opening, they were having a launch breakfast with free food and speeches from the architects - which we were both invited to!

We ended up visiting the exhibition about 12 times - we had to take various friends and family on different occasions so they could all have a go too.  

How to describe the playground? Well, imagine lots of large shapes made out of foam or covered with foam (which represents concrete) set on a padded floor and surrounded by wall projections of the brutalist playgrounds of the post-war period. 

It's fascinating to think that playgrounds years ago were often made with concrete and metal; I can remember concrete tunnels at some of my local playgrounds and of course, as a child you didn't give any thought to getting injured. I can't imagine any sort of places being built like that nowadays.

The whole exhibition was very well done and all very good fun - there's not a lot I can really say about it other than if it ever comes to your area, it's well worth a visit! It's usually free and although it's all a bit surreal, it's good entertainment and definitely something that kids (and adults) will enjoy.

Shakespeare in Stratford

Here's another post all about something we did years ago (I mean, let's face it, there isn't exactly a huge amount of trips, holidays and visits I can write about from the last 18 months! Fingers crossed for the future though)

So back in April 2015 we added on an extra week to our usual Easter holiday and meandered our way south from North Wales via the Severn Valley Railway and Stratford upon Avon. We used some Tesco Clubcard Vouchers and bought tickets to visit Shakespeare's Birthplace. 

When we visited the ticket price covered entrance to Shakespeare's Birthplace, Anne Hathaway's Cottage, Hall's Croft (which was the home of Shakespeare's daughter, Susanna and her husband) and I think a couple of other locations too. At the moment though, it looks like only the Birthplace, the Cottage and Shakespeare's New Place are opening this summer. 

(In the spirit of transparency as well I'll add a caveat here that I wasn't massively overwhelmed by Shakespeare's Birthplace; I much preferred Hall's Croft. The day we visited it was quite crowded and it felt very much like you were part of a production line following a snake of people around the one way system in the house. I suspect it was a lot to do with how busy it was that day though and it may well be different on another day). 

We only managed to visit Shakespeare's Birthplace and Hall's Croft as Anne Hathaway's Cottage was a short drive from Stratford. The Birthplace itself is a restored 16th century half-timbered house which you can take a tour around and there's also a museum dedicated to all things Shakespeare and literature. The garden outside has been planted with herbs and flowers similar to what would have been growing in Shakespeare's time. We did think it all felt a bit surreal though: 1) because so much of the house has been restored you're left wondering how much is actually still original and 2) the house is on Henley Street which is just a normal street with shops and cafes. And I know obviously the house wasn't surrounded by shops hundreds of years ago but still, it all feels a bit strange. 

The second place we visited was Hall's Croft, the home of Shakespeare's daughter Susanna and her husband John Hall for a few years. We enjoyed this place more than the official Birthplace as it was quieter and actually felt like someone had lived in it, sort of more authentic (rather than feeling a bit too much like a recreated tourist attraction). The building itself has had many different uses even being used a school in the 1800's and it's been restored really well with an excellent garden too. 

It looks like Tesco have temporarily stopped being able to turn Clubcard vouchers into an entry ticket but even though we weren't overwhelmed by the Birthplace, I think we'd still recommend visiting. It's still an interesting place with a lot of history, especially if you're a Shakespeare or literature fan! 

The Very Blue Newport Transporter Bridge

Another place we visited many years ago on our 'Gavin and Stacey' trip to Barry was Newport Transporter Bridge. Not your usual tourist atttraction but an interesting historic place nonetheless. 

The bridge itself is Grade I listed and crosses the River Usk at its lowest point. It's one of only 6 still operational worldwide and only one of 2 left working in the UK (the other being the Tees Transporter Bridge in Middlesborough). It was built in 1906 and still carries vehicles today when needed. For a small entrance fee, passengers can also ride across in the gondola and access the high level platform and motor house platform. 

It was slightly windy on the day we visited so we just paid to ride across in the gondola and see the views. The trip doesn't take very long but is quite a fun thing to do! 

 

Secret Path to the Severn Crossing

In the month before we had our frozen embryo transfer back in 2015 (which ended up working) we had a couple of good holidays. One road trip after Easter from North Wales back home via the Severn Valley Railway and Stratford upon Avon. The other a long weekend in Barry Island seeing all the Gavin and Stacey sights (which I did actually manage to write a blog post about back in 2017). I took lots of pictures in lots of places and then never really found time to share them. This is one of the things I was going to write about. 

So did you know you can get out onto the old 1966 Severn Bridge and (if you really want to), walk all the way across it? (or at least you could back in 2015, I haven't actually been back to check since so this whole blog post could be misinformation).

Anyway, drive to Severn View Services (which is accessible from both directions on the M48) and park in the car park. From there you can take a short walk to the offical Severn Bridge viewpoint for great views of the bridge and water. Once you've finished at the viewpoint walk back towards the services building (keeping the building on your left) and on your right, there's a little public footpath down some steps which takes you over the motorway. On the other side, turn right onto Bridge Access Road and then you can walk out onto the bridge. If you really wanted to, you could stroll all the way across to Chepstow. 

We didn't go that far across, just far enough to see the views and take some pictures. It's pretty chilly up on the bridge and also, far more bouncy than you'd expect! 

There's a good bit of history about the bridge on the Institute of Civil Engineers website - it was completed in 1966 replacing the Aust car ferry which could only take 19 vehicles at a time. By the mid 1990's it was carrying over 20,000 vehicles a day hence why a second bridge was needed. The Second Severn Crossing (officially known as the Prince of Wales Bridge) opened in 1996 but sadly there's no public footpaths across that one!