ORIGINAL MESSAGE
NAME: James (Jas) Cowen
.jpg "James Cowen gallery")
Then & NowDATE: 26 October 2013
CONNECTION WITH QE: pupil 1956-63
I recently paid 2 visits to site attractions I would recommend to the site readers. Antony House is a private residence near Torpoint on the other side of the river Tamar from Plymouth. It is open several times a week on Tues to Thurs by the National Trust. It is fairly modest in size by NT standards but interestingly is lived in by the aristocratic family, the Carews and has all the rooms open including several bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. The owner if around enjoys talking to us visitors. There are also plesant gardens and woodland walks. The other visit we made was to Bletchley Park. Not only was it interesting to see the exhibits plus films of the wartime work there but the National Computer Centre has much on the development of computers over the years for those of us remembering ZX80s,ZX81s,Sinclair Spectrums, BBC connected Acorns, Vic 20s etc as well as the huge early computers. The Winston Churchill exhibition room was also much enjoyed.
I have visited various National Trust properties this summer. At one of them, one of the volunteers gave me some info, which I did not know before but which some readers may find useful also if in the same ignorant position. There are two sites on the Internet: BBC Your Paintings and BBC Your Pictures that have been set up by the Public Catalogue Foundation. On them you may look at National Trust sites and other sites such as museums and see copies of the paintings or pictures with descriptions and info about them. It also cross-references other works by the same artist on the BBC Your Painntings site. When I last looked there were 212,080 paintings to view.
Then & NowDATE: 23 November 2015
CONNECTION WITH QE: pupil 56-63
Since last writing on this thread I noticed when visiting the National Trust property at Wimpole Hall in Cambridgeshire that there was a hard copy book now produced by the Public Catalogue Foundation of Oil Paintings of the National Trust, Eastern Region. I have now got my own copy through Amazon and also of some of the other regions (South and West of England.) Maybe others would like to get their own copies, useful when visiting the relevant NT properties.
DATE: 23 November 2015
CONNECTION WITH QE: inmate 1957-64
Very interesting James - it would also be useful if such publications commented on the quality of the property's cafeteria. A "nice hot cup of tea" with chunk of coffee and walnut cake is usually most welcome at the end of a visit!
Then & NowDATE: 25 November 2015
CONNECTION WITH QE: pupil 56-63
Maybe, Stephen, there is a book published about the tea rooms and restaurants of the National Trust. I would not be surprised, as there are books produced on nearly every subject under the sun, especially in regard to the NT. I find generally the fare in tea rooms and restaurants tends to be very similar. I especially like in cooked meals the use of vegetables grown on the property's veg patch as well as beef and other produce from their own tenant farmers' animals. The peas at Stourhead are lovely, better than the usual pub frozen variety. My wife and I tend to share a slice of cake when we have pots of teas at properties, although sometimes we splash out and have two different slices of cake. There are ads for about five of their tea rooms here.
DATE: 25 November 2015
CONNECTION WITH QE: pupil 1957-63
Interesting what you have to say about the catering Steve [reply 2]. As a volunteer at Blickling I receive a weekly email newsletter about what has happened or is happening at the property. Always included are visitor comments and catering is often high on the list with mostly good remarks, I'm pleased to say. Several years ago before I retired my wife and I used to alternate between visiting Blickling or Felbrigg, although the latter was considerably further to travel purely because Felbrigg had the better cakes! Blickling has definitely caught up and I can recommend the restaurant. Due to the unfortunate death of the previous stamp shop manager, I have now been asked to take his place so any old boys visiting are very welcome to pop their heads through the door of the shop. I am usually there Saturday mornings or Sunday afternoons.
Then & NowDATE: 27 November 2015
CONNECTION WITH QE: pupil 56-63
A week ago on Saturday my wife and I were in Cardiff and for part of the day we visited the National Museum to look at the art sections. I noticed in the shop that they had a book of their oil paintings in the same format as that of the National Trust books I have purchased but at a much greater cost (£35 as compared with £9 but probably the price is greatly reduced on one of the Amazon referenced suppliers). I am not likely to purchase one but I thought I would mention for anyone interested that museum collections are comprehensively shown in the same way as the NT volumes. In regard to the art in the museum they have a fine collection of Old Masters paintings but also a section of the work of Welsh artists and also modern 20th century art. For those interested there are also collections of porcelain and sections on archaeology, botany, geology and zoology.
Then & NowDATE: 27 November 2015
CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 54-59
I'm glad you found so much of interest during your visit to the National Museum, Jas. Angela and I usually pop in there on our occasional visits to the capital. Parking is a bit of a nightmare of course, but we know of plenty of side streets in the suburbs where you can park with no restrictions. Then we either walk through Bute Park (well worth a visit) or use our bus passes to get to the city centre. Speaking of Bute Park, I imagine you would also find a visit to Cardiff Castle worthwhile. It's a 19th century fake built by Lord Bute, the coal magnate. His other fake castle, Castell Coch, is a delightful fairytale affair just north of Cardiff on the A470. It has one of the better cafeterias of all the Cadw properties (Cadw is roughly equivalent to English Heritage - it looks after most of the hundred or so real castles in Wales as well as a number of fakes). When in the general area of Cardiff, you might also consider visiting St Fagan's Museum of Welsh Life, which is not far from Cardiff, on the A4232. There are a lot of buildings there from various parts of Wales. Each brick or stone etc was numbered before the buildings were carefully demolished, then rebuilt at St Fagan's. These include a church (restored to its mediaeval state), a tollbooth, a miners' institute and a whole terrace of miners' houses, each decorated and furnished in the manner of a different period, up to (I think) the 1970s.
Then & NowDATE: 02 December 2015
CONNECTION WITH QE: pupil 56-63
In regard to your reply 6, Vic, my wife and I have visited the inside of Cardiff Castle in the past. We have not yet visited Castell Coch nor the St Fagan's Museum of Welsh Life but I have certainly now put them on my list of places I would like to visit. St Fagan's looks particularly of interest, as we have visited Blist's Hill Victorian Town near Telford twice this year including singing rousing songs in the local pub. On this recent visit to Cardiff a visit to the National Museum was a far better thing for us considering the weather of pelting rain and strong winds, which succeeded in demolishing my wife's umbrella, despite her best efforts to resist.
Then & NowDATE: 15 December 2015
CONNECTION WITH QE: pupil 56-63
In regard to our recent visit to Cardiff, it did take me back a little to my auditing days with Whinney Murray (now part of Ernst and Young). A small team of us used to travel from Cardiff by car up the Welsh valleys to do the audit of South Wales Switchgear Ltd. We stayed in Cardiff in the Queens Hotel in Queens Street, which, perhaps not at all surprisingly, does not appear to be there now, though of course there are loads of other current hotels. I was of course struck by the great changes from those days including the vastly increased traffic, though as an auditor having just passed my test I just managed to avoid colliding with a bus. Now there are vast shopping alleys and arcades, where you certainly can keep out of the torrential rain. We spent nothing apart from lunch in Debenhams, which was rather good and reasonably priced, but of course our wish was to go to the National Museum rather than to spend our money on material goods.
.jpg "Nigel Wood")
DATE: 18 December 2015
CONNECTION WITH QE: pupil 1957-64
I'm lucky enough to be able to spend some time in Cardiff every year, as I set some A-level papers for WJEC/CBAC (Welsh Joint Education Committee as was, Eduqas for England). Their main centre is in Western Avenue, and when I go to meetings there I can walk all the way to the city centre (some twenty minutes) via a wide strip of parkland (Pontcanna Fields at the Northern end, running into Bute Park at the Southern (city) end). On the other side of Western Avenue, a few hundred yards North of it, lies Llandaff (or, properly, Llandaf) with its cathedral - a lovely peaceful area. It's a shame about Western Avenue (which acts as a sort of mid Northern bypass) because without it there'd be an unbroken green walk, never far from the river Taff, between Cardiff Castle (almost in the city centre) and the cathedral.
Then & NowDATE: 18 December 2015
CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 54-59
Nigel, there's a foot-tunnel under Western Avenue, quite near to WJEC/CBAC. We use it sometimes when we walk from Llandaf, having parked the car in a side street. After the tunnel, many different walks into Cardiff are possible, as there are so many paths criss-crossing the extensive parkland. A favourite route of ours takes us over the weir on the Taff. Cormorants and a heron tend to lurk at the foot of the weir, waiting for fish stunned after overshooting it. Clever but lazy! Another route we favour is a totally different one which takes us past the Mochyn Du pub in Sophia Gardens (on the other side of the river from Bute Park), which is a bit of a magnet for the Welsh speakers of Cardiff. Good food, too! When the National Eisteddfod was held in Pontcanna Fields in 2008, the Mochyn Du did very well indeed out of it. Not that it will happen again - local residents were furious at the churned-up state of the fields after the event and the council reluctantly banned further visits by the 'National'.
Then & NowDATE: 09 September 2016
CONNECTION WITH QE: pupil 56-63
At last my wife and I have visited the National Trust property Castle Drogo in Devon. We have wanted to visit for some time and this summer we managed it. Unfortunately (to a certain extent) they are halfway through a major project to make the property watertight and many of the usual room contents have been consigned to packing boxes. However there were still much of interest left in the rooms including some displays by 3 modern artists. We enjoyed looking at the many plants in the garden, despite the rain falling. Afterwards we enjoyed having tea in the tea room and walked down to the River Teign on some footpaths. I would recommend a visit by others in spite of the construction work occurring, which in itself may be of interest to those construction minded. The walk down from the castle was accompanied by loud music from a large tent in a field on the estate, either a local rave or celebrating a wedding, anniversary or some such. We left our camper van also in one of the fields on the estate down below the castle, judging the road up to be very narrow and a strain on the van's engine. Some local ladies, whom we talked to said "What do you expect? This is Devon."
DATE: 11 September 2016
CONNECTION WITH QE: pupil 1957-64
I expect to be doing my fortnightly stint as room guide at C Drogo (reply 11) this coming Wednesday, starting by giving an 'Early Bird' tour before the castle is properly open and touching on the rather extraordinary story of how the castle came to be built. On some days project tours and conservation tours are also offered - learn the official NT distinction between dust and dirt, and much else besides! I hope, James, that you and Ayleen enjoyed the wonderful Lutyens architecture, the Char de Triomphe tapestry made for Louis XIV, at present displayed opposite Grayson Perry's Map of Truths and Beliefs (kindly lent), and the humour of some of the installations.
Then & NowDATE: 05 October 2016
CONNECTION WITH QE: pupil 56-63
We did enjoy all that you mention, Nigel, apart from Grayson Perry's Truths and Beliefs, which is not to our taste. Congratulations to you on being able to continue to guide other visitors on interesting topics at the castle.
Then & NowDATE: 01 August 2017
CONNECTION WITH QE: pupil 56-63
My wife and I recently visited the Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle in County Durham. It does cost a bit of cash to enter but I would recommend it to OE readers on this site. It is a smaller version of the V&A but in the north in a smallish market town.
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