Lockdown look back #3: July 2017 - Thurrock Thameside Nature Reserve, Mucking, Essex

As most of us continue to slowly - and hopefully permanently - emerge from lock-down (although with those like myself still having to shield until the 1st August) it's occurred to me that it's been a couple of months since the last in my series of "Lockdown Look Back" posts featuring some of my escapades in the 3½ years I was absent from this blog.  So without further ado (or further adon't) let me take you back three years to the day to the 1st July 2017, where we find ourselves in the somewhat different but no less interesting surroundings of Thurrock Thameside Nature Reserve on the banks of the Thames Estuary and just outside the hamlet of Mucking in Essex.

source - Essex Wildlife Trust

The history of this nature reserve is a fascinating and convoluted one.  Like so much of this area bordering east London and the river it started life as a gravel quarry (although its ancient history can be traced all the way back to a Stone Age settlement) before becoming a landfill site for 50 years.  In 2012 it was finally closed as a tip and work began to return it to nature under the auspices of The Cory Environmental Trust, DP World Port and the Essex Wildlife Trust.  The 100ft-high piles of waste - half a century's worth of household rubbish from six London boroughs - was first covered over by a layer of thick clay (fortunately also found in abundance in this part of the world) before fresh soil and suitable plants were added.  A varied landscape of grassland, woodland, ponds and reedbeds has been created, with the seawall at the east end of the site being deliberately breached to allow the area to revert to marshland.

source - Essex Wildlife Trust

An ingenuously-designed visitor centre was also built in 2013 - wood-clad and circular in shape it has wonderful views of the entire reserve as well as the estuary, not least from the 360º viewing platform on its roof, and sits on hydraulic jacks that allow for the movement of the rubbish beneath as it continues to settle.

I can certainly attest to the excellence of the visitor centre, which as well as the aforementioned views contains a wealth of informative displays plus the obligatory EWT shop and a decent cafe.  I first visited the place with my parents shortly after it first opened, which was how I knew of its existence and thought of it as a worthwhile place to take my then-new lady friend.

Looking east out into the estuary
source - Essex Wildlife Trust

As I recall it was a mild if slightly blustery day - not unusual on that exposed part of the estuary - as we parked up and commenced walking around one of the myriad pathways that reach out in all directions from the visitor centre.  The entire reserve is currently about 120 acres in size (although the aim is for that to increase to a massive 845 acres - twice the size of Regent's Park) and forms part of the Thames Estuary Path which runs along the coast practically uninterrupted for 27 miles from Tilbury all the way to Leigh-on-sea.  Needless to say we contented ourselves with staying to within a mile or so of the centre but there was still plenty to see.

Looking towards Stanford-le-Hope/ Horndon-on-the-Hill on the Essex coast

Sailing boats over on the Kent (Cliffe) side of the river took advantage of the breeze

Unfortunately I am never going to win the Wildlife Photographer of The Year and as we were busy walking around, taking in the sights and enjoying each other's company I had little time or opportunity to take much in the way of photos.  The two above and three below therefore constitute the best of a poor bunch, but I hope they give a little idea of the splendid variety of wildlife and the fantastic effort that has gone in to turning a once barren and industrial wasteland into a beautiful and thriving nature reserve.

Thistles amidst the grassland

A close-up of a cardinal beetle taking a break atop a thistle 

More thistles and some unidentified purple flowers (I'm afraid I'm no horticulturist
either so if any green-fingered readers want to enlighten me I'll happily update this
caption!)

After our circuit of some of the shorter routes we repaired to the visitor centre for a light snack in the cafe (quite passable) and an enjoyable wander around inside and out (access to the rooftop viewing platform is via a circular ramp that runs around the outside of the building, which allows for good views as you make your way to the top).  One other thing the visitor centre had, which appealed to us more as bibliophiles than naturalists it has to be said, was a small selection of second-hand books tucked away in the corner of the cafe.  While unsurprisingly most are of an environmental or horticultural bent there are often quite a number of other genres both fiction and non-fiction so to finish off this post here are two acquisitions from that stall (although neither of them came from this particular visit).

The Friendless Sky was actually my most recent find from a return visit and is exactly what it says on the cover; it joins my already-burgeoning collection of World War One literature but was a jolly good read and complements my library well.  Likewise Captain Starlight by Percy F. Westerman, a contemporary of Biggles author W. E. Johns and while maybe not quite as well-rounded still a ripping adventure yarn.  This came out of my very first visit with my parents and served as an introduction to Westerman's work, further examples of which I have since added to my collection.

I have no doubt that we will return to Thurrock Thameside Nature Reserve again (and not just for the books!) and can wholly recommend this - still sadly somewhat hidden - gem should you ever be in the area.

Lockdown look back #2: May 2017 - Eynsford (Pt. II) & Farningham, Kent

So we find ourselves back in Eynsford on the 1st May 2017 for Lockdown Look Back Number 2, which begins with an erratum.  In the previous post I said that we stopped for lunch at Riverside Tearooms on our way to Farningham; in fact, as I recalled after posting, we had tea there on the way back from Farningham having clocked the place as we headed out.  (It was still very nice, though, either way.)

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Rounding the corner from the tea room we headed over the bridge (not through the ford, although one or two young families were rolling up their trouser legs and doing just that!) and along Sparepenny Lane, the road that runs alongside the River Darent to Farningham.

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Passing pub number three, The Plough Inn, we stopped to admire the series of weirs on this section of the river before carrying along the road and up to the Darent Valley. 

The weather had been unpredictable all day and as we neared the top of the valley the clouds were definitely gathering until before long they looked about ready to heave open, which indeed they promptly did.  Fortunately I had come prepared with my trusty whangee-handled brolly, which was quickly pressed into service when the rain came tipping down.  Arm-in-arm under its protective canopy we continued on our way to Farningham, stopping only briefly to take the following photo:

The next village back from Eynsford is Shoreham - not to be confused with the town of Shoreham-by-sea in West Sussex.  What they do share is an aviation link - Shoreham-by-sea boasts a spiffing Art Deco terminal building as part of Brighton City Airport (a.k.a Shoreham Airport, the oldest aerodrome in Britain), where the annual Shoreham Airshow takes place, while Shoreham in Kent is home to the much smaller but no less interesting Shoreham Aircraft Museum (of which more anon!).  Dedicated to the memory of the heroic pilots who fought over the skies of Kent (and further afield) during WW2, the volunteers have in recent years arranged for memorial stones to be placed at known sites where some of these brave fellows met their end and one such stone can be found on Sparepenny Lane.  Thoughts turned to these brave young chaps and, with photos taken, we pushed on into Farningham.

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The weather had cleared up somewhat by this time (although not quite as sunny as in the above picture, which is looking back down Farningham high street towards the way we came in), as we arrived at Farningham to be presented with another wonderfully picturesque Kent village.

Heading up the high street we crossed over the 18th century bridge leading to the village.  You may be forgiven for thinking the structure in my photo (above) and the picture below was once part of an older crossing but in fact it was never a bridge at all.  It is in fact a cattle screen, built to stop cows and other farm animals from escaping via the river!

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Just over the other side of the bridge is where we did stop for lunch, The Lion public house.  Set in a lovely red brick building (it claims to be 16th century but to my eyes looks more late 18th/ early 19th), it is now part of the Vintage Inn group but was very sympathetically decorated inside and with a good selection of food (I still can't remember what we had though, sorry!).

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After an enjoyable lunch (during which I almost forgot my camera!) we headed on up the hill in to the village proper.  Smaller even than Eynsford, with consequently no tea rooms and only two pubs(!) there were nevertheless some charming cottages and other such delights to hold our attention.

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As well as its proximity to Eynsford and equally beautiful village aspect, Farningham boasted another feature that had attracted us.  Making our way up the high street we soon came to it (in the above photo on the left, just around the corner) - a topping little antiquarian bookshop housed in a charming 17th century listed cottage.




Wadard Books is one of those wonderful old bookshops that we both love so much and are so grateful to still come across.  Of the sort run by an older couple (complete with cat) who can be found at a desk hidden behind shelves of books, one has to ring a bell to be allowed in to peruse their wares, which were substantial, wide-ranging and endlessly fascinating.  We would have happily taken it all home!  The little annexes outside housed the cheaper, more modern end of the spectrum but there were still some excellent bargains to be had both there and within.  Once we were inside we spent an age browsing and chatting to the old boy.  I made a beeline for the military history, aviation and motoring sections and it was in this last that I scored my best find (the others are again, I'm afraid, lost to memory).

Browsing through the motorsport shelves I was immediately drawn to this book, partly due to its age but mainly due to the name and title on the spine.  G.E.T. Eyston was none other than George Eyston, noted racing driver of the 1920s & '30s and three-time holder of the land speed record (of whom I have blogged about previously)  A quick inspection revealed no price so it was presented to the old chap at the desk with the question "how much?".  Taking it from me, he joked that I had managed to find the only book in the place without a price before coming to a decision - "shall we say £5?".  Reader, I nearly bit his arm off!  Although externally its condition is only acceptable for its age, internally the text and photographs are still bright, with some wonderful colour plates to boot!

Well satisfied with our little haul and vowing to return another day (which of course we did!) we headed back to Eynsford and tea at the Riverside Tearoom.  We both had a thoroughly enjoyable time and the day forms a very happy memory for all sorts of reasons.  Eynsford and Farningham are two beautiful villages in the best Kentish tradition, which I can heartily recommend visiting, and I look forward to returning to them again once all this is over.

Lockdown look back #1: May 2017 - Eynsford, Kent (Part I)

Since posts about what we got up to when we were still allowed to go outside are proving rightly popular at the moment, I figured I would jump on the bandwagon with my own series detailing some of the places I've been to during my 3½ year hiatus from the blogosphere.

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So to begin let me take you back to May Day 2017, which found me in the picturesque Kent village of Eynsford in the Darent Valley, for a third date. Situated next to the River Darent, while only 6 miles from Dartford we were still nevertheless in the heart of the Kent countryside.

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We had arranged to meet at 12 o'clock at The Five Bells, one of four pubs to be found in the village (the decline of public houses seems to be mercifully low in Kent compared to Essex and other parts of the country, going by my experience) but unfortunately upon arriving first I discovered it was not open until 1pm.  Fortunately a second pub, The Castle Hotel, was only two doors down and happy to have me in - although I was the only person in the place (other than the owners and their dog)!  My date arrived shortly afterwards, having also gone through the same process of elimination on the pub front as I had done, and we settled down for a drink.  A few more people came in as lunchtime approached but we had agreed to eat elsewhere so headed off after about half an hour's chatting.

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Our next destination and another reason for choosing Eynsford as a meeting place was the ruins of Eynsford Castle, a medieval fortification dating back to the 11th century (although an even earlier Anglo-Saxon settlement had also existed prior to then).  Quite a substantial ruin (again for someone used to far less extensive examples in their neck of the woods) it has a fascinating history and lovely views across to the Darent Valley.  Accessed via a small residential lane directly opposite The Castle Hotel and hidden away behind the village hall(!) it was a real undiscovered gem.

The following pictures are either sourced or my own:

The entrance bridge (constructed 1967) over the moat.
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My view of the solar undercroft (living & sleeping quarters, probably for the bailiff).

The remains of the solar undercroft's fireplace. 

Another set of original steps accessing the solar undercroft...

... which I did not attempt to descend!

The original, "Great", kitchen with views of the Darent Valley beyond.
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After a good look around and with photos taken we went off in search of lunch, which was to be found at the nearby Riverside Tearooms.  I can't recall now what we had but it was a nice little bijou place with good food and proved very popular.

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When you round the corner from the entrance you get an idea of where it takes its name from:

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A charming 17th century bridge links the high street to roads leading along the River Darent to the M20 or up the Darent Valley to the M25, with a ford running alongside for larger vehicles unable to use the bridge.  It was over this bridge and along the riverside walk that we went after lunch, on our way to our second destination - the next village of Farningham.

You'll be able to read all about our afternoon there in part two of this post, as I think this one has gone on long enough!  Stay tuned for the next instalment...

Museum hopes to rebuild UK's first robot

Museum hopes to rebuild UK's first robot

In today's fantastic age of automation and advanced robotics, with creations like Honda's ASIMO, human-looking androids and unmanned drones posing the question of where this technological development may ultimately lead us, it is easy to forget that the beginnings of modern robotics date back almost a century.  Indeed the very term "robot" was only coined in 1921, when it appeared in the Czech play R.U.R (Rossum's Universal Robots) - an early piece of science-fiction that like so many since depicted a future mechanical uprising by intelligent machines.

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A scene from the 1921 Czech play R.U.R., written by brothers
Josef & Karel Čapek

Within a decade (perhaps, as some social commentators have suggested, as a response to the remarkable level of mechanization seen in the First World War) robots had evolved in all-metal humanoids, the most famous in fiction being the Maschinenmensch "Maria" in Fritz Lang's 1927 sci-fi epic Metropolis.

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A year later, in 1928, came one of the first real-life robots (as we would know them today) to be built in Britain (and maybe even the world), the rather unthreateningly-named Eric.  Constructed primarily from aluminium (yet still weighing in at a hefty 45kg), Eric was able to stand, move his arms, legs and head, "blink" his eyes and - supposedly - speak (although this last was really a bit of trickery involving someone off-stage) thanks to two 12-volt electric motors, eleven electro-magnets and about 3 miles of wiring hidden beneath his armour-like exterior.  Amazingly all of this was put together at very short notice for the 1928 London Exhibition of the Society of Model Engineers, by Captain Willian H. Richards (the society's secretary) and his friend Alan Reffell, after the Duke of York (later King George VI) pulled out of giving the opening speech.  Thus Eric the Robot made his inaugural appearance, drafted in to give the Duke's speech - surely one of the first instances of a robot being brought in to do a man's job!

It's fascinating to read of the response of the crowd to this unexpected guest speaker, as described by Popular Science Monthly, and how in so many ways it still chimes with our own hopes and fears about the future of technology nearly 100 years later:

"The Thing's enormous size and the stark immobility of his face gave him a really terrifying quality... [the crowd] returned his lifeless gaze.  They felt subconsciously that here was some strange symbol of relentless Fate itself."

Personally I like the idea of a machine that would "Rid the World of Drudgery" and, despite the rather frosty initial reception, it seems that audiences of the time agreed as Eric went on tour to technology fairs around the world throughout the rest of the 1920s and early 1930s.

However Eric's ultimate fate remains a complete mystery; no trace of him exists after about 1932.  Whether he was dismantled, destroyed or is still sitting in someone's shed somewhere waiting to be rediscovered we may never know, but now comes the exciting news that the London Science Museum intends to build a full-size replica of the original Eric to become one of the main attractions of its 2017 Robots Exhibition.

It sounds an intriguing project, all told, and I feel sure that the Science Museum will be able to raise the funds to build the new Eric.  I look forward to reading more about his reconstruction and seeing this important early milestone in the history of robotics in London in 2017 - just as long as he doesn't go mad and try to overthrow humanity!

**The Science Museum's Kickstarter campaign "Rebuild Eric: The UK's First Robot" can be found here**

Threepenny bit design to replace vulnerable £1 coin

Threepenny bit design to replace vulnerable £1 coin

As my UK-based readers will doubtless be aware, Wednesday saw the Chancellor of the Exchequer deliver the government's annual Budget for the year ahead.  Rightly or wrongly the item that garnered the most press attention was the unveiling of a proposed new £1 coin, to replace the existing 30-year-old design in 2017.  Putting aside the politics, the news is nonetheless interesting on a number of levels. 

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Firstly, this is the most comprehensive redesign of a frequently-used piece of British currency in almost a generation.  You have to go back to the early/mid-1990s and the resizing of the 5p, 10p (1992) and 50p (1997) coins to find the last time the money in our pocket was so drastically altered.  From that point of view alone it is of course a newsworthy subject and one of the main aspects most news agencies have focussed on.

For numismatists (that's our code-speak for us coin collectors!) like myself there is an extra layer of excitement since it means that the old £1 coin will become even more of a collectors item from 2017.  The general excitement of a coin undergoing such a sea change is also heightened, since we value the behind-the-scenes processes, history and time-honoured traditions attached to the coin and its design(s).

The biggest change (pun not intended!) however, the thing that has got we nostaligists (and the press) jumping up and down in excitement, is the switch to a twelve-sided (that's dodecagonal, in case you're wondering) shape - just like one of Britain's old pre-decimal coins, the threepence piece!  The one pound coin is already similar in size and thickness to the old threepenny, so this major alteration will render it even more like a coin that hasn't been seen in British pockets for over 40 years. 

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The twelve-sided brass threepenny was introduced in 1937 at the start of George VI's reign (twelve pre-production examples were minted with Edward VIII details; the whereabouts of six of these are unknown and one recently sold for £30,000, so keep an eye out!).  Prior to that point, the threepence was a silver coin, very small - less than the size of a modern 5p (or a dime) - hence its nickname, the "thruppenny bit".  Created in 1547 under the reign of Edward VI, by the 1930s its diminutiveness meant it was becoming unpopular in England (although less so in Scotland) and in 1937 the new, larger and heavier nickel-brass threepenny was introduced (although paradoxically it retained its original nickname).

Silver threepennies continued to be produced, albeit in far fewer numbers, alongside the new brass variety from 1937 to 1945 (again, if you find a 1945 silver thruppence hang on to it, for almost all of that year's production was later melted down).  Technically they are still minted today, for use in Maundy money.   The newer twelve-sided coin was subsequently produced every year from its creation in 1937 until just before decimalisation, in 1967 (with some proof sets minted in 1970; rare dates are 1946 and 1948-51).  It, along with the other pre-decimal coinage, ceased to be legal tender in 1971.  George VI examples feature three thrift plants on the reverse (which I must admit I prefer); Elizabeth II variants switched to a Tudor portcullis.

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Now, though, the brass threepenny is due to live on in spirit as the inspiration for the new 2017 £1 coin.  While the new coin, as already mentioned, will bear more than a passing resemblance to its forebear it will of course feature a few modern design flourishes plus some not unimpressive security features.  Chief among these new touches is the bi-metallic construction, as already found on the £2 coin.  Advanced, British-designed technology by the name iSIS means the coin will be infused with some special coating (dermatologists can rest easy, it doesn't come off on the skin apparently) to combat counterfeiting - the bane of the existing £1.

Some differences then, a fair bit of modernity - but using a traditional design that by all accounts will be making a welcome return.  You and I can get involved as well, since there will be a competition in the summer to find a design for the reverse (tails) side of the new coin (keep checking The Royal Mint website).  Hmmn, have to put my thinking cap on, I reckon!  In the meantime, I've dug out my old coin collection in order to reacquaint myself with this charming coin, in anticipation of its spiritual successor's arrival in three years' time.

**Do you like the new £1 coin?  What do you think should go on the reverse side?  Let me know your thoughts below!**