Saturday 13 May 2017

Warwick Museum


Whilst in Warwick we visited the town museum. 

Most disappointing  

I understand that exhibits sometimes need to be kept in low light to preserve them, but do the commentaries have to be written in a small white typeface on a pink card pinned to the back of the cabinet? You need opera glasses to read them. 

One of the most interesting displays was the floor, about which nothing was said.

Bubbles in Canterbury

















Well why not?

Tuesday 9 May 2017

A Broad Gauge Premier Inn in Wolverhampton

We recently stayed overnight at the Premier Inn in Wolverhampton and discovered that it was built on the site of the railway platforms of the original Great Western Wolverhampton Low Level station. The High Level station is still in use and overshadows the hotel from an imposing viaduct built of Staffordshire blue bricks. 




The Low Level station building is now grade II listed and serves as a function venue. 









The Premier Inn hotel incorporates part of the arcading of the original station.

To learn the fascinating story of this station, click here.

Wednesday 3 May 2017

Shakespeare – the businessman.

I have spent the last two days in Stratford upon Avon which everybody knows is famous for its Shakespeare links. I had only known Shakespeare as a poet and playwright. It seems that he played a more complex role in Elizabethan England. Apart from seeing both his birthplaces I have also remarked that he either managed or owned the Shakespeare Cinema, the Shakespeare Fish & Chip Shop, the Shakespeare Tea Rooms, the Shakespeare Newsagents, the Shakespeare Service Station, the Shakespeare Bookshop, the Shakespeare Hospice Furniture shop, the Shakespeare Car Sales Centre and the Shakespeare Gift Shop.


So here is a picture of some exquisite brickwork above a doorway, and an interesting jumble of roof angles.






I have found no evidence that William Shakespeare ever built houses or constructed roofs.