March 6
SAS run – Bygones, Brunel & Bristol Blue Glass
Bygones, Brunel & Bristol Glass - Steve and Helly Doel
Although still quite cold, it is early March and Spring is definitely showing signs of being with us. Yesterday was spent in Portsmouth working, and the sun was so lovely that I was tempted (although thought better of it) to roll back the roof on Monsieur Alfonse our blue & yellow Club for the first time this year.
Saturday 6th March saw the Swindon Association of Snails heading for Bristol to do the ‘3Bs’ run – Bygones, Brunel & Bristol Blue Glass. Our three cars met up at Leigh Delamere services on the M4 for a warming drink before heading off West towards Bristol. Our first port of call was the excellent Oakham Treasures in Portbury where there is an amazing collection of, well, just about everything you could ever imagine!
The collection is one of the largest privately owned museums of retail and farming history in the UK and has only been open to the public for a couple of years, previously having been kept out of sight. You really have to see the collection for yourself to appreciate the vast spectrum of items covered, but suffice to say you can’t help wander around without thinking “I remember that” and “I had one of those”.
Absolutely everywhere you look, in every knook and cranny, there are items on show. There must be literally hundreds of enamel advertising signs along with thousands of smaller artefacts. For someone interested in products of the internal combustion engine there are plenty of exhibits to view including a collection of some 100 tractors & farm machinery implements. Oddly, I was taken by the stationary engines, and in particular a pre First World War Lister ‘A’ almost exactly the same as one my Grandfather used on his smallholding up until 10 years ago powering his equally historic circular saw bench.
There isn’t much in the way of actual vehicles, notably a Lea Francis car a Fordson lorry and an incredibly rare 1920s ‘Republic’ fire engine from America, but smaller items abound in the display cabinets reminding us of motoring in years past.
In addition to all this there are the some brilliant mock-ups of old shops, all of which contain huge amounts of historic items. The recreated shops include a grocery store, a sweet shop (can’t you just remember those huge glass jars full of brightly coloured sweets?), a hardware store, haberdashery, an off-licence, a tobacconist and a chemist. The chemist was particularly good and reminded me of growing up in Bradford on Avon where we had a pharmacist in town run by a very aged ‘Miss Christopher’ who had taken over the shop from her parents. It was just like going back in time and was said to resemble pretty much how it had looked in Victorian times. When Miss Christopher died the shop was stripped and then set up again in the town museum.
So, after a healthy lunch (Helly has put me on a diet) we motored East back towards the city of Bristol.
We all need heroes and on my desk I have a photo of mine – Isambard Kingdom Brunel. There is no doubt that the early 19th century saw an industrial revolution in this country that really changed the world, and that it was pioneering engineers like Stephenson and Brunel who played a massive part in it. Brunel has many connections to Brunel – it was to Bristol that Brunel brought his broad gauge steam railway from London in 1840 whilst he was the Chief Engineer of the Great Western Railway. It was from Bristol that his steamships connected with the GWR to take passengers all the way to a new life in America, and it was in Bristol that some of his ships were built – the SS Great Britain still being here for all to see.
Brunel has another famous connection with Bristol, for it is his design that won a competition in 1831 to build a bridge to span the gorge at Clifton some 1400ft long and an incredible 250ft above high water. The Clifton Suspension Bridge is a graceful structure with towers in an Egyptian style, but repeated financial failure of the bridge company resulted in construction taking a total of 33 years to complete, finally opening in 1864 some 5 years after Brunel’s early death. So, the great man never got to see the finished article.
Our run from Oakham Treasures brought us through Leigh Woods and onto Brunel’s magnificent bridge. Having paid our 50p toll we convoyed across – wow, isn’t it high..! Emerging out of the other side bring us into the beautiful and affluent buildings of Clifton, a part of Bristol known for its wealthy residents. We turned up onto the Clifton Downs so we could take a look at the bridge from the top of the gorge, the cars looking so small far beneath us. From Clifton we convoyed down into the city centre getting lots of smiles and waves from people as we passed by.
Our final part of the trip was a visit on the other side of Bristol. The city is historically famous for the manufacture of Bristol Blue Glass, a glass with a particularly fine blue colouring. Well, here we had the first disappointment of the day, for we were had arranged to watch the craftsmen blowing glass, but arrived only to be told there was no one there to demonstrate to us today! No problem though, we spent a few minutes wandering around the shop joking “how much?????” in disbelief at the prices being asked for these items!
The day finished in typical SAS style with a warming coffee (oh, and a ‘U’ turn – my fault..!) and good old chin-wag. A fine day was had by all and we look forward to our next event – maybe we can get the roof rolled back then!
STEVE
Although still quite cold, it is early March and Spring is definitely showing signs of being with us. Yesterday was spent in Portsmouth working, and the sun was so lovely that I was tempted (although thought better of it) to roll back the roof on Monsieur Alfonse our blue & yellow Club for the first time this year.
Saturday 6th March saw the Swindon Association of Snails heading for Bristol to do the ‘3Bs’ run – Bygones, Brunel & Bristol Blue Glass. Our three cars met up at Leigh Delamere services on the M4 for a warming drink before heading off West towards Bristol. Our first port of call was the excellent Oakham Treasures in Portbury where there is an amazing collection of, well, just about everything you could ever imagine!
The collection is one of the largest privately owned museums of retail and farming history in the UK and has only been open to the public for a couple of years, previously having been kept out of sight. You really have to see the collection for yourself to appreciate the vast spectrum of items covered, but suffice to say you can’t help wander around without thinking “I remember that” and “I had one of those”.
Absolutely everywhere you look, in every knook and cranny, there are items on show. There must be literally hundreds of enamel advertising signs along with thousands of smaller artefacts. For someone interested in products of the internal combustion engine there are plenty of exhibits to view including a collection of some 100 tractors & farm machinery implements. Oddly, I was taken by the stationary engines, and in particular a pre First World War Lister ‘A’ almost exactly the same as one my Grandfather used on his smallholding up until 10 years ago powering his equally historic circular saw bench.
There isn’t much in the way of actual vehicles, notably a Lea Francis car a Fordson lorry and an incredibly rare 1920s ‘Republic’ fire engine from America, but smaller items abound in the display cabinets reminding us of motoring in years past.
In addition to all this there are the some brilliant mock-ups of old shops, all of which contain huge amounts of historic items. The recreated shops include a grocery store, a sweet shop (can’t you just remember those huge glass jars full of brightly coloured sweets?), a hardware store, haberdashery, an off-licence, a tobacconist and a chemist. The chemist was particularly good and reminded me of growing up in Bradford on Avon where we had a pharmacist in town run by a very aged ‘Miss Christopher’ who had taken over the shop from her parents. It was just like going back in time and was said to resemble pretty much how it had looked in Victorian times. When Miss Christopher died the shop was stripped and then set up again in the town museum.
So, after a healthy lunch (Helly has put me on a diet) we motored East back towards the city of Bristol.
We all need heroes and on my desk I have a photo of mine – Isambard Kingdom Brunel. There is no doubt that the early 19th century saw an industrial revolution in this country that really changed the world, and that it was pioneering engineers like Stephenson and Brunel who played a massive part in it. Brunel has many connections to Brunel – it was to Bristol that Brunel brought his broad gauge steam railway from London in 1840 whilst he was the Chief Engineer of the Great Western Railway. It was from Bristol that his steamships connected with the GWR to take passengers all the way to a new life in America, and it was in Bristol that some of his ships were built – the SS Great Britain still being here for all to see.
Brunel has another famous connection with Bristol, for it is his design that won a competition in 1831 to build a bridge to span the gorge at Clifton some 1400ft long and an incredible 250ft above high water. The Clifton Suspension Bridge is a graceful structure with towers in an Egyptian style, but repeated financial failure of the bridge company resulted in construction taking a total of 33 years to complete, finally opening in 1864 some 5 years after Brunel’s early death. So, the great man never got to see the finished article.
Our run from Oakham Treasures brought us through Leigh Woods and onto Brunel’s magnificent bridge. Having paid our 50p toll we convoyed across – wow, isn’t it high..! Emerging out of the other side bring us into the beautiful and affluent buildings of Clifton, a part of Bristol known for its wealthy residents. We turned up onto the Clifton Downs so we could take a look at the bridge from the top of the gorge, the cars looking so small far beneath us. From Clifton we convoyed down into the city centre getting lots of smiles and waves from people as we passed by.
Our final part of the trip was a visit on the other side of Bristol. The city is historically famous for the manufacture of Bristol Blue Glass, a glass with a particularly fine blue colouring. Well, here we had the first disappointment of the day, for we were had arranged to watch the craftsmen blowing glass, but arrived only to be told there was no one there to demonstrate to us today! No problem though, we spent a few minutes wandering around the shop joking “how much?????” in disbelief at the prices being asked for these items!
The day finished in typical SAS style with a warming coffee (oh, and a ‘U’ turn – my fault..!) and good old chin-wag. A fine day was had by all and we look forward to our next event – maybe we can get the roof rolled back then!
STEVE
