Tourism

She must have loved him! And maybe herself too, just a bit?

Posted on by Platypus Man

Driving along the North Wales Expressway (A55) it is impossible to miss the Marble Church. The spire is 202 feet (62m) high, dominating the skyline of the little town of Bodelwyddan and the surrounding countryside. It’s a striking sight and also an impressive example of marital devotion, the church having been commissioned by a widow in memory of her beloved husband.

The Marble Church, Boddelwyddan
The spire is visible from miles around

In 1829 Margaret Williams, the daughter of a wealthy North Wales landowner, secured her perfect marriage. The man of her dreams was Henry Peyto, the sixteenth Baron Willoughby de Broke. As such she became Lady Margaret, and went off to England to live on Henry’s estate in Warwickshire for the next 23 years.

When he died in 1852, Lady Margaret evidently decided that she’d had enough of life in the English Midlands and elected to return to her ancestral Welsh estate. However, she was in no mood to forget Henry and petitioned the Bishop of Asaph to create a separate parish for the town Bodelwyddan, complete with its own parish church to serve as a memorial to her late husband.

Marble…
…and more marble

The Bishop readily agreed, no doubt aware that the financial generosity of Lady Margaret – supported by her brother Sir Hugh Williams – would enable the construction of a landmark building. And indeed, they paid a huge sum to deliver the project. Work began in 1856, and the church was finally consecrated in 1860. The total cost was around £60,000, equivalent to about £9.5m (USD 12.7m) in today’s money.

Constructed mainly from limestone quarried in North Wales, the church is notable for containing no fewer than 14 different types of marble, including pillars of Belgian red marble, flooring of Sicilian marble, and other features fashioned from French (Languedoc) marble, Griotte marble from France and Belgium, and Kilkenny black marble from Ireland. Although it was nicknamed the “Pearl of the Vale” immediately after its construction it is no surprise that the building soon became popularly known as the Marble Church.

The pulpit is elegantly carved
The font features Sir Hugh Williams’ daughters!

Other notable features of the Marble Church include a finely carved pulpit, an artistically styled font representing two girls (Sir Hugh Williams’ daughters!) holding a shell, and some fine stained glass windows. Plainly no expense was spared in the creation of Lady Margaret’s splendid memorial to her late husband.

But, when we visited the church a few weeks ago, I did find it odd that Henry is not the star of his own memorial. The font, as we have seen, features his brother-in-law’s daughters. And although there is a portrait of Lady Margaret in the entrance to the church, there is no mention at all of Henry on the foundation plaque above the porch, which reads –

This stone was laid, July the 24th, 1856, by Margaret Willoughby de Broke, who founded, erected and endowed this Church at her own expense in the devout hope that it might tend to the glory of God.

‘Mine House shall be called a House of prayer for all people.’ Isiah 56:7

And it’s worth noting that the Church is dedicated to Saint Margaret. I admit this could be pure coincidence, but really?

I have no doubt that Lady Margaret Willoughby de Broke loved her late husband dearly. But I suspect she loved herself just a bit too.

Wordless Wednesday – Tudor

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Wordless Wednesday is a simple blog post featuring a photo. It seeks to convey a message or tell a story, but speaks for itself without using words. Mrs P took this photo Gawsworth Hall in Cheshire, which dates from approximately 1480 to 1600, in 2014.

Wordless Wednesday – Waiting for Sockeye

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Wordless Wednesday is a simple blog post featuring a photo. It seeks to convey a message or tell a story, but speaks for itself without using words. Mrs P took this photo of a bronze sculpture (“Waiting for Sockeye”) by Kent Ullberg at the US National Museum of Wildlife Art, Wyoming, in 2018.

The North Norfolk Railway and the romance of steam

Posted on by Platypus Man

One of the highlights of our recent visit to Norfolk was a trip on the county’s award-winning heritage railway. The North Norfolk Railway covers a distance of around 5.5 miles (9km), from the Georgian town of Holt to Sheringham, a seaside town on the North Norfolk coast. A nineteenth century poet once named the area around Sheringham as Poppyland, which was his way of paying homage to the masses of poppies that carpeted local fields. For this reason the railway is popularly known as the Poppy Line.

The countryside through which the Poppy Line passes is indeed scenic, the railway architecture is atmospheric and the historic rolling stock is eye-catching. However, I’m fairly certain the reason most people take a trip on the North Norfolk Railway is to get up close and personal with its steam locomotives.

Let’s be brutally honest for a minute – steam trains are the quintessential example of yesterday’s technology. They are noisy, smelly and dirty emitters of CO2, and as such are the very antithesis of the brave new, pollutant-free world we are trying to build in the 21st century. And yet, as the hordes of happy visitors to the Poppy Line prove, they remain massively popular. So we have to wonder, why is this? What is it that makes steam trains so popular?

It is, I suspect, because steam trains are perceived as characters in their own right. Modern transportation systems tend to be anonymous and sterile. Steam trains, however, have a life of their own, they are like “living machines”. The things that distress us about them – the noise, the smell, the pollution – are the very things that help give steam trains their distinctive personality. A journey on one of them is a massive and strangely appealing sensory experience. There’s nothing anonymous or sterile about a hissing locomotive clattering down the tracks while spewing smoke and steam into the sky.

And let’s not forget the nostalgia that steam trains evoke. We live in fraught, complex times and many of us hanker after a simpler way of life. Steam trains are the product of a bygone, simpler age and a journey on one is an invitation to wallow in nostalgia for a while. It’s romantic nonsense, of course – very few of us would actually have been happier living in the days when steam ruled supreme, in the days when fewer medical conditions were treatable, more people went hungry and nobody had a mobile phone! And were steam trains more comfortable and reliable than their modern day electric successors? I don’t think so!

But hey, escapism in small doses is not necessarily a bad thing, and the romance of steam – as served up by a journey on the North Norfolk Railway’s Poppy Line – offers the perfect opportunity to escape. I thoroughly recommend it.

The closest I’ll ever get to an Oscar…or a Nobel Prize!

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A few weeks ago, to break our journey home after visiting family down South, we called in at the house known as Shaw’s Corner. It is one of those National Trust properties that is remarkably unremarkable, with few if any architectural or design features that merit a second glance. I suspect it is part of the National Trust’s portfolio only because someone remarkable once lived on the premises. George Bernard Shaw definitely falls into that category, being one of only two* people ever to have won both an Oscar and a Nobel Prize.

George Bernard Shaw’s Oscar, awarded in 1939 for his screenplay of Pygmalion

George Bernard Shaw (1856 – 1950) was born in Dublin, but moved to London at the age of 20 to pursue a career as a writer. During his lifetime he wrote more than sixty plays, and as a committed socialist also passionately supported a range of progressive – and sometimes contentious – political and social causes. As the leading dramatist of his generation he was highly influential in the development of Western theatre, and as such was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925.

Shaw’s Corner, George Bernard Shaw’s primary residence between 1906 and 1950, is remarkably unremarkable

Shaw’s most famous work – written in 1913 – was Pygmalion, a comic exploration of the class distinctions that are so deep-rooted within British society. In 1938 he adapted Pygmalion into a screenplay for a movie of the same name. This was further transformed into My Fair Lady in 1956, that movie being the creation of Lerner and Loewe as Shaw had refused to re-work it as a musical. It is for his original film adaptation that Shaw was awarded an Oscar.

As a witty and observant writer, George Bernard Shaw left behind a wealth of quotes that remain relevant today. Here are just a few that resonate with me:

“He knows nothing; and he thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career.”

“You don’t stop laughing when you grow old, you grow old when you stop laughing.”

“Both optimists and pessimists contribute to society. The optimist invents the aeroplane, the pessimist the parachute.”

“Youth is wasted on the young.”

“Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.”

Shaw’s Corner was the playwright’s primary residence between 1906 and his death in 1950. It was built in 1902 as the rectory for the village of Ayot St Lawrence in Hertfordshire. However the Church of England quickly decided the building was too large for the size of the parish. Shaw and wife took up residence instead, initially as tenants before buying the house and its land in 1920.

Spot the Oscar!

Today, the National Trust has laid out and furnished the rooms much as they were in Shaw’s time. His Academy Award statuette stands on the fireplace mantel, where visitors can admire it from afar. Meanwhile, the citation certificate for his Nobel Prize is securely displayed in an upstairs cabinet.

Citation certificate for the Nobel Prize for Literature, awarded in 1925

In my view, visiting a house simply because a famous person once lived there is not necessarily a good use of one’s time. Shaw’s Corner is an uninspiring property, and at no point could I sense the great man’s presence. But the time we spent there was not entirely wasted. Even though this blog is getting a lot of views these days it’s never going to win me any prizes. So, without doubt, Shaw’s Corner is the closest I’ll ever get to an Oscar or the Nobel Prize for Literature!

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* In case you are wondering, the other person to be awarded both an Oscar and the Nobel Prize for Literature was Bob Dylan.

Snoopy…Yesterday’s dog? No way!

Posted on by Platypus Man

When we heard that Trentham Gardens were putting on a Snoopy sculpture trail, my initial thought was “Really? Every dog has his day, and Snoopy had his decades ago. Surely it’s only old fogeys like me who even know who he is? Snoopy’s history. He’s yesterday’s dog“. But it turns out I was totally wrong – Snoopy is back on trend.

“Tales for Tails” by Fernandes Makes

Snoopy made his debut in October 1950 in Peanuts, the comic strip creation of American cartoonist Charles M Schulz. Although his owner Charlie Brown was meant to be the strip’s central character, Snoopy quickly became the star of the show. When he wasn’t sleeping flat on his back on top of his kennel, the cute little beagle could be found writing short stories on his typewriter or imagining himself as a World War I flying ace. A kind and caring soul who lived most of his life inside his own head, Snoopy quickly caught the imagination of an adoring public.

“Golden Hound” by Becky Smith

But all good things must come to an end, so it would be no surprise if Snoopy had faded into obscurity by now. And yet, much to my surprise, it seems he’s become fashionable with Generation Z. Social media has breathed new life into an old dog, and Snoopy has become an iconic character on TikTok and Instagram. Who knew? Not me, that’s for sure…TikTok and Instagram are platforms at which my train has never stopped!

“Dreaming of the Mountains” by R P Roberts

Part of Snoopy’s appeal, it seems, is that he is a simple soul who is easily satisfied, a sweet little fantasist who can cope with anything life throws at him so long as his food bowl is full and his kennel is comfy. That makes him a bit of a hero in an increasingly complex, challenging world. So Trentham Gardens’ decision to host the Snoopy sculpture trail is perhaps not as wacky as I first believed.

“Snoopy’s Songbird Chorus” by Laura-Kate Draws

Once the site of a grand country house set in a landscaped park, in recent years the Trentham Estate on the outskirts of Stoke-on-Trent has been redeveloped as a leisure destination. Visitor numbers are the name of the game, so who can blame bosses at Trentham for enlisting Snoopy’s support.

“Fungi House” by Jodie Silverman

There were around a dozen Snoopy sculptures in total. Each featured the famous hound in his iconic pose atop his kennel. Snoopy himself is exactly as portrayed in the Schulz strips, a big-bellied white beagle with a black nose, black ears and a collar, lying on his back and staring wistfully into the sky. No doubt the licensing agreement made it quite clear that Snoopy must be unchanged, and therefore totally recognisable to fans both old and young. Where the artists did have freedom, however, was in how they painted the kennel. And so it was that the kennel became the artists’ canvas, giving them just enough space to let their imaginations run wild.

“Garden of Delights” by Cathy Simpson

Run wild they most certainly did. Mountains, flowers, butterflies and birds all adorn the kennels that we found scattered across Trentham’s gardens. As I’ve said many times before about similar sculpture trails, this is not high art. It won’t win any prizes, but this whimsical riot of colour undoubtedly lifted our spirits. Doing the Snoopy trail was a lot of fun, and don’t we all need some of that in these dark, dark days.

“Tales for Tails” by Fernandes Makes

Did Mr P have a favourite Snoopy, I hear you ask? Yes, I most certainly did! For me, a guy who spent pretty much his whole working life in the book business, the most entertaining of all the sculptures was Tales for Tails by Fernandes Makes. It featured Snoopy’s kennel as a library, enabling us to see what he’s been reading. I just love a good pun, and I love a bad pun even more! Take a look below at some of the titles that I spotted on Snoopy’s library shelves and you’ll see why this latter-day librarian was bowled over by the beagle.

  • Romeo and Drooliet, by William Shakepaw
  • Lord of the Fleas
  • Game of Bones
  • Of Mice and Mastiffs
  • Jurassic Bark
  • Sherlock Bones
  • Fetch 22
  • The Dogfather

Way to go, Snoopy!

Wordless Wednesday – Tunnel vision

Posted on by Platypus Man

Wordless Wednesday is a simple blog post featuring a photo. It seeks to convey a message or tell a story, but speaks for itself without using words. Mrs P took this photo at St Pancras station in London in October 2025. It features a 90m long “art wall tunnel”, created using LED lights sitting behind toughened glass, that links the station with Pancras Square and Coal Drops Yard. Spooky!