Category: Culture

When steam trains were the new, exciting mode of transport around the country, they drew great admiration and interest. Those people intrigued by numbers and with time to spare were able to take this interest further, since every locomotive bore its own number and sometimes a name. Collecting these identifiers in a record book became known as the hobby of ‘train spotting‘.

It began in the 1920s, but really picked up steam after WW2. Ian Allan, OBE (1922-2015) was working in the office of Southern Railways and was dealing with so many requests for locomotive information that he decided to put it all in a booklet, ‘ABC Southern Locomotives‘, in 1942. Its success inspired him to form Ian Allan Publishing Ltd., which went on to specialise in various types of transport publications for enthusiasts.

In the 1960s there was another surge of popularity as steam was being replaced by diesel and electric, and people wanted to catch as many sightings of the old engines as possible before they disappeared. Spotting requires patience and spotters equip themselves accordingly. Adult spotters have tended to be regarded as ‘anoraks’ (loner experts) but there is currently an app to facilitate a new train spotting community.

(Image: Robin Webster at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)

The legend of Lady Godiva, or Godgifu (?-1067) is perhaps the female equivalent of Robin Hood‘s heroics, in that she is credited with championing the poor and, by a courageous deed, winning the reduction of their tax burden. In her case, the supposed tyrant was her own husband, Leofric, Earl of Mercia (?-1057).

The couple are known to have lived in the 11th century and in 1043 founded St. Mary’s monastery in Coventry on the site of a former nunnery. There are suggestions that this was not a new monastery but that they lavished gold and silver treasures upon it. Leofric was in fact extremely generous with gifts of land to the monks, who became very wealthy.

Nevertheless, two hundred years later, Roger of Wendover (?-1236) saw fit to create the story of Lady Godiva pleading with him to have pity on the peasants. He agreed to drop all taxes except those on horses, but only if she rode naked on horseback through the town. Defiantly, she accepted the challenge but ordered that no-one should watch, though her long hair partially saved her blushes. Of course, there is always one who disobeys; hence ‘Peeping Tom’ was struck blind for giving in to temptation.

(Image: Clard at pixabay.com)

Known as ‘the morris’ to its devotees, morris dancing is a traditional fund-raising attraction for village fêtes. Its precise origin is unknown but it certainly has a medieval, if not pagan, flavour. Morris dancing was first documented in 1448 and Shakespeare includes a reference to it in ‘All’s Well That Ends Well’ (1623) with: “As fit as … a pancake for Shrove Tuesday, a morris for May-day …”, indicating that it was by then an essential element of the 1st May celebration.

There are several types of morris dancing, with the most famous costume being all-white, adorned with ribbons, bells, hankies and flowers on the hats. The dancers have sticks or swords which they hold aloft, dance around or tap together. Accompanying musicians range from a single fiddler or piper to a full band.

Some morris ‘sides’ (troupes) wear multi-coloured or mainly black ribboned costumes with black masks or black, grey, green or red face paint and many have a mixture of white and black clothing. Some sides do not have bells and some perform fire dances which are more energetic and involve whooping and shouting. What they all have in common is their entertainment value, as in this battle of the beer trays:

(Top image: Robin Webster at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)

Mrs. Mary Tealby (1801-65, née Bates) was born in Cambridgeshire but on moving to her mother’s Holloway home in 1860, she was so upset at seeing emaciated dogs roaming the London streets that she began to take them in. She found some local stables and named her project ‘The Temporary Home for Lost and Starving Dogs’. This was the founding of what became known as ‘Battersea Dogs Home‘, or ‘Battersea Dogs and Cats Home‘ since 2002.

Mary did not live to see it relocate to Battersea in south-west London, adjacent to Battersea Power Station, in 1871 but she would doubtless have been thrilled to know that well over three million dogs and cats would benefit from her  efforts. Battersea Dogs Home is so famous it has entered everyday language as the go-to place for stray dogs. Its fame has been increased by the TV programme ‘For the Love of Dogs’, which shows the progress of particular dogs.

Although the Home has taken cats since 1883, this is not so well-known. However, cats are re-homed in an average of twenty-two days, as opposed to thirty days for dogs. The Home has its own veterinarians, groomers and behaviour specialists, so each animal receives professional care.

(Image: Jim O’Donnell at Flickr.com / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

The national flower of England is the rose ~ the Tudor rose ~ which derives from the Wars of the Roses in 1455-85, where both sides had a rose as their symbol.

The national flower of Scotland is the thistle, as its prickly presence on Scottish coastlines is said to have saved the Scots from night-time attacks by the Vikings! The heather is also considered to be a Scottish symbol as, like the thistle, it is perfectly suited to the wet, rugged landscape and grows very happily there.

The national flower of Northern Ireland is the flax, chosen to be a reminder of the part played by agricultural crops in its history. The logo for the Northern Ireland Assembly consists of six flax plants, one for each county. The shamrock is better known as an Irish symbol, but it is the national flower for Ireland, rather than Northern Ireland.

The national flower of Wales is the daffodil, or ‘cenhinen Pedr’ in Welsh, which literally translates to ‘leek of Peter’. This may explain why the daffodil took over from the leek, though both are still used. Indeed, on St. David’s Day the Welsh Regiment always eat raw leeks, wherever they are in the world.

(Image of rose: blairwang at Flickr.com / CC BY 2.0)

The full English breakfast was first concocted centuries ago in the country houses, where it was considered proper to send the gentry off in the morning with a hearty meal of home-produced ingredients. Not for them the porridge or bread-and-dripping of the lower classes. During the Industrial Revolution the full, or at least half, English breakfast made its way onto the tables of many more households and by the mid-1900s they were the most popular menu item in transport cafés.

The classic recipe comprises sausages, bacon, tomatoes, mushrooms, eggs, black pudding and bread, all fried in oil (though the eggs may be scrambled or poached instead) plus baked beans. Along with this is the ubiquitous cup of tea and, if desired, toast or bread-and-butter. The meal is topped off with tomato ketchup or HP brown sauce. This little lot is around 800 calories, 60g fat and 4g salt.

There are modern versions of the ‘fry-up’ ~ the slimmers’, the vegetarian and the vegan, but they are obviously quite different. Many people just have the eggs, bacon and tomatoes. There are, of course, variations according to location, whether that is by nation, county or each individual café. This one includes hash browns and bubble-and-squeak:-

(Top image: Phil Campbell at Flickr.com / CC BY 2.0)

Dundee publishers D.C. Thomson & Co. produced both ‘The Dandy‘ and ‘The Beano‘ from 1937 and 1938 respectively, with ‘The Dandy’ being cancelled in 2013 while ‘(The) Beano’ carries on to this day. This makes it the longest-running weekly comic in the UK. Wartime rationing of paper and ink meant that they were temporarily issued on alternate fortnights. The price of the early copies was 2d..

They primarily appealed to schoolboys, with their comic-strip stories of pranks, mischief, slapstick and tomfoolery, all of which result either in punishment, such as caning, or reward, always in the form of masses of food! Even after getting through several ‘cow pies’, the characters are still hungry, especially the huge hulk of a man, Desperate Dan.

Dennis the Menace first appeared in ‘The Beano’ in 1951, when both comics were at their peak circulation of two million copies each per week. Their attraction is in the hilarious naughtiness and rudeness of the characters, which is never immoral and always has a consequence. Minnie the Minx, Lord Snooty, Gnasher, Korky the Cat, Billy Whizz, Roger the Dodger and the Bash Street Kids, to name but a few, made children laugh and learn what not to do, if nothing else.

(Image: Matt Brown at Flickr.com / CC BY 2.0)

Yorkshireman Henry Moore (1898-1986) was the most acclaimed, prolific British sculptor of the twentieth century. His creations can be seen in thirty-eight countries across the world in art galleries, museums and outside public buildings. Moore took inspiration from natural forms and preferred to see his sculptures in a countryside setting, which he achieved at his own 72-acre Hertfordshire home, now open to the public every summer.

Moore was also influenced by art from other cultures, including the Aztec, Sumerian and Mexican. In his early works he used the themes of mother-and-child and the reclining nude repeatedly, always in an abstract, radical form borrowed partly from constructivism, surrealism and primitivism. His first sale was to the London Underground in 1928. The 1930s were his creative peak, but a mother-and-child sculpture of 1937 outraged the public. He was forgiven when he became a war artist in WW2.

His sculptures became much in demand post-War and he had to employ talented assistants to keep up. His techniques changed to faster methods and critics saw a falling-off in his ideas, which was perhaps inevitable. His wealth made a Henry Moore Foundation possible, which supports upcoming sculptors with grants, resources, study programmes and exhibitions.

(Image: Txemi Lopez at pixabay.com)

The Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A) houses the world’s largest collection of art and design, making it the ‘go to’ resource for professionals, students and amateurs seeking inspiration for their own creative projects. In its 12.5 acres and 145 galleries can be found the most varied and breathtaking displays of fine and decorative arts, jewellery, furniture, sculpture, ceramics, metalwork, glassware and textiles.

The museum has moved premises and changed its name several times since 1837 as its collections have continued to grow, currently by thousands of items every year. It became the ‘Victoria & Albert Museum’ in 1899, when Queen Victoria ceremonially laid the foundation stone for a new wing. She had long wanted it to be the ‘Albert Museum’, in honour of her beloved late husband’s great interest in its work, but she was gently persuaded otherwise.

Entrance is free and it receives millions of visitors each year into its atmospheric halls. Almost every country is represented somewhere in the galleries. It is impossible to point to any of its items as being the most important or the most precious, as there are over two million of them, but among the oldest are some Chinese artefacts dating from the 4th millenium BC.

(Image: Anthony O’Neil at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)