And, yes you've already guess it, there was a connection! I'm not sure that it won't play up again, but hopefully whatever was wrong is sorted!
Now I'm on here I'm not in the mood for a long post! Despite having so much to say 'in my head' when I couldn't get onto my blog. Always the way eh? Plus I'm a bit tired now, having had a good few days of football messageboards to catch up with.
I had a nice day today. The rain that was due had turned up overnight, & it was dry. So I set out to visit a couple of places that I'd seen from an email service I've signed up to with Ian.
London, & the borders just outside, are full of untold amazing little places to see, which are way, way off the 'ordinary' tourist radar. It's those quirky little spots that I love. Two of them I visited today.
The first was an airport visitor centre, at a place where there's no longer an airport! On the Purley Way there's the only remains of Croydon Airport. Amazingly home to the first ever passenger service in the world. Though surely that should be joint-first, because if they were only the first they'd have had nowhere to land? It's popularity declined after the War, with the emergence of both Heathrow & Gatwick as the main London airports, as well as the urbanisation of the Croydon area, finally closing in September 1959. The old grass runways are long since built on, only the terminus buildings remain.
It's only open on the first Sunday of the month, but don't let that put you off. It's a working building, with a number of local businesses using it for offices, but at the back, up the stairs, the old control tower is now used as a couple of rooms for a small museum. We were taken round by an old boy who actually flew from here in the early thirties! As had another volunteer, who I chatted to, & he was ninety! Both were well spoken, & had no doubt had a privileged comfortable middle class up bringing, for early passenger aviation certainly wasn't within the price range of the working classes! I'm very much a working class (inverted) snob, but for once I listened & learned. They were fascinating. I love finding a little gem like this, free as well, & it was a cracking start to my day.
I'd spent almost an hour & a half here, I didn't think it would be that long, most of the afternoon was still ahead of me. It was still only just after one.
I got the bus back to Croydon, then jumped onto the tram, out towards Shirley. Another long lost local industry, but once again preserved. Again open only on the first Sunday of the month, & only from May to October. I was going to climb up the Shirley Windmill!
I got there a few minutes after two, & I only had ten minutes or so to wait until the next guided tour, at quarter past. You had to clamber up narrow staircases, & steep too, the steps like ladders, but without the 'gaps'. The chap giving the tour took us to the top, and talked us through each small floor, as we descended. I'll be honest, a lot of it went a little over my head, but only because I'm not that technically minded. I'm more 'local history' than 'industrial history'. But that's not to say it was boring. Another good hour spent here. I bought a guide book, and it also had a small walk around Shirley in it. As I didn't have time to head elswhere, as it was now almost four o'clock, I followed the route, & completed the not very strenuous circuit.
Something that interested me was one of the local pubs.
Called 'The Surprise', it had a local connection for me, as it was named after the rare Camberwell Beauty butterfly, which was shown on the pub sign. This building was formerly two cottages, converted to an inn around 1867. One theory about how the pub got its name is that about a hundred years earlier the butterfly had suddenly, and briefly, appeared in such great numbers that the event was called "The Great Surprise". Later, towards the end of the 19th century, they became quite common again in the district, and visiting entomologists coming to see them are reported to have refreshed themselves at the inn here, which was duly renamed after the famous event.
I also walked around, & photo-documented, the churchyard of St. John the Evangelist.
This was a 'bonus' as I hadn't planned to visit any cemeteries, but have now added another one to the 'collection' of ones I've been to.
All in all not a bad day. I wasn't able to get any surrepticious snaps of lardyarses, but-in a similar vein-this old cartoon from the airport tickled me!
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