Further Afield , livre ebook

Troubador Publishing Ltd - Terence Jenkins

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

84 pages

English

Vous pourrez modifier la taille du texte de cet ouvrage

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

A propos
Informations
Extrait

Description

After the success of his trilogy of London books, Another Man's London, London Lives, and London Tales, author, journalist and London guide, Terence Jenkins turns his attention further afield. We follow him from Cumbria to Kent, from Surrey to Suffolk, from Dorset to his home country, Wales, meeting on the way remarkable inhabitants and hearing lesser-known stories. This lively collection of bite-size chunks of our nation's history will entertain and inform you. Do you know where the smallest town hall in an infamous 'rotten borough' is? What is a snotty-gog and what has it to do with Pontius Pilate? How do you test if amber is real? What was the Yangtze Incident and how is it connected to the Surrey village of Tandridge? Would Nelson have had all the ships he needed at Trafalgar if it were not for an early 'eco-warrior'? Who was ' the first person (known) to have introduced inoculation'? What have Whitehall and the Ashdown forest got in common? Who was the inspiration for 'The Ancient Mariner'? Who played a cello in a wood with nightingales (which was one of the BBC's first outside broadcasts)?And to whom is the Dickin Medal awarded?The answers to these questions and many more will be found in this fascinating illustrated collection which is a perfect companion for a stroll or post-prandial relaxation in an easy chair.

Sujets

Reino Unido

Travel writing

United Kingdom

Great Britain

Royaume-Uni

Informations

Publié par	Troubador Publishing Ltd
Date de parution	01 août 2013
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781783069033
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0200€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

FURTHER
AFIELD
TERENCE JENKINS
Copyright 2013 Terence Jenkins
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.
Matador
9 Priory Business Park
Kibworth Beauchamp
Leicestershire LE8 0RX, UK
Tel: ( 44) 116 279 2299
Fax: ( 44) 116 279 2277
Email: books@troubador.co.uk
Web: www.troubador.co.uk/matador
ISBN 9781783069033
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Matador is an imprint of Troubador Publishing Ltd
For those who take the road less travelled
Also by Terence Jenkins:
Another Man s London
London Lives
London Tales
Return: A Collection of Short Stories
Co-Author of The Book of Penge, Anerley and Crystal Palace
Contents
THE BURIAL PLACE OF THE MUSIC MAKERS
A COMMON PURSUIT
A VERY RASCALLY PIECE OF EARTH
AMBER
AMETHYST
AN EARLY ECO-WARRIOR
AN UNSUNG HERO OF MEDICINE
AUR CYMRU: WELSH GOLD
CENOTAPHS
EDITH
FITTER FOR AN HISTORY THAN A SERMON
FITZROY
HE BEING DEAD, YET SPEAKETH
MARTYRS
PINK SATIN LIPS
SNOTTY-GOGS AND PONTIUS PILATE
THE LAST PLANTAGENET?
THE LILLIE PAD
THE SHROPSHIRE PIRATE
THEY HAD NO CHOICE
THE BURIAL PLACE OF THE MUSIC MAKERS
THE BURIAL PLACE OF THE MUSIC MAKERS
Keep this to yourself, but I think I may be one of the Undead. No, seriously, I have this enduring fascination for churchyards and cemeteries. I don t mean that I frequent them at night and bay at the moon, but friends think me strange, morbid even, to enjoy strolling among the stiffs and reading epitaphs. I can t think where I got it from, most of my family are ordinary folk but my maternal granny did tell me once of a great-aunt, Pippi Strell, who was a little batty.
Anyway, I ve done them all, the famous ones, that is. Many a jolly Sunday afternoon I ve spent exploring the London ones: Highgate and Karl Marx;West Norwood with the Doultons, Tates, Maxim (of machine gun fame), Mrs Beeton (of Household Management ) and the splendid Greek Orthodox section with its collection of elaborate tombs; Nunhead with its ruined church and paths that weave in and out of the ever-encroaching vegetation. I ve even taken my interest with me on holidays and scouted for the graves of Toscanini, Catalani, Horowitz and, for a few years, Eva Peron in the Monumental Cemetery in Milan. With hundreds of others, I ve got in line and shuffled past Epstein s often attacked memorial to dear old Oscar in Pere La Chaise and, on the way, taken in Jim Morrison s final resting place though I don t think he was getting that much rest, not with the hordes who were besieging his grave. I have even clumped around a Bogomil necropolis in the Balkans. My favourite of all these has been the graveyard on the island of San Michele in the Venetian lagoon with its high brick wall all round and the tall, dark cypress trees that overshadow the paths that wind between the different sections: the Protestant section where you can find the graves of Baron Corvo (author of Hadrian IV , a favourite book of mine) and Ezra Pound (not a favourite poet of mine);the Orthodox section where Serge Diaghilev and Igor Stravinsky lie beside each other and are often covered with tributes from ballet and music lovers, while forgotten Russian princesses and aristocrats share the same earth at the end of lives in exile. All very romantically melancholic. Just up my street. (If you want to go there, get on vaporetto 41 or 42 from Fondamente Nuove and get off at the first stop.) However, perhaps my most favourite of all lies much nearer than La Serenissima.
Beneath one of the highest points on the Downs (900 feet), close to the Kent border, is the Surrey village of Limpsfield. Lying on the Greenwich Meridian about 21 miles due south of London and not yet completely absorbed by ever-expanding Oxted, its neighbour, it has a wealth of attractive buildings:Georgian houses, tile-hung cottages, a village shop, a welcoming pub and a very good bookshop. Once, above the village, on Titsey Hill, there was a Roman villa and the Pilgrims Way to Canterbury passes nearby.
Although surrounded by much else of historical interest, it is the village church, St Peters, which attracts visitors. It is a handsome building, of Norman origin and is mentioned in the Domesday Book, William the Conqueror s survey of England for tax purposes, made in 1086.It stands in a prominent position in the High Street and once belonged to Battle Abbey and, apart from the courthouse, is the only remaining building from that time.

The grave of Sir Thomas Beecham, conductor and founder of The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He championed the work of Fredrick Delius, who is buried nearby. He is buried between Eileen Joyce, the concert pianist, and another conductor, Norman Del Mar.

The grave of Dame Eileen Joyce C.M.G, the concert pianist and one-time inhabitant of Limpsfield, is buried in the churchyard of St Peters, next to two famous conductors - Sir Thomas Beecham and Normal Del Mar C.B.E.
It is the graveyard to which most visitors are drawn for there in the quiet sylvan surroundings of God s acre not only do the rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep but many famous musicians are also buried.
Dr Eileen Joyce (1912-1991), the Australian concert pianist who had trained at Leipzig, is buried here. Her home was in Limpsfield and she would give concerts for locals who thronged her music gallery as she, sometimes accompanied by a prot g , would play, using two grand pianos. She also worked on film soundtracks, most famously for that of Brief Encounter , a perennial favourite. Dr Joyce endeared herself to the British by her radio broadcasts during World War II and her visits to many blitzed cities and towns up and down the country.
Nearby is the grave of the prolific composer Frederick Delius (1862-1934) who worked as an orange farmer in Florida at one time. He, too, like Eileen Joyce, had studied at Leipzig and when he moved to live mainly in France, he composed choral and orchestral works, chamber music and songs as well as operas, perhaps the famous of which is A Village Romeo and Juliet with its well-known Walk to the Paradise Garden .
For the last decade of his life he was blind and paralysed from a syphilitic infection, but with the help of the musician Eric Fenby as his amanuensis, he continued to compose such works as A Song of Summer and Songs of Farewell . When he died in 1934 his wife, Jelka, had him buried him in the churchyard at Grez-sur-Loing near Fontainbleau. However, he had wished to be buried somewhere in the south of England and in May 1935, after much searching, she had his body brought to St Peter s churchyard where it now lies beneath a grey slate headstone next to his wife s grave, for she too chose this quiet rural spot as her last resting place.

In the graveyard of the parish church of St Peter, Limpsfield, are the Harrison sisters graves. It was Beatrice, the cellist, who made the famous first outside broadcast for the BBC when she played her cello in a wood and a nightingale sang.
One of the great champions of Delius s work was Sir Thomas Beecham, conductor and founder of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, who read the eulogy at Delius s funeral. When Sir Thomas died in 1961, he was buried at Brookwood cemetery, but thirty years later in 1991 his body was transferred to Limpsfield to be close to that of the man whose music and reputation he had fostered.
To the left of Sir Thomas s grave is that of Norman Del Mar who though he was a horn-player and composer, is chiefly remembered as a conductor, especially of the works of Elgar, Mahler and Richard Strauss about whom he wrote three books.
The ashes of Jack Brymer, the famous clarinettist, are buried here too. He was one of the finest clarinettists of his time and played under Sir Thomas s baton during his career.
Nearby is the grave of the Harrison sisters, all musicians. The most famous was the cellist, Beatrice, who made the first BBC outside broadcast when she played her cello in a wood where a nightingale was singing, a recording still remembered and requested by many. The sisters headstone has inscribed on it a quote from an ode by the Victorian poet, Arthur O Shaughnessy:
We are the music makers
We are the dreamers of dreams
How appropriate for a churchyard with so many music makers.
Many visitors to this part of England come to see the great country houses, Knole, Sissinghurst, Hever, Penshurst, Leeds and Scotney castles but a detour to this lovely corner of our country will repay you well. So, if you want to join the Undead in a stroll amongst the dear departed, join me.
A COMMON PURSUIT
A COMMON PURSUIT
Let s take the dog for walk.
Why not? It s a sunny spring afternoon so let s venture forth with mutt.
And off we went but this time not to one of our nearer green spaces. Be bold, I think, and go to the far reaches of Croydon, and that s how we came to be strolling on Kenley Common, 56 acres of green open space owned and managed, along with five other commons on the southern fringe of the metropolis, by the Corporation of the City of London. Kenley is part of the 10,000 acres of open spaces thus owned, along with more famous park and woodland areas such as Hampstead Heath and Burnham Beeches. Little did I know how much I was to find out about Kenley when we stopped for a postprandial pint at The Wattenden Arms, a welcoming pub.
The walls were covered with old pictures of