Category Archives: Kent

Rolling blog. A man of Kent…

26 Thursday May 2022

Posted by in Community rail, Community Rail Network, Kent, Photography, Railways, Rolling blogs, Travel

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08:00

Well, for a day anyway! I’ve woken up to be greeting by a fabulously sunny day here in Folkstone, a town I’ve been pleasantly surprised by. I’ve stayed in the Ship Inn overlooking the harbour. It’s a quiet little pub and my room is lovely. Here’s the view.

I’m preparing to head out for the day and explore a little before I’m due to begin work in Ashford later this morning at another Community Rail Network event celebrating Rail Week. I’ll blog about what I get up to…

10:30.

It’s not often that I’m pleasantly surprised by a town in the UK nowadays but I have to admit Folkestone is the place. It’s reinvented itself in recent years and a damned fine job they’ve done of it too. The Ferry port is long gone but the harbour and the harbour railway and pier have been transformed into an excellent tourist spot. I’ll add a load of pictures later and blog about it in detail but the town (unlike its cousin Dover, which is a shithole) is really attractive with a bohemian vibe due to artworks and quirky shops and bars.

Looking back on the tiwn from the harbour breakwater.

14:30.

Well, that was a stressful few hours. Firstly problems on the rails meant I thought I was going to be late getting to Ashford. As it was I made my train with just 3 minutes to spare rather than the relaxed 25 mins I was expecting. Then I got a text from a nag saying “could you get those Crossrail pics to us – only we’re on press today”? So, with no notice I managed to pull a rabbit out of a hat (after some wifi false starts) and get them over. As if that wasn’t enough I gad to go straight to work photographing students from Ashford college getting lessons in all aspects of the railways (safety, ticketing etc) on a round trip on the train to Maidstone East. That was actually good fun. The students were lovely and watching their delight in being let loose on making announcements over the station PA at Maidstone was priceless.

Now I’m taking a minute to get my brath back before getting some library pictures before beginning the trek back North…

17:10.

This visit to Kent is coming to an end. Whilst I was here I decided to nip over to Dover to get a few pictures as my records show I’ve not been there since 2011. Not a lot’s changed around the station to be fair and what little of the place I’ve seen hasn’t changed my opinion of the town. Whilst I was there I did have time for a quick pint and enjoyed the last rays of the sunshine outside The Priory, the pub opposite the station which is where I stayed all those years ago. It’s one of those rare beasts – a pub which still hosts live music.

Now I’m on one of SET’s high-speed services back to London to head back to Yorkshire. I’ve a fast mobile office back to the capital with plug-sockets and wifi – what more do I need? (A bar and restaurant car? Ed)…

17:33.

My mobile office is now speeding along High-Speed 1 to London. A railway that exposes all the anti High-Speed 2 environmental scaremongering as just that. It’s 15 years since this line opened to passengers and the scars from building it have long healed. I really must come back and spend a couple of days taking pictures along the route as the last ones I took were for a client and I’m not allowed to use them.

17:45.

I’m curious. On both my trips on SET ‘Javelins’ the Train Manager has announced which toilets are working, so by implication – this is a problem. This set (like all class 395s) has two toilets, a fully accessible one and a cubicle. The access one seems to have conked out. Is this a common issue?

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26th January picture of the day…

26 Wednesday Jan 2022

Posted by in Kent, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Travel

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2022 is shaping up to be a funny old year. I can’t quite put my finger on why other than that it seems to be all over the place at the moment – and no – that’s not just the Government! With revelation after revelation about the party antics in No10 I can imagine that some Senior Tories must be thinking “please – just make it stop!” Somehow I think that’s going to be folorn hope. At least the Covid situation’s improving and the early signs that Omicron would be less of a problem appear to be panning out. Ironically, this could be adding to the Tories rows as they’ll no longer be able to use Covis as a smokescreen for what a shit-show Brexit is – especially now the latest customs restrictions kicked in in January, turning Kent into a vast lorry-park. Worse is yet to come as the next tranche of self-imposed restrictions come into force in the summer. I wonder if Johnson will still be PM then?

Despite the pandemic relaxing its grip the economic picture remains confused. Partly due to concerns about a possible war between Russia and the Ukraine, but also mixed news from other parts of the globe. It’s certainly causing disturbances on the world markets which are up and down like a bride’s nightie and returns aren’t always reflected in the performance of the stock markets . The old curse ‘may you live in interesting times’ couldn’t be more apposite.

Still, I’m doing my best to put such cares aside right now. There’s bugger-all I can do about them but watch from the sidelines. Having spent the past couple of days working from home editing pictures, blogging, scanning and slimming down on long-stored personal possessions I’m having a day away tomorrow. I’ll be returning to London so expect a rolling blog of my travels as I make my way to and around the capital.

Tonight I’ll leave you with another old slide as picture of the day. I’ve been working my way through an album of old travel shots in fits and starts. Having completed a selection from Denmark and England I’m about to embark on a series of shots taken in India in 1995-96 but I’m going to end tonight with one from the UK. This shot of the old post-windmill at Chillenden in Kent was taken on the 16th July 1995 during a cycle trip around Kent. For several years Lynn and I would attend the Kent beer festival in Canterbury with friends from London and stay overnight. We’d bring our bikes on the train so whilst everyone else headed back to London we’d spend the day cycling around the byways of the garden of England. This was one of the sights we discovered.

Lynn sitting on the base of the windmill, just to give a sense of scale. The whole windmill could be turned to catch the wind – hence the wheel on a beam at the back!

I’ve a favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances appreciate all the help that we can get to aid us in bouncing back from lockdowns. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!