Tag Archives: Essex

11th September picture of the day…

11 Monday Sep 2023

Posted by in Essex, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, West Yorkshire

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

There’s only a short blog from me today. It’s late and I’ve had a long day glued to the computer editing pictures which have now appeared on my Zenfolio picture website. As usual, they’re spread around various galleries which are dedicated to particular train companies, aspects of the railways – or other interests. There’s still more pictures to edit but the majority have been uploaded. You can find them in these galleries;

Greater Anglia

Govia/Thameslink

Infrastructure and engineering

East Midlands Railway

Social issues

UK travel photography

Odds and sods

Another of today’s chores was to package and parcel the latest eBay sales of old railway slides and memorabilia and get them down to to post office for dispatch to the lucky winners. There’s still plenty of items on offer (I’ve just started another 5 day sale now) so if you want to browse what’s for sale, click on this link.

I’m having break from the office tomorrow so expect a rolling (ish) blog, although I can’t tell you where I’ll be going as I don’t know myself yet! It depends on the weather and what’s happening.

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with a taster from my new travel pictures. This one’s of Saffron Walden in Essex. It’s a delightful little market town that couldn’t be more different in character and design than West Yorkshire…

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, 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 me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

Cambridgeshire day 5…

06 Wednesday Sep 2023

Posted by in Architecture, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Photography, Travel

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

Only a short blog (with several pictures) from me today. We’ had a late start due to recharging yesterdays batteries but also because – despite another day of high temperatures, fog hung around our chalet until quite late this morning.

Once we were on the road we made it over the border into Essex as we visited the old market town of Saffron Walden, South of Cambridge. It’s a lovely little town with some historic buildings, a lovely feel and sights like the fine parish church and the beautifully restored Bridge End garden.

Here’s a few pictures from our trip.

A classic collection of old houses in Castle Street, Saffron Walden.
Bridge End Garden.
The walled garden at Bridge End contains varieties of old English apples, identified by these brass tags.
The town’s more than it’s fair share of old timbered buildings like this – although the pub sign has a modern twist on the ‘Cross’ Keys…

We lingered longer than we’d intended but wanted to have a quick look at St Neots (a 45 min drive away) but as it was such a hot say we ended up at this old Mill on the Great Ouse, South of the town

The River Mill, just off the Great North Rd at Eaton Socon, South of St Neots.

I’ll flesh out more details tomorrow if I can. Right now it’s time to call it a day as I’m having a solo adventure tomorrow…

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, 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 me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

15th June picture of the day…

15 Tuesday Jun 2021

Posted by in Essex, Photography, Picture of the day, Travel

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

I’d only intended to take one day away from blogging after getting home from the best part of a week away, but there were so many things to catch up on (including family life) that – well – something had to give! Plus, my time at home is getting interrupted more as the country starts to open up, despite the much leaked ‘hiccup’ in relaxing the final Covid restrictions which mean June has now become July.

I haven’t been ignoring work. Far from it, but I have so many pictures to collate, edit and get onto my website that it’s going to take some time. I’ve made a pretty good start as several hundred rail, shipping and travel pictures have already been added to my Zenfolio website, but there’s almost as many still to do. You can find what I’ve added so far by following this link which will take you to the recently updated section, showing you which galleries have been updated.

There’s only a short blog from me tonight as I have to be up at (very) silly o’ clock in the morning as I’m travelling down to the Midlands to spend the next tow days at the ‘Rail Live’ event. It’s the first major rail trade event to happen since lockdown hit us all back in 2020 and I’m really looking forward to it. So many friends and colleagues will be there, all enjoying the first chance we’ve had to meet up for far, far too long. I’ll be rolling blogging from ‘Rail Live’ over the next couple of days, so keep an eye out for those.

Right now I’ll leave you with the picture of the day which is from my recent travels. One of the things I really enjoyed was that the trip wasn’t purely about railways. It was also about exploring places I’d either never visted before or hadn’t really got to know in any depth other than by passing through. One such place was Wivenhoe in Essex, on the railway to Clactio-on-Sea. This shot was taken at the old ‘dry’ dock (which is now anything but) on the river Colne. Now the dock’s lined with rather posh properties.

I really enjoyed the feel of the village and maet some lovely people there. That fact that it felt like it was rather out of a film set was reinforced when I spotted a blue plaque on one of the properties nearby that explained Wivenhoe was for many years (in fact, from 1958 until her death aged 92 in 1998) of the actress Joan Hickson, who became famous for playing Agatha Christie’s ‘Miss Marple’!

Right, time for bed!

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 need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!