Lovely Indian meal and tasty Silent Pool gin distillery visit

Among a small group of friends we enjoyed an Indian meal at Chai in the Barn café of Mandira’s Kitchen, adjoining the Silent Pool Gin Distillery at Albury in the Surrey Hills. Then, of course, we followed with a fascinating tour of the gin distillery.

Authentic Indian décor accompanied our Indian food in the Chai in the Barn café which you can see in my photos below. We ate from tiffin carriers, enhancing the Indian authenticity. And no we didn’t have a gin with our meal, if that’s what you were thinking.

Following our meal we learned the history of gin making in England, and how the Silent Pool gin is exported all round the world. We learned how it’s made, more importantly we tasted half a dozen gins and and different tonics. It’s the fun of the tastings drunk with the accompanying talk that’s what the tour is all about.

Silent Pool gin is sold in attractive bottles, which can be bought with equally attractive glasses. On our tour we also tasted some of the 24 botanicals used in the making of the gin, and after the tour a visit to the shop for a gin purchasing experience. None of our small group bought a bottle of black juniper gin, at £295 a bottle, while the juniper in the craft gin comes from the Balkans, the black juniper gin’s rare juniper comes from Bhutan.

Here’s my photo record of our visits, and of course wouldn’t you know it, I failed to take a photo of the silent pool, a water source fed by an aquifer, which has been there for centuries, partly feeding the Tilling Bourne stream.

The centenary event of scrambling-motocross a great success

Bagshot Heath and the military training estate in Lightwater was the centenary home of motorcycle scrambling/motocross on Sunday 24th March, 2024. Engines were revved on the start line as over 150 competitors set off in batches of four to tackle the course. Just a handful were vintage motorbikes, entered to respect the entrants into the first scramble event in March 1924.

I’ve some photos the event, and a short video. I didn’t walk the course, as an official video cameraman did. Certainly, it was no easy course to walk. I found action at the start line and lap timing boards to meet my enjoyment. Beautifully organised by the Witley & District Motor Cycle Club, it was a highly professional event, and a credit to the centenary celebration.

As I’ve said, my photos and video fall into the amateur class. For professional photos and video look at the Scramble 100 Facebook page HERE. you’ll need to scroll through the comments to get to the videos, it’s worth it. There’s one lovely video snippet of the competitors tacking a muddy hollow, when one of them get stopped by a tree root and flies over the handlebars and is planted face first into the mud.

This was a big event that wonderfully captured the heritage of motor cycle scrambling. Surrey Heath Museum are hosting an exhibition on the centenary, see HERE. The exhibition covers the development of the sport and its origins in Camberley.

Camberley – the birth place of Motocross

Something rather special is happening in Lightwater on Sunday March 24th this year, on the military vehicle test track.

It’s a celebratory running of the first ever Motocross race that took place in Camberley in March 1924. Named Motocross 100, the event will run on some of the same course as the original event, called the Southern Scott Scramble.

The original course was 25 miles over military land in the north and east of Camberley. The Motocross 100 course is shorter than the original course. The arrangements, described in the Facebook page for Motocross 100 are:

“Competitors will be split into two groups based on the class entered. Each group will embark on a one-hour session, with riders leaving at 15 second intervals. Competitors will start as many laps as they can in the hour-long session. At the end of the session, riders will have a ‘gentleman’s lunch stop’ as was the case in 1924, heading to the paddock and awaiting their second session. Group One is for Pioneer/Veteran/ Clubmen Classic (Pre1980 machines) and Road based bikes of any era. Group Two is for Modern bikes, from 1980 onwards, and any classic bike from any era that is ridden at an expert level.

All of the classes in each group will be on the course at the same time. There will be a winner for each class in each group and an overall winner for each group – determined as the rider who has completed the most laps across both sessions, in the shortest possible time – reflective of the original format.”

It should be a great day. Here’s a photo of the Alpine Course, and a bike in the Surrey Heath Museum associated exhibition, and a bike from the Army on the course from a few years ago.

Taking photos of flowers

It’s been a habit of mine to take photos of flower. I’ve learned that, even as a happy snapper, the best results are when the photo of a flower is taken from below, so that you’re looking up to it. Now this isn’t always possible, though every effort, including muddy knees, should be taken to achieve that result.

Recently I submitted a panel of five photos to a competition of Windlesham and Camberley Camera Club. The title of my panel was titled Spring and Summer Flowers. The rules are that the five images may comprise a variety of the same or different subjects. The sequence should be well designed, cohesive, balanced and flow as a sequence. Images can be portrait or landscape orientation or a sensible mixture of both. Images do not need to be all the same size but need to be visually balanced.

Sounds easy, but it’s not. I found five images of flowers in my photo library, all taken by me in the last couple of years. Of the five photos only one was not taken from below, and that was of a wonderful rose in David Austin Roses in Albrighton. For the daffodil, in our front garden, I lay on my front and pointed the camera up into the flower. Of the others, the rhododendron was photographed above my head in Earlswood Park next to Waitrose on the A30 in Bagshot, the Japanese cherry was hanging over a garden wall in Lightwater, and the kniphofia was again in our front garden.

So here they are, in all their beauty, firstly with an image of how the panel was presented, then each of the flowers.

Building of the Queen Mary Reservoir

Recently I listened to a talk by Nick Pollard, Curator of Spelthorne Museum in Staines on the story of the Queen Mary Reservoir.

Nick’s talk described the massive construction programme needed to build, at the time, the world’s largest free standing reservoir and its supporting infrastructure. I learned that the core of the reservoir walls were made of London clay.

How interesting. The reservoir was created by excavating the centre to form a bank around the circumference, then cutting a slot through this bank to the London Clay below, before filling the slot with clay to make a waterproof seal. Incredibly this clay was trodden into place by gangs of men with sacking wrapped round their boots! The inside face of the bank was then lined with concrete.

In 1902 the Metropolitan Water Board was formed to improve the supply of water to the rapidly expanding capital, and quickly commenced a programme to vastly increase unfiltered water storage capacity. As part of these plans, a new reservoir at Littleton, near Shepperton, Surrey was authorised in 1911. In 1919, Henry Stilgoe, grandfather of the well-known musician and entertainer Richard Stilgoe, became Chief Engineer of the water board, and work recommenced after WWI. Unfiltered water is abstracted from the Thames just below Penton Hook, stored at Queen Mary Reservoir and then pumped to the treatment works at Kempton Park, and then on to storage reservoirs in north London.

The capacity of the new reservoir was 6,750 million gallons, with a water area of 723 acres and a circumference of about 4 miles. The Littleton reservoir was opened on 13th June 1925 by King George V, and in a last minute decision, was officially named after his consort, Queen Mary. The dedication plaque sits high on the bank of the reservoir to this day.

Here are a selection of photos of, and description of the construction, courtesy, mostly, from The History of Queen Mary Reservoir, Building Queen Mary Reservoir, and Kempton Steam Museum.

Finding good places for tea and cake

Readers of the blog will have read that finding a good place for tea, cake and conveniences is almost always uppermost on our outings. No different to most people I imagine.

Asking people where’s a good place to go for tea and cake is obviously a sensible strategy. When visiting National Trust properties their cafes are the obvious place to go. It’s when visiting an unfamiliar town then asking locals is the right choice. For example, last year we visited Stafford where there was plenty of choice for refreshments, asking the receptionist at Stafford’s Museum and Ancient High House [more of this later] she suggested The Swan Hotel, which was excellent – always worth asking.

Last year we visited Portchester Castle, not having previously been before. The castle ruins, owned by English Heritage, have very limited refreshments facilities. The Castle has extensive grounds where visitors picnic and play ball games, so there’s a need for a café. Here’s a photo of them, courtesy of St Mary’s Church website.

The Castle’s website suggests,

  • The entire Outer Bailey is ideal for picnicking. There are picnic benches and a grass area for picnicking in the Inner Bailey. No barbecues, tents or gazebos allowed.
  • Small selection of snacks, hot and cold drinks are sold on site. There is also a tea room at the Church nearby which is run by church volunteers.

And so it was off to St Mary’s Church tea room, and jolly good it was too. Couldn’t not visit the church, which was built in the 1120’s. While we drank our tea, sitting on a bench in front of the church, we remarked on the he large number of church volunteers and maybe lay staff also. St Mary’s is a busy and active church, unlike many we see elsewhere.

The front of the church is wonderfully crafted, with Norman stone carvings, scrolled pillars, rounded mouldings. There are two signs of the zodiac, though I failed to see them, maybe you can find them in the photo below.

Visiting Dover Castle – rich in history

In September last year we visited Dover Castle, something I don’t remember doing in the past. I probably have, but it’ll be decades ago.

Dover Castle is a splendid visitor experience. It’s been thoughtfully managed to offer a variety of experiences, there’s a battlements walk that takes and hour, the secret wartime tunnels, an underground hospital, King Henry II’s great tower, remains of a Roman lighthouse, an early Saxon Church, and not to forget a restaurant.

We didn’t do half these things, so a second visit is something we’ll have to do. Dover Castle’s history is fascinating. The castle is thought to have been built upon an iron-age hill fort. The Romans built a pharos – Lighthouse, to guide ships into Dover harbour. After William the Conqueror’s invasion in 1066 fortifications were added to the castle. During the reign’s of Henry II, King John, and Henry III between 1180 and early 1200’s the Great Tower and palace, along with the castle defences were built, with successive rings of defensive walls.

The Great Tower offers a recreation of the life and times in the era of Henry II. Such recreations can be a bit tacky. Not so so in the Great Tower, In 2008-9 English Heritage created an evocation of the Henry II’s palace. All the items are faithful copies of the what would be there in the 12th-century, be it furniture, wall hangings, small household objects, and manuscripts. Most rooms have a guide to interpret things for the visitor. I must say, this was expertly, and impressively done. One feature that the visitor needs to recognise are the steep circular steps – one to go up and the other to go down. Negotiating the steps to the top of the tower affords amazing views of the castle and out to sea.

I was pleased to have seen the Roman Lighthouse, an impressive survivor. Like all such visits to historic castles and such, there’s never enough time to see everything, and of course the restaurant called a couple of times – good food on offer. Here are my photos of our visit, arriving at the main entrance, then straight to the restaurant for a cup of tea and cake ….

Peverell’s Gate

Another case of Hutber’s Law

Right, let’s get to it. Hutber’s law states, “Improvement means deterioration”.

Patrick Hutber (1928-1980) was a financial journalist and City Editor of the The Sunday Telegraph from 1966 to 1979. His cynical observation, in 1970, stated that an announced improvement by businesses or organisation actually hides a deterioration.

I’m sure all of us will have, at sometime, experienced this law, most probably from a utility company or a bank describing an improved service where some useful facility is withdrawn, hence Hutber’s Law in effect.

This latest case that I experienced is not in itself a matter of life of death, though it’s the loss of a useful amenity. I’m a regular reader of library books, mostly of crime and adventure. Having enjoyed a particular author, and in crime novels I don’t want vivid description of a murder – more an engaging who done it. Then I’ll want to read more of their work. This presents a slight problem, when searching the shelves I ask myself have I read the book previously.

To help me check whether I previously read a book I refer to a list that I compiled having downloaded the list of books I’ve read from the Surrey Libraries website (if I remember to take it with me). Well, they’ve got a wizzy new website. However, I can longer download, as a spreadsheet file, a list of books I’ve borrowed, which I can then sort by author, ensuring I don’t end up borrowing a book I’ve already read.

I visited Camberley library, requested help, and learned that the facility for me to download a list is not available. As an alternative they printed out a list of everything I borrowed since 2017, all 12 pages of it. Not very helpful, as I want it in author order not date order. With my IT hat on I’m thinking if the new library system can create a file of my borrowings to send to a printer then they should be able to save that file for a spreadsheet.

Enough….. The library did say I could create my own list. Hmmm. Hutber’s Law in action.

Photo of the week No.53: Ice Cave by Herbert Ponting in January 1911

In Robert Falcon Scott’s ultimately failed Terra Nova expedition to the South Pole, the expedition’s photographer was Herbert Ponting.

Among Ponting’s image was a spectacular one of an Ice Cave, where the expedition’s ship, the Terra Nova, can be seen in the background. A truly historic image that’s now part of the historical record of the expedition. Ponting’s photos of the expedition now reside at the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge.