The Lemon Fool

I have a few days off this week and I'd rather enjoy picking up on some culture.

I'm live in the vicinity of Heathrow airport and I would like to state for the record that with a username including the word Princess, I'm considerably nearer to Windsor than Hounslow.

I don't mind a two or three hour drive but time constraints would rule out travelling to Scotland, Cornwall or Ireland though Northern France might be possible.

I've seen some fantastic stuff, Brunel's ships being noteworthy as is the museum and Bessamer Converter in Sheffield. The National Space Centre in Leicester is great fun but here's the problem.

The Space Centre is great, it is also way out of date. The Apollo display is inspiring but where is Elon Musk? Not even a mention.

So something more up to date? A power station, a sewage plant, a car plant, a petrochemical refinery perhaps.

Over to you and as ever TIA.

B.

I'm live in the vicinity of Heathrow airport
I should hope so!
I live about 5 miles west of Heathrow, and there's not much unless you are interested in castles, the Magna Carta etc
My local World heritage Site back home is Ironbridge/Blists Hill, but bit of a trek from these parts.
I rather fancy a trip here;
http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/pages/176/About/
Never visited, so no idea what it's like.
Another few random unvisited ones;
Shuttleworth collection , Beds.

http://www.shuttleworth.org/the-collection/

Royal Sigs museum Dorset
https://www.royalsignalsmuseum.co.uk/

radar museum Neatishead, Norfolk(?)
http://www.radarmuseum.co.uk/

I'd highly recomend the Mini factory near Oxford.

I took my wife there for her birthday around 12 years ago and she loved it.

Making cars is great theatre and as a former manufacturing process guy it was magical to see the level of ingenuity that goes into making a complex machine as efficiently as possible. Even better, order one and see it roll off the production line on its alloted day.

The factory process will have changed a lot in the last 10 years as the body shapes/styles have mushroomed from the 3 door hatchback original New Mini design that I saw being made.

http://miniplantoxford.co.uk/facts-figures/plant-tour.aspx

I'd be very hapry to revisit and see what has changed in the past 12 years.

Bletchley Park?
Hmm, not really "up to date" though.

Brooklands is full of enthusiastic volunteers who really know their stuff apparently.

I enjoyed the whole Portsmouth historic dockyard, esp. the HMS Warrior. Again, pretty old, though.

Obviously LOADS of stuff in London, but assume you want to get away from 'the smoke'....
Bazalgette's sewer system looks fascinating

Actually next door to the Space Museum is a rather interesting museum called the Abbey Pumping Station.

It has a hall with the pumping equipment but the museum side covers at least three distinct areas of engineering.
Okay, one of them is toilets!

Regards,
ep

UncleIan wrote:Bletchley Park?
Hmm, not really "up to date" though.

Brooklands is full of enthusiastic volunteers who really know their stuff apparently.

I enjoyed the whole Portsmouth historic dockyard, esp. the HMS Warrior. Again, pretty old, though.

Bletchley Park and Brooklands were the 2 that popped into my mind, especially Brooklands which has cars, buses and planes, including a Concord.
And it is right next to Mercedes World if you fancy a blast round their track.

One that I keep meaning to visit is Farnborough Air Sciences Museum but I think that it is only open weekends and bank holidays.

It may be a bit far, but I've really enjoyed http://www.wealddown.co.uk/ Not exactly "up to date" but fascinating if you like that sort of thing. Oh, and if you do go, be sure to take the guided tour through the Downland Gridshell where they do their restoration work.

Slarti

Slarti wrote:One that I keep meaning to visit is Farnborough Air Sciences Museum but I think that it is only open weekends and bank holidays.

Snap.

Slarti wrote:It may be a bit far, but I've really enjoyed http://www.wealddown.co.uk/ Not exactly "up to date" but fascinating if you like that sort of thing. Oh, and if you do go, be sure to take the guided tour through the Downland Gridshell where they do their restoration work.

On a similar tip, Butser ancient farm. It's a "living archaeology" place, where they try out old methods of building old stuff to get an insight into how it was done. Not really a day trip, but I could spend a couple of hours sat by the fire in their Saxon Round House no trouble at all. I suppose them both being on the south downs you could probably do the double in a day until you're sick of old buildings in downland countryside. They have events there too, apparently Beltain is entertaining.

Have you contemplated a visit to the Forest of Dean? http://www.wyedeantourism.co.uk/ is the local site for information, but you can find Roman iron workings at Puzzlewood, Clearwell Caves and the Scowles; a freeminer's colliery, and lots more listed at http://www.wyedeantourism.co.uk/discove ... 4|t-1875|/

The Speech House is worth a visit as the old court house for the Verderers to look after the Commoners Rights. The top of New Fancy Tip is a good viewpoint. There used to be and may still be old lime kilns dotted around. Dean Forest railway at Norchard, and Perrygrove Railway just outside Coleford may be of interest. You must go to Symonds Yat and stand on the Rock, where you will probably be able to watch the peregrines.

I'm biased because I grew up there, but give it a try.

TJH

Great Western Railway working museum etc at the Didcot Railway Centre - big collection of stuff, including working replicas of the old Broad Guage of Brunel

Mid Hants railway at New Arlesford - working mainline steam engines

Mid Hants railway
Are they the ones who do the real ale trains ?!

AleisterCrowley wrote:Mid Hants railway
Are they the ones who do the real ale trains ?!

Almost all preserved railways have some sort of tie up with beer (often organized in conjunction with CAMRA) - it seems both steam and beer appeal to the same demographic. However, I am told that diesel railway engine enthusiasts actually buy more beer, but their demographic tends to prefer lager.

AleisterCrowley wrote:Mid Hants railway
Are they the ones who do the real ale trains ?!

Yup...every Saturday.

https://www.watercressline.co.uk/produc ... aca19474be


They also do a Gin Train!

John

Thank you to all of those who took the time to reply - Some fascinating suggestions with a trip to the Mini Factory and the Weald and Downland living museum (neither of which I was aware of) firmly planted on my to do this year list).

As is too often the case, things that needed urgent attention came to the fore and I didn't get to go away.

I did tick off one item from my long term wish list and did the Long Walk in Windsor.
http://www.windsorgreatpark.co.uk/en/ex ... -deer-park

What the website does not mention is that if you're feeling energetic and don't mind doing the walk both up and down the hill, there's a fair amount of free parking just beyond the Fox and Hounds (TW20 0XU while we didn't visit the pub, reviews show it as being pretty decent)

We cut through the park to the Statue of George III at the top of the hill and strolled down the arrow straight walk heading towards Windsor castle, we did cheat at the bottom and got a lift back to the car.

Thank you to all of those who took the time to reply - Some fascinating suggestions with a trip to the Mini Factory and the Weald and Downland living museum (neither of which I was aware of) firmly planted on my to do this year list).

As is too often the case, things that needed urgent attention came to the fore and I didn't get to go away.

I did tick off one item from my long term wish list and did the Long Walk in Windsor.
http://www.windsorgreatpark.co.uk/en/ex ... -deer-park

What the website does not mention is that if you're feeling energetic and don't mind doing the walk both up and down the hill, there's a fair amount of free parking just beyond the Fox and Hounds (TW20 0XU while we didn't visit the pub, reviews show it as being pretty decent)

We cut through the park to the Statue of George III at the top of the hill and strolled down the arrow straight walk heading towards Windsor castle, we did cheat at the bottom and got a lift back to the car.

So again, thanks for the ideas, perhaps later in the year it might warm up a bit and stop raining.

Regards,

B.

I normally do a short walk along the Long Walk, rarely beyond the Old Windsor Rd

The Frogmore Paper Mill at Hemel Hempstead

https://www.thepapertrail.org.uk/

AleisterCrowley wrote:I normally do a short walk along the Long Walk, rarely beyond the Old Windsor Rd

Better than doing a long walk along the short path at Beachy Head.

John

I've been tempted a few times. Luckily I'm scared of heights..

redsturgeon wrote:Better than doing a long walk along the short path at Beachy Head.

John

Like Gloucester (from King Lear)? Let's not go there.

Not everyone's cup of tea. But how about Scunthorpe Steelworks. Some of the tour is by heritage rail. But it is most definitely a modern and "live" production facility. Book in advance.
http://www.afrps.co.uk/

Gryff