Little Malvern Toll House

No longer at Little Malvern this is one of the rescued buildings rebuilt at Avoncroft museum. It was originally built and owned by the Upton upon Severn Turnpike Trust. Turnpike Trusts were established by Act of Parliament and were responsible for upkeep of roads. To fund their work they were allowed to charge road tolls, which were collected at tollgates. Trusts usually subcontracted this to individuals who, in return for a yearly rent, were allowed to keep the tolls they collected. Travellers tended to hate the toll system as they saw little improvement in the quality of the roads and often had long waits at the gates. 

Quaint as the building looks today it was basically a one up one down affair with a scullery area and an outside loo in a wooden hut. Times have improved!

National Telephone Kiosk Museum

Sometimes you come across the unexpected at museums. Having stopped over at Redditch for the Midland Air Festival (see the In Reach Blog) we had some time to spare the next day before heading home so decided to call in at the nearby Avonscroft Museum which houses a collection of relocated buildings of historical importance that would likely have been lost to developers. Before we had really even started looking around we noticed a sign to a collection of telephone kiosks and went for a quick look. We ended up chatting with a former BT engineer who had previously worked at Brooklands museum and found that Avonscroft holds the National Collection of phone kiosks representing at least one of every box that has been in use since 1912, a number of roadside boxes and a working exchange which is connected to all of the individual phones so, yes, they all work.

If like me you are of a certain age you will remember many of these boxes so it was a little nostalgia trip as well as being interesting, as was the exchange which was demonstrated to us by the nice chap at the museum. Sparing no expense we were also given a souvenir post card of the Queen launching direct long distance calling back in 1958. At least that happened before I was born!

TS Royalist

I'm quite partial to old sailing ships. Having said that this is not actually very old at all. The original Royalist was built in 1971 to serve the Sea Cadets in a training role. It was decommissioned in 2014 and this was built as a replacement, entering service the following year. It is expected to remain in service for around 40 years.

It has been moored in Ramsgate Harbour for at least a couple of days.

Happisburgh

Happisburgh in Norfolk is proably best know for its quite distinctive red and white striped lighthouse which was built in 1790 and still works today, funded entirely by voluntary contributions. However, the beach area below the lighthouse was, along with much of the eastern coast, considered an invasion risk in WWII and within a short stretch along the cliff top can be found three pill boxes erected to help fend off any potential invasion force. Fortunately they were never needed as it is hard to believe that they would have achieved much. 

One of them is now at risk of toppling on to the beach below as coastal erosion takes its toll but for the present the three serve as a reminder of grim days over 8o years ago.

Reigate Fort

Reigate Fort was constructed in 1898 as a result of a perceived threat to the British Empire by the French. It was part of a 72 mile long defence line from the North Downs to Essex and was one of 13 new military installations. However in as little as 8 years the Admiralty became confident, particularly with the launch of the new Dreadnought battleships, that the navy would fend off any invasion and the fort was decommissioned. 

It subsequently had some use in WWI and is believed to have been used by the Canadian Army in WWII and has been designated as a  Scheduled Ancient Monument by English Heritage since 1972.

There are many tunnels in the area nearby, including a Command centre intended for use by Montgomery, and air raid shelters. The pillbox/shelter pictured is just across the way from the Fort.