England Tour, April 2007

Saturday April 21 through Tuesday, April 24

(Note: Clicking on any image in this travelogue will bring up a full screen version of the image.)

Saturday, April 21

I headed up to Sheffield to visit my friends Vikki and Iain Fielden.

Vikki, Iain and moving boxes

I had known Vikki from the Detroit area as part of the Paint Creek Folk Music Society. She is an avid singer and general folk enthusiast, who met and married Iain. He is a Researcher/Consultant in Metallurgy (pronounced "me-TAL-ur-gee") at Sheffield Hallam University. They had been kind enough to put me up (or put up with me) the last two times I was over, so I figured a trip to England would not be complete without imposing upon them again. Iain is geek after my own heart, being a techie and a enthusiast of railroads, and Vikki is also a soul-mate, having an affinity for horrible puns, parodies, and bad jokes.

It was a long drive to Sheffield. I made it without incident until the last mile or so when construction and non-rectilinear streets conspired to deposit me in a Sheffield of a parallel universe that did not posses the same street names and landmarks as the one Vikki and Iain inhabited. I had rented a mobile phone when I first arrived, which fortunately was able to traverse the hyperspace gap between their plane and the one in which I had found myself. Iain was able to recognize some of the landmarks I described, and guided me back to his universe and home.

I picked a particularly inconvenient time to impose upon them, as they were not quite moved into their new flat. I literally helped them to screw together the bed I was to sleep in when I arrived. The least I could do was to take them out to dinner.

Sunday, April 22

We reviewed the possibilities for entertainment for the day. We settled on the plan that Vikki and I would go visit Jacey Bedford in the morning, Iain and I would go to Magna during the afternoon, and the three of us would hit a 4th Sunday Sing in the evening.

Jacey Bedford is my booking agent in England. "My booking agent". That sounds impressive. I'm delighted she chose to represent me, and more than a bit honored. How it came to pass is an interesting story. Jacey was 1/3 of the vocal group "Artisan", recently disbanded, which toured England, the US, and Canada for many years. I had run across them at a Folk Alliance conference sometime in the mid 90's, and was quite taken by them. I wound up booking them for the Minstrel several times and one really memorable Folk Project Festival. They were performing at the Champlain Valley Festival in Vermont where I was attending in August 2002. I was just chewing the fat with Jacey between sets, and idly asked her what was going on in her life. She told me of some performances and touring the band was doing, and also that her agency was going well. Agency? What agency? Oh, she booked a number of acts from my side of the Atlantic on performing tours of England. "Oh, really? Think you could set one up for me?" I asked. "I don't see why not." She replied. Coulda knocked me over with a mouse whisker. I don't think she had ever seen me perform except for an occasional isolated song in informal context. But I gave her a promo pack (always keep one handy when on the road) And one thing led to another, which led eventually to my first England tour in 2003. This 2007 tour will be the last she will do for me. Now that being an agent is her prime source of income, she will have to concentrate more on her heavy hitters. Don't blame her. I'm not making her the big bucks. (Quality quid?) Well, I have my feet wet now. We'll see if I can set up a tour on my own.

Jacey lives about 15 miles from Vikki in Birdsedge. Blink twice, and you missed the town. We had a pleasant ride and a pleasant visit. Chatted about nothing in particular. Toured Jacey's husband Brian's new recording studio he is building in a building behind their house. Gave Jacey her agent's fee, thanked her and headed back to Sheffield. After lunch, I headed out to Magna with Iain.

Magna is one of the most dramatic and impressive museums I've ever seen. It is a decommissioned steel plant that has been turned into an innovative and exciting industrial museum. Sheffield was once a world leader in steel production, and still produces high quality stainless and other specialty steels. This one particular plant, however, had gone belly-up, but was resurrected in museum form. First of all, it is enormous! The original building was over a mile long, and even the part that remains standing absolutely dwarfs anything on a human scale. As does the equipment within. Brobdignagian crucibles and ladles and assorted other paraphernalia of steel making makes one lose all sense of proportion. And to enhance the dramatic effect, the interior of the building is almost completely unlit. (Hence, no photos.) The visitors wander above the mysterious darkness below along a catwalk, along which are situated strategically placed spotlights. One can point and aim the spotlights around the building to highlight various bits of equipment. A sensor in the spotlight's mount will sense when it is pointed at something significant, and trigger off a short video explanation of what has been illuminated on a nearby screen. There are various chambers devoted to air, earth, water, and fire with some pretty dramatic demonstrations on the subject. And the big party trick is one crucible that has been reanimated to simulate the process of a melt, complete with gas-fired flames and some pretty impressive sound effects and floor-shaking. According to the old guys who used to work in the plant, the show does a pretty effective simulation except for the absence of the smells involved.

We signed up for a guided tour led by one of the ex foremen in the plant. We found ourselves the only ones on the tour (again!), and so were treated to a bunch of interesting tales of the lives of the men who worked the steel. I didn't get to see more than a quarter of what was there, and would have gladly spent another couple of days to take in the whole thing.

That evening we all piled in the car and went to a pub in Kelham Island for a regular 4th Sunday Sing. This was English Folk Club at its best. There were maybe a dozen and a half singers in a cozy function room of the pub, and their singing ranged from competent to outstanding, with the median being closer to the latter. There were a number of members of the group Crucible (an appropriate name for a band from the steel town of Sheffield) that I would have paid good money to hear in concert. It was a real treat to swap songs with such a bunch. Mine was the only guitar in the room, and it drew a couple of hairy eyeball stares when I brought it out. I promised to play quietly, and ended up using it on only one song. My injured ribs were aching some by the end of the night, but the experience was well worth it.

Monday, April 23

A fond farewell to Vikki and Iain, and down the long M5 towards Bristol. I had a couple of days to kill before my gig in Llantrisant (no, don't ask me to pronounce it) Wales. Jonathan Colvin's dad had recommended a number of interesting sights to see in Bristol, just across the bay from Cardiff. Someone, I forget who, had also clued me in on a nice folk club in Bristol called the Nova Scotia. They had a singers' night on Mondays, and I thought to check it out as long as I was going there. I found their contact person, Jim Tigwell on the Internet and gave him a call. It turns out he was aware of me. Jacey had contacted him about booking me, and he would have done so but the schedules didn't work out. He would not be there this evening, but there would be someone else running the night, and they would see to it that I got a spot in the lineup. I asked if he know an inexpensive place I could stay, and he said he would look into it.

I arrived in Bristol around 3:00 in the afternoon, and found myself in a traffic jam that led beneath one of the very sights I came here to see: The Clifton Suspension Bridge. This bridge, built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel (Ever notice how some people's names always include their middle names? Like George Bernard Shaw or J. Edgar Hoover? Why is that? ... Where was I? Oh, yes. The Bridge.) over the River Avon was another milestone in the state of bridge engineering. It was designed in 1831, but construction ran out of money, and wasn't completed until 1864, 5 years after Brunel's death. An unusual feature to modern eyes is that the main cables are actually huge chains. Also, since the towers are built on cliffs on either shore, the roadway outside the towers is on land, and there are no suspender cables on the side-spans. That makes the main cables outside the towers straight instead of the usual graceful curve. Did I mention I like bridges?

The Nova Scotia is a pub in a working class neighborhood right on the riverside. It was too early for dinner, so I asked about the other Bristol site I wanted to see, the steamship Great Britain, also built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. A busy boy, Brunel. Turns out the Great Britain was only about 3/4 mile downstream on the Avon. So I took a little walk and found it. It was late in the day, but this attraction, like many museums in England has an admission policy where a ticket is good for free return admission for a year. So I figured I would get an early preview this afternoon, and tour it more extensively the next day.

This vessel is pretty remarkable. It holds a number of "firsts". First ship to cross the Atlantic under steam. First iron-hulled transatlantic ship. First oceangoing ship with a screw propellor, rather than paddlewheels. It was monstrous for its day; 2 or 3 times the size of most oceangoing vessels. Built in 1843, it saw service in one form or another for 90 years. During its time it underwent several major design changes. It was essentially a steam-assisted sailing ship, with the engine to be used primarily in calm or adverse wind conditions. It started out with 7 square-rigged masts but over the decades it was re-rigged with different configurations and different numbers of masts. At one point the screw was replaced by a design which could be de-coupled from the propellor shaft and lifted into the hull to provide less drag when the ship was running under sail. The entire engine was replaced with a newer design. And in the 1880's when it was transferred to the Australia run where it could not carry enough coal to make the long crossing, the engine was removed completely. Ironically she spent much of this period as a collier (coal carrier) rather than her original more glamorous role as a passenger ship. She served her last 30-odd years as a floating warehouse in the Falklands before being scuttled there in 1933. In the 1970s, the still-intact hull was raised, refloated, and towed across the Atlantic back to Bristol, where she was installed in the Bristol dry-dock where she was built and fully restored as a museum.

The dry-dock is a piece of work itself. The original masonry dry-dock is preserved, but a horizontal sheet of clear Plexiglas is installed between the dry-dock and the hull all around the ship. This Plexiglas is flooded with a couple of inches of water, giving the illusion that the ship is afloat.

Once again, arriving late on a weekday, I found myself the sole occupant of the entire facility. Very spooky treading the decks of this 150 year old ship with my only companions being the mannequin crew and passengers.

I got back to the Nova Scotia in time for dinner. Everyone makes fun of British cooking. Food is not a big part of my life, but I too find myself dissatisfied with a lot of the meals I've had there. Most staples: stews, chicken, vegetables, even standard items such as eggs and Big Macs just don't seem to taste right. It's also difficult to find a light meal on the road. It's either a major sit-down restaurant or something from a vending machine. I miss things like delis and diners and little family restaurants that abound in the US. But they do make a good fish-and-chips, so when in doubt, that's what I order.

Singers started arriving a little before 8:00, and the evening was a pleasant if low-energy mix of songs. The host of the evening was a likable fellow by the name of Bill Naish. He also solved my lodging problem by inviting me home. Again, this was typical of the hospitality I experienced throughout my stay in Britain.

Tuesday, April 24

Bill is a retiree, and having abundant time on his hands offered to show me around Bristol the next day. I gladly accepted. For a tourist, there's nothing like having a private personal native guide. And for a long time resident of the area, there's nothing like showing around a newcomer to remind you of the attractions of your hometown area.

The day started off grey and threatening rain, but the threat never materialized. We first went back to the Great Britain to more thoroughly explore the ship and its museum. We fully examined the interior.

The restoration is magnificent. The dining saloons and promenade decks and cabins, galley and cargo hold, and steerage quarters are all recreated to original drawings. They've built a full size operating mockup of the engine. If you're a gearhead like me, click on the link to the video below the picture of the engine, and watch it to the end. It's a huge inverted V4 with bore and stroke of about 7 or 8 feet. It drives the propellor shaft via an enormous chain drive. They've left one large portion of the hull unrestored in the condition it was when they raised her from the bottom. The interior and the entire hull below the false Plexiglas "waterline" is kept in a low-humidity environment to forestall any additional corrosion of the hull.

While wandering around the dry-dock we encountered a video crew doing a feature for some children's educational program. They asked me my name, where I was from, and if I had a special interest in steamships. I told them that I wasn't an enthusiast about steamships in general, but due to my engineering background, I was fascinated by machinery and old technology in general. Oh! An Engineer! I immediately became an expert and my opinion on the construction and other technical aspects of the ship was elicited.

Deep into the night, I sit and chat
Talking through the hours, but mostly through my hat
While those about me, through hats of different sizes
Confidently make assumptions from surmises.

Ogden Nash (I think)

Oh no! Somewhere I've lost my *#@(!!&# PDA again.

Next stop on the tour, the Cabot Tower. This is an observation tower built on a high point of Bristol in honor of explorer John Cabot who allegedly discovered the American continent 9 years before Columbus. A long spiral staircase led to an observation platform. Bill identified points of interest in the city.

After lunch, we went to get a closer look at the Clifton Bridge. There's a public park at the top of the cliff on the eastern bank of the Avon right at the bridgehead. We drove there, and walked to the bridge and over to the other side, where there was a little museum with the bridge's history.

Headed home in horrendous traffic. It took about an hour to get about 4 or 5 miles. Had dinner and hit the rack.