66 Gala

Last weekend the lovely Chinnor & Princes Risborough Railway held a special gala with a DB Cargo Class 66 as special guest. It was enjoyable being hauled up the line by the 66, the first time i have been on a train hauled by the freight locomotive. Also novel was the fact the train i was on and being hauled was the CPPR's 3-CEP EMU. This is a train i love (and indeed own one myself... albeit in model form!)

Galas are always fun to visit as you get these unusual combinations and also a lot more trains than on a usual service day. You can see my photos here.

Taking the CEP

The Class 411 4-CEP was one of many electric multiple units that were the backbone of British Rail services in the South until the early 2000s. I don't think i ever travelled on one, well until yesterday. A preserved set is on the Chinnor & Prince Risborough Railway and yesterday a special Blue Electric Day was held with the EMU running services up and down the small preserved line.

The EMU was hauled by a diesel locomotive of course as the line didn't have electrified third rail but that did not matter as it was great to finally see and ride on a 4-CEP which i've always had a soft spot for and indeed when i started my N gauge BR model railway layout a 4-CEP was the first model i bought! You can see my photos here.

Banbury cakes

Being a fan of Eccles and Chorley cakes i thought it was high time i sampled the similar Banbury cake, especially with my roots in Oxfordshire (back 4 centuries blah blah). So i went to Banbury yesterday to get some! I didn't just go there for cakes of course. I also had a nice walk along the frozen towpath of the Oxford Canal and took some photographs in the station too. You can see my canal photographs here.

The cakes are very good by the way and can be ordered from Brown's own website. I think i'll just get some whenever i am in town, which is fairly often.

More Banbury

Today i paid another visit to Banbury, a place i do like to visit indeed. As usual i took a few photographs of narrowboats and railways. The Oxford Canal was particularly busy though this is peak season of course. You can see my photos here.

Banbury

Banbury is somewhere i always like visiting, and the county it resides in in general especially since i have traced one line of my ancestry back to 16th century Oxfordshire. I visited the fine town at the weekend and of course took some photos of the canal, railway and the town in general. Earlier in the month i wrote about Banbury Cross and the religious frictions in the town during the Reformation.

Banbury Cross

The current Banbury Cross dates from 1859 and was built to celebrate the marriage of Princess Victoria to Prince Frederick of Prussia. Later additions also commemorated the coronation of King George V. It was the first cross the Oxfordshire town had had for over 250 years after several previous medieval crosses were destroyed by the Puritans. The destruction of the crosses is just one event from the town's radical past.

Banbury has a long history of radical religion with Puritans also disputing the erection of a maypole in the town in 1589, the maypole was destroyed sparking riots. The old crosses were destroyed in 1600 as they were seen by Puritans as objects of superstitious veneration. Even before the Reformation Banbury was known for its unorthodox religion, the phrase "Banbury gloss" meaning twisting of the truth may refer to what was seen as erroneous readings of Scripture.

Camden's Britannica from 1610 stated that Banbury was known for "cheese, cakes, and zeal"! In the 17th century the phrase "Banbury Man" was used as a derogatory term for a Puritan which is evidence that the town well known outside for religious radicalism. The town had become one of the major centres for Quakers and also Presbyterians also flourished. By the 18th century however the town's religious zeal was on the decline with the High Church (establishment backed Anglicanism) welcomed in the town though religious radicals continued to have influence.

The Banbury Cross is mentioned in a nursery rhyme "Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross" though this likely refers to the earlier crosses as the earliest recorded versions of the rhyme predate the current cross by some margin in the mid-18th century.

Colvin, Christina, Janet Cooper, N H Cooper, P D A Harvey, Marjory Hollings, Judith Hook, Mary Jessup, Mary D Lobel, J F A Mason, B S Trinder and Hilary Turner. 'Banbury: Introduction.' A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 10, Banbury Hundred. Ed. Alan Crossley. London: Victoria County History, 1972. 5-18. British History Online. Web. 3 March 2015. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/oxon/vol10/pp5-18.

A bridge in Oxford

A canal bridge in Oxford.

The Old Auctioneer

The Old Auctioneer, Banbury.

It just fits!

A narrowboat entering a narrow lock at Banbury. As i found while writing my dissertation different lock widths across Britain's canal network had a detrimental effect on the flow of goods and economic potential of the waterways... anyway lets not get into that again right now!

Oxford Bodleian Library

A handsome face gazing down on visitors to the famous library in Oxford.

Lift bridge

One of the distinctive lift bridges on the Oxford Canal, this one is in Banbury.

Coach & Horses

The Coach and Horses pub in Banbury.

Banbury

I've travelled through Banbury a lot (usually on the way to and from London) but today i stopped off to visit the town and especially the canal. The Oxford Canal runs through the town and i was surprised at how many narrowboats there were there. It totally surprised me, some of the bridges were pretty neat too. You can see my canal pictures here.

I also visited the town, which is nice. Oxfordshire is in my blood. My relatives can be traced back to that county to the 1670s apparently. The railway station is especially fun with some interesting traffic including an inspection saloon being propelled by a class 37! You can see my Banbury (non-canal) photos here.

I also made the following Vine video of the London-Stratford train arriving.

Oxford Pitt Rivers Museum

The Pitt Rivers Museum, which houses Oxford University's archaeology and anthropology collections, is a must-visit if you ever go to Oxford, indeed when i told my friend i was going to the city (last October) i was told i simply had to go there and see the "shrunken heads"!

In 1884 General Pitt Rivers, an influential figure in archaeology and developmental anthropology, donated his collection of around 20,000 objects to the university to help found the museum. Other early anthropologists also donated items and the collection has been augmented by donations, bequests and field work ever since. Now over half a million items are in the collection ranging from totem poles and canoes, to clothing and shrunken heads.

The museum retains its original Victorian era charm and the organisation of the collection is by item type and function, not geographical location as is more usual.

Oxford

It was my birthday yesterday, and as it was a big one (i.e. the last digit is zero), i decided to have a short break in Oxford with my wife. Now i've never been to the university city before though my roots to Oxfordshire run deep... one branch of my ancestors has been traced back to Oxfordshire in the 1650s. My Mum was also taught to swim in the River Cherwell she claims...

Well Oxford goes into my top 5 of places i want to move to. Endless sleepy spires, wonderful museums, weeping willows and young people in gowns. I took a lot of photos, here you can see them. Also i took some along the canal there. The photos were taken with my new camera, birthday present (natch!) Its my first digital SLR so is a step above the compact i have used before. I do have a film SLR though from an earlier birthday (though not used for about 10 years) so its not totally alien...