The Enid Blyton Society

Thanks for the Ipswich info Katharine, was thinking about taking my daughter to the museum and Christchurch park this weekend, the Enid link gives me even more reason to go!

Anita, I take it you are an Essex girl like myself? Where abouts do you hail from?

I don't like to be too specific on the internet but yes, I live in Essex. I wasn't born here so I don't know whether I qualify as an Essex girl, but I have lived here for twenty years.

Ice-Gemz, I hope you enjoy your visit to Ipswich this weekend. Christchurch park and the Mansion are lovely, and the museum which is only about 5/10 minutes walk away is really interesting. I frequently visit the park and the Mansion - I never get bored. I visited the museum for the first time in years during half term. I really enjoyed it as I didn't feel it had changed much since I was a girl - it still has all the original display cases, some of which I'm guessing date from the Victorian era. (Not that I'm a Victorian!)

The Mansion often has exhibitions on. I was very disappointed recently to find that I'd just missed a display by sisters who illustrated some of Enid's books. I'm really hoping that comes back again some day.

Ice_Gemz wrote:Hi all, does anyone know of any Blyton-related locations more towards the east of England? I live in Essex (no rude jokes please!) so Corfe, Berskshire et al are a bit of a drive!
Did Enid ever visit the east of England?

I don't know about any Essex jokes or Blyton-related locations in Essex. But I can highly recommend a book called "Treasure at the Mill" by Malcolm Saville and the movie based on the book (it's available at amazon.co.uk) which has been filmed outside Colchester at Ardleigh Mill.

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The book/movie are very Blyton-like.

For adults I can recommend "Midnight is a lonely Place" by Barbara Erskine, very thrilling and at least as good as some of Stephen King's best novels.

Anita Bensoussane wrote:I don't like to be too specific on the internet but yes, I live in Essex. I wasn't born here so I don't know whether I qualify as an Essex girl, but I have lived here for twenty years.

And runs a jellied eels' stall on Margate beach!

Quite a trek from Essex to Margate in Kent! Or does she swim across the Thames estuary?

Swim? Nah - I 'ave a boat, dead cool it is in red 'n' gold, a bit like the one wot the Queen rode in for 'er Diamond Jubilee 'cept mine's more sparkly.

I can just about picture it Anita!

Just wondering again about location inspirations for Enid- I often search You Tube and find some fascinating Dorset locations- Old Harry Rocks -isn't it an inspiration for Spiggy Holes in the Secret Series?
And again, Blue Water in Dorset- was it an inspiration for Gloomy Water in Five on A Hike Together?

I always felt that 'Blue Pool' in Furzebrook, Dorset was indeed the inspiration for 'Gloomy Water' in Five On A Hike - although Blue Pool is far from gloomy! It does occupy a similar location though, surrounded by trees, and could well have been the inspiration behind the fictional pool - especially since, in the same book, Enid names the farm 'Blue Pond Farm'.

Yes, I meant Blue Pool of course! Great minds think alike Rob!!I keep thinking that the resemblance to Gloomy Water is there as the water is still, and there are lots of trees..and somehow the geometry seems similar!

Rob Houghton wrote:I always felt that 'Blue Pool' in Furzebrook, Dorset was indeed the inspiration for 'Gloomy Water' in Five On A Hike - although Blue Pool is far from gloomy! It does occupy a similar location though, surrounded by trees, and could well have been the inspiration behind the fictional pool - especially since, in the same book, Enid names the farm 'Blue Pond Farm'.

Around 5 years ago, I spoke to an old Lady who was serving at the Blue Pool tea room. She told me that Enid once visited the pool. I don't know how true this is, but it wouldn't surprise me if it were. If she did, then maybe it's possible this is her gloomy water! The pool turns a murky colour in dull, cold weather weather & looks rather gloomy, but turns a turquoise colour when it's hot & sunny! This has something to do with the clay particles in the pool. I think they sink when it's cold, but rise when it's hot. Enid spent many holidays (& years!) in Dorset & would've roamed far & wide exploring exciting places with her Children. Maybe she did come across Blue Pool & included it in a F5 story.

Interesting story, number 6.
I just read the same in a DuMaurier biography that the sea in front of Par/Polkerris in Cornwall is milky white due to the clay (I have to admit that I didn't notice it when I was there 21 years ago).

I instinctively and just by looking at the photo and You Tube videos feel it has to be Gloomy Water so the old lady in the tea room may be right. Maybe some record somewhere would prove an Enid visit to Blue Pool.

I've always assumed the Blue Pool at Furzebrook near Corfe to be the inspiration for the 'Green Pool' - and in the story in 'Five Get Into Trouble' the Five camp nearby not knowing it is private and the owner's son Richard Kent says that that isn't generally known as it isn't fenced off. This was the real life situation there as of the 1940s, and the owners - the Barnards - later did fence it off and charge admission. Enid has the Five cycling to 'Coker's Corner' nearby which would seem likely to be inspired by real-life 'Creech Corner' - a mile or so along the road South - and they later camp in 'Middlecombe Woods', like real life 'Middlebere Woods' a few miles away to the NE on the Arne peninsula. From 'Five Go To Mystery Moor', there is the trackway of a real former private 'railway line'/ tramway . over nearby Hartland Moor , set up by the owners of a clay extraction quarry to transport their clay to Poole Harbour for shipment. They were Victorian industrialists, the Pike brothers - did Enid turn them into the ferocious 'Bartle brothers'?
I walk in the Corfe area a lot, and like to think of it as the heart of 'Blyton country' with Enid having holidayed at Swanage; odd names and bits of geography resemble those in many Blyton books, including the Malory Towers series with Dancing Ledge pool. Perhaps a 'Blyton places tour' could be arranged? 'Spiggy Holes' is I think more likely to be inspired by east Devon - the 'Beer Holes' smugglers' caves at Beer.