Blytonesque Places

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Re: Blytonesque Places

Post by Chrissie777 »

pete9012S wrote:Lovely pictures Courtenay.
Yes,blue flowers are my favorite.
There's a small rockery flower called 'heavenly blue' which I first saw in Llangybi North Wales in a holiday cottage rockery.
Although so small and delicate,it remains the most beautiful flower I have ever seen.
Reminds me of the tiny forgetmenots that I've seen in Germany.
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Re: Blytonesque Places

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floragord wrote: Glad you too enjoyed GREEN DARKNESS, Spitfire - I'm fond of Anya Seton and another of my long-term favourites is her KATHERINE.
Floragord, I tried twice to get into Anya Seton's "The Hearth and Eagle" because it's located in Marblehead, Massachusetts, about 90 minutes from where we live. But I had such a hard time getting into it (same with the Outlander Saga by Diana Gabaldon), so I still haven't read it. I have the German translation.
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Re: Blytonesque Places

Post by Moonraker »

Christie, the church you mentioned is Sherborne Abbey. I sang there as a choirboy a few decades ago!
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Re: Blytonesque Places

Post by Chrissie777 »

Nigel, that's interesting. Must have been quite an experience for you to sing in such a beautiful church in a choir. The acoustic (sp?) must be awesome. I didn't know that you lived in Dorset.
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Re: Blytonesque Places

Post by kirstcurry »

I live in the little Cotswold town of Burford and it always reminds me of an Enid Blyton town - probably because it's so old and the pavements are cobbled and the houses are all crooked!
As an aside - I am making my first trip to Dorset next week to spend a few days in 'Enid Blyton Land' - SOOO excited!
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Re: Blytonesque Places

Post by Julie2owlsdene »

Burford sounds lovely, Kirstcurry. I'll be in the Cotswolds during a week in August, I must pay Burford a visit. :)

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Re: Blytonesque Places

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Burford is indeed very pretty. We visited Burford and the Cotswold Wildlife Park eleven years ago, while staying for a couple of nights at the house of my sister's friends in Witney (my sister was over from Australia for a little while but wasn't coming to Essex, so that was our only chance to see her).
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Re: Blytonesque Places

Post by Rebeccadanielle »

Growing up there were so many places here that made me feel like I had fallen into an Enid Blyton book :D There's an island nearby that I have been to and liked to imagine it was out of a Blyton book despite needing to get to it by ferry. There's a nature reserve two minutes walk away from me that I've been going to since I was five, and that was always the most magical place for me. And not many people know it but there are even a few platypuses there. And before it was destroyed, there was this secluded beach off a main beach near town and you had to walk through a very secret path to get to it and it opened up onto such a beautiful beach. Heaps of locals didn't even know it existed. It unfortunately doesn't exist anymore, this beach was in the posh area of town so it got destroyed for more parking and I think a cafe which isn't doing too well. I don't go there anymore because I find it upsetting.

We also have the Shot Tower which always felt like it came out of an Enid Blyton book. http://www.parks.tas.gov.au/indeX.aspX?base=2812 I've never been up it but I know the lady who used to run it, as I now work with her and she sometimes runs the tea rooms there when the current owners go away on holiday. I've been invited to eat as many scones as I want but I haven't gone yet.

There are so many amazing little "islands" and secluded spots here in Tasmania, I've always felt like I've walked into enchanted woods, or exploring in caves. We have Hastings Cave and springs which are nice. There's this great beach a few minutes away from me that has a blowhole and I used to love climbing on the rocks to sit there alone with all the birds. And a few minutes away from that beach is another tiny little hardly known about beach where you have to walk down through a huge "forest" of trees. It's awesome. And a little further down the road is a huge waterfall that's always worth the trek down to see it. I better stop, I could go on for a while. :D
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Re: Blytonesque Places

Post by Chrissie777 »

kirstcurry wrote:I live in the little Cotswold town of Burford and it always reminds me of an Enid Blyton town - probably because it's so old and the pavements are cobbled and the houses are all crooked!
As an aside - I am making my first trip to Dorset next week to spend a few days in 'Enid Blyton Land' - SOOO excited!
I've been to the Cotswold's twice in 1981 and once more in 2008, to Upper Slaughter and Lower Slaughter. It's so beautiful! 8)
I vaguely remember a small river called Windrush (sp?).
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Re: Blytonesque Places

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Sounds as though you had a very Blytonian childhood, Rebecca. My sister and her husband have lived in Tasmania for fifteen and a half years and they love walking in the beautiful countryside.
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Re: Blytonesque Places

Post by Moonraker »

Chrissie777 wrote:Nigel, that's interesting. Must have been quite an experience for you to sing in such a beautiful church in a choir. The acoustic (sp?) must be awesome. I didn't know that you lived in Dorset.
I don't, Chrissie, I live in Wiltshire. I didn't make it clear. I sang in a local church choir where my father was organist and choirmaster. Our choir was invited to sing at Sherborne Abbey as part of a choirs' festival.
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Re: Blytonesque Places

Post by Chrissie777 »

That must have been an unforgettable experience. 8)
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Re: Blytonesque Places

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Wapping doesn't at first sound Blytonesque as it's an urban landscape with lots of old warehouses (now done up and used as accommodation) and little pubs and churches. However, while exploring the area after a hospital appointment the other day I thoroughly enjoyed climbing down several sets of old, seaweedy stone steps down to the Thames foreshore. The beaches were liberally sprinkled with pieces of clay pipe, fragments of old pottery and glass, chunks of ancient brick, bones, oyster shells and lengths of metal pipe that were clearly from days gone by. If I'd come across a complete clay pipe, a whole bottle or a sizeable piece of decorated pottery I'd have been tempted to take it, but I only saw broken bits. It was fascinating nonetheless and there was a strong feeling of smuggling and treasure-hunting in the air!

One set of "stairs" (called "Wapping New Stairs" despite their age!) actually ended in a ladder with thin iron rungs, leading down to the foreshore. I really wanted to climb down it as it reminded me of the ladders going down wells or shafts in Blyton books, but it was almost dark by then and I had no idea whether the rungs might be brittle or slippery (some of the stone steps had been very slippery as the bottom steps are covered by water at high tide). There was no one else around to help me if I had an accident, so reluctantly I walked away. I couldn't help thinking that my ten-year-old self would have climbed down it in a trice, heedless of danger!

There are photos (not mine!) of the ladder, steps and foreshore here:

Wapping New Stairs:

http://mickdean.net/media/2011/04/2003- ... Stairs.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Wapping Old Stairs:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3679/9059 ... 8eeb_b.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Pelican Stairs:

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/5a/df/95/5adf ... london.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Part of the foreshore:

http://l450v.alamy.com/450v/bdhe95/rive ... bdhe95.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: Blytonesque Places

Post by pete9012S »

Very interesting Anita, thank you.

This chap spends his whole life exploring Blytonesque places around Cornwall:

Massive Derelict Abandoned Mine Explored

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qW3Z_PjL-c" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: Blytonesque Places

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

That was fascinating to watch, Pete, but it made me nervous that the men didn't wear helmets or mark the path they'd taken (using the string they found, or chalk)! They didn't seem to have adequate torchlight by the end either. Seeing all those drops made me think with horror of Enid Blyton's characters plunging into unknown passages without a care - and even swimming through underground tunnels which were completely full of water. Madness!
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.

"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
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