Meet-up at Spade Oak/Old Thatch, Sun 18th May 2014

[Carlotta King]

If 50p will buy a bag of pork scratchings then I'll be happy with that!

[Julie2owlsdene]

Well it will cover the price of my shandy, and a bone for Morgan.

[Francis]

Pete wrote

Can't remember the name of it,but i finished the Telegraph Crossword in record time after drinking it.

I suppose you don't remember dancing on the tables either!

[pete9012S]

[Chrissie777]

Pete wrote

Can't remember the name of it,but i finished the Telegraph Crossword in record time after drinking it.

I suppose you don't remember dancing on the tables either!

Francis and all,

We have to make our hotel reservation for Stockholm this week (for May 2014), so it would be very helpful if everybody who'll read this could let me know if a meeting at Old Thatch (or even better a real Enid Blyton Day at Loddon Hall) would be possible in May 2014 on Saturday 17th?
We'll have to fly back from London to Boston on Sunday the 18th of May.

Francis, please provide me with your Jersey dates in May 2014 and hopefully we could meet on one day with you and Izzy. We'll keep Jersey for the end of our Channel Island days and visit Guernsey, Herm and Alderney first.
I still need to figure out in which order we should visit the other 3 islands (we skip Sark). We'll stay for 2 nights on each island.

[Francis]

Chrissie wrote

Francis, please provide me with your Jersey dates in May 2014 and hopefully we could meet on one day with you and Izzy. We'll keep Jersey for the end of our Channel Island days and visit Guernsey, Herm and Alderney first.

Chrissie, we will be staying on Jersey - just outside St Helier - from Monday the 12th to Saturday the 17th of May. Would love to see you if it is possible but don't cause yourself complications to make it happen. Your holiday should come first!

There is only one hotel on Herm but if you stay in St Peter Port on Guernsey you can easily visit Herm (there are frequent ferries taking about 40 minutes) and also the beautiful island of Sark (the Coupee is amazing!). To visit Alderney you would be best to stay on the island. The Guernsey Travel Service and Jersey Travel Service (the same company) are easily the best value for booking flights and accommodation. We will be using them for our 2 week holiday on Guernsey in July.

Let me know if you require any info which I would be happy to supply.

Francis

[Carlotta King]

I can vouch for Guernsey - it is a lovely place to stay! We stayed at a hotel in St Martin which is very nice!

[Julie2owlsdene]

I wonder when we're going to get back to thinking about next years adventure, if there is to be no E.B. Day.

[Moonraker]

I thought we were all off to Guernsey, courtesy of Francis and Issy!

[Katharine]

Sounds good to me.

I've got a week booked in Dorset, so I shall hopefully be having an EB week next year. My family know I want to visit Corfe, but I don't think they realise there are lots of other Enid Blyton connections with the county. I shall try and fit in as many as I can without them realising what I'm up to.

[Julie2owlsdene]

Good for you, Katharine. Don't forget to visit the Knoll House Hotel for a supurb cream tea. Enid stayed there of course, and Dancing Ledge, if you don't mind a bit of a walk, through fields, and possibly past the odd cow, grazing in the fields!

[Chrissie777]

There is only one hotel on Herm but if you stay in St Peter Port on Guernsey you can easily visit Herm (there are frequent ferries taking about 40 minutes) and also the beautiful island of Sark (the Coupee is amazing!). To visit Alderney you would be best to stay on the island.
Francis

Francis, I want to stay on that one hotel on Herm (something with White in the name), because I e-mailed a few times with child actor Robert Bartlett after he contacted me years ago and asked me to send him a copy of the CFF movie "The Ghost from Monk's Island" in which he played a part:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0279834/combined" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I only had a German dubbed copy, but he still enjoyed watching himself and his brother in that movie when they were kids.
Later on he sent me several pics from cast and crew and from the hotel where they stayed during the making of the film.
So that's why we'll stay in that particular hotel . We'll also visit the movie locations on Herm like the tower on which the monk walks around etc, he told me where to find them. Being a movie buff, I always try to include at least one or two movie/book locations on longer trips.

BTW we will end up staying 3 nights on Guernsey (we would like to find a quiet hotel location outside of St. Peter Port, but will explore the town and some other locations from my favorite novel by Charlotte Link). And we'll be on Jersey for 2 nights just before we'll fly to the UK on 5/16 Friday in order to meet other EBS forumites on Saturday 5/17. On the Sunday we'll fly back to Boston.

[Chrissie777]

I've got a week booked in Dorset, so I shall hopefully be having an EB week next year. My family know I want to visit Corfe, but I don't think they realise there are lots of other Enid Blyton connections with the county. I shall try and fit in as many as I can without them realising what I'm up to.

Katharine, don't forget to visit Lulworth Cove at the Jurassic Coast not far from Corfe Castle Village.
Supposedly it inspired EB to create Kirrin Bay:

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=htt ... LMBEPwdMAo" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

On the way from the parking place to Lulworth Cove you walk by a beautiful thatched cottage which reminded me very much of Kirrin Cottage.
There's also Stairhole Cove which was used in the 1957 movie "Five on a Treasure Island" as the landing spot on Kirrin Island.
Scroll down to the 20th picture:

http://www.enidblyton.net/yahoo/showinfo.php?user=34" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The cottage is 3 photos below.
Recently there was one post in EBS that this cottage is for sale now, but I wouldn't be able to find the link again.

Here's a link to Lulworth Castle which also inspired EB to one of her boarding school series of books. We did drive by it on the way from Corfe Castle Village to the Jurassic Coast:

http://www.lulworth.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

And then there's Brownsea Island which supposedly inspired EB to write "Five have a Mystery to solve". In her book she called it Whispering Island. Unfortunately the crew was not able to film on Brownsea Island, because when filming began in October 1963, the National Trust had just acquired this island. So the CFF film "Five have a Mystery to solve" was filmed in Cornwall in West Looe with St. George's Island serving as Whispering Island.
The Blaize Castle scenes have been shot at an old mansion near Maidenhead.
I got this info from the booklet that's attached to the DVD:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Enid-Blytons-Fa ... y+to+solve" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Also, I can recommend to make very early hotel reservations as the Isle of Purbeck was booked out when we planned our trip to Corfe Castle Village and the Jurassic Cove for my birthday weekend in 2008. There is only limited accommodation available. We ended up staying in Yeovil .

I can highly recommend to get this DVD before the trip. It also has a great booklet with movie locations etc:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Enid-Blytons-Fa ... ure+island" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

In 2008 there even was a lovely brochure available called "Enid Blyton Country Dorset". Maybe it's still available online at the link mentioned in this EBS thread:

http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/foru ... =14&t=5343" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Most of all: don't forget to visit the Ginger Pop Shop. We were very lucky and met Vivienne:

http://www.gingerpop.co.uk/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Good luck for your trip !

[Katharine]

Oh dear, I'm beginning to think a week won't be long enough!! I've got to remember there will 3 or 4 other family members who will want to visit various places too. Chrissie, thanks for all the information, I shall be making very careful notes. Fortunately accommodation is already booked, a static caravan just outside Weymouth, so perhaps the 'wrong end' of Dorset for too much Enid Blyton sight seeing, but Corfe is an absolute must, even if I have to walk all the way by myself

A visit to Ginger Pop is definitely included too.

[Chrissie777]

And if you walk towards the Ginger Pop Shop with the castle being behind you, go to the right and then turn left into the first street. Oliver's Bistro on the left next to the church was used as the antique store in the 1957 movie "Five on a Treasure Island".
The Corfe train station is also a must, there is a Famous Five wooden sign post just outside the train station (it's also in my Dorset pics).