Martin's Mag.

Bridgwater, in Somerset is not a normal leisure destination. It hasn’t fully recovered from it’s reputation for being “a bit smelly” due to a cellophane factory which closed in 2005. It is now a mixture of modern housing and offices, Victorian and Edwardian classic houses and public buildings, and old dilapidated industrial sites including a canal which used to take Welsh coal from the river Parrott, via the town’s marina, to Taunton. The canal and other areas are being looked after by dedicated teams of volunteers, who have a lot of work on their hands. There has been a flurry of interest in the town due to a temporary art installation by Luke Jerram in the marina called “Fallen Moon”.

STOP PRESS: The day after we visited, the moon sprang a leak and started to sink. A “Partial Eclipse” according to the local paper!

Image (c) Lee Beckford and Kelly Taylor via The Bridgwater Mercury.

Severn Beach, in South Gloucestershire, was a housing estate project in the ‘sixties, but still has echoes of past industrial activity, with its own railway station at the end of the line from Bristol, and old ferry connections to Wales and the Severn and Avon rivers. These valves, near to the Severn, were part of some pipework extending towards the Welsh coast, but far too rusty to be used now, I should imagine.

Esme loves her little brother. We’re not sure, yet, whether the feeling’s mutual.

Walking around Frenchay, north east of Bristol, we spotted this excellent mural of Joe Strummer (The Clash) painted by Ollie from Gage Graphics on the side of a cottage. The words of “London Calling” on the wall behind. As an added bonus, there was a late-1930s(?) Hillman car in front of it. It’s a bit quirky, Frenchay…

Cardiff’s “Central Park”, close to the University, Castle and the river Taff.

We’re in this small village in north Devon because it is on the Tarka Trail, a mostly off-road cycle and walking track, which follows mainly the course of a pre-1960s GWR steam railway. We last walked part of it with Lucy the dog in 2017: https://martinsmag.com/2017/05/11/tarka-trail-part-two/

We stayed on a busy farm, The Barton, with horses, ponies, goats and dairy cows, which all added to the general gaiety, if not the smell, of the place.

…and surrounding area.

Waiting to go home from the hospital.

The SS Great Britain in the distance, framed through the rigging of the youth charity training ship Fridtjof Nansen. On opposite sides of Bristol’s Floating Harbour.

Back in Gloucestershire, but the slightly bonkers part, between the Severn and the Wye, otherwise known as the Forest of Dean (“The Forest” to locals). Here, sheep wander freely through towns and on railway lines, and nature is slowly reclaiming areas of Victorian industrialisation. We usually avoid published walks, preferring to do our own thing, but we made an exception today. See http://bhwalk.uk. We started at Bream and did a circular route via the railway station at Whitecroft.