Near as I can figure it, through the possibly flawed perceptual filters of my own reality tunnel, the most likely answers this week, seem to me to be:
Q1. Weston Park
Q2. Albrighton
The initial clues seem to place us at Lilleshall Abbey, north east of the town of Telford, in Shropshire. The English Heritage web site claims that it was built by Augustinians c 1148. Travelling five miles or so, south east from the abbey, would take us to Weston Park, which was the family seat of the Earls of Bradford (motto Nic Temere, Nec Timide, "neither rashly nor timidly"), until the seventh earl, gifted it to the nation as they could not afford to pay the high death duties on it. The house lies in one thousand acres of parkland, which was landscaped by Lancelot 'Capability' Brown. An architect called 'James Paine' (born c 1717) according to some of the references I checked, built the Temple of Diana there c1760s.
Two miles or so, south south east of Weston Park, lies White Ladies Abbey and this is where Charles II, is said to have holed up c 1651 while on the run. English Heritage, claim that the abbey is 12th century in origin. Driving south from Weston Park would likely take us through the village of Tong, which is thought to be the model for the village that Charles Dicken's used in his book 'The Old Curiosity Shop', which was published c 1841 and this is where the quote "Five and thirty pounds a year in this beautiful place", comes from.
A politician who became president of the board of trade c1823, was William Huskisson. Some of his biographies say that he was educated at Brewood in Staffordshire, Albrighton in Shropshire and Appleby, in Leicestershire. The one which is in the area to fit in with the clues, is most likely Albrighton and this is a short distance south east of Cosford airfield(aka RAF Cosford), which has been home to the RAF's No1 SofTT (School of Technical Training) since c1993. The aerospace museum there, has the three Vs as exhibits and these are not a pop group but examples of some of the Royal Air Force's cold war era V bombers, the Victor, the Valiant and the Vulcan.
N.B. The Eastender has moved to moderated comments due to the number of people who normally write poison pen letters in green ink, posting on his page. Rest assured though, if you have a non abusive comment relating to solving the puzzle and possible solutions, he will publish it.
Saturday, 27 June 2015
Saturday, 20 June 2015
Sunday Times Where Was I ? Holiday Competition
Near as I can figure it, through the possibly flawed perceptual filters of my own reality tunnel, the most likely answers this week, seem to me to be:
Q1. Hoy
Q2. Lamb Holm
The initial clues seem to place us at Kirkhope cemetery, near Osmondwall, on the island of Hoy (name derived from the Norse word Haey, for 'high island'), in the Orkneys. If you convert thirty five thousand, five hundred and eighteen acres into square kilometres, you get around one hundred and forty three and this is the figure given for the area of Hoy, in some of the sources I checked. The highest point on the island, from looking at the OS map, seems to be Ward Hill, at four hundred and seventy nine metres, or one thousand five hundred feet, in old money. The puzzle author has been a little crafty here, by calling the site of the memorial to the Longhope lifeboat disaster, which took place c 17 March 1969, a churchyard, as the map does not show a church in the vicinity, thus making it more difficult to locate. A solitary bronze statue stands in the graveyard, looking out towards Cantick Head, where the Longhope lifeboat 'TGB' capsized in a force nine gale, en route to rescue the crew of a Siberian freighter (some references claim that it was 'Liberian') called 'The Irene', resulting in all eight of the crew being lost. The crew of the freighter were rescued by auxiliary coastguards, who fired lines to the ship with rockets. The Cantick Head lighthouse appears to be around seventy two feet high and was constructed by David & Thomas Stevenson c 1858 (not to be confused with the 'Ruff of Cantick' light, which is listed as a navigational beacon).
The writer probably gets the ferry from the port of Lyness and then passes the sparkling sounding island of Cava. The Cava light is listed as being thirty six feet high in some references, not twenty nine but the destination of the ferry north from Hoy, is the port of Houton, on the island of 'Mainland'. After driving east from Houton and passing the naval graveyard of Scapa Flow, you would reach the principle settlement on Mainland, which is Kirkwall and driving six south south easterly miles to the third island, over the causeway on the Churchill barriers, you would arrive at the island of Lamb Holm and a church which was cobbled together from two Nissen huts, by Italian prisoners of war c 1943-1944. The roman numerals MCMXLIV are set in mosiac, in or on the edifice and mean '1944'. Mr Churchill ordered the barriers constructed, after a uboat (U-47), sneaked in to Scapa Flow c 1939 and torpedoed the battleship 'HMS Royal Oak'
Q1. Hoy
Q2. Lamb Holm
The initial clues seem to place us at Kirkhope cemetery, near Osmondwall, on the island of Hoy (name derived from the Norse word Haey, for 'high island'), in the Orkneys. If you convert thirty five thousand, five hundred and eighteen acres into square kilometres, you get around one hundred and forty three and this is the figure given for the area of Hoy, in some of the sources I checked. The highest point on the island, from looking at the OS map, seems to be Ward Hill, at four hundred and seventy nine metres, or one thousand five hundred feet, in old money. The puzzle author has been a little crafty here, by calling the site of the memorial to the Longhope lifeboat disaster, which took place c 17 March 1969, a churchyard, as the map does not show a church in the vicinity, thus making it more difficult to locate. A solitary bronze statue stands in the graveyard, looking out towards Cantick Head, where the Longhope lifeboat 'TGB' capsized in a force nine gale, en route to rescue the crew of a Siberian freighter (some references claim that it was 'Liberian') called 'The Irene', resulting in all eight of the crew being lost. The crew of the freighter were rescued by auxiliary coastguards, who fired lines to the ship with rockets. The Cantick Head lighthouse appears to be around seventy two feet high and was constructed by David & Thomas Stevenson c 1858 (not to be confused with the 'Ruff of Cantick' light, which is listed as a navigational beacon).
The writer probably gets the ferry from the port of Lyness and then passes the sparkling sounding island of Cava. The Cava light is listed as being thirty six feet high in some references, not twenty nine but the destination of the ferry north from Hoy, is the port of Houton, on the island of 'Mainland'. After driving east from Houton and passing the naval graveyard of Scapa Flow, you would reach the principle settlement on Mainland, which is Kirkwall and driving six south south easterly miles to the third island, over the causeway on the Churchill barriers, you would arrive at the island of Lamb Holm and a church which was cobbled together from two Nissen huts, by Italian prisoners of war c 1943-1944. The roman numerals MCMXLIV are set in mosiac, in or on the edifice and mean '1944'. Mr Churchill ordered the barriers constructed, after a uboat (U-47), sneaked in to Scapa Flow c 1939 and torpedoed the battleship 'HMS Royal Oak'
Saturday, 6 June 2015
Sunday TimesWhere Was I? Holiday Competition
Near as I can figure it, through the possibly flawed perceptual filters of my own reality tunnel, the most likely answers this week, seem to me to be:
Q1. Chirk
Q2. Henry Robertson
The initial clues, seem to place us in the county of Wrexham, in the town of Chirk, in Wales, which does appear to have a castle and which according to some of his biographies, is where a footballer called William Henry Meredith (aka Billy Meredith) was born, c 1874. Billy Meredith was a teetotaller, non-smoking, dietician, who eschewed the demon drink and tobacco and instead, chewed on toothpicks and matches. His fans used to send him boxes of toothpicks.
The Llangollen canal passes through Chirk and it and the railway, are carried over the Afon Ceiriog, by an aqueduct and a viaduct, respectively. The aqueduct was built by Thomas Telford and William Jessop and is said in some of the sources I checked, to be around seventy feet in height. The railway viaduct appears to have been built by an engineer called Henry Robertson (born c 1816), which some references claim is two hundred and eighty three yards long and around one hundred feet high.
Travelling north north west along the aqueduct, would bring us to the Chirk tunnel which seems to be around thirteen hundred and eighty feet long. The canal passes through the shorter Whitehouse tunnel (around five hundred and fifty seven feet in length) before turning west, away from the railway, which continues north, across the Cefn Mawr viaduct (also built by Henry Robertson).
Tracking the canal to the west, would bring us to the point where it turns in a more northerly direction, where it is carried across the Vale of Llangollen and the Afon Dyrfrdwy, by a world heritage site water feature, called the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, which was also built by Thomas Telford and William Jessop. The lime mortar which holds the stones in the pillars, had ox-blood mixed into it and the sections of the iron trough, which carries the canal water over the aqueduct, are to this day sealed with flannel, lead and liquid sugar. The bridge is said to be one thousand feet long and around one hundred and twenty six feet high with a capacity of around three hundred and thirty thousand gallons.
N.B. The Eastender has moved to moderated comments due to the number of people who normally write poison pen letters in green ink, posting on his page. Rest assured though, if you have a non abusive comment relating to solving the puzzle and possible solutions, he will publish it.
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