Saturday 7 March 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. (Isaac) Leslie Hore-Belisha


Q2. Avon Gorge

The initial clues seem to place us at Filton, on the northern outskirts of Bristol. The Bristol Brabazon, which was at the time, one of the largest civil aircraft, first flew from Filton airfield c September 5th 1949 and Concorde also flew from here for the first time, on April 9th, some twenty years later, in 1969.

Around four miles or so south west of the airfield, lies the suburb of Clifton and the College there does seem to have been founded c 1862. It has many famous alumni but the ones who most fit with the hints in the puzzle text are Isaac Leslie Hore-Belisha (born c 1893), who introduced amber beacons on top of black and white poles c 1934, to ease the passage of pedestrians across busy roads and Arthur Joyce Lunel Cary (aka Joyce Cary), who in 1947 published a work called 'The Drunken Sailor'. (a tricky bit of misdirection this, the writer John Masefield is also associated with 'The Drunken Sailor' but as a song, though he does not seem to have attended Clifton College).

The puzzle author is then probably standing on the Clifton Suspension Bridge, which has around two hundred and fifty feet of clearance beneath it and the river Avon, which flows through a three hundred and eighty four acre site of special scientific interest (SSSI) called Avon Gorge. The minerals Celestine (SrSO4) and Calamine (ZnCO3) can be found in the gorge. 

A six hundred and fifteen mile path which passes close to Avon Gorge, is probably 'Monarch's Way', which is alleged to trace the route followed by King Charles II, after the battle of Worcester. The football club may be Bristol City, as they seem to have been runners up in division one c 1907 and a wine merchant called William Vick according to some sources, left £1000 in his will for the construction of a bridge across the Avon Gorge.

N.B. The Eastender has moved to moderated comments due to the number of people who normally write 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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