Tag: Public Transport

Heritage Open Day 2026

A look back at Heritage Open Day (Sunday), with plenty of photographs.

Sunday was this year’s Heritage Open Day. King’s Lynn’s official brochure for the day featured a total of 64 sites. This post looks back at the day as it unfolded for me. I end this introduction with a picture of the map from the brochure:

The map from the official brochure for Heritage Open Day in King’s Lynn.

GETTING STARTED

I set off from home at 9:30AM, going by way of Bawsey Drain since my first definite target was the Tuesday Market Place, where I could pick up my brochure and look at the classic car display there. Along the way I passed True’s Yard, and went in (no pictures as they have a no photography policy) and passed the outside of St Nicholas Chapel…

A BUS RIDE

Just as I was thinking about moving on from the classic cars I spotted an old London Transport Routemaster bus picking up passengers, and as it was raining lightly and I could do with being under cover I decided to board it.

STARTING TO EXPLORE SITES

I began my explorations on King Street with one place that was well known to me and one that was new to me…

An Austin Seven – known to bridge fans as the make of car driven by Abbot Hugo Yorke-Smith of the Monastery of St Titus!
This building of Norman origin is one I know well and always enjoy visiting.
This picture marks the start of my perusal of Chequer House, previously unknown to me.

THORESBY COLLEGE AND THE RIVERSIDE

I reacquainted myself with Thoresby College on my way to the riverside , where I took the opportunity to go down on to the pontoon jetty to hear about the Baden Powell, an old cockling boat that has been extensively renovated in recent years and now runs trips from the town to The Wash, where at the right time of year seals can be observed.

I considered a second bus ride, but this one was going to North Runcton, so I decided against it in the end.
These last pictures are from Hanse House.

LUNCH AND A COUPLE OF OUTLIERS

I lunched at Roasta Food Court, on my way to the old library, which I was keen to see again, and I then reacquainted myself with the Red Mount Chapel…

BACK TO THE TOWN CENTRE AND STEWARDING

By this point I was thinking in terms of being ready for my stewarding, at The Secret Garden, Hampton Court, from 2PM to 4PM, but I made one more call, at Sommerfeld & Thomas, a long neglected warehouse which is currently being renovated, and spent some time in the environs of the Saturday Market Place. By this time the weather had long since cleared up, and for the two hours I was stewarding it was genuinely hot. I had some interesting history to tell folks as part of my stewarding, and The Secret Garden proved a popular port of call – about 350 people had visited before I started stewarding, and that was increased by over 200 in the two hours I was there. I had enjoyed my day, but it was also tiring.

A shot of part of the Guildhall of the Holy Trinity aka King’s Lynn Town Hall.
Medieval music
This instrument, similar in size to a violin save for the much deeper bowl (it also has only three strings rather than four) is carved from a single piece of wood.
A rather better known stringed instrument.
Sommerfeld and Thomas
The real star of The Secret Garden – 600 years ago when it was built these arches faced directly on to the river and were completely open, enabling direct transfer of goods from boats to the mercantile premises that Hampton Court then consisted of. By about the year 1700 the line of the river had changed too much for these to serve their original function, and the transition to private residences was underway. This arcade frontage is the only one of its kind anywhere in England.

Arisaig 2026 25: Homeward Bound – York to Home

The final post in my series about my Scottish holiday, detailing the final stages of my return journey.

Welcome to the final instalment in my series about my Scottish holiday (May 30th to June 6th). The last post ended on a cliff hanger, with my train from Edinburgh arriving into York with the onward connection (on which I had a booked seat in which I had to be sitting for my ticket to be valid) looking decided iffy.

A VERY NEAR THING

By the time the train from Edinburgh pulled into York my next train was already waiting at its platform. I made it over the bridge linking the platforms as swiftly as I was able and boarded the train at the rear (Coach A) to walk along inside it to find my booked seat (in Coach H). I had made it, but it had been a near thing indeed – the train was in motion before I was even halfway from coach A to coach H. It arrived at my next change point of Grantham in accordance with the schedule.

GRANTHAM AND ONWARDS

A quick check of departure information at Grantham revealed that a)the next train I was booked on, as far as Peterborough was running to time and b)I had no need to worry about missing this connection. This meant that barring anything super calamitous I had no further worries at all, since so long as I got as far as Peterborough I had a Plan B available – there is a long distance bus route between Peterborough and Norwich, and since the company that operates this route has its depot in King’s Lynn the last services of the night tend to terminate there, and in this case there was if all else failed a service leaving Peterborough at 22:45 and arriving at King’s Lynn bang on midnight. Thus it was with feelings of relief that I proceeded to look for points of interest at Grantham Station, of which there are more than a few. Grantham is (in my book) noteworthy for three reasons: Isaac Newton, one of the greatest of all scientists, hailed from these parts; it was just south of this station that The Mallard achieved a speed of 126 miles per hour, the fastest ever attained by steam locomotion, and it is the home of the Woodland Trust. Newton does not get any coverage at Grantham Station, but the Mallard most certainly does.

The train I was booked on as far as Peterborough arrived when it was supposed to and got the Peterborough on schedule, and the next train I had to get, from Peterborough to Ely was prompt enough that I had a bit of a wait at Ely for my last connection on to King’s Lynn. There had been a major festivity taking place in Cambridge that day, so the last stage of my journey home was noisy due to homeward bound revellers. However this train ran to time as well, ending a public transport odyssey that involved seven separate trains (Arisaig to Glasgow, Glasgow to Edinburgh, Edinburgh to York, York to Grantham, Grantham to Peterborough, Peterborough to Ely and Ely to King’s Lynn) and lasted somewhat over 12 hours. The walk back to my home in North Lynn was never going to be a problem, even carrying holiday baggage, it was just before 11PM that I got home.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here are the photographs from this last stage of my return journey…

A display board that features the Mallard’s speed record.
The Mallard
A planter in the shape of the type of intercity stock that serves this station.
Detail about The Mallard
The documentation for my journeys to and from Scotland.

Arisaig 2026 24: Homeward Bound – Glasgow to York

Continuing my account of my Scottish holiday with another segment of the return journey, ending on a bit of a cliff hanger. There are plenty of photographs.

Welcome to the latest instalment in my series about my Scottish holiday (May 30th to June 6th). We continue with the homeward journey.

THE VAGARIES OF BRITISH TRAINS

To set the stage for the rest of this series I need to explain a bit about the intermediate stages of my return journey. For reasons that I did not originally understand but became apparent during the journey I was booked on three different services for various stages of the journey from Edinburgh to Peterborough:

  1. Edinburgh to York (this service was running non-stop from York to King’s Cross)
  2. York to Grantham (Grantham was the only the intermediate stop between York and King’s Cross on this service)
  3. Grantham to Peterborough

The above while a little annoying should not have caused any problems…

BEST LAID PLANS OF MICE & MEN GANG AFT AGLEY

We were not vouchsafed platform information regarding the train from Glasgow Queen Street to Edinburgh Waverley until five minutes before departure time, which meant a bit of haste was required to make sure of boarding it. However it arrived in Edinburgh with plenty of time for me to make the interchange to the first of the trains on which I had a seat in which I had to sit for my ticket to be valid. At that point I was pleased with how the journey was going rather than the reverse. However we had a long slow haul caused by trespassers on the track, and the necessity for the driver to go slow so as to avoid hitting them, and by the time we were approaching York making the connection to the my next train was looking decidedly dicey…

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here are the pictures I took between Glasgow and York…

Leaving Scotland – this is the River Tweed.

Arisaig 2026 23: Homeward Bound – Bridge of Orchy to Glasgow

Continuing my account of my Scottish holiday with another segment of the return journey.

Welcome to the antepenultimate instalment in my series about my holiday in Scotland.

A TRANSITION POINT

My previous post took us as far as Bridge of Orchy. Two stops after Bridge of Orchy we got to Crianlarich, the point at which the train from Oban joined ours for the run on to Glasgow. It is also a transition point in another way – after Crianlarich photo worthy sights get rarer. For this, and one other reason the remaining posts in this series cover much greater distances than has been the case with the first few dealing with this return journey.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here are the photographs for this section of the journey…

Arisaig 2026 22: Homeward Bound – Corrour to Bridge of Orchy

Continuing my account of my Scottish holiday with the next segment of my return journey

Welcome to the latest instalment in my series about my Scottish holiday.

ACROSS THE MOOR

This section of the journey initially featured the expanse of Rannoch Moor, and then featured some other fine Scottish scenery. The journey continued to progress smoothly with the only stops being at stations (it is only beyond Crianlarich, where the train from Oban would join this one, that this service does not stop at every station).

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here are the photographs for this part of the journey…

Arisaig 2026 21: Homeward Bound – Neptune’s Staircase to Corrour

Continuing my account of my Scottish holiday with the next segment of the return journey.

Welcome to the latest instalment in my series about my holiday in Scotland (May 30th to June 6th).

TOWARDS THE MOORLAND

As mentioned in the previous post Neptune’s Staircase is close to Banavie station. After Banavie the next station, and the only major one we passed during the period covered by this post was Fort William. We had a short wait at Fort William before moving on. Corrour is a very remote station, in the wilds of Rannoch Moor.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here are the photographs that relate to this section of the route…

I have travelled on previous incarnations of this sleeper service, the first time as long ago as 1993.
I was not able to get the station sign at Corrour, but this platform direction sign makes it clear which station it is – it being the one whose name is missing.

Arisaig 2026 19: The Homeward Journey as Far as Glenfinnan Viaduct

Continuing my account of my Scottish holiday with first of a number of posts about the return journey to Norfolk.

Welcome to the latest instalment in my series about my Scottish Holiday (May 30th to June 6th). This post starts the story of my journey back to Norfolk.

PREPARATIONS

I started my packing on the Friday night, and rose early on the Saturday morning to complete the job. The journey started with the 10:27 from Arisaig, and I had about 45 minutes to kill at the station, as my parents needed to start their own journey a little bit earlier. The weather was reasonable, so I did not need to make use of the waiting room. I was not quite the only one boarding this train at Arisaig, but finding a seat was not a problem. I was due to be on this train all the way to Glasgow where it terminated, which meant that for a few hours at least I was able to relax and enjoy the scenery.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here the photographs I got up to the Glenfinnan Viaduct, which to remind you is east of Glenfinnan station…

The train arriving bang on time, as per the information conveyed by the screen earlier.
The front of the Jacobite Express at Glenfinnan
The famous Glenfinnan Viaduct, viewed and photographed from an eastbound train.

Arisaig 2026 14: Glenfinnan to Arisaig

Continuing my account of my Scottish holiday with a look at the journey back from Glenfinnan to Arisaig on the Thursday.

Welcome to the latest instalment in my account of my Scottish holiday (May 30th to June 6th). This is the final post about the excursion to Glenfinnan.

BACK TO ARISAIG

After finishing in the museum we had a few minutes on the platform before catching the train back to Arisaig. We managed to find seats well placed to capture the best sights of the return journey, and the service ran according to schedule.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here are the pictures from the journey back to Arisaig…

An isolated little church somewhere between Glenfinnan and Arisaig (three pictures)
This wonderful map greets arrivals at Arisaig station.

Arisaig 2026 13: The Glenfinnan Station Museum

Continuing my account of my Scottish holiday with a look at the Glenfinnan Station Museum, with plenty of photographs.

Welcome to the latest post in my series about my Scottish holiday (May 30th to June 6th). This is my third post about the Thursday.

A COMPACT MUSEUM

There is a small museum at Glenfinnan station, around the history of the line and the station. For all its small size they have managed to cram a lot of interesting stuff in there. We visited it after the weather intervened sufficiently to prevent as from doing a walk that would have taken in a view of the viaduct. It is well worth a visit.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Arisaig 2026 12: Glenfinnan Station

A look at Glenfinnan Station, as I continue the account of my Scottish holiday.

Welcome to the latest instalment in my series about my Scottish holiday (May 30th to June 6th). I started my coverage of the Thursday with a look at the journey from Arisaig to Glenfinnan. This post picks up where the previous one left off.

A MINOR STATION WITH MAJOR INTEREST

As you will see in the next post in this series Glenfinnan Station is home to a small museum that well repays a visit. It also boasts two old railway carriages, one a sleeper, which you can arrange to stay in for a price, and one a pullman style restaurant carriage in which you can get a splendid meal, as we did. There is also an old oil store, a solar powered snow plough, which saw serious action the winter of 1962-63, an old signal box which you can look at, and a crane. There are also various walks which take in the Glenfinnan Viaduct, though the weather stopped us from doing that. We also overlapped with the westbound Jacobite Express.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here is the photo gallery for this post…