| If you build it, they will come |
[Jun. 18th, 2004|01:11 am] |
A few days ago now, we took another day trip. Having been to a model village a while ago we decided to go one better this time - an open-air museum of full-size reconstructed buildings.
The Weald and Downland Open Air Museum is like a Battersea Dogs Home for threatened buildings - except you can't take the houses home.
Open air museums work very simply. If a suitably historical house or farm building or other type of structure is in danger of being demolished to make way for a by-pass or a reservoir or whatever, the museum carefully takes it apart, brick by brick and lath by lath, and reassembles it in its grounds.
The result is a curious thing - a jumble of buildings spanning several hundreds of years, scattered artfully around a valley or a field like an unusually design-orientated child's toys.
We've been to the Weald and Download several times before but never grow tired of it, and there's another one much closer to home just off the M25 in Buckinghamshire that we've been to as well.
It was pretty good day. Since we were last there they've put up a rather stunning new building to act as a workshop - a sort of Magrathea where houses are built.
One slightly disconcerting note was struck by the film crew crawling over the place shooting a documentary on the Great Plague. Costumed mediaeval peasants strolled around talking on mobiles or smoking filter-tips, and the timeless houses were surrounded by lighting rigs.
For the most part, the museum doesn't do historical recreation - it's interested in the architecture and, with a few exceptions, doesn't try to recreate the living conditions of the people who would have inhabited the buildings or fill the place with costumed guides slapping their thighs and singing 'hey nonny nonny'. This suits us fine as we hate that sort of nonsense.
The film crew disrupted that, as film crews always do, scattering straw everywhere and rigging washing lines between windows. But it was only a small part of the day, and interesting to see in action, so even professional grouches like us couldn't complain too much.
( Anyway, here's some pictures. ) |
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| That ole '10 friends meme' again. |
[Jun. 18th, 2004|12:13 pm] |
I do like this old, near-forgotten, meme because it gives such a good slice of random life. As ever, it's a case of combining the first sentence from the first 10 non-locked friends list posts.Well BB have officially said that there will be NO eviction tonight, the housemates are slowly working through their problems. Whorebloodkin has turned up today third day in a row but only because she asked him on Wednesday for a grand! I'm sitting at college in the Mac suite waiting for the examiner to check over my work... eeeeeeeeeeeeek! One of the websites I frequent www.eventsrescue.com is not loading for me since yesterday. House becoming orange... People that refer to themselves in the third person, even in jest, annoy the crap out of me. I'm gonna be Hermione for halloween! Last night about 11.30pm I heard a noise outside the window so decided to be nosy. Looks like the guy who won the copy of World War II - European Theater of Operations, a classic strategic level board wargame, is a US Navy Lieutenant Commander. Enjoy! |
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