Another damp morning in paradise

[NVNL]

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x68uxj ... ings_music

We extend the GWR theme today with a couple of locations on the Looe Valley Line.

Firstly the sublime but a wee bit whiffy and then the sublime and musical.
South of Liskeard is the valley of the East Looe River along which run the Looe Valley (Railway) Line, the mighty B3254 and some minor roads. Mmmmmm minor roads, a single track railway and a tiny (no offence) Cornish waterway, lovely. It is, go there in May. No don’t ask why, no don’t ask why, you’ll find out when you get there. Frankly it is little wonder that last year the Looe Valley Line was Britain’s fastest growing railway in terms of passenger journeys. Something like that.

This spot is near Lamellion, the railway line crosses the road at a level crossing and the Harley is parked on a bijou bridgette over a dryish ditch and looking south there appears to be a saltire. From the north wafts the unedifying aroma of the sewage works. Time to move on.



Heading down the valley take the second bridge on the right and find what may well be the world’s cutest railway station, St Keyne Wishing Well Halt (GWR), smart as paint in sun-dappled splendour it nestles next to Paul Corin’s Magnificent Music Machines at Lametton Mill which features a Mighty Wurlitzer Theatre Pipe Organ. Daily recitals in the season. They even have a Westie called Charlie.

http://www.paulcorinmusic.co.uk/

[StorminNorm]

Richard,

You should be working for the Cornish tourist board With all these lovely pictures I want to go and visit. Keep it up !

Norm

[NVNL]

Richard,

You should be working for the Cornish tourist board With all these lovely pictures I want to go and visit. Keep it up !

Norm

I freely confess I am working undercover for the Full Licence Cornish Tourist Collective.

[NVNL]

Bridge Club is now an unstoppable torrent. Official

http://www.realclassic.co.uk/ridesfiles ... _club.html

[NVNL]

It’s been a funny old day at Bridge Club HQ. This morning we took the motor car over to the Wolf Valley to congratulate Nigel the Auctioneer on putting some minor domestic items under the hammer for us and to discuss plans for his inaugural vintage bike auction next spring.
We considered some cracking lots there for his next sale over lunch back at home for a bit then I took the Triumph back to the Wolf Valley to grab snaps of a couple of m/c ephemera items which we’ve decided not to pursue due to lack of space in case anyone on here might want them. The sale’s on Saturday, if you want details get in touch with me pronto. Yes, I will do FOC local storage pending pick up for Bridge Club members.






On the return journey I thought I’d capture another dwelling house footbridge which I’ve had my eye on for a while. Couldn’t find it. Retraced steps, couldn’t find it. I have therefore christened it Noodagirb because it disappears once in a while unlike Brigadoon which appears once a century.

And finally here are two bridges on the very floodable River Fowey in West Wivelshire between Bolventor and Draynes. The Fowey in this broad valley is called the Draines River by locals. Word.

[NVNL]

Amazing day today, breakfast walkies at the lake, swim in the pool, lunch in the market.




Photographed an MG TD.



Overtook and photographed a Morris J.


Videoed a twin-pot twin-stream bridge combo with contrapuntal sounds of Babbling Brooks and silent stainless.





Found an electric foot big twin for a seeker after torque.


Did some long division – Q. How many Velocettes can you get in a Renault? A. One and no remainder.


The truest irony though, the LE Velo blows head gaskets for a pastime, but due to the simplicity of the cylinder head (it’s a sidevalve) you can effect a full repair in twenty minutes or so if you have the necessary in you pocket. Backalong the excellent LE Owners’ Club Spares Scheme produced a new improved headgasket which worked so well I stopped carrying that necessary. Grrr!

[NVNL]

Aha! my second ever bike was a Velocette Valiant. The hairy chested air cooled, OHV, properly tubular framed version of the LE. The head gaskets seemed to survive Ok, it just gave up the ghost on its big end bearings a bit too often. Was it that they couldn't cope with the brute horsepower of the OHV top end? or was it that, young prat that I was, I didn't keep an eye on the oil level?
Lovely photos, reminds me of my days out from when I was in Plymouth. Do try and lean on Frank W to get the Matchless Model X that I sold him on the road again.

I've given up leaning on him about the X, it'll happen when it happens, that sort of thing.

[NVNL]

A high noon trip today keeping the sea to the left. As I turned for home I thought to bring you a little more from the Looe Valley Line. This is Sandplace. The gent with the picnic is John Jenkin from Perth, Western Australia, over here visiting his daughter.






In years gone by John also owned a military Harley, cost him twenty quid he said.

Spendthrift, I said, even if it was a twin.

Imagine.

[NVNL]

In the days before Bridge Club proper a couple of Good Ol’ Boys showed me how to get a bike out of the River Lynher here. The place is a proper ford by a fifteenth-century bridge and the river bed is loose stone, rugby ball to snooker ball grade.


The grainy black and white smudge is from a book published in 1928 – “Old Cornish Bridges and streams” by Charles Henderson (1900 – 1933) and Henry Coates. It shows the bridge from the cutwater side where the ford is.




Today’s full colour extravagander is taken from almost the same spot and, farming practices having moved on in the last eighty-odd years, there are trees in the way.




How did Charles and Henry get about the county taking photographs and jotting down notes way back then? Naturally I am dying to learn that they rode either horses or motorcycles. However the internal combustion engine was still at the toddler stage in the 1920s so all the inventors were very busy and no-one had yet found the time to invent an internet search engine, so I have yet to find out.





Almost all I have on Charles Henderson is that became a Cornish Bard taking the name Map Hendra, lived at Penmount near Truro, near where the crematorium now is. Having shown you a County Bridge Plate in one of the photos it is fitting to pop this up from today’s Cornwall Council website: -

<<Penmount has a long and interesting history. The land upon which it stands was a part of the Doomsday Manor of Moresk until the year 1337 when, with the foundation of the Duchy, two parcels of land were named Penhellick Vean and Penhellick Mur. The latter became the crematorium and the adjoining property has retained the name Penhellick to this day.
<<The mansion house was built in 1745 and its second owner, General William Macarmick, M.P., named the house 'Penmount' in the late 1700s. A number of highly placed dignitaries owned and occupied the property before it was acquired just after the 1914 - 18 war by Major J.S. Henderson. His son, Charles, who became a renowned Cornish historian, nurtured fond memories of his childhood days at Penmount and the main avenue into the Gardens of Remembrance is named Charles Henderson Walk in his memory.>>

One nice piece of local 1920s motorcycling history is a matter of record though, Rev Basil Henry Davies (later Canon Davies) was at St Wenn 1916 – 1921 so it requires little in the way of imagining to picture Ixion (for it is he) chuffing past Penmount on his annual Maundy Thursday trip to Truro Cathedral as the young Henderson was boning up on the Latin and Greek he needed to get him to New College, Oxford.



Be all that as it may I nipped out there on Winnie early on today and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Still not absolutely confident riding a motorbike over slippery rocks, how will I know when I’m having fun?

[NVNL]

Fairly wet and windy here today and following a visit from the equine dentist I decided against changing into dry clothes before putting on my romper suit and going to the Bridge Club. Unforced error. For the sake of Mr MacGregor in RealClassic’s Tea Time Tale of even date I can confirm that my Richa jacket was reassuringly inexpensive.


Rob Blake, Bridge Club’s geopolitical adviser and Top Chap at Plushabridge Superbikes and Grill has long expressed sage puzzlement at the bat arrangements on the new section of the A38 near Dobwalls. Personally I am surprised at Rob’s surprise and consider myself honoured that HMG should even think of spending my money so freely, face it Facebookers without the Dobwalls bypass Cornwall would be the poorer by several bridges.

Somewhere about here is a link to a BBC News report on the Bat Bridges of Dobwalls.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/8320610.stm

As I parked the Trophy for our rainy windswept session a chap in a car pulled up to make sure all was well on the mechanical excellence front. You meet the kindest people on a Triumph.









For the sake of balance here is a view of the underside of the A38.





And finally, straight from the horse’s mouth ...