What I did on my summer vacation

**The Wizard of BC** · 8th July 09, 05:08 PM

OK, you have seen Cathederals and Churches and Abbeys and Chapels.

Now I want you to see what for me was a truly religious experience.

300 years ago this year, in this small and quiet dale, something was constructed that was to change the entire world and the lives of everyone since.

In this unassuming place the Darby family perfected the method of smelting Iron with Coke and giving rise to "The Birth of The Industrial Revolution".

With the capability of producing consistent quality Iron, cheaper and faster, Engineers were able, for the first time to design Steam Engines, Railroads, machines (and machines to make machines) and the tools to work on those machines.

This is Iron Bridge Gorge. Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Now, when building the first Iron Bridge there were some problems.
First, no one had ever built a bridge from Iron before. They did not know how strong the stuff was, and they had not yet developed the methods to work with it.
The solution was to build the bridge with the techniques that had been developed over the millennium for building wooden bridges.

here you can see the mortise and tenon joints from wooden construction adapted to this new form of building material.

but they also adhered to the Engineers Creed that states "If you can't build something to do the job, that is not also beautiful, why bother."

For 300 years this bridge has stood. Resisting corrosion, floods, neglect, and abuse of vehicles it was never designed to hold.

Just so I can stand on it, touch history, and cry at the magnificence of it.

Bobbie is, of course, unimpressed.

Can you read the name of the Hotel?

The Tontine Hotel is named for the economic concept that fueled the Industrial Revolution.

"The basic concept is simple. Each investor pays a sum into the tontine. Each investor then receives annual dividends on his capital. As each investor dies, his or her share is reallocated amongst the surviving investors. This process continues until only one investor survives. Each subscriber receives only dividends; the capital is never paid back. The proceeds of the subscription were used to fund various private or public works projects. These sometimes contained the word "tontine" in their name, as did the Tontine Coffee House on Wall Street in New York City. Built in 1792, it was the first home of the New York Stock Exchange In a later version of "The Tontine Pact", the capital would be given to the last survivor, effectively dissolving the trust and usually making the survivor very wealthy."

**The Wizard of BC** · 8th July 09, 05:10 PM

In this photo do I look reverential enough?

And in this one you see my ploy to make the other visitors think I am concentrating on framing a shot.

Actually I'm just holding the camera up in front of my face so they cannot see the tears streaming down my cheeks.

I thought you might enjoy this shot.

Lat/Long 52° 37' 35.26" N, 2° 28' 21.39" W

**The Wizard of BC** · 8th July 09, 05:56 PM

Bobbie and I now leave the Midlands and continue our arduous journey into the wilds of England.

To get to Sussex we were forced to pass through the notorious tourist trap that is known as "The Salsbury Plain".

Just two days before had been the Summer Solstice and we had been listening to the news reports of the thousands of weirdos who descend on Stonehenge each year.

I've never had Stonehenge on my bucket list. But Avebury, now that's different.

The Circle of Standing Stones at Avebury are larger by far than Stonehenge. In fact the town of Avebury is right in the middle of the circle and it is quadra-sected by two roads.

So off we go.

On the way I was trying to keep an eye out for one of the famous Chalk or "White Horses" which dot the hillsides of this area.

The problem with spotting them was one we experienced all over the UK.
Why can't these people cut down some of the trees and bushes lining the roads so we tourists can see the country side?

This White Horse is called the "Hackpen White Horse".

I took this picture to give you an idea how hard it was to spot.

Here is a commercial shot to show you the scale of this horse.

There are 14 of these Horses dotting the Wiltshire downs. The oldest is the Uffington Horse which dates to the Neolithic period.

This one is far more recent dating only to 1838. But cool to see anyway.
Lat/Long 51° 28' 20.70" N, 1° 49' 3.21" W

We then come to Avebury.

As we walked to the monument from the car park we passed this Cricket match which had probably been in progress for the past three days.

And then you pass through the town of Avebury and it's buildings with Thatched roofs.

And then you come into the circle of stones itself.

To keep the grass down the Heritage Trust encourages the locals to graze their sheep in and among the stones.
At each gate there is a sign. "Where there are sheep, there is poo. Mind the Poo."

I get Bobbie to pose for a "Diana Gabaldon" moment.

Does anyone remember the scene from "Saving Private Ryan" where one of the American soldiers shows the German prisoners the Star of David on his dog tags and tells them "Yudden, Yudden".

Here I am tormenting some of the poor helpless sheep.

"Your cousin, Your cousin."

And what does an ignorant N. American tourist do when faced with something that has stood, erect, in this spot for about a billion years?

A little vandalism of course.

Lat/Long of the 5th photo 51° 28' 20.70" N, 1° 49' 2.90" W