A-Z Challenge 2018 - British Rivers; 'C' Chater, Camel

There were two rivers in the village in which I was born - both will feature in this Challenge.

If you walked down Bull Lane in the Rutland village of Ketton, to get to Algate, the path took you across a footbridge over the River Chater. 

River Chater at Ketton from the Sinc Bridge looking north

I must confess that I never knew the bridge had that name, but as children we used to paddle in that stretch of water. I was more familiar with the river upstream beyond the bridge over Church Road.

River Chater Bridge

That footbridge was not there when I was a boy. Further upstream was another footbridge reached by a path over the road from the Railway Inn beyond the church you can see in the background. It was from that bridge and the banks of the Chater that I fished for dace and caught minnows in a jam jar baited with bread.

From age 11 my route to school took me left over the bridge and along the road as it swung up to the railway station where I took a train each day down the line to Stamford. From the station there we crossed this bridge - 

Town Bridge over the River Welland

I always thought that the river on the left was the Chater and the one from the right (just visible) is the Welland. The land in between is Stamford Meadows which used to be the place where a Roman ford crossed the river.

When we go to Cornwall to see our grandsons we always finish up having coffee at 'Down by the Ferry' in Padstow. From there a favourite walk is along the estuary of the River Camel.

Although the Camel rises on Bodmin Moor it's the Camel Trail along the estuary that we know best, from that is this bridge - 

To where it meets the sea at Padstow Bay

Buster loved it too.

And even my wife went swimming on one occasion.

The only shot I'm allowed to show

We waited all day here but the camels never showed up!

Photo attributions:

• River Chater from the Sinc Bridge: June 1999 ex geograph.org.uk by Humphrey Bolton - CC BY-SA 2.0 licence
• River Chater Bridge: 27 April 2007 ex geograph.org.uk by Graham Horn - CC BY-SA 2.0 licence
• Bridge over River Welland: ex wikipedia Commons - CC BY-SA 3.0 licence
• Sketch Map of River Camel & its tributaries: 25 February 2010 by Andy F - CC BY 3.0 licence

A-Z Challenge 2017 - Houses, some real, some not - 'J'

J - Jamaica Inn

Jamaica Inn

Jamaica Inn, in the middle of Bodmin Moor was built as a staging post for changing horses for stagecoaches crossing the moor.

It was made famous by Daphne du Maurier in the fourth of her novels. Jamaica Inn told the story of Cornish wreckers led by a parson.

On a winters night in 1930 stayed at the Inn with her friend Foy, the daughter of Sir Arthur Quiller Couch.

While they were  there they went riding on Bodmin Moor. Finding themselves lost in bad weather they apparently sheltered for some time in a derelict cottage on the moor being eventually led back to Jamaica Inn by their horses. 

During that stay at Jamaica Inn Daphne also met and talked to the parson from the nearby church at Altarnun. 

Her story tells the tale of Mary, an orphan who goes to live with her Aunt Patience and Uncle Joss Merlyn, the terrifying landlord of Jamaica Inn and the mystery surrounding her uncle’s business - smuggling along the Cornish coast.

Today Jamaica Inn is both a pub and a museum, alongside the A30

Hitchcock's 1939 film of Jamaica Inn had its ending altered due to restrictions of the American Hays Production Code - the leader of the wreckers could not be seen as a man of the cloth and was changed to the local squire.

Daphne did not appreciate the changes.

Recently Jamaica Inn was made into a BBC TV series, ruined for me and hundreds of viewers by mumbling, inaudible  dialogue.