A visit to Cambridge

Cambridge is a university town about 50 miles north of London. The University of Cambridge is made up of 31 colleges. It was founded in 1209! The student population today is huge, numbering about 25,000. There are about 120,000 residents as well. We think about 24,499 students get around by bicycle! There are thousands of them, just like Oxford. 

The cyclists have a very special relationship with the road rules. In their minds there are none! You have to be extremely careful as a pedestrian. 

It’s a beautiful city along the lines of Oxford, with so many historic buildings preserved and well maintained. 

We usually try to seek out a guided walk in these places so we can get a sense of its history and an insider’s knowledge of the city. Apart from London Walks, the information centres in these cities usually have the walks available. So we joined one in Cambridge which was great.

Today, Cambridge is at the heart of the high technology centre known as Silicon Fen - a play on Siilcon Valley and the fens surrounding the city. Its economic strengths lie in industries such as software and bioscience, many start-up companies having been spun out of the university. More than 40 per cent of the workforce have a higher education qualification, more than twice the national average.

Probably the most well known building in Cambridge would have to be the Chapel of Kings College.  It is stunning with a vaulted ceiling 24 metres high. Apart from the obvious sheer size of the building (it is 88 metres long made up of an ante chapel and choir), there are 26 pairs of huge stained glass windows which took 30 years to complete.  Each window tells a biblical story leading from one panel to the next. The chapel was started in the early 1500s in a tudor and gothic style. It took a century to finish however the vaulted ceiling was completed in three years which is unbelievable as it is so detailed and huge.

Construction started on Kings College Chapel in 1512

The ante chapel and dark oak organ screen dividing the chapel in two.

The amazing fan vaulted ceiling completed in three years

The brain child of Henry V1, the college and chapel was part of an overall plan to provide places for 70 students from poor backgrounds. After his death the project was picked up by Henry V11. Henry V1’s plan for a Great Court never eventuated.

For further information about this incredible structure go to:   http://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/chapel/

One of the advantages of travelling in winter is the lack of leaves on the trees which allows views of scenes not visible at other times of year.  This is Kings Collage from the River Cam.

On our last day we took a punt on the River Cam. It was fantastic. But freezing cold. It started raining gently half way through the trip and were very grateful for the umbrella and woollen blanket supplied in the boat. We felt very sorry for the ‘chauffeur’ a 6th form student working weekends. He was extremely knowledgeable of the history of the city. His hands were blue with cold as they became wet every time he pulled the pole out of the river. But he said he was used to it having done it for a year. As our river trip finished it started snowing again!

The Bridge of Sighs built in 1831 and joins St John’s College’s Third Court and New Court

Apparently in summer punting on the Cam is like playing dodgem cars. 

It was very peaceful for us in February if somewhat cold.

During our guided walk we came across this most unusual Corpus Clock.  Unveiled in 2008 the clock is accurate every five minutes. 

 The following is its description.

“It is a unique and strange device for the measurement of time and is both hypnotically beautiful and deeply disturbing. It was invented, designed and given to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, by Dr John C Taylor. The Clock is a remarkable mixture of very modern design and an ancient setting; of precision engineering and engaging whimsy; of utterly traditional clockwork (quite literally) and unexpected electronic invention; of vast size and extreme delicacy of movement; of unceasing life and imminent death; and it tells the time with absolute exactness and breathtaking unpredictability.

The clock shows conventional time as follows. The outer ring represents the seconds; minutes are shown on the middle ring; the innermost ring indicates the hours. There is a weird animal that appears to advance the outer ring of the clock. It is called a Chronophage - which means time eater - a cross between a grass hopper and a mud eye!

For more information on this amazing thing go to:  http://www.corpus.cam.ac.uk/about-us/the-corpus-clock

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Next back in London we go on a London Walk: Ancient London -  Knights, Nuns and Notoriety!

Lord's Cricket Ground

It seemed a fitting way to recognise Australia Day by visiting Lord’s Cricket Ground at St John’s Wood just north west of London.

Named after Thomas Lord, its founder in 1814, Lord's is the third cricket ground he established. It currently can seat up 28,000 spectators with plans to enlarge this capacity. This is small in comparison to the MCG which can seat more than 100,000 people. But Lord’s is big on atmosphere.

What makes it so special for us is Laurie’s family connection with two very famous Australian cricketers. Laurie’s great, grand father was George Henry Stevens (Harry) Trott, (his Mum’s grandfather) and Laurie’s great great uncle Albert Edwin Trott, Harry’s brother and Laurie’s Mum’s great uncle.

Harry Trott

Harry Trott was an Australian Test cricketer who played 24 test matches as an all-rounder between 1888 and 1898. He toured England four times in 1888, 1890, 1893 and 1896, scoring over 1000 runs on each occasion. 

He captained Australia in England in 1896 and made 143 runs in the first test at Lord’s.  He took six wickets and scored 156 at the Oval.  He was also captain of Australia V England in Australia in 1897/98.  On four tours to England from 1888 to 1896 he exceeded 1000 runs on each visit and totalled 145 wickets.  Six of his 10 centuries were made there.  He joined Bendigo United Cricket Club in 1902 after a long period of illness and was soon scoring well.  During 1902 and 1907 he made four centuries at BUCC and had a club career average of 44.8. 

Harry Trott

At right Harry Trott

Credit: "From photo by E. Hawkins & Co., Brighton" - K. S. Ranjitsinhji, The Jubilee Book of Cricket Third Edition

Harry Trott - all rounder. Also an effective slow leg spin bowler.

The Australian team toured England in 1893 to compete for The Ashes. The English won the series one Test to nil, with two drawn to recover The Ashes. Playing in all three Tests, Trott scored 146 runs in the series at an average of 29.20 and in all first-class matches he scored 1269 runs. While Trott did not take a wicket in the Tests, he took 38 wickets in all first-class matches that season. In the Second Test at the Oval, Trott scored 92 runs in the second innings after the Australians were forced to follow-on; an innings described as "really superb cricket" and "the finest exhibition he has ever given in England". England, regardless, still won the match by an innings. Harry Trott was named as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1894.

Albert Trott

An English team lead by Andrew Stoddard came to Australia in 1894-95 to defend The Ashes. A feature of the summer was the emergence of Albert Trott, (Laurie’s great, great uncle) and the performance of the brothers in tandem. Playing for Victoria against the touring side, the Trotts claimed 12 wickets and held eight catches between them; Harry scored 63 in the second innings. 

Albert Trott

During the second innings of the traditional Christmas fixture against New South Wales, Albert claimed five wickets, took three catches (two from Harry's bowling) and made a run-out.  In between these two games, England won the first Test at Sydney - a remarkable turnaround after they had been forced to follow on - by bowling the Australians out for 166 in the second innings. The second test at Melbourne saw another English victory; Trott played a rearguard innings of 95 in the second innings, to no avail. Attempting to stay in the series, Australia dramatically revamped their team for the next test at Adelaide. Albert Trott, making his Test debut, was one of four inclusions while Harry was elevated to open the batting. In a match played in intense heat throughout. Harry Trott made 48 on the opening day before he was run out. Albert was the dominant player of the match with an innings of 38 not out and 72 not out (both scored from the number 10 position), and a bowling return of 8/43 in England's second innings. Australia won the match by 382 runs.

In a Sheffield Shield match that followed, the Trotts extricated Victoria from a difficult situation. Chasing 155 to win, New South Wales fell for 99 with Albert taking four wickets and Harry five. In the fourth Test at Sydney, Australia batted first and scored 284 runs (Albert Trott 85 not out) before England were bowled out for 65 and 72 on a wicket affected by heavy rain. Opening the bowling in the first innings, Harry Trott dismissed Archie MacLaren, Johnny Briggs and Stoddart.

Albert was born in 1873 and was a test cricketer for both Australia and England. He was named as one of the Wisden’s Cricketer of the Year in 1899. He is believed to be the only batsman to have struck a ball over the top of the Lord’s Pavilion. He is also one of only two players to take two hat tricks in the same first-class innings. Despite his notoriety, having played in 375 first class matches including five tests, he was almost penniless when he died at the age of 41.

Albert sets sail to play for England

It was in 1896 that Harry had been named captain of the Australian team touring to England. Despite Albert averaging 102.5 with the bat in the test series against England in Australia, he was not selected for the tour. Nonetheless, Albert sailed to England independently in 1896, on the same ship as the Australian touring side.

He started to play for the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in 1896, and with the help of the Australian cricketer and test umpire Jim Phillips, he started to play for Middlesex in 1898. Despite missing a month due to an injured hand, he took 102 wickets in his first season. He was at the peak of his powers as an all-rounder in 1899 and 1900. In 1899 he scored 1175 first-class runs and took 239 wickets, and in 1900 he scored at 1337 runs and took 211 wickets. 

Albert’s bowling action

Albert Trott's penchant for the spectacular did not fail him: having already landed the ball on the pavilion balcony at Lord’s in the match, he became the first (and to this day the only) batsman to hit a ball over the current Lord's pavilion, bludgeoning Monty Noble out of the ground on 31 July 1899. The ball hit a chimney and fell into the garden outside the house of Philip Need, the Lord's dressing room attendant.

Albert was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1899. He took all 10 wickets in an innings (10 for 42) bowling for Middlesex against Somerset at Taunton in 1900.  Albert Trott was widely acknowledged as the finest all-round cricketer of his day.

After retiring from cricket, Trott suffered a lengthy illness. In 1914, he wrote his Will on the back of a laundry ticket, leaving his wardrobe and £4 to his landlady. Shortly afterwards, one day before the 15th anniversary of his famous strike over the pavilion at Lord's, he shot himself in Willesden Green, Middlesex.  He is buried at Willesdon New Cemetery in plot 613P at the expense of Middlesex County Cricket Club.  A headstone was erected in 1994.

At left a sculpture of Albert Trott by Daniel Lucas but we don't know where it is.         

                                                                   At right Albert’s headstone at Willesden New Cemetery

The South African-born English cricketer Jonathan Trott claims to be a distant relation to Harry and Albert Trott but hasn't revealed how as yet.

The Australian team pictured during the summer of 1894–95. Albert is seated in the front row, on the right;
 his older brother Harry is at the far left of the middle row.

When at Lord’s we were privileged to take a tour of the ground and pavilion including the amazing media centre. At the conclusion of the tour a member of staff brought out one of Albert Trott’s cricket bats dated 1895. Our guide, Steven Murray, knew all about the Trotts and their history.

One of Albert’s bats on loan to Lord’s from Wisden’s Museum

The beautiful pavilion, presently being cleaned

The original terra cotta pavilion is a beautiful Victorian structure opened in 1890 after the previous building burnt down. It contains the very famous Long Room, dressing rooms for each team and umpires, committee meeting rooms and dining room. It is steeped in history with pictures of famous cricketers and benefactors hanging proudly.

In the team dressing rooms are honour boards preserved to record the names of cricketers who have either scored a century when playing at Lord’s or captured five wickets in the one innings.

Interestingly some of the world’s best cricketers are not on the honour boards because they did not achieve one of these two milestones at Lord’s. Names not included are Sachin Tendulkar, Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist,  Brian Lara or Muttiah ­Muralitharan.

Harry Trott’s name on the honour’s board in the visitors’ dressing room at Lord’s

One of the most distinctive and famous features of the Lord's ground is the significant slope across the field. The north-west side of the playing surface is 2.5 metres (8 ft 2 ins) higher than the south-east side. In the photo of the pavilion above you can get some sense of the slope from the line along the front of the white seating and the grassed out field.

The view from the Media Centre

And what’s all the fuss about?

The tiny urn of ashes An ex-perfume bottle!

Acknowledgement to Wikipeadia for some information and some photos used in this Post.

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Next we visit Cambridge!

Back in London

The second leg of our journey saw us leave Singapore at 9.15 am which meant a very early morning start to be at the airport two hours before that! 

The thing about this leg was we flew in an A380, a fantastic plane. It is considerably quieter than other jets..unless of course there are nine babies on board.  Hmmm. The little one nearest to us was a little champ. Reminded us of our little grandson Jack.  Happy when he was awake, happy to go to sleep, crawling up and down the aisles winning over the cabin crew and other passengers!  Then there was another just along from him who was the opposite completely, couldn’t settle and was quite demanding of his parents.

We felt for the parents who were desperate to try and keep their little ones from disturbing the other passengers as much as possible. After a 14 hour flight they must have been shattered by the time we landed at Heathrow. And of course they then had to run the gauntlet through the lengthy queues at border control.

Arriving at our house in Kensington late in the day was excellent as we had dinner and crashed into bed. We were met at the door by a friend of a friend who made us very welcome leaving us all sorts of goodies to enjoy before departing.  Thank you Therese.

After 12.5 hours sleep we just had to go for a walk in that iconic park, St James’s Park.

One of the magnificent Pelicans resident near Duck Island in St James’s Park.

 Pelicans were first introduced into St James's Park in 1664 as a gift from the Russian Ambassador.

Seagulls walking on water, even having a stretch on the St James’s Park lake.

The classic view from the Blue Bridge across the lake to the Horse Guards and Whitehall.

In the opposite direction is Buckingham Palace.

To Greenwich Village

You can’t come to London without a trip down the mighty Thames River on a Thames Clipper fast ferry to Greenwich Village. We’d been before but we really enjoy re-visiting these places as there is always something new to learn and see. The trip gives a different perspective to the ‘look’ of London and is well worth doing just for that reason alone.

The HMS President.com a reception venue for weddings and other special occasions.

One of London’s newest ‘attractions’, The Shard. We plan to venture to the top on a good day while we’re here.

The stunning Tower Bridge - another fascinating place to visit.

The magnificent Cutty Sark at Greenwich.

This amazing tea clipper was launched in 1869 and carried tea between Asia and Britain. It was one of the fastest clippers. After the tea run it then carried wool from Australia to Britain and had the fastest time for about 10 years. The clipper has been magnificently restored. For more information about the Cutty Sark you could go to 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutty_Sark

The beautiful building, part of the Royal Greenwich Observatory. 

For more information about the Greenwich Observatory go to: 

http://www.visitgreenwich.org.uk/en

The view from the observatory across Royal  Greenwich Park to the National Maritime Museum and part of the city in the distance.

Kenwood House

Several years ago we took up membership of English Heritage which is a bit like our National Trust. Our membership supports the work of the organisation which is massive and gives us free entry into many historic buildings and sites.

One of these is the recently refurbished Kenwood House, a former stately home on the edge of Hampstead Heath, London. It was originally remodelled and extended by the Scottish architect Robert Adam for William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, from 1764 to 1779. The interiors designed by Adam include some of his finest surviving schemes, particularly the ‘Great Room’ or library. After Kenwood’s original contents were sold in 1922 the house and grounds were bought by Edward Cecil Guinness, 1st Earl of Iveagh, who in 1927 bequeathed his outstanding collection of paintings to the nation.

The stunning front of Kenwood House was used in scenes from several movies 

one of which was Notting Hill.

The Library at Kenwood

The detail of one of the meticulously restored fireplace mantels.

If you’d like more detail about this superb stately home go to 

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/kenwood/

Next Lord’s Cricket Ground and Laurie’s connection with two very famous cricketers.

Singapore Botanical Gardens

It was such a lovely day we headed for the Botanical Gardens after our river cruise. The first gardens were established by Sir Stamford Raffles, the founder of Singapore (and a keen naturalist) in 1822 on Government Hill at Fort Canning, mainly to introduce the cultivation of economic crops. These gardens were closed in 1829 and 30 years later, in 1859, at the present site, a new garden was developed by an Agri-Horticultural Society, and later handed over to the government in 1874. 

From an ornamental garden with roads, terraces, a band parade area and even a small zoo, it has come a long way in evolving into a leading equatorial botanic garden of 74 hectares, where major world crops, such as rubber and orchids were launched.

A Burmese Banyan tree or Ficus - an incredible root system

In June 2012, Singapore ratified the World Heritage Convention and in December 2012, submitted its World Heritage Tentative List to UNESCO to indicate interest in inscribing the Singapore Botanic Gardens as a World Heritage Site. 

A monitor lizard, a surprise for us to see in the botanical gardens

 

        

One of the beautiful sculptures in the gardens - Chopin

Louise, in her new hat, walking along Swan Lake

The Shaw Foundation Symphony Stage

On returning to the city we capped off a great day with afternoon tea at the Raffles Bakery. Just as nice as the real Raffles Hotel high tea without the hefty price tag!

Tomorrow it would be a very early start as we have to leave for the airport at 7.15 am.

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The first leg to Singapore

We’d planned a two night stop over in Singapore to break the journey which means we are not so shattered when we arrive at Heathrow Airport. The leg to Singapore was on a 777 300 ER which looked a bit ‘tired’ inside but flew perfectly well we are happy to say! As usual the cabin crew were amazing and the food surprisingly good for airline food.

Laurie and friend at the Merlion Park

Our Harbour View room at the Pan Pacific.

Singapore Harbour and Marina Bay Sands Hotel from our room

Esplanade Theatres on the Bay

The striking Marina Bay Sands Hotel which dominates the Singapore skyline

Coloured shutters on residential buildings in New Bridge Rd

One of the People of the River Sculptures - five little boys jumping into the river

Under the Esplanade Bridge across the Singapore River

Louise also found a friend on the harbour side

Shop houses on Boat Quay on the Singapore River

The symbol of Singapore - the Merlion