One of our favourite trips is on the Swanage Railway from the Norden park-and-ride to Swanage and back. You can also break your journey at Corfe Castle, which is only two minutes from the Norden end.
You can see our 2010 trip to Corfe here, but this time we wanted to spend more time in Swanage. First here is a general view with mares’ tails (high cirrus clouds) especially for photo-blogger Chrisstov, who I know likes clouds – see his cloud images here…
But what’s all this about?
I had to Google that one – apparently this is the Alfred Monument, erected in 1862 by John Mowlem (1788-1868), a local quarryman who made his name in construction, going to London and building up a business transporting Purbeck stone to the capital. He spent most of his fortune improving Swanage.
The monument is a strange one. It is a granite Tuscan column, set on two stone steps and inscribed “In commemoration of a great naval battle fought with the Danes in Swanage Bay by Alfred the Great AD 877”. On top of the column are four Russian cannon-balls fired at British ships in the Crimean War.
Not only are the cannon-balls a bit inappropriate for an Anglo-Saxon king, but in fact the battle of Swanage Bay never even happened. In 877 the fleet of 120 Danish ships were on their way from Wareham to Exeter when they were wrecked on Peveril Point, either hit by a storm on foundering in the fog.
Then it was back on the steam train to Corfe Castle…
Then it was back up the track to Corfe Castle for a crab sandwich at the Bankes Arms, a stone’s throw from the station. We found it was under new management since the last time we visited and the polite teenagers of the family seemed to be helping out in the school holidays. It was fine, but I guess there is nothing like the first time and on our previous visit we had been so glad to sit in the cool after climbing up through the castle on a hot day and on that occasion we had really earned our crab sandwich…
Here are some posts and pages from previous visits:
St Mary the Virgin Church, Swanage
Hi Pat, on the Swanage railway it’s mostly volunteers http://www.swanagerailway.co.uk/n-volunteer.htm When the children were younger we used to love taking them to see Father Christmas there! I do miss those days …
Love the way you photograph the ‘unusual’ – and they’re fab as always.
Shaz
Thanks Shaz.
I can understand that most of them are volunteers, but I find it amazing if they find volunteer engineers to do the actual track work. That’s what made me wonder…
All the best 🙂
We went to Swanage as part of our summer holiday too! I’ve been peering into your photos to see if we coincided . . . we aren’t there – but wouldn’t it have been fun if you had taken our pictures without realising!
It would indeed!
I’m sure I read somewhere recently about someone who had taken a picture of his wife on holiday when she was a child and they had never met. They didn’t realise until they looked at his holiday snaps decades later…
Best wishes 🙂
That’s astonishing!
We went to the Swanage Blues festival again in March – it also happens in October. Lots of the pubs, cafes and clubs take part, the cost is negligible and if you like music that’s broadly in the blues genre, it’s a lovely weekend. And you can walk along the coast, see any of the sights or do any of the activities that Pat describes in her blogs from Swanage and Dorset.
More info on the festival here: http://www.swanage-blues.org/
and if you’d like to see and hear what it’s like, see my YouTube videos here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0wY1HBb_vlLabQ7Q9YN7Qr1HXBgJ7Tbd
of course, those are just a few of the acts we like, your tastes may well differ.
Thanks for the recommendation – and sorry you’re comment was sent into “pending” for a while again!
Best wishes 🙂
We often visit Swanage and when the 1911 census came out a few years ago I discovered my great grandfather had a house here. it now feels even more special visiting here and imagining my Granny playing on the beach. Your pictures of the railway and Corfe castle are wonderful . we must head that way again soon.
Sarah x
That’s a nice thought – playing on the beach in 1911. I guess it was a thriving seaside resort in those days, after the Victorians and before the first world war.
It would have been very different when my ancestors lived there in the late 18th and early 19th century, before they moved to Poole…
Best wishes 🙂
Love those art-deco lamps and the cloud shot. I don’t know that part of the coast at all so it has been an enlightening post for me. (Thanks for the RT on my last post).
The bit about the cannon-balls was enlightening for me. too!
Having seen something else since I wrote the post, I now think the lamp-post does show fish rather than dolphins.
I always love your warm and colourful blog posts, although it’s a shame there isn’t a little box at the bottom to “like” each post. Maybe it’s a WordPress function. It means the only way I can show my appreciation to you is to RT or actually take time to write a comment – and usually be the time I get to see your post, everyone else has already said all the nice things I would have said!
Best wishes 🙂
The Jurassic coast picture is indeed a lovely cloud shot and thank you for mentioning my blog. It has been a great many years since I last saw Swanage and I did enjoy seeing it again that and the steam trains.
It’s funny, isn’t it, that old steam trains seem so romantic and modern trains just seem a pain…
All the best 🙂
Cracking post! I love Swanage and have done the same steam train trip as you, but in reverse: return from Swanage to Corfe – explore the castle, lunch in the Bankes Arms and back to the beach on the train. It’s a lovely part of the world.
Great! Although I think the Bankes Arms has changed a little with its new ownership. I’m probably imagining it, but there seemed to be fewer interesting things on the wall in the bar.
We always do both ways on the railway as we park in Norden. This time we wanted to spend more time in Swanage as we had done Corfe the time before. But we will go again – and again and again…
Best wishes – and I see you are on Twitter now 🙂