Sally Redux

Hi Karim! I was wondering how you were and when we would see some more postcards!

victorian67

Good morning dear Friends

As we are embracing the Autumn season and prepare ourselves for cosy times at home in the evenings watching a nice DVD, I invite all of you to discover or re-discover the wonderful English BBC Series inspired by Flora Thompson's novel Lark Rise to Candleford. Novel itself inspired by Flora Thompson life as one of the first Post Mistress in Victorian times.

I cannot possibly encourage you enough to watch these wonderful series which truly will be enlightening your heart and your soul with some of the most beautiful Victorian countryside scènes ever depicted on TV with heartwarming stories like tales back in the times just before the industrial revolution


Flora Thompson was born in Juniper Hill in northeast Oxfordshire, the eldest of six children of Albert and Emma Timms, a stonemason and nursemaid respectively. Her favourite brother, Edwin, was killed near Ypres in 1916. Flora was educated at the parish school in Cottisford.

Flora worked in various post offices in southern England. The first of these was Fringford, a village about 4 miles (6.4 km) northeast of Bicester. Flora started work here in 1891, as assistant to the postmistress, Mrs. Kezia Whitton. Among other post offices where Flora worked was that at Grayshott in Hampshire and Yateley in Hampshire, and she later moved to Bournemouth. In 1903 she married John William Thompson at Twickenham Parish Church, with whom she had a daughter and two sons.

Lark Rise to Candleford tells the story of her life : a young girl brought up in the poor but heartwarming rural Hamlet of Lark Rise who sees her destiny change for ever when she is sent to the nearby well to do little town of Candleford to work at the local Post Office Under the supervision of Dorcas Lane, her cousin.

In Candleford, this bright and curious young girl will discover a life she would never have imagined in her little Hamlet and a life that will become hers in time.

Those like me who enjoy Victorian England and old fashioned stories will truly be enchanted by the Lark Rise to Candleford series wich run from 2007 to 2011 in the UK and are now available on Amazon in Series 1 to 4.

If there is one DVD Collection to warm up your Autumn & Winter evenings, this is the one !

Here is the first episode of the first season :


Enjoy

Have a great week-end

Karim

victorian67

A very good morning to you all

As winter is knocking at our door with the first snow falls and as I am about to open a Christmas Markets special in my topic "Escapades around the 3 Borders Country", I must tell you the dates of some of the most beautiful Christmas Markets around England starting with the Birmingham German Christmas Market which has enchanted me for many years :


Karim

victorian67

I will end this little tour of an England with Christmas accents and the most beautiful and popular Christmas Markets located in historic cities, a must see in the festive period


I wish you all a festive season in England

Karim

Sally Redux

Wonderful! I'm very homesick now.

Have a very happy festive season yourself!

Englishmum

My mum (who lives in Coventry) often uses her free pensioner's travel pass to go to Birmingham (20 miles away). She mentioned to me last week that the German Christmas market in Birmingham is *huge*.

Next weekend here in Switzerland the various Christmas markets will begin to open; I live halfway between Zurich and Lucerne so I will probably go to both of them; the Zurich one has a 'Singing Christmas Tree' where various choirs - including one from the International School - takes turns to sing each day and congregate on various levels of a huge wooden Christmas tree. It's quite enjoyable to drink hot chocolate or 'gluhwein' (mulled wine) whilst eating a cheese fondue or raclette in the market square.

Next weekend we are off to Strasbourg (on the border of Germany and France) an approx 3 hours drive and apparently it has the oldest Christmas market in France, which was founded in 1570:

http://noel.tourisme-alsace.com/en/s...-market-france

(I briefly passed through Luxembourg a few weeks ago whilst driving from the UK...it has the cheapest petrol in Europe so I filled up the tank! We really ought to spend a few days there.

By the way - right now it is heavily snowing here...and 'it's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas'

victorian67

Thank you so much for putting us in the Christmas spirit with your wonderful post

Here in Luxembourg, we had the first snow last night !

I am heading to Sarrebruck this week-end and to Heidelberg the following one

I will most definitely present these two cities in my thread "Escapades around the 3 Borders Country" and you are more than welcomed to add your experience to it

Have a great week-end !

Karim

PS : I encourage all of you who have not been to the Blists Hill Victorian Museum & Village yet to pay it a visit as it is like the Hartlepool Maritime Experience Museum, an experience like no other !

lf1

Love those pictures of the Christmas markets. I might have to pop up to Edinburgh to visit one.

Karrie72

Love the pics of the markets...funnily I don't remember those from when I lived in England, welcome addition though. I'll be near Winchester on the 22nd of December and I'll just miss that gorgeous market. Really can't wait for my first Christmas in England for over 15 years, it's going to be emotional...

Englishmum

Many years ago when I was at high school in England I studied British Economic and Social History (in preference to taking the history course which covered the World Wars etc.). We had a day trip to the pretty town of Ironbridge in Shropshire nearby Coalbrookdale and the Blists Hill foundry and museum; it is one of the places in England where the 'Industrial Revolution' originated. The area is in beautiful countryside, although I daresay when the factories were operating they would have been belching out lots of smoke!

Fast forward a generation; I got married, had a couple of kids and moved to Singapore. One Summer I took the kids back to England on home leave and was staying with my parents. I mentioned that my son would be studying the Victorians at school on our return to Singapore and my dad mentioned that it might be nice to go to the Blists Hill museum.

So we got in the car and had a very enjoyable day there; my kids were fascinated by the Victorian bank, pharmacy, school, dentist and of course the candy shop! All the guides wear Victorian clothes...and my dad persuaded me and the kids to dress up in Victorian clothing and have a photo taken in that brown sepia colour (which I then gave to my parents).

Over the years the museum has greatly expanded so it isn't just the industrial machinery, so it appeals to everyone. In fact, the invention of the machinery pre-dates the Victorian period, but of course with success a community grew around the factories as people left their jobs on the land in the countryside to live near to their place of employment. It was a good learning experience for my kids and the trip there is quite poignant as my dad suddenly died a few weeks later.

http://www.ironbridge.org.uk/our-att...ictorian-town/

http://www.ironbridge.org.uk/plan-yo...travel-advice/

victorian67

Thank you so much for the trip down memory lane and sharing your wonderful personal experience with us

With the Hartlepool Maritime Experience Museum, Bristol's SS Great Britain, the Blists Hill Victorian Museum is an experience like no other of stepping back in Victorian times which I love so much

Karim

victorian67

Karim

victorian67

Karim

victorian67

Karim

Sally Redux

Thanks Karim. Happy Summertime to you!