A New Twig on the Tree

It's been a long time since I last posted but I'm back again now. A lot of this summer has been spent in Suffolk helping my lovely daughter-in-law Francesca before and after the birth of her third baby - and here he is:) Jude Samuel was born on July 30th and weighed in at 6lb 9oz.

Here he is with big brother Gabriel and Granny. George was too busy with his drawing to join us:)

He's on this one though playing with Daddy and Gabriel in a nearby field. The lane they live on is surrounded by farmland.

A couple of days before Jude was born we spent the afternoon at Bressingham Steam Museum which we all enjoyed.

There was an interesting little museum as well as the train rides, this is one of the network of travelling mail coaches which collected mail,sorted it as the train travelled and delivered it to local stations along the line for the postman to deliver the next morning - I really love this piece of nostalgia. The Travelling Post Offices ceased in 2004.

This commemorative print was given to all TPO staff when the service ceased and shows them at work as the train speeds through the night. There is a wonderful poem by W H Auden called Night Mail and of course it's referring to the days of the wonderful old steam trains of my childhood. These are the first few lines:

This is the Night Mail crossing the border,
Bringing the cheque and the postal order,
Letters for the rich, letters for the poor,
The shop at the corner and the girl next door.

Pulling up Beattock, a steady climb:
The gradient's against her, but she's on time.
Past cotton-grass and moorland boulder
Shovelling white steam over her shoulder,
Snorting noisily as she passes
Silent miles of wind-bent grasses.
 Birds turn their heads as she approaches,
Stare from the bushes at her blank-faced coaches.
Sheep-dogs cannot turn her course;
They slumber on with paws across.
 In the farm she passes no one wakes,
But a jug in the bedroom gently shakes.

 There is also a great film called 'Night Mail' produced in 1936 by the GPO film unit which includes the whole of  poem. Needless to say I have  it on DVD:)  It's also available on Youtube and shows exactly how the TPOs worked. The little portion showing men working on the line shows the job my dad did, he was a platelayer on the railways for most of his working life. Do watch it - it's a fascinating glimpse of a world now long gone.

This shows the interior of the mail coach.

Another part of the museum also holds an exhibit full of nostalgia for all devotees of Dad's Army. Here is Frazer's Funeral Parlour....

........and Corporal Jones' butcher's shop.

Jonesy's iconic blue delivery van is there too.

Last but not least Swallow Bank where Captain Mainwaring was manager and Sergeant Wilson and Pte Pike also worked. I'm afraid all the museum photos are poor because of all the artificial lighting. We really enjoyed our outing and would have gone in the museum sooner if we'd realised how interesting it was, we had to rush round a bit as it was near to closing time when we went in. I plan another Suffolk post later this week and shall also be catching up on reading and commenting on other blogs - something I haven't had time to do over the last couple of months.