They are both of Grantchester Meadows in Cambridge on a walk we took five years ago. My how time flies. We were staying at an hotel in Cambridge overnight and decided to take the walk. We had a coffee at an outside cafe which was frequented by artists and writers of the Bloomsbury Set.
I once wrote a short piece entitled "Grantchester Doesn't Exist - In Search of Geoffrey Archer" which I seem to have lost but will reproduce in a blog if I ever find it. It was all about an attempt many years ago to find Grantchester and getting horribly lost. Geoffrey Archer, former MP, former prison inmate, former top runner, lives at Grantchester Old Vicarage in the house once immortalised by poet Rupert Brooke in his poem fittingly entitled Old Vicarage Grantchester which was written in Berlin in 1912 and showed his longing for England.
"would I were In Grantchester, in Grantchester! —
Some, it may be, can get in touch With Nature there,
or Earth, or such."
"God! I will pack, and take a train,
And get me to England once again!
For England’s the one land, I know,
Where men with Splendid Hearts may go;
And Cambridgeshire, of all England,
The shire for Men who Understand;
And of THAT district I prefer The lovely hamlet Grantchester."
The poem ends with a couple of the most famous lines in the history of English Literature - beautiful in their sheer simplicity:
"Stands the Church clock at ten to three?
And is there honey still for tea?"
I always get photographs of Oxford and Cambridge confused. I had to have a long hard look at the memory that came up to work out which of the cities it was. As for which I prefer, well that's a tough one that I wouldn't be able to answer. So in good politician mode I will sit on the fence and say I like them both.
Obviously we've visited Cambridge more than Oxford as it's just 60 miles up the road from us and easily accessible by car via the park and ride and also a direct train route from Wymondham, although the train station is some way from the centre. I believe there are plans to link Cambridge and Oxford by rail. The Cambridge Park and Ride on Newmarket Road is interesting as you can leave your car there for up to 72 hours, giving you time to get the train into London for an overnight stay or go to a few other places and now you can apparently go via coach to Amsterdam and a few other places from the park and ride. Something definitely to look into.
We keep meaning to get one of those day rover train tickets to visit Cambridge and Ely. Might extend that to a three day one to go to Woodbridge and a few other places as well. Being Autumn it's time to go out and about with the camera and even to venture into Suffolk!.
This weekend we are having a couple of days in Milton Keynes, staying with friends and this morning will be going to Coventry to see Norwich play and have a look round a city I've never been to. I'm sure I will have some photos for you from our trip once we get back home. I can't say after Norwich's last few games that I'm looking forward to the football much. Norwich have been serving up some dubious entertainment of late.
In the meantime I hope you like my two memory photos. They seem to be slightly out of focus to me, but that adds to their mystery. If you like Pink Floyd and feel like a small experiment, listen to their song Grantchester Meadows about which Wikipedia has this to say:
"At approximately 4:13, the sound of a honking Bewick's Swan is introduced, followed by the sound of it taking off. As the instrumental track fades out, an incessant buzzing bee which has been heard throughout the song, is chased after by an unidentified person (represented by the sound of footsteps) and finally swatted, cutting abruptly to the next track.
"The lyrics describe a pastoral and dream-like scene at Grantchester Meadows in Cambridgeshire close to where fellow band member David Gilmour lived at the time. The song is noted for its use of stereo effects and sound panning to create an illusion of space and depth."
I'm not sure whether it was on this trip to Cambridge or another that we paid a very poignant visit to the American Cemetery at Madingley which contains the bodies of 3,811 Americans war dead.
There are memorials there as well including one to Joseph Kennedy Jr, eldest son of Joseph Kennedy Sr and Rose Fitzgerald and one to American bandleader Glenn Miller, both of whom were lost at sea.
There is only one civilian buried in the cemetery. Herman Douthit fell from a drilling mast and was buried with full military honours.
I was intrigued by the fact that three of the crew of USAAF B-17 Flying Fortress Mi Amigo which crashed in Sheffield, killing its crew of 10 are buried in Cambridge. Seven of the bodies were repatriated to the United States.
I didn't realise at the time of the visit to Madingly that this was the case but a few years ago that crash made the national headlines due to the work of a local man Tony Foulds who lovingly tends a memorial in a Sheffield park. TV presenter and personality Dan Walker came across Tony one day and developed the story which made all the national press.
It was only when I was checking a few things for this blog that I found that three of those killed rest in Cambridge.
Sometimes you come across these things quite by chance. Last week we visited my niece and brother-in-law (married to my wife's sister) in Adwick-Le-Street which is near Doncaster. A few years ago an acquaintance told me that a victim of the Munich Air Disaster which killed 23 people - many of whom were Manchester United footballers - was buried in the local cemetery. David Pegg was indeed buried in the local churchyard at Highfields.