Château de Bissy-sur-Fley

Going through the old holiday pictures still, I found some more of a very interesting château we visited in Burgundy in 2012. It is at Bissy-sur-Fley and is the oldest looking château I have ever seen. It was begun in the 15th Century and completed in the 16th Century and nothing much has been done to it since.  In fact, it was, in parts, in need of some repair! It is commonly known as Château Pontus de Tyard, after its most famous inhabitant, who was a renowned poet of the late 16th Century and the local seigneur at that time. It is now in private hands, but there is an organisation dedicated to its restoration. I have always felt that it looks like a true medieval French château and certainly nothing like the modernised great houses of the late 17th and 18th Centuries. Very atmospheric and certainly worth using as an example to model.

Trooping the Colour 2026 (and some family history).

 

Image courtesy of tripologiste.com.

Yesterday was Trooping the Colour - First Battalion, Grenadier Guards were parading their new King's colour to celebrate the King's official birthday. If you missed it, you can see it on BBC iPlayer, with or without commentary: Trooping the Colour - BBC iPlayer

One of my grandfathers was in the Grenadier Guards before WW2. He was called up in 1939 - he still had a few months left in the reserve, soldiers did three years active, nine years reserve with the Guards in those days - leaving behind my grandmother with two small children (my mother, aged 2, and her older brother), and went off the France to join the 3rd Battalion near Louvain in Belgium. He made it back after the disasters of May and June 1940, went directly to hospital at Lincoln, and was then released from service. He was then with the police force for the duration of the war, serving with the Buckinghamshire constabulary, as it was then (now Thames Valley force). I was too young to ask about his experiences when he was alive, but he never volunteered to tell anything about it. He did march in a Trooping of the Colour when he was doing his active service before the war and my mother has a treasured photograph of him in full dress uniform, complete with bearskin and Lee-Enfield .303 rifle.

He was not the only member of my family that I know to have served with the army. One of my great uncles - Bill - served in WW1, but was posted to Ireland for the duration. His wife, Edith, was the daughter of a late Victorian and Edwardian army soldier, who retired as a sergeant and P.T. instructor. Another great uncle - Fred - was with the Kent Cycle Battalion and was sent to India for WW1, being a Territorial. He sadly died en route back home in 1919. My father - John - served with the Royal Horse Artillery from 1950 to 1953 as a light AA gunner in Hong Kong during the Korean War, watching the Chinese across the border. He was called up for the Suez Crisis in 1956, being a reservist, and went to Egypt. My mother  managed to get him to tell her some of his anecdotes of service and write them down.

My younger sister's first husband - Simon - was in the Royal Air Force; her second husband - Ian - served with the Light Infantry. And her youngest son, my nephew Aaron, is serving in the Army Air Corps at the moment. My wife's father - Herbert - was in the Royal Air Force during WW2 and served in Ceylon, Sri Lanka as it now is, as a wireless operator, flying reconnaissance missions over the Indian Ocean and training other crewmen. Also, her niece's husband - Paul - is a sergeant with the Royal Engineers, and her younger sister's husband - Vaughan - was in the Parachute Regiment. There may have been others, but those are the most immediate ones I remember; my younger sister does all the family tree stuff and gradually unearths interesting details.

Nobody has served in the Royal Navy, as far as we know, although our most famous family member, on my mother's side, Charles Fish (1840-1915), did have a strong sea connection. He was my great great grandfather and the coxswain of the Ramsgate lifeboat and was the first member of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) to be awarded two gold medals for saving lives and service. His most famous exploit was as coxswain of the lifeboat "Bradford" which took a major role in the saving of the survivors of the "Indian Chief" merchant ship in 1881, wrecked in a storm off the Kent coast. He went out on rescues over 350 times and helped to save more than 870 lives.

Charles Fish

(image courtesy of Ramsgate Historical Society)

If you ever feel like supporting a charity, the RNLI relies entirely upon public donations for its work; it is not government funded at all.

RNLI - Royal National Lifeboat Institution - Saving Lives at Sea

Images of Burgundy

While I work on getting my wargaming stuff sorted and ready to use, I acquired a more up-to-date computer from my son-in-law - my old one dates from 2002! - which as everyone knows requires moving saved files from one to the other. In the course of doing so, I took the opportunity to update our holiday photographs by trimming them down to the ones we really wanted to keep, not the random collection that existed. The task revealed images that I thought might be of interest to wargamers who like to model scenic items. So here are a few of buildings from Burgundy in France. Don't worry, there aren't too many!

This is the château of Bussy. Its most famous inhabitant was the comte de Bussy-Rabutin, who was a cavalry general under Louis XIII and Louis XIV. He did not like Turenne much and he lost his position for writing a racy novel about the French court, having to spend the rest of his life in exile at Bussy. I can think of a lot of worse places to have to retire to, although he seems to have spent a lot of the time being bored and pining for his lady loves back at court! The big round towers were converted from the original medieval castle.

This is the château of Commarin. Like Bussy, the big towers were part of the original medieval castle.

This is the château at Epoisse - yes, where that delicious but very smelly cheese comes from! It belonged to the prince de Condé, one of Louis XIV's great generals.

This is the little château of Fley, the village where we were staying.

This little château was in the village of Posanges, tucked away on a side street. It shows a much older style than those above, probably still very much as it looked in the late Middle Ages, unlike those of the 17th and 18th Century, which were mostly conversions of old medieval castles.

An old medieval tower in the town walls of Semur.

Old houses in the little town of Vitteaux.

So, hopefully that might give some inspiration to the modelmakers amongst you. Burgundy is full of historic sites, towns, villages. And of course it has lovely wine and cheese!

Moving house!

Well, we finally moved house and I can honestly say it was the most stressful time in my life! We had to try twice! First time, we were all packed, waiting outside our new house, when word came through that the money from the bottom of our 'chain' of buyers was not ready. As a result, we had to go back to our original house, unload everything, and re-book another date. Our solicitors had never experienced such a thing before; one of the removal men said he had only known it happen three times in twenty years in the job. We then spent ten days camping out in our house waiting to move again. The second attempt saw the money move up the 'chain' so slowly that we only got the okay to move in fifteen minutes before our removal men had to knock-off for the day! My poor wife almost had a breakdown! Luckily, the removal firm got eight men down to us and we were unloaded and in within two hours.

The plan is never to move again!

Hopefully, I shall resume posts on my wargaming soon, once I have got some of the stuff unpacked, checked and ready to game.

To anyone who may be moving house shortly, good luck to you!

North Yorkshire Moors Railway.

Another visit last month to Yorkshire to see daughter, son-in-law and grandson saw us going to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. If you get the chance, it is one of the best heritage lines in the United Kingdom, which winds its way through the moors for almost 20 miles and has lots of locomotives and rolling stock, with its main station at Pickering, a nice town on the southern edge of the moors.

We had a bit of a treat as the Flying Scotsman was visiting the line for a fortnight and we got to see it at Pickering station. I had seen it many, many years ago, but not running. It was something of a special moment, for the locomotive is rather a national treasure, although there are many other fine steam locomotives about. The people waiting to see it all fell quiet, something of a reverent hush descended, as it came into sight and steamed smoothly into the platform. A special moment.

Anyway, some photographs and captions.

A Black Five sitting in the platform, waiting its path to head north. A workhorse of an engine.

Now this was an extra surprise. This is a replica of Locomotion, the first locomotive to pull regular passenger traffic on the railways in 1825. It is normally at the Beamish Museum, I think, but had come down to Pickering as part of the 200 Anniversary of the railways in the UK.

Imagine travelling in one of those! Open to the elements, hard seats, no facilities! As a former railwayman, I can hear the customer complaints!

The view north - country end as we would have called it in my time - from the station's bridge.

The people gathering to see the Flying Scotsman.

The Flying Scotsman.

In British Railways dark green colour.

A rake of burgundy red coaches behind.

Running round to what will be the front of the train for the return journey back up the line. There is no turntable on the railway, so this means the locomotives run backwards for one direction, forwards for the other.

A lovely moment, seeing this locomotive and the others. And I bet I get way more hits for this post than my usual wargaming stuff!