The Sandy Beaches of Cambridgeshire ...

 ... Are Not Well Known!

Visitors wll be thwarted if they try to find them ...

... because they do not exist! At least, they're is no coastline in the county and no artificial waterside sandy places either. Yet there are two 'beaches' not far from the noble University and County town.

The larger community is Waterbeach ... 

... its smaller neighbour being Landbeach.

What is the origin of the names "Landbeach" and Waterbeach?

In pre-Norman times Landbeach and Waterbeach were known together as Beche, which may have been an old word for 'stream' (compare: beck). By the time of the Domesday Book, Landbeach had developed a separate identity as Utbeche, meaning 'Outer Beche'. In the Middle Ages Utbeche became known as Landbeach because of its greater elevation, and Beche became known as Waterbeach because of its proximity to the River Cam

Watebeach is designated a new town with massive development underway on former military land to the north of the existing village ...

... with Waterbeach Barracks still showing intact on the above aerial view, namely the obviously regimented rectangle in the centre of the Google Earth extract.

The new town is being named, with a level of originality only possible with Local Authority thinking, (wait for it) ...

.... Waterbeach.

The original village has been renamed, using the same linguistic skill and inventiveness, as ...

... Waterbeach Village

Now, Waterbeach (village) has a railway station ...

... on the electrified line north to King's Lynn. It is a sweet affair showing it's historic rural nature, with platforms split to the north ...

... and to the south of the road leading to the village centre.

Trains run southbound twice an hour to King's Cross, and once each hour northbound to King's Lynn and Ely

Waterbeach is to get a shiny new station to serve the new town.

You would expect the populace to be pleased with such increased lavishness ...

... but it would appear that they are far from happy.

One local councillor has even predicted glumly that closing the existing diddy station would reduce the number of rail passengers travelling from Waterbeach, despite the new 'proper' facility.

No tangible evidence is offered from this Waterbeach prophet of doom!

But you can see his point! Many existing commuters can walk to the station as we all did in the good old days ...

... as here at Titfield**!

The walk from Waterbeach Village to the new Waterbeach super station will be an extra inconvenience!

But the new Waterbeach will include free (?) parking and a 'bus hub', the latter being linked to a new chunk of Busway.

fbb will look at buses in tomorrow's blog.

** Passengers arriving for the first trip on the line re-opened by local volunteers as portrayed in the film "The Titfield Thunderbolt".

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Castle Terrace Progress

The assembly of cottages 3 and 4 is in progress, these being the rear entrances of the original kit. The original two 'fronts' were a bit of an experiment and bit of a mess.

The roof had been re-slated ...

... and the mess above the porch are has been repaired. 

Both repairs courtesy of a colour photocopy of tiles and walls.

A neat and cheap bodge.

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PLEASE NOTE

The fbbs are off today to spend the weekend with the Fearnley family in Cornwall. It would be disingenuous to ignore the hosts and bury oneself in a major blogging bonanza.

So, for two days (Monday and Tuesday), a brief but breezy blog bonanza will be beneficial!

Security at fbb mansions is in the hands of neighbours plus a very large dog!

An Mr Tubbles, alert as usual!

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 Next Beach Bus blog : Sat 7th Nov 

Balancing Britain (2) The Bus

Absolute Heaven** : Service Eleven?

Empirical examination of bus stops in Dunsop Bridge should reveal that this intriguing settlement, just over four miles from the very centre of Great Britain, is served by a route 11.

The gloriously rural 11 is run by minibuses ...

... and a close inspection of the vehicle(s) would reveal the operator as "North Yorkshire Council" ...

... indeed North Yorkshire tells us so.

Or, on-line, there is a timetable search for Dunsop Bridge.

But when we prod the blue blob, up comes ...

... what looks like a Lancashire Council timetable leaflet. The unhelpful on-line route map might explain this dual identity.

Actually it doesn't! Neither does the superb route map in the lovely Lancs leaflet.

Bang in the middle of the above page is the delightfully named Tosside.

The village marks the boundary between Lancashire ...

... and, fixe9d to the back of the above sign ...

... North Yorkshire.

The boundary runs along the side road (left) in front of the North Yotks sign or behind that for Lancs. The northbound stop is in Lancashire ...

... with the southbound, but unmarked, pick-up point being outside the village hall and over the border in North Yorks.

The service was resurrected in 2024 ...

... and later enjoyed by none other than blogging's Uncle Travelling Matte (Fraggle Rock character!) Roger French.

The bus pictures are his photographs - thanks, Roger!

The Lancs leaflet includes some rudimentary fares information ...

... BUT ...

... are these fares available over the border at Tosside?

Confusing, innit?

Here is the Saturday timetable; Mon to Fri is much the same.

One unexplained oddity is the link between Settle and Horton in Ribblessdale. A through passenger south from Horton is obliged to settle for 47 lengthy minutes in Settle before continuing towards Clitheroe.

Why? Surely the layover should be taken at the end of the route, i.e in Horton.

But note the hourly train connections at Clitheroe. Maybe a brave bus and rail enthusiast could plan a tour, out via Clitheroe, lavish lunch at Settle or Horton, and back via the Settle and Carlisle line to Leeds, then Manchester and back to Cliitheroe.

Sounds fun. If only Seaton were nearer to Manchester.

** Whilst the interpretation of visionary passages that describe heaven in The Bible can be difficult ...

... the joy of joining God outside of human space and time for an eternity of sin-free perfection and delight is surely even better than the Lancs/Yorks route 11.

Priestly king, enthroned for ever

high in heaven above!

sin and death and hell shall never

stifle hymns of love:

Yours the glory and the crown,
the high renown, the eternal name.

5o, our hearts and voices raising

through the ages long,

ceaselessly upon you gazing,

this shall be our song:

Yours the glory and the crown,
the high renown, the eternal name.

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From The Sublime ...

fbb is currently turning a pair of "workers' cottages" ...

... into a row of four low relief residences. Parts of these card kits are  cut and ready to 'push out' - with the exception of one edge which has to be cut by the user. This stops the bits falling apart in the box, on the work bench, or, for fbb, on the dining table or onto the carpet!

... To The Ridiculous!

Thus it was than your elderly wobbly-handed and careless blogger-cum-kit-basher carefully cut out a required part and, equally carefully, sliced through two dormer window barge boards!

Amazingly he was able to repair them ....

... but you can see the join!

fbb's modelling mentors, Fred Fudge and Bill Bodge would be proud of their protege! (Memo mist work out how to add accents on laptop or tablet!)

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 Next Beach But No Sea blog : Fri 6 Nov 

Balancing Britain (1)

 a telephone, a centroid, a bus and a hill walk

A Telephone ...

... so our tale does indeed begin with a phone box, a working phone box, no less. At least it was in use when StreetView toddled past. It is plonked in Dunsop Bridge, one of a collection of Northern place names than can sound made up for a comedy sketch show. Not far away, you will find Bashall Eaves, Cow Ark, Slaidburn, Tosside, Wigglesworth and Rathmell.

Dunsop Bridge (in Lancashire) ...

... is, sort of, near Clitheroe ...

... and has a bridge ...

... over the River Dunsop (there's original!) ...

... which joins the River Hodder near Thorneyholme, the 'big house' of the village.

The Best name on the map is "Knot of Sugar Loaf"! 

The village has a car park with toilets ...

... a shelter for bus passengers in one direction right next to an unofficial bike park ...

... and a bus stop pole and flag for travel in the opposite direction.

StreetView revealed no obvious timetable information at shelter or pole; but, on closer inspection there is a timetable frame directed at toilet and car park customers, not those waiting on the roadside.

This miniscule village has a post office ...

... and a cosy tea room.

Were the intrepid tourist to enter the phone box, there would be revealed a plaque.

This humble BT payphone, it claims, marks the "centre of Great Britain".

It isn't!

But it may be the nearest payphone to the centre of Great Britain.

fbb will dutifully return to whatever stops at those stops in tomorrow's expository eclectic episode; but, for the time being we must make our acquaintance with a Centroid.

No, not an android, but a  centroid.

A Centroid

A centroid is the point at which a two dimensional shape could, in theory, balance on the point of, say, a pencil.

You can even have a centroid which is in thin air, being the balance point of a shape you could never balance.

So the best way to find the "centre", (i.e. the centroid) of Great Britain would be to balance GB on a pencil. There are a number of problems with this plan, even assuming you had a big enough pencil.

The big problem is that GB is definitely very not flat.

But the sainted Ordnance Survey decided that the best they could do is find the centroid of GB assuming it was flat, technically a 'plane figure'.

We need a bit more geographical definition.

What IS Great Britain?  Yes, the creator of the above graphic has left out the flag of Northern Ireland. So here it is:-

And here is a graphic explaining the difference between the various names used for, well, our bits of world geography.

The British Isles is the whole lot. The United Kingdom includes Northern Ireland but not the Republic of. 

Great Britain is the big island, sometimes including it's accompanying little islands. The OS includes the little Island's in its sophisticated centroid calculation.

So where is the centroid of Great Britain, i.e. England, Scotland, Wales and their associated island appendages.

A Hill Walk

We can start at Dunsop Bridge ...

... striking north along a path on the western side of the bridge ...

... along the River Dunsop to Brennand Farm.

Then it is due horth across open moorland.

High on the hills of Brennand Fell you will find Whitedale Hanging Stones.

These picturesque lumps of rick mark, according to the OS, the true and accurate centroid of Great Britain.

To complete their growing knowledge of geometry and topology,, readers might like to explain how you can find the centroid of a simple triangle.

It is much easier than finding the centroid of Great Britain.

Tomorrow - A Bus. 

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Delay Repay Repaid

Readers my remember that the fbbs arrived back from their recent trip to the Isle of Wight TWO hours late.

The Ryde Esplanade to Axminster tickets were duly photographed and the long list of questions answered. 

So, after a frustration morning filling in the "easy-to-use" on-line form (!) fbb was told that the refund was on its way.

Yesterday afternoon note was received on-line.

fbb was expecting just the return half of the fare, but nice kind South Western Railway sent the full £161.60 for the two return fares.

Apparentry that is the correct procedure if your journey is delayed by two hours or more. fbb simply did not know.

A cheap holiday!

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 Next Balancing Britain's Bus : Thur 5 Nov