I live in the Thames Valley, an attractive area of England found to the west of London. It is generally an affluent place, but it contains little spots, clustered near the river, where you can almost smell the vast amounts of money and power. The Fat Duck (the “world’s best restaurant”) is in the little village of… Continue reading Power and postboxes in Sonning-on-Thames
Category: England
Fracking great science from the British Geological Survey
Fracking is rightly a major political issue. In Britain this is topical as the government has just released a technical report showing that very large volumes of natural gas are locked into rocks beneath northern England. As a tax-payer whose house is heated and food cooked using gas, but who is concerned about CO2 emissions… Continue reading Fracking great science from the British Geological Survey
Cornwall: tin, pasties and the world
The county of Cornwall is like England’s foot, stretching out languorously into the warm waters of the Gulf Stream. Now a relatively poor area, best known for fishing and tourism, it has a proud industrial past based on mining, notably of tin. Once the most important thing about Britain, Cornish tin is now distributed across the world.… Continue reading Cornwall: tin, pasties and the world
A bit of Scotland in an English playground
There is a park near my home that my children like. As is the way of things, this means I stand around it a lot, ready to rub bruised knees or produce biscuits or push ‘faster!’, but otherwise redundant. My attention often wanders to the big blocks of stone in the park – they are… Continue reading A bit of Scotland in an English playground