please empty your brain below
I'm a bit embarrassed I thought it was Bexhill-on-Sea or Lewes now... Oh well,you win some, you lose some! 🚇🚇

Tube Geek | 24.01.16 - 8:19 a.m. | #

Thanks DG. Goodness knows how you travel 60 miles or so from London, walk 15 more, travel home again and still write an interesting blog - All in one day! Nevertheless, it makes for a good read and could well inspire others to head in the same direction (I would never have thought Newbury would be worth a day trip, but now...).

Robert Johnson | Homepage | 24.01.16 - 8:32 a.m. | #

after I guessed Newbury last night, I then realised it was 20 years since the Newbury Bypass battles and perhaps that was what led you there yesterday?

Lovely write up - makes me realise there is a lot of positives to Newbury - growing up there made me rather jaded I think and I escaped to London at the earliest opportunity after finishing university.

Next time you'll have to go to Shaw House and look at Charles I's headquarters - although I've also read that they now don't think he did stay there after all, and it's also now become a registry office...

Rachel | Homepage | 24.01.16 - 10:00 a.m. | #

No wonder I didnt guess your mystery town. You said it was in south east England, which as every Londoner knows is that bit to the right of London and down a bit. Newbury is well to the left of London so surely it must be in the south west of England?!

ActonMan | 24.01.16 - 10:23 a.m. | #

Thanks Rachel. Shaw House alas doesn't reopen after its winter break until February.

And Southeast England absolutely officially contains West Berkshire, even Oxfordshire, as well as Sussex, Kent, etc.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 24.01.16 - 10:28 a.m. | #

I think I was the first to guess Newbury yesterday. What gave me the big clue was the bit about the (Thatcham) reed beds. I am glad you enjoyed your visit, it is a nice place, I live in a village some 4 miles away.

I hope you purchased a copy of the local newspaper, the Newbury Weekly News, because that would have given you an indication of the 2 negatives about the town, which are inextricably linked: the need for new housing and the chaotic state of the road network. Had the protesters succeeded and the A34 continued through the town on what is now designated the A339, I suspect we would be in a state of permanent gridlock as opposed to about once a week, caused either by a single broken down lorry or the never ending 'road improvement' works.

I would take issue with one comment you made yesterday, about people not being able to place us on the map. When asked, overseas, where I live I say 'near Newbury, a town about 50 miles due west of London, about halfway between London and Bristol and about halfway between Southampton and Oxford'. That seems to do it.

Julian | 24.01.16 - 11:23 a.m. | #

I always think of Newbury as the town on the left of the M4, heading west, after Reading but before Swindon! So I can place it on the map.

I have only been there a couple of times at that is in June when the Newbury radio club hold a Rally there.

Those Bunkers on Greenham Common look interesting, with the security fences in place I guess it is still MOD or Government property. Wonder if they will ever get opened to the public as a cold war museum.

As for the trains I think dg changed at Reading. I looked at the National Express services from Victoria and was surprise that there seems to be a very poor coach service to Newbury.

John | 24.01.16 - 1:30 p.m. | #

Excellent! Another placed added to my list! :)

Cornish Cockney | 24.01.16 - 2:35 p.m. | #

I thoroughly enjoyed trying to unravel the mystery - I struggled to think of somewhere suitable associated both with sport and history, not realising most of the history had occurred within my lifetime!

Whiff | 24.01.16 - 3:39 p.m. | #

Ah fabulous, DG at his best.
Looking to see what trains get me there now.

Daniel | 24.01.16 - 3:53 p.m. | #

I've only been to Newbury once when I walked the Kennet and Avon Canal some time ago and finished a stretch here. I didn't anything about the town but found that it was rather nice. I'm glad you enjoyed your visit. I didn't make it to Donnington Castle, but it looks worth a visit.

Jon Combe | 24.01.16 - 5:08 p.m. | #

The Kennet & Avon is a particularly challenging canal -- at least, for those of us who do canals in a quick summer burst in a hire boat. The canal joins and leaves the Kennet at frequent intervals, with strong currents around the weirs (and I remember scaring the drinkers outside a pub/club in the middle of Newbury when the current meant I lost control and went hurtling into the bank).
It used to be an incredibly quiet town - when Vodafone (in those days Racal-Vodafone) started, it was based in a series of tiny office, some of them above shops, right through the town centre. One ex-Racal employee once told me he's once worked alongside a bloke called Gerry Whent, who had a mad idea about car phones. Everyone else thought he was a nutter.

Alan Burkitt-Gray | 24.01.16 - 6:36 p.m. | #

@ActonMan
"south east England, which as every Londoner knows is that bit to the right of London and down a bit."

That's Kent!
London is in the middle of SE England.

Just because Newbury is served by the Great West Road and the Great Western Railway doesn't mean it's in the West Country

timbo | 24.01.16 - 7:21 p.m. | #

The Guardian had a feature on the 20th anniversary of the Newbury Bypass today. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jan/24/newbury-protest-camp-bypass-legacy
They seem to ignore the fact that heavy traffic from Southampton Port to and from the Midlands & beyond no longer goes through the town.

RogerP | 24.01.16 - 8:28 p.m. | #

Sorry, I've got to agree with ActonMan here.
I guess people who place in the South East weren't born in London.

Chris | 24.01.16 - 8:37 p.m. | #

Thanks for an interesting post for a place not too far from where I am. It's good to see that the pie shop on the bridge is still going strong. Enjoyed Saturday's guessing game too.

I'm another one amazed that you are out whole day and then spend the evening writing up and posting photos.

Keep up the good work!

Martin | 25.01.16 - 8:26 a.m. | #

Excessively pedantic correction: Berkshire is still a county; indeed it's the Royal County of Berkshire. It doesn't have a county council any more, thanks to the Berkshire (Structural Change) Order 1996, but unlike the equivalent orders for Humberside and Bedfordshire, the Berkshire Order didn't abolish the county itself. Maybe abolishing Royal Counties is seen as rude or something.

Ben Harris | Homepage | 25.01.16 - 12:20 p.m. | #

To be even more pedantic, Bedfordshire as a county does still exist. You need to go back to the 90's reorganisation order when Luton gained unitary status.

Andy V | 25.01.16 - 4:50 p.m. | #

Thanks for your review of the museum. Glad you enjoyed your visit. We do indeed do a mean cup of tea and cake!

Victoria Barlow | 25.01.16 - 11:50 p.m. | #











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