Pan's Labyrinth?

Today began in pouring-with-rain fashion, with CleanSteve and I cursing ourselves for having agreed to go on a field trip in South Glos. Steve's sister rang to cancel her place; and we stuffed our sarnies and wellies into the car before heading down the M5 to Thornbury, to the local chapter of the WEA ( Workers' Educational Association) an adult ed association with leftie leanings, whose virtues I am forever extolling on these pages...

The morning consisted of a lecture "what is industrial archaelogy and why it matters" and took in a refresher on the so-called "industrial and agricultural revolutions" in the UK; population changes; the enclosures act; urbanisation and slum dwellings; the rise of the Navy under Tudor Monarchs; the slave trade; colonial expansionism; as well as a plethora of information about the extraction of coal and its uses in producing brass and iron, to set the tone for the afternoon's visits. Some of these topics I had not studied since school days, and certainly never in a social history context, where the life of 'ordinary people' matters!

After some rather sketchy directions were given to Coalpit Heath, the first site, we set off by car and proceeded to drive around the commuter town of Yate many times, while I tried to feed sandwiches to the driver and assemble my own lunch without spilling it. Finally, we reached the miners' social club, where young men were darting around in the rain with snooker cues (the club had a couple of tables) and from there we made our way to the scheduled (protected by law from development) site of Ram Hill Colliery. The rain stopped, and we saw the remains of a mine shaft, an old engine shed, a circle for a horse gin (horse-powered engine) which may never have been used as such; as well as the remains of the old 'dramway' which is a sort of railway track for horses that brought the extracted coal all the way downhill to Keynsham. This was before the first horse-powered or mechanised trams came into use. There wasn't a huge amount to see above ground, but having a guide/WEA lecturer, Paul Driscoll, made all the difference.

Our next stop was Warmley historic gardens, the site of the former Champion Brassworks, where a man named William Champion established his industrial works and an aesthetic pleasure gardens on the same site. This was the fashion for the Captains of industry of the 1700s. Champion's Georgian mansion is now a care home, and the site has been encroached upon by nearby industrial units and a trailer park, and we were told that vandalism is a constant problem. Indeed, I saw evidence of this, and remember that just a few years ago I used to go and help CleanSteve remove pizza boxes, dog poo, and other detritus from Stroud's Goods Shed, before it was converted into useable office/performance space. It seems that old industrial sites are great places to hang out and set fire to, if their historical context is not appreciated!

There was so much to see I'll just mention that there was a pond; a twelve foot statue of Neptune, a summerhouse that looked like a castle, a man made mound supposed to resemble Mount Olympus, and, spookiest of all, a walled garden leading to a series of grottoes where Champion's secret brass experiments (he was trying to reduce the amount of smelted zinc ore needed to produce brass) were combined with natural plunge pools and baths in the Italianate style of the day. I guess that Willam Champion took corporate guests here, after they'd been boating on his lake.

In this rubbish shot, you see Paul, the lecturer, and one of the group, a retired engineer, standing in front of what was probably once the cold plunge pool. The light leaked in over the top, because the structure has lost its roof! It is going to be re-roofed with a steel web, apparently, to stop people chucking in shopping trolleys, and falling in! If you look behind Paul, you'll see the eye sockets, nose and mouth, shaped out of the rocks. Paul is standing right in the monster's maw. Brave man!

I can see that the grottoes would look magnificent if restored (to what purpose?) but they reminded me of the film, Pan's Labyrinth, which I hated, and I was irrationally scared of falling into one of Champion's experimental troughs! So I didn't linger any longer than I had to. I am glad that the site will not be made over into some Luxury hotel-and-Spa complex; it is owned by the Council, and freely open to the public (apart from the grottoes), and am amazed that I'd never heard of it before.

This concluded our trip, but we continued on into Bristol, where Steve watched the rugby with his old (Welsh) friend Mr Morgan, and I chewed the fat and drunk way too much white wine with the womenfolk. We got home late, and I was too tired to blip. Or maybe too inebriated. Either way, it was a great day out, and we did not get too cold and wet, considering the amount of rain, thunder, and lightning that dogged us every time we got into the car.

Thank you for reading all this. You deserve a medal. I'm working on some brass ones. Now, where did I put that zinc?

CleanSteve's grotto shotto