Taunton's Blue and then White Royal Mail Postbox - ICC Cricket World Cup 2019

In May 2019 the Royal Mail postbox in North Street, Taunton (outside what used to be the Post Office) was painted royal blue to celebrate the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019.  Taunton's County Ground was the venue for 3 matches:

• Afghanistan v New Zealand, Saturday June 8th (New Zealand won)
• Pakistan v Australia, Wednesday June 12th (Australia won)
• West Indies v Bangladesh, Monday June 17th (Bangladesh won)

One Royal Mail postbox was also painted blue in each of the other towns and cities whose cricket grounds were hosting matches - Southampton, Leeds, Cardiff, Chester-le-Street, Bristol, London, Manchester, Birmingham and Nottingham. I'm not sure why blue was chosen as the colour for this occasion.

Unlike the gold post boxes, which were painted to commemorate local winners of gold medals at the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, the blue post boxes were due to be painted red again after the end of the 2019 Cricket World Cup.  However after the England team won the Cricket World Cup, Royal Mail decided to paint the postboxes white and gold.  I understand that after three months they will be painted red again. 

Update, November 2019 - the Taunton postbox has now been painted red once more.

Back of the post box in North Street, Taunton

Front of the postbox in North Street, Taunton

White postbox in North Street, Taunton

Back of the white postbox in North Street, Taunton

Gold plaque on the North Street postbox

Bathing Station on the River Tone at French Weir, Taunton

The weir on the River Tone at French Weir to the west of the town centre was first built in the early 13th century when the mills in Taunton were reorganised and the Castle Mill Stream was built.  The weir was destroyed by flooding and rebuilt many times over the centuries e.g. c1508-11 and c1910. In 1753 it was destroyed by a group of women who believed the miller at the Town Mills was selling flour outside the town, even though the town was experiencing food shortages.

By 1813 the river around French Weir had become a popular place for bathing.  In 1862 the area which is now French Weir Park was rented to the parish of St James by John Halliday and a bathing station was constructed below the weir. It had wooden changing cabins and a concrete waterfront. In 1864 the first annual swimming and diving competition took place.  This was not without controversy, as the competitors (all male) swam naked.  Complaints about nude bathing and bad language continued into the 1880s.  French Weir Park was established after 1893.

In the 1920s the bathing station below the weir was replaced by one above it. There were two diving boards and grab chains along the river bank on the park side for the swimmers to hold on to.  The chains are no longer there but at least one of the large iron rings that held the chains in place can still be seen close to the footbridge across to Longrun Meadow. Use of the River Tone for bathing declined after the public baths in St James's Street opened in 1928.

 Iron Ring above French Weir

 - this is the only one I could see

Location of the 1920s Bathing Station at French Weir

If you go down to the woods today...

I went on a linear walk with a group from Wheddon Cross to Dunster in search of the Lost Village of Clicket, which we found.  However I wasn't expecting to meet 3 bears and 3 wolves in the same woods!  We came across them on a footpath between Luxborough and Timberscombe and in the vicinity of the remains of Clicket.  They look quite lifelike at first glance but closer inspection showed them to be made of a tough rubbery foam plastic material.  They have been used for archery target practice.  There may well be other creatures in the woods that we didn't spot.  I'm not convinced that practising archery along a public footpath is a very good idea but there was no sign of any archers on the day we walked through the woods or maybe the archers were there but were hiding from us in the undergrowth!

There is also another solitary life size bear chainsaw sculpture in the woods at Black Ball between Gallox Hill and Nutcombe Bottom near Dunster.  He appears to be praying.

December 2017 update: in the two years since my last visit some of the animals have moved, others have disappeared and some new ones have arrived.  A solitary wolf has turned white and been joined by a worse for wear snowy owl, a wild boar and an animal which looks like a capybara but which is probably a beaver without a tail.

February 2022 update: all the animals have disappeared.

2 black bears at Clicket

 

A solitary black bear 

A small pack of wolves

Praying Bear at Black Ball

 

Praying Bear

 

Wild Boar

Black Bear - 2017

Beaver or Capybara

Snowy Owl

White Wolf - 2017

Mary Rand's Long Jump Olympic Gold Medal, Wells

Mary Denise Rand (nee Bignal) was born in Wells in 1940.  In 1964 she won a gold medal in the long jump at the Tokyo Olympic Games.  She jumped 22 feet 2 1/4 inches (6.76 metres) and was the first British woman to win an Olympic gold medal in track and field.

Mary Bignal attended Millfield School in Street where she began to show great promise in the long jump, hurdles and high jump.  She won a silver medal in the long jump at the 1958 Commonwealth Games and came fifth in the high jump. Later the same year she came seventh in the European Pentathlon Championship.  At the Rome Olympics in 1960 she set a British record of 6.33m in the qualifying round of the long jump.   However in the final two of her three jumps were disallowed and she finished ninth. She also finished fourth in the 80m hurdles. She won a bronze medal in the European championship long jump in 1962.  She married rower Sidney Rand in 1961 but they divorced in 1966 and she remarried.

At the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 Mary Rand set an Olympic record in the long jump in the qualifying rounds, jumping 6.52m. In the final she beat the world record holder Tatyana Schelkanova of the USSR. Her first jump of 6.59m was a British record. However in the fifth round she jumped 6.76 metres and broke the world record. Her record lasted four years until it was broken by Viorica Viscopoleanu at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City.    She also won the silver medal in the Pentathlon with a British record 5035 points, finished fourth in the 80m hurdles and won a bronze medal in the 4x100 metres relay. 

Mary won a gold the long jump at the 1966 Commonwealth Games.  She failed to make the 1968 British Olympic team due to injury and retired from sport in September 1968.

Mary Rand was awarded an MBE in the 1965 New Year's Honours List and she was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year for 1964.  In 2012 she was awarded Freedom of the City of Wells.  She currently lives in the USA.

Her winning jump in Tokyo is commemorated in the Market Place at Wells by a plaque, which is the length that she jumped.  She also has a road in Wells named after her.

Plaque in Market Place, Wells

Bignal Rand Close, Wells

More information about Mary Rand's athletics career can be found here: http://www.britishathletics.org.uk/e-inspire/hall-of-fame-athletes/mary-bignal-rand/ 

Gold Post Box, Trull, Taunton

To celebrate British competitors' gold medal winning performances at the London Olympics and Paralympics in 2012 Royal Mail painted a post box in each of the gold medal winners' home towns.  The only gold post box in Somerset is located outside Trull Post Office on Church Road, Trull.  It commemorates the gold medal won by paralympian Deborah Criddle in the Team Dressage event.  She also won silver medals in the Individual and Freestyle events, all with the horse LJT Akilles.

Deborah Criddle competed in 4 Paralympics, beginning in Sydney in 2000.  She won 3 gold medals at the 2004 Athens Games in the Team, Individual and Freestyle Dressage events on the horse Figaro IX.  She was awarded an MBE in the 2013 New Year's Honours List.  She lost the use of her right arm and leg in a motorcycle accident in 1985.  Her arm was amputated in 2003.

Royal Mail painted 110 post boxes gold across the UK and a list of their locations can be found on this website:   http://www.goldpostboxes.com/ In November 2012 Royal Mail announced that the gold post boxes would remain gold permanently.

 Trull Post Office, Church Road, Trull, Taunton

Fives Walls

Fives is a ball game, which is played by two or four players in a court, which is usually enclosed on three or four sides.   A hard ball is hit with the hand, which is usually protected by a glove. The origin of the word fives is uncertain.  It may come from an old game called Longue Paume, in which five played on each side.   Alternatively it could be a reference to there being five fingers on a hand or possibly from the fact that players had to make five points in order to win.  It was sometimes called hand tennis and was probably being played as far back as the 16th century.  A similar game called pelota is played in the Basque areas of Spain.

The game is now mainly played in British public schools.  There are four main forms - Eton  (3 walls), Rugby (4 walls), Warminster and Winchester fives .  They have different court arrangements and slightly different rules.

In the past fives was often played between the buttresses of church walls.  Understandably the church authorities objected to this due to the damage caused to windows and in 1754 the Bishop of Bath and Wells banned fives from being played against church walls.  As a result purpose-built fives walls were constructed, mainly in the grounds of pubs.  Most of the remaining non-public school fives walls in England are to be found in Somerset:

 Middle Street, Shepton Beauchamp
  Grid reference ST 404 169

 Crown Lane, South Petherton

 Crown Lane, South Petherton

 Lord Poulett Arms, High Street, Hinton St George

The fives wall is at the back of the pub's garden, which was locked up when I visited at 8.30 am one Saturday morning, which is why I couldn't get a better photo of it. The garden looks beautifully kept.

Fleur de Lis, West Street, Stoke-sub-Hamdon
 Grid reference ST 474 173

Anchor Inn, Riverside, Combwich

 Cheriton Hill, North Cheriton
This may have been the remaining end of a medieval barn, rather than a purpose built fives wall, although it was used as one.  Grid reference ST 685 25.

Milborne Port

Milborne Port has a unique double fives wall, which was erected in 1847 by Sir William C. Medlycott, the local MP.  

Back of the Fives Wall - Lethbridge Arms, Gore Square, Bishops Lydeard

 Front of the Fives Wall, Lethbridge Arms, Bishops Lydeard

St Michael's Church, Compton Martin

Fives was once played against the wall of the church tower.  The hinges for the shutters, which protected the window at the west end of the south aisle while the game was being played, can still be seen.