Bus Stop Art

In most places bus stops are very dull buildings. However in some places they have been decorated in imaginative ways.  

These 2 bus stops are located on Coast Road between Berrow and Brean. In 2011 local artist Malcolm Dormer was commissioned by Berrow Parish Council to paint a newly repaired bus stop, which had been partially demolished when a car drove into it in 2010.  The theme he chose was Giraffic Park and features lots of giraffes having a fun day out at the seaside.

Giraffes enjoying a swim in the sea

Giraffes enjoying a day on the beach near Burnham-on-Sea's iconic lighthouse

Giraffic Park

 Bus stop across the road from Giraffic Park.  This one shows the view from the top of Brean Down looking south towards Brent Knoll

  

Cow and fishes in Chiselborough's colourful bus stop

Rising or setting sun at Chiselborough

Presumably these are the names of the painters or maybe designers of the mural?

Underneath the names another one - Joann Bridges - is written and the date 2000

Mosaic on the bus stop at High Street, Aller

Right hand panel of the bus stop mosaic in Aller

Left hand panel of the bus stop mosaic in Aller

Woolavington Bus Stop

This mural was designed and painted by Karon Woodward in 2020.

Brean Bus Stop, 2021

Second World War Balloon Hangar, Pawlett

A huge rusty metal shed a mile to the west of the village of Pawlett at the junction of Gaunts Road with Ham Lane is the most visible reminder of the Royal Aircraft Establishment camp, which was located there in the Second World War.  The shed was a hangar for a barrage balloon and there was a small camp adjacent it to house the people who worked there.  

Pawlett was an outstation of RAE Farnborough.   The site was chosen because it was considered to be at low risk of German air attacks.  The main work carried out at Pawlett was into the testing of German and British barrage balloon cables and methods of cutting them using aircraft. Planes were flown into the cables of the Pawlett balloon from Exeter Airport and later Culmhead Airfield on the top of the Blackdown Hills.  RAE staff working in Exeter were housed in university accommodation and used the physics and chemistry laboratories there.

Barrage balloons were tethered by metal cables and their purpose was to defend strategic locations against attacks by enemy aircraft.  Aircraft were damaged or destroyed when they flew into the cables. The aircraft used in the experiments at Pawlett had various types of strengthened wing edges or cable cutters attached to them. Bomb testing was carried out on Pawlett Hams to the west of the hangar.

The hangar measures 100ft x 70ft x 80ft high and was erected c1940-41.  It was needed so that when balloons were being tested they did not need to be deflated each night. Balloons were filled with a mixture of air and hydrogen made at the gas works in Weston-super-Mare. The experimental work continued until 1944.  Today the balloon hangar stands unloved and rusting away.  You can't get right up to it, so these were the best photographs I could get.

The only other place to have hangars like the one at Pawlett was Sutton Coldfield Maintenance Unit where there were 4 similar hangars.  They have since been demolished.

Grid reference:  ST 284 430

 Balloon Hangar from Gaunts Road

 Front of the hangar

 Front and side of the hangar

Hangar from the opposite side of the River Parrett

Frank Foley, Righteous Among the Nations, Highbridge

Francis Edward (Frank) Foley (1884–1958) was born on 24th November 1884 at 7 Walrow Terrace, Highbridge. He attended St Joseph's Roman Catholic School in Burnham-on-Sea and Stonyhurst College in Lancashire.  He later studied at St Joseph's College, a Roman Catholic seminary in Poitiers, France. After studying classics at Poitiers University he decided not to become a Catholic priest and in 1908, he began to travel around Europe. When the First World War began he was in Hamburg. He escaped to Britain disguised as a Prussian officer.  He took a commission in the Hertfordshire regiment and was later attached to the North Staffordshire regiment.  After being injured on the Western Front in 1917, Foley moved into military intelligence.

After the First World War Foley was recruited by the British Secret Intelligence Service (later known as MI6) to be their senior spy in Berlin. His cover job was passport control officer and this meant that he was responsible for issuing visas for anyone wanting to go to Britain or elsewhere in the British Empire. He married Katherine Eva Lee (1897–1979) in Dartmouth in 1921. Their daughter Ursula Margaret was born in Berlin in 1922.

When Hitler came to power in 1933 Foley dealt with a huge number of requests from Jews wanting to leave Germany to go to Palestine. He ignored the official rules governing the issuing of visas, thereby ensuring that 1,000s of Jews, who might otherwise have been sent to the death camps, were allowed to travel to Palestine or Britain. He went into the concentration camps such as Sachsenhausen to get Jews out, helped them obtain false papers, visas and passports and hid them in his own home, despite the risk to his own life.
 
Just before the Second World War began Foley left Berlin and was posted to Oslo. From there he co-ordinated the work of British agents in Germany. When Germany invaded Norway in April 1940, Foley was the only link between London and the Norwegian armed forces. He was awarded the knight's cross of St Olav by the King of Norway in 1943. In May 1940 he returned to Britain and was appointed commander in the Order of St Michael and St George for his work in Germany. He was allocated to interrogate Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s deputy, who had flown to Britain on a lone peace mission.

For the rest of the war Foley was in charge of the MI6 contribution to the double cross system: German spies who were caught attempting to gather intelligence on Britain were used to supply false information to the Germans.

Frank Foley retired in 1949 and moved to Stourbridge in Worcestershire.  He died of heart failure at his home, 32 Eveson Road, Norton, Stourbridge on 8th May 1958. He was buried at Stourbridge Borough Cemetery. 

On 25th February 1999, Israel's Holocaust Memorial Centre,Yad Vashem, named Frank Foley Righteous Among the Nations, the highest award the Jewish people can grant to a person who is not Jewish. 

In 2005 a statue of Frank Foley designed by Jonathan Sells was unveiled in Market Street, Highbridge. It was paid for by public fundraising.  A road in Burnham-on-Sea has also been named after him (The Frank Foley Parkway) and there is a plaque on the house where he was born.  A bronze plaque detailing his achievements was unveiled on Highbridge's war memorial in Southwell Gardens in 2000.  The bronze plaque was stolen in 2011 but replaced with a granite one in 2012.

There are also plaques honouring Frank Foley at the entrance to Mary Stevens Park in Stourbridge and at the Sternberg Centre in Finchley. 

Frank Foley is still regarded as one of the most successful agents ever recruited by MI6.  It is believed that he saved the lives of about 10,000 people, although many of them were not aware of his identity.

 The Frank Foley Parkway, Burnham-on-Sea

 Frank Foley Statue, Highbridge

Frank Foley Statue, Highbridge

 - the detail continues around the back

 War Memorial in Southwell Gardens at Highbridge.  

The original bronze plaque was stolen in 2011.  You can see the light area on the stone table where it was affixed.  It has been replaced by a granite plaque at the front of the war memorial.  However the war memorial garden was locked up when I visited in March 2016, so I couldn't get any closer.

7 Walrow Terrace, Highbridge, where Frank Foley was born.  

A commemorative plaque is displayed above the front door.

Plaque above the door of 7 Walrow Terrace, Highbridge

Further Reading:

Foley: the spy who saved 10,000 Jews by Michael Smith. Published by Hodder in 1999.

Joseph of Arimathea and Paradise, Burnham-on-Sea

According to legend, Joseph of Arimathea landed on the beach at a spot between what is now Burnham-on-Sea and Berrow on his way to Glastonbury.  He is said to have named the place where he landed Paradise. A metal plaque commemorating this event was originally located on the wall of the Horlicks/Paradise Dairy.  The dairy was demolished in 1990 and in March 2000 the plaque was re-erected on the back of a garage wall in a small garden with a bench on the corner of Shelley Drive and Berrow Road.  It was unveiled by Councillor Peter Clayton, who was the Deputy Mayor of Burnham-on-Sea at the time.

Joseph of Arimathea is mentioned in all four gospels in the New Testament.  He was a disciple of Jesus and asked Pilate for permission to bury Jesus's body after his crucifixion.  He also donated the rock tomb where Jesus's body lay for 3 days until his resurrection.  According to legend Joseph was a metal merchant and visited England to buy tin from Cornwall and lead from Somerset.  He is said to have been Jesus's great uncle and to have founded a church at Glastonbury.  He is also said to have brought Jesus with him to England when Jesus was a child.  He is also associated with the legend of the Holy Grail and the original Holy Thorn tree is reputed to have grown from his staff, which he planted in the ground at Glastonbury.

 Paradise Dairy Plaque on Berrow Road

Small garden with plaque

When I visited in December 2015 the garden looked in need of a bit of TLC and not much like how I imagine paradise to be!