Our tour today is about the Theatre Royal Brighton on the South coast of England. A grand old lady of the English theatre, that is coming up to it's two hundredth birthday. In the tour we go behind the scenes and talk to members of staff, who make the magic of this theatre come alive fifty two weeks a year. We go back stage on a guided tour to the inner most parts of the theatre that audiences would not normally see. We take a step back in time to the workings of a theatre that would still be recognised by the people who worked there over a hundred and fifty years ago. We hear stories about ghosts and strange noises in the the dead of night when staff are working alone.

www.peopletalk.org

My audio tour to day is to Hollycombe Steam Collection in Sussex which stands on the borders of Hampshire and Sussex in South-East England. Hollycombe opened to the public in 1971 and in 1985 the volunteer drivers made an agreement with Mr. Baldock to take over the running of Hollycombe. Thus was born the Hollycombe Steam & Woodland Garden Society which runs Hollycombe to this day, a society of unpaid volunteers, quite a few of whom have been at Hollycombe since before the society was formed. I would like to thank Mr. Richard Hooker the chairman of Hollycombe and all the volunteers for their help in making this program possible.

Music by Kairi III song kingdom hearts at
http://www.podsafeaudio.com
See our Slideshow of our visit to The Hollycombe Steam Collection.



Visit Hollycombe web site

My audio tour to day is on the Volk's Electric Railway with (photo Ian Gledhill),  Chairman of (VERA) Volks Electric Railway Association. Opened in 1883 the Magnus Volk electric powered railway runs along the seafront at Brighton in the South East of England.  It was opened on 4 August 1883 by Magnus Volk, the man who designed and built the railway from scratch, in as little as three to six weeks.  Volk's Electric Railway (VER) is the oldest operating electric railway in the world. It is a narrow gauge railway that runs along a length of the seafront of the English seaside resort of Brighton.


Today the railway can carry up to eighty passengers along the beach for one and a quarter miles. Although not quite the first example of electric traction in the world it was certainly the first proper electric railway in Britain. Today it holds the deserved position of being the oldest remaining operating electric railway in the world.

Music by Chris Harvey: Paris : Album: The White Sailand. 
please visit http://magnatune.com/artists/melia
Photos of Volks Electric Railway
Daddy Long Legs

The 2nd part of my audio tour of Volk's Electric Railway with Ian Gledhill,  Chairman of (VERA) Volks Electric Railway Association.

 In 1892 with the Electric Railway comfortably installed as far as Paston Place Magnus cast his eyes towards Rottingdean. To extend the existing railway the three miles would entail either a steep climb to take it along the cliff top or a man-made viaduct along the unstable undercliff. Understandably he was not keen on either alternative so he turned his mind to building a completely new railway that would 'travel through the sea'. A similar system was already in operation across St. Malo harbour in Brittany but this was pulled along the rails by chain rather than being self-propelled, and ran through sheltered water not the English Channel. 

Finance for the new railway was found locally. One of the biggest investors was Edward Bleackley who became the first Chairman of the new company. R. StGeorge Moore, later to be engaged as the designer and engineer of the new Palace Pier, was taken on as the project engineer, and under his guidance a Bill was submitted to Parliament applying for an Act to incorporate a Company and then empower that Company to construct an electric railway on the foreshore between Paston Place and Rottingdean, together with the associated works and piers that would be needed.

My audio tour to day is of Bodiam Castle which stands on the borders of Kent and Sussex in south-east England. It was originally built as an extremely fortified manor house and is a symmetrical square stone castle surrounded by an artificial lake fed by underground springs.

The appearance of Bodiam Castle is exactly how most people imagine a medieval castle should look like, with its square of walls, a round tower at each corner, and a square tower midway along each wall, entirely surrounded by a moat. That it looks so perfect and picturesque may not be by accident for many people have debated whether the castle was really built as a defensive fortress or as an elaborate stately home.

It was built at a time when the aristocracy were looking for a castle that could be comfortable and homely as well as a protection for them and also as a sign of their wealth and standing. There would have been at least 100 people living there, as there were three stories of rooms in the walls and a fourth storey in the towers.

A royal licence to crenellate his manor house, in order to protect the local area from a possible French invasion, was given to Edward Dallyngrigge in 1385. This wealthy veteran of the Hundred Years War used the licence as an excuse to build an entirely new castle nearby. Little is known about the castle during the middle ages, but it doesn't appear to have been inhabited after the 15th century. Later owners of the castle took measures to preserve the building, most notably Lord Curzon who acquired the castle in 1917 and undertook a restoration of Bodiam. Thanks to the work he carried out it is now possible to climb most of the towers and walk on top of some of the walls.

Music by Jeni Melia and Chris Goodwin please visit http://magnatune.com/artists/melia
Photos of th Bodiam castle
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/

My walk about to day is to Ovingdean, a pretty little hamlet about two miles from the sea on the south  coast of England. I visit the early Norman little church of St Wulfrans recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as a "little church". Some of my information came from the excellent web site mybrightonandhove.org.uk. Please visit their site which is full of interesting information about Brighton & Hove.



Music: The Lark Ascending, Vaughan Williams

This was my first podcast, a walk-about in Rudyard Kiplings' village Rottingdean in Sussex on a hot summers day last year. Kipling was the author of the Jungle Book and many other stories. Kipling was born in Bombay on December 30th 1865, son of John Lockwood Kipling, an artist and teacher of architectural sculpture, and his wife Alice. His mother was one of the talented and beautiful Macdonald sisters, four of whom married remarkable men, Sir Edward Burne-Jones, Sir Edward Poynter, Alfred Baldwin, and John Lockwood Kipling himself.

www.peopletalk.org

Our Sound-seeing tour today is to Brighton's Toy and Model Museum on the south coast of England. Chris Littledale is a self-effacing man in his early sixties who might appear a little eccentric to people who don't know him. I spent a couple happy hours being shown around the museum by him. He explained about his lifelong passion for toys, so much so that his passion took over his life and his small apartment. In the end, things came to a head when his friends intervened and persuaded Chris that he needed to find a permanent home for his vast collection.

So it was that fifteen years ago, Chris and his little group of helpers found the arches under Brighton's main railway station were for rent and the Brighton Toy and Model Museum was born. After more years than Chris Littledale, the founder cares to remember, the museum has become a landmark in the South of England for model train and toy aficionados and the general public, who take their children along to see the kind of toys they played with when they were children.

Inside the museum you will find over 10,000 exhibits on display. including: collections of toys from the last 100 years, many period antique toys, examples from the world's top toy makers, and a priceless model train collection. Brighton Toy and Model Museum is one of Brighton's most fascinating attractions and an Aladdin's cave for the whole family.

Podsafe Audio:
Brobdingnagian Bards perform Tolkien (The Hobbit & Lord of the Rings) from the Album Memories of Middle Earth

http://www.podsafeaudio.com/

www.peopletalk.org

Today we take you on a tour of Brighton with author Douglas d'Enno as he tells us about his book FOUL DEEDS & SUSPICIOUS DEATHS AROUND BRIGHTON and gives us fascinating details about Brighton and its macabre past.

His gripping volume covers two centuries of murderous doings in Brighton portrayed in fifteen vivid case histories. All the crimes took place within the town except two, where the victims were prominent Brighton citizens traveling on business.

www.peopletalk.org