Category Archives: United Kingdom

Cambridge Benefactors Day

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The COVID pandemic had put paid to many events, last year and this year. One of the annual events was the Gonville and Caius Benefactors Day. We had missed a few, not just through COVID, but also because it clashes with the Download Music Festival. This year Caius held the Day, not in June, but in September.

We decided to attend, and to stay in Cambridge for the week. We pitched up at the Cambridge Camping and Caravan site pitch in Trumpington, on Friday 10th September, leaving again on Friday 17th. Cambridge was full of graduates attending their degree ceremonies. These had been held over from 2020. There were crowds of people standing in the street outside the Senate House. Privacy seems important these days, the railings had been covered to stop people gawking at the graduates and their families on the lawn.

The Caius Benefactors Day was on a lovely sunny Saturday afternoon. We walked in early but did not have to queue, quickly finding the waiters and the wine supplies. Lunch was good. We conversed with several different people, none from my year. There was a talk from the Master, an exhibition in the library & an organ recital. A few days later we entered Caius again. Not very welcome, the porter was not keen and told us to be quick, and not to enter any buildings other than the Chapel.

During the rest of the week, we visited the Botanic Gardens on a beautiful sunny day, eating lunch at the café. Another day was spent at the Sedgewick Museum of Earth Sciences, and the Whipple Museum of the History of Science. Of course we had coffee at St Michael’s Cafe and some wine outside the Cambridge Wine Merchants (they sell Ricard!).

Nearer the campsite we walked over to Hobson’s Park Bird Reserve, a nature reserve surrounded by the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Addenbrookes Road and new housing in Trumpington. The bird reserve is made purposefully difficult to get near with ditches and earth works. There was a useless hide; willow trees in front were blocking any view of the birds. I think the lake was full of geese, we could hear them from the campsite, leaving and arriving at dusk and dawn.

The weather was mainly good, except for the day we travelled to Saffron Walden. That Tuesday it rained most of the day. We were soaked through waiting for the bus. Saffron Waldron had a rather deserted market, which packed up while we were there. A good Turkish lunch time meal at Meze By Night. At one stage, R thought her legs might fall off cos they were so wet & heavy. I queried whether she meant her trousers, but she said she wasn’t sure. We did manage to visit the Fry Gallery, but it was in a temporary location, so few Ravilious paintings on show. Only one, I think.

Banksy – Great British Spraycation

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West Runton 23rd – 27th August

I managed to book a short weekday camping trip (Monday night through Thursday night) to the Camping and Caravan club site in West Runton. It was impossible to book days that included the weekend. The school holidays, and the British Staycation this year conspired against late bookings. We also were unable to get an electric hook-up, so took the solar panel to keep the leisure battery charged. This campsite is in a wooded area with a long dirt track down to the site. We were shown around the site, viewing several potential spots, choosing one that was about 100 metres from the loos and children’s playground. Interestingly during the course of the week, the row we parked on became a complete row of VM campervans. How good is that!!!

This was the first time we have booked a campsite in school holidays, and were fearing the place would be overrun with screaming kids. Yes there were many children, and they were enjoying themselves, but you could easily block them out and come 11pm, there was total silence. Not at all bad, and in future we won’t actively block out school holidays.

Four-legged pets are permitted. R was thrilled to find a tortoise and a hamster.

Our neighbours had stayed in a campsite here a few weeks ago. They gave us some tips.

Tuesday – Cromer and West Runton

The next day we walked to the coast at West Runton, via Incleborough Hill to look over the sea. From here you could see numerous, alarming other campsites and holiday homes. The nearest one to us was the Caravan and Motorhome club site. There is a footpath through this site, allowing us alien campers to walk through their site to West Runton.

We walked down the hill to the sea, where we watched a couple of huge motorhomes trying to turn around after ignoring the height restriction signs at the entry to the lane. A difficult manoeuvre as they were turning on a steep slipway into the sea. Some skidding of tyres on the concrete as they attempted to extract themselves from their predicament. But, they succeeded. Did not find any fossils here.

Lunch time, we headed back to the Village Inn for a drink and some food. Absolute disaster, they had beer, and a large menu of food, with only two items on, sausage rolls being the highlight of their menu. Very poor show. We asked if it was a Covid or Brexit problem, Not sure we were answered.

Being OAPs we headed for the bus stop and caught a bus to Cromer where we went in search of the Banksy. Thankfully someone had put its location onto Google Maps. It was quite a way from Cromer Pier, so 800 meters east, just beyond the beach huts. Good position, only those who really wanted to see it would be bothered to walk that way. R found bits of belemnites & a witches stone. Our neighbours had done better.

Back to West Runton on the bus and a coffee and cream tea in the Hole in One Sports Bar. Yet not quite up to scratch, two scones, but a minute amount of clotted cream and jam. Then the walk up the hill, and a BBQ for supper.

Wednesday – Felbrigg Hall

Today we went for a walk to the National Trust house of Felbrigg Hall. This was a circular walk which took us through woods, past active quarries, down farm tracks and through parkland to the hall. We managed our weekly Sadgits zoom call near a heavy plant crossing. We had to mute the call each time a load of extracted sand was driven past us. We had lunch in the Hall’s café and then viewed the house.

There was a huge walled garden in the grounds. This was definitely the highlight. Never seen such huge buddleia flowers. It would be well worth coming and viewing at different times of the year.

Finally we set off again to complete the walk back to the campsite, the route back was shorter (much to R’s relief).

Tonight the fish and chip van was on site. The chips were fabulous, Rosemary wished she had chosen some. The big snag was I waited 90 minutes in a queue by which time it was getting dark & chilly.

Thursday – North Norfolk Railway

Today we headed off the Sheringham on the bus via West Runton. We arrived at the North Norfolk Railway (The Poppy Line) and purchased tickets for the heritage steam line. It is quite a short trip, stopping at a couple of stations before terminating in Holt. Here we had a long walk to the centre of the town, but not until after checking out the 1930s decorated “house” built from a railway carriage complete with a lean-to, which had R crooning.

Well worth the walk, because we passed the public school of Greshams, which seemed to go on for ever and ever. Wonder how much the fees are? Bonus for parents, they take kids from 2 to 18.

Holt was busy, and the recommended (neighbours) Folly Tearoom was full, complete with a queue. Another would-be customer asked if the café took bookings. Only in advance, said the young waitress. We gave up. Instead we went to Bywfrds for lunch. After lunch a little grockling, and then bus back to Holt for the return trip. We did visit the delightful museum on the platform while we waited.

At Sheringham we walked down to the sea, huge strong wind. The town was also very busy. Interesting display of Tintin in one of the shops. Back to the bus stop and a walk back to our campsite. Started the BBQ for another steak. We were doing our cooking on charcoal. The status of the gas was low, and there was no possibility of buying a replacement gas cylinder. The Staycation has created many new campers, who had bought up all the cylinders during the previous months. (Actually did find Calor Gas in the very local farm equipment shop when we got home.)

Martham and Norwich

Today we packed up and were heading home. First stop was to see friends cum relatives on the way home. So headed to Martham where step-brother Nick has a boatyard and rents out electric day boats and beautiful wooden sail Broads-cruisers. Step-sister Liz was there too. Both very busy helping clients. Before arriving we stopped for lunch at the Poppyland Tearoom. This stop was by chance, we had intended to go to the nearby Nelson pub. Not closed, but looked a bit Covid/Brexit hit, selling food and drinks through a hatch. Backtracked to the Tearoom we had just passed. This was themed Dad’s Army style with unexploded bomb, and Anderson shelters. The food was served army style. Check out my cappuccino decoration. all brilliant. You may see a theme, Poppy line, and Poppy tearoom. This area of Norfolk was well know for growing poppies.

Afterwards we stopped off in Norwich to see step-mum Ann & Liz’s partner Bob. We were shown their newly landscaped garden. Landscaped by Bob and Liz. It was a remarkable change and must have looked even better earlier in the year.

A few days Up North in Wakefield

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We were invited to join a trip to Wakefield, with two other couples, to visit the Hepworth Wakefield for the special exhibition “Barbara Hepworth: Art & Life”, a celebration for the museum’s tenth anniversary. Hepworth spent much of her life after WW2 in Cornwall, but Wakefield lays claim to her because she was born there.

The trip was a first for us, we would have to charge the Polestar 2 away from home. The return trip being too far for a full charge. Rosemary experienced range anxiety on the way there, but Steve had planned several charging locations in Wakefield, and scouted out some emergency stops on the motorway.

The idea was all three couples on the trip would stay at the Holiday Inn Express, meeting up for outings. Restaurants and pub venues had been booked or selected by Norman.

We set off at 9.40 and arrived at our first stop, the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, at 12.20 with more than 40% charge remaining in the battery. The others visited different places.

Yorkshire Sculpture Park

There are two entries to the park, we chose the larger main entry to the North. It seemed very busy with families coming to walk around the extensive grounds. First stop the loos, after which we munched on our Ginsters Cornish Pasties for lunch. We did not do the park justice, it is absolutely huge. We did not even go near to the lake, let alone walk on the lakes south side. Three Henry Moore sculptures were set in open park land, and there were many Barbara Hepworth bronzes in the series ‘Family of Man’. Good to fantasize about which we’d like to have at home. The sculptures I photographed were:

  • Masayuki Koorida, Flower
  • Squares with Two Circles, Barbara Hepworth
  • Eduardo Paolozzi, Vulcan
  • Barbara Hepworth, The Family of Man
  • Niki de Saint Phalle, Buddha
  • Elisabeth Frink, Standing Man
  • William Turnbull, Large Idol
  • David Nash, Barnsley Lump and Three Stones
  • William Turnbull, Large Horse (R wanted this one)
  • Kenny Hunter, Bonfire
  • Marialuisa Tadei, Night and Day
  • Marialuisa Tadei, Octopus
  • Nigel Hall, Crossing (Horizontal)
  • Dennis Oppenheim, Trees: From Alternative Landscape Components
  • Kimsooja, A Needle Woman: Galaxy was a Memory, Earth is a Souvenir
  • Ai Weiwei, Circle of Animals / Zodiac Heads
  • Anthony Caro, Promenade
  • Anthony Caro, Dream City
  • Mark di Suvero, The Cave
  • Henry Moore, Large Two Forms
  • Sean Scully, Crate of Air
  • Henry Moore, Three Piece Reclining Figure
  • Ursula von Rydingsvard, Heart in Hand

Afterwards we made our way to the Asda on Asdale Road, Wakefield, mainly to charge the car on a 50KW charger. It was occupied, but by the time I had registered on the ENERGIE app and entered my credit card details, the owner of the charging car had returned and disconnected the charger. I dutifully parked and plugged in and started the charge. At the 40% level, the car was able to take the full 50KW, but slowed down when 80% was reached. We waited until we had a full 90% charge. We were there charging for a few minutes more than an hour. Surprisngly, I found the charge was free. R went into Asda in search of polish & preserved whole lemons, but neither was to be had.

Next we checked in at the Holiday Inn Express. Rosemary had found out that parking was limited, and it was, but we managed to find a space and parked. Basic hotel (well it was only £55 a night), but comfortable with friendly staff. After settling in, we walked to Harrys Bar, a pub selected by Norman for its reported good beer. We located the pub, nearby, but it was a little difficult to find the entrance. Norman and Valerie were nowhere to be seen. A few mins later, messages from them confirmed they had gone the wrong way, but after recovering from this detour, they still could not find the entrance immediately. Viv and Bill were a little later, but had no issues finding the bar which had an excellent selection of beers.

We thought Harrys Bar had been selected for its proximity to Dolce Vita, the Italian restaurant where we were to be eating later. This was not the case, and was pure coincidence because the location of Dolce Vita had been assumed to be elsewhere (we think confusion over a bakery with a similar name some distance away). The Dolce Vita restaurant is in a rather ugly building when viewed from the outside, looking very much like a utilitarian discount store. Inside it was light, clean and very welcoming. We had an excellent meal here, which started with a Negroni for me, and Negroni with added prosecco for Viv and Valerie (think R had an espresso martini). A nice end to the day.

Barbara Hepworth

Next day we were up for breakfast, which for R and I was the full English (R made a mistake in her ordering cos she didn’t really want it) then it was to the Hepworth Museum (a treat in itself) to see the special exhibition. We spent three hours there, including a light lunch in the café. We spent a couple of hours afterwards, walking around in the rain, first visiting the Chantry Chapel of St Mary the Virgin, which is built on a bridge over the River Calder. R and I also walked to the Trinity shopping Mall to see a Barbara Hepworth, but that had mysteriously changed into Hubert Dalwood’s, Minos. A visit to the Cathedral, and then back to the hotel.

We all met up for a drink at the Black Rock pub, another pub with a good selection of beers, before eating at the nearby Qubana. Modern tapas menu, or starter mains. Very noisy to start with, no sound deadening upholstery in the restaurant. This abated somewhat, as most of the diners appeared to have come early to eat before going on elsewhere. It was again a good meal at very reasonable cost. Norman chooses well.

From the visits to the pubs, I was directed to an app called Real Ale Finder. It shows pubs selling real ales, and is updated by the landlords to show what is on tap. Unfortunately is appears to have a mainly Northern following, and is not much used by pubs around here.

National Trust Nostell Priory

Another morning and breakfast saw us checking out and making our separate ways. But we happened to go the same way as Bill and Viv, to the National Trust house of Nostell Priory. A house set in parkland. We managed a tour of the house. The most notable exhibit to me was the wooden clock built by John Harrison in 1717 when we was only 24. John Harrison went on the build the marine chronometer which aided navigators in calculating their longitude.

Lunch in the courtyard and a walk around the walled gardens before we set off home, arriving back with plenty of power left. With more and more green electricity being produced, it is great to believe the coal mine owners and oil producers will be going broke. So long as they and their investors are made to clear up the mess, and are not allowed to divest their liabilities into shell companies designed to go broke..

The Game Fair 2021 – Festival of the Countryside

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The Game Fair was at Ragley Hall this year. We believe this is now a permanent venue. The show ran from 21st July to 24th July. This year we arrived on the first day the campsite was open, Wednesday. Most of the site was fairly empty. Thursday was a peaceful day reading books on a hot sunny day. We luckily had decided to take the awning for shade.

Friday the show opened, and we took the tractor towed trailer up to the show to save walking. There was a short ceremony in the main arena at 10.00 am with a shotgun salute.

We spent Friday looking around the show, finding somewhere to eat. I’m sure the show was smaller than usual. Many gun shops had decided not to attend, the cost of the stand and the potential of Covid restrictions forcing social distancing made many think the risk was too high. The food area was a bit of a disappointment. In the past you could pick up a nice lunch, this year seemed few were selling meals while loads were selling gin.

We did spend quite a time looking at the dogs, and their retrieval performance. We left after lunch on Saturday. Sunday was going to be the Kingswood Gun Club 40th anniversary celebration.

Marlow

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Two Polestar 2s in the wild

A sunny bright July 2nd saw us take the Polestar 2 to Marlow to meet up with Richard and Andrea. Despite Covid, the high street was unbearably crowded, so we took a walk along the river bank. Thankfully the river walk was much quieter. Plenty of water activities taking place on the river, with multiple coaches yelling and shouting at their charges in the rowing boats. We had an enjoyable meal back at the Two Brewers pub.

On returning to the car park, my Polestar 2 had the company of another Polestar. This is the first time I have seen another Polestar in the wild.

Camping in Cambridge

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We took Morrison out for his first trip of the year to Cambridge, arriving on Tuesday 25th May at the Cambridge Camping and Caravan Club’s campsite. On route, we stopped at Saint Neots for lunch and parked in the riverside car park. The payment system was a new one for me, you could pay by card. No problem, you also had to sign out of the car park using the same card, otherwise, you would be charged for the whole day.

The Cambridge Camping and Caravan Club obviously had had some issues with the persistent rain of the previous weeks. Sections of the field were roped off. Thankfully our stay was relatively dry and we were parked in a dry patch. We soon set up and caught the bus into Cambridge. It was remarkable how quiet Cambridge was with the lack of tourists. King’s Parade was totally closed to traffic and all the restaurants had placed tables on the street. We stopped for a glass of wine outside the Cambridge Wine Merchants, where you could choose a glass from their menu or any bottle of wine from their shop. We had a walk around, tea at Michaelhouse Cafe and some more walking. I had booked the Loch Fyne Restaurant, believing it would be crowded, it was still the first week restaurants could serve indoors. No, it was remarkably empty and many of the menu items were off or had substitutions. No lime or lime juice for a cocktail, no mangetout peas. All rather odd.

Wednesday we met up with the UK Chapter of the Sadgits, being us two, Norman, Valerie, Simon, Richard and Andrea. We met up with some of them at the Michaelhouse Café, where we got talking to an elderly couple enjoying tea. It seems he was up at Emmanuel in 1957 when they met. We visited Kettle’s Yard where N&V and us two had the first tour. We had the museum to ourselves. Such a treat. The others had later “tours”. Somehow we ended up having a liquid late lunch at The Punter where we stayed for rather a long time. Nice pub. How come we didn’t know it? Valerie and Norman had to leave early to catch a train home, while the rest of us were going on to the Cambridge Chop House for supper. Early for the Chop House, we split into three groups, Simon and I going for a fast-paced walk along the River Cam past Jesus Green, Midsummer Common, and part of Stourbridge Common; while Richard had to collect his new Mac and Rosemary & Andrea presumably dawdled in various shops. We all met up at the Chop House for a pleasant, meaty meal. We could have dined outside, but rain was in the offing.

Thursday was the Fitzwilliam Museum in the morning to see the exhibition on Touch, and a wander around the exhibits. R did not warm to the exhibition, but was revived by a visit to a favourite painting. Afterwards, we stopped at the Cambridge Wine Merchants (again), where after a glass of different wine each, we opted for a bottle of Picpoul de Pinet followed by a constitutional walk to Jesus Green to locate the restaurant for tomorrow’s supper. Today we ate supper at the Tapas Bar, Tabanco. We had our best meal of the week here. Served by a very attentive waitress who always kept a watch on the tables, and was with you in an instant when you required her. So we were able to call for the bill, pay and promptly catch the bus home. It was a lovely evening back at the campsite with a pretty setting sun.

Friday and the campsite was looking deserted as more people were leaving. Today we were visiting the Cambridge Zoology museum. We had been before at closing time and had been impressed in the 30 minutes we were there. This time we had a few hours looking around, not so impressed. R was unhappy with the labelling and visitors did not obey the one-way system, which I must say was difficult to follow. There were also uncontrolled children on site.

Afterwards, we made the required stop at Michaelhouse Café, think we must have visited there at least once every day. Next, we walked along the River Cam towards the Fen Causeway, watching the inexperienced men trying to punt. So funny to watch, I would, of course, never be like that. Time to spare before supper, we walked up Castle Street to Castle Mound where I took a photo of Cambridge. It had now had started to rain, so we hurried to the River Bar Steakhouse & Grill. A steak place, pretty expensive, and I do prefer the steaks I cook to most restaurant ones. Asked for a rare steak and I got what I call a medium, or even medium-well-done. To me rare means some raw meat in the centre. A steak with little or no blood oozing out of it is not rare. R had “disappointing” salmon.

Back to the campsite, the rain had stopped. The campsite was now full, with lots of kids. It was the start of half term. Thankfully it all went quiet as night drew in.

Driving home the next day, stopped at the St Neots Tesco to fill up with diesel. The price of hydrocarbon fuels has shot up as we come out of the lockdowns. This was the first time I hit the £99 limit for paying at the pump. So not quite a full tank.

National Trust, Greys Court and the Polestar

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R and I went for a trip to the National Trust house of Greys Court on a bright and sunny day. Today was a little warmer than we’ve been used to, so very pleasant. Yes more days without rain, but with a cool Northerly wind. The fields were very hard and dry. We visited to see the bluebells, unfortunately, they were not quite their best, but another week and they should be. The formal gardens were looking very pretty. We took a long slow walk across the fields to the bluebell woods, eating our Cornish Pasty lunch on some old decaying logs. Back at the house we managed our second cup of tea, served a great deal faster than our morning coffee.

This was also the longest trip in my new electric car. No need for range anxiety as the return trip was only 64 miles, giving an estimated range of 237 miles.

Southwold Birthday Treat

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At last, we had a few days away from home in our home from home campervan. The second time we have been away this year. We did manage a break to Iceland just before the first Lockdown. Now we were away to Southwold to celebrate my Birthday, again a couple of weeks before the second Lockdown. Last year I spent more than 60 nights in the campervan, Rosemary a few days less (fewer festivals}. This year the campervan has not been used for a whole year, (yes, my last birthday was the last time Morrison the campervan was used.) The VW has been regularly charged and goes for a short drive every month or so when it is dry to stop the wheels going square.

The VW has still cost money for maintenance during that period.

  • A repair to the screen washer pipes, the existing pipe was fragile and the constant opening and closing of the bonnet (hood) caused the washer pipe to break. This is something I could fix, with the aid of YouTube and eBay.
  • The time the bonnet (hood) locked firmly shut, so it had to go to the local garage to be freed and a new locking mechanism inserted. YouTube did not come up trumps, a video of someone cutting a hole through the bonnet to release the catch did not seem the way to go. Instead, it went on a ramp, and our white knight engineer managed to release the catch from underneath.
  • The time I decided to see if I could get the spare wheel off, and grease the spare wheel locking nuts. Of course, a weld failed which held the thread to cradle, and the wheel was no longer secure. Another visit to the garage for some simple welding.

But now we were away for three nights away. We set off early, at 7.am so we could go to St Peter’s Church in Wenhaston for prayer time. Wenhaston is very close to Southwold and Blythburgh. The church has an amazing five-hundred-year Doom Painting of the Last Judgement. The Doom Painting was discovered in 1892 when the chancel was being restored. Some old whitewashed wooden boards blocking the upper part of an arch were removed and thrown out into the churchyard ready to be burnt. Overnight there was a torrential rainstorm and some of the whitewash was washed off, revealing the paintings below. The paintings created a stir among students of late medieval art. The painting was probably created between 1500, and 1520. Some of the details in the painting are intriguing. Look for the imps taking a ride in the scales weighing the good deeds against the bad deeds. The detail eyebrows of the devil. We had the church to ourselves with the vicar, who pointed out the details and explained the history.

Our next stop was the Harbour Inn on the Blackshore in Southwold. Arrived a bit early for lunch, so a coffee outside while we ordered. Thankfully we were early so they could feed us with their reduced seating. I ate a grilled pair of slip soles, caper & cockle butter, Wangford greens, new potatoes. After lunch, we drove into Southwold and had a wander around. Then we went on to the campsite and set up. Afterwards, we walked back into Southwold and visited the pier. We were surprised at how nice the pier was. We were taken by the painting of George Orwell, not knowing he had lived in Southwold. There was also the slightly rude clock sponsored by Thames Water.

The marshes, fields and estuaries were covered with Geese, who would on occasion move off to another location with a loud noise.

Saturday was my birthday, so after opening cards and eating breakfast, we went for a walk into town across the golf course. We arrived at the Swan Hotel for our prebooked lunch. Started off with a pre-prandial drink, Negroni (well, variation thereof) of course and a G&T (First Rate) for the lady (Rosemary). I went very fowl for my meal, eating roulade of pigeon, baby leek, poached plum with hazelnut for starters, and breast of guinea fowl, braised flaked leg, roscoff onion, carrot, pickled blackberries and gel, and watercress for the main course. Rosemary ate roast Suffolk chicken breast, radicchio, pickled enoki mushrooms, pear, barley, pancetta salad with maple dressing for her main course. I finished the event with a number of Suffolk cheeses.

We walked back slowly to our van, for the rest of the day, somehow avoiding the early evening torrential rain & high winds.

Sunday was another fine day, the rain obliged to fall during the night. We went for a walk along the river Blyth and ended up walking to Old Hall Cafe and Walks. They were extremely busy with their all-day breakfast. We didn’t need a great deal, tea had been booked at The Swan, so opted for a cappuccino, and a (very good) sausage roll. The walk along the Blyth was fascinating, the waders, old windmills, and the farmland seemingly below sea level.

We walked on, heading for The Swan (again!) for tea, where we met up with Bob and Liz. The tea was one of those affairs where you get plate loads of savoury dishes, follow by plate loads of sweet dishes. The Scotch egg was excellent, cooked with savoury herbs. It was so yummy. We did go away with our doggy bag which I used for my late evening meal back in the campervan.

Oxford and Cambridge Weekend

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Saturday – Oxford Conference

For several years we have been meaning to attend a one day conference at Oxford University on various topics concerned with the History and Philosophy of Physics. These conferences run about three times a year and are organised by the Post Graduate college of St Cross. They appear to be open to anyone.

We dutifully made full use of our old people’s bus passes and parked at the Bicester Park and Ride (still free) and took the S5 into Oxford. We walked to the Martin Woods Lecture Theatre for our days’ conference on The Rise of Big Science in Physics.

Big Physics: The Manhattan Project

The first session was a history lesson given by Professor Helge Kragh from the Niels Bohr Institute. This lecture charted the history of Big Science before, after and including the Manhatten Project. We heard about the Leviathan of Parsonstown, a large telescope built by William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse which was the largest telescope in the world from 1845 to 1917.

The liquefaction of Helium was an expensive project first undertaken by Kamerlingh Onnes. In 1904 he founded a very large cryogenics laboratory and invited other researchers to the location. In 1908 he was the first to liquify helium. He also discovered superconductivity and superfluity during this research.

Big science ramped up in cost when high energy synchrotrons were built. These were necessary to understand the building blocks of life. They became more costly as they became more and more powerful.

During the war, the Manhattan Project to build the Nuclear bomb was an expensive project, which involved organisations from across America. In today’s money, this project cost $20 billion. Huge industrial plants were built to separate the uranium isotopes.

We heard how the Americans led the high energy physics until the Europeans got together after the war, coordinated and jointly funded CERN to build powerful cyclotrons. We also learnt a little about the Russians and their spying.

CERN

Dr Isabelle Wingerter from the French National Centre for Scientific Research talked about CERN, and the Large Hadron Collider built to find the Higgs Boson particle. Listening to her talk, you became amazed how these large projects are run. How technology advances during the build, and how the documentation and project management must be an absolute nightmare. Definitely going to visit CERN when we are in the area again.

ITER

Next up was Bernard Bigot, the director-general of the ITER project. ITER is a Nuclear Fusion reactor being built in France. It will be the model for commercial reactors and should be the first reactor to generate more power than put in.

The project is funded by China, EU, Japan, Korea, Russia and the USA. Components for the reactor are built in all the counties and shipped to France to be assembled. The agreement to build the reactor was signed in 2006. All members of the project share all the intellectual property rights generated by the project. The UK participates, and the fusion reactor at Culham is used to prototype technologies to be used in ITER.

This reactor should generate 500MW for 50 MW put in. Commercial reactors will be larger. The reactor works at high temperatures and uses a magnetic field to keep the plasm in place, The device is huge, with 18 Toroidal Field Coils weighing 360 tons each. They are built to a precision of 0.2 mm. The central solenoid is 1,000 tonnes and powerful enough to lift an aircraft carrier out of the water.

The work is progressing on time, work started on site in April 2014. The next two years are crucial with most of the large components being delivered and installed. Then comes the long few years in commissioning the equipment. The first plasm should be generated in December 2025.

Lunch

We left for lunch and had soup at the Pitt Rivers Museum. The queue was busy when we arrived. A few from the conference were there also. A thought, each session of the conference was around 30 minutes, with questions afterwards. Some of the questions were rather bizarre. One attendee was asking about documentation, and how to get these large projects documented. He found nobody wanted to update the Wikis. Isabelle said there was nothing better than human interaction and meetings. But what happens years down the line when everyone has left.

Interesting to hear how the published papers now had hundreds to thousands of names as authors. These were the researchers, but not the technicians who built. operated and serviced the machines.

ASTRON

Professor Carole Jackson from Astron, The Netherlands Institute of Radio Astronomy talked about the mega projects in Astronomy. Here we learnt about the creation of NASA and how they were the birthplace of big astronomical projects. We again heard about the hyper authors, with over a thousand authors named on a paper.

As well as building large radio telescopes, there is collaborative research where telescopes are linked together across the world to make one large machine. Pure Science research requires global participation.

Look Ahead at the Next Decade

Dr Michael Banks a journalist from Physics World, Institute of Physic Publishing, took a look into the next decade.

In 2021 we should have the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope. This will work in the Infrared and is a joint project from NASA, EAS and CSA. $8.8 billion

2025 The European Extremely large telescope with a 39.9-meter diameter dish. This will be used to searching for exo planets. $1 billion.

The Square Kilometre Array, thousands of radio antenna, building in South Africa and Australia. (low radio interference) $1 billion

2027 Long baseline Neutrino Facility. A proton accelerator and neutrino detector. Built-in Fermilab and Sanford. To detect the symmetry violations in antimatter. 180 organisations including CERN. Cost $1.5 billion

2027 Hyper Kaniokande, 260,000 tons of pure water in a mine in Japan to detect the symmetry violation of neutrinos. Why is there more matter than antimatter? $0.8 billion.

2035? International Linear Accelerator. 20 km accelerator (250GeV) with two detectors. To study the Higgs Boson in greater detail. To be built in Japan, $7.5 billion

2040? Compact Linear Accelerator 11 km tunnel (380GeV) CERN, further study of the Higgs Boson. $6.0 billion

2040? Future Circular Collider. 100 km tunnel, first stage 250GeV, then 100TeV with protons. Higgs Boson and look for further particles. $9-25 billion

Tea

Tea was taken in the Physics Department. Chatted with a couple of attendees. One was a questioner, who had a bone to pick on documentation. Hopefully, he won’t be at the evening meal.

Closing

Professor Frank Close closed the proceedings with a summary of the days’ events.

Conference Dinner

Dinner was held at St Cross College. We arrived in plenty of time and sat in the Common Room waiting for pre-dinner drinks. Close examination of the pictures on the wall, which had all been bought in a few years from a bequest. The College was founded in 1965, admitting its first five graduate students a year later. The College moved to its present location on St Giles in 1981.

After preprandial drinks, we went into dinner. Rosemary and I seemed to be seated in quite a good position on the table. Near to the organisers and some of the speakers. Our dinner, which included wine was.

Twice-baked cheddar souffle
Confit of duck with spiced plums, celeriac mash and flageolet bean ragout.
Vanilla baked cheesecake with roasted spiced plums
Coffee, mints & petit fours

It was an enjoyable evening with lots of conversation. We left and caught the S5 bus home. Busses seem to run late into the evening and well past midnight in Oxfordshire.

Sunday – Cambridge Society

Next day was the Berkshire branch of the Cambridge Society AGM. It had been scheduled to be the last AGM. This was to be the winding up AGM as there was no one wanting to stand as committee members. Thankfully two new members were found and we are going forward.

The meeting was held at Hurley Village Hall. We held the AGM, over quite quickly. We then ate lunch, each of has brought along a dish. Then there was a talk on a cruise from the UK, to France around Spain and back again. This did not persuade Rosemary to undertake any more cruises. We might visit Bordeaux though.

I came away not a member of the committee. We were asked to look at whether it was possible to organise a tour of the Space Centre at Wescott.