Hello Sean. Any fens of yours are fens of mine. Aarrrgh!!! Sorry about that... This is a very interesting and informative video - I learnt a lot. Thanks very much! Best wishes, Colin.
Hi Sean, This was a very interesting video, with some great information I didn't no. Now there a thing!!! I have travelled the A47 a few times as we have family in Norfolk and agree with you regarding the surface of the road, Anyway, a very nice drive .All the best Bob
Another great video Sean. I wouldn’t want to live in the Fens, but I always like visiting or just driving through, like another world! One of the first trips I did with my girlfriend in 1973 ish, (who I’m very glad to say is even now my wife) was to Denver Sluice. In those days we enjoyed perhaps more simple pleasures 😅 My kids have never let me live that one down (“You took her WHERE on an early date?) Thanks again Peter
Thank You for that Sean, being half Dutch with a Dutch mother I have spent a considerable time in The Netherlands, the landscape in this particular video is very reminiscent of the Dutch landscape which made it a somewhat nostalgic journey. Enjoyed that very much
Thanks Mike. The Fenland is a very special landscape with such a unique social history. To think that all the work was done without mechanisation astonishes me.
Hello again, Sean. Just to let you know, I visited our local library yesterday and managed to find and take out Graham Swift's "Waterland". I started reading it this morning, but haven't managed more than a few pages so far!
stick with it Colin it's worth it. You had better let me know if it turns out aI was wrong about that, but the writing is really fine and it brings the landscape to life 👍
@@seanhumfrey So far, I find the book very absorbing. I'm always slow getting into a book that is new to me - I have bad reading habits, e.g. I tend to read each sentence at least twice!
@@seanhumfrey Hello Sean! I finally finished reading Waterland this morning. Rather a slow read for me - I found I really had to concentrate very hard to stay abreast of all the detail in the plot, various periods, and characters. Mr Swift writes with very long sentences, packed with clauses (as did Jane Austen); I found I'd often have to read a sentence twice, in order to go back to the start and remind myself what the subject was! Having said all that, I'm pretty sure that this is one of those novels which will stay in my mind for the rest of my life. I can say that this video makes a first class companion to the book. Keep well, Colin.
I applaud your perseverance Colin. I am so pleased you managed to finish the book. I haven't been able to see the Fens in the same way after reading Waterland. Thank you so much for sharing your experience of it with me. ❤️
That brought back a few memories driving the A47 when I was working. Awful road, constantly stuck behind lorries. Going home to Bury I would cut down from Wisbech to Outwell/Littleport/Mildenhall, OK providing it wasn't foggy, which it often was in the Autumn/Winter, then you were dicing with death with unfenced drops either side of the road into a watery grave. Was that a Farina Morris Oxford at 10. 27?
I must have been so busy talking I didn't notice the car John. I have replayed the film but I am still not sure! You are so right about the roads. I remember the annual toll of young American service men who would find the ditches in winter after arriving fresh from the States.
Did you get my recommendations a few weeks back re H.V. Morton books the pre-war author UK travel writer!? You in many ways are replicating what he did without the traffic/landscape in some respects. I only suggested it as it was right up your street?
Mark, I not only got your recommendation but two days ago I got the book! It is the most joyful thing to read with beautifully crafted prose. I am so grateful to you. I think I need to develop in his style by finding a few "characters" to appear with me in my films. 😀
Well spotted Leon. It is the cap badge of The Jamaica Constabulary, which adorned my father's Vitesse after he retired from the Jamaican police force. It has been in my other cars including my old Rover and BMW.
In my Vitesse, I have a period coin purse containing a set of 1963 coins, that being the year the car was first registered, a tradition that my Father did with all his cars. I also have his St.Christopher token in the car.
So nice to see someone using a map instead of a GPS/Sat Nav...
Hello Sean. Any fens of yours are fens of mine. Aarrrgh!!! Sorry about that... This is a very interesting and informative video - I learnt a lot. Thanks very much! Best wishes,
Colin.
Hi Sean, This was a very interesting video, with some great information I didn't no. Now there a thing!!! I have travelled the A47 a few times as we have family in Norfolk and agree with you regarding the surface of the road,
Anyway, a very nice drive .All the best Bob
Thanks so much Bob.
Another great video Sean. I wouldn’t want to live in the Fens, but I always like visiting or just driving through, like another world!
One of the first trips I did with my girlfriend in 1973 ish, (who I’m very glad to say is even now my wife) was to Denver Sluice. In those days we enjoyed perhaps more simple pleasures 😅 My kids have never let me live that one down (“You took her WHERE on an early date?)
Thanks again
Peter
I love the idea of The Denver sluice as a dating spot Peter. 😂
Thank You for that Sean, being half Dutch with a Dutch mother I have spent a considerable time in The Netherlands, the landscape in this particular video is very reminiscent of the Dutch landscape which made it a somewhat nostalgic journey. Enjoyed that very much
Thanks Mike. The Fenland is a very special landscape with such a unique social history. To think that all the work was done without mechanisation astonishes me.
@@seanhumfrey those clever Dutch eh?
😂 glad you liked it Colin. It's a very special landscape, but if I am honest, I am rather glad I don't live there. It's a bit stark for me.
Hello again, Sean. Just to let you know, I visited our local library yesterday and managed to find and take out Graham Swift's "Waterland". I started reading it this morning, but haven't managed more than a few pages so far!
stick with it Colin it's worth it. You had better let me know if it turns out aI was wrong about that, but the writing is really fine and it brings the landscape to life 👍
@@seanhumfrey So far, I find the book very absorbing. I'm always slow getting into a book that is new to me - I have bad reading habits, e.g. I tend to read each sentence at least twice!
@@seanhumfrey Hello Sean! I finally finished reading Waterland this morning. Rather a slow read for me - I found I really had to concentrate very hard to stay abreast of all the detail in the plot, various periods, and characters. Mr Swift writes with very long sentences, packed with clauses (as did Jane Austen); I found I'd often have to read a sentence twice, in order to go back to the start and remind myself what the subject was! Having said all that, I'm pretty sure that this is one of those novels which will stay in my mind for the rest of my life.
I can say that this video makes a first class companion to the book.
Keep well, Colin.
I applaud your perseverance Colin. I am so pleased you managed to finish the book. I haven't been able to see the Fens in the same way after reading Waterland. Thank you so much for sharing your experience of it with me. ❤️
That brought back a few memories driving the A47 when I was working. Awful road, constantly stuck behind lorries. Going home to Bury I would cut down from Wisbech to Outwell/Littleport/Mildenhall, OK providing it wasn't foggy, which it often was in the Autumn/Winter, then you were dicing with death with unfenced drops either side of the road into a watery grave. Was that a Farina Morris Oxford at 10. 27?
I must have been so busy talking I didn't notice the car John. I have replayed the film but I am still not sure! You are so right about the roads. I remember the annual toll of young American service men who would find the ditches in winter after arriving fresh from the States.
Did you get my recommendations a few weeks back re H.V. Morton books the pre-war author UK travel writer!? You in many ways are replicating what he did without the traffic/landscape in some respects. I only suggested it as it was right up your street?
Mark, I not only got your recommendation but two days ago I got the book! It is the most joyful thing to read with beautifully crafted prose. I am so grateful to you. I think I need to develop in his style by finding a few "characters" to appear with me in my films. 😀
Great!
What, pray tell, is the badge above your ashtray?
Well spotted Leon. It is the cap badge of The Jamaica Constabulary, which adorned my father's Vitesse after he retired from the Jamaican police force. It has been in my other cars including my old Rover and BMW.
In my Vitesse, I have a period coin purse containing a set of 1963 coins, that being the year the car was first registered, a tradition that my Father did with all his cars. I also have his St.Christopher token in the car.
Thank You for your educational and entertaining video about the East of England, I'd never heard of 'Clunch', how interesting.
I love the idea of the coins Leon.
Sadly lunch isn't very durable once it gets wet, so cottages suffering from road splash or poor roofs often had to be refaced with other materials.