Open Writing

In boyhood days in the 1940s, a ride on the bus from Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire, to the seaside resort of Skegness, in Lincolnshire, was a long and quite exciting journey. The distance was something like 120 kilometres, but in those days we would have said about 75 miles.

There was an old windmill at the little town of Burgh-le-Marsh. When you espied it through the bus windows, you knew Skegness was not far away. Then came the excitement of catching a first glimpse of the distant glimmering sea. In the Summers of childhood, it was always blue.

In those days, we were content with small things. An hour or two wandering round the canvas-covered wooden stalls in Newark's cobblestone market square. A day exploring the ancient city of Lincoln. A week at the seaside. Nowadays, we travel much further, particularly in cyberspace.

I've just visited the Natural History Museum in London, the home of 70 million items. On my computer screen I've been rotating the skulls of Australopithecus afarensis ('Lucy') and homo sapiens, comparing them in 3D pictures. Also Neanderthal, homo erectus and chimpanzee skulls. Then I watched a half-hour talk about dinosaurs in China, with some remarkable examples in Chinese museums. I didn't think a moa could be so interesting until I watched a half-hour discussion session about this huge extinct bird of New Zealand.

Another trip in cyberspace was to the British Library, also in London. This is the home of 14 million books and 3 million sound recordings, among millions of other items. A new feature is the English Timeline, which shows how our language has developed during the past 10 centuries. Here, you can see and read about, and actually read, hundreds of significant parchments, scripts and books.

The search for that old windmill in Lincolnshire took me down different paths. Initially, I thought it was in the little town of Wainfleet. That name comes from Old English wægn + fleot, meaning 'creek or stream that can be crossed by a wagon'. There's 1,000 years of history in that town, straight away. However, the Wainfleet windmill was the wrong one.

I moved to the website of another Lincolnshire town, Burgh-le-Marsh. Aha, that's the one! It was built in about 1813, is five storeys high, and has left-handed sails. That means that they rotate clockwise. You learn something new every day, don't you? It contains much of the original equipment and houses a small museum. And a photograph reveals why the splendid structure stayed in my memory all this time.

Back on the Wainfleet website, I decided to have a look at a video of the railway station. After all, British railway stations can sometimes be pretty old and rather interesting buildings. According to the accompanying note, the railway line runs between the town and the brewery. As it is described as 'a Main railway line', I would have expected it to be a bit longer than that. However, 'Trains stop regularly there during each day' so it must extend beyond the town in one or both directions.

The video runs for about a minute. It was filmed in the semi-darkness of evening. It depicts the gates of the level crossing, viewed from one side of the road to the other. A 2-carriage diesel train passes through. The gates open. 19 cars drive through, on the road. A lone pedestrian waits until the line is clear, and then walks across. And that's that. There is no commentary. The only sounds are those of the train and the vehicles. I suppose the good people of Wainfleet know what they are doing, but it seems to be a strange way of tempting people to visit them.

If you have a bit of time to spare but are not interested in clockwise windmills and don't feel able to cope with the excitement of Wainfleet's railway crossing, do visit the Natural History Museum. It is truly remarkable.

© Copyright Brian Barratt 2011