On the way back to Stromness from Birsay we took a slight detour and passed Kirbuster Farm Museum. It being latish we saved a visit for a day or so later.

It’s one of the few attractions on Orkney’s mainland that isn’t a neolithic ruin. It’s a now disused farm in which two brothers had lived out their lives without modernising the place to 20^th century standards.

The first thing you come across is an old kiln:-

Further on is the farm building:-

To the side is a path to the garden leading through this lovely swan necked arch:-

The garden is sheltered and so can harbour trees; a rare sight on Orkney:-

At the bottom of the garden is a burn going under a bridge whcih carries the main road past the farm:-

Beautiful design of a wireless in Wireless Museum, Kirkwall:-

Art Deco Wireless Designs, Wireless Museum, Kirkwall. Bakelite construction too:-

Stromness, Orkney’s second biggest town, has a very good museum.

Due to Stromness’s seafaring past the museum has a bias towards polar exploration which these sculptures in bone reflect:-

There is also a large display of stuffed animals (mostly behind glass) but this turtle was above the door to the upstairs exhibition space:-

The background to one of the display cases was this illustration by Orkney painter Stanley Cursiter:-

Another of Orkney’s – indeed Stromness’s – favourite sons was the writer George Mckay Brown. The museum houses his Chair:-

Hill 62 Trences museum is on Canadalaan near Ypres (Ieper.) I previously posted on its external exhibits and the trenches on Armistice Day.

The first two here are not typical of German commemoration markers.

German Grave Cross:-

German Gravestone (inscribed Fried Her Lander):-

This is in the more usual German commemorative style. German Headstone (inscribed H Langer and F Schrobsdorf):-

German Wooden Memorial:-

Engine Part:-

Model Tanks and Poilu Bugler:-

Mortars, Grenade Launchers Etc:-

Trench Mortars:-

Wartime Poster in suppport of Serbia:-

Memorial tributes:-

Trench Art Windmill:-

The museum is situated on the Canadalaan off the Menin Road, near Ypres (Ieper,) Belgium. I have mentioned Canadalaan before, here and here.

The board describes the museum as a Museum Tranchées (Trenches Museum.)

Two field guns flank the museum’s frontage:-

The museum building contains many relics of the Great War but its main interest is a set of relatively well-preserved trenches to the rear of the building where the trees of Sanctuary Wood have returned.

These supports for barbed wire lean against the back of the building:-

View of Trenches:-

Derelict aero engines and shell craters:-

More craters:-

Trench line:-

More trenches:-

A dugout:-

Trench mortar and trenches:-

Tunnel entrance:-

Part of tunnel:-

Tunnel exit:-

The main attraction at the Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle is a silver swan automaton. The model in itself is a beautiful object:-

Replacement parts:-

Unfortunately when we were there the swan wasn’t in operation. I think it needed maintenance work.

Hoewvere there was an explanatory video of its operation and movement. (The video is also available on YouTube. See below.) The articulation is amazing, the glass rods representinng water in motion are particularly effective. The swan “catches” and “eats” a fish at about 4.50 in the video. Real swans are of course vegetarian:-

I liked this piece of stained glass too:-

Bowes Museum is housed in an imposing building in Barnard Castle, County Durham:-

Bowes Museum and formal garden. Barnard Castle’s War Memorial is in the distance to the right here:-

Model of Bowes Museum inside museum:-

Topiary in formal garden. Barnard Castle War Memorial in background:-

Topiary from museum’s upper floor. Barnard Castle War Memorial to back left:-

This is an obelisk on a square based stepped plinth and lies in the grounds of the Bowes Museum.

There is a wood carving/sculpture to its left in this view:-

Facing view:-

Great War Dedication, “Pro Patria 1914 – 1919. In grateful remembrance of the men of Barnard Castle of all ranks who fell in the Great War. For God and King and Right they gave their all,” and names F Allison – P Finn:-

Second World War Dedication, “In memory of those who fell in the Second World War 1939- 1945,” names for World War 2, and, “They died that we might live.”

Great War names, W Fleet – T B Kipling:-

Great War names E Lee – C H Smith:-

Great War names, J T Smith – R E Young. Bowes Museum in background:-

The North Gate was the only part of Housesteads Fort that opened to the north. From this angle Hadrian’s Wall itself snakes off mid right towards upper centre.

North Gate information:-

The fort’s northwest corner:-

Internal ruins:-

Fort’s southwest corner. The Fort’s museum building is in the background:-

Southeast corner:-

West wall of the fort and the museum building:-

The codebreakers at Bletchley Park were indebted to the Polish secret service for helping break the Enigma code and for smuggling an Enigma machine to them just as war broke out.

At the entrance to the courtyard of houses seen in yesterday’s post lies a memorial to three of these Polish contributors. In Polish and English it commemorates, “the work of Marian Rejewski, Jerzy Różycki and Henryk Zygalski, mathematicians of the Polish intelligence service, in first breaking the Enigma code. Their work greatly assisted the Bletchley Park code breakers and contributed to the Allied victory in World War II.”

Nearer the main museum building is this memorial to those who worked at Bletchley Park. The letters read, “WE ALSO SERVED.”

Reverse of memorial:-