Posts under ‘daytrips’

Dagenham Dock is probably not the first destination that springs to mind when you're deciding where to spend a Sunday afternoon, but that's where I ended up a couple of weekends ago

Even though I didn't get to Brighton last week, I did go to Bognor Regis on Saturday. It's not the most exciting place in the world to visit, and there was probably a lot more going on down the coast in Brighton, where Pride was taking place, but Bognor has its charm, and its interesting corners, and it's not a bad place to spend a day mooching around.

A couple of weeks ago, I went to Mayfield Lavender Farm in Banstead. In the 18th and 19th centuries, this part of England was the centre of the world's lavender production, before urbanisation and cheap French imports did for it, so it's nice to have some back again in the same area. The farm has [...]

One good thing about the Shabby Seaside Appreciation Society us that it gives me a good excuse to finally get around to visiting loads of places I've been meaning to see for ages. A couple of weekends ago, I jumped on a train to Southend on a gloriously sunny day and had a lovely time. [...]

Any time you hear mention of Arundel, people always mention the castle, but it's possible to have a lovely day there without once stepping foot inside the castle grounds. If you walk up the hill, follow the wall around, past the strange little ornamented wooden building…

…and past the cathedral, which is surprisingly huge for [...]

Last week on Tuesday, I went to Bekonscot model village, which was good fun. We got to play at being giants, and admire the marvellous attention to detail in landscaped grounds full of miniature trees, model trains clattering around a railway track, and even animatronic action going on in unexpected corners.

Last Saturday the Shabby Seaside Appreciation Society went to Canvey. This man-made island at the end of the Thames estuary in Essex was the subject of a recent documentary (which I've not seen yet, but which you can read about in a recent post on Fantastic Journal). It was quite a grim day to visit [...]

(Working off a backlog of blogposts that are knocking around my hard drive — apologies in advance for the flurry of posts you'll get today.)
A couple of weekends ago a group of us went to visit Chislehurst Caves for Jodi's birthday, and it was great! I found it sort of amazing that there's this huge [...]

Last Saturday I spent the day at the seaside in Margate with the Shabby Seaside Appreciation Society. The day didn't start off at its best — our excitement at getting one of the new fast-track Javelin trains at St. Pancras soon dwindled when we found ourselves an hour behind schedule due to "a death on [...]

Welcome to Walton-on-the-Naze

(it's quicker by rail).
If you come by car

please park tidily.
Enjoy the award-winning beaches

(but not from this spot)
Eat some delicious ice-cream desserts

(or not)
Venture into the wilderness

climb the tower

and enjoy the view (and a nice cream tea).
Pretend for a moment that you're in the south of France

and then come back to England

(just [...]