Holiday cottage news and editorial

Da Vinci Code will
'boost tourism'

The film of the controversial novel, The Da Vinci Code, starring Tom Hanks and Ian McKellen, is expected to give a tourism boost to the UK locations where it was shot.

“Many more people will travel to the locations in London, Scotland and elsewhere in the UK,” says Elliott Frisby of VisitBritain.

Sure enough, a Da Vinci Trail, has been drawn up, focussing on these locations:

• Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire
• Rosslyn Chapel near Edinburgh
• Burghley House (pitured above) and Lincoln Cathedral, both in Lincolnshire
• And in London: Temple Church, Holborn; Westminster Abbey and the National Gallery

Fifteenth century Rosslyn Chapel is planning its own themed tours. Spokesman Ian Grimston said: “We’re experiencing additional interest – visitor numbers could double.”

Natural selection

The 18th century Kent house where Charles Darwin completed The Origin of Species is Britain’s 2006 nomination for World Heritage Site status. A decision on new sites will be made by The World Heritage Committee next year.

Darwin moved to Down House in Bromley, now a south-east London borough, in 1842 to work on and complete his theory of evolution by natural selection.

The British Government’s unusual choice – World Heritage Sites are usually major landmarks like the Great Wall of China or Stonehenge – comes from the standpoint that it’s important to honour scientific endeavour and discovery.

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£18 million restoration for Cotswold canals

Work begins this summer on restoring the Cotswolds’ two canals. It's being paid for with grants totalling £18 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the South West Regional Development Agency.

The Cotswold canals – the Stroudwater Navigation and the Thames and Severn Canal – run for 30 miles through Gloucestershire. They once linked the Severn at Framilode to the River Thames near Lechlade, but fell into disrepair in the 1900s. The last boat to travel their full length did so in 1911.

Campaigners, who worked for 30 years to get this result, are thrilled.
Bruce Hall, chairman of the Cotswold Canals Trust, set up in the 1970s, said: “This is magnificent news. Many people, both locally and nationally, look forward to the restoration of this wonderful example of 18th century heritage."

The first phase of work will see the restoration of a nine-mile stretch between Saul Junction, near Gloucester, and Brimscombe, near Stroud. Thirty historic structures – including bridges and locks – will be conserved, and a ten-mile trail for walkers, anglers and cyclists created.

The project – expected to create 600 jobs and attract an estimated 215,000 extra visitors – should be completed by late 2008. www.cotswoldcanals.net

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Horse play

A huge shire horse measuring ten feet to the tips of his ears and six to his withers (tops of his shoulders) is a star attraction at HorseWorld in Whitchurch, Bristol.

Sam is so massive that the grooms’ usual horse-measuring stick wasn’t big enough to find out his height, so a tape measure had to be used. Sam – who arrived at HorseWorld after his owner didn’t have a grazing area big enough for him – is a gentle giant, though. He was nervous of ponies at first but now he’s made friends with a Shetland pony called Galaxy and another Shire called Brutus.

HorseWorld is a registered charity that rescues, rehabilitates and re-homes horses, ponies and donkeys. Set in stone farm-buildings on the southern edge of Bristol, its visitor centre has horses and donkeys, pony rides, tractor tours, a nature trail, and a restaurant. Tel 01275 540173, www.horseworld.org.uk

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'Save our signs!'

Traditional 'fingerpost' road signs are a familiar part of the rural scene - some are listed because they are particularly elaborate or unusual, and the oldest, in the Cotswolds, dates from 1669 - but many are neglected and decaying.

In a bid to save them, English Heritage has worked with the Department for Transport, the Countryside Agency and the Campaign to Protect Rural England to produce a leaflet -Traditional Direction Signs - which calls on local authorities in England to retain and repair fingerposts.

"Fingerposts are not only attractive in their own right but have become icons that are important to national as well as to rural identity," says Philip Davies, of English Heritage. "They enrich the countryside and enhance local character."

By the late 18th century fingerposts - which often give distances as well as directions - were used by turnpike trusts to help stagecoach and mail services to keep to timetables. In 1903, the government passed responsibility for traffic signs to local councils - which led to a rich variety of local styles.

Finials (the top of the posts) take the form of discs, rings, balls and pyramids marked with county names and sometimes grid references. Travel to the south west and you can find red posts with white lettering.

The groups have asked councils to compile registers of fingerposts in their areas and point out that restoration and repair work will create jobs for local craftsmen. They also urge any members of the public concerned about the condition of a fingerpost to contact their local council.

For a leaflet, call 0870 3331181 or go to www.english-heritage.org.uk

Picture perfect

An exhibition of John Constable’s paintings and sketches of the Lake District will be shown at the Wordsworth Museum in Grasmere until October to mark the bicentenary of the artist’s tour of the area. Constable described the Lake District as “the finest scenery that ever was”.

Tel 015394 35544
www.wordsworth.org.uk

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