This is the story of my attempt to cycle and paint my way around the coast of Britain #thecyclingartist #roundbritain
In this episode (number 10) I cycle alongside and over the mighty River Severn. The stories I relate are these…
Watchet and the Beatles Hard Days Night
Burnham on Sea the shortest pier in England
Weston Super Mare pier
The story of my panto seaon at Weston Super Blah!
Cycling over the River Severn on the motorway crossing
Am I in Wales yet?
Chepstow Castle and our favourite door in Europe
Artist JWM Turner painted Chepstow and my view
Brian repaired my bike pannier (again)
Transporter Bridge in Newport
Llandaff Cathedral, Cardiff
An actual ancient relic of St Tysillo
Marco’s cafe, Barry island Gavin & Stacey
This is the story of attempting to cycle and paint my way around the coast of Britain #thecyclingartist #roundbritain
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this is watch it station on the somerset Heritage steam Railway and it was here in 1964 that the Beatles came and filmed Hard Day’s Night yes John Lennon Paul McCartney George Harris and Ringo Starr running up and down the platform John banging on the window shouting hey mister can we have our ball back foreign so tiny either walk to the end of it in less than a minute just over there Hinckley point yay the new nuclear power station and I’m right behind me is this weird and wonderful lighthouse built on stents it’s like something out of space doesn’t it it’s landed it’s this martial Day of the Triffids or something this Lighthouse has landed to burn them on the sea now this is a really good example of regenerating a ruined Pier back in 2007 there was a dreadful fire at Western Superman and the pier was entirely consumed I love how they’ve rebuilt it it’s a stunning piece and it’s very popular it’s grillions of people using it every day you’ve done a really good job here well done Western Super Mario is a lovely town had a really fine panto season here back in 2008 night straight after doing the jungle and I came fresh from the jungle into the rehearsals of the playhouse and Mrs Maris had found me some lovely accommodation to stay in in the Royal Crescent Apartments absolutely lovely and the town was gorgeous a lovely winter spent here and I’ll always think of Western fondly it is always for me Western superb thank you and this is the moment that we say Tata to England and across the seven River yep I’m on the bridge the Great Bridge earlier today I cycled over the Clinton suspension bridge and a hundred years after that was built this was constructed and it’s got these cycleways either side it’s the original seven crossing that goes to Shepstone over to the left you can see the new seven crossing and they’re collecting seven Crossings it’s one of the great cycle Adventures so to cross a boundary between two countries such a vast river is this the river seven is one of the Great Dividing barriers of the world and I love this feeling of cycling here like this yay over my shoulder there’s England up ahead the great pillars oh my goodness me that is a monstrous pillar and it just feels so exciting and so thrilling to cross like this I’m gonna stop a minute just want to have a look over the edge that’s a long way down and I can feel the bridge wobbling with the traffic going over it feels slightly weird actually and a little bit dodgy everybody’s comment here is why isn’t the barrier higher well I rather like the fact that trusted not not jump across I wonder at what point we actually enter Wales is it just in the middle of the river like now or is it only when we reach the other side I don’t know I love the fact I’m still not even halfway [Music] even halfway unbelievable this is a massive monstrous Bridge I’m a chepstow castle with these lovely ancient walls and a beautiful Tower yeah this is one of the best medieval castles in Wales most of it built by my favorite William Marshall he commissioned this the new tower I like the way they call it in Utah that’s original and then some doors and the people who built them went let’s see what we can do what’s your budget he says well I want something Stout and defendable please and so they built these These are the actual original doors from the 12th century 12th century yeah I know look at that how can you have doors that just last forever like this look at your front door now how old’s that don’t think it comes anywhere near as old as this got everything on here I mean look it’s got this crisscrossing extra defense it’s got these lovely rivets on there and then look at the bolts people have been doing that for 800 years it’s even got the ancient place you wouldn’t want to lose that key would you imagine knocking on the door hello can I come in this is amazing it was in use at chepstow Castle as the main front door right up until the 1960s so a gorgeous Castle brilliant walls marvelous Tower an exceptional outstanding utterly brilliant front door I’m gobsmacked I love it over here is the old bridge over the river why and it’s the boundary between England on the left and Wales on the right and what we have here is chapsto Castle wow what a glorious spot now I’m actually in somebody’s Garden because I came down this little lane here and Stan said well you’re not too long you can do a quick sketch so that’s my plan this morning to draw this wonderful Castle which was built mainly by one of my all-time historical favorites William Marshall the very first field Marshal of England the great hero of the plantagenet age of King Richard the lionheart Henry II and King John now that’s what I’m looking at and there’s my painted View chips though love it here’s my bike with a wonderfully newly repaired um rack it’s got a little bit of a cable tie on there just in case and this is Brian who did it thanks Brian you’ve done a wonderful job this was the body shop and when I came here he was a panel beater and I was there I said it was a prisoner of war camp originally in 1814-18 wow oh there’s all the buses that they fix that’s amazing hey what’s it like welding um aluminum Brian well you have to use a flux but he didn’t want to use that gets a bit hot doesn’t it yesterday and then I became the work superintendent of the whole lot then the works manager now this weird Contraption here is one of a few transporter bridges in Britain when I say few there’s one here in Newport there’s another one in Middlesbrough and there’s a third one in Warrington but this in fact they all claim to be the original one this was built in 1906 and it’s got this lovely little platform thing here with a witch’s hat Contraption there which is where the operator sits and whiz is 140 people across the river ask in 90 seconds it’s amazing isn’t it and it’s all made of meccano is another way of getting over and that is to climb up the steps 270 odd of them and all the way up to the top which is roughly as high as 16 double decker buses or 18 elephants whoever measured the elephants to do this anyway one two Mr few 270 are we at the top yet surely I’m at the top crikey this is a long way look at these rivets there’s over a million of them it’s a thing of great Beauty that is rather these days by by that yep they built another Bridge uh but that’s not as high so you have a massive Bridge here and a tiny Bridge there there’s probably a reason and here’s the lovely little bit that everybody wants to know if you’re working up the top and you suddenly caught short where might you go to use the facilities now that’s amazing so so where’s the plumbing it’s a long way down to the river you know I had hoped to actually ride across the ask on the transporter Bridge today but sadly that was not to be because there’s one driver and he’d gone shopping today so I had to do a little detour around here and over that bridge over there hey transporter Bridge wins every time good luck they’re having a massive big renovation and when this reopens it will be utterly utterly brilliant here in clandass Cathedral they’ve got something really rather spectacular they’ve got Paul pittum A what that’s what that is it’s a pulpitum um it’s this great big arch with the figure of Christ in Majesty on the top done by Epstein now what’s really special about this Cathedral is not that but something else in a chapel come and see one of the things I love about churches is discovering something unusual now there are loads of great Celtic saints saint Tyler is one I don’t know very much about but he was a good pal of Saint David and he was very useful when there was a plague around because he would take people out of Harm’s Way and give him some sort of nice medicine I don’t know maybe a pint of brains or something aha over here something really unusual heroic are you ready a real live Relic that is the top of Saint Tyler’s skull yeah that’s a weird thing to find in a cathedral it’s brilliant because it’s an actual Relic that was lost for squillions of years it was given to the Matthews family when they spent a load of money on doing up the cathedral this was a thank you they would probably preferred a few quid but they got a skull instead and then he went missing after the reformation and only turned up in 1980 in Australia right would you like it back clandauf Cathedral yes please they said and so here it is the skull of Saint Stylo wow brilliant story I’m at Marcos yes this is the home of Gavin and Stacy I’m in Barry Island and I’m just thrilled to be here it’s such a magical place everybody who comes here comes to stand and has their photo taken so I’m going to stand here and have a photo thank you for that great show James Court you wrote a brilliant brilliant show love it