Manston RAF History Museum, nr Ramsgate

What to do in Thanet on a rain June Saturday. Mr Tara Plumbing is at Wimbledon but unlikely to see any tennis, judging by the forecast.

I decided we should visit some local museums. R.A.F Manston history museum proved to be absolutely fascinating.  I have never been here before because I’m typically girlie with no interest in anything along those lines: trains, planes, etc. To me the main difference between the cars on the street are the colour – don’t talk to me about models, injections and engine size unless you want to test out my ‘eyes-glazed-over’ expression.

 http://www.rafmanston.co.uk/

Even to my eyes it seemed strange that on the bomber, the Buccaneer,  the seats were labelled ‘front’ and ‘rear’.  If they weren’t sure which seat they were sitting in I’m not sure they should have been on board!  How strange – but what do I know of such things? 

There are many bits of aircraft (real and model) in this museum, but lots of interesting stuff too.

As well as a significant military history, at its peak in the 1960’s almost 200,000 passengers passed through the airport on their way to package holidays. There was also an excellent collection memorabilia from 1940’s, with a re-creation of a wartime home. Our son did not recognise a tin bath and was interested to see a sink situated in a box, the dirty water simply ran into a bucket underneath. Lucky for our family, most people have greater plumbing aspirations these days!

There is a map and photos of the tunnels dug under Ramsgate to provide shelter from the bombs for up to 60,000 people.  And photos and narative of the local death and destruction.

You can’t get much for a £1 these days and yet that is the admission price! What a bargain, I highly recommend it as good value for money.

I was also very pleased to see that in the gift shop there were lots of inexpensive toys or souvenirs, which is something else that usually need to budgeted for in a day out with children. (“Usually” as it is not a problem I suffer, I have NO difficulty saying NO.)

It is next to the Spitfire museum see:    http://www.the-battle-of-britain.co.uk/men/B-Manston.html

I had been here before, as I visit everything that has FREE Admission! It is not really free, because I always feel compelled to eat in the cafe there. This cafe is highly recommended, is always busy and has lots of space outside, when the weather is suitable.

On a similar theme, for those who may be interested: http://www.battleofbritainmemorial.org There is an annual memorial day soon and this is near Folkestone. 

The Tara Plumbing Family Day out in London

We made it to the Royal Academy of Art on Saturday (see my previous blog

http://mrstaraplumbing.wordpress.com/2007/06/01/hockey-at-the-royal-academy-of-arts/

).   It is a challenge to take a 5 year old to an Art Gallery.

Don’t touch (or lick) the paintings. Don’t run around the installations or sculptures. Be careful you don’t knock over that piece of Art, yes that stack of old brocken chairs. Don’t sit – that is not a colourful chair but a piece of Art! Yes you can sit here, it is not Art, it’s a bench. How do I know it’s a bench. To be honest, I’m not sure of the answer, but loads of other people were also sitting there.

So if an Art Gallery is just a place where you can’t do anything but be in trouble then it is not going to be a nice day out.

I find it is better to discuss what we see. “What is your favourite painting in this room and why?” Our son liked the black canvase with a ghostly whisp of silvery grey hinting at something that we couldn’t make out.

In the next room I challenged him to find the painting of the whale, in the next a painting of the chair with a big bra hanging from it!

I explained that sculpture is a type of Art that you can walk all the way around! He liked this a lot.

As for the the massive Hockney painting, our son just said, “wow!” as he walked into the room. It was really impressive, I am pleased we saw it.

As we were going to be in the Piccadilly area I went on to a very useful website to find out what local attraction might offer a 2 4 1 discount. We decided to visit the Wellington Arch, which is in the middle of the roundabout at Hyde Park Corner. This property is under the care of English Heritage. It has an interesting exhibition about the history of that area of London and a view over the wall into the back garden of Buckingham Palace. There was nothing hanging on the washing line. In fact, I think someone must have taken it down and I think I spotted some Union Jack boxers attached to a flag pole.

We travelled to London that day by train, with a railcard it was approx. £25 for the 3 of us, Which is not too bad, but I could have driven and parked in zone 2 for less, you can even park for free in zone 1 on Sundays. Children can travel free on London transport, so we just bought 2 bus passes for the day at £3.50 each. Each individual bus journey in the centre of London is now £2. So very expensive! I am telling you this, because it was impossible to find out the bus fares for central London on the internet. I knew we did not need to travel on the underground.

The cost of public transport does not encourage us to give up our cars and it is prohibitive to the poorest families. Recently, we investigated travelling to Worcester from Ramsgate by train, booking a long time in advance and travelling on a certain appointed off-peak train, the cheapest fair was £65 return! That is each!

Please take note of this, Mr Ladyman, MP for Ramsgate and with resposibilities for transport.

P.S.  I note the growing ruthlessness with which train companies are gethering fares has been reported widely lately and is a disgrace:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1969212.ece

“Britain’s biggest train company has told its guards that they will be disciplined and possibly dismissed if they show discretion to passengers who are unable to buy tickets before boarding because of long queues at stations.

… guards are judged according to the amount they collect in penalties. … treat passengers as fare dodgers even if they come up to the guard on the train and ask to buy a ticket. “

The guards must sell the most expensive adult ticket, with no discounts (eg railcard) even to children.  On BBC R4 it was reported that a woman with 2 children had to buy another ticket on the train because she boarded the train at the station AFTER the one named on her ticket! 

It would be like me getting a ticket in advance from Ramsgate to Victoria, but getting on at Margate instead.  Being told as I got on at a different station I would now have to pay the full most expensive adult fare. 

The Shell Grotto of Margate needs our help

If you were to open a tourist attraction, a museum or a site of historic interest today in the noughties, would you even consider as a possible name:

                   THE SHELL GROTTO

Not if you actually wanted to attract (paying) visitors!

I’m as cynical as most people about those marketing agencies who charge millions to come up with a name and a logo (think Olympics, or even Turner Contemporary thingy…)

Shell Grotto as a name, was a turn OFF in the 1990’s, when I first came to Margate and visited it and I have had to work hard over the years to persuade people that it really is interesting and worth visiting. No one is interested in visiting a SHELL GROTTO! I think the Museum of Ancient & Mysterious Margate sounds more interesting.

Shell Grotto was its Victorian name, reflecting the era when it was discovered and opened to the public. The owners have done a brilliant job with bringing it up to date (including the website) so my BIG suggestion is a new name.

http://www.shellgrotto.co.uk/

Discovered in 1835, when the Northdown Road area was mostly fields, it is an underground passage and chambers with walls and ceilings entirely covered in shells. The when and why of its creation and decoration are unknown.

According to our local newspaper, the Thanet Adscene, its future existence is now under threat  due to penetrating rain water and damp.  £20,000 is the estimated cost for the work to save the Shell Grotto.  I would imagine (but am only guessing) that it is very difficult for the owners to raise the funds for a couple (or 3) reasons:

1.   It is privately owned and run as a business, so it is not in the hands of a charity.

       There are many trusts which give out grants only to charities.

2.    Its location probably makes it hard to attract tourists.

        The new owners have transformed the shop/ tea room and

        installed new lighting, however, it is off the beaten track.

3.      The name, the Shell Grotto!

Myself, I have been a visitor to the Grotto numerous times and I send all my visitors there. It is quite amazing, it is special and should be preserved.

If you are a local person and have not visited it this century then put it high on you list of places to visit. It may not be there much longer!

THEN, if you think it is worth preserving ask the owners what you can do to help raise the funds.

Education ~ manners or grammars?

I could not disagree more with Julian Brazier, MP for Canterbury and Whitstable, he wrote about Education in the Adscene, this week. This is a relief as I was worried when I found myself in agreement with the sentiments of leader of the Tory party recently. Am I mellowing in old age?

As a local MP, not surprisingly, he is over enthusiastic about the Kent education system, a very strange system of 11+ and selective grammar schools for those who perform best in a test at 10-11 years old. He says he is concerned “that four fifths of the country has no selection and does not have enough good schools.”

Which implies there are more ‘good schools’ in Kent compared to the rest of the country, relative to children numbers, and that this is connected to selective education. On what evidence? There are Comprehensive state schools which appear higher in the league tables than the Kent Grammars – however, I do not think position in league tables of GCSE results is the total measure of a ‘good school’.

http://www.dfes.gov.uk/performancetables/

As a new comer to Kent, my impression gained from several years of hearing parents complain about the selection procedure is that it is a shambles or a disaster for the majority of children. I’m sure there are many good schools, the problem is the process for getting in to them.

I went to a High School in Worcester. There was no 11+ and no grammars. The children came from all social back grounds and all abilities. Mathematics and English were streamed by ability from our first year of entry, and most other subjects were taught in mixed ability groups in the first year. As we got older, almost all subjects were streamed.

Before I reveal to you just how well or badly my old school performs let me list the numerous advantage of my school experience:

in my junior school (1970’s) there was no training, pressure or competition to pass the 11+ (it didn’t exist);

at secondary school we mixed with others of all abilities and back grounds;

all children had the opportunity to move up or down the streams as a result of their intelligence and effort;

children could be brilliant in some subjects and poor in others.

Julian Brazier is worried that a mixed ability Comprehensive school can not challenge the brightest children, he says:

“Even with streaming, a school in a poor area is unlikely to have enough bright mathematicians in each year to fill a whole class.”We do not need to guess the answer to this, as the vast majority of the country does NOT have selection.Whilst I was at school, in my Comprehensive, I remember other pupils passing the Oxbridge entrance exam.

I was not the only child in the school to get an ‘A’ in my ‘O’level Maths (the best result

you could get in those days). Clearly, our maths lessons were as good as they could be, as was the rest of our education.

Friends Reunite reveals that many of my year went on to University or professional/higher education (at a time when only 5% of the population went to Uni.).

What about the vast majority who FAIL the exam in Kent? Some of these children also have grade A potential in some subjects but in Kent, they will not mix with the most able. I could go on and on…. but I think there is overwhelming feeling against selective education, which was so unpopular and, therefore, scrapped in most of the country a long time ago.

Being the kind of woman I am I must say SIZE IS IMPORTANT, probably.

I really do not like the idea of secondary schools with a thousand students or more. I suspect size is important: my school had around 500. The children knew all the teachers, and they knew all of us. All children could be made to feel important and valued.

We can’t all be Einstein! A debate about grammars is irrelevant to most people. The really important issue is how to engage, interest, teach or train the majority of young people who are not going to be doing well in GCSEs.  The children who would have left school at age 14 or 15 in my grandfather’s day.  He did very well for himself through the old apprentice system.What about the offspring of Mr & Mrs T.P.?  Like any parent I want the best for him. His parents have brilliant brains so he may genetically blessed in the IQ department. In other parts of the country I would be happy for him to go to a good Comprehensive. As he is only 5 we have a few years to see what life will bring.

As someone with varied life and a string of academic achievements I feel quite strongly that is more important in childhood to develop skills for living rather than obtain umpteen grade A exam passes.

Life skills that all children could learn: numeracy and literacy, of course, but also to have social skills. To be able to communicate clearly, confidently and politely. Good manners, good posture and charm will get most people a long way in life and are more useful than A levels in most situations!