Report on Steve's visit to Fordwich (nr Canterbury) in Kent
on Sunday 29th August 1999 for the tour of locations used in
the film organised by Paul Tritton.
So I went down to Canterbury, well Fordwich really, a small village
just past Canterbury on the A28 (the Margate / Ramsgate road).
That's where I'd seen the Town hall when I went on my last tour (before
I'd heard about Paul Tritton).
I got there (after a nice train ride from Victoria to Canterbury East
and then a cab out to Fordwich) at about 12. The flyer said 12:30 so
I was actually early for once in my life :)
There were a few people hanging about outside the pub (The Fordwich Arms,
just opposite the Town Hall) so I went up to the first one, a little old
lady sitting alone on a bench.
"Are you here for this thing about the film of A Canterbury Tale?"
I asked. "Yes" she said "I was the continuity girl".
What a brilliant start. So we went into the pub (which had just opened)
and I bought her a cup of coffee and we sat down for a natter.
It turns out that her name is Pat "Paddy" Arnold (now Hayers) and that
she had done the continuity on quite a few films made at Pinewood and
Denham and had quite a fund of stories. I'll be writing to her to try
to mine a few more about P&P.
A few more people turned up soon after that and while Pat was
visiting the ladies I spotted a small group standing outside looking
around the outside of the Town Hall. I went and asked if they were
there for the tour and if one of them was Paul Tritton. Remember, I'd
never met the chap, just written & spoken on the phone.
Paul was there so after a few more introductions, to his wife, (also called
Pat and the Fordwich local history society man who was helping Paul, we
repaired to the bar where we availed ourselves of some fine ale and a light
lunch (roast beef salad for me) and thence to the garden.
As we lunched various other people made themselves known to us such as
two of the usherettes from the "World Premiere" that was held at
Friars Cinema, Canterbury in May 1944.
Also, as I wandered around I heard quite a few people talking about
film related things. Quite a good turnout I though ... I asked Paul
how many he was expecting and he said "Oh, about 20 or so although
more would be nice".
When we'd all finished our lunch we drifted into the church where Paul
was to give us an introductory talk. It was the Fordwich church where
we see Sgt Bob go to Sunday Service. We only see Bob & the Hortons going
in through the doorway but Paul has other photos to prove it's that church.
First shock !! There were over 100 people there !!
Everyone was VERY pleasantly surprised and we all settled down in the
old box pews. Paul started his introduction thanking us all for coming
and saying how very pleased he was at such a turn out. He then thanked
the Church and the Town Hall (managed by a trust) and the local history
society for their assistance. He then introduced a few other people,
such as Pat (sometimes known as Paddy) Arnold, the continuity
lady, and the usherettes. He also introduced us to a stoutish man
standing at the back - David Todd, the "Admiral" who cried all through
the battle.
He then went on to say that the book has turned into a bit of a monster.
A very pleasant one but he has MUCH more information about this than
he's ever had for any previous book. The trouble is, he says, as the word
spreads people keep telling him more details and finding more things for
him. He HAS finished writing it. He's now just got to do the layout (of
over 150 pictures) and get it printed. He's not sure how many to get
printed but after the turnout on Sunday and my telling him about you lot
and other P&P fans around the world, he's upped his previous
estimations :)
It'll still not be ready before Spring next year though :(
After a bit more describing what he had planned for us we set off on
the tour of the village. We could do it all on foot because although there
were various scenes shot in other villages and places in & around
Canterbury, the vast majority of them (it turns out) were shot in
Fordwich itself. Also, the crew stayed there (at the George & Dragon)
and a lot of the extras (such as the boys) came from there.
Of course Paul hadn't planned on quite so many people for his tour of
Fordwich but we managed somehow. Every time we stopped at a place we had
to make sure we hadn't lost (or gained) too many and that everyone
could hear what he was saying. We also tried not to block the local
traffic too much - but as it was a nice Sunday afternoon everybody
in the vicinity seemed to be trying to drive down the narrow village
main street while we were standing there. Some of the people pretended
to be road protesters just to confuse everyone.
We started at the top end of the village where Paul pointed out such sights
as :-
The house where Powell had gone to tea aged 3 or 4 and remembered it (in
a note kept by the owners) when he later came back to Fordwich looking for
locations and people.
The farmyard (or the muddy lane towards it) where Alison & Prudence
shovelled muck while they did that lovely little piece of dialogue :-
-
Prudence:
-
That's your room. You won't get much of a view I'm afraid.
-
Alison:
-
You should have seen the view from my room in London.
-
Prudence:
-
Was it a long street with every house a different sort of sadness in it?
-
Alison:
-
It was a long row of back gardens, and the tall, sad houses were all the
same.
-
Prudence:
-
Ghastly in winter.
-
Alison:
-
Airless in summer. You seem to know them.
-
Prudence:
-
The only man who ever asked me to marry him wanted me to live
in a house like that. I'm still a maid.
But he said the farmyard is hardly recognisable now so we didn't actually
go up there.
We then wandered down the main street stopping to admire the houses where
the boys lived (and blocking a bit more traffic).
At the bottom end of the high street most of us took a quick diversion
through another farmyard (sticking to the footpaths) where the horse &
the hay wagon that we first see Leslie on came from. There were two
people in wheelchairs so they went round by road.
We all met at the other side of the farm and stopped by a phone box
outside the George & Dragon pub. This was where Powell & a lot of the
crew had stayed and it was used as some of the shots for the Inn where
Sgt Bob stayed - others were of the Red Lion in Wingham. He really
played about with those locations did Mr Powell. There are quite a few
other occasions where he used different buildings (often 20 or so miles
apart) as different angles of a "single" building. Paul Tritton has
done an amazing job putting these together.
BTW it really annoyed the local history people (until Paul explained
it all). They'd just think they recognised somewhere and then they'd
see a reverse angle of what was meant to be the same building and
they wouldn't recognise it as the same place !! :)
So, there we were outside the George & Dragon and Paul introduced us
to two more people from the crowd.
First he told us how Powell had hired a car from a local taxi company and
had had the same driver every day who would pick them up at the
George & drive off to wherever they were shooting. Sometimes the driver
would bring his little girl along - and there she was amongst us,
with her Dad's taxi badge & some photos.
Then he reminded us about Powell's right hand man Bill Paton. A Shetlander
who'd been with Powell since the days of Edge of the World. Well the
crew (& Bill) had a few days off and they went into town where Bill
met a nice Red Cross Nurse. He so impressed her that she consented
to marry him. Yes, she was there as well. Myrtle Paton is the daughter
of Neville Horton, the real blacksmith portrayed in the film by
George Merritt. Neville and his brother Ben, the real wheelwright,
are amongst the bystanders in the scene filmed at their yard in
Shottenden.
We were then shown the old house that appears in the film as The Colpeper
Institute - the sign & quote outside was faked but the building's exterior
was real. The interior was all in the studio. It's the curved exposed
beams that help to identify it.
Off we went once more, back towards the other pub where we started
out from (every good village has two pubs so that you can have rival teams).
We were divided up into groups of about 20-30 (4 groups) to go into the
old Town Hall (see my pictures of the Town Hall from my last trip at
Pic1-10
&
Pic1-11).
Although the village is a LONG way from the sea, Fordwich is (or was)
a port. It was the highest navigable point on the River Stour and they
still call the area by the Town Hall "the quay". The Village is in
the Guinness Book of Records as the smallest "town" (a town, not really
a village, because it's got a town hall) in the country. Even though
the town hall has a floor area of only about 20-25 feet square.
There are two floors though and from the front door you go straight up the
stairs to what looks remarkably like the room where we first meet Mr Colpeper.
But it isn't!! The room itself is MUCH too small to have got the Technicolor
monster of a camera, to say nothing of the lights, in. So they reproduced
it all back at Denham. When I get my photos developed you'll see
what a good reproduction they did. There are only a few differences
such as the motto on the bar (in the film) "Love and honour the truth",
it's on the wall in reality.
Then of course there's the way that Peter runs round the back of the
town hall in the film - that's where the river is!! Can he walk on
water?
Almost perfect though. The ducking stool is there, as is the room/cupboard
where Alison hears something (it's really the jury's retiring room).
When we were up there Paul and his wife did a lovely recreation of
the first meeting between Alison & Colpeper. Very brave of them :)
So after Paul & the local history people had told us lots more about
it and we'd signed the visitors book we trooped back to the church
to let the next group up & to have some tea & biscuits.
While we were there a man was cleaning and "exercising" the church
organ. As he started I said to one of the other visitors "He's
playing the wrong tune". She knew what I meant so we went and
asked if he knew Bach's Toccata & Fugue (that Peter plays in the
Cathedral) - sadly he didn't know it well enough to feel he could risk
playing it :(
After a lot more teas & biscuits (and grateful donations to the
church & town hall funds) we just mingled and chatted amongst
ourselves for a while. I was pleasantly pleased to discover
that most of the people had come because of the film rather than
just the local history side of things and that most of them
knew at least some other P&P films - so we can expect a few new
members soon :)
As people started to drift away we got talking to the Churchwarden
and an old gent who's name happened to be Culpepper (like the
herbalist, with a 'u' & double 'l'). Paul had a photo taken on Sunday, August
29th 1943 - 56 years to the day - of the churchwarden at the time
& Eric Portman as Colpeper just outside the church. So we
re-created it with the current churchwarden & Mr Culpepper.
Then Paul & Pat gave me a lift back into Canterbury to get the train
home.
What a delightful day and such a nice bunch of people.
We were all agreed we must do something similar sometime. The most
votes seemed to be for a "country walk" to visit all the outdoor
scenes, the battle, the old mill, the hill overlooking Canterbury etc.
Of course that's dependent on the weather so we'll have to have
an alternative if it's wet.
Oh, did I say, it was a scorcher of a day. That's twice I've been to
that area this year and both times it's been scorching hot. But this
time I was outside more and the sun was beating down hard on my
balding pate - and I got a bit of sunstroke !! That's why I'm only
just back at the office today.
Steve
The
full gallery
of photos taken during the trip is available.
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