Submitted by
Nicky Smith
A Canterbury Tale Walk
By: Nicky Smith
Just a brief note (I'll leave Steve to give a proper account) to say that
Steve, Neal (and his dog Jess) and I have been to Chilham and are now owners
of the Canterbury Tale book and very nice it is too (and yes, Roger and
Malcolm - your names are in it !) The main locations were the Old Mill where
the boys have to look through their paper salvage for glue receipts, the
river where the 'battle' takes place, the square where Alison meets the
bus,
and the hill where and Colpeper have their little tete a tete in the grass
(though Paul Tritton hasn't been able to pinpoint the exact place
it
happened). There were about 50 people there including some old-timers who
remembered the filming - one chap said he can be spotted as a boy sitting
on
a low wall in the scene at the forge.
It was fascinating to talk to people and discover how they got obsessed
with this one film. Some, like Paul, were locals who were interested in the
countryside, some were just Archers obsessives, and one woman said it was
just Eric Portman who did it for her. This was especially fascinating as
she had done a lot of research for a biography which she had abandoned for
reasons that some of you (certainly Roger) may find just too depressing.
But I may be persuaded to tell more. My one factoid is that he was a
champion breeder of bull terriers.
Nicky
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