GTE location tour
Shropshire, November 2001
Just a quick word to say I'm back after an amazing, but very tiring, long weekend.
Huge thanks to
Nick Dando
for showing me around. Sorry I worried you a few times with my levels of unfitness Nick :)
We got up Pontesford Hill to where Hazel has her assignation with Reddin (where he steps on her flowers) - that was quite a climb.
We got to Pentre, near New Invention (it's not only American places that have odd names) which is where The Callow was - the cottage where Abel & Hazel lived. The cottage has been totally rebuilt, (the new one looks very nice) and as with lots of the locations, I'll have to compare the photos I took with the film to see exactly where everything was 50+ years ago.
We got to Lordshill where they used the chapel for the baptism. The Chapel fete where Ed'ard Marston first saw Hazel was held just in front of the Chapel and in the final scene, the mineshaft she plummets down is just up the hill a short way.
We drove past the end of the path to the Stiperstones & the Devil's Chair but didn't walk up there as my legs were dropping off by then.
We drove up onto the Long Mynd which is in the background a lot of the time and has the road builders scene up on the top.
We got to LOTS of other places that Nick has identified as well, even though some are no more than a bend in a country lane - they're the right bend in the right country lane :)
I took LOTS of pictures so when they get processed we'll be able to have a few "then & now" comparisons.
As I was staying in Much Wenlock I could explore the village itself and see the monument & the Guildhall where Cousin Albert was trying to extoll the virtues of margarine.
One idea that does appeal to me though is that it'd be nice to recreate the Chapel fete with an outdoor picnic. The site is quite close to the road so is a lot easier to get to than a lot of the locations. They are holding a village party in Wenlock at Christmas & asking everyone to dress up in Edwardian / Victorian type costumes, so if they hang onto them until next summer ...
We'll have a word with the Mary Webb Society people & see if they've got anything planned yet or if a summer picnic could fit in with their plans.
How many might an idea like that appeal to?
All we need is a brass band and someone to sing "'Arps in 'Eaven" :)
We could probably do some sort of location tour - although they did wander off the beaten track a lot more for GTE than they did for ACT.
And it'd also be nice to show the film with as many people as possible there who either took part in it, or their relatives took part or who just remember the film being made & have memories to share.
Right, now to have a good long soak in the bath to ease my aching limbs.
I knew I was unfit - I just didn't realise I was that unfit :)
Steve
Nick & I have done a
gallery of pictures comparing "then" and "now"
See also
Nick's screen captures
- scenes from the film with locations explained.
Other P&P trips
