Bulleid Royal Navy Class light pacifics

Going back to where the West Country starts, it’s probably a bit similar to part of Einstein’s theory of time and space, it depends on the position of the observer. If you live in East Kent you may well see it as anything west of Guildford, living in Weymouth then it probably starts for you in Exeter. When I got married and moved to North Buckinghamshire a lot of my old friends in S London and Kent started calling me a northerner!

 

IMO, Devon, Cornwall, Somerset and Dorset. The West Country names were nice names, evocative of a nice part of the country and my take on it, as a kid, looking at the lists in my old Ian Allen ABC, was similar to a couple of the other posters, that of far distant, picturesque locations, where your kids would probably want to go to for an Enid Blyton Famous Five-like-holiday in one of the glorious post war summers.

That was probably the aim of the Southerns names, and I think they succeeded. The squadron names, on the other hand, were repetitive and boring.

 

It's where the Strong's cider adverts started.

 

As a native of the county North of the Thames, I'd have to agree.

 

Good guess but I was thinking of Appledore! The loco is named after Appledore in Devon. There was no actual RAF airfield at Appledore (Kent) but it sat under some of the fiercest aerial battles. On one occasion a hurricane collided with a Dornier 17 over Appledore (pilot survived) and a hurricane crash landed safely in Appledore after collliding with a ME110. Most dramtic of all a heinkel 111 crashed onto Appledore station during one dogfight.

 

Ah that would be Strongs of Romsey. Well known for the billboards stating "You are approaching / In / leaving / the Strong Country" I always felt I was home when I passed the sign between Hook and Basingstoke on my way south. The Strong Country was too far east to qualify for WC status imho.

 

Whiteways Cider

 

The RNAS had become the Fleet Air Arm well before WW2. IIRC two FAA Squadrons are entitled to but the BoB on their battle honours.

 

'Fraid that the article is incorrect! Curiously Yeovil Town Station & shed were firmly in Somerset although Yeovil Junction at that time was in Dorset (now in Somerset). Crewkerne and Templecombe stations were in Somerset as was Sutton Bingham.

 

I did an analysis done while back of the numbers of locos on the SR and it’s pre-grouping constituents. As at the end of 1922 there were something like 2200 locos; as at the end of 1947 there were about 1800. After a peak of construction in the 1923 - 1927 ish (lots of King Arthurs and moguls), construction of new steam locos under Maunsell slowed right down; I seem to recall there was one year in the 1930s when no new locomotives were built at all. Electrification must have been a major factor in the decline in capital steam loco stock; and the slump in the 1930s definitely caused orders for new steam locos to be cancelled or postponed.

Tom

 

I thought that many if not all the Blyton stories were set in The Purbecks?

 

RNAS in WW1 = Royal Naval Air Service.
RNAS from later years = Royal Naval Air Station. Mind you, Yeovilton’s other title is HMS Heron.

 

Are you sure? Thought he was a subbie in the Royal Naval Air Service.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnes_Wallis

He was awarded the sum of £10,000 for his war work from the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors. His grief at the loss of so many airmen in the dams raid was such that Wallis donated the entire sum to Christ's Hospital School in 1951 to allow them to set up the RAF Foundationers' Trust, allowing the children of RAF personnel killed or injured in action to attend the school.[15]

 

I think that if you watch 'The Dambusters' Micheal Redgrave as Barnes Wallis when he approaches Richard Todd at end says all you need to know about how he felt about that one. Very moving scene.