Eccentric Britain; The Guide to Brittain's Follies and Foibles

by Benedict Le Vay

• ISBN13: 9781841620114
• ISBN10: 1841620114
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2000-06-01
• Publisher: Bradt Travel Guides

Summary

In this extraordinarily readable guide, Benedict le Vay explores all that is odd, way-out or downright crazy in England, Scotland & Wales, & offers a practical guide to finding your way through the maze of madness.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Introduction	x
PART ONE ECCENTRIC THINGS WE DO	1	(70)
The Eccentric Year	3	(34)
Week-by-week calendar	3	(27)
Daily events	30	(1)
Fairs	30	(2)
Travel information	32	(5)
Eccentric Pastimes	37	(20)
Collections of eccentrics	37	(5)
Eccentric interests	42	(2)
This rather eccentric race	44	(2)
On the road to eccentricity	46	(2)
Odd associations	48	(1)
Eccentricity on display: Britain's top 21 odd museums	49	(6)
Travel information	55	(2)
Barmy Bureaucracy and Curious Charities	57	(14)
Paying the rent in roses, nails and parsnips	57	(1)
Britain's weird courts that court disbelief	58	(4)
Worth the weight	62	(1)
Your taxes or give us a kiss	62	(1)
Key to eccentricities	63	(1)
Bizarre bidding	64	(1)
Weird and wonderful ways to get the dole	65	(2)
Dice, vice and houses of ill repute	67	(1)
Travel information	68	(3)
PART TWO ECCENTRIC PEOPLE	71	(50)
The Aristocrats of Eccentrics	73	(10)
The tunnelling duke and other strange aristos	73	(2)
Hellfire and heroism	75	(1)
Bonkers, and bonking, MPs	76	(1)
Modern marquesses of B	77	(1)
Stately pigs of Old England and sty society	78	(3)
Travel information	81	(2)
Dead Eccentric	83	(28)
Bizarre last wishes	83	(3)
Land of odd pyramids	86	(1)
Leg-end in his own lifetime	87	(1)
London's only Nazi memorial	88	(1)
Pigeons at war	88	(1)
Amazing grace	88	(1)
Pickled brains and restless heads	89	(1)
Surrey's mystery mosque and a death railway	90	(2)
How the living can follow the dead	92	(2)
Gone for a Burton: the Arab tent in deepest Mortlake	94	(2)
Tombs along odd lines	96	(2)
Above our heads	98	(1)
Some very strange organs	98	(5)
Evasion of the body-snatchers	103	(1)
Travel information	104	(7)
The Eccentric Church and Some Very Strange Churchmen	111	(10)
Beyond belief	111	(4)
Well, well, well --- eccentric saints	115	(1)
Britain's top ten most surprising places of worship	116	(3)
Travel information	119	(2)
PART THREE ECCENTRIC PLACES	121	(94)
Home of the Eccentric	123	(16)
Unlikely additions	123	(2)
Living in a timewarp	125	(1)
Living with the railways	126	(11)
Travel information	137	(2)
Eccentric Gardens	139	(10)
Garden wit, wisdom and mass wisteria	139	(7)
Neither unhinged nor unhenged	146	(1)
Travel information	147	(2)
A Place for Eccentrics	149	(20)
Signs of serious eccentricity	149	(1)
The world's oddest pubs	150	(4)
Eccentric engineering	154	(6)
Gateway to eccentricity	160	(2)
Dovecotes, pigeon dung and gunpowder	162	(1)
These people should be locked up	163	(1)
Eccentric villages	164	(1)
Travel information	165	(4)
Monumentally Eccentric	169	(20)
Obscure obsolete obelisks	169	(6)
Milestones in eccentricity	175	(1)
Convicts and martyrs	176	(1)
Shrines by the wayside	177	(1)
Cranks, pioneers and heroes of the skies	178	(2)
Unlikely jumbos	180	(2)
Britain's ten most magical (and least known) standing stones	182	(1)
Chalk giants	183	(3)
Travel information	186	(3)
Towering Eccentrics	189	(26)
In search of utter folly	189	(4)
Britain's top ten (plus) towers (mostly with very all stories)	193	(6)
True follies come in threes	199	(2)
The triangular angle	201	(4)
All a sham	205	(2)
Cartoons of the sky	207	(3)
Travel information	210	(5)
PART FOUR PRACTICAL INFORMATION	215	(20)
Nuts and Bolts	217	(10)
Getting around	217	(6)
Where to stay	223	(2)
Food	225	(1)
Telephones	226	(1)
Eccentric Days Out	227	(8)
Appendix Further Reading	235	(2)
Index County	237	(3)
Alphabetical	240