All posts filed under: Epochs

At the Beginning of the Year in Englefield

Much like Englefield House and its 16th-century owners, not much is known about the history of the parish of Englefield, much of which lies within the Benyon family estate. Yes, two battles took place here – firstly a bloody battle in September 1643 during the Civil War, the site of which is now known as Deadman’s Lane. The other was in Anglo-Saxon times – the battle of Englefield – which I will come to in a moment. • (Caution: Contains spoilers for Episodes: 14×05: The Sleeper Under the Hill) Diesen Beitrag gibt es auch auf Deutsch. •

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The Night of the Stag

Published by Petra Tabarelli

• (Caution: Contains spoilers for Episodes: 14×06: The Night of the Stag) Diesen Beitrag gibt es auch auf Deutsch. • On a colourfully decorated village square, a very well-attended, joyous fete takes place. There are stalls and plenty of alcohol to drink. We are at the Midsomer Abbas May Fayre, which is celebrated jointly by residents from Midsomer Abbas and Midsomer Herne – always on the first of May. Malmsey wine is served in a sweet version (= the well-known sweet Madeira wine) and in a tart version. Now, a man, Reverend Conrad Walker, enters the wooden platform and speaks into a microphone and welcomes the crowd.

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Midsomer’s Old Railways

Published by Petra Tabarelli

• (Caution: Contains spoilers for Episode: 08×01: Things That Go Bump in the Night) Diesen Beitrag gibt es auch auf Deutsch. • Joyce and Tom Barnaby are guests of Elizabeth Key in Fletcher’s Cross. They go out of the cottage into the garden. Elizabeth Key carries a tray with three cups and saucers, sugar bowl and creamer. Joyce carries the teapot in her hand. The two women walk side by side in front, Tom Barnaby with his hands in his trousers behind. The Barnabys admire the garden and the location and Elizabeth Key enlightens them that back then in Victorian times, there was a railway just behind a row of trees near the house. Joyce is startled and apparently imagines express trains. But back then they were only steam locomotives, of course. However, the line was later closed. Now, the railway is to be partially restored and Fletcher’s Cross Station reopened. We learn later at the railway inauguration festival that it is mainly thanks to James Griss! But he is not quite respected in Fletcher’s …

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Francis Galton, founder of eugenics

Published by Petra Tabarelli

• (Caution: Contains spoilers for Episodes 13×05: Master Class, and a bit for 14×06: The Night of the Stag) Diesen Beitrag gibt es auch auf Deutsch. • The Fieldings’ manor, Devington Hall, is currently hosting auditions for Sir Michael Fielding’s Master Class. The manor is a 19th century country house, the grounds of which belonged to the Knights Templars several centuries earlier and has been built on since at least the 14th century. Its real name is St Katharine’s Convent and it is situated in the little hamlet of Parmoor, Buckinghamshire. A very detailed documentation of the house, which has been on the National Heritage List since 22 January 1986, can be found on the Buckinghamshire Gardens trust site.

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Midsomer and the Battle of the Somme

Published by Petra Tabarelli

• (Caution: Contains spoilers for Episode: 11×01: Shot at Dawn) Diesen Beitrag gibt es auch auf Deutsch. • The episode begins with a black and white picture. “France, July 1916.” is superimposed. It is 1 July 1916 – the first day of the Battle of the Somme. We see soldiers marching forward. Landmines explode, people scream. But there is a soldier limping in the opposite direction. He is Private Thomas Hicks. He is fleeing from the obviously life-threatening situation and wants to return to the base of the Royal Midsomer Yeomanry. On the road, he meets a car with three officers, including his friend Lieutenant Douglas Hammond. When Douglas asks in astonishment what he is doing here, Thomas Hicks can only mumble an answer and drags himself along behind him to the battlefield. Douglas Hammond pushes the still mumbling private into the car with light pressure.

The Fisher King in Midsomer County

Published by Petra Tabarelli

• (Caution: Contains spoilers for Episodes: 07×03: The Fisher King and a bit of 03×03: Judgement Day) Diesen Beitrag gibt es auch auf Deutsch. • Near to the village Midsomer Priors, on the site of today’s Midsomer Barrow, in Celtic times, during the Iron Age, 3000 years ago, there was a local chieftain: the Fisher King. He was a wealthy man and died of the dolorous stroke, a symbolic death: he was stabbed in the thigh with a spear. (Note: Paul Heartley-Reade calls it the dolorous blow, but in the context of Arthurian legend it’s called a stroke).

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Not Dead But Sleepeth

Published by Petra Tabarelli

• (Caution: Contains spoilers for Episode: 13×04: The Silent Land) Diesen Beitrag gibt es auch auf Deutsch. • Joyce and Cully Barnaby attend a concert by a tenor singer and a pianist. While Joyce listens with enthusiasm and devotion to Ben John’s rendition of “Drink to me only with thine eyes”, Cully is visibly bored. Later, on the drive home to Causton, the two discuss the style of music, for Joyce has not had enough and listens to more singing on the car radio – much to the displeasure of Cully, who eventually falls asleep from boredom in the passenger seat as they pass the March Magna village sign.

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Ghost Villages in World War 2

Published by Petra Tabarelli

• (Caution: Contains spoilers for Episode: 19×01: The Village That Rose From the Dead) Diesen Beitrag gibt es auch auf Deutsch. • A curtain opens to reveal a room with nine people. All of them are dressed in 1940s style. Almost all of them are sitting at three tables, only the older woman who opened the curtain is standing in front of them, just finishing her presentation about a living museum in Little Auburn. It is Sylvia Lennard. The audience applauds her. Roderick Craven, the landlord of Great Auburn and heir to Little Auburn, thanks her. 75 years ago, Little Auburn became a military base and fell into disrepair after the war, becoming a ghost village. The residents founded Great Auburn not far away, but tomorrow the army will return the land to the Craven family. In return, the landlord wants to support a project. There are three groups with very different ideas, including Sylvia Lennard’s living museum.

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Domesday in Midsomer

Published by Petra Tabarelli

• (Caution: Contains spoilers for Episode: 07×02: Bad Tidings) • Sergeant Daniel Scott has just arrived at his new police station in Causton and is assigned to investigate a murder in Midsomer Mallow. Tom Barnaby and his new sergeant are walking across a meadow where a woman’s body has been found. Daniel Scott is struggling to walk on the uneven ground and in the tall grass. Meanwhile, Tom tells him that this place is called Chainey’s Field and has been common land for centuries – even in the Domesday Book.

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ATA – Anything To Anywhere

Published by Petra Tabarelli

• (Caution: Contains spoilers for Episode: 16×04: The Flying Club. With a bit of 13×02: The Sword of Guillaume, and a little bit of 10×01: Dancing with the Dead) Diesen Beitrag gibt es auch auf Deutschauch auf Deutsch. • A murder has occurred at Finchmere airfield. John Barnaby interrogates the Darnley family who own the airfield and looks at old photographs in the family’s home. The Darnley family home was filmed at Penn House, Amersham, Buckinghamshire, which has been in the family since 1222. However, the photos John Barnaby is looking at are from the annual festival held at White Waltham. John Barnaby notices a photo of a Spitfire among the many photos and asks Molly Darnley, with a certain recognition in his voice, whether she used to fly one of these famous planes. The elderly lady launches straight into the story: She didn’t fly in the war as a soldier, but was part of the ATA that transported the planes between the factories and the airfields. Without radios and guns.