The Diary of a Country Bumpkin

It seems there has been a bit of a hoo-ha about the 200 year old name of the Henry VIII pub which just happens to be opposite Hever Castle, the childhood home of Anne Boleyn and which has stood in the Kent village for five centuries.

Apparently some American influencers have taken umbrage about its 200 year old name branding it misogynistic and sickening causing the story to go viral on social media, it seems they think it rather bad form to name a pub after Henry VIII who signed Anne Boleyn’s death warrant and had her executed for treason in 1536.

Whilst the pub dates back to the 1500’s it was not until 1848 that it was named the Henry VIII, so obviously Anne Boleyn heself would not have been in a position to have taken offence at the name of the pub.

Royal historian Mr Gareth Russell has said, he didn’t think the pubs name was intended as misogynistic or offensive to Anne and suggested perhaps a change of name to the Boleyn Arms or the Ormond Arms, which is connected to the family’s old earldom.

There seems to be quite a trend nowadays of taking offence on behalf of others but in a effort to smooth the waters I suggest a name change to the Adolf Arms as this seems a perfectly innofensive name for a pub to me. It would be named as a tribute to the famous Harpo Marx who was born Adolf and was the iconic American actor and harp playing brother to Groucho Marx who famously wrote in his resignation letter to the Friers Club of Beverly Hills; “please accept my resignation. I don’t want to belong to any club that would accept me as a member.”

There we are, I seem to have addressed the complaints of the American influencers with a compromise which should keep everyone happy, for who on earth could take offence at a pub called the Adolph Arms.

Very sad about the football but might I suggest supporting a different sport where you can really get behind our British chaps where we actually win more than any other nation.

British drivers have won the Formula 1 World Drivers Championship in 21 different years, with 11 different British drivers taking the ultimate crown since the championship began in 1950. This total of 21 titles makes the United Kingdom the most successful nation in F1 history.

These 21 titles were secured by 11 drivers: Mike Hawthorn (1958), Graham Hill (1962, 1968), Jim Clark (1963, 1965), John Surtees (1964), Jackie Stewart (1969, 1971, 1973), James Hunt (1976), Nigel Mansell (1992), Damon Hill (1996), Lewis Hamilton (2008, 2014, 2015, 2017-2020), Jenson Button (2009), and Lando Norris (2025).

I give you the score, Football World Cup 1—– Formula 1 World Championship 21.

I rest my case your honour!

Sad to report Woohall Spa forties weekend is a shadow of what it once was, where what felt like the entire village took part, the woods were full of World War Two troops and their equipment, the Golf Hotel had entertainment as did the Petwood Hotel. The Mall pub had singers during the day and evening and the village halls held dances and the local park was also busy, it really was a fabulous event with a great feeling.

However, in 2023 the event was cancelled due to the cost of putting the event on and some missing funds. It seems allegedly the funds were borrowed by one of the committee and so the story goes were later paid back after the sale of his house and no charges were brought against him.

The following year there was absolutely nothing happening in the village but a few of us went back in an effort to show solidarity with the village in the hope that the event would be revived, although this was the time when we found out apparently only half of the village want the event and in fact were rather against there ever being another. One has to wonder why you would move to a village knowing it to be the wartime home of 617 the Dam Busters squadron and then complain because lovers of the forties descended upon the place for a forties weekend.

We have persisted in going back and had great hopes when the Country Park caravan park took over the running of the event and although the first year was small we had signs of the resurgence of a great oak from this tiny little acorn. It is rather sad, having tried to help encourage the event for the last four years by coming every year, we are now feeling that we shall not be returning again.

Unfortunately, these events are expensive to attend, as we arrive on the Friday and leave on the Monday which used to give us plenty of time to take part in the old event and by doing so put some cash into the hands of the local hotels, restaurants, pubs and entertainers, unfortunately this new event does not warrant three nights in a hotel, in fact without putting two fine a point on it, you could see it all in a morning.

So, at this moment in time we are feeling we have flogged this poor old horse nearly to death and we feel it is time to put this one out to pasture and a long and happy retirement.

I have a couple of photos to post to remind us in future years of our journey with Woodhall Spa when Facebook posts a memory for me!

It is slightly sad to think the highlight of the weekend was my purchase of this rather lovely walking stick at a local antique fair over the weekend, £5 well spent! Whereas, the highlight of the weekend for Angella was a visit to the home of vitage trader Melanie Harris and a private viewing of her stock which resulted in some very interesting purchases. Thanks for the invitation Mel!

This just about sums up the weekend, our friends asked the waitress where we were eating to take a photo on her camera and this is what she sent me, all I can say is if she has desires to be the new David Bailey, I suggest she doesn’t give up the day job.

And, finally we popped into the Petwood Hotel, the wartime home of the Dam Busters which took me back to a trip I organised with friends from the Bentley Drivers Club some many years ago where I came in my 1947 Bentley Mk VI, a great memory of friends, some sadly no loger with us.

I took my 1947 Bentley Mk VI to the local car show on the heath and parked next to my friend and fellow Bentley Drivers Club member Simon Leach, it was a hot day.

I was asked if I would do a quick interview about the car on camera and as if drawn like a spider to a fly I found myself in front of the camera. Having had a modicum of experience in front of a camera I did ask before we started if they wanted to do a sound check but they said no, so if you actually want to hear my answers you my have to listen slightly intently. Now, I don’t want to make a big thing of this but I got no wardrobe check, or makeup check and as for the lack of a Winnebago trailor to rest in before going on set, what can I say. Except the two young ladies who did the interview were very pleasant and it’s not their fault they had a limited budget for the shoot!

And after all that build up the thing won’t upload here, but I have seen it and I have to say I was brilliant, a legend in my own lunchtime, if I say so myself.

Not much to say…………….just two young people very much in love!!!!!

And some car stuff!!

To all those who may have seem my earlier post concerning the difficulty downsizing a photo of my car to upload to the Bentley Drivers Club members area, as you can see from the photo, I succeeded but it only took most of yesterday and some of this morning to complete the task!

I’m sure my computer used to have an option to crop a photograph you had downloaded but it seems to have dissappeared, so……if I remember correctly, I downloaded the original photo on here and cropped it, then posted it and saved the link in the photo, (I think!) and during all this I accidentally deleted the post about Adolph Eichmann which I had to retrieve and upload again.

Then I copied the photo so I could save the link which I used when asked to ‘choose file’ on the BDC members page and low and behold it finally came up in a size smaller than 2.5 whotsits.

It’s things like this that make the lack of a handy 13 year old ‘clever dick’ and a slightly more modern computer unnecessarily complicated for those of us who were educated with nothing more sophisticated than a fountain pen.

Some many many years ago I did a documentary about Adolf Eichmann, it is so many years ago that I can’t properly remember the story line but it was something along the lines of Eichmann allowing Jews to escape with the assistance of an industrialist, not as I recollect Schindler.

However, I believe he was doing so in an attempt to negotiate with the allies should he fail to escape after the war.

Knowing I was playing Eichmann, I took my 1935 Austin Seven Ruby to the shoot as I thought it would make a good photo opportunity and having recently had a massive clear out at home, I happened to come across the photo which I thought looked rather good, barring the poor quality of an old point and squirt camera. It was a very tiring day, not due to the long filming hours but due to the fact that wardrobe had supplied two rather lovely leather boots, one of which was a size too small.

When we broke for lunch it was suggested I might like to remove the offending boot but I declined as I thought, if I took the boot off I would be very reluctant to put the damn thing back on again.

Ah, the glamour of showbusiness!

I have just spent the best part of two hours at least trying to resize a photo of my Bentley Arnage R as I wanted to upload it to the Bentley Drivers Club members site but it keeps saying the photo is too large and in an effort to make it less than 2.5 thingamebobs I have continued to crop the photo until I came to the conclusion that I would have to remove the car from the photo altogether if I wanted to make it fit.

I have to say I have uploaded photos to the BDC site before and never had this problem and have given up and decided to use the original photo I took of the car which I thought looked quite nicely framed and just post it here, at least this way the last two or so hours of my life will not go down as completely wasted!

Angella was away for this event with our daughter which meant I was alone when I arrived early with my 1947 Bentley Mk VI which gave me ample time to have a mooch around before any of my friends arrived so this post will take on the aspect of a mini travelogue of the home of the code breakers.

The car safely in place I started my tour, had I known how popular the car was going to be for photo opportunities I should have hung around all day and charged a small fee for each person.

One of many rooms once filled with rather brainy codebreakers.

The famous Enigma machine, a very clever German machine to jumble words into code.

But not as clever as the Bomb, the British machine which decoded the German messages.

I have to say, the offices where fairly basic but I daresay most of the people there where too embroiled in their work to worry about that.

Alan Turings teddy bear, every man should have one! I still have two from my childhood.

An interesting exhibition by Jacqui Harris of wartime wedding dresses.

Some of which were made from parachute silk in true make do and mend fashion. Delightful.

Stunning dresses.

Now this had me stumped at first but it was fairly early in the morning.

However, after a quick cup of tea and a half an ounce of Old Shag in my briar I’d soon cracked it, for it was nothing less than the text from a German military manual, quite simple really. Far easier than the conundrum of President Kennedy’s cold war speech in Berlin, Ich bin ein Berliner, was he describing himself as a doughnut, a German sausage or a Berliner in spirit?

And finally, the answer to the whereabouts of my dear wife who went missing for the day to assist our daughter who had purchased yet another Poodle puppy! Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Zelda, who is quite lovely.

My, I have been busy, it was the end of May when we went to the Great Central Railway weekend and I have to say we were a little disappointed as it was not as good as last year which had all the promise of going back to the old days where all the stations were taken over by different armies but it was not to be.

I was told they have got rid of the woman who used to organise the event apparently as they didn’t wish to pay for her services, I am unsure if this is the full story but I think by penny pinking they have spoilt what could have been a superb event.

Not to be downhearted Angella managed to do a little shopping and we met our friends as usual, so it was not all bad by any means.

Having a quick wonder about we bumped into Alan for a quick jive and a photo.

Last night dinner and with the aid of a waitress we snapped another rather dark image, let’s hope for an improvement for next year. At least all our friends usually come up to standard!