Monday 22nd July 2019

When we got up this morning the weather was grey and overcast.

Most of the festival goers had left on Sunday evening. We said goodbye to our friends Andy and Annette and Dean and Rachel before heading off back to Widecombe.

We got home about 13.00. Ann watered the plants.

I raked over the molehills on the lawn.

We were away from home for five days. We travelled 85 miles (137 kilometres) today and the round trip from Widecombe to Tolpuddle and back was 185 miles (298 kilometres). 

That's all for now. Roger.

 

Sunday 21st July 2019

Sunday is the big day at the Tolpuddle Festival.

This balloon acts as a beacon for the incoming crowds.

The site is much busier than in the last two days.

The big speeches have started - here's Angela Rayner - Shadow Secretary of State for Education. 

This is Mark Serwotka, The President of the Trades Union Congress.

Then we went on the march through the village of Tolpuddle and back to the festival site. We marched with our Union Unison.

This is the village hall.

Here's the village pub - The Martyrs Inn.

Back at the festival site after the march we stopped off for some lunch.

The main speaker was Jeremy Corbyn the Labour Party Leader.

I thought that he gave a very good speech outlining all the excellent things that a Labour Government would do if they got into power. Unfortunately he did not address the central problem which the progressive parties in this country face - unless Labour, Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru, Scottish National Party and The Green Party come to some kind of an electoral alliance at any forthcoming General Election to agree not to stand against each then the likelihood is that Johnson and Farage will do some similar deal and drag us all into the disaster of a no deal Brexit.

After the march and the speeches Andy and Annette invited us round to their van for some eats and drinks.  Many thanks to you both.

Saturday 20th July 2019

The weather was nice today.

This is the festival main stage all set for the big speeches on Sunday.

The names of the Martyrs are prominently displayed.

We had some lunch.

I went to a talk session entitled - Taking a load of Boris - Brexit and beyond. It was generally agreed that it was impossible to predict what is going to happen next in this appalling situation we find ourselves in.

I attended another session. This one on future migration policy. It seems the Government has put its proposals on hold for the time being so no one knows what's going to be the policy post Brexit if indeed Brexit ever happens.

 

Straight after the migration session Angela Rayner, Shadow Secretary of State for Education (seen here on the right) chatted about her life and times. She's a very good talker.

This afternoon Dean was on duty directing the traffic in and out of the site.

This evening there were some bands playing in the main marquee. This is Naomi Bedford and her band.

Elvis McGonagall.

Pete Bentham and the Dinner Ladies.

Holy Moly and the Crackers.

Friday 19th July 2019

The weather was foul today. We made the short journey from Piddletrenthide and parked on the Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival site.

I soon bumped into my friend Dean from Totnes, seen here on the right. He is a volunteer steward at the festival.

Dean's partner Rachel is also here.

It was nasty weather for putting up tents.

Dean came to visit us in our van.

Dean roped in a Scottish pal of his who happened to be passing.

I listened to some musicians in the main tent while Ann went off to hear some comedians at the Village Hall.

 

I think this is the fourth time we've been to this festival. There is always a really nice atmosphere here and there is no chance whatsoever that you're going to encounter any Tories.

Before too long our friends Annette and Andy from Shrewsbury turned up. Apparently they had been stuck in traffic on the M5 for quite a while.

We were up quite late listening to the bands and drinking beer.

Today we travelled 15 miles (24 kilometres). We are at N50.75022 W2.30737

Tolpuddle   Street View

Thursday 18th July 2019

We left our home in Devon today and headed east into Dorset. We're going to the Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival. This happens every year in the Dorset village of Tolpuddle. The Festival is organised by the Trades Union Congress to commemorate the martyrdom of a handful of agricultural workers in the 19th Century who were transported to a penal colony in Australia for trying to form a Trade Union in response to their wages being cut. They were finally pardoned and returned to Britain after a massive public outcry. Every working person to this day owes an enormous debt of gratitude to these heroic founders of the Trade Union Movement! We stopped for the day at the village of Piddletrenthide.

We are staying overnight in the car park of the Piddle Inn.

The pub is situated on the banks of the river Piddle.

We went for a brief walk around the village.

The pub car park soon filled up - it's lucky we got here early!

We went for a meal in the pub. I got us a couple of pints of Piddle.

Ann had fish and chips and I had various sorts of fish, crustaceans and molluscs. We shared a pudding.

Today we travelled 85 miles (137 kilometres). We are at N50.79668 W2.42007

Piddletrenthide     Street View

Wednesday 3rd July 2019

This morning we took a walk along the coast towards Roscoff town centre. The tide which had been in when we got up soon went out exposing the massive beach.

In the distance is the Isle of Batz. Small ferries cross to here on a very frequent basis.

We came back along the beach. There is a lot of rather nasty looking green slime.

We went down to the port of Roscoff at about 13.00. Here we are queued up to get on the 15.00 Brittany Ferries sailing to Plymouth. Almost all the vehicles waiting to go had British registration.

We left Roscoff on time.

It was a beautiful day. We saw several dolphins during the crossing.

We arrived in Plymouth on time at 20.10.

We were home by 21.30.

Our journey lasted 55 days and we travelled 2058 miles (3313 kilometres) excluding the distance on the ferries from Poole to Cherbourg and Roscoff to Plymouth and on the recovery truck from Auderville to St. Mere-Eglise.

Many thanks to anyone who took an interest in the blog. That's all for now. Roger.