Preserved locos   Duke of Gloucester and Tornado with a double header at Yatton Horsecastle farm crossing.. 

I went up to Lidl's prompt at 8 and got 5 packs of their coffee on half price offer. John has at last consented to try their Arabica blend. No doubt he will insist that it is not as good as Teco's.
However German customers would not buy it if it was rubbish. I find it very good.
I went straight out to Yatton for the steam and arrived at 8.15 to find someone there already. I tucked my self in and asked if I would be in the way. She was videoing and said I would be OK  where I was. By 8.30 there were 2 more and they were still turning up at 8.45.
Some got "right up her nose" from where she had set up.
They eventually moved, bloody good job too.
I had the camera set to 18mm [35mm 27mm] and started to take too soon. However I got one good shot.
Very pleased with it.

Brittania at Flax Bourton cutting, Sunday 22nd July

Heard that Britannia has a broken spring so won't be hauling the Torbay Express.
However Duke of Gloucester is back running so I expect that one will be called in. or maybe Oliver Cromwell

The Abbot's Fish House on the outskirts of Meare Village

The "fish" being caught for the inhabitants of Glastonbury Abbey were mainly eels.
Eels are one of the most nutritious fish as far as food quality is concerned.
Clotting for eels is still practised on the rhines of the Somerset Levels. Now-a-days it can only be done by possession of a special license, but in the early 1900s it was a thing that many people engaged in. Stewed eels are easy to cook and a good form of protein. In the 30s when farming was a debased profession a nights clotting by a couple of labourers could get them good filling food for their families.The other method was eel spearing, this was not done with a normal 'trident' fish spear but with a special weapon constructed mainly for catching eels in the narrow side rhines on the levels. The advantage of spearing over clotting was that it could be done all the year round. Clotting was only efficient during the summer months, preferably on a hot humid summer night. It is now illegal bit I have myself used an eel spear to catch many tasty eel dinners.

The sulphur build up in the spout

The trickle of healing water from the Holy Spring

Add captiOne of the flooded fields at Godney Mooron

A fine sunny start to the day so I took off down to the Burtle and Westhay moor area. Dawdled along at 25-30 mph once I got out onto the secluded lanes.

Unusual to see how the road surface in some places stood 2 or 3 feet above the level of the fields. Many of the roads were made by laying down bundles of faggots and then surfacing over the top of them.

Good to see that the rains of the previous month had boosted the flow at the Holy Spring at Edington. Quite a good trickle of water again. Not quite so sulphurous but the deposit still builds up in the spout. Odd how the folks are still getting fooled by the Challis Well at Glastonbury. Collinson exposed that as a fake over 200 years ago.

Took the opportunity to go along to Meare and get pix of the Abbots Fish House. Then across Godney moor where some of the fields were still flooded from the rains of the previous week. The signs were still in place at the road verges advising drivers of the floods.