The Great Central Railway

After our visit to Calke Abbey, Polar navigated Grizzly on to the town of Loughborough, where we were staying overnight before a special day out.  

 

Polar and Grizzly had booked a room in an old manor house in the town that had an Italian Restaurant downstairs, so while they had dinner, we did some bed bouncing before settling down to have our sleeps.

   

After breakfast the next morning, it was time to go to the Great Central Railway station in the town.  The Great Central is one of Grizzly's favourite steam railways, as it has a long stretch of double track main line, so it's just like being on a proper main line in the days when he was young.  Grizzly's sister Hazel had sent him a voucher for a whole day's travel for him, Polar and an unlimited number of small bears.

We arrived just as the locomotive that was going to pull the first train arrived at the platform.  Grizzly told us that it was a Stanier 8F, which meant it was a very powerful locomotive.

  

We had time for a walk down to the yard and sheds where most of the rest of the locomotives are kept before our train was due out, so Polar carried us there in the Bear Bag.  There were locomotives that used to work all over the country there, steam locos and diesels.  Polar told us that films and TV shows set in the 20th century are often filmed there, so they should be able to make sure they use one that's right for the time and place.

  

Some of them were being cleaned and repaired and there were pieces of engines everywhere!  Polar made sure we stayed in our bag, as there was oil on the ground which would be very difficult to get out of our fur if we stepped or fell in it.

When we got back to the station, Polar said we could have a little run around before we caught our train, so we did some exploring and Hanley and Huddlesford chose their favourite posters to have their photos taken beside.  Then it was time to get aboard our train to Leicester.

On the way, we stopped at some lovely little stations, all restored as if they were set in different eras, and we went across a long causeway across a huge reservoir.

On the way back, we moved into the Griddle Car, where they serve a really tasty all day breakfast.  Grizzly decided we had been such good bears that we could share some beer bubbles while we waited for our dinner.

Polar and Grizzly had the veggie breakfasts, so there were plenty of tasty treats for us bears to enjoy, like hash browns, veggie sausages and mushrooms, plus lots of buttered toast.

Then Grizzly showed us a little book her had found for sale in the bookstall at Loughborough Station, all about the railway lines that used to run around the area where we live.  Hanley Bear was thrilled, as there were photographs of the old railway stations that used to exist around the Stoke-on-Trent Loop Line.

 

When we got back to Loughborough, after another look around the station, we decided to catch the little diesel unit back down the line.  We realised that, if we sat right at the front, we could get a driver's-eye view of the journey.

It was absolutely super fun!  We took it in turn to sit at the front of our bag and pretend to drive the train, watching the real driver and second man as they applied the brake or accelerator coming into and out of stations.

On the way back, we didn't rush to the other end of the train to do the same again, as some human cubs got on and we thought it would be nice for them to play at driving the train instead.  We found good places to sit where we could see out, and spotted the steam loco on another journey down to Leicester.

Back at Loughborough, we had a final play on the station before Polar and Grizzly said it was time we ought to set off home.  We had been enjoying ourselves so much that it was sad to leave, but Grizzly said we would definitely come again - in fact, we might even come back by narrow boat.

There was just time to see the steam loco one last time, when it brought the dining train back in and went to refill its water tank.  Grizzly looked after us while Polar took some more photographs, then they took us to let us have a look through the window at the dining carriages.

       

Grizzly said that one day we might be able to have a posh dinner on the train, but we would have to put our smartest clothes on and be very good bears indeed.

  

As we were leaving the road the station was in, Grizzly spotted a huge mural at the end of a row of houses with a spitfire and a pilot on it.  Grizzly told us that he was Jonnie Johnson, a famous Second World War pilot who was born nearby and educated in the town.  Isn't it fantastic!

We do hope we will visit again one day, and we will be very, very good bears if we get the chance to have a special dinner in the dining car!

A Curious Country House

In February, four of us bears went on an adventure with Polar and Grizzly.  The main adventure was a visit to the Great Central Railway but, on the way there, we stopped at a National Trust property called Calke Abbey.

Our human guardians drove all the way around the estate before they found the way in, so it was lunchtime by the time we had driven along the long, tree-lined drive towards the big house and parked. We went straight to the cafe for savoury scones before starting to explore the grounds.

The first building you reach after the cafe is the stables, which were huge, as the former owners of the stately home loved horse-racing and used to keep lots of horses in quite luxurious conditions.

  

Hanley and Endon jumped out of the Bear Bag to explore.  They read about a famous horse called Eclipse, who is an ancestor of more than three-quarters of all the racehorses in the UK.  Hanley found a riding hat he could sit in and use as a swing, while Endon liked a little wooden trugg which he thought would be useful in the garden.

After visiting the stables, we made our way into a wing of the big house that was open.  There was a great display about "Cabinets of Curiosities", where gentlefolk in the 18th Century used to show off oddities they had collected.

Hanley found an amazing ceramic table made by Spode in Stoke-on-Trent, so he was delighted.  Then we all went to take a closer look at the cabinets.

Huddlesford found one full of shells and rocks, while I found one that was set up so human cubs could make their own, having fun choosing which little figures and trinkets to put in it. 

"This is the best one!" cried Hanley.  He had found a collection of fossils and little archaeological exhibits which had been collected in the Peak District.  We all went for a look.

In the next room was a lady from the local embroiderer's guild, making an embroidery to celebrate the NHS.  There were lots of other embroidered pictures on display, so Polar and Grizzly lifted us up so we could see them.

There was even one of a Cabinet of Curiosities!  Our favourites had bees and flowers on them, but there were landscapes and portraits too, and they were all very cleverly made.

After that, it was time to explore the grounds.  We were allowed out of our bag to have a run on the lawns and to do some climbing on fallen trees, which we bears love to do.

Walking through the gardens, we found a wonderful display of snowdrops, with dozens of different varieties (or "cultivars" as Endon Bear says we should call them).

Endon went for a closer look and asked Polar to photograph a couple of his favourites, so we could show our blog readers how pretty they are.  We know we have two different cultivars in our garden, which we just know as "the tall snowdrop" and "the shorter snowdrop", but we didn't know there were so many different ones.

    

There was a fernery in a big glasshouse as well, which Endon Bear really loved, as there was lots of lovely, soft moss inside as well as pretty ferns.

Polar carried us around more of the gardens, as there was a very big area to explore, while Grizzly had a nice chat to a artist lady who was listening to a lovely song thrush (she draws birds professionally and you can follow her on Twitter as @crow_artist).

Endon enjoyed exploring the herb garden, although herbs have such strong smells to us bears that it can be quite overwhelming having so many of them around us.  We liked the little mini-hurdles around the edges of the beds and thought it would be fun to make some at home, next time Polar trims the hazel hedges.

Hanley Bear like these tall terracotta rhurbarb forcers, which he insisted were probably made in Stoke-on-Trent because he saw some being thrown on the Great Pottery Throwdown programme, and they inspired Polar to grow some forced rhubarb, although we used an old waterbutt to keep the rhubarb dark.

We thought the scarcrows were great and looked as if they would come alive and have dances and parties once all the humans left the gardens.

 

After a look in the garden shed, which Endon thought was wonderful (although he did want to go in and tidy it up a little bit), it was time to go back to the car to continue our journey to Loughborough.  Grizzly carried our Bear Bag so Polar could take more photographs and soon we were back at the car.  We would love to visit again and see the gardens when all the beds are full of fruit and vegetables, so maybe we will be back again later this year - we do hope so!