Pier Pressure

What is there not to love about a British Pier, in fact some guys wrote a book about visiting all the English one's , it's an interesting read if you like that sort of thing - Pier Review - A Road Trip in search of the Great British Seaside. I've been to a few but no-where near the whole set and not really top of my list but there is something for everyone on a Pier. Over the weekend in line with most it was that time of year for visiting various relatives , this time in Suffolk and what better way to break the journey up by a pier visit and a trip to some old building full of stuff that made you feel the contents of your attic had some historical value.

I stumbled across this old mill on the A12 route last year it's easy to past on one of the many miles of single tracked tractor rich paths up the East Anglia cost and there seems to be an abundance of antique barns scattered across the county. Cornwall have their pasties, Devon have their cream teas and Suffolk has... 1970's board games , a footballer ice bucket and a scratched Brotherhood of Man LP. But this place was a different gravy (although no sign of a Bisto jug), room after room of an amazing variety of good/bad/ugly and odd stuff you really could not live without. You could spend hrs in this place and the 30 mins I had there did not do it justice. Just a small selection in the pictures below but worth a visit - https://www.marlesfordmill.co.uk/

I mean who really can't live without one of these

Next up was a short trip up the coast , passing a disused railway line, a Nuclear Power station and a Museum dedicated to a village washed into the sea - fear not these will all be detailed in another article. A few choices of whether to go upwards but downmarket to not-so Great Yarmouth or even further up to the North Norfolk coast or pay another visit to Southwold , class and time decided and Southwold it was, home to some of the most expensive beach huts in the world.

Visiting English seaside towns outside of the main season is always fun, less crowds and just the hard-core of locals and some blog writing people remain. The pier is packed full of entertainment, no tacky arcades, no rancid food smells and no sign of anyone other than really nice people.

Home to the Watering Clock -

Brussels is famous for the Manneken Pis, but Southwold has raised the stakes! The Pier houses two of his peeing peers – a pair of piddlers who perform every half hour

There a a set of hall of mirrors which for something so simple still cracks me up as was the case with nearly everyone walking past them. Just tucked away half way along though was something very very different simply labelled The Under the Pier show - Where else in the world can you experience the life of a fly in VR, train for your future on a Zimmer frame simulator, or take out your frustrations with the financial industry on the ‘Whack A Banker’ machine. This place was the hard work of a man called Tim Hunkin. I really can't do it justice in a few of the pictures I took but suffice to say it's absolutely hilarious , the man is a genuis getting all aspects of your life and future sorted in one small room for a handfull of 20p's

In Simple terms - No Embarrasing Perspiration, No need for Lycra, No pathetic exhaustion and no shamless panting!

The housing ladder made easy.

Finally tore myself out of this place and admired the fine graffiti mural to celebrate the home town of Eric Blair - AKA George Orwell.

If Big Brother was watching you , he would have seen what a great place Southwold Pier was