This one was fun. We were actually
heading over to London, we had a long drive ahead
of us having opted to take the A4 rather than the
more direct M4, and here we were pulling over within
a very short time of leaving Bath, but I am glad we
did.
The Northey Arms
dates back to the 1840s when it served the needs of
the local Box Quarrymen. The photograph I first took
of the pub is technically the rear of the building
because it originally faced Box Station to the north,
and therefore relied on the patronage of passengers.
However, the station closed in 1963 and the Northey
Arms turned its attention to the A4 traffic to its
south. Today you can see that what was the front and
is now the back is actually much more elaborate that
what is now the front and was once the back.
Extensively expanded
in 1934 by Maisie Gay, a star of stage and screen,
it became a substantial building indeed. Maisie Gay
has come to be regarded as one on London's greatest
comediennes of all time. She lit up the stage for
many years in productions of 'Charlot's Review' and
'London Calling', as well as starring in a small number
of films.
Noel Coward, he
of "Marvelous Shot" fame, once served behind
the bar, and although there is a Maisie Gay / Noel
Coward connection (she was the first to sing Coward's
song 'There's Life in the Old Girl Yet'), it is unclear
whether they were both together at the Northey Arms.
By the time Ms. Gay started expanding the pub, Mr.
Coward was 35 years old and well on his way to stardom.
Inside the pub
there are oak-wood floors, and lots of lovely dark
paint, with the characterful quirk of match-boxes
and games stuck to the ceiling. The Wadworth 6X was
very acceptable, and the Blackthorn cider was in good
shape.
Just up the road
is the entrance to Box railway tunnel, an impressive
piece of engineering put together by Isambard Kingdom
Brunel, the foremost engineer of his day. At the tender
age of 23, he designed the spectacular Clifton Suspension
Bridge (at the time the highest bridge in the world),
and by the time he was 25 he was Chief Engineer of
the Bristol Docks, amongst the busiest docks in the
world. He designed the Great Western Railway, the
whole thing, tracks, buildings, embankments, tunnels,
bridges, at just 27. He designed the three biggest
ships in the world (The Great Western, Great Britain
and Great Eastern, each progressively larger) and
generally speaking if there is a big old bridge or
tunnel somewhere in England, you can bet a pint that
IKB built it, and after a while, you would be well
ahead. The Royal Albert Bridge at Saltash, Paddington
Station & Bristol Station, the Thames Tunnel,
a thousand miles of railway, Maidenhead Bridge, Plymouth
Docks, the list goes on.
Box Tunnel was one of his personal
favorites. Continuing his theme of having everything
on a grand scale, Box Tunnel was the longest tunnel
in the world at almost two miles. It was so long that
some people were too scared to go through it, so they
had to be transported over the hill by carriage. Probably
the same people that tried to get out of the way when
they saw the first movie of an oncoming train.
There are some conspiracy stories
around that there are secret chambers somewhere in
the tunnel where government and military trains can
hide. Stories of trains going in, but not coming out.
Far more than IKB would have intended.
Here is a neat little engineering
story: Brunel calculated that on the 5th April each
year, his birthday, the rising sun would shine through
the tunnel. Rumor has it that he actually adjusted
the plans by a degree to achieve this effect.
He died after suffering seizure in
1859.
And the 'Marvelous
Shot' story? Upon being told that a friend (of whom
Coward had a somewhat low opinion) had committed suicide
by putting a bullet through his brain, the actor is
reputed to have leaned back and said, drolly, "He
must have been a marvelous shot!"
