A Canterbury Tale - location walk

[Steve Crook]

This year's PaPAS A Canterbury Tale film location walk will be held on Sunday, August 28 in Fordwich. Meet on Fordwich Quay at 1.30 pm or join us from 12.30 pm at the Fordwich Arms for refreshments. No need to book. Just turn up. Please give generously to our collection in aid of Kent Kids Miles of Smiles.

There are very few public parking spaces in Fordwich village. Please find one on or off the road leading from Sturry to Fordwich. For details of bus and rail services to Sturry (half a mile from Fordwich) visit www.stagecoachbus.com and www.nationalrail.co.uk. Please check the National Rail website the day before you travel to ensure that there are no timetable alterations due to engineering works etc.


By popular demand we will revisit Fordwich Town Hall, the inspiration for "Chillingbourne Town Hall," where "Alison" and "Bob Johnson" reported their encounter with the "glueman."

The Town Hall will be open from 1.45 - 4 pm (admission £1.50). We will visit the Court Room and watch a DVD of the history of Fordwich in the Undercroft.

We will also see St Mary's parish church (where Chillingbourne's parishioners were filmed arriving for matins), the entrance to the "Colpeper Institute", and other nearby places that represented Chillingbourne village.

Your guides will be Paul Tritton, author of A Canterbury Tale - Memories of a Classic Wartime Movie and Michael Powell's Canterbury Tales and Steve Crook of the Powell & Pressburger Appreciation Society.






ACT Location Walk, Fordwich, 28th August 2011

[MonicaMC]

This year's PaPAS A Canterbury Tale film location walk will be held on Sunday, August 28 in Fordwich.

Rats - I'll have just missed it. Flying back to the US on the 23rd.

[Steve Crook]

Rats - I'll have just missed it. Flying back to the US on the 23rd.

That's the location walk we do every year, in various locations around Canterbury that are seen in the film.

Check out Paul Tritton's book A Canterbury Tale - Memories of a Classic Wartime Movie.
That has details of almost every location in the film, including grid reference and many of them also have "Then & Now" photos. It also has interviews with a lot of the people who helped make the film

Quite a few people have organised their own tours using that book as their guide

Steve

[Steve Crook]

As Hurricane Irene heads for the eastern seaboard of the United States I'm keeping an eye on the weather forecasts here. It's been a very wet week here so far. I'm hoping that there will be no more rain left by Sunday. But no matter what the weather is like, I'll still be there & I hope that some of you will join us.

The official forecast for the Canterbury area for the weekend at the moment is:
Windy with sunny spells and heavy, blustery showers on Saturday. Brighter with fewer showers on Sunday and generally fine on Bank holiday Monday with lighter winds and some sunshine.

Sunday: Sunny intervals (some showers possible)
18 °C (32 °F) max
Wind up to 15 mph (WSW)

Steve

[Wolfgang]

Is this just walking or is it more like pub crawl?

[Steve Crook]

Is this just walking or is it more like pub crawl?

Mainly walking and looking at the locations
See reports of previous trips

Although we have been known to stop off for a drink at the start and/or the end of the walk. There are only 2 pubs in the small village of Fordwich where we're going so it wouldn't be much of a crawl

Steve

[Onedin]

Have fun, everyone who's going!

[jaycad]

Is this just walking or is it more like pub crawl?

If you're the winner you get to play on a massive organ,second prize is a crate of Becks!

[Steve Crook]

As Hurricane Irene heads for the eastern seaboard of the United States I'm keeping an eye on the weather forecasts here. It's been a very wet week here so far. I'm hoping that there will be no more rain left by Sunday. But no matter what the weather is like, I'll still be there & I hope that some of you will join us.

The official forecast for the Canterbury area for the weekend at the moment is:
Windy with sunny spells and heavy, blustery showers on Saturday. Brighter with fewer showers on Sunday and generally fine on Bank holiday Monday with lighter winds and some sunshine.

Sunday: Sunny intervals (some showers possible)
18 °C (32 °F) max
Wind up to 15 mph (WSW)

Steve

Well there were some sunny spells, in between the showers of rain, but 40-50 hardy souls turned up and they all seemed to have a good time, I certainly enjoyed it.

Full report & photos when we've done them all

Steve

[moonfleet]

So, unlike the last IKWIG trip, you did wake up in time ...

[Steve Crook]

So, unlike the last IKWIG trip, you did wake up in time ...

I got the day right as well

Steve

[Onedin]

Looking forward to all the reports and piccies, Steve. Glad it went well.

[Santonix]

Sorry I couldn't make it this year Steve. Hope you had a great day.

[Steve Crook]

It was quite sunny as I drove down to Canterbury, a pleasant drive without too much traffic on the road. That's often the case on the Bank Holiday (public holiday) weekend. People tend to go away on the Friday or Saturday and then come back on the Monday so there's not much traffic on the Sunday.

I got to Fordwich just before 12 and saw that some of the regulars had already started to gather there. We said our hellos and chatted for a bit while we waited for the pub to open at 12. A nice pint of Kent's finest (Shepherd Neame) for a liquid lunch and the weather was looking bright so we sat at the tables in the garden and chatted away as various other people joined us. A few newcomers so we were telling them the sorts of things that they could expect between catching up with what the regulars had been doing since we last met.

But then the rain started. Not too heavy, just enough of it to be a bit of a nuisance. Most people reached for their umbrellas and waterproof coats, but by the time they had them organised - the rain had stopped. It was like that for much of the rest of the day. In that sort of weather I prefer to just wear a light cotton shirt. It dries off quickly enough and my skin is waterproof so a bit of rain doesn't bother me much.

We got started at about 1:30 with a visit to Fordwich Town Hall, just across the road from the pub. Although what you see in the film is very similar to the Town Hall in many ways, not a single frame of the finished film actually contains any shots of or in the Town Hall. Those crafty Archers used it as a basis for what they created back in the studio at Denham.

But it is still an amazing place. Nobody's quite sure exactly when the Town Hall was built, but it's very old. The dendrochronologists have dug into a few beams to try to date them but keep coming up with different dates. Fordwich has, as Thomas Duckett says of Chilingbourne, been a municipal borough since the time of the Domesday Book (1086). Fordwich was the highest navigable point on the River Stour and acted as the port for Canterbury. All the Caen stone that was used to build the original Cathedral was shipped in through Fordwich.

In the film, as they're chasing the glue-man on the Friday evening, we see something sticking out from the right hand side of the Town Hall. That's actually a representation of the crane that was, and can still be seen, on the real Town Hall. That was used to winch goods into and out from the boats that were moored at the quay.

Everyone made their way into the room under the Town Hall where the trustees normally show a DVD giving some of the history of Fordwich. We made a few initial introductions and explained the plans for the day, then we had the DVD player playing the opening of the film from the Carlton DVD. It was a good way to remind people who hadn't seen the film for a while and it set the appropriate mood. We only ran it up to the point where the "pilgrims" go into the Town Hall just to remind them of what it looked like on film at the top of the stairs.

So then it was time to see the real thing, round to the main entrance to the Town Hall - where the door opens straight onto the staircase which takes you up to the courtroom. Everybody paid their £1.50 entrance and there weren't too many of us to risk overloading the place, just under 40 of us - I think the threat of rain kept a lot of people away, we normally start with more than that.

The trustees gave an explanation about how the Town Hall worked, especially as a courtroom. I followed that with a comparison of the real Town Hall and how it was seen in the film, pointing out some of the small differences. Then saying why it was necessary to re-create it in the studio. The main reason being that it is so small (the smallest Town Hall in Britain) they they just couldn't have got all the cameras, lights and sound equipment in there. There is also that big tie beam going across the width of the roof space. That would have severely limited how much they could move the camera.

Time for a couple of playlets. Dragging a few reluctant volunteers from the audience we got them to read out the scene where Bob Johnson meets Thomas Colpeper and then the scene where Alison meets Colpeper. The playlets are a bit of fun and they help to remind people of the scene that was filmed or set at the location where we do them.

After a few questions from the assembled throng and a bit of time for people to explore it we made our way back out to gather again on the quay, between the Town Hall and the pub, the Fordwich Arms. That's where we did the "village idiot" playlet. Although it takes place quite a bit later in the film we reminded people what had happened in the film up until then.

Thence on to Fordwich church. This is the church that Bob goes to on the Sunday with Mr & Mrs Horton. We're fairly sure that the single church bell that was rung was filmed in the church and then as we see Bob and the Hortons coming into the church that was filmed from inside the church. There aren't any shots of the outside of the church in the film.

The church is over 1,000 years old, in parts. It's been added to over the years though but they still have the old box pews inside. It's well worth looking at if you're ever in the area.

Up to the top of the High Street where a road leads off to Elbridge Farm, where Alison is working. That lane also leads to Wickhambreaux where Colpeper's house is to be found.

From the top of the High Street we can take a slow perambulation and admire Fordwich's "Beverley Hills - Home of the stars". Many of the boys involved in the river battle and the three boys named in the credits all lived along there.

At the bottom of the High Street we find the Colpeper Institute. Actually the Manor House but that's where we see the soldiers going to Colpeper's lecture. Again, only the outside of the Manor House was filmed, the interior is back in Denham.

The Manor House is also a significant part of the confusing geography of the film. When Bob talks to Len Smith (General Leslie) we see the Manor House behind him. When Bob looks out of one window of his room at the Hand of Glory he is looking out onto Fordwich High Street. But when he looks out of another window in the same room he is looking out at Wingham, some six miles away - that's a BIG room

From the Manor House a short walk along King Street takes us to the other pub in Fordwich, the George and Dragon. This was used for some of the exterior shots of the Hand of Glory and it's also where Micky Powell and some of the crew stayed. What is now their car park is also the field where the boys are seen under the end credits playing with the new football with the money given to them by Sgt Johnson for helping him unmask the glue-man.

And that was the end of our tour of Fordwich. Not so many people there this year, mainly because of the weather I expect. But those who did brave the rain all seemed to have had a good time.

As is usually the case on these things, I don't have time to take any photos myself. I'm too busy chatting to people, shepherding people and making sure nobody gets run over, giving the talks and running the playlets. But we now have our official photographer, Richard Fraser, who always captures the event very well and I'll put his photos on the site as soon as he sorts them out.

See you all on the last Sunday in August next year.

Steve

[Steve Crook]

And here are a few pics from the grand day out
All photos © Richard Fraser, our regular photographer





Performing "playlets". Getting people to read out lines from scenes in the film in the location where they were filmed - or in this case, inside the real Town Hall which was re-created in the studio.




Group shot outside St Mary's Church, Fordwich.




The Manor House, Fordwich. That was The Colpeper Institute in the film




The Manor House in 1943 and Peter Gibbs (Dennis Price) has a final cigarette before joining the others to listen to Colpeper's lecture.




At the bottom of the High Street, Steve throws light on some of the cinematographic sleights of hand and tricks used in the film.
Good to see Jim Pople (4th from right in the photo) on this year's walk. Jim was 2nd assistant editor on A Canterbury Tale.
And that's DaveK over on the right - the man with the beard, and what a beard


A bit of a damp day with intermittent showers throughout the day, but a great time was had by all.

See you next year

Steve