(no subject)

Last weekend lady_schrapnell and I took a trip to Clevedon. I've always liked its Victorian charm. Even its latter-day abandonment by bucket-and-spade Brits in favour of the Costas has been absorbed now. It's not prosperous, but its career into seediness has been checked. So we are left with donkeys, a little train, a promenade with band stand, a pier stretching out towards Wales across the Bristol Channel, with (on the day we were there) the Severn Bridge just mistily visible to our right, and to our left Brean Down and my namesake island.

But the pier was the highight, and the highlight of the pier was the array of little brass plaques paid for by inviduals (all proceeds to the pier restoration fund, of course), covering almost* every plank and bench along the pier's considerable length. Mostly they were to commemorate the dead, but included advertisements, marriage proposals, celebrations of births and birthdays - or even inconsequential memories that might better have been put in a visitor's book at the local B&B. "He loved the sea," is a constant refrain. One memorialized the first man to swim the Bristol Channel, the Irish Sea, and the English Channel. Another remembered a visit to Clevedon one February: "We had a good time, although it was rather cold," proclaims the brazen plate for all eternity. Or: "Andy, I want to snog your face off." That one (I forget the name of the girl/woman who paid many a quid to have it made), was put up in 2002. Does she still feel the same? The fee for removing a plate is £5, which doesn't seem too steep - so perhaps she does.

Others were downright mysterious. I'd love to know the stories behind this and this in particular...

* There are still a few spaces left! Prices on application to the pier gatehouse.