My Brighton Toy and Model Museum YouTube vlog is now live!
This is my tourist attraction and book reviewing website, which also includes my writing work (and maybe a few other things too...) I am available for commissions. Copyright©Elaine Rockett
Saturday, 3 May 2025
BRIGHTON TOY AND MODEL MUSEUM YOUTUBE VLOG NOW LIVE!
Saturday, 19 April 2025
HISTORIC GREAT YARMOUTH (PART 2) YOUTUBE VLOG NOW LIVE!
Great Yarmouth is sandwiched between the North Sea and the River Yare, and settlement dates back to Roman times. Once considered to be a wealthy trading centre of great importance, it was granted a charter by King John in 1208. By the early 18th century it was a thriving port with a significant herring industry, and was a main military supply base during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars.
I visit Great Yarmouth at least once a year, and am a big advocate for British tourism. In this video I'm not going to be detailing the main tourist drag- although I do touch upon it- rather, I've honed in on the historic aspects of the town.
In Part 2 of this series, amongst other things, I will be taking you to see the Victoria Arches, which serve as a reminder of the time when this part of Great Yarmouth tried to gentrify; its goal being to attract a better class of seaside visitor. I also checked out both the Britannia Pier and the Wellington Pier; both above and below the boardwalk, then I managed to have a crafty snoop inside what was once Great Yarmouth College of Art, which has now been converted into flats. Whilst in there, I'll show you the exact site of my first ever interview.
I also walked right down past the Pleasure Beach, and into the old Royal Naval Hospital; which is a listed building that is now also flats, and then I ventured into a small industrial estate, home to the Britannia Monument- a commemorative tower built to celebrate Norfolk's most famous son, Admiral Horatio Nelson.
Tuesday, 8 April 2025
HISTORIC GREAT YARMOUTH (PART 1) YOUTUBE VLOG NOW LIVE!
My Historic Great Yarmouth (Part 1) YouTube vlog is now live!
Great Yarmouth is sandwiched between the North Sea and the River Yare, and settlement dates back to Roman times. Once considered to be a wealthy trading centre of great importance, it was granted a charter by King John in 1208. By the early 18th century it was a thriving port with a significant herring industry, and was a main military supply base during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars.
I visit Great Yarmouth at least once a year, and am a big advocate for British tourism. In this video I'm not going to be detailing the main tourist drag- although I do touch upon it- rather, I've honed in on the historic aspects of the town.
In Part 1 of this series, amongst other things I'll be visiting Anna Sewell's birthplace and wandering into neighbouring Great Yarmouth Minster's churchyard- home to a refectory containing a ghost! I'll also be walking through the Victoria Arcade and down to the historic waterfront, and I check out the Tolhouse Gaol, where I once had the privilege of a private tour. Then I take a stroll along King Street; home to Great Yarmouth's only surviving 17th century urban jettied timber framed building, and another building once known as the leaning tower of Yarmouth! I also discuss some tourist attractions that are sadly no longer open, and hone in on some of the interesting things I find along the way.
Stay tuned, as there is a Part 2...
Saturday, 29 March 2025
VENETIAN WATERWAYS YOUTUBE VLOG LIVE!
Come and take a walk in my shoes over cute bridges; past authentic thatched seating areas; into secluded, manicured gardens and learn about some of the flora and fauna of this area. As well as there being a little café, you can hire a pedalo or boat during good weather. Have I ever done so? Nah, on yer bike! If I'm hiring a boat then I expect it to come with an engine- if I've paid good money then there's no way I'm operating the damn thing myself!
I have to admit, maybe February wasn't the best time to film this vlog, as the waterways are much prettier during Spring and Summer- but I will be back. I will also show you a part of Great Yarmouth that I refer to as No Man's Land...
Thursday, 20 March 2025
MAGDALA TAVERN YOUTUBE VLOG LIVE!
My Magdala Tavern YouTube vlog is now live!
This case is very important from a historical point of view. Aside from being the last female to be hanged, Ruth Ellis' case was also instrumental in bringing about two significant legal changes. Two years later, in 1957, diminished responsibility was added into British law as a defence for murder and hers was one of a handful of cases instrumental in pushing forward the campaign for the abolition of capital punishment. From 1965 a person could no longer be hanged in Britain for committing murder. The Ruth Ellis story is well-documented: in dramatisations such as A Cruel Love and Dance With A Stranger, but also in factual programmes.
Come and take a walk in my shoes and I'll take you to where the shooting scene was filmed in Dance With A Stranger- and it's not the Magdala! Then we will visit the Magdala Tavern, which sits near Hampstead Heath Overground station, and which is very much still an operating pub. I'll take a look at the actual bullet holes left over from the crime, which are embedded in the outside wall- but are they really bullet holes?
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https://elainerockett.blogspot.com/2024/08/miss-elaineous-visits-golders-hill-park.html
Saturday, 8 March 2025
CAISTER ROMAN FORT YOUTUBE VLOG LIVE!
Caister Roman Fort, Great Yarmouth, was part of a chain of forts that were built to act as defence mechanisms to Saxon seaborne invaders, and was occupied by the Roman army and navy. It was built around AD 200 as a military base unit, but archaeological objects such as beads, brooches, bracelets and hairpins have been found (as well as spearheads, arrowheads and masculine buckles) suggesting that women and children lived alongside the soldiers, as families. The fort occupied a small island on the north side of the estuary of the rivers Yare, Waveney, Bure and Ant. These were important routes into East Anglia, where people lived in settlements, and are now mostly dry and have become modern Great Yarmouth.
Part of the fort and its defences were discovered during archaeological digs between 1951 and 1955. It is not a large, or deep, fort and the remaining foundations are only about 18 inches high at best. I have been known to describe it as “bas-relief” and that's very naughty as it was very significant find and it's perhaps not quite that shallow!
Come and take a walk in my shoes and I'll tell you more about this Roman fort. Then we'll wander through Caister Cemetery, where the nine lifeboatmen killed during a rescue mission, known as the Beauchamp disaster of 1901, are buried, then on to Caister Lifeboat, who operate as an independent concern. Finally, we'll take a look at the Caister lions- two stone animals which guard a gap in the concrete sea wall.
As you know, I will always be a writer before anything else, and my Caister Roman Fort blog can be viewed here:-
Saturday, 8 February 2025
10 RILLINGTON PLACE YOUTUBE VLOG NOW LIVE!
Christie was one twisted individual but apparently, had you known him, you wouldn't have guessed what his sick hobby was as he hid beneath a cloak of respectability, and managed to send innocent Timothy Evans to the hangman; accused of two murders that he himself committed. His modus operandi was to gas and strangle his victims; raping them either whilst they were unconscious or ante-mortem. His house was literally bleeding bodies, as he hid them within the fabric of his home.
Amazingly, tenants continued to occupy 10 Rillington Place even after Christie had been hanged in 1953, right up to the time of its demolition (which took place in the early 1970s.) By that time it had been re-named Ruston Close. The whole area was rebuilt, to a different geographical layout, possibly to stop macabre people like myself going to see the location.
Come and take a walk in my shoes down Bartle Road, and I'll show you what's there now.
As you know, I will always be a writer before anything else, and my 10 Rillington Place blog can be found here:-
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Wednesday, 29 January 2025
MISS ELAINEOUS VISITS THE MUSEUM OF BRANDS
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