Beechdean Motorsports - Brands Hatch 2011

Hopefully you'll have seen from my recent posts that the newly-opened Nonsuch Pantry has taken on a range of Beechdean ice creams so in probably one of the most tangentally connected posts you're likely to read on a blog I went to watch the 007 car of Beechdean Motorsports compete in the Brands Hatch round of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship.

The Beechdean Motorsports car is a black and yellow six-litre Aston Martin DBRS9 capable of 0-60 in under 4 seconds in the GT3 class with ice-cream company director Andrew Howard and professional driver Jonny Adams behind the wheel. Things were looking promising after a good run in qualifying but on an alternately sunny and rainy day in Kent it'd be fair to say that they had a bad day at the office. Starting from 4th on the grid an early spin dropped them down the field and a later puncture, slowing them to a crawl for an almost complete lap of Brands Hatch's Grand Prix circuit, and a couple of trips into the gravel meant that it was not going to be their day. They finished the race in a disappointing 20th and will be hoping to regroup before the next race in Spa, Belgium in three weeks time.

Nice car though. And nice ice cream.

*n.b. They don't sponsor me and didn't get me into Brands Hatch. Promise!

Nonsuch Pantry - update

If you saw my post about the Nonsuch Pantry the other day you'll know I had a couple of questions and I've got a couple of answers.

Firstly there's loads of outdoor seating as, in addition to the tables I saw on Thursday they had some nice round wooden tables and chairs.

Secondly if you're not into artisan lemonades and the like then you can still get a can of Diet Coke!

Thirdly Brinkster Minor's very impressed that he could get a "Bambaccino" (Pizza Express customers should know what I'm talking about).

We didn't get as far as ice creams but their Twitter feed says they're going to do cones so I think all should be good there.

Brinkster Minor and myself sat on the benches in the entrance hall to have our drinks and it was interesting to watch people's first reaction when they walked in, which was normally "Wow", followed by "WOW" when they saw the main cafe itself. Prices compare favourably with the Starbucks and Costas of this world so if you've been do let me know what you think in the comments below.

Nonsuch Park - The new Nonsuch Park cafe

Tap, tap.

You still here?

I'd have thought I'd have shaken off even the most devoted reader by now with my prolonged silence but I guess there's no accounting for taste.

Anyway, we're not here to talk about me, we're here to talk about the the new cafe in Nonsuch Park, called the Nonsuch Pantry which is replacing the old cafe in the house and they're planning to open tomorrow, Friday 26th May.

They kindly let me in to take some sneak pics today as they're ready to open tomorrow and it'd be fair to say that they've changed a lot, as the photos show.

They've redone it in the style of the renovation of the Mansion interior and it certainly is spectacular. The counter and shelves are laden with all kinds of lovely things from Bovingdons, the caterers, that I'm looking forward to sampling but there are a few questions in the Brinkster household which, at this time, I'm singularly unable to give a conclusive answer.

Those questions are, in order,
1) "What about ice-creams?" (It does mention ice creams on their Twitter page but I didn't see any), and
2) "What about the slushee machine?"

Sorry. I can't help. I'd really like to, as those are two things that figure prominently in our Nonsuch walks so if those don't happen then the young Brinksters might be driven to head down there with pitchforks and blazing torches to give the management a seeing to. The arrangement inside is also different and I'm not sure whether there's more or less seating than before as I almost always used the tables outside , and I'm not sure if there's as much of that as before, but it's early days and I know they're feeling their way into this so what is there on day 1 is not necessarily the finished product and things will undoubtedly change. Helpful suggestions will, I'm sure, be welcomed.

In the meantime you can follow them on Twitter here and enjoy the jumble of pics that I'm left with because I've forgotten how to format the layout .

Nonsuch Palace

One of my wistful wishes is that Nonsuch Palace had survives like its counterparts, Hampton Court or Ham Palace. The Guardian is reporting on the auction of an early picture of Nonsuch Palace:

The earliest image of the gilded spires and towers of the lost palace of Henry VIII – so beautiful, costly and grand that it was christened Nonsuch – will be auctioned at Christie's next month with an estimated sale price of up to £1.2m.

The Guardian then gives a brief history of the palace

The palace itself, built at fabulous expense in 1538 near Ewell, in Surrey, to outshine the palaces of Henry's deadly rival, the French king Francois I, lasted barely 150 years. It was torn down in the late 17th century and sold off for building materials to settle the gambling debts of a king's mistress. Some of the stone and timber work survives in later houses.

The watercolour has been in an English private collection for most of the last two centuries, and has been publicly exhibited only twice.

Enough of me wittering on. Go read the whole thing for yourself here.

Nonsuch Mansion revealed

Last night myself and Mrs Brinkster were honoured to be guests at a pre-opening party in Nonsuch Mansion and I have to say that its transformation from local authority education centre/spare building to prestige events venue is complete!

The interior, as I think the photos show and as I've mentioned before, is stunning and with people inside it really comes alive with the different rooms having their own ambience with people seeming to gravitate towards their "favourite" room as the evening went on. As the sun went down exterior also took on a whole new appearance with the mood lighting (of which more later) and of course if you wanted to have an event of your own there the whole lot can be tailored to suit what you want. Some people may have recently been thrilled to see the first steam train in x years on the move and others may have got chills watching the Vulcan bomber return to the air but for me it was a great feeling to see this lovely building in action, my geeky thrill if you want to call it that.

The canapés, provided by caterers Bovingdons, were gorgeous with food ranging from crab to mushroom, quails eggs with smoked salmon to wasabi and were all beautifully prepared, both in appearance and flavour, and I just had to try them all.... several times.... If you haven't heard of them before Bovingdons cater at a range of venues from Kew Steam Museum to Kensington Palace and from the Royal Observatory to, appropriately for Nonsuch, Henry VIII's Hampton Court Palace. I know that bookings are already coming in for weddings and anniversaries but if you work locally then it'd be a special place to stage a Christmas party, office event or customer seminar.

Normally a trip to a venue of this type would involve a trip up to London or a fair old car journey but to have one this close to home is bliss and I have to give a big "Thank you" to Lucy of Nonsuch Mansion for inviting us both!

Extra shouts are required as the cool jazz mood was provided by DJ John Clark of Shifty Translation who has the fabulous talent of jamming along to the tracks with his muted trumpet and additionally the mood lighting, so evident in the photos, was provided by Worcester Park's own Effectevent Ltd, who can provide sound, light, projection and other event services.

There are some more photos of the evening on Flickr here and you'll need to see them if you want to understand what "visiting the velvet dogs" is a euphemism for!

Anyway, as I've mentioned before it's open on Sunday from 11am until 4pm to have a look around so I'd recommend you give it a visit, whether you have an event in mind or not.

http://www.nonsuchmansion.com/
020 8786 8124
events[at]nonsuchmansion.com
http://twitter.com/nonsuchmansion

Nonsuch preview

As I mentioned last week I had the opportunity for an exclusive sneak peek at the renovation work that has been carried out inside Nonsuch Mansion in preparation for the official opening on the 13th.

As you may recall there's recently been a big fuss as Surrey Council were going to sell it off for development but a huge local campaign saved it for local use and now life is being brought back to the building as it's opened up for hopefully a long future of public use. You may even have seen it pop up recently on "Who Do You Think You Are" when Kevin Whately traced his ancestors back to the house.

In order to restore it to some of its former glory there's been a renovation of the main rooms downstairs and selected rooms upstairs, with the hope that more of the upstairs can be given a makeover in due course.

The pictures here will give you a taster of what it's like but as lovely as they might make it look the reality is far better as they don't really convey the scale of the place. The picture to top right shows a view through the line of rooms which overlook the lawn from east to west and the one below shows the two rooms at the west end of the house looking from the south to the north, a large 'L' shape if you can picture it. Now when you look at these pictures I want you to notice the chandeliers in each room because as these hang about eight feet off the ground that will give you the scale of just how big the doors are and how high the ceilings are.

Now pictures are all very well but you want to look around for yourself don't you and I'm pleased to be able to say that on the 13th September from 11am to 4pm it's Nonsuch Park Awareness Day and as part of the programme the Mansion will be open for you to have a look into with tours provided by The Friends of Nonsuch.

Epsom and Ewell Council's website explains:
"There will be a host of Let’s Get Active events including free cycle training and tours, health walks and Tai Chi demonstrations as well as a chance to meet ramblers and running clubs and even get a cycle MOT with Dr Bike check-ups. Dog owners can take part in a dog training clinic or meet a police dog handler to get some top tips and vets will be on hand to carry out check-ups."

Now that the Mansion has been saved the best way to keep it in the public domain is to use it so whether you're planning a a birthday party, wedding reception, anniversary celebration or company event get in touch with the folks at Nonsuch Mansion to see what you can do with this fabulous building.

If you want to see more photos from the inside check out this blog too:
http://lloyddobbie.com/blog/?p=636

Phone: 020 8874 8032
Email: events@nonsuchmansion.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/nonsuchmansion

"The past is a different country...."

"...They do things differently there" is a quote I've heard many times and with many attributed sources but it was brought to mind today when I stumbled across a gem in the film archives. No, not Youtube but British Pathe, the home of the newsreel.

If you don't know what a newsreel is then this might completely go over your head but I was excited to find that British Pathe have a newsreel online of the excavation of Nonsuch Palace back in 1959 and it seems a million miles away from Channel 4's Time Team with the 1950's version having well-scrubbed students assisting the fatherly archaeologists excavating the site.
If you were to go there today you'd find just an area of grass and weeds but the newsreel shows just how big the original site was and what an excellent building would still be standing if one of Charles II's mistresses hadn't had it demolished and sold off to pay her gambling debts.


Ah well.

British Pathe - Nonsuch Palace 1959
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=888

Is no news really good news?

What's going on? I went to Google News this morning to do my regular search for Worcester Park news over the last week and there's absolutely nothing, zilch, nada!?!? Other than the opening of Cycle Power being pushed back into September is there really that little going on? I could try and do something with the story about Sutton being London's happiest place, but then you knew that already didn't you.....  Fortunately the latest edition of the Worcester Park Life is available in the usual outlets for your reading pleasure although the PDF version hasn't made it onto the website just yet.

After the excitement of Friday night Saturday saw me taking Brinkster Junior to see the new Clone Wars thing while Brinkster Minor watched Miss Brinkster having a riding lesson. After that we all met up and headed off to Nonsuch Park to amble round in the unusual brightness of a genuinely sunny afternoon and make the most of an unseasonably early start to the conker season.

This led to the discovery by Mrs Brinkster that Mole Valley Orienteering Club (MVOC) are holding some introductory 2km and 3km events at Nonsuch Park on Saturday 27th September between 10am and 11am for the nominal sum of £1 (aged 19 and under) and £3 for adults. I've never professed any great desire to orienteer, if that's the word, but any excuse to spend some time hurtling around Nonsuch Park on what will hopefully be a sunny day can't be a bad thing in my books. For those who can't make that one they're doing another one in October at the Hogsmill, details on the flyers below:




For more info do visit their website.

To change the subject, and tone, entirely I like to think of myself as having a somewhat refined vocabulary so it pains me when there is no option other than to resort to four-letter words, particularly the "c" one but here goes. Over in the Worcester Park Blog there's been some conversation involving the word "chav" and for the benefit of readers all and sundry I thought I'd pass on the link to "Chav Master", a game in which "you enage in the ultimate battle of bad behaviour: compete against your apponents in a no-holds-barred contest to collect A.S.B.O's. To win the Golden A.S.B.O. simply hold onto your electronic tag and prove that you are the ultimate loser!"

I thought the typo was a nice touch.

Anyway, who could resist gawking at the website of a game that describes itself thus:

Strap on your electronic tag, turn down Trisha, and get ready to go head-to-head in the ultimate battle of bad behaviour!!!

3 - 12 players slog it out. Only one will prove themselves worthy of the Chav Master title, and the Holy Grail of Chavdom - The Golden A.S.B.O.

Seven classic party games get a 21st Century kick up the arse. Collect as many A.S.B.O's as you can and hold on to your electronic tag, or you're out of the game!

Here's the link.

Nonsuch Mansion saved

After my previous rant here's some good news. Nonsuch Park Mansion has been saved from the nefarious schemes of Surrey Council and signed over to Epsom and Sutton councils with a 125 year lease. As someone who frequents the park, ermmm......., frequently this is good news and I'm off to the tea shop to celebrate!!

A sunny disposition

Wasn't the weather nice yesterday? In spite of my cold I trolled around Nonsuch Park after the Brinkster Clan with Miss Brinkster in the lead, which could account for why Brinkster Minor ended up on his butt in the mud as she'd chosen a less than optimally dry path through the trees..... Bright and sunny though so he dried off quickly, and an ice cream cheered him up.

We had an unusual problem this weekend as Mrs Brinkster went to put the rubbish out in the bin and found it was full..... of somebody else's rubbish. There were two blue bin bags with "Merton" on the side of them with clothes and boxes in there, but none of the usual day-to-day hous. We've spoken to the Council and we suspect it's one of the houses further up the road where Mrs Brinkster spotted activity over the weekend of people moving in/out. If the Govt ever do introduce a tax on rubbish I would anticipate that this is something we'll see a lot more of.

Lastly, I think I've unearthed another Worcester Park blog in the form of "Mobile Blog" with photos of trains, cats, landmarks and our beloved Worcester Park station. As it is a blog from a mobile there's little text on there but they might be encouraged to venture forth, eh?

P.S. Congratulations to Lee for piercing my veil of anonymity and 'outing' me as The Brinkster at a party on Saturday! Thought you deserved a mention ;)