Railway Bells

I've had a very interesting and pleasurable afternoon with two lovely women from Visit Essex. They posted on Twitter asking for someone to take pics for their Top Of The World in Essex campaign. I volunteered and first we captured images from the top floor of Brentwood Town Hall. That was a revelation. The place was built in the 1950s and is soon to be refurbished. The top floor hasn't been used for years and is a proper time warp. 

From there to the beautiful 16th century Ingatestone Hall where I met the amiable Lord Petre who escorted us onto the roof of the tower which has wonderful views over the Essex countryside.

As I was taking pics for Visit Essex I am not going to post any of those images here. The only snap I got outside my brief was through the car windscreen as we waited at the level crossing at Ingatestone station. There was a row of bells strung between striped poles either side of the tracks. I can't find any information about them.

PS I have just discovered that they are to help farmers transport equipment and herds of cattle over the railway crossing safely. The height of the bells is the same height as the powered overhead cables on the railway line.  If the farmer’s kit makes the bells ring as he goes underneath then this warns him that his equipment is too tall to cross the line safely.

Today's poem is Ode on Solitude by Alexander Pope. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/46561

Amazing that this was written when AP was only twelve years old. I'm very content to breathe my native air in my own ground.

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