Polzeath Stories Public Transport

Like Port Isaac's station, Camelford's railaway station is a long way from its town. Sadly the excellent Cycling Museum based at the old station has now long gone. But on the old map could that be the chapel that Betjeman references when he describes

... hills upon whose sides, the clinging farms hold Bible Christians ? Probably not as it was a bit further up the line near Egloskerry that he references them. 

Connect POLZEATH to PADDINGTON.

Hugh Grant starred in Paddington 2 (2017) and Paddington in Peru (2024) and there is still a picture of him in the loo in the  New Polzeath house in which he stayed. 

Jeremy Irons was not in any of the Paddington films but was in Brideshead Revisited, the TV series adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's book which featured a bear called Aloysius.

John Betjeman's teddy bear was called Archibald Ormsby-Gore and went with him to Oxford  in the 20's where his bear was known as Archie.

Evelyn Waugh and John Betjeman were at Oxford together and although they had an "edgy" relationship Waugh signed off a letter to Penelope Chetwode, John's wife, with "my love to John. Though he doesn't love me as I love him".  

Waugh loved  "Archie" so much that he had Sebastian Flyte's bear, Aloysius, play an important part in Brideshead Revisited. The TV adaptation, with Charles played by Jeremy Irons, is considered among the great British television dramas and literary adaptations.

Incredibly Betjeman died in his Daymer Lane house with Archie by his side in 1984.

By coincidence, but perhaps not connected, Jeremy Irons was in the Polzeath Spar this summer and was told a cheesy joke by Michael at the checkout: "What did the cheese loving decorator do to his wife? Apparently, he double glossed her."  Iron's smiled, which some say is the sign of a truly great actor.

A Bear Called Paddington, was the first book in the Paddington Bear series by Michael Bond, and was first published in 1958.

Archie and the Strict Baptists, written and illustrated by John Betjeman, was first published in 1977. However, Betjeman had written and illustrated a version for his own children in the 1940s and so his Archie predates Paddington.

Although there is no statue of Betjeman in Paddington station there is one at St Pancras Station in tribute to his efforts to save the station from demolition in the 1960s. Betjeman's connection to this area of Cornwall is of course well documented and although he wrote the Shell Guide to Cornwall for motorists he would have travelled many times down here by train.

Michael Bond got a statue of his bear at Paddington Station and saw a parallel between Paddington's arrival at Paddington Station and the evacuee children he witnessed passing through Reading Station during World War II. These children, often carrying labels with their names and addresses, were being sent to places like Polzeath to see out the war in relative safety.

A final connection I can make with Polzeath and Paddington is with Dan Miles, a local artist, who made the orange tree forest for the film set of "Paddington in Peru" and because of that  had to drop out of a Beach Art project with me in 2024. Probably a connection for another day!

"Connect Polzeath to Paddington"... without using Public Transport!

The last post connected John Betjeman's teddy bear, Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, Jeremy Irons and a cheesy joke in the Polzeath Spar to Paddington.

But Top Gear links Polzeath to Paddington too.  

Here's how it works:

Jeremy Clarkson, star of Top Gear and now Clarkson's Farm, is directly connected to Paddington Bear through his mother, Shirley Clarkson, who designed the first Paddington Bear soft toys as a Christmas present for Jeremy and his sister Joanna in the early 70's.  Shirley began selling the bears without licensing rights and that's how Jeremy's father came to met Michael Bond in a lift in London on the way to get one.

They became friends apparently and Bond gave the family the worldwide licensing rights to the toy... thus putting Jeremy on the way to becoming quite rich and eventually a Top Gear presenter in 1988. 

Unlike Betjeman, Clarkson didn't go to Oxford with his teddy bear, although in 2005 he did get an honorary Doctor of Engineering degree from Oxford Brookes!

Anyhow, in the summer of 2010 Clarkson took Top Gear to Polzeath on the first of three Motorhome challenges.

You can still watch the Motorhome Cliffhanger - Top Gear Series 15 Episode 4 - on BBC on iplayer and it is quite funny even if you are not a fan of the show. The other two challenges involved caravans on a trip to Dorset. 

In 2010 the Polzeath episode was watched by about 9 million people in the UK and Australia. Today Top Gear is estimated to have been watched by 350 million people worldwide!

If you were there and have a story to tell about the filming at Southwinds or on the beach with Wavehunter's Andy Cameron please feel free to comment.

Andy Cameron may actually have an interesting connection to both Paddington, via Betjeman's book "Archie and the Strict Baptists", and Top Gear, because Wavehunters was originally a surf minibus service!