Bridge : Cogan Station footbridge

What a difference a year makes!

Well, almost a year – the top photo was taken in February 2019, the lower just a few days ago, and the transformation is obvious.

This is the pedestrian footbridge, built in the late 19th century to carry Cardiff- or Barry-bound train passengers over the tracks at Cogan railway station. This section of the Cardiff to Barry line opened to rail traffic on 20 December 1888 so I assume the footbridge was built prior to that but I haven’t been able to find an exact date.

As there are several old footbridges similar to this one crossing the local lines, I was a little surprised to find that this particular bridge is Grade II listed. Here’s how it’s described on the British Listed Buildings website:

Square cast-iron balusters with ball finials; foundry plates 'George Smith & Co, Glasgow'. Wrought iron lattice girder rails to stairs and bridge; cast iron handrail.
Steps have wooden treads and cast-iron risers with pierced quatrefoils. At turn of stairs half landing supported by cast-iron Italianate quattrocento style Corinthian columns on fluted plinths; pierced cast-iron angle bracing. Bridge has wooden decking; rails strengthened by five bulbous braces which pass under decking. Two modern lamps on N side of bridge.

As my photographs show, the footbridge has recently been given a facelift. According to their website, the refurbishment work was carried out by Centregreat Rail & Engineering. The project involved the

installation of a temporary footbridge, removal of the existing span from site for workshop refurbishment, surface preparation & painting, steelwork repairs & strengthening, replacement of timber deck & treads with a load bearing FRP [fibre-reinforced plastic?] alternative, installation of LED hand rail and upgrading of the station platform lighting.

There’s no mention of the paint job, nor any explanation for the choice of colour scheme – a hefty discount on ‘Lollipop pink’ at the local paint shop perhaps? – and it hardly seems appropriate for a Victorian railway bridge. But I certainly am glad the footbridge has been renovated rather than replaced, and it did look rather cheery on a grey winter's day.

Cardiff art : 'Wife on the Ocean Wave'

It seems a shame that this charming sculpture is not better positioned. Sitting between two of the three former Mount Stuart graving docks (once dry, now water filled) in Cardiff Bay, it’s half-way down a dead-end space, where there’s no other reason to venture except for a closer view of the sculpture. And so I seldom see – in fact, have never seen – anyone inspecting the terrific trio in their tiny tub.

Punningly titled, Wife on the Ocean Wave, this wonderful piece was created by sculptor Graham Ibbeson in 1993. In the artist statement on his website, Ibbeson explains the inspiration behind all his artworks:

I have always tried to use humour as a tool to draw people into my work, to enable them to look at themselves through laughter. My work has changed over many years of moving forward through the creative landscape, however, my motivation remains the same. I am influenced by the absurdities of this life and the people who inhabit my world. The small, tiny things that make up the whole picture, hoping as always, that humour opens a path to the truth.

Ibbeson succeeds brilliantly, in this and in the 30-something other sculptures that improve and enhance public spaces throughout Britain. (Click on this link to see a gallery of his public sculptures on the author’s website.)  

Back to the boat, and its three delightful figures, a woman, a man and a young lad. The elderly gentleman looks gleeful, his eyes glinting, a  boyish look of genuine fun-loving joy lighting up his face.

The woman looks more hesitant – there’s no open-mouth smile on her. Perhaps she’s a reluctant passenger in the tub. Perhaps she can’t swim.

And the lad – his face is the hardest to read, as he reaches one hand through the wave. Is he concentrating on something he sees? On grabbing what he has seen? And what is his hand reaching for? Why, a cute little fish, of course. The perfect finishing touch to this charming piece.

Constructed originally in fibre glass, then cast in bronze, Wife on the Ocean Wave stands 152cm tall. Access to it is unrestricted so, next time you visit Cardiff Bay, do make the effort to see it. Opposite Techniquest, on the finger of land between graving docks two and three, under the looming menace of a huge old cargo crane, follow the meandering path for a heartwarming laugh.

A decade of blogging

This blog began on a more personal level than it now is; it was a way both to diarise for myself and to share with friends and family my various life adventures. Over the years, given the more sinister turn the online world of social media has taken, with the capturing and misuse of our personal information, I have become wary of sharing the more specific and intimate details of my life and so this blog has morphed into something that, instead, reflects some of the things that interest me. As the heading indicates, sconzani now contains ‘sprinklings of history, a smidgen of genealogy, a dash of art & a dusting of architecture, all mixed together with my eccentric fascinations’.

Still, as the decade comes to a close, I, like many other people, have been reflecting on the changes the last ten years have brought and I’ve found this blog invaluable for meandering through my own memories. I’ve chosen a blog from each of the last ten years as an example of where life has been taking me.

Way back on 2 November 2010, when I still lived in New Zealand, I began this blog with a post entitled ‘43 more sleeps’, about my forthcoming return to Cambodia, to spend – for the second time – my Christmas holidays volunteering as an English teacher at a local NGO. As we shall see, those volunteering stints changed my life.

2011: leaving behind my fabulous Auckland city view

By 10 April 2011, when I blogged ‘Dream. Plan. Do!’, huge changes were afoot: I was just days away from leaving Auckland to move to Cusco, Peru, where I lived and worked for the next 18 months, as Project manager for a British NGO operating in South America. As well as blogging about my very rewarding work, I wrote a lot about work trips to Colombia and Argentina; border runs to Bolivia to renew my Peru visa; and holiday time exploring much of Peru and Bolivia, and a little of Chile.

It’s been a joy looking through my 2012 blogs – so much exploring, so many lovely people, such fun times. Here’s just one example of the amazing festivals that seemed almost continuous in Peru: my blog from 21 July 2012 ‘Inti Raymi II’, about the local mid-winter solstice celebrations in Cusco.  

I left Peru at the end of 2012 but continued to work, for several months, for the same British NGO, as Development manager based in their Siem Reap office, in Cambodia. And then the need to sort out some financial issues in New Zealand drew me, unexpectedly, back to Auckland. I summarised that year in my blog ‘The year that was: 2013’, published on 31 December.  

2014 began in New Zealand and ended with me living in Cheshire, in England, lodging with a friend I’d worked with in Peru. In the months between I’d enjoyed a fabulous holiday in Morocco, a country that had long been on my wish list; visited friends in England; returned to New Zealand and, not able to settle down to life back in New Zealand, quit my job to return to England, with an amazing holiday in Tanzania on the return journey. On 24 October I published a blog entitled ‘Tanzania: Meeting the Maasai’, giving a taste of the incredible experience of spending time in a Maasai village.  

2015: exploring Chicago

You might by now be forgiven for thinking I have very itchy feet! During 2015, I decided I wanted to move (perhaps) permanently to Britain so, by the end of the year, I had returned to New Zealand, sold my apartment, packed up my belongings, and moved to Cardiff in Wales. And, never one to waste a journey, I had spent a week visiting my lovely friend Trudey in Wisconsin, burned shoe rubber exploring Chicago, and enjoyed a volunteering holiday in Nicaragua. Here’s a snippet from my time with Trudey and some of her women friends, ‘Wisconsin: Road trip to Washington Island’, published on 14 August 2015. What a hoot that day was!   

2016: 'Walking with Mary' in Draethen woods

And so to a more settled life in south Wales. It may not be as exotic as some of the places I’ve lived but, as a newcomer, I have found a great deal to explore and learn about. Early in 2016, I began a two-day-a-week two-year volunteering stint at the local environmental records centre, helping to extract and digitise the biological records of naturalist extraordinaire, Dr Mary Gilham. Our team of volunteers also created a website documenting Mary’s life and achievements, and helped organise various public engagement events. Published on 4 April 2016, here’s one of my first Mary-inspired blogs, ‘Wherever I turn, there’s Mary’.   

For me, one of the major attractions of living in Britain is the sense of history that abounds here. Castles and cathedrals, Roman ruins and Iron age hill forts, even some of the houses I’ve lived in – there is so much that is old, full of characters and stories, and I delight in exploring, researching and writing about the historic things I see. Here’s an example from 30 April 2017: ‘Roman Wales: Caerwent’.    

Another wonderful thing about living here is being able to visit local friends: I particularly enjoy visits to my friend Jill, who lives in East Sussex and who shares my interest in the historic and in wildlife. And, of course, I blog about the amazing, fascinating, beautiful places we visit. In March 2018, one of the stunning places we explored was ‘Beautiful Bodiam’.   

I continue to find new and interesting objects, buildings, graves, ruins, and more in south Wales to explore, photograph and write about. Here, for example, is a piece from April this year about the opening of the pier at my local beach, ‘Penarth : the opening of the pier’.  

It’s impossible to know what the next decade will bring. The political and societal turmoil that has followed the 2016 Brexit vote seems to me to have diminished Britain and its people, and has led me to question whether I want to remain here. And reading through the events of the past ten years has certainly made my feet feel a little itchy again, so ...