On the economy side the worsening financial crisis continues to hit the news. GDP fell by 0.5% in the September quarter - which means that England is either officially in or heading for a recession - worse than the 1990's they reckon. House prices have plummetted 40% in a few months which means many people have mortgages far greater than their house is worth (how can banks lend up to 120% of the value of the house I wonder). Anyway, we saw some lovely little houses in Castle Combe, which somehow I think will not fall as greatly due to their history and character (crooked roof lines, exposed wooden beams, stable doors opening onto the road). I was fascinated to read that in 1960 Dr Dolittle was filmed in Castle Combe and in the nearby village, Lacton, Pride and Prejudice was filmed.
The Castle Combe race track is well known, but today there were no car races in sight but a novel sport we had not seen before. Roller skiing. We watched a couple of races, thought it would be a good sport for skiers to keep fit during summer and decided it looked like hard work. Originally the racetrack was an airfield. After World War Two it was converted to a racetrack where people such as Stirling Moss (known as 'the greatest driver never to win the world championships') and John Surtees (the only person to have won world championships on both two and four wheels) raced. In 1997 Nigel Greensall drove a new lap record of 130.93 miles per hour (that is faster than the Peregrine we read about yesterday). During that time trial a spectator was killed and the owners decided to install chicanes to slow cars down. However Formula Three continued to race there until 2005 when it was issued with a noise nuisance order and now only local championships are held and a yearly Formula Ford Carnival.
The Castle Combe race track is well known, but today there were no car races in sight but a novel sport we had not seen before. Roller skiing. We watched a couple of races, thought it would be a good sport for skiers to keep fit during summer and decided it looked like hard work. Originally the racetrack was an airfield. After World War Two it was converted to a racetrack where people such as Stirling Moss (known as 'the greatest driver never to win the world championships') and John Surtees (the only person to have won world championships on both two and four wheels) raced. In 1997 Nigel Greensall drove a new lap record of 130.93 miles per hour (that is faster than the Peregrine we read about yesterday). During that time trial a spectator was killed and the owners decided to install chicanes to slow cars down. However Formula Three continued to race there until 2005 when it was issued with a noise nuisance order and now only local championships are held and a yearly Formula Ford Carnival.
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