Christopher Hilton

@chilton-bb

Head of Archive & Library at The Red House, . Archives, music, metadata; side orders of architecture, landscape history & electronic noise.

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Christopher Hilton@chilton-bb· 26d

Reminded by OneDrive that this is the 11th anniversary of the day when the Wellcome Trust's window cleaners left the door onto a service balcony next to my desk unlocked, and I nipped out to take photos before they found out. You have to, don't you? (Don't let on to the Trust's HR...)

A view down a street, from a balcony several floors up in a modern metal and glass building. Across the road are older buildings, including one with a classical pediment we look down onto.

A view down a street, from a balcony several floors up in a modern metal and glass building. Across the road are older buildings, with a tall transmitter tower (the Post Office Tower, as was) peeping over them.

A view vertically downwards towards a narrow street with a wide pavement on this side of it: we look directly down onto a person walking along the pavement towing a wheeled-suitcase.

Christopher Hilton@chilton-bb· 26d

Today is the 101st birthday of cellist and Holocaust-survivor Anita Lasker-Wallfisch. Here, she's celebrated in a post from the Red House Instagram account: www.instagram.com/p/Da49ToMIyEz/

A screenshot from the @theredhousealdeburgh Instagram account. On the left, a black and white photo of a conductor and musicians (chiefly cellists) performing to an audience visible beyond the conductor. On the right the text reads:

theredhousealdeburgh Today we celebrate Anita Lasker-Wallfisch’s 101st birthday!

Here, Lasker-Wallfisch is pictured as the second cellist from the right, rehearsing with Britten and the @englishchamberorchestra for the opening of the Snape Maltings Concert Hall in June 1967.

We wish her a very Happy Birthday and thank her for her extraordinary contribution to music.

©Hans Wild

#BenjaminBritten #EnglishChamberOrchestra #SnapeMaltings #ConcertHall

Christopher Hilton@chilton-bb· Jul 12

In Pershore Abbey today, a nice detail on a knight's tomb: carved stone buckles fastening together his breastplate and back-plate. (The church is a T-shape, having lost its nave at the Dissolution; IIRC when abbey churches were taken over by the parish it was often the nave that was kept.)

A close-up of a stone sculpture on a medieval tomb. The sculpture is of a knight in chain mail, with a surcoat over a breastplate and back-plate; the detail show three carved buckles below his armpit, fastening breastplate and back-plate together.

A stone sculpture on a medieval tomb. The sculpture is of a knight in chain mail, with a surcoat over a breastplate and back-plate and a shield on his left arm.

A church in a park, the grass yellowed by a heatwave. The church has a tall tower and a chancel to the right: to the left of the tower the nave has been demolished and buttresses prop up the tower.

A church in a park, the grass yellowed by a heatwave. The church has a tall tower and an entrance at the foot of this between buttresses; formerly cross-shaped, its nave (which would have stretched towards the camera) has been demolished leaving a T-shaped structure.

Christopher Hilton@chilton-bb· Jul 9

Reminded by OneDrive that on this day in 1997 I was on Scafell Pike; not a heatwave on the scale of this summer, but still a hot day, and the slog up Brown Tongue from Wasdale Head had us questioning our life choices.

A view up a small brook valley over steep grassy slopes towards rocky mountains towering in the background.

A wide expansive view over rocky mountains and hills from a higher peak, on a summer day, with fluffy white clouds dotting the lower part of the deep blue sky.

Christopher Hilton@chilton-bb· Jul 2

The River Stour today, at the bridge in Bures linking Suffolk and Essex. If, like me, you read Philippa Pearce's "The Minnow on the Say" as a child, I suspect this is how you visualised the little River Say; certainly this is how I saw it.

A view up a small, slow-moving river, fringed with rushes and willow, on a cloudless summer day.

A medieval church overlooking a small sliw-moving river fringed with reeds, on a cloudless summer day. In front of the church a garden has steps down to a landing-stage.

A low-arched green cast-iron bridge over a small reed-fringed river. Beyond are the houses of a village, some pink-painted plaster and some dark clapperboard. The sky is a cloudless summer blue.

Christopher Hilton@chilton-bb· Jul 2

Here's the July image from my 2026 @geograph-gbi.bsky.social calendar: Evening view north-west from Sharpenhoe Clappers. (The chalk downland that extends north and east from the Chilterns through Beds and Herts doesn't get much kudos, but it's well worth a visit.) www.geograph.org.uk/photo/7816071

A view from a rough downland pasture off an escarpment over miles of fields and woodland. The view is taken in the early evening on a summer day, with high cumulus clouds in the blue sky and the sun emerging from behind a cloud bank to shine into the eyes of the photographer; slanting golden light illuminates the whole scene.

Christopher Hilton@chilton-bb· Jul 1

110 years since 1st July marked the beginning of the Battle of the Somme. This is one of the many, many @cwgc.bsky.social cemeteries dotted about that landscape; Blighty Valley, where my wife's great-uncle, killed on that first day, is buried.

A view along a path between rough grass pastures towards woodland. At the foot of the woods, beyone a blocky marble gateway, is a cemetery of gleaming white World War I gravestones.

Ranks of matching World War I gravestones in a cemetery. The near ones commemorate men in the the Yorks. & Lancs. Regiment; nearest is Captain O.R. Cuthbert, killed on July 1st 1916 aged 25.

Christopher Hilton@chilton-bb· Jun 29

Thomas Cook it was! I came across a couple of my early 90s timetables a while back (not sure where the ones I used in the 80s are), and it was Proustian stuff: channel crossings by boat-train and ferry still, and in the year between these two being published Yugoslavia has started to disintegrate.

Two Thomas Cook European railway timetable books, each red with text in white and a map of Europe taking up the lower half of the cover. They are dated August 1991 (including, apparently, a 32 page winter supplement) and September 27th - October 31st 1992, the new winter schedules. The map of Europe shows national boundaries and the country Yugoslavia on the first volume has fragmented into Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and a much smaller rump Yugoslavia (the current states of Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Northern Macedonia).

A railway timetable showing "International Services" from a 1990s Thomas Cook timetable. The table shows routes between London Victoria and Paris (either Nord or St. Lazare), with some connecting services to Basel SBB; channel crossings are by ferry between Newhaven and Dieppe or Dover and Calais, or by SeaCat between Newhaven and Boulogne.

Christopher Hilton@chilton-bb· Jun 27

Oh yes, perfect! And the crashed bomber on the slip-case links neatly to the story that's always in my head when I walk about these landscapes, My Dream of Flying to Wake Island.

My Dream of Flying to Wake Island
J. G. Ballard
M ELVILLE'S dream of flying to Wake Island- a hopeless ambition, given all his handicaps - came alive again when he found the crashed aircraft buried in the dunes above the beach-house. Until then, during these first three months at the abandoned resort built among the sand-hills, his obsession with Wake Island had rested on little more
than a collection of fraying photographs of his Pacific atoll, a few vague memories of its immense concrete runways, and an unfulfilled vision of himself at the controls of a light aircraft, flying steadily westwards across the open sea.
With the discovery of the crashed bomber in the dunes, everything had changed. Instead of spending his time wandering aimlessly along the beach, or gazing from the balcony at the endless sand-flats that stretched towards the sea at low tide, Melville now devoted all his time to digging the aircraft out of the dunes. He cancelled his evening
games of chess with Dr. Laing, his only neighbour at the empty resort, went to bed before the television programmes began and was up by six, dragging his spades and land-lines across the sand to the excavation site.
The activity suited Melville, distracting him from the sharp frontal migraines that had begun to affect him again. These returning memories of the prolonged ECT treatment unsettled him more than he had expected, with their unequivocal warning that in the margins of his mind the elements of a less pleasant world were waiting to reconstitute themselves. The dream of escaping to Wake Island was a compass bearing of sorts, but

Christopher Hilton@chilton-bb· Jun 27

As time passes and buildings' construction recedes into the past, stylistic commonalities emerge more clearly, and that first generation of Magnox nuclear reactors becomes ever more obviously 1950s. Here's Sizewell A, taken in March 2020 on one of our last walks before lockdown.

A large concrete building viewed up a shingle beach, its left side glowing golden in evening sunlight.

A large concrete building viewed up a shingle beach, its left side lit by evening sunlight. A white domed building is further along the beach to the right.

A large concrete building viewed up a shingle beach, its left side lit by evening sunlight.

Christopher Hilton@chilton-bb· Jun 27

Reminded by OneDrive that on this day in 2017 I first saw the Red House, when I interviewed for my current job. Action-packed day: up at dawn in South London, drive to Aldeburgh, interview, drive down and round the M25 to Gatwick, stick car in long-stay, fly to Venice for the #LODLAM conference...

A twin-gabled red brick house taken on a grey dismal day.

The wide open spaces of an airport, with boarding steps in the middle distance but no planes.

Venice at night: a church silhouetted against a deep blue sky, with a yellow light reflecting in a canal in front of the church.

Christopher Hilton@chilton-bb· Jun 27

Plus, of course, the way that the M23 starts at junction 7, with a whole ghost motorway through south London implied by the number (and the bridge over the A23 there which has never carried traffic and presumably never will).

A screen shot from Google maps, showing junction 7 of the M23 at Merstham. The two motorway carriageways mrtge into the A23 heading north into suburbia, but between them the main motorway continues for a couple of hundred yards, its surface encroached on by greenery, before stopping abruptly.

Christopher Hilton@chilton-bb· Jun 25

A recent arrival in the archive, from the Red House Facebook page: one of our invaluable volunteers' experiences at the Aldebutgh Festival 50 years ago.

A screenshot from the Facebook page of The Red House, Aldeburgh. The text reads:
“Britten got a standing ovation… Janet Baker was on top class form.”

A brilliant glimpse into the Aldeburgh Festival 50 years ago.

John, one of our volunteers, has donated the memorabilia he kept from 1976, including his hotel bill from the @wentworthaldeburgh, concert tickets, programme sheets and even his diary.

A wonderful reminder of the moments that make the Festival so special.

#AldeburghFestival #BenjaminBritten #JanetBaker #SnapeMaltings

Below are photographs of two bus tickets and a hotel bill.

Christopher Hilton@chilton-bb· Jun 25

Public service announcement for anyone suffering in the heat further south, or indeed just inland: Aldeburgh is relatively clement today and at the Red House and its archive we have trees, and a breeze. If you're within reach, drop in! (And commiserations, of course, to anyone stuck in the heat...)

A view between trees towards a sunlit lawn with a bench on it.

Christopher Hilton@chilton-bb· Jun 23

Yesterday's Festival activities involved leading a group on a walk from Aldeburgh to Thorpeness and back, retracing Britten's "composing walks". No pictures of my own to share - I was too busy making sure people didn't get lost! - but here are some from the Britten Pears Arts Instagram feed.

A man in a turquoise polo shirt standing on a bench in front of a Tudor timbered building, talking to a group of about twenty people. The sky is blue and cloudless and many of the audience are wearing sunhats.

A group of walkers heading away from the camera on a seafront path, with houses on their right and a shingle beach to their left. The beach has two towers on it, one nearby with "Fresh Fish for Sale" on a shed at its foot and the other some way off. A man in a turquoise polo shirt standing on a bench in front of a Tudor timbered building, talking to a group of about twenty people. The sky is blue and cloudless and many of the walkers are wearing sunhats.

A group of walkers making their way through deep bracken, with scattered trees emerging from it. The sky is blue and cloudless and many of the walkers are wearing sunhats.

A group of walkers passing a white-painted wooden post-mill. The sky is blue and many of the walkers are wearing sunhats.

Christopher Hilton@chilton-bb· Jun 21

I'm glad of that: I heard rumours a while back it might close, which saddened me. Passing it was always a bit of a joy, in my SE19 years (and my text-message history with Mrs H is full of stuff like "nearly home, just changing trains at the Sailor").

A pub sign showing a sailor in white bellbottoms, blue jacket and hat, and red and white striped shirt, playing a little accordion and dancing on the deck of a ship. The pub name, below him, is The Jolly Sailor.

Christopher Hilton@chilton-bb· Jun 20

Delighted to see that the current issue of Backtrack includes one of my favourite South London facts: that Norwood Junction used to be called Jolly Sailor.

The cover of "Backtrack" magazine. It reads, on either side of a colour photo of an old 4-4-0 locomotive,

RECORDING THE HISTORY OF BRITAIN'S RAILWAYS

BackTrack

Vol. 40 . No.7

JULY 2026

£5.95

6227

IN THIS ISSUE:
The Cairn Valley Light Railway
The first railway royals
Up the Junction
LMS 'Patriot 4-6-0s in colour
Trans-Pennine petroleum
Naming Great Western 'Halls'

PENDRAGON
PUBLISHING

A column of text in a periodical. It reads:

its trains were to run over the London
& Greenwich Railway (L&GR) line to the
L&GR's London Bridge terminus. The line followed the bed of the defunct Croydon Canal for much of the route.

The route as laid out had seven
stations, including the penultimate
station before the Croydon terminus:
Jolly-sailor. It opened on 5th June 1839. The station took its name from a local public house which must have been a reference to the crews of the passing canal boats when the Crovdon Canal was in operation. The station was included in railway literature as 'Jolly-sailor near Beulah Spa' on fares lists and timetables.
Under the London & Brighton Railway
Act 1837, a junction was planned with the L&CR at Jolly-sailor. The route gor a line to Brighton would include substantial

Christopher Hilton@chilton-bb· Jun 18

Some would say we have enough books already, but on the other hand when there's the chance to take a day's TOIL in Cambridge ferretting about in The Haunted Bookshop www.sarahkeybooks.co.uk, finishing by gloating over the spoils in Michaelhouse café, it has to be done.

A café table with soup, sourdough bread and coffee, with a plastic bag from a specialist book dealer sitting on an adjacent chair.

Christopher Hilton@chilton-bb· Jun 16

...also a couple of statues of James Joyce himself: the one that stands on North Earl Street in Dublin, gazing up at where Nelson's Column used to stand, and the one that marks his grave in Fluntern Cemetery, Zürich. 2/2

A bronze statue of James Joyce in Dublin, standing elegantly leaning on a stick and wearing a broad-brimmed hat, outside Café Kylemore.

A bronze statue of James Joyce, sitting with one leg crossed over another in a tall, spindly fashion, raising a bronze cigarette to his mouth. A pot of red carnations is at his feet, and autumn-coloured shrubs behind him.

Christopher Hilton@chilton-bb· Jun 16

For #Bloomsday, here's the Martello Tower at Sandycove where "Ulysses" begins, and a view out over "The snotgreen sea. The scrotumtightening sea." Across the bay, Howth Castle and Environs, which takes us into the whole other story that is "Finnegans Wake".... 1/2

A view from a rocky beach upwards towards a Martello Tower, positioned at the top of a low cliff overlooking the beach. The sky is blue, with a few fluffy white clouds.

A view across a bay, towards a rocky peninsula some miles away. The near shore is gently sloping mud, with green algae on it; beyond are several mudbanks, before one gets out fully to sea. The sky is blue with some fluffy white clouds.

Christopher Hilton@chilton-bb· Jun 15

Out yesterday in a gap between Festival duties and a visit to another Suffolk church with unexpected riches. This is Hessett, whose medieval wall paintings include a very rare (and faint) Christ of the Trades, Christ surrounded by all the tools you mustn't use on the Sabbath; 7 deadly sins above.

A square-towered church, built of flint with yellow render on the aisle walls, standing in a churchyard full of white ox-eye daisies.

A very faint medieval wall painting between two church windows: around an extremely faint crucified Christ in the centre are arranged various medieval tools (shears, hammers, a griddle, and so on).

A medieval wall painting between two church windows: a red tree rises from between two devils, with seven branches ending in dragon-mouths (three up each side and one at the top). A figure stands in each mouth.

Christopher Hilton@chilton-bb· Jun 14

Poet Edward Fitzgerald died on this day in 1883; his translation/reworking of "The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam" is one of those works that you know better than you think, reading like a great string of quotes. Here's his grave in the churchyard at Boulge, *outside* the family mausoleum as he wished.

A porphyry grave slab in a grass churchyard, an ornate flowery cross in relief on it.

A metal plaque attached to wire mesh, describing how a rose tree inside the fence was brought from the grave of Omar Khayyam to stand by the grave of Edward Fitzgerald.

A small country church seen from the east end; its stone walls are mostly in shadow but the brick tower peeps up into the sunlight.

A brick church tower attached to a grey flint church, set amidst trees.

Christopher Hilton@chilton-bb· Jun 13

The view from the invigilator's desk, ready for day 2 of the Aldeburgh Festival archive exhibition. The International Space Station has just passed over, by chance, so we can tell that the Festival isn't *quite* big enough to be seen from space, but there's a lot going on and we're up and running.

A display of photographs and documents in an archive reading room. Outside are green shrubs and trees in summer sunshine, seen through floir-length windows.

A screenshot from the International Space Station app, showing (top) a map with the path of the ISS on it, it having just passed across the southern United Kingdom; and (bottom) a view from space down onto a landscape dotted with many cumulus clouds.

Christopher Hilton@chilton-bb· Jun 12

RIP David Hockney: from the Red House Instagram account, www.instagram.com/p/DZfBM65lih1/. Hockney visited in 1980 to sketch Peter Pears for the latter's 70th birthday: the artwork can be seen in an article on our website at www.brittenpearsarts.org/news/70th-bi....

A screenshot from the Red House Aldeburgh Instagram account. on the left, a picture of a young David Hockney, in a white suit and white T-shirt, sitting in a drawing room sketching the elderly Peter Pears; Pears has his back to the camera, and all that can be seen is the back of his head, slightly out of focus, over the top of his armchair. On the right is the following text:

theredhousealdeburgh
We were saddened to hear of the passing of Britain’s revered artist, David Hockney, yesterday.

We were fortunate to welcome Hockney to The Red House during the 1980 Aldeburgh Festival, where a portrait of Peter Pears was commissioned to mark his 70th birthday.

All of us at Britten Pears Arts send our sincere condolences to David Hockney's family and friends. We will continue to cherish his work and influence right across the arts.

Nigel Luckhurst © Britten Pears Arts
Liked by brittenpearsarts and 148 others

Christopher Hilton@chilton-bb· Jun 12

The 77th Aldeburgh Festival is up and running: for the next 17 days the Red House and its Archive will be open seven days a week, the Archive featuring an exhibition "Endings and Beginnings" on Britten's last years and how, after his death in 1976, things kept evolving and led to today's BPA.

A red-brick former farmhouse seen across a lawn, between trees (a large dark yew stands to the left).

A modern angular brick building in a garden setting, with a luxuriant flower bed in front of its floor-length windows.

An exhibition poster, plain black text on white, reading:
ENDINGS &BEGINNINGS
Archive Exhibition
Britten's last years and what came after
FREE TO RED HOUSE VISITORS 10:30 - 16:30

A photograph taken near table level, showing documents and photographs laid out on tables in an archive reading room.

Christopher Hilton@chilton-bb· Jun 10

Fun way to spend a few minutes: www.theodramatist.com/early-modern.... I came out as a Quaker, which tallies: back in the 1990s when I catalogued the Hodgkin family papers I spent so long among 19th century Quakers I still sometimes have to remind myself that I'm not one of them.

Text in a slightly antique serif font, on a cream background resembling parchment. Headers are in a sober russet colour, while the main text is in black. The text reads:

"Your closest counterpart
The Quaker
c. 1650–1700 · England · inner light
Barclay, the Apology
You threw over priest, liturgy, and sacrament for a room of people waiting in silence for the Light. You think God speaks now, directly, to anyone who will be still and listen, with no bishop, book, or king in between.

Representative figures George Fox, Margaret Fell, James Nayler"

Christopher Hilton@chilton-bb· Jun 6

A recent book, recommended: "London Bridge and its houses: c.1209-1761", Dorian Gerhold. The Corporation of London records allow a surprising amount of reconstruction of the size of houses, who lived there and the trades they followed. Always been fascinated by this little town above the water. 1/2

The cover of "London Bridge and its houses: c.1209-1761" by Dorian Gerhold. The cover painting shows a reconstruction of how London Bridge looked when it houses on it. It is seen from the south-west, with a clear stretch between two stone gates closest to the viewpoint; further off the bridge has houses on it and, on the far side, a large chapel. The city beyond fades into the distance. The river is dotted with sailing barges.

Christopher Hilton@chilton-bb· Jun 6

One of those bits of iconography that help read the landscape, on St Clement Colegate in Norwich a few days ago. St Clement, an early pope, was martyred by being thrown into the sea tied to an anchor (as related by @pontifactspod.bsky.social): here on the clock are a papal crown and two anchors.

A close-up view of a medieval church made of rough flint, seen from the east looking over chancel and nave roofs towards the plain square tower. The black church clock with gold hands and numbers blocks the tower window; above the face is a gable-shaped area with, in gold, a papal tiara flanked by anchors.

A medieval church made of rough flint, seen from the east looking over chancel and nave roofs towards the plain square tower. The black church clock with gold hands and numbers blocks the tower window; above the face is a gable-shaped area with, in gold, a papal tiara flanked by anchors. A tree in full leaf squeezes into the little churchyard on the right.

Christopher Hilton@chilton-bb· Jun 1

Painted Lady butterflies around in number in the Red House garden this morning; they're definitely having one of their big years.

A bush of pink fluffy flowers in front of a red-brick former farmhouse: an orange and black butterfly perches on one of the flower-heads.

Christopher Hilton@chilton-bb· Jun 1

Here's the June image from my 2026 @geograph-gbi.bsky.social calendar: Walking Men Sculpture, Lowestoft South Beach. www.geograph.org.uk/photo/7811647