Since it was Father’s Day

I’m not sure when Father’s Day became a thing in the UK; Mother’s Day, originally Mothering Sunday was traditionally when live-in servants and maids had a day off to visit their mothers, possibly originally intended for them to return to their homes to visit their mother church. Back to Father’s Day – now it is celebrated on the third Sunday in June, but I’ve no idea when it became a popular and nice thing, there were no cards or gift suggestions when we were children.

Yesterday we went on a mystery tour – as far as the father of the family was concerned! We headed south and took wiggly windy lanes through the lush and green countryside, past ancient brick cottages and modern ones trying to appear ancient, and eventually parked not far from Maunsel Lock on the Bridgwater Canal. Just by where we parked is a handy tea-room, however before we visited we walked along the historic  canal until we reached the next bridge which very conveniently crossed over to where there was a pub. Since it was Father’s Day and to support the local economy we felt obliged to visit for a drink, and sit by the canal.

Walking along the canal we (well, some of us) were very excited to see markers for the Somerset Space Walk:

The Somerset Space Walk is a sculpture trail model of the Solar System, located in Somerset. The model uses the towpath of the 14-mile Bridgwater and Taunton Canal to display a model of the Sun and its planets in their proportionally correct sizes and distances apart. Unusually for a Solar System model, there are two sets of planets, so that the diameter of the orbits is represented. Aware of the inadequacies of printed pictures of the Solar System, the inventor Pip Youngman designed the Space Walk as a way of challenging people’s perceptions of space and experiencing the vastness of the Solar System. The model is built to a scale of 1:530,000,000, meaning that one millimetre on the model equates to 530 kilometres. The Sun is sited at Higher Maunsel Lock, and one set of planets is installed in each direction along the canal towards Taunton and Bridgwater; the distance between the Sun and each model of Pluto being 6.8 miles. 

Above is an example of the markers for each planet. The centre of the solar system is obviously at Maunsel Lock, because, look – here’s a photo of  the sun – oh and the son, and since it’s Father’s Day obviously the Father too!