Nice house, but...

Our proposed trip to Brighton was abandoned when we discovered that the journey was twice as long as usual due to engineering works and a replacement bus. Sigh. We jumped off the train at Norwood Junction and walked towards home via Thornton Heath. This suburb of London as we saw it was a bit rundown, with rows and rows on nondescript housing, paved-up front gardens and many, many cars. However, we felt our mood lift when we saw a patch of woodland on a hill in front of us. We climbed up through mud and rotting leaves into green, ivy-clad trees of sizeable girth and eventually into a lawned park. We saw one jogger and a dog-walker, but otherwise had the place to ourselves.

The sun was shining and a large branch had fallen from one of the older trees so we perched atop and Fred read the Wikipedia article about the area. We learned about Romans, highwaymen, hangings, charcoal, railway lines, road improvements and the Croydon Transmitting Station, which is 152 metres high and was built in 1962. It's a backup analogue transmitter for the five terrestrial TV stations (if the Crystal Palace mast fails) and quite a few of the radio stations transmit through it (Magic, Smooth, Kiss, Heart, Capital).

I'm not sure I'd like to live in the very lovely manor house underneath it, though.