On Location with Elliot Windmill

 

 

Introduction:

In March 2020 I received an email from Elliot Windmill.  Elliot introduced himself and explained that he ran a website concentrating on travel, life and adventure.  He had recently come across the Dull Men of Great Britain book and this, as it has with many others, intrigued him. 

Elliot wanted to meet me, as he did others who appeared in this book.  He sent me a link to his site and the introductory article he had written.  This partly concentrated on mundane habits he had formed over many years and how these played out in his life.  These had similarities to many of the unusual hobbies of those Dull Men portrayed in the book.  However, although these activities, both his and those in the book could be viewed as slightly eccentric (to put it mildly for some, myself included), they are also something to celebrate and as Elliot rightly says in his introductory article; although we would like to think life is full of wonder and excitement, it is in the norm, rather predictive and routine. 

Just as we were arranging a day to meet, Covid-19 struck and the world as we knew it changed in a matter of days. 

When restrictions were lifted and life got back to a semblance of normality, Elliot picked up our email thread and we arranged to meet in late September. 

 

Dull Men Philosophy: 

Part of the joy of operating the Mapping Mountains site are the enquiries from people who show interest in either what the site offers or in this instance, me.  Although this sounds slightly ego-centric, it was a specific interest Elliot had and that was to examine the motivations of people who appear in the Dull Men of Great Britain book. 

Dull Men of Great Britain in all their glory

When originally contacted by Leland Carlson; the instigator behind all things Dull, and invited to appear in his book, I realised this was an opportunity not to miss and encouraged my ex-surveying colleagues to think likewise, stressing the point that one never knows what opportunity may arise out of unexpected contacts.  This philosophy also applied to Elliot.

Whether such a philosophy can be described as dull, I do not know, actually, probably not.  However, I take pride in my Dullness and wear it as a badge of honour.  Therefore, there was only one thing to do; meet Elliot and bore him rigid with all manner of numerical nonsense whilst intricately weaving my way through a minefield of surveying anecdotes! 

 

Meeting, talking and visiting Maesgwastad: 

When Elliot arrived and after the customary handshake and getting-to- know-you chat, I drove the short distance to Christ Church Cemetery and parked.  This would give access to a part of Powis Park and Maesgwastad; a field rising above the Church giving open views across Welshpool and the Severn Valley to the Breiddin hills beyond. 

Elliot Windmill

I’d come prepared with the Trimble, its small tripod and external antenna, thinking these were essential props for our discourse.  In fact, they were secondary, with only the Trimble making an appearance toward the end of our time on top of Maesgwastad. 

The Trimble GeoXH 6000

As we left the car and headed down to the gate giving access to the field, Elliot and I talked, this continued up the field and for the next hour or so on the top.  Not surprisingly it was the person and not necessarily their survey equipment that interested Elliot.

The majority of conversation concentrated on the beginnings and motives that led me to the activity of surveying hills.  I’ve always thought the appearance in the Dull Men of Great Britain book a bonus, as to me the activity of surveying a hill is everything other than dull.  However, perhaps this is one of the factors at play; lack of recognition!

We talked about the different categories of hobbies included in the book, from the wacky and weird to the unusual and different.  Although I’d love to be a part of the former I think I’m more a part of the latter.  The conversation flowed, much too much of it for me to remember all but tiny segments.  We could of course, have stayed indoors and had a similar conversation, but I’d suggested somewhere close with elevation as this at least is the environment where I operate in, therefore all this was conducted on top of Maesgwastad with the town of Welshpool and the Breiddin hills as backdrop. 

Our backdrop from the top of Maesgwastad

After an hour or so we headed down to the car and I then drove the short distance to The Raven where a table for two had been reserved for Sunday lunch.  Thankfully for our walk to Maesgwastad the weather was sublime with morning sunshine adding slight warmth whilst mature trees showed the first signs of colour change.  We sat outside for our meal and continued our conversation, with the weather remaining dry and becalmed.

We parted with another handshake, with Elliot saying that when his article was written he would send the text for me to go through.  This I appreciated and waved him off as he headed home.

After he’d left I headed in to my bungalow, made a large mug of tea, turned my laptop on and prepared to do the usual.  Such routine has comfort.  However, it’s good to meet different people who have their own motivations and philosophies.  This challenges the reassured daily routine and can take you out of your comfort zone, which is usually a good thing.  Today was such a day. 

 

Myrddyn Phillips (November 2022)

Dull Men of Great Britain – Book Launch

Introduction:

On the 1^st October 2015 the Dull Men of Great Britain was published by Ebury Press, this book celebrates the ordinary and routine things that everyday folk do.  It details a diverse collection of men and their mundane and unglamorous activities.  Although proclaiming dullness from every page the book is also an extraordinary insight into the force behind the collector and unusual activity that drives many a person’s life. 

The author of the book and Assistant Vice President of the Dull Man’s Club is Leland Carlson.  With the book being grabbed off the proverbial book shelve by every aspirant Dull Man in Britain, Leland organised its launch at Stanfords in London on Wednesday 4^th November where a gathering of the people detailed in the book was to take place.  Three of these people are part of a Mountain Measuring team named G&J Surveys, and two of us planned on attending the book launch at Stanfords.

London:

Capital of our land and one of the most extraordinary cities in the world, London cannot be described as being Dull, but when one scratches below its exciting surface mundane things can be found in all their everyday glory. 

With the book launch scheduled for 6.30pm – 8.00pm at Stanfords and an after launch party organised at Villandry, an upscale Edwardian dining establishment situated in Waterloo Place, I considered my day in this cultural city.  Should I scratch below its surface and spend my day investigating its everyday occurrence’s and immerse myself in its underbelly of routine, or should I attempt to be exciting and immerse myself in its culture and history, I’m afraid my status of being a Dull Man lapsed for six hours as I opted for the latter.

I cannot bring anything new to say about London as it has no doubt been said a thousand times before, but I can briefly describe my cultural and historical trip around its wide and boisterous streets.

With six hours to immerse myself in this city’s heritage before an evening train back to the dimmed lights of Worcester I planned on visiting three culturally magnificent places and take a walking tour between each, soaking in the splendour of London’s streets.

My entrance and exit point was Paddington and a tube on the Bakerloo Line took me conveniently to Piccadilly which is only four minutes’ walk from the eloquent dining at the Villandry, I visited its lower floor to acquaint myself with its surrounds and the way back to the tube for later in the evening.

The Villandry, a splendid upscale Edwardian restaurant and the setting for our after launch party

My next port of call was the National Gallery which is a magnificent art museum founded in 1824 and is positioned looking out over the expanse of Trafalgar Square.  As I wandered haphazardly around the 2,300 paintings housed in the gallery I wondered if focus was required, as I only had six hours before my Dull persona had to be routinely ignited and these hours of lax cultural excitement should be savoured and made the most of.  As one glaringly powerful painting merged into the next I decided to concentrate on two High Renaissance iconic figures; Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.  The former’s exquisite use of shadowed intimacy is impressive whilst the latter’s unfinished work left me wondering what all the fuss was about.

Having partly cultured myself out on the bombardment of colour and opulence in the National Gallery I wandered around the corner and visited the National Portrait Gallery.  This was the first portrait gallery in the world when opened in 1856 and houses a variety of portraits of historically important and famous British people, no Dullness here then.

I found that haphazardness worked well in the National Portrait Gallery as its confines are on a smaller scale than those of the National Gallery, and I wandered happily around enjoying one stunning portrait after another.  One stood out above all others but I’m afraid I did not note the artist / photographers name or that of their subject, my lack of need to note such detail was a sign that my Dull persona was struggling to the fore as only four hours remained until the book launch appointment at Stanfords.

One of the perquisites of being Dull is routine, and my routine dictates that when visiting places I need to know where each is positioned and the approximate time between them so I can allow sufficient time to then investigate, and as I left the National Portrait Gallery I walked toward Long Acre Street to stare longingly at the shop that is Stanfords.  This is one of my favourite shops in the whole world and I make an effort to visit each time I am in London, to stare at its inner marvels is a joy to succumb to.

Stanfords is a must visit for travel and map enthusiasts

However, Stanfords was just a tease for now, as I continued walking down the length of Long Acre Street and turned left onto Drury Lane and then continued on Museum Street toward the British Museum.  The British Museum houses a collection dedicated to human history, art and culture and when founded in 1753 it was the first national public museum in the world.  With limited time I definitely needed to focus on what to see and the museum’s ‘Don’t Miss’ tour around 12 of its highlights was the ideal way to explore this magnificent museum.

Great Court at the British Museum

I was transported back in time to the Lewis Chessmen, metalwork from Iran, The Royal Game of Ur, the beautifully detailed and almost translucent Portland Vase, Samurai armour from Japan, Ceramic tomb figures from the Tang dynasty, an Ivory pendant mask from Africa, an Easter Island statue, the seminal Rosetta Stone, the beautifully carved Assyrian Lion Hunt and the controversial Parthenon sculptures.  The only one of the twelve I did not see was the Horse from the Mausoleum of Halikarnassos as the room that housed this antiquity was closed.  As I had visited the sight of this Ancient Wonder of the World it was a disappointment not to see one of its artefacts.

Part of the Assyrian Lion Hunt frieze

The Portland Vase

Another segment from the Assyrian Lion Hunt frieze

My Dull persona was now revved up and ready to ignite as not seeing this horse I reminisced on my visit to the site of the Mausoleum of Halikarnassos which is in modern day Bodrum, Turkey, this was the fifth site out of the seven that constitute the wonders of the ancient world that I had visited, nothing like a good bit of Dull collectors instinct to kick in mid-afternoon in the British Museum.

By now I was well and truly all cultured out and needed to be brought down to earth as this display of cultural overload needed to end before Dullness could manifest itself, and the gentle surrounds of Covent Garden was an ideal balance between culture and Dullness and one that led neatly to the front door of Stanfords.

The Book Launch:

Stanfords was established in 1853 and its present store first opened its doors in January 1901, it is the leading specialist retailer of maps and travel books in the country, and I love it.  As I wandered around its many shelves of maps and books and more maps and more books I eventually ventured down to its basement level where the book launch was just about to gear itself into start mode.  Wine was being poured, name tags were allotted, THE BOOK was on display and Leland’s casual and appealing voice was gently resounding around the room.

Leland Carlson - Assistant Vice President of the Dull Men's Club

One by one more Dull Men arrived, there was Nick West the Beer Can Obsessive, Jeremy Burton the Country Counter, Gwyn Headley the Folly Fan and a certain John Barnard the Mountain Measurer.  It was good to see John and I realised that as a combined force of two out of the three Dullest Mountain Measurers in the land we were unequalled in the room as all others were singularly Dull, except for Richard and Dick Fryer the Military Vehicle Restorers whose twosome still could not compete with our threesome.

Gwyn and Yvonne Headley - Folly Fan

Deborah and Nick West - Beer Can Obsessive

John Barnard - Mountain Measurer

As the room filled with guests and German camera crews Leland took to the stage of opening proceedings with a jovial rendition of life as a Dull Man, he touched upon the humorous side of all things Dull and gave a perfectly rounded introductory dialogue to why we were all there and who we all were.

Shortly afterward I had the pleasure to meet Kevin Beresford of the Roundabout Appreciation Society, Tim Barker a collector of Toy Soldiers, Tony Cooke the World War 1 Buff, Patrick Cook the Bakelite Buff and Jude Currie who at the tender age of 13 is the Tax Disc Fanatic, also present was John Potter the Rail Timetable Compiler.  My cultural overload had now been replaced by Dull Men overload.  I also chatted with Dr Coulson from Middlesex University who wrote the Foreward to the Dull Men of Great Britain book, I think our conversation went well but I did not hang around to receive his assessment of my tendency to obsess or my fledgling parody of being Dull.

Kevin Beresford - Roundabout Appreciation Society

Patrick Cook - Bakelite Buff

Jude Currie - Tax Disc Fanatic

As more wine was consumed and the conversation verged on being interesting it was time to head toward the after book launch party which Leland had organised at Villandry, this was no more than fifteen minutes’ walk and was conveniently placed a further four minutes’ walk from Piccadilly tube which was my exit point for Paddington Station.

The Villandry proved a delightful ending point for this part of my Dull journey as the surrounds were pleasant, the company was fulfilling and the food especially scrumptious.  I headed off into the darkened streets of London having paid my thanks to Leland for his invitation to attend and his hospitality on the day.

Wandering to the tube I watched as a myriad of people passed me, all going places and doing things, I struck up conversation with a woman on the tube who was a born and bred Londoner, it was good to put conversation to a face that otherwise would have merged into the many thousand who pass through one’s life without a hello or a goodbye, as she got off at Baker Street we said our goodbye’s and I watched as another person who haphazardly enters one’s life for a fleeting few minutes disappeared into the darkness of obscurity.  My day’s journey ended in Worcester, where it had begun, with a warm embrace and a contented sleep.

Dull Men of Great Britain

As a title the Dull Men of Great Britain is a novel and somewhat eye catching entrance into a fascinating life of collecting and part obsessing.  This need to collect is something that many hill baggers will relate to, but it is something that can be experienced in different areas of life and can relate to all manner of subject matter.  This collecting instinct is not just a mad obsession to visit yet another P30 or fulfil a goal of visiting every trig; it is something that takes in the minutia of living as it can easily become the mainstay of one’s life.

These collecting obsessions are portrayed in all their glory in a book that is published today; 1^st October 2015.  The Author of the book is Leland Carlson, who is the assistant vice president of the Dull Men’s Club.  This role is the club’s highest office and one that I suspect Leland is proud of in a sort of tongue in cheek way, after all a fascination with collecting should be accepted and enjoyed, and occasionally joked about.

Dull Men of Great Britain in all their glory

The Dull Men’s Club was formed by Leland and his friend; Grover Click when they were both living in New York.  The club formed the centre piece of a life away from the bright lights of New York’s glamour and gave them an opportunity to enjoy ordinary and mundane everyday things.  This club gave them a reason to proclaim their Dullness to the world and a voice saying that it was OK to be Dull.

Leland spends his time between the enticing excitement of America and Britain and since the club’s formation he has expanded Dullness to take in many unusual aspects, including a best-selling Calendar, entitled Dull Men of Great Britain.  This title is now being re-used for the book, which some may say is a portrayal in Dullness itself as when something works, why change it?

Leland Carlson - author and assistant vice president of the Dull Men's Club

Whereas the Calendar unsurprisingly concentrates on 12 Dull Men, the book has developed this theme and expanded to take in the esoteric lives of 40 people or teams who glorify their lives in unusual passions.  These passions take in many forms and include people who collect beer cans, milk bottles, golf balls, bricks, lawnmowers, tax discs and traffic cones.  Many of these are not the standard collections of youth when scouring bars for a multitude of different varieties of beer mats seemed a normal pastime, or the standard stamp collections or coin collections merged from one into another.  This is where I plead my guilt as my collection fascination doesn’t start at hill bagging / surveying, it has its origins in my youth when an old coin, or beer mat or a new stamp was a prized commodity.  These collections and the passion of the people in this book are on a different scale to the collections of my youth, these people have a perspective of pleasure seemingly unquenchable by their goal of collecting.

It is not just the avid collector that this book concentrates on; it is also such important organisations as the Apostrophe Protection Society, Park Bench Appreciation Society and the Roundabouts Appreciation Society that form the basis of the book.  The latter Society also has its founding member glorified in all their uninhibited enthusiasm on the front cover of the book taking a photograph of a roundabout.  The book also details the unusual activities that many may find hard to quantify or neatly file under a collector or a society, one of these unusual activities details the esoteric nature of three Mountain Measurers.

These Mountain Measurers appear on page 48 of the book and are named; I won’t name them here in case I course offence or embarrassment, but let’s just say that they know who they are.  They are quoted as saying important things such as ‘it’s much more fun to upgrade a hill to a mountain than the other way round’ and ‘it brings together wonderful things like science and technology, health and fitness – in beautiful settings.’  These quotes are factual, correct and very Dull.

The Mountain Measurers

But we are not the only ones hidden away amongst the great and good of Britain’s Dullest people, there is also the small matter of someone who collects trig pillars, again I won’t name this person, but he knows who he is.  The category of obsessive can be neatly filed under collector, this is something that the Mountain Measurers are proud to have avoided as they each view an unusual activity to be Duller than someone who collects things, especially trig pillars.  Anyway, the trig collector appears on page 78 and is quoted as professing that this activity is a ‘tickable commodity’ and that ‘it’s all good fun’.

The Dull Men of Great Britain is available from all good retail outlets and is priced £8.99.  It is highly recommended and will no doubt form the basis of many a banterous evening over a jar or two.

The Mountain Measurers would like to express their thanks to Leland for enquiring about our unusual and passionate activity, and for his unbridled passion in being a Dull Man.  It’s been great fun Leland, thanks.


A number of news outlets have covered the launch of the Dull Men of Great Britain book:


Daily Mail

Daily Record

The Sun

The Telegraph

The Mirror

Birmingham Mail

The Times

Yorkshire Post

Express

ITV News

Irish Mirror

Grough


Please click on the link below if you would like to purchase a copy.