Drone Disaster

On Friday I went to the Somerset Monument in Hawkesbury to take a few shots using No.1 Son's drone. However, I was a bit over-cautious, as I didn't want to fly the damned thing into the trees surrounding it and losing the drone. I any case, the MP4 file was corrupted, so I didn't manage to get any footage.

The monument commemorates one of the Somersets' kids, who was a 19th Century soldier and MP for South Glos. 

Duke of Beaufort was created by Charles II in 1682 for Henry Somerset, 3rd Marquess of Worcester, a descendant of Charles Somerset, 1st Earl of Worcester, legitimised son of Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset, a Lancastrian leader in the Wars of the Roses. The name Beaufort refers to a castle in Champagne, France (now Montmorency-Beaufort). It is the only current dukedom to take its name from a place outside the British Isles.

So the Dukes of Beaufort took the surname Somerset, while the Dukes of Somerset retained the surname Beaufort. Consusing, isn't it? The Dukes of Beaufort live nearby at Badminton Estate. As an aside, Fitzroy Somerset, the 9th and youngest son of the 5th Duke of Somerset, was in charge of the British forces in the Crimean War and was responsible for the debacle of the Charge of the Light Brigade. He was known as Baron Raglan following his appointment Master General of the Ordnance, Raglan being one of the castles in the Beaufort's huge estates in Wales. He also served with Wellington during the Peninsular War and at the Battle of Waterloo.

On Saturday I took No.1 Son so he could take the risk of the trees. He managed to get some good footage but, unfortunately, he flew the drone into a tree at the end and it stuck nearly half way up. You can just make it out in the photo below.

While he was climbing the tree to retrieve the drone, a bloke came out of the lodge next door and asked me to move No.1 Son's car, as it was blocking a farm gate (although there was enough room to get a bloody bus past it and I doubt one tractor a month passes through the gate). 

Bugger!I hadn't realised No.1 Son had left the drone box on the top of the car, and it fell off and all the bits fell out. The car went over the spare battery and a few other bits. He wasn't best pleased with me, but at least I hadn't navigated his drone into a tree.

Here's the footage No.1 Son got, right to where it hit the tree.

Earlier in the week I'd gone to Dyrham House, about 15 minutes away, to try and recreate the closing scene of The Remains of the Day, where the camera flies away and up from the front facade. Dyrham House is a National Trust property that was used for the exterior shots in the film (and many other films). I approached the house from the rear in Dyrham village and didn't crash it into a tree!

Here's the actual final scene from The Remains of the Day, where Mr Stevens (Anthony Hopkins) releases a pigeon, which had flown down the chimney, through a front window. The pan-back starts at 1 minute, exactly. It's very shaky - there probably wasn't stabilised drone technology in 1993.

Grand houses abound in this part of the country - Dyrham, Badminton (Dukes of Beaufort), Highgrove (Prince William), Gatcombe (Princess Anne) and Doddington (James Dyson). There are probably a few more I've forgotten.