Month: December 2023

Western Shore

/ Andy Finnegan / Leave a comment

Western Shore on Southampton Water at the site of Netley Military Hospital.

Netley Hospital, officially called The Royal Victoria Hospital. Construction started in 1856 at the suggestion of Queen Victoria, she often visited from one of her favourite homes with Prince Albert which was close by at Osbourne House on the Isle of Wight.

The hospital was extensively used during the First World War. Wounded troops from war could disembark directly to the hospital onto its own pier which reached out into Southampton Water. There was a branch Railway line direct to the hospital. The main building was the world’s longest building when it was completed. Sadly the main hospital building was demolished in 1966. In WW2 the hospital was used by the Americans after D-Day. The Chapel at the hospital’s centre remains and today is a museum.

There is a CWCC cemetery within the grounds of the hospital for those who could not be saved.

Some bird life on the Shore.

Up the Hamble.

/ Andy Finnegan / Leave a comment

A walk this afternoon from Warsash Harbour car park up the River Hamble to Bursledon and back.

A Great Crested Grebe fishing on the river. These birds seem to spend more time in the sea and rivers than in lakes and ponds in our area this time of year. I guess there is no risk of the water freezing and preventing them from feeding.

Britans largest wader the Curlew.

I normally take photographs of Sanderlings on the muddy banks of the Hamble Dunlin favour this environment whereas the Sanderlings prefer the sandy shore at Meon beach.

Redshank get their name from their legs!

Into December.

/ Andy Finnegan / Leave a comment

Entering December our weather has jumped fully into winter. This morning was cold damp and misty. A walk along Southampton Water from the Village of Warsash on the River Hamble to Solent Breezes was rather dark and windswept.

The warmest thing was the view across Southampton Water to Fawley Refinery where a flare is burning.

Two boats of Hampshire Police Marine unit in action.

Beach views.

Sea Monster!

 WW2 Bofurs anti-aircraft and range finder platform gun platform. Positioned at the mouth of the River Hamble where it joins Southampton Water. Another platform is further up the Hamble River and a third is at Hamble Point. The German Luftwaffe navigated using the river to reach Southampton and the Docks.