Historic Places

Northington Grange.

/ Andy Finnegan / 6 Comments

Saved by public outcry in 1975 from demolition Northington Grange, near Winchester in Hampshire, is a fine example of Greek Revival architecture. The mansion owes its present appearance to the architect William Wilkins, who, between 1809 and 1816, transformed a modest 17th-century building into something that looked like an Ancient Greek temple. Wilkins wrapped the brick house in cement, he also added classical façades, including the striking temple front supported on eight gigantic columns.

Today the Grange is used as a wedding venue and a venue for operas. The outside and some of the grounds of the mansion are open to visit and in the care of English Heritage.

On this visit the 1st since last year there were silhouettes in the fields around the edge of the acsess area (these fields were parts of the original estate). The site is not staffed and their were no information boards to explain why they had been placed on site. They seem to reflect victorian rural life.

Solent Airport.

/ Andy Finnegan / 2 Comments

Solent airport’s origins date back to the First World War. In 1917 it was established as Royal Naval Air Station Lee-on-Solent (HMS Daedalus). Its first role was as a seaplane training base. During the Second World War a number of Naval Air Squadrons were posted or formed at Daedalus.

In 2006, whilst undertaking repairs to the runway, repair crews discovered an unexploded pipe bomb, which was over 60 feet long, placed underneath the runway during the war and was designed to destroy the runway of the airfield in the event of a German invasion. The pipe bomb and 19 others were subsequently safely removed.

Today Solent airport is a civil airport and the base for the Solents search and rescue helicopter.

Titchfield Abbey.

/ Andy Finnegan / Leave a comment

Titchfield Abbey.

The Abbey of St Mary and St John the Evangelist was founded in 1231/2. At the Suppression of the Monasteries the abbey was granted in 1537 to Thomas Wriothesley, later 1st Earl of Southampton. He remodelled the abbey into a palace. Over the years Royal guests at the house included Edward VI, Elizabeth I and Charles I.

Thomas Wriothesley’s grandson Henry, 3rd Earl of Southampton, was a friend of William Shakespeare and it is said that some of Shakespeare’s plays were performed at Titchfield Abbey for the first time.

On the death of Henry, the palace passed through several families. Around 1781 in disrepair, most of the building was demolished for its building stone. Today the ruin is a scheduled monument in the care of English heritage.

Medieval Floor tiles the tiles were covered up by the courtyard of the palace house, where they lay preserved for over 400 years. They were rediscovered during excavations in 1923. They are covered up over winter by English Heritage to protect them from the weather.

Abbey Ruin.

/ Andy Finnegan / 3 Comments

Tintern Abbey was founded in 1131 by Cistercian monks, standing on the banks of the River Wye is now a romantic ruin and is a natural place to stop if you are traveling into Wales via the old Severn Bridge and heading for the A40. We stop here for the toilet and a cup of tea on most trips into Wales.

The Black seam.

/ Andy Finnegan / 2 Comments

Coal mining in Wales is an industry of the past and the scars of mining litter the landscape. The black seams of coal became too expensive to mine and carbon-based fuel lost favor as a form of energy. Big Pit today is the National Coal Museum of Wales. The pit was a working coal mine from 1880 to1980. Big Pit is part of the Blaenavon Industrial Landscape a World Heritage site.

Big Pit has a depth of 300ft – underground tours are available which I have done in the past but due to covid, I decided to stay in the open air on this visit. At its peak in 1923, this one mine employed 1,399 in coal production.

Lockers and Shower block.

Restored locomotive being returned to the museum site.

Some facts:- In 1913, 232,000 men worked in 620 mines. The largest number of men ever to work in the Welsh coal mines was 271,000 in 1920.

Think Pink.

/ Andy Finnegan / 9 Comments

Another walk along the River Hamble today – yesterday we had a flurry of snow although it did not lay this morning’s walk was bitter with a biting wind blowing down the river.

The ferry on the Hamble between Warsash and Hamble-le-Rice today is an ‘on-demand’ passenger ferry service is summoned via mobile phones – when my boys were small you had to jump up and down until the ferryman spotted you. What has also changed is the waiting shelter on the riverbank and the ferry which are all today painted a bright pink were then blue.

Records show there has been a ferry on the site dating back to 1493 when the crossing was part of a pilgrim’s route. The ferry now provides a link for local, and national footpaths such as the  Solent Way and the National Cycle Route 2.

A pair of Shelduck on the mud they are large ducks that are about the size of a small goose.

A Little Egret fishing as the tide comes in.

Black-tailed Godwits (+ a couple of Brent Geese) holding onto the last part of the land as the tide comes in.

Edit extra picture from one of my previous blogs. Ferry waiting hut.

Postcards

/ Andy Finnegan / 6 Comments

Camper van trip {Pt 6}

Mixed views from a few days away.

River at Lynmouth – On the 15th and 16th of August 1952, a storm broke over south-west England, depositing 9 inches of rain within 24 hours on the already saturated soil of  Exmoor and Devon. Debris in the floodwaters cascaded down streams and rivers converging upon the village of Lynmouth. Above the village in the upper West Lyn valley, fallen trees and other debris formed a dam, which in due course gave way, sending a huge wave of water and debris down the river. Overnight, more than 100 buildings were destroyed or seriously damaged 38 cars were washed out to sea, 34 people died.
The rebuilt Rhenish Tower survived the main flood but was seriously undermined. The tower collapsed into the river the next day. A digger is in the harbour removing gravel that built up after a recent storm blocking some of the harbour.

Views along the coast views of the sea at Blue Anchor and Minehead.

Minehead RNLI B Class rigid-hulled lifeboat and launch tractor are housed in the car park while the 1901 lifeboat house is being refurbished and extended – always ready for the call.

Statue of Lorna Doone at Dulverton. Lorna Doone a Romance of Exmoor is a novel by author Richard Doddridge Blackmore, published in 1869. It is a romance based on a group of historical characters and set in the late 17th century in Devon and Somerset, particularly around the East Lyn Valley area of Exmoor.

footnote flood pictures.

A ruined Church.

/ Andy Finnegan / 9 Comments

Camper van trip {pt 5}

On the way home after our trip away, we stopped at Knowlton Church And Earthworks (a usual stopping place for us). Situated near the village of Cranborne in Dorset it is on a route we regularly take to avoid the city of Salisbury where there is a traffic bottleneck. The site is now in the care of English Heritage. It is an interesting historic site with a ruin of a 12th-century Norman Church situated at the centre of a Neolithic henge earthwork. Like other Christian sites, it symbolises a transition from much older sites of importance and pagan worship to Christian worship.

As well as the main earthworks the landscape around the church is a part of a larger Neolithic and Bronze Age ceremonial area most of which can now only be seen from aerial study as crop marks.

Below a picture that was taken from online shows an overview of the area and its features.

Nunney Castle.

/ Andy Finnegan / 5 Comments

Camper van trip {Pt 4}.

Nunney Castle in Somerset dates from the 1370s. It was built for Sir John de la Mare, a local knight. His castle was inspired by French castles seen on campaigns. The castle was modernised in the late 16th century, the castle was besieged and damaged by the Parliamentarians in 1645, during the English Civil War.

Today the ruin is picturesque the moated tower is well preserved and dominates the centre of the village.

Sir John de la Mare and other lords of Nunney Castles are buried in the village church. The Church is a grade1 listed building dating from the 12th century it is said it was built on the site of an earlier church dating from an earlier Saxon or Norman Church.

Some views of Nunney Village.