The Purbecks - October 2008

For our October break we travelled to the Purbecks, all of 20 miles.

We booked into Haycraft, The Caravan Club site at Harman's Cross which is between Corfe and Swanage.

The quay at Wareham, on the River Frome, which is close to Corfe.

Swanage, pictured here, became the focus of the local Purbeck Stone Industry after the English Civil War. Each year thousands of tons of stone was shipped out on a fleet of 70 sailing ships. almost anyone who was not a quarrier worked on the boats. Much of the stone ended up in London and in return unwanted monuments were used as ballast for the return journey and were re-erected in Swanage.

The Ionic Columns are of exactly the same design seen on the British museum. It is not known which part of London they came from.

 

The Wellington Clock Tower - from the southern end of Southwark Bridge.

Hyde Park Corner Archway - this came from beside Buckingham Palace.

There are many other bits and pieces of old London around Swanage, but some are well tucked away so it's best to get a walking guide at the tourist office.

 

Tyneham and Environs

In WWII, the British Army required a larger training area so they evacuated the occupants of the Tyneham Valley. In 1943, Winston Churchill's War Cabinet issued clearance notices to 106 properties in a 12 square mile area including Tyneham Village. They were given one month to leave. As their houses were the property of the Squire, most tenants were given only the value of the produce in their gardens as compensation.

Tyneham School closed (because of declining numbers) in 1932. The school has been maintained as it was then, the children's names are still on the pegs.

This is the remains of the laundry. These were the only properties to have running water.

This is an information plaque about the rectors of Tyneham. Christopher Wordsworth was the rector here at one time - is he relation of our friends David and Carol?

St. Mary's Church is a small cruciform-plan building with walls of limestone rubble. The North Transept and parts of the Nave are medieval, dating from the 13th century, while the South Transept was rebuilt in the mid-19th century by the Rev. William Bond.

Worbarrow Bay, is a 20 minute walk from Tyneham, it  is a large broad shallow bay and is part of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site.

 

If you wish to visit Tyneham check the website first. It is in the middle of a MOD firing range and is usually closed during the week.

Swanage Railway

The railway runs between Norden and Swanage and passes through Corfe, Harmans Cross and Herston Halt. The trip is not very long so we had a rover ticket for the day and went up and down the line twice getting off and on at various places.

The caravan site was at Harmans Cross so we wandered down to the station for 10 o'clock train.

En route to Norden the train passes Corfe Castle.

We spent 3 hours in Swanage doing the walking trails and this is one of the views we were treated to. Old Harry rocks can be seen in the distance.

Waiting for the off at Swanage.

 

The train coming in at Corfe for the last leg of our day out.

The Purbecks - Tailpiece

Kimmeridge Bay

The rocks here were once the floor of a deep, tropical sea rich in pre-historic life. They formed in the Jurassic period, 155 million years ago.

You don't have to look to hard to find fossils in the rocks. This photo was used to claim an Earthcache (for geocaching.com).

The fossil is an ammonite.

Lunchtime on Studland Beach.

In between Studland beach and Ferry Road there is the Little Sea, a fresh-water lake amongst the dunes which was cut off from the sea by the development of the dunes. The lake is a haven for birds and other wildlife.

This is a quarr (quarr is correct) where the Purbeck Stone was quarried. These shafts were sunk into the ground and a donkey was used to pull up the trucks. Looking at an Ordnance map of this area there are the remains of many of these quarrs.

The Great Globe at Durlston is the largest sculpture created by George Burt at what is now Durlston Country Park. It is three metres in diameter and weighs about 40 tonnes and is made from local Portland Limestone.

We ended our trip away a day earlier because of the poor weather forecast. Needless to say they were wrong and the Friday was warm and sunny.

Busy Busy - Sept/Oct 2008

After we arrived home, after our last trip, we have been very busy.
We've been working to a 3 year plan on the house so the new carpet that has just been laid should have gone down 5 years ago, so it is slightly overdue. We have been mainly painting, but it took at least 3 coats in most places, so it took some time.
Here I am with the new carpet.



My birthday was the day after the carpet was laid, so we went out to the pub for a meal and a well earned rest. As you can see it was one of the better days of the summer.


This shot was taken on one of my cycling forays into the forest.


A chilly morning in the the forest.


On Saturday 11th Oct there was a Geocaching event in the Meyrick Park, Bournemouth.
I went to the event and Sue went shopping in Bournemouth. There was a good turnout for the event and a better turnout by the weather! The lady in the cross-country wheelchair geocaches in it.


After the trip to Bournemouth Sue and I decided to make the most of the late afternoon sun - the neighbours also thought it was a good idea to join us on our front lawn. The centre of attention is Lucy.


The following photo is taken by Lucy of her Dad.