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.

Ringwood Carnival

Louise and Lucy (the ladybird), our neighbours ready for the carnival.

There were a few horses in the parade and loads of children.

At least 3 marching bands were there, one all the way from the Isle of Wight to give it that international flavour.

Ringwood is well known for its Pedal Car Racing Event, here are some of the competitors.

Chris, another neighbour, representing the Duke of Edinburgh Scheme at Ringwood School. I think that's my pocket money about to go into the bucket!

After the parade we met up with Colin and Trish who just happened to be in Ringwood that afternoon.

Oh, this is the photo I forgot to put into the last blog!
One of the days at Poolsbrook Caravan Site

All Points North

We set off for Wyatts Covert, Denham on Bank Holiday Saturday, not a day we would normally choose, but as it turned out not a problem if you were heading north from the coast. If you were heading in the other direction well.......

Wyatts Covert is not the quietest of caravan sites being on the edge of Denham Aerodrome. Helicopters are the worst for noise especially at 0615 in the morning.

On the Sunday we met up with the JHQ lunch group at Jennifer and Brian's in Bourne End. There was a good turn out and we were lucky with the weather so we could spend the afternoon in the garden. As usual the food was excellent and the conversation flowed along with the wine.

On the Tuesday we visited Sue's sister, Pam, and brother-in-law, Richard, in Langley for a meal and a chat.

We couldn't leave Denham without doing some geocaches. There were quite a few in and around the Grand Union Canal. Here I am pointing at a geocache It is in the top of the pole.

Denham as you all know is the place where Sir John Mills lived until his death in 2003?

This is his house in the main street of Denham. It's a lovely village with many pubs and a very picturesque church.

The narrow boat coming through the lock had been away from home for 3 months and was hoping to get home that evening. Unfortunately it was still 10 hours away so it will have to wait until tomorrow. We know all this because we had a chat with the young lady operating the lock gates.

After Denham we moved to Derbyshire for John and Jan Ackroyd's joint 60th birthday party. 

We are staying at a brand new Caravan Club site at Pools Brook Country Park, Staveley, Derbyshire. We are here for the official opening (by luck) so will make sure we are free that day for a glass of something and a few nibbles. We are strategically placed being only 2 plots away from where the catering tent will be!

Today we visited Chesterfield and saw the church with the crooked tower, very impressive.

We had very kindly been invited to John and Jan's 60th birthday bash and so we brought our caravan to Pools Brook caravan site Staveley, near to Chesterfield.

Here is Sue with Lauraine. We were surprised with the number of people we knew, all of them ex-Germany, it was great to see them.

 

Lauraine, Stuart and Paul.

 

John and Jan

 

Neil and Karen

 

It was a really successful do and thanks have to go to John and Jan and all the people that helped.

Derbyshire - the second week

On the Sunday we went to Barrow Hill Roundhouse. It is the last surviving operational roundhouse engine shed.

The roundhouse itself is where the engines were stabled and serviced.

In front of Sue the edge of the turntable can be seen.

Here you can see the water tower, red and white structure on top of a brick building.

This held 23,000 gallons of water for the locomotives!

Barrow Hill is run by volunteers so is open only on Saturdays and Sundays.

Here they are doing a bit of shunting.

Poolsbrook Caravan Site - The Official Opening

When we arrived at the site we found out that we would be there for the official opening with all the bigwigs. After a couple of days we received our official invite, but we didn't have any glad rags (collar and tie) with us (I didn't anyway). It didn't matter all comers were welcome.

This is Sue on the way to the opening. We had a journey of 50 metres.

The whole site is eco friendly with hot water systems, photo voltaic cells and recycled water systems.

This is the reception and information centre.

Caravanners out there know I've had a bee in my bonnet about the cost of Wi-Fi on sites. I managed to bend the ear of the vice chairman about it and he had already mentioned it to the chairman. Maybe something will be done to lower the cost!

This is Simon Groom (ex Blue Peter) a Certificated Location owner, with the wardens. He was the guest speaker. It was a good speech - short, sharp and funny.

The celebration cake. Very tasty.

Nottinghamshire - the third week

In the third week we moved onto Clumber Park, Nottinghamshire.

This is the colourful entrance of the Clumber Park Caravan Club Site - they came second with this 'blooming display' for the Caravan Club sites!

Lime Tree Avenue, Clumber Park, is the longest of its kind in Europe. Planted in about 1840, it is almost 2 miles long and consists of 1,296 common limes planted in a double row on each side of a drive. Records from 1906 relate that the trees were suffering from insect attack. To alleviate this, black grease bands were painted round the trunk of each tree to trap the insects, and are still visible today

 

Truman Gate one of the entrances to Clumber Park.

 

Sue in the Walled Kitchen Garden at Clumber Park. The walled garden contains the glasshouses which  at 135 metres are one of the largest in England and contain a fig house, vineries, palm house and peach house. There is a working kitchen garden with produce for sale. At the present time there are only 4 full time gardeners so all of the garden cannot be cultivated. In its heyday there were about 20 gardeners.

This modest semi-detached Edwardian house was the family home of well-to-do grocers William and Florence Straw from 1923. It is remarkable because the Straws' two sons preserved it almost unaltered until it came to the National Trust in 1990. The interior with its 1920s wallpaper, heavy Victorian furniture and household objects provides a rare glimpse into interwar middle-class life. There are displays of family costume, letters and photos and a typical suburban garden.  The actual house is the one on the right, the one on the left is used as the reception and for the display of various artifacts.

Towards the end of our stay at Clumber Park we visited Neil and Karen Hodgson, who live just east of Retford. I taught with Neil in the mid 1990's at Windsor School. He moved on and we met again at the Ackroyds 60th do. We were made very welcome and Neil let me tweak the throttle on his Harley. That's got to make ones year.