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Some call it a henge, some a circle. Not so well known as its famous namesake, this monument dates all the way back to circa 2017!
Only exposed on flat ledges at very low tide, in-situ giant ammonites are a feature of Charmouth's foreshore. The geology is very complicated in this region but as far as I can understand it, these are from the early Jurassic period when warm seas covered much of the UK, almost 200 million years ago.
Flickr Explore # 429 on March 20, 2016
Engine House, near Tintagel.
One of the lesser known engine houses in Cornwall, this example was completed in 1872. It housed a beam engine that both pumped water from the quarry but also hauled trucks from Bowthick slate quarry across the valley. The quarry closed down around 1913 and the engine house became derelict, minus beam engine. On Duchy of Cornwall land, they were not interested in restoring the building although eventually they granted permission for the Prince of Wales Engine House Society to do so. The Engine House is now a listed building though there appears to be little or no ongoing maintenance taking place.
This week's Saturday Timewatch once more features what in my opinion is one of the iconic structures of 20th century America - the grain silo.
These were actually rice silos. Presumably too expensive to demolish, they are clearly visible from I-10 driving west from Houston. The silos are at the junction of Westview and Lumpkin, where fortunately they are a little easier to photograph than from the interstate itself. They stand out amongst the myriad of malls, hospital complexes, motels and food outlets that line the interstate for mile after mile. As far as I know, they are no longer used inside but the land around is used by a boat and RV storage company.
Flickr Explore # 183 on Sunday, February 28, 2016.
This is the Isle of Portland's Old Higher Lighthouse and I suspect is barely noticed by most visitors tp Portland Bill. From 1716, it operated on the west side of the island alongside the Old Lower Lighthouse which is on the eastern side. Rebuilt in 1869, it was then decommissioned in 1906 after the new Portland Bill Lighthouse became operational. It was designated as a Grade 11 Listed Building in 1978. The current owners let two of the cottages associated with the light as holiday accommodation and apparently that includes shared access to the top of the lighthouse.
But wait, there is more. In 1923 the lighthouse was purchased by Marie Stopes, doctor and pioneer of birth control who used it as a summer home until her death in 1958. It seems she had numerous famous visitors e.g. George Bernard Shaw, Thomas Hardy and H.G. Wells. You can read more about Marie Stopes here www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11040319
Many of you will already know that Dorset has numerous hill forts. This week's "Saturday Timewatch" features Hambledon hill fort, rising to 190metres / c625ft above the village of Child Okeford. Although known to have been previously and extensively used during Neolithic times, the hill today represents a superb example of an Iron Age hill fort dating from around 2,600 BC onwards.
This week's Saturday Timewatch goes back just two decades to a scene replicated many times before and since in communities across Britain.
As mentioned on some previous posts, finds like this are the salt and pepper on top of the basic idea of a river or railway exploration. The photo above is from Nettlecombe, a hamlet that used to host one of Bridport Railway's stations on behalf Nettlecombe's slightly larger village neighbour, Powerstock.
Japan so often does things differently. This week's Saturday Timewatch photo only goes back four years. However it marks August 11, a national Public Holiday in Japan called "Mountain Day" (山の日) that was first declared in 2014.
Mountain Day celebrates Japan's terrain and its connection to the nation's geography and culture. Japan's dramatic and mountainous landscape partly explains why so many live on the narrow coastal plains. Nevertheless, these same urban dwellers remain far more in touch with nature and their rural environments than many in the 'west' and just love to take their holiday opportunities to travel (often by public transport) back into Japan's mountainous heartlands.
A worn and degraded but very large ammonite found after a rock fall and mud slide at Ringstead Beach. The wristwatch gives scale. The watch is rather more recent than the fossil which dates from around 150 miliion years ago....give or take.
This week's Saturday Timewatch is a photo from just 7 years ago. However, it is also another example of the many species that have evolved to be similar but different in the Old and New Worlds. Photographed in British Columbia, Canada, this moth, a Delicate Silver Y (Autographa pseudogamma) looks very much like the Silver Y (Autographa gamma) found in Europe and Britain.
(Note : the geotag is a general one in the area of Kelowna)
This week's Saturday Timewatch is inspired by one of Rob's photos, see below.
Taken more than 8 years ago from a window seat on what was then a Continental flight from LA to Houston, this photo got overlooked at the time. It shows a massive rolling sandstorm, somewhere over Arizona, probably not too far from Phoenix. The attached geotag is representative of the general area rather than specifically accurate.
It is the only time I have ever seen this phenomenon with my own eyes.
Being such a well-known and popular location, it is not that easy to find fossil fragments at Lyme Regis. So it was nice to spot this ammonite amongst rocks and pebbles on the foreshore. In size, it is a couple of inches across.
From Lyme, this will most likely date back to the early Jurassic period, approx 199 - 189 million years ago.
This week's Saturday Timewatch revisits Maiden Castle. Just outside Dorchester, it is the best known and probably the most visited hill fort in Dorset. So a sunny January day is perfect to avoid the crowds but also to take advantage of the low angle of winter sun that emphasises the height of the banks and depth of the ditches.
This view features part of the southern flank. You can pick out a group of people towards the bottom left of the photo and they help indicate the sheer size of the ramparts.
The hill fort is now around 5000 years old. Apparently "Maiden" comes from "Mai Dun" meaning "Great Hill"
(Note : The 500th addition to the "This is Dorset" album)
This week's Saturday Timewatch features Warmwell Mill and Mill House. Dating from the late 18th century, it doubled in size in the mid 19th century when the miller's house was added.
There is little information available. However, it is unusual in Dorset in that it has not so far been redeveloped. There are dozens of mills along the county's rivers and streams but every other one we have found has become either a private house or apartments.
This week's Saturday Timewatch features two of the three lighthouses that for centuries have warned shipping of treacherous waters around the Isle of Portland.
The white building is the Old Lower Lighthouse. Working alongside the Old Higher Lighthouse it was active from 1716 - 1906. It has been the Portland Bird Observatory since 1961 and is a Grade 11 Listed Building.
The red and white building in the distance is the current Portland Bill Lighthouse, active since 1906 to this day. Sadly, two fantastic features are no longer active as a result of recent 'modernisations'. The fog horn was switched off in 2017. A superb light that beamed out into the Channel (see below) was switched off in 2019. It has been replaced by a new light that doesn't sweep across the horizon but instead simply flashes. It is barely visible from the land which in my opinion is really a shame. It was such a feature of a night time visit to the island.
The fog horn sounded great as well...unless you were stood next to it!!!
Suomelina Church, nothing remarkable in itself, was originally built as an island garrison church by the Russians in 1854. A short boat ride from modern Helsinki, it has undergone at least two refurbishments after Finland declared independence towards the end of WW1.
The most fascinating modification occurred in the 1960's when a gaslight lighthouse was installed at the top of the church tower, apparently a unique combination in the world. I wonder why nobody else had ever thought of the idea? Today it uses electricity but still functions as an active lighthouse for both maritime and air traffic.
Flickr Explore # 384, April 18 2016.
A second look at the superbly restored 563 locomotive that originally entered service in 1893 flic.kr/p/2pqXbsk. In the background are the remains of Corfe Castle, first built just after the Norman conquest.
(Note to contacts : You will probably be aware of a long-running and worldwide flickr glitch that means some people can't see my uploads on their Recent Activity feed whilst likewise I sometimes can't see your uploads without checking manually, rather than via Recent Activity. Some flickr punters, not staffers, reckon it is to do with initially uploading a photo as 'private' and then changing it to 'public' after all the descriptions, tags, geotag etc have been done. So tonight I'm testing that theory out by uploading this as a 'public' post from the very beginning. So if you views, comments and faves are way down, you too will be experiencing that flickr glitch!)
This week's Saturday Timewatch features a fourth posting from the excellent Rodney Legg book "Dorset Flight : The Complete History". I will of course be removing this and any other images from the book should anyone moan about copyright. However, I think the photos deserve a wider showing.
This is a transcript of the accompanying caption :
"G-AGBZ Bristol, a Boeing clipper flying-boat of British Airways on a mooring in Poole Harbour as a launch comes alongside with wartime travellers bound for New York in 1945"
Saturday Timewatch again goes back to the age of steam. 63106 "Mayflower" hauls this week's summer seaside special from London to Weymouth.
The photo is a compositional nod to Nodding Pig, Thomas Harper, who often features out of focus foregrounds in his excellent rail photographs. You can see an example in the link below. Thomas composes his on purpose. Mine was nothing more than a happy accident : )
Dipping into the archive with a photo from 8 years ago. It was taken during a 1940s heritage event at Arley Station on the Severn Valley Railway.
He doesn't look anything like Air Raid Warden Hodges. However, some UK viewers might get the connection to the title?
Prominent in the foreground are the ramparts of Eggardon Hill, a massive Iron Age hill fort originally built about 2500 years ago.
This week's Saturday Timewatch features The Five Marys, a Bronze Age (c2000BC - 700BC) cemetery that actually features rather more than just 5 burial mounds. In fact no-one seems to know the origin of the modern name. Perhaps it is best if I leave the detailed description to Historic England historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1013344
It will not be immediately obvious that this is a "Saturday Timewatch" photo. However, in fact it goes back a thousand years and more.
The short version is that this is a section of the county boundary between Dorset and Wiltshire which has been known for hundreds of years as a ‘Shire Rack’. There are several explanations for the use of the word 'rack'. One possibility is that it is a hollow way or sunken lane mentioned on these pages before. In fact the track you can see is a public right-of-way that still runs for miles along the whole length of the rack. Another possibility is a corruption of ‘Shire Oak’ as large trees were often used as landmarks in Anglo Saxon charters and this dividing line did indeed originally mark the boundary between major land estates.
To the left of the big 'horizontal' tree is Wiltshire. To the right of the track is the county of Dorset. Even after hundreds of years, a raised bank can clearly be seen in places along the boundary,. However, at this location it is barely more than a foot or two feet high. So I used the tree to give that boundary effect instead.
It is a long article but should you wish to read more, here is the link that explained everything to me cernegiant.co.uk/group/DNHAS/DNHAS%20Shire%20Rack%20paper...
Familiar to many of you, especially in the UK, Corfe Castle catches some superb late afternoon winter light.
This ancient Dorset landscape features at least two different eras of history. Catching a little sun,the lumps and bumps in the foreground are the c900 years old, Norman remains of Powerstock Castle that was a motte and bailey construction. On the horizon is Eggardon Hill, a well preserved Iron Age hill fort from approx 2,300 years ago.
A classic example of cutwaters stonearchbridges.com/2020/04/07/two-benefits-of-cutwaters/
This is the Grade 1 Listed Building known as Town Bridge, Sturminster Newton. Built in either the late 15th or early 16th century, the six arches span the River Stour. The bridge was widened in 17th century from 12' to 18'.
Not visible in this photo, the central upstream cutwater has a datestone for 1820.
This week's Saturday Timewatch shows the old token system that was used to ensure only one train was on a stretch of single track at the same time. Look closely and you can see the crewman holding a circular metal ring that will be taken by another staff member on the station platform as the locomotive passes. The token, with a specific geographical name on it, is a unique item to that particular stretch of track that the train has just travelled along. So once the token is safely handed over it will then be conveyed to the train waiting on the other platform so that it can then proceed from the station.
The photo was taken on he Swanage Railway heritage line. However, I clearly remember the use of manual tokens along the Cambrian Coast line before an electronic system was introduced. From memory, I think that was sometime in the late 1980s.
This week's Saturday Timewatch features one from a big American road trip in 2015. This came to mind from a discussion a couple of weeks about Bliss, Idaho which is another Stinker Station location!
This week's Saturday Timewatch again goes back exactly 5 years to a classic road trip through the American west. Thanks to Rick Gulden for this particular track BITHBOX # 143
This is the business, torpedo tube end of the submarine HMS Alliance (1947-1973) seen at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.
This week's Saturday Timewatch features a previously unseen image from this weekend 12 years ago. It was taken during a boat trip from Newport Beach, California and shows one of several Common Dolphins 'surfing' alongside the boat. What fun!
There are quite a number of chalk hill carvings across southern England. This is Osmington White Horse. You can judge the very large size from the small flock of sheep in the middle field.
Dating from 1808, the rider represents King George III, who was apparently a regular visitor to nearby Weymouth.
This week's Saturday Timewatch is a mystery. Along the Purbeck Way, near Corfe Castle, there are a couple of these markers, each the same and with the same legend on each side They surely have to be waymarkers rather than e.g. grave headstones. However, so far I've found no explanation whatsoever.
Any ideas?
EDIT : We have an answer. Scroll quite a long way down the comments to discover what this is all about.
This week's Saturday Timewatch features Seaton Tramway, east Devon, just over the county border from Dorset.
The photo shows Tram # 6 departing Colyton Station for the three mile run along the River Axe estuary to the coastal resort of Seaton. This tram was built in 1954, based on the Llandudno & Colwyn Bay style open-topper. Tram # 10 in the distance is much more recent, built in 2002 and based on design elements from both Plymouth and Blackburn tramcars.
Seaton and District Electric Tramway is quite an eclectic operation. It is is a 2 ft 9 in (838 mm) narrow gauge that operates over the southernmost part of the old railway branch line from Axminster to Seaton. As a result of the Beeching axe, the line closed in 1966. However, just three years later it was sold by British Rail to Claude Lane who in various ways had been involved with tram operations throughout his adult life. At that time the track was converted to the narrow gauge that still operates today.
Wondering why the trams look so small? They are half-scale replicas of classic British trams from various cities! The whole operation is a grand day out.
Flickr Explore # 210 on Sunday, July 30, 2017.
The name 'Burning Cliff' dates from 1826 when an underground fire smouldered for several years at Ringstead, Dorset. It was caused by natural ignition of oil shale, an event that apparently happens a couple of times each century somewhere along the Purbeck coastline. In the photo above you can quite clearly see the telltale signs of oil, not from a leak or a spill but appearing naturally as a result of the local geology.
I'm not aware of other areas in the UK where this happens. However there are several places in e.g. Turkey where small fires (chimera) burn constantly through vents in the rocks fuelled by gas emissions.
Flickr Explore # 136 on Monday, March 13, 2017.
A rack of antlers provide another 1977 snippet of Alaskan life. It is a very general geotag but the photo was taken in the Visitor Centre area of Denali National Park and Preserve.
There are quite a few 'lost' villages in Dorset. Knowlton is marked by the church still standing whilst there are no really old houses nearby. However, aerial photography has revealed that the settlement used to be a couple of hundred metres away down along the River. It is out of sight behind and below the far earth embankment.
An earth embankment around the church I hear you say?? Made of chalk rubble, it is more clearly seen in the photo below and encircles the church and is most unusual. I have seen plenty of ancient banks and ditches and plenty of very old churches. However, i don't think I've ever seen the two together before.
It seems that it is a very ancient feature, pre-dating the church itself which is usually described as 'Norman' and dating from 12th century. However, at least one of the windows is Anglo-Saxon in shape (around 400 - 1000 AD) so maybe the Normans added to an existing structure? The surrounding 'henge' is Neolithic and roughly dates from 2000 - 3000BC. There seems little doubt that the Christian church will have visibly symbolised moving from paganism to Christianity. Nobody is quite sure what the henge was for but in this instance it seems very unlikely to have been defensive. One suggestion is that is where Druids will have gathered for ceremonies.
Completed in 1881, this now fully-automated lighthouse is still operational on the coast just to the south of Swanage, Dorset. The old keepers' cottages are now holiday accommodation.
This week's Saturday Flashback looks back to a classic era of civil aviation.
Painted in 1999, this wonderful work by Jonathan Frank depicts some of the aircraft that frequented Houston Municipal Airport in the 1940's and 50's, as well as the Terminal Building that still stands today as a museum.
I am more than happy for those more knowledgeable about aviation than myself to correct the following. Airborne is a Trans-Texas Airways DC3, known as "Super-Starliners". Note the wheel shrouds! On the ground there is an Eastern Air Lines Lockheed Super Constellation. The third large aircraft may be a Braniff? Possibly a Lockheed Electra?
(Apologies for the distortion. It was difficult to get a straight shot, at least in part due to lights reflecting in the background)
Flickr Explore # 443 on Wednesday, January 18, 2017
I wonder if anyone else has vague memories of journeys in early childhood? I can never be certain. However, it is extremely likely that as a nipper I travelled with my parents on the Pines Express from Birmingham to Bournemouth for a week's summer holiday. The only thing I remember is that on the way back I was extremely impressed by being in a compartment where you could pull the blackout blinds down, still in situ after the war.
The out and return journeys will have been the only time that I travelled on the Somerset & Dorset line and the service will have gone through what was then quite a major station at Blandford Forum.
The above photo of the Pines Express at an unknown station is from an interpretation board in Blandford and is credited to British Railways.
BITHBOX # 079
Tom Robinson "Listen To the Radio"
This week's Saturday Timewatch features a classic Philips radio. I can't quite nail the model but it was probably released around the late 1950s, maybe early 1960s.....note the "FM" waveband. Their very similar B3G63A circa 1956 still used the designation "VHF".
It is the list of stations around Europe that really stands out, so reminiscent of Tom Robinson's lyrics shown below. For example, "Hilversum" was a source of great mystery to a young lad from England. Yet just the other day we went through that very town not too far from Amsterdam!
At first sight this might not seem to be much of anything compared to many Roman remains both in Britain and Europe. However, in a local context, it is rather interesting. Constructed by the Roman army, the aqueduct was used in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD to supply water from an artificial lake and dam that was built about 9 miles away. It supplied water to both the military fort and subsequent small town of Durnovia (Dorchester). Interpretation boards say that the channel ran underground with wooden planks and a clay bottom. Apparently it was abandoned around 160 AD when the dam collapsed during an attempted reconstruction.
The buildings in the background are part of Poundbury, Prince Charles' pet "New Town" project for a population of 3,500 on the existing outskirts of Dorchester.
Can you see an illusion? So can I though I honestly can't explain it. The acqueduct water ran downhill from right to left!
Saturday Timewatch goes back this week almost exactly 8 years to Sigur Ros playing Jodrell Bank during the 2013 "Transmissions" festival of astronomy and music. It remains in my mind as the most stunning and appropriate backdrop for a live concert by one of the world's greatest bands. The iconic radio telescope looms large over the stage. Yes, they did indeed play Glosoli from the legendary 2005 album Takk.
bithbox # 170
This week's Saturday Timewatch features another American institution, the drive-in theater.
Midway Drive-In, literally in a field half way between Quitaque and Turkey, Texas, opened in 1955 and could accommodate 250 cars. It lasted until 1987 and was closed for 13 years before new owners gave it a go in May 2000. Missing a year in 2005, it reopened again in 2006 but finally failed in 2011, largely because Hollywood was moving to digital and the finance wasn't there to purchase digital projectors.
Perhaps it will still be resurrected yet again given that we did find a brand new drive-in, albeit in a much more highly populated area flic.kr/p/2nUwLGQ
...and why not!? A slight early morning mist hangs over Corfe Castle, a fortification that dates back to the 11th century, with various 'modernisations' in at least the 12th and 13th centuries.
Given that the site always looks spectacular from all angles, whatever the weather and whatever the season, it is not surprising that the castle is often used on tourist literature for Dorset.
This week's Saturday Timewatch pulls one out from the American Archives and a visit to the freight yards east of downtown Houston.
BITHBOX # 136
Billy Bragg & Joe Henry "Gentle on my Mind"
A fourth track from the superb "Shine A Light" album recorded whilst crossing coast-to-coast on Amtrak.
"I dip my cup of soup back from a gurglin'
Cracklin' caldron in some train yard
My beard a rustling, cold towel, and
A dirty hat pulled low across my face"
As always with posts about fossils, I must stress I am very much an amateur.
Even after the storms, this winter's finds from several visits to Ringstead Bay have been limited to fossil oysters and ammonite traces. Nevertheless, the above find was very pleasing. What you are looking at here is two halves of an ammonite. Imagine folding the two halves together and you'll see that they fit. Just think that as I split the hard shale, they were exposed to the light of day for the first time in some 150 million years! By the way, 'hard shale' is a bit of a misnomer as it breaks very easily and once washed out of the cliff, as this piece had been, it quickly disintegrate as tides come and and is lost to the ocean.
bithbox # 214
"Detectorists"