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This week's Saturday Timewatch features a locomotive with quite a varied life. The photo above shows TKh 5387 going across an unmanned crossing at Vierves-sur-Viroi, Belgium, hauling the afternoon passenger service from Mariembourg to Treignes on the heritage Chemin de fer a vapeur des 3 vavallees (Three Valleys Steam Railway).
There are many details of her life that I cannot answer. However, the 0-6-0T locomotive was built in Poland in 1959, destined for work at the Cementownia Saturn (Saturn Cement Plant) Wojkowice, Poland. I do not know when that work came to an end. At some stage she then found herself in England, being a resident at the Northampton and Lamport Railway, though whether this was directly from Poland or via a stint in Belgium again I do not know. What is clear is that in more recent years she has been based at Maldegem Stoomcentrum, Belgium, but is now to loan to Three Valleys Steam Railway.
Two asides :
# 1 The volunteer on the footplate had just got back on board having used a 'flag' to ensure a safe crossing of the road.
#2 A close relative TKh 2944 (built earlier in 1952) currently runs at Churnet Valley Railway, Staffordshire.
(...translates as Public Holiday for those who live offshore)
Today, the tradition of a wet Bank Holiday Monday continued. It has chucked it down all day. So here is a celebration of one of the very few interesting shops in Weymouth "Rude Not To".
Who remembers Mods and Rockers and their traditional Bank Holiday Monday punch-ups at the seaside resorts? For those who live abroad, the rockers (motorcycles) and mods (scooters) created the moral panic of the day in the red-top press. As always the youth sub-cultures of the day were demonised and most teens were supposed to belong to one or the other. That was rubbish.
Personally, I was never a 'rocker' even though I bought a motorcycle to be able to drive 30 miles to/from an early job. Likewise, even though I was heavily into soul and Jamaican sounds, I was never a mod! It was all great fun though. So it is a delight to have such a retro clothes shop in town. I never go in. However, I do like to loiter outside listening to the music emanating from within.
Representing the rockers, Gene Vincent has featured here before flic.kr/p/9mnLvc
So here is a classic tune representing the mods and yes, I do have the Island Records 45rpm : )
bithbox # 218
"What shall we do with a drunken sailor?"
Following on from flic.kr/p/2rbqgsN this display indicated the typical sailor's diet in the time of the Mary Rose during first half of the 16th century. Remember that beer was a much safer drink than water in those days!
Inspired by Chris Firth's recent mention of Barmouth swing bridge, a delve into the vaults found this photo taken on my first ever digital camera. It has been somewhat reworked from a previous post. As can be seen from the photo below it features 76079 running one of the regular Cambrian Coast summer steam specials that the West Coast Railway Company operated between 2006-2009. The photos were taken on a foul morning from Tonfanau Station, part way up the bank from Tywyn towards Friog cliffs from where the line then drops down to the Mawddach Estuary and the Barmouth swing bridge.
Built in 1957, this 2-6-0 mostly worked freight duties, including some North Wales coal trains along the Chester to Holyhead line. However, as far as I know it was never seen on the Cambrian Coast line. The locomotive remains operational at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway where she is certified for mainline working to Whitby.
At the height of the summer holiday season, this photo from 1959 seems appropriate for this week's Saturday Timewatch.
The original photo is in the Dorset History Centre. It shows holiday makers at the Allandale Guest House, Weymouth in 1959. The town's esplanade remains lined with hotels, bed and breakfast establishments and guest houses. In fact, Allandale Guest House is still a going concern.
EDIT : Oops. Different guest house. The one on the seafront is the ALENDALE. I hadn't noticed the difference in spelling. The one above has either been rebuilt or refurbished and looks like apartments.
The fossil record shows that American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) has been around for at least 8 million years. Some suggest much longer as the family of alligators seems to have evolved quite slowly. The fossil record shows many quite similar species going back at least 100 million years.
They are reasonably common in Texas. This individual was photographed at Sheldon Lake State Park, some 17 miles east of downtown Houston.
This week's Saturday Timewatch visits the cockpit of a Lockheed C-60A delivered to the USAAF Dec 22 1942. As N31G is still airworthy I tried to persuade the powers-that-be to let me take her up. They didn't seem too keen............
Bithbox # 153
"Hans Zimmer & Alan Walker "Time" (official remix)
Have current generations ever been more aware of 'time' during this last year? This is my contribution to the (approximately) one year anniversary of the C-19 pandemic. Below are a selection of personal timeline dates from February and March 2020.
February 15th 2020 : eBay order placed for face masks.
March 2rd 2020 : Haircut,
March 5th 2020 : Decision taken not to attend the indoor annual Butterfly Conservation meeting as first Dorset cases have already been confirmed.
March 6th 2020 : Doctor's appointment.
March 11th 2020 : "Global pandemic" officially announced.
March 13th 2020 : Throw tickets in the bin for Phil Beer concert at Bridport.
March 14th 2020 : America closes the border to UK (and other) citizens : UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office issues travel notice effectively stopping UK citizen travel to the USA.
March 15th 2020 : Houston flights scheduled for 18th March are cancelled.
March 22nd 2020 : Last day trip visit to north Dorset countryside before Lockdown 1.0.
March 23rd 2020 : Prime Minister Boris Johnson announces full lockdown.
March 30th 2020 : First supermarket Home Delivery order arrives.
...and the rest, as they say, becomes 'history'
BITHBOX # 078
Midnight, August 14th 2017, is the 50th anniversary of the UK Marine Broadcasting (Offences) Act 1967 becoming law. Whilst other offshore stations succumbed, Caroline famously continued broadcasting...
...and still broadcasts today, a remarkable achievement! You can listen to their live anniversary programming via this link. Some, if not all, is coming from their final vessel, MV Ross Revenge, currently moored along the River Blackwater.
www.radiocaroline.co.uk/#home.html
Jimmy McGriff's evocative track has been chosen partly for its title; partly because other tracks intimately associated with Caroline have already featured on this flickr stream and partly because I remember it from Radio Caroline North anchored off Ramsey, Isle of Man. For a time, Caroline North used to close down during the evening hours, but re-open broadcasting from midnight until 2 a.m. then closing down again with 'Round Midnight.
The photo above features the MV Caroline, Radio Caroline North's ship. It is on the front cover of my Radio Caroline Club booklet, sent to you along with other goodies when you joined.
Note : The photo of the booklet was taken today. However, for old times' sake, I've put the geotag at the approximate location from where Caroline North broadcast during the mid-sixties.
It should sharpen the garden spade and shears nicely.
Apparently the company still carries on under another name in what is now the Czech Republic. I can find little information about this particular product. However, on the internet I've seen a very similar item made in America dated to the 1930's.
It is 42 years since Star Wars first came out. Not being much of a film fan, I only ever saw the original of the whole saga in a cinema. However, I have never forgotten the event as it was the first and only time I've ever known applause to break out in a cinema at the end of the film.
Fast forward to 2019 and who would have expected such an interesting United special livery to promote the latest episode "Star Wars : The Rise of Skywalker" The United aircraft is a B737 (N36272) and is photographed here on departure from Houston to San Francisco. The details are more visible on large size.
I'm sure it must have happened before but the inside of the aircraft is also themed and can be seen in this link that also explains some of the details of the livery www.insider.com/photos-inside-united-airlines-star-wars-b...
Thanks to Kim for making the diptych!
As a nipper in the mid 20th century, unlike quite a few around this neck of the flickr woods, I never did go bunking engine sheds or locomotive works. Perversely, living just about as far as you can get from the sea in England, I was simply far more interested in ships!
For those out of Britain, 'shed bashing' was undertaken by rail enthusiasts who either officially or unofficially visited the numerous engine sheds to see what was in there. Happy days!
This is the scene inside one of the Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway sheds. There was no interpretation board or anyone around to ask so I don't know the identity of the steam locomotive being rebuilt in this photo.
A most unexpected item for this week's Saturday Timewatch. I came across this poster yesterday. It is displayed at Staverton Station on the South Devon Railway, a heritage railway that runs from Buckfastleigh to Totnes. Previously I had no idea GWR ever operated an airline!
For overseas readers, GWR stands for Great Western Railway, a name that is still in use today. Their own website has this to say about a short-lived foray into air transport.
"The GWR formed its own air service in 1933 but operated independently for only a year before the Railway Air Service was formed by the Big Four railway companies (including GWR) in collaboration with Imperial Airways to provide internal services to connect with Imperial’s international flights. One of the most important routes was Cardiff to Plymouth and Cardiff to Liverpool and Birmingham. The RAS was absorbed into the nationalised company British European Airways in 1947"
John Constable is best known for his landscape paintings around Dedham Vale, Suffolk. Less well known are a series of paintings from October and November 1816 when he and his bride took a 6 week honeymoon in Osmington, Dorset. Several of those paintings are featuring here during November, with comparison photos taken 200 years later.
This is the third of the series to be posted and the most recognisable location today. His painting shows the tiny 'harbour' at Osmington Mills with a protective outcrop of cliff and a natural barrier of rocks out to sea. The Isle of Portland is in the distance. You can see the modern view below.
Southern Pacific Railroad advertising poster, circa 1950.
Interesting to note that some 67 years later, Amtrak's service on the same route takes 44 hours 35 minutes.
This weekend's gala at Swanage Railway features no less than FIVE Bulleid locomotives to mark 2017 as the 50th Anniversary of the final operation of steam hauled services on the Southern Region of British Railways.
In the above photo, Battle of Britain Class 34081 92 Squadron is about to depart Swanage Station with another nearly full load of passengers. She is named after the famous Spitfire squadron based at various airfields but most revered for their operations from Biggin Hill during the Battle of Britain in 1940. Entering service from Brighton works in 1948, her mainline career ended when she was withdrawn from Eastleigh shed in 1964. Finally restored, she spent 10 years on the heritage circuit from 1998-2008. After major work she has just re-entered service for a third time earlier this year, now wearing the British Railways malachite-and-sunshine livery.
In the background, Battle of Britain Class 34053 Sir Keith Park awaits her turn.
Why "Bullied"?? Southern Railway's Chief Mechanical Engineer Oliver Bulleid designed SR's West Country and Battle of Britain classes, collectively known as 4-6-2 Light Pacifics or informally as Spam Cans.
This photo shows the station staff who worked at Sturminster Newton station on the old Somerset & Dorset line. The original image features on an interpretation board where the station used to be. I don't know the name of the photographer or the exact date. However, from the board I do know that the gentleman in the middle of the front row (with the dog) was William Henry Owen, Station Master there for 41 years until his retirement in 1921.
I'd put money on that most of my UK contacts will have owned at least one Observer's Book in their childhood, often given to them as a Xmas or birthday present. First published in 1937, the last, numbered 100 in the series, came out in 2003 entitled "Wayside and woodland".
I don't know if there were similar publications in other countries?
One for the aircraft fans that frequent my stream. You know who you are! As you know I'm not a fan of planes on poles, much preferring them either in the air or undercover in a hangar museum so they are not rusting away. However, this was an unexpected "discovery" at Texas City. So this week's Saturday Timewatch goes back a century.
The historical claim by Texas City, though open to different interpretations, has some validity. Previously the U.S. Signal Corps possessed a small number of balloons and a dirigible. They also tested an airplane at Fort Myer, Va. in Aug 1908. Within a month, Lt. Thomas E. Selfridge, flying with Orville Wright, was killed when the plane crashed thus becoming the first military aviation casualty. After more testing with an improved Wright Flyer, the U.S. Army Signal Corps formally accepted this airplane, identified as "Airplane No. 1," on Aug. 2, 1909. By October 1912 they had 9 active aircraft.
This is where the story moves to Texas City. The 2nd Division of the United States Army deployed from Augusta, Georgia to Texas City in 1913 to guard the Gulf Coast from incursions during the Mexican Revolution. Nearly half of the nation's land military personnel set up camp! This was due to the perceived double threat that the Mexican Revolution might spill over across the border or that the neighboring country might become a German ally in the incipient World War. It was from within their ranks that the 1st Aero Division was formed, the Wright brothers trained over a dozen soldiers as military pilots. It is this official formation of an airborne unit upon which Texas City claims its place as "the birthplace of the U.S. Air Force".
However, it wasn't until 1947 that the U.S Air Force became a separate military service.
The fully loaded steam powered coal barge “Minx” broke her moorings one night during November 1927. She drifted unnoticed without her crew through Portland Harbour and across Weymouth Bay, finally coming to rest on Frenchman’s Ledge where she was wrecked. The following morning apparently produced frantic activity from the locals, as the Minx’s cargo of coal started to wash ashore.
Taken during a very low spring tide, this photo shows her remains towards the bottom left corner of the photo. The Isle of Portland is in the distance.
Sometimes it takes an expert's eye to highlight what is around you. That was the case here.
We had walked along this length of pedestrian pavement on several occasions but had never noticed the unusual make-up of the stone wall. Whilst on a Portland archaeological walk with Andrea Frankham-Hughes, she pointed out the huge boulders in the wall of which there were more than just these two. Rather than being left over from quarry workings, they are believed to have come from a nearby, no longer existing, stone circle on a site destined for development.
We could certainly see that they could easily have been standing stones in the distant past.
Continuing the Isle of Portland then and now series, this really is the same place as in the modern scene shown below. To confirm that, look at the hill top in both photos.
Taken by an unknown photographer late in the 19th century, this shows quarried stone blocks being loaded onto carts for onward transfer down to the port in Castletown. Note the supervisor's cottage behind the cart!
The Moody Blues played Houston last week as part of their 50th Anniversary Tour celebrating the release of their second album "Days of Future Passed" In fact they played the album in its entirety. I must be getting passed it as well, failing to get the camera through security. So this is the best that could be done with a phone shot from up in the gods.
You'll already know that most audience-based footage of concerts is rubbish. Poor sound, but worst of all people seem incapable of holding their phones steady and can't resist constant panning and zooming in and out. The video below is a very honourable exception and shows the band line-up pretty much as it was in Houston.
Bithbox # 085
A midweek "Timewatch"!
This is one of c60 pages in a school exercise book entitled "North and Mid Wales" dating from around 1960. It is my hand drawn map of parts of Caernarfonshire and Snowdonia, North Wales.
The circumstances of such a big school project have frankly been lost in the mists of time. However, during most school and bank holidays, my parents would take me to this area where they owned a small caravan. Therefore, even at a tender age I knew the area quite well. I also loved maps!
My best guesses are that it was either a summer holiday assignment or one that was set for me to do at home after coming out of hospital. I'll never know. By the way, whoever marked the assignment clearly didn't give it that much attention. There are quite a few pencil ticks but no comments until on the last and 59th page there is a single '70 Good' !
This week's Saturday Timewatch features Amersfoort, Holland. It was not a city that I knew much about. What a revelation! It surely has to be one of the best preserved medieval 'old towns' in northern Europe. In fact you could easily take a photo of the above 1580 plan and use it as a modern-day map to get around. Lots of the old buildings also still survive.
Highly recommended should you get the chance to visit.
This week's "Saturday Timewatch" goes way back to long before homo sapiens ever walked the Earth. The overall alligator family goes back some 37 million years. More recently, this American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) shown above is well represented in the Pleistocene fossil record going back 2.5 million years. However, in 2016, a nearly identical fossil skull to the above animal was discovered in Florida. That 'sister' species discovery, means that the American Alligator can now be traced back 8 million years to a near-identical but as far as i know 'unnamed' species.
By comparison, humans evolved comparatively recently from earlier hominids, around 200,000 - 300,000 years ago.
From an unknown date and an unknown photographer, this is a photo of Jesty's at 1, Straits, Easton, Isle of Portland. Compare and contrast to the photo of the same address today and you can see that the only external feature that survives is the first floor window.
At some point, a building extension has been added filling in the gap where the gate behind the cart used to be. This must have happened in relatively recent times as the gates were still there when "Portland Spice", a business previous to todays' Chinese takeaway occupied the site.
EDIT : Note that things have moved on and my comparison building immediately below is incorrect. It is across the street from "Flavour of Asia" correctly identified by David!
A Southern Pacific Lines train leaves Houston Union Station circa 1950. The number '2' on the front of the locomotive denotes that it is a Sunset Limited service eastbound to New Orleans.
If I've understood the literature correctly, Alco built the 2,000 horsepower diesel PA-1 locomotive # 205 sometime between September 1946 and June 1950. The carriages, built by a different company were also state of the art at that time. Part of a much longer Pacific to Gulf Coast timetable, the journey time in 1950 between Houston and New Orleans was 7 hours. The same route in 2017 takes 9 hours 30 minutes!
This weekend's Saturday Timewatch features the American Airlines' livery that pays homage to Reno Air.
Reno Air was a short-lived but reasonably successful low-cost start-up that operated its first flight in 1992. Using new aircraft and quickly establishing a reputation for reliability, its selling point was to be a cut above the competition whilst still offering low fares. The company was acquired by American in 1999.
The B737-800 above (N916NN) was delivered to AA in 2013 and given the "Reno Air Heritage" special paint scheme in 2015. On this flight the aircraft is seen arriving at Houston George Bush Intercontinental from Chicago.
I'm back on board after being awol from flickr for a couple of days.
Both items in the photo, each with two parts, are the same. But what are they and what are they used for? Note that the small pieces of plastic are irrelevant being used merely for display purposes.
Your best guesses and answers on a postcard please!
This week's Saturday Timewatch features a slogan synonymous with Texas. Now commonly used by Texans as an an identity statement, a declaration of Texas independence and pride in the state, the phrase started out over 35 years ago as an anti-litter slogan www.dontmesswithtexas.org/about/history/
Hugely successful, it is still used as that to this day. All sorts of well-known Texans have been involved in promoting the campaign over the decades including musicians Stevie Ray Vaughan, Lyle Lovatt, George Strait, LeAnn Rimes, Joe Ely and of course Willie and his son Lukas Nelson.
Here is one of Willie's campaign adverts www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6aAX1X8ho0
Now renamed the Commemorative Air Force, here is an older one featuring a CAF B-17.
This week's Saturday Timewatch features the Showboat Pavilion, Texas City, another in my Last Picture Show series. It opened in 2002 on the site of the original Showboat Theater that was finally demolished in 2000 after years of neglect. Several features of the original building were recreated, retained or re-used including. The facade is similar to the the original and the tower is a replica. A large part of the original terrazzo floor, featuring a steamboat, was salvaged and now forms the centrepiece of the lobby floor. Architect Joe Hoover said "I tried to preserve the integrity of an historical icon"
You can see more of The Last Picture Show here
A bit of a theme has developed this trip with Texas 'institutions' such as bbq, Buc-ee's and Shiner already featuring. Next up for this week's Saturday Timewatch is Blue Bell ice cream.
Painted by TX artist Benjamin Knox, the painting displayed at Blue Bell's museum celebrated the company's centenary in 2007.
Ahem : Yes, I did get my $1 tub of triple chocolate ice cream.
www.starnow.co.uk/christopherw33618
2020 Reel youtu.be/fXhm5se6H3c
2017 Reel www.starnow.com/media/778224
2016 Reel www.starnow.co.uk/media/623368
2015 Reel www.starnow.co.uk/media/500618
Crew CV crew.mandy.com/uk/crew/profile/chris-christopher-wilson
wartimeproductions.co.uk/index.html
In Film and Television
Bletchley Park and its tremendous story have featured regularly in film and television over the past few years. From the BBC’s Antiques’ Roadshow to Operation Mincemeat, the Timewatch Special, Codebreakers: Bletchley Park’s Lost Heroes and the blockbuster film The Imitation Game, all filmed on location at Bletchley Park.
The Imitation Game
The Oscar-nominated movie, The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley, was screened in cinemas around the world in 2014 and 2015. Filmed partly on location at Bletchley Park, the behind-the-scenes video can be viewed here.
Bletchley Park: Code-Breaking’s Forgotten Genius
In September 2015, BBC2 broadcast its documentary about Gordon Welchman, Bletchley Park: Code-breaking’s Forgotten Genius, filmed extensively on location at Bletchley Park.
The Bletchley Circle
The hugely popular ITV drama, The Bletchley Circle Series One and Two, was broadcast in the UK and the US and in the UK attracted an average of 5 million viewers per episode. Both series were filmed on location at Bletchley Park.
A whole new meaning is given to the phrase "rolling stock" in this gravity siding. Not my original but a photo of one displayed at Maiden Newton Station, Dorset. No date is given.
Those who know a lot more about the operation of railways than myself may well be familiar with the concept of a "gravity siding". I certainly wasn't! So this is what I understand to be happening here.
Arriving from the direction of the bridge, the steam locomotive has already pulled the two carriages into the platform at the extreme left. Once the passengers have departed, the engine has then pushed the carriages up the slope of the siding to the left of the water tower. Once uncoupled, the loco has returned into the platform and subsequently moved out of the way to its present position. Under the control of the guard, the carriages are then rolled back down the incline to the platform so that the engine can rejoin the set for the return journey out of Maiden Newton Station.
The Maiden Newton to Bridport (and eventually West Bay) branch line ran for about 10 miles off the still operational Yeovil Pen Mill to Weymouth route. Remarkably it survived the infamous Beeching "axe" but eventually bit the dust some 10 years later in 1975. It is still easy to see various bridges along the branch line and some sections of trackbed though most are very heavily overgrown. By the way, that property is still also standing and occupied.
I am not a Liverpool supporter. However, this weekend is the 25th Anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster when 96 Liverpool football fans died due to the total incompetence and prejudice of Yorkshire's police. All matches in the top five levels of English football kick off 7 minutes late, 6 minutes representing the time that passed before the game was stopped with people already dead on the terraces and the seventh minute being that of silence. All of football will join together in memory of those who died (and the hundreds who were injured) in Britain's worst stadium disaster. For those abroad who may not know, the music below is Liverpool's anthem, sung by the crowd before every home game.
BITHBOX#033
GERRY AND THE PACEMAKERS "YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE"
This qualifies as a 'Saturday Timewatch' because Ray Benson's Asleep at the Wheel have now been rollin' along the musical highway venues for 55 years. They are yet another hard working band who pretty much single-handedly have kept western swing alive. A couple of nights ago, we were delighted to see them perform live for the second time in a small theatre at Brenham, TX.
Below is the title track off their new and 63rd album (including compilations). Whilst Ray still leads on many tracks, fiddler Ian Stewart takes the strain off Ray for vocals on this one.
jukebox # 521
Today, Sunday 24th March 2024, is just 4 years and two days after the day before Britain's full lockdown in 2020. That also was a Sunday. In fact it was also Mother's Day.
Everyone knew at least the gist if not the detail of what was coming on Monday 23rd March 2020 when the Prime Minister was scheduled to broadcast to the nation. So it is no surprise that we, like so many others, took our last chance to get out and about. In beautiful spring weather, we chose a walk in deepest Dorset. It was a bittersweet day for obvious reasons.
Next day, Boris Johnson announced "From this evening I must give the British people a very simple instruction - you must stay at home"
Four years later, with the benefit of hindsight, reading his full speech is very interesting. You can do so here www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-address-to-the-nation-o...
This week's Saturday Timewatch visits Grey Mare and her Colts, a long barrow megalithic tomb in deepest Dorset dating from between 3400-2400 BC i.e. a rather long time ago.
A replay for this track which is about the ancient site.
Remaining derricks on the Isle of Portland, Dorset, haven't loaded Portland stone onto small vessels waiting alongside the cliff for many decades, probably a century. Nevertheless, they remain a fascinating reminder of Portland's industrial heritage as a modern-day cargo vessel heads into Portland Harbour.
Taken from the narrow, very narrow, dead-end lane to West Chelborough, this week's Sunday Landscape features Castle Hill, East Chelborough.
It dates to the 11th-13th centuries and features a motte and bailey design introduced by the Normans. Whether it was used as a fortification, an aristocratic residence, an administrative centre or a combination of all three is not known.
I can't find any suggestion that there was an earlier hillfort here on top of which the 'castle' was built centuries later. However, I do wonder if that was the case given how many hillforts there are across Dorset.
Thanks to Mark Evans for inspiring this post of a photo taken 9 years ago at Manchester. You can see Mark's original below.
The main purpose is to share the Hale and Pace comedy sketch from which Mark captured a couple of frames. I'll readily admit I'd never heard of this clip let alone seen it. Apologies to those of you with White Rose heritage. It is just a bit of fun, though I fear if you are from across the Atlantic, you might not totally understand the humour! Fortunately one of the best traits of being English is the ability to laugh at ourselves and not take things too seriously. Enjoy the video.
BA operates a dozen Airbus A380 aircraft with eighteen A350 on order. However, this photo features all three of the airline's current long-haul Boeing aircraft.
Taken from inside Heathrow's T5 on a murky afternoon, an unidentified B777 stands in the foreground. Parked alongside is B787-8 Dreamliner G-ZBJI due to depart later for Durban, South Africa. In the distance B747 Jumbo G-CIVO, sporting a One World livery, is seen at the moment of rotation en route to Phoenix, Arizona. The fourth visible BA aircraft is an unidentified short-haul flight taxiing out for take-off.
No, not the well known heritage railway in Hampshire!
This week's Saturday Timewatch features a follow-up to a post frpm a few years ago. The location are the wash ponds at Broadmayne, Dorset. With little vegetation growth in winter, you can see two metal rails, one at the bottom right partially out of the water and one underwater running diagonally across the photo. Not visible in this photo, two more lengths of rail were further out in midstream. So what are they?
I can find no reference to them online. However, knowing something of the history of the area, we believe it is the remains of an old watercress railway. Fortunately, a local gentleman to whom we have spoken before confirmed this to likely be correct.
His father, from whom he inherited the house by the wash ponds, moved in during 1986 by which time the watercress operation had ceased, probably in the late 70s. He told us the house previously belonged to the owners of the watercress company. However, they only visited from Hertfordshire during holidays leaving a local old lady living there as caretaker. At least part of the gentleman's current garage was the packing shed for the cress. The assumption is that the watercress was transported the few hundred yards from the cress beds to that shed along the rail line. He didn't know the means of propulsion. It may well have been manpower or perhaps horse-drawn. This remnant of track almost certainly followed a slightly different line to where it is occasionally visible today.
Could there possibly have been a small locomotive? It is impossible to say. However, at least one such railway existed around 12 miles away at Bere Regis. I'm not sure when it was built but I know it was still in partial use until recent times. Bedford & Jesty Ltd used an 18in gauge locomotive powered by an Austin 7 engine to haul watercress from Dodding's Farm watercress beds to the washing shed and dispatch building beside the Bere Water. A local confirmed that there were several branches along the beds and the distance down to the washing shed was almost one mile.
You can see two photos of the Dodding's Farm operation below.
This week's Saturday Timewatch goes back to the era of Roman Britain. When the Romans developed Bath's already existing warm water spring area into a fully-fledged bath complex, there was so much water flowing that they had to build an overflow and also a culvert to channel the excess water into the nearby river. It still exists and still flows to this very day.
John Constable is best known for his landscape paintings around Dedham Vale, Suffolk. Less well known are a series of paintings from October and November 1816 when he and his bride took a 6 week honeymoon in Osmington, Dorset. Several of those paintings will feature here in the coming weeks, with comparison photos taken 200 years later.
First up is Constable's painting of Weymouth Bay, looking from the shore of Osmington Mills some 15-20 minutes walk from where he was staying. Note that the view today is essentially the same although the small fishing boats no longer use the tiny harbour.
As always with fossils, I stress that we are very much amateurs on the subject and welcome alternative identification suggestions .
Found by Kim on Charmouth beach, we had no clue as to what this was. So, as you do, we asked a man who clearly knew a lot more than we did. We can only take his word but straight away he said it is in chert rock so therefore from the Cretaceous period, approximately 145 to 66 million years ago and was a sponge.
Even on large size it is hard to see numerous tiny pits. However, they can be clearly seen through a hand lens. The diameter of the central ring is c10mm / around half and inch. The coin is a British 5p piece.
We think the central 'depression' might be where the water used to flow out through what is known as the osculum.