View allAll Photos Tagged Timewatch
Following on from last week's Saturday Timewatch, this view from the sailing vessel Moonfleet is taken whilst going through the North Ship Channel looking south at all the military defences from Victorian to more modern times.
For those that are interested, click on "Official List Entry" for a very detailed article on this and other aspects of Portland Port.
A bonus Timewatch photo this week features the old toll-house at Maiden Newton. On large size, you can just make out the name next to the door.
Should you be interested, there is a good article linked below about toll-houses in Dorset and the above building is indeed mentioned www.dorsetlife.co.uk/2009/11/taking-their-toll/
...that scheduled steam-hauled services ended on the Southern Region of British Rail - July 9th 1967.
Yesterday, the Railway Touring Company ran "The End of Southern Steam" special from London Waterloo to Weymouth and return. With outbound routing via Yeovil Jct, where there is a turntable, the return service was steam-hauled out of Weymouth "the right way around". It is the first time this has happened for a couple of years.
This is not the most spectacular of steam locomotive photos. However, it was a delight to see 34046, Braunton (in my opinion stupidly running under Lord Dowding titles) making easy work of the bank climbing through Upwey Station. I suspect the diesel at the back was providing quite a bit of the power! However, a working steam locomotive still makes a wonderful sound approaching out of sight from Weymouth and then again disappearing out of sight before entering the ridgeway tunnel and coasting back down to Dorchester on the north side of the escarpment.
This week's Saturday Timewatch photo resulted from an essential u-turn moment on the road. I had no idea it was there!
Many in the UK will remember the Automobile Association boxes. By the time I was a nipper, you could call for help after a breakdown and assistance would be on the way simply by stating the number of the box. None are active these days to the extent that very few even survive. So it was a delight to come across this one in reasonable condition at Ardgay, not too far from Bonar Bridge.
For those in North America the equivalent would be the AAA, though I don't know whether they ever utilised the above system?
The history of the Somerset & Dorset Railway towards the southern end of the line is very complicated. I apologise in advance if any details are incorrect.
This typical housing estate scene, with the lady in a purple jacket and a cyclist on the old S&D track bed shows where their own tracks from Bath ended on the curved approach to Broadstone Station. It is here that their services joined London and South Western Railway metals. That company's track bed came in where the modern housing development now exists. However, just a couple of hundred metres through that estate, their old track bed still exists as the Castleman Trailway all the way to Wimborne and Ringwood.
At this point it is easier to refer to the schematic map below.
(Note : Entries for yesterday's music game flic.kr/p/2niU3jH remain open for another 24 hours or so!)
Durdle Pier, on the Isle of Portland, dates back to the 17th century when stone quarries were in the immediate vicinity. According to The Encyclopaedia of Portland History it first appeared on a map dated 1745 as "Dirtle Key" and later as "New Key" or "Dirtle Pier" on a 1765 map. It was "Durtle Pier" on a map from 1800 and "Dirdale Pier" on a map of 1811. Finally it became known as "Durdle Pier" on the Ordnance Survey map of 1863. However, by then, the shipping of stone had already ended when the Merchant's Railway opened in 1826.
A second life commenced lifting fishing boats in and out of the water and this continued until relatively recently, towards the end of the 20th century, when the crane became beyond repair.
For reference, the Purbeck coast is shown in the distance, stretching out to St. Alban's Head.
I hope fluffy5518 won't take umbrage at me for linking a photo from 2009 showing what it was like. The big storms of early 2014 finally did for the structure. All that is left is the remains shown above, with assorted timbers and rusted winches scattered nearby.
Another old building in Trowbridge features as this week's Saturday Timewatch. It is so named because there are no windows.
Dating from circa 1758, it was used as a lock-up for almost a century until the town had an official police station. One use was for locking up drunks until they sobered up.
However, there was clearly more to it than that. During a riot in 1826, the roof was ripped off and the prisoners released. The date is significant as the year saw major labour unrest in many Lancashire mill towns known as The Weavers' Uprising. Remember that Trowbridge's economy of the time was based on wool and weaving. I suspect the two events were connected.
Looking down part of Neptune's Staircase, a well-known staircase lock on the Caledonian Canal at Banavie. Designed by Thomas Telford and built between 1803 - 1822, it raises or lowers boating traffic some 64' / 20 metres using 8 connected locks.
In the distant shadows, you can just see a Mallaig - Fort William - Glasgow ScotRail service crawling over the swing bridge featured here a couple of days ago flic.kr/p/2seGJ4Y
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!
This Type 25 WW2 pillbox now leans at a precarious angle overlooking Ringstead beach in Dorset. It is one of several that have survived in various stages of disrepair along this stretch of coastline.
This week's "Saturday Timewatch" goes back to 1954. Apart from showing a classic page from an original "Ladybird Senior" book, the following is just so evocative of the time -
"(Blue Tits) are also very fond of pecking off the caps of milk-bottles when left on the doorstep in the morning"
The way around this was to have a box outside the front door. Having collected the empties for re-use, the milkman put the glass milk-bottles inside and put the lid back on!
This week's Saturday Timewatch features NS 248 "Sik" based at the Dutch heritage railway ZLSM. There seem to be quite a number of similar machines preserved around the Netherlands country but this one is a runner. Built in 1935 by Werkspoor, the class NS 200 diesel locomotive was mainly used for shunting duties.
What is most interesting - and can be seen in the photo - is that the locomotive was designed to be operated from a running board on the outside of the engine.
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.
Part of the wider Merchant's Railway on the Isle of Portland, the diagonal track plunging down the hill is the Freeman's incline, aka Merchant's incline. Opened in 1826, the purpose was to transport Portland stone from various quarries to what is now known as Portland Harbour.
The system was apparently rather more complicated than the following single sentence suggests. However, the gist of how the incline operated was based on the concept of counterbalance, in which a heavily loaded wagon of stone, once descending, would be counterbalanced by a sufficient number of empty wagons ascending.
The railway finally closed in October 1939.
From this vantage point, it is just possible to make out a little of Weymouth to the top right of the photo. A section of Portland Harbour can be seen. The buildings on the hill on the far side of the harbour are in Wyke Regis. The shingle bank, with a lagoon on the landward side is Chesil Beach, 18 miles / 29 kilometres long, leading towards West Bay, Charmouth and Lyme Regis.
Escapades and photos posted by flickr friends often contain a back story. So it is here. A winter ticket to Texas was purchased way back around Easter before we even knew that Union Pacific No. 4104 was finally making a return to operations in May. We agreed then that if 'Big Boy' ever came south from home base in Cheyenne, Wyoming, we'd be travelling to see it.
Then came news of a nationwide tour on UP rails! However, the schedule was only published as far as September out west and the south west. Would 4014 then head east and more importantly, make sufficiently slow progress so that we too would be in Texas?
To cut a long story sideways, it was only weeks before that it became clear we would arrive in Houston on the very same day, November 6th! The schedule showed a one-day static display on the 7th at Houston's Amtrak station, with departure the following morning to start heading back north towards Cheyenne.
So on the very first morning back in the Lone Star State, it was straight down to H-Town's station for the time-limited open day. Predictably the conditions were nothing short of monsoon like. Nevertheless thousands turned out, photography was nigh on impossible and where the locomotive was parked meant you could not get any full side-on view.
Nevertheless, returning home like drowned rats, knickers soaking wet; shoes sodden; everything wet, wet, wet, we agreed it was still wonderful.
The photo above gives a hint of the deluge, outlined against the darkness of the cab. The photo below show the sheer size of the wheels. The second subsidiary photo, taken leaning over the fence, catches the fire and something of the length of the train.
Tomorrow, there'll be information about the locomotive and photos giving much better views of 4014 out on the tracks as we chased the train!
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?
Boat lifts!
Edwin Clark figured out the principle of hydraulic balance for the first ever boat lift that, although modernised, still operates today at Anderton, Cheshire.
Exactly the same principle was applied to the Houdeng-Goegnies lift on Belgium's Canal du Centre, shown above. After delays, it finally opened in 1888 but only for experimental and tourist purposes. Reason? The Canal du Centre, connecting the rivers Meuse and Scheldt, was not actually completed for commercial traffic until 1917.
In this photo, the left caisson is down and the right caisson raised. A UNESCO World heritage Site, this and three other similar nearby boat lifts still function using the original machinery. Although no craft were seen going through the system during our visit (late in the season) there are other related photos that will follow in due course and one will show a lift in operation!
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.
Having recently converted two WW2 bunkers into holiday homes, the landowner at Ringstead now milks tourists rather than cows.
One of the homes used to be the Standby Generator Bunker. It was part of RAF Ringstead, a component of the Chain Home radar, a coastal early warning system that stretched from Cornwall in the west to Norfolk in the east. In 1941, the station was put into service, finally shutting down in 1956. The Bunker's Grade-II listing was taken into consideration during the renovation, and the original concrete walls and other elements have been kept. If you look carefully you can see the grass covered 'crescent' shape of the bunker to both the left and right of the concrete structure. Look inside here!
www.sykescottages.co.uk/cottage/DorsetSomerset-Spring-Bot...
Operated by the BBMF (Battle of Britain Memorial Flight) this Dakota (ZA947) provided this week's "Saturday Timewatch" post with three circuits and flypasts around Weymouth Bay.
The Douglas C47 not just looked good. She sounded great as well!
(Permit me a memory. In the past, assorted commercial flight diverts and snafus have resulted in some excellent one-off aircraft adventures. One such was my one and only flight in the civil DC3 version of the above. It was over half a century ago, brilliant and never to be forgotten.)
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.
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.
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!
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'
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
This week's Saturday Timewatch marks the completion of the transcontinental railroad at Promontory Summit, Utah, on May 10th 1869. A final golden spike was driven into the rails to connect the Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads. You may recall the photos of Big Boy steam locomotive? 4014 was out on the UP rails of America to celebrate the 150 anniversary of the event, visiting Ogden, Utah on the exact anniversary date. This poster, photographed from the Union Pacific exhibition as Big Boy went through Houston, TX, shows the initial sales pitch and advertising as the transcontinental railroad opened. The detail can be read on large size.
(Note : I am back in England but will continue with a few more American photos in the coming days)
This week's Saturday Timewatch goes back around 80 years to the 4-8-8-2 cab forward steam locomotives purchased by the Southern Pacific Railroad. 4151 is illustrated here as part of the Union Pacific Exhibition car. Similar earlier classes and a later version were also built, as well as the AC-7 illustrated above. However, all were designed with a cab forward configuration so that the engine crew were ahead of the steam exhaust through the miles of tunnels and snow sheds that were found across the steep mountain passes of the Sierra Nevada. It is over and through that terrain for which these hugely powerful locomotives were primarily designed.
The final survivor of the class, 4172, was scrapped in 1959.
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.
This week's Saturday Timewatch features two swing bridges that are adjacent to each other at Banavie, near Fort William. They cross the Caledonian Canal.
On the right as you look at the photo, the swing bridge on the A830 is opening to allow boat traffic through. That has been in operation since 1971.
To the left, the rail swing bridge is opening at the same time. This listed building dates from 1901 though various operational improvements have been made over time.
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!
....a red blood night.
Saturday Timewatch this week is inspired by recent posts from Rob and Ray that included a reference to either Transaero or Zenit FC (St. Petersburgh)
It was 2008 and the day of the EUFA Cup Final in Manchester. Here Transaero B747 VP-BQC touches down at Ringway, one of numerous Russian aircraft bringing Zenit fans into town for the match. The aircraft lasted another 3 years before going into storage and was eventually broken up at Rome Griffiss International (USA) in June 2015.
To this day, I'm delighted to report that Zenit won 2-0 against Glasgow Rangers. Why? Over 100,000 Glasgow Rangers fans, many would say "scum", descended on Manchester, most without tickets. They absolutely trashed the city centre. Police officers fought running battles with the thugs throughout the night and there were many injuries. Cars were vandalised and shop windows smashed in. As the following day dawned, the city was strewn with broken glass and the detritus of many hours of rioting. A dozen people were eventually sentenced with this quote from the judge "By 8.45pm that evening Piccadilly Gardens had become a battleground. Riot police were deployed and struggled to contain the trouble and restore order. What followed was the worst night of violence and destruction suffered by Manchester city centre since the blitz"
Conversely : Sharon Gibson, the Rangers fan who saved a police officer from serious injury, was awarded £200 from the public purse for what the judge called her ‘enormous courage’
Zenit fans were largely well behaved. Fortunately they were also largely out of the way of the mayhem as the vast majority had tickets for the match so were isolated from being attacked when things really kicked off.
(Note : I'll add that being a football fan I've seen plenty of incidents over the years but nothing remotely on the scale of what happened that night)
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.
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.
Now, where were we with fossil hunting.....
These items are what we found at Charmouth last week.
Top left : Three broken pieces of belemnite. They are extinct marine creatures closely related to modern day squids and octopuses. What you see here are examples of their guard, their hard internal skeleton.
Top right : Fossilised shell, probably a bivalve shell.
Around the edge : Three complete and three broken pieces of ammonite, all in rather poor condition. They are extinct marine molluscs, again related to squids and octopuses.
Centre : Either the most or the least interesting item is in the centre. We think there are three possibilities i.e. fossil wood; fossil bone or rock without any fossil interest. We gave AI a go and it came up with the same three possibilities. Unfortunately, the local Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre was closed on the day of our visit so we weren't able to ask a volunteer expert for their opinion. We hope to get an opinion later in the year on another visit.
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.
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.
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.
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...
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"
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............
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.
"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!
Thanks to Kim's collage, this week's Saturday Timewatch continues our Somerset and Dorset Railway (S&D) four-year exploration as it gets very close to the Dorset / Somerset county border.
Stalbridge is a lovely small town that seems largely stuck in the 1970s and 80s. However, compared to other towns and villages along the S&D there is precious little to show that the famous old railway ever passed through. Apart from a tiny hump along Station Rd where the railway line crossed the road, (not shown here), this is all we could find.
Station Road speaks for itself. However, any remnant of the station and yard are long gone, only commemorated by the name of The Sidings industrial estate that is now located there. Shown of the left side of the collage, it is fortunate that you can still pick up the old line a couple of hundred yards north of Stalbridge and on the edge of town. It is now a farm track but sadly not a public right-of-way. The county border is pretty much where the horizon is. I may well show that location in a future post.
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.
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.