There and Back

We had wanted to visit Dorset for some time, so this cottage was a perfect choice for a weeks holiday with Hayley and Izobelle. It was close to Portland Bill and not too far from Lulworth, in an area called Fleet.  Fleet is a small, scattered village and civil parish in south Dorset, approximately 2.5 miles (4.0 km) west of Weymouth, and close to the shore of The Fleet, a brackish lagoon behind Chesil Beach.  The Great Storm of 1824 caused waves to breach Chesil Beach, and many of the buildings in the village were destroyed. An eye-witness described the event: At six o'-clock on the morning of the 23rd I was standing with other boys by the gate near the cattle pound when I saw, rushing up the valley, the tidal wave, driven by a hurricane and bearing upon its crest a whole haystack and other debris from the fields below. We ran for our lives to Chickerell, and when we returned found that five houses had been swept away and the church was in ruins. It was much calmer o...

This was a momentous week in the short life of Izobelle. It was the week she took her first steps and I managed to capture the moment on camera. She was the gorgeous (I am biased I know) child who demonstrates her flexibility by putting her toes in her mouth ... .... the inquisitive one who was intrigued by everything. ..... melted your heart when she looked at you ... ... demonstrated that `yes, I can make a mess`! ... to the occasion when she made those first magical steps for mummy, and then onto Nana! Magic! Home      Forward      Back

Having been to Wells before and being fascinated by the clock, we decided to revisit as we were in the area. I think Wells Cathedral has the most magnificent frontage. The mind `boggles` at the `man - hours` spent on  constructing these monumental buildings. Wells Cathedral - West Front  I don't remember anything much about the town of Wells, apart from the Cathedral area. Mind you, it has such an impact when you first see it, like most of our Medieval Cathedrals.  The present Cathedral was begun about 1175 on a new site to the north of an old minster church.  Bishop Reginald de Bohun brought the idea of a revolutionary architectural style from France, and Wells was the first English cathedral to be built entirely in this new Gothic style.  The first building phase took about eighty years, building from east to west, culminating in the magnificent West Front. About 300 of its original medieval statues remain: a glorious theatrical sto...

We did not spend much time in Bath, more's the pity, but it is immediately obvious what a great area for photographs it is. Perhaps a revisit some time to do it justice. It is a town set in the rolling countryside of southwest England, known for its natural hot springs and 18th-century Georgian architecture.The city became a World Heritage Site in 1987, largely because of its architectural history  One of the most photographed examples of Georgian architecture in the city and one of only four bridges in the world to have shops across its full span on both sides, Pulteney Bridge was designed in 1769 by Robert Adam. The bridge is named after Frances Pulteney, wife of William Johnstone Pulteney. William was an important man in Georgian Bath, owning a lot of land in the surrounding area. He had grand plans to create a 'new town' to rival that of John Wood's on the west side of the city. His grand scheme needed a new bridge and he didn't want just any o...

In Woolpit, near Bury St Edmunds, is a village called Woolpit. Each year Woolpit hosts a steam Day which consists of many examples of the power of steam which preceded the modern internal combustion engine. This year, I took a trip and here are a few of the images from that afternoon - not that I can tell you much about the engines! Ransomes, Sims and Jefferies Limited was a major British agricultural machinery maker also producing a wide range of general engineering products in Ipswich, Suffolk including traction engines.  So, a local connection here! The enterprise was started by Robert Ransome (1753-1830), a brass and iron-founder in Norwich before moving to Ipswich in 1789 where he started casting ploughshares in a disused malting at St Margaret's Ditches in Ipswich, with capital of £200 and one employee. As a result of a mishap in his foundry, a broken mould caused molten metal to come into contact with cold metal, making the metal surface extremely hard – chille...

The Morgan Motor Company is a family-owned British motor car manufacturer that was founded in 1910 by Henry Frederick Stanley Morgan . Morgan is based in Malvern Link, an area of Malvern, Worcestershire, and employs 177 people. Morgan has stated that they produce in excess of 1300 cars per year, all assembled by hand. The waiting list for a car is approximately six months, and has sometimes been as long as ten years. Morgan cars are unusual because wood has been used in their construction for a century, for the chassis of several early models and still in the 21st century for the body shell. A visitor centre and museum feature exhibits about the company's history from Edwardian times until the present day, developments in automobile technology, and a display of automobiles. These beauties were on their way to a show and were obviously making an effort to give the public a mobile show on their way. So, armed with camera, and my spot on the roadside, these are a few (of many!...