Time we got back to common sense.
Time we got back to common sense.
Weald and Downland Open Air Museum
Thursday and another day spent blowing away the cobwebs. The question was where to go, where could we get some fresh air but without risking getting soaked. The answer was The Weald and Downland Open Air Museum at Singleton.
Just a short twenty-mile drive from home, the museum is set in the heart of the South Downs and is encompassed by the South Downs National Park. It is home to around 50 historic buildings that were previously facing destruction. Those buildings were carefully dismantled and have been rebuilt here. All of the buildings, spanning the period c.1300 to c.1910, originate from the Weald and Downland of the counties of Kent, Sussex, Surrey and Hampshire. The museum is set against an ever-changing backdrop of the Sussex downs.
Brilliant scenery, interesting historical buildings with animals mixed in. What better way to get fresh air and exercise.
On entering the site and paying a quite modest entry fee you pass through the Hambrook Barn. The barn has an interesting audio / visual display, with many photos of past and present artisans, some of whom may have worked in some of the buildings in the museum
Passing through the barn you are presented with a high level view over The Market place and down to the pond which has a wind powered water pump. The pump was relocated from Pevensey in Sussex.
As you stroll down to the pond area you pass the old Tollhouse which was originally from Beeding in Sussex.
Sat below the pond is the mill that the water drives. The mill is in operation and you can go inside and view the workings as well as purchase fresh ground flour and other goodies. We came away with a number of packets of local biscuits. Yuuumy !!!
Further round the site there is a working Smithy. The building originates from Southwater which by the way is where some of my family have lived in past times. My grandfather used to work the horses on farmlands around Sussex and who knows he may have visited this building or may have had his horses fitted with shoes from this forge and anvil.
Outside the smithy there is a vertical sculpture. The photo below is a close up of just a part.
Although the buildings are the main reason for the museum one cannot avoid nature. The museum setting means that you are surrounded by beautiful trees, open fields and water.
Around the grounds there are various animals most of which are traditional breeds including Shire horses, Sussex cattle, South Down sheep, Tamworth pigs, geese and Light Sussex chickens. The shire horse can be seen working around the site.
It is estimated that you need around three hours to take in all the museum has to offer. That is presumably if you don’t just sit on one of the many benches to absorb the sunshine, the beautiful scenery and the peace and tranquility.
Well for the most part anyway. Our little piece of tranquility was punctuated by a very yappy French Poodle and a large family group who could only communicate by shouting and screaming at each other.
Despite the minor negative moments we had a brilliant time and sadly we had to make our way home.
For more information take a look at The Weald and Downland Open Air Museum website. Better still go and visit. You will not be disappointed.
Hayling Billy Trail
The line was opened by the LBSCR for goods on January 19th 1865, and for passengers on July 16th 1897. Over the winter of 1962 it was decided to close the branch line, the reason being the old timber bridge that crossed Langstone Harbour needed expensive repairs. The company could not afford the repairs and thus the line took its final fare paying customers on November 3 1963.
Many years on and the route of the Hayling Billy Line has been opened as a combined footpath, bridleway and cycleway and passes down the west side of the island. It is part of route 2 of the National Cycle Network.
Over the years I must have driven on and off Hayling Island many hundreds of times and was aware of the Hayling Billy Trail but until now had never visited.
So there we were on a very chilly Tuesday afternoon, with the sunshine coming and going, but spending most of the time hidden behind the clouds. At least it wasn’t raining. We parked up in the car park at the northern end of the trail.
As you follow the trail you can see many clues linking back to parts of the old railway . Some are a little more obvious than others. The most obvious are the remains of the old railway bridge.
As you head south down the trail to your right are the remains of the oyster beds. These are now home to many sea birds and attract many “twitchers”.
The trail is very popular and we met many folks out walking their dogs, whole family’s cycle riding and even a couple of ladies on horseback. We spent an enjoyable couple of hours strolling along taking in the scenery while the fresh air blew away the cobwebs.
After we got back to the car we headed up to the top of Portsdown Hill for a cup of tea courtesy of Mick’s Burger Bar. There we were treated to a beautiful sunset.
Thought I would get with the program and pass these on.
Pensioners Revenge – Thanks Den
Didn’t like shopping there anyway.
Yesterday I was at my local TESCO’s store buying a large bag of Winalot dog food for my loyal pet, and was in the checkout queue, when a woman behind me asked if I had a dog.
What did she think I had, an elephant?
So, since I’m retired and have little to do, on impulse I told her that no, I didn’t have a dog, I was starting the Winalot Diet again. I added that I probably shouldn’t, because I ended up in hospital last time, but I’d lost 2 stone before I woke up in intensive care with tubes coming out of most of my orifices and IVs in both arms.
I told her that it was essentially a perfect diet and that the way that it works is to load your pockets with Winalot nuggets and simply eat one or two every time you feel hungry. The food is nutritionally complete so it works well and I was going to try it again.
(I have to mention here that practically everyone in queue was now enthralled with my story.)
Horrified, she asked me if I ended up in intensive care because the dog food poisoned me.
I told her no, I stepped off the kerb to sniff an Irish Setter’s arse and a car hit me.
I thought the guy behind her was going to have a heart attack he was laughing so hard.
I’m now banned from TESCO’s.
Better watch what you ask retired people, they have all the time in the world to think of daft things to say.
Looks like my many friends and colleagues in the US are about to get a beating. Good luck folks.
Officialdom Gone Mad
The PC brigade have been out in force over the last week. Earlier this weekend I posted about Brighton and Hove Council who plan to do away with the formal address title of Mr., Mrs., Ms. and Miss to satisfy a few complaints from their transgender residents. Now they, the PC Brigade, have focussed their narrow vision lenses on the logo being used on a range of farm produce, in particular an organic ale.
The beer is made by 1979 F1 world champion Jody Scheckter and the offending logo is based on a crayon picture created by his 4 year old son. Hi son is now 19.
According to alcohol watchdogs this logo could incite young children to drink beer.
Earlier this year a complaint was made to industry-funded watchdog the Portman Group on the basis that the child’s drawing on the label of Laverstoke’s alcoholic products was the same image used on its labels for apple juice.
Portman says this breaches marketing rules because it could appeal to children.Portman Group rulings carry huge weight. High street chains notified that a product is in breach of the code have three months to clear the item from shelves. If they fail to do so, they may face legal action by trading standards and could lose their alcohol trading licences.
These folks just aren’t in the real world. The young children that are likely to be attracted to a drink purely based on the Laverstoke logo are not old enough to buy it and would appear obviously so to any retailer. The young “underage” kids that are getting regularly tanked up in our children’s playgrounds all over the country are not buying farm produced organic real ales. They are buying cheap lagers and ciders. In fact many of them are drinking vodka and vodka based alcopops which don’t have child like logos.
Clamping down on Laverstoke and their retailers will not do anything to reduce underage drinking but will provide the Portman Group with another victim to boost their statistics indicating that they are doing a good job.
F1 racing star’s organic ale is banned… because his son designed the label | Mail Online.
Proposed 2 Tier Road Tax – Unacceptable
According to The Sunday Times Whitehall officials are investigating changes to the UK road tax system.
Under the new proposal the tax could be split into two tiers – all drivers would pay the first charge. This would allow them to use local roads and A-roads but then motorists wanting to travel on motorways and major A-roads would fork out for a second charge.
I can see how this might swell the governments coffers but ultimately this will be an unfair tax. Forcing those who cannot afford the additional taxation onto the minor roads. This in turn will increase congestion and cause delays and lengthen journey times.
My understanding is that road taxes do not currently pay for the UK road system, rather it is paid for by our general taxation. If that is true then we have all contributed to our road systems and should have the right to use any part of it.
If the government wants to introduce a taxation scheme that is variable but fair then they should scrap the road tax system and collect their taxes purely through the levy on fuel. In that way the heaviest road users would pay the most taxes.
Watch this space.
Staunton Park
Saturday and we had blue skies and sunshine following several days of mist and murk. We paid the price of course with a chill wind blowing strongly.
I have my grandson over from Australia for a few weeks and he has a new camera to play with for the trip so we took the opportunity to get out and visited Staunton Park situated between Leigh Park and Rowlands Castle, near Havant.
We were hoping that the trees would be showing their autumn colours but we were somewhat disappointed. I think we were too early. However, we did enjoy the walk and took some photo’s.
A selection of snaps follows for your delectation, the first of which is a view over Leigh Lake.
The following photo shows part of the countryside that will over the next few years, planning consents permitting, become a fairly large reservoir
Although Stones house has long since been demolished there are many signs remaining of the old buildings. Not the least of which are the arches below.
Of course the main reason we were there was to partake of the natural beauty. One aspect of the natural world which offers so much variety is that of the fungi.
These cattle make for a quite peaceful scene even though the wind was blowing quite hard.
The following photo is of part of land which will eventually end up under water as part of a proposed new reservoir.
In the woodlands there are a number of items which are I believe intended as both art and education for children. There is no description near this but I believe that it is intended to let children hear magnified sounds of the woodland. It can be rotated through 360 degrees. I, for want of an alternative christened it “The Mukkinese Battle Horn” after the famous short film featuring Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan. Nearby there was another item which is a concave / convex mirror. We had much fun with it which I am sure the children would too.
And to finish our walk, as we returned to the car park, this chap came to see us off. It was a shame that he was disappointed by the fact that we had no food to offer him. This is probably why he didn’t display his tail feathers.
When Mr and Mrs Is No Longer Politically Correct
Apparently Brighton and Hove City Council is proposing to ban formal titles such as Mr, Mrs, Miss and Ms from their official letters and documents.
Why ?
In case they offend the transgender community !!!
It seems that the Brighton councillors are actually going to waste time and have a vote on this proposal. It is said that there have been complaints that the use of traditional titles on council paperwork “forces people to ‘choose between genders'”.
I wonder what percentage of the Brighton and Hove population is made up of “transgender” folks. I’m sure that the number doesn’t warrant such a change. Certainly I am in agreement with the opposition councillors who have branded this proposal as ‘political correctness gone too far’ and that the idea is ‘ludicrous’.
They, the council, already have the ability to differentiate between male and female to determine Mr, Mrs, Miss and Ms. Surely it isn’t beyond the wit of their staff to also determine how transgender residents wish to be addressed. They could do this by asking their resident population to let them know how they would like to be addressed.
Then it would be down to the individual and there would be no reason for anyone to get bent out of shape.
WrAnTz 