Hare Krishna in Guildford

Hare Krishna marchers walking up the hill, singing, while we were in Guildford today.

Chinook over Blackmoor

There was a Chinook helicopter flying low over Blackmoor yesterday. The cloud cover was low too. It circled over the village a couple of times before heading towards RAF Odiham where they are based. Kinda noisy!

Fishbourne Roman Palace

Today we went to Fishbourne Roman Palace, this is in West Sussex near to Chichester (Noviomagus Reginorum - “the new market place of the proud people”) and was apparently the palace of the local king Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus. It is an impressive place and a similar size to the imperial palaces in or near Rome. It is the largest Roman building North West of the Alps.

The archaeologists have exposed only one wing of the huge building and have reconstructed half of the garden. The South and East Wings are mostly under more recent buildings.

The view below shows the gardens looking towards the main receiving hall in the West wing. The flight of steps in the left distance being where the steps up to the receiving hall were. The rest of the hall being under the mound in the distance in front of the modern houses.

The rest of the palace is under the modern and Georgian houses surrounding the site or under the main road to Portsmouth that runs to the South.

The views above and below are of the modern building covering the North wing. The garden has been planted following the original planting lines left in the soil and following guidelines from Roman authors.

This is a view of the outside dining area. They would lie on the raised benches to eat and drink. It is very uncomfortable: I tried it!

Above is the famous “dolphin mosaic”. It has subsided a bit in places. 

The view below is the internal view of the North wing building. Some of the mosaics have subsided where they were laid on soft ground or post holes from former wooden buildings.

These black and white mosaics were laid about A.D. 70 – A.D. 100. The coloured mosaics like the dolphin one were second century. There was a fire about A.D. 270 – 280 after which the palace seems to have been abandoned.

It was built on an area with a high water table, so parts of it go underwater even now. There are spots of lichen growing on the excavation where it is damp. So the Romano-British occupants probably decided not to stay there as it was too wet. We listened to a talk by one of the archaeologists who said that the East wing had been demolished before the fire – probably to re-use the stone repairing the main building.

One room was in the process of having a new floor fitted – but was left with work in progress. Piles of mortar on the floor of the room next door, and the central heating hypocaust built but not covered with a floor yet.

In the gardens we visited the Roman herb garden, which was full of butterflies and bees.

On the way home we got caught in a traffic queue. A caravan had overturned, along with the car that had been towing it. It took us half an hour to get by, two recovery trucks and 3 police cars having gone by. All the occupants were standing by the car, so it looks like they were all safe. It was right by a junction so I assume a car pulled out of the slip road in front of it, the car towing the caravan braked hard so then the caravan “jack-knifed” and then rolled over taking the car with it. That suggests the car was going too fast.

Petersfield

Today I went to Petersfield to see the bank. It was a lovely sunny day when I arrived, which is when I took this picture using my phone. It shows the statue of William III in the town square.

When I came out of the bank it was starting to rain.

I spent a few minutes walking round the car park in the rain looking for the parking space Maria had used on Saturday. She had been ticketed for using a motorcycle bay. I found the space she had used and it was signed, but I can see why she missed the notice. Today there was a motorcycle parked in it too. It looks like we'll have to pay the fine and then campaign to get better signing for the future.

I realised today that my posts for the past week or so were still in draft, so I've published en masse today.

Rayleigh, London Metropolitan Archives

Yesterday I went to Rayleigh in Essex for a business meeting. It is a lovely little town.

I was thinking of popping in to see people from DCK on the way home, but they didn't return my calls, so I went to the London Metropolitan Archives on my way back across London. I was looking for baptism and similar records for my ancestor Richard who was born in 1835 or the workhouse records for his father James - who died in the workhouse in 1849. It appears the workhouse records I need are not in the archives - there is a gap from 1845 to 1851. With Richard I do not know which parish he was baptised in. His sisters were baptised in a new church built in 1837, so I need to trace where the family were living before then.

I also looked for Maria's side in Woolwich - no joy there either

Car Service

Had the car service done today. Despite the dire predictions of MOT test failure by the dealership a few months ago there was nothing serious wrong with it. We need a couple of tyres soon though which we can get done at our leisure. I think we'll avoid the main dealer now: they were trying to get us to replace the car to avoid paying for major work - or maybe hoping we'd ask them to do the work even though it wasn't needed.

I walked to the garage from the town - which was about 2 miles. It was a lovely sunny day so I was a bit warm when I got there!

Hospital

We went to see the doctor today, at his clinic in Alton. He is now going to schedule surgery as he has an opinion from all of his colleagues: but we have to wait to get an appointment from the hospital. He can't book us in himself.

Woolmer Forest Historical Society

Yesterday I went to the May meeting of the Woolmer Forest Historical Society. On the way in I met my ex-father in law. It turned out he had come along to present a file to the WFHS. The file contained the details of the war memorial in the town; the fund raising and construction of it.

We then had a lecture on "Jane Austen's Chawton" which was an interesting over-view of Chawton and Alton around 1809-1817 when Jane Austen lived in Chawton. 

Hounslow

Went for a pleasant business meeting in Hounslow today. It would have been a pleasant drive too, were it not for the 10 mile queue to join the M25 from the M3. There had been an accident - three HGVs decided to drive into each other just before the exit. It took me over an hour to do this section of the journey. As usual the traffic bulletin on the radio was wrong - they said the accident had been cleared, so I contined on my way. If they had said the accident had been cleared but there was 10 miles of standing traffic waiting to go by it then I could have taken another route and missed it.

Roaming after the Romans and Little Birdies

We went out for our usual walk on Sunday afternoon. We had a mission this time though. There is a Roman Road that runs from Neatham (near Holybourne, outside Alton) to Chichester (or vice versa) via Iping. It crosses over the Blackmoor Golf Course near us and joins the lane near Oakhanger by the Satellite Ground Station. Before we set out we researched the route, looking at the County Archaeological Records to find out what they knew and comparing that to the Ordnance Survey map.
The road starts at Iping, which is near Midhurst and then exists as the main road in the Longmoor Army Camp and then was visible many years ago south of Woolmer Pond. It then crosses the main road (A325) and bends slightly, passing Blackmoor and Oakhanger as it heads North. Longmoor Army Camp is MoD property and apparently the Woolmer Pond section is no longer visible. Most of the rest is on private land except for where it emerges from the golf course. It crosses near Blackmoor House which is where the Selborne Cup was found.

Map

Location Data

OS X (Eastings) 477180
OS Y (Northings) 134680
Nearest Post Code GU35 9JD
Lat (WGS84) N51:06:22 (51.106233)
Long (WGS84) W0:53:56 (-0.898970)
LR SU771346
mX -100072
mY 6606829

We walked over the course (on the byway/footpath) until we reached the junction with the Oakhanger Road. There are some ponds here. During our research we had found that they were Medieval fish ponds associated with Oakhanger Monastery. This was odd as we could find no other references to a Monastery in the area. There is a Priory at Selborne, so maybe this is what was meant. The houses here are in a circular enclosure with a bank and ditch round it, so maybe the Monastery was actually inside this bank and ditch.
There was no sign of the Roman Road, just the straight path in alignment with the Oakhanger Road which runs across the front of the houses alongside the fish ponds.
We walked back over the golf course. The line of the road is visible from the public footpath in the distance as a line of trees and bushes crossing the course.
We will have to look into some of the other public locations.
As we came back I saw some odd birds on the course. I only had my phone with me, not a decent camera, so the pictures are a bit grainy. I haven't identified the birds yet.

Andover, Company set up

Yesterday (Friday) I went to Andover for my second interview. It seemed okay at the time and they ended the meeting by giving me a box of sample products to take away. Attached to the box was the postcard above. Inside were samples of teabags, infusions and instant chocolate drink. On the back of the card was a note.

I met the HR woman who had seen the feedback from the on-line testing. She thanked me for giving the feedback that I did.

After the interview I went to see Tim who lives nearby. His parents were there too, so we chatted together for an hour or so until they left, then Tim and I had lunch and chatted more until I came home. While I was driving back the recruitment agent called me and told me that I had not got the job, but neither had the other candidate.

Once at home I arranged the meetings for next week on the contract and set about setting up a limited company to control tax, banking and so on.