Brigadoon

We arrived in Lyme Regis yesterday. The fog started between Dorchester and Bridport so the house came out of the mist like a scene from Brigadoon.
After a cup of tea and a chat the first job was setting up the tv to the new digital signal. That took 5 minutes. The next job is explaining to Mum how to use the on-screen tv guide and extra channels! That is on-going.

Pictures of the water gate after “repair”

Below are some images of the pond gate after I put the wood back in the slots.

Water starting to build up… but still leaking through.

Note the rocks where the vandals broke down the sides of the channel.

Mindless Vandalism

We went for an afternoon stroll yesterday evening, taking our usual route over the golf course to where the Roman Road supposedly runs (see my post of 4th May). Just as we started to cross the golf course we encountered a group of teenage boys - 5 of them. They stopped to drink from a water fountain provided for the golfers. Suddenly a man on a bicycle came speeding down the path. He was yelling and cursing. "I'm gonna get you...you little...&^%$£$%!" The boys scattered in all directions but the man chased after one in particular over the brow of a low hill in the direction of the club house.

We waited for a minute or so, but there were no screams of pain or anything and the surrounding golfers went back to their game.

A few minutes later the man cycled back up the path - a bit slower now. We asked if everything was okay and he replied "yes, I got them" and rode on.

A short while later we came to where the path goes by the "monastery fish ponds". There is a sluice gate here: a concrete channel leading under the path, where two pipes take the overflow water down to the stream nearby. The channel is blocked by a wooden barrier. So to drain the ponds you just remove the barrier.

Yesterday we found that the wooden barrier had been pulled out and broken up into separate planks. The ponds were draining fast.

I climbed down into the channel and retrieved the slimy planks. I then managed to lift them into the groove in the channel where they were supposed to sit. It wasn't water tight, but it was a lot better than it had been. Water started to build up again behind it.

There was the blade of a garden trowel wedged into the wood. I seemed to have been used to lever the planks apart and to lift them out of the groove.

Hopefully not too many fish had died.

We assume the teenage boys had something to do with it. Had the man on the bike seen them or had they done something else to him?

The day before (Wednesday) when we did the same walk there were 4 teenage boys hanging around the same place at about the same time. They were very interested in the sluice gate channel. I wondered at the time if they were going to fall in to the pond and get into trouble with their parents. I didn't think anyone would be so stupid as to break up the barrier and drain the pond.

The man on the bike was not around. Had the boys drained the ponds and then gone on to do some other mischief that upset him? What did he do to them over the hills of the golf course? Will my repair to the sluice gate hold? Are the boys innocent?

More information and maybe a photo later on!

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.