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.