Swanage holiday, part 1
Back in the first week of July ridley_walker and I went down to Swanage for the week, so here are the very belated photos, starting with Portchester castle
Yeovil Railway Centre, where the standard gauge railway used to meet Brunel's broad gauge.
More railway; Romsey's restored signal box
but Sunday's highlight was the wonderful Edwardian Twyford Waterworks.
Sadly the main beam engine isn't running at the moment, but it's a fabulous building and would make a great setting for steampunk / dieselpunk events.
Then, for a complete change from all the industrial history, we hunted out Knowlton Church and Rings; the ruin of a medieval church set within the earthworks of a henge.
Like most obscure henges, it's a lovely peaceful spot, and visitors have made the yew trees into wishing/blessing trees.
Monday we went to a castle that spans the centuries from Henry VIII to WWII, Hurst Castle. A mad place, built at the end of a pebble spit into the Solent (it must have been a nightmare task!)
It's one of those spread-out castles where you're never quite sure if you've seen everything so we were there for hours (plus walking along a mile of pebbles isn't quick, to get there in the first place), so we only then had time to see the much smaller Norman House & Castle in Christchurch.
Yeovil Railway Centre, where the standard gauge railway used to meet Brunel's broad gauge.
More railway; Romsey's restored signal box
but Sunday's highlight was the wonderful Edwardian Twyford Waterworks.
Sadly the main beam engine isn't running at the moment, but it's a fabulous building and would make a great setting for steampunk / dieselpunk events.
Then, for a complete change from all the industrial history, we hunted out Knowlton Church and Rings; the ruin of a medieval church set within the earthworks of a henge.
Like most obscure henges, it's a lovely peaceful spot, and visitors have made the yew trees into wishing/blessing trees.
Monday we went to a castle that spans the centuries from Henry VIII to WWII, Hurst Castle. A mad place, built at the end of a pebble spit into the Solent (it must have been a nightmare task!)
It's one of those spread-out castles where you're never quite sure if you've seen everything so we were there for hours (plus walking along a mile of pebbles isn't quick, to get there in the first place), so we only then had time to see the much smaller Norman House & Castle in Christchurch.