For me, the ripening fields of bright yellow rapeseed signal the first sign of spring. This year, they seem to have appeared a little earlier than usual along Lovedean and Chalton Lanes near Clanfield, Hampshire. I wonder where the next crops will – well – crop up – as normally, I would expect to be…
Category: Portsmouth
HMS Warrior
I fleetingly remember the excitement shown by my mother, an ex-writer wren, when HMS Warrior came to town in 1987. I seem to recall Warrior tea-towels, place settings, mugs and key rings being given to us for birthdays, at Christmas and well, at every opportunity. So truth be told, I never really wanted to hear any…
The alternative Nelson’s column
When you come from a major naval port like Portsmouth, you can’t help but be aware of the daring exploits of the ‘senior service’ – as my mother (a former Wren) always referred to the Royal Navy – and Lord Horatio Nelson. Though from childhood, I knew of Nelson’s various memorials dotted around the city and…
Pawprint series: Farlington Marshes
If you have ever wondered what lies between the A3 motorway and the Eastern Road, then wonder no more for this is Farlington Marshes, Managed by the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust, this is their oldest nature reserve and it stretches from the northern shore of Langstone Harbour between Portsmouth and Havant to the…
Pawprint Series: Queen’s Inclosure
When you move to the country and have a faithful Hound to walk, fellow dog walkers immediately tell you of their preferred routes and one is quite close to me – Queen’s Inclosure. It’s an Inclosure rather than an Enclosure so the signs tell me and was probably named in honour of Queen Victoria. It…
Singular Statues: #10 The Mudlarks
My mother grew up on The Hard – her grandmother ran her own pub there – now sadly gone, destroyed in WWII. She told me about the poor of Portsea and I seem to remember her telling me stories about the Mudlarks. She didn’t consider them “the poor” – she considered them her kith and…
The Pickwick Bicycle Club
My introduction to The Pickwick Bicycle Club came as a result of the unveiling of the UK’s first statue to honour the novelist Charles Dickens, in the city of his birth, Portsmouth. Cycling in from stage right, weaving their way through bollards, chairs and pedestrians were a bevy of five or six cyclists – some…
Singular Statues: #9 Charles Dickens Unveilled
It was a truly British occasion – 7th February 2014. A few ladies and gentlemen were dressed in Victorian attire and suddenly, through the Guildhall precinct on what can still be termed Commercial Road, came a team of penny farthing cyclists weaving through the pedestrians (The Pickwick Bicycle Club) – all to a backdrop of…
A Dickens of a thing …
I started this A3Traveller blog with a post on Charles Dickens for we share a common birthdate, so it seemed somewhat appropriate, especially given he is a local lad made good. It’s wonderful to hear therefore that a statue to this literary master will be unveiled in the city of his birth at Portsmouth’s Guildhall Square…
Singular Statues: #7 King William III
I am just a little shocked at the excess shown by this double gilded gold-leafed vision of King William III, which stands at the eastern end of The Porter’s Garden of Portsmouth Dockyard, just inside the main entrance. You will be unsurprised to hear that it was sculpted “in the manner of the Caesars” by the…
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