Saturday 26 December 2020

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year & Some Updates

 

 


A little bit late but I'd like to wish everyone a very happy Christmas and I'm hoping that you are all having a lovely time.

I realise that not everyone celebrates Christmas but it is an official holiday celebration in Britain therefore I honestly don't think anyone should apologise for it. That said, I do hope that those of you who don't celebrate are at least having a nice mid-winter break from work and a chance to rest up or do some nice things for yourselves and your families. :)

Me, I'm a pagan not a christian, but I do love Yule so I celebrate it in a secular/pagan way to bring light and warmth during the winter darkness. I don't bother with new year at all, but I equally hope that those who do celebrate it have a good one! There we go; all eventualities catered for hopefully, lol.

I've added a few photos of my home Christmas decorations, all of which were photographed on my little point and shoot digital camera. All the other website and blog photos are taken on my 35mm Minolta, which I much prefer to continue using. I can't get on with digital cameras at all and have to keep mine on the same setting but it is useful for sending quick emails to friends & relatives with seasonal photos, and also for stuff that I don't want to use up film for.


Anyway, down to blog business! I'm sorry I haven't posted as much as I would have liked to this year. I do have a lot of articles in draft, some of them almost finished, but they all need tinkering with in various ways, such as the odd extra photos, more information or some that are so long & complicated that I'm afraid to publish them yet in case I've left something out.

I'm still working on a contents page. Actually, I'll rephrase that; I started working on the contents page then shelved it and forgot all about it, lol. That's something else that's going to be very long and unwieldy, so I'll have to give it more thought and do some reorganisation.

I've got a lot of new stuff waiting in the wings, too. Some articles that were intended for my website are now waiting for more photos to go with the few I've already got, plus some recent new visits to complete also. This is something that I can do locally so lots of lovely winter walks to get those finished. 

A little taster of some of those...


 

And some new interests and lots more ideas have been added to my ever-growing list, including mosaic doorsteps, fences, walls, hedges and metal covers (drain covers, manholes, etc, on the roads and pavements). I've already got 40 photos of the latter, covering a five minute walk from my flat, so I think that's going to be a continuing project putting in the odd article of short stretches. Who knew there'd be that many on the roads, eh! 

Some more tasters...

 

Something new that I'd mentioned in the last update at the beginning of the year is Weather Lore. I haven't got very far with that as I need to go through a humungous amount of photos to find appropriate ones, plus take more. However, I actually saw some exceptionally dramatic thunderheads a few days ago...Cumulonimbus clouds towering high in the sky, indicating that a storm or heavy rain is likely to be on its way. They are on a film that's still being used up, but here's one I took of a Kelvin-Helmholtz cloud several years ago, which is very rare. I called this one 'Pie in the Sky'.


Lots to do and I'm getting really excited with all the ideas and new projects coming up. Meanwhile, a little rest up and some organising before the new year, so I probably won't post anything else until then. Having said that I might surprise myself, but we'll see how it goes.

Happy new year everyone. :)

 

   

  

Tuesday 8 December 2020

Seaton Down Camp Hill Fort, Seaton, Devon


Dedicated to the memory of Dr Colin Dawes who died on 15th September 2011.


I'd visited here a couple of times and wasn't all that happy with the photos. I'd intended to take more but then, having seen the report in the local paper of the death of Dr Colin Dawes, I decided to put this on my website and dedicate the page to him as a memorial. 

I only met Colin twice, when he gave talks for the Axe Valley Heritage Society that I belonged to, and enjoyed chatting to him afterwards about common interests. A palaeontologist, author and well-known fossil hunter in the area, he was documenting finds along the World Heritage Jurassic site of the Undercliff between Axmouth and Lyme Regis when he died of a heart attack. The first talk of his that I attended covered the Axe Valley hill forts and the second about the finds whilst out and about with his metal detector group. Some of those finds were from the Undercliff, including WW2 military insignia along with pieces of jewellery and other personal objects from various eras.

I've since taken a few more photos; more or less the same as one set I'd previously taken, and I'll add them to this blog article too.

There isn't much information about Seaton Down Camp itself, and is a bit of an unknown. A univallate Iron Age hill fort consisting of an earthwork with a large linear rampart, it lies at the edge of the north east end of the down on a high promontory, possibly as a defensive fortification, and is approximately 125 metres (410 ft) above sea level.

The first photo was taken from the A3052, overlooking the ancient woodland, Holyford Woods, with the hill fort to the right. The second photo is a view of the hill fort from the path on the western side down towards the woods.

 

 

On Google Earth and OS maps, it can be seen that the fort is horseshoe shaped, although the central hedgerow and the row below that in the soutern section may have been a later division by one of the farmers.


The photo above and the following ones were taken from the path on the north east side leading to Holyford Woods. On the google map the path is along the line of hedgerow a field away from the right side of the fort. The hill fort itself is on private farmland but the ramparts topped with trees can be clearly seen from this path.  

 



The next three were taken a few years later in late November 2016, which was much better as we can see the trees more clearly on the ramparts behind the adjacent hedgerow snaking down towards the path.




And finally, the photo below was taken from the south-west edge of Holyford Woods showing the slope towards the upper reaches of the hill fort on the east side.


 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday 28 October 2020

Mill Building, Colyton, Devon

 


One Sunday afternoon, in late September 2014, myself and two friends went out to have lunch and listen to a jazz band at the Garden Shop in Colyton. It was a really lovely, relaxing, warm sunny day and I enjoyed chatting and listening to fab music, but...I'm not one to sit around doing nothing for too long, and besides I had my camera with me and this building opposite was beckoning.
 

This puzzled me for a while as I couldn't find anything about it at first, but I did discover more than I'll ever need to know about tiles! Which, actually is very interesting, especially as these are Double Roman tiles of the type made in Bridgwater, Somerset, known as Bridgwater Tiles, and mostly to be found on older buildings in the South-West.
 

I contacted the Colyton History Society for any information they might have, and member John Forrester-Addie very kindly had a look at it for me. He reckons that it was probably an 18th century utility building belonging to the complex of mills. This makes perfect sense, as it's situated amongst the line of buildings alongside the mill race, comprising the Corn Mill, Town Mill, Currier, this building and the nearby Tannery. That also fits in with the tiles too, as they were mostly used on industrial buildings.



A hipped roof on the main central building, the tiles continue along and over an additional part of the building on the right, seen below, which may have been a storage shed. Something similar can be seen on the blacksmith's forge in Branscombe, where the annexe was used to store wood for the forge fire. This wasn't the smithy, though, as the one in Colyton is accounted for in another nearby building.


A similar arrangement can be seen on the left side, below, but without the continuation of roof and its tiles, therefore that might be something that was added later.




Faded brick, weathered wood and rusty pipes. What more could a girl wish for!

Behind the wall at the rear of the building is an old orchard, somewhat overgrown and allowed to go wild. It's probably nothing to do with the mill building itself, but these old orchards are prolific in East Devon, and much too delightful to ignore when they crop up next to somewhere I'm exploring.










The Tannery, Colyton, Devon - Part Two

 

My second visit was in late september 2014. I was at the Garden Shop a little further up the lane with two friends. It was a sunday and there was a jazz band playing in the outdoor garden area, so we'd decided to have lunch there whilst enjoying the music. I had my camera with me and, as I'm not one to sit around for too long, I decided to take some photos of an interesting building opposite...and before I knew it I'd also gravitated to the tannery again. This time I ventured further into the site. 

I included the history about the tannery, also the tanning processes, on the first part. Therefore, please read that for the relevant information. However, I did leave something out, which is that the front buildings are Grade II Listed. As I mentioned previously, although the buildings have been here since Mediaeval times they have mostly been rebuilt during the 18th century and some added to during the 19th. Even with the addition of some Georgian windows the site has that wonderful late Mediaeval/Tudor feel to it.

On my way in I had a closer look at the weighbridge office.


I tried the door and it was open, so I snuck some photos of the interior.


The weighing machine, above & below. The weighbridge in front of the office is used to weigh trade vehicles, both full and empty as they come and go, in order to calculate the load carried.


The right side building at the front, below. I didn't take any photos of the building on the left side with the wonderful louvred archway, but several can be seen on part one in the previous post.


I took more photos of these fab gantry walkways though, as I just can't get enough of them.





Some of the buildings that I hadn't taken photos of before.


A couple of intriguing little entryways.

And more buildings further on into the site.





Plus some odd bits & bobs, including this cute little barrow... 

...some metal barrels...

...and an old winch housing along with some fab windows.


 

I came across this old piece of machinery again and this time took some close-ups.

I don't know what it is but it does have a hopper on the top, therefore was probably used to feed something through. I'm wondering if it might have been an earlier grinder for the oak bark, although please don't quote me on this as it's just my own conjecture.


Looking back towards the front of the site.

 

 


I had another look inside where the watermill is housed  and took some photos of the mill pond through the window.



Next to this I found an entry to the side of the deep layer pits, photo below, together with a bell by the wall at the end that I hadn't noticed on my first visit.

And some more of the gantry walkways...just because! ;)



I hope you enjoyed the tours around this fabulous site. And if you haven't done so already, please check out Part One for the interior and other exterior photos, process information and history. Cheers. :)