On picking up the car I drove from Paris (a minor nightmare getting out, not because they drive on the right, but because the traffic around Charles deGaulle Airport is horrific) to Villers-Bretoneux and the Australian WW1 Memorial … and, of course, the snazzy new Sir John Monash Centre with its multimedia museum displays.

Really quite sad, not only the ages (young) for most, but the fact that so many are unidentified – though, as they point out in one of the explanatory plaques on one side, the work goes on and the Australians usually manage to ID one or two more every now and then, usually with familial DNA testing … usually those whose unit is known, as this enables them to track down potential relatives. For some, however, they will probably never be identified.

The SJM Centre is partially buried and behind the tower, out of sight … there’s really not a lot inside to photograph, most of the included artifacts are quite small (the biggest are some of the machineguns) – and the real emphasis of the museum is on the multimedia displays and video clips, of which there are many. Very well done. Should have been in Australia, though.

That’s all I’ve got uploaded onto my PC. One night soon I will upload those which are still on the SD Card in my Camera and then do some more posts. But this is as far as I’ve managed to upload so far.

What can I say? Like many man many hundreds of tourists from all over I made the trek to Windsor to see the Queen … pity, she wasn’t at home 😉

Of course you don’t actually see any of the Royal apartments, you see the old Royal Apartments dating back to Charles II’s day … though portions of them were still used by the Royal Family as late as WW2.

Now? They’re set up and furnished to give you an idea of what they would have looked like back in the day – over the top elaborately furnished and equipped, of course. No photos, sorry, there are no photos allowed.

They also direct you through the portion of the castle that was severely damaged by fire (destroyed, more or less) … and I must say that the restoration work was top flight! The hammer beams of the roof in the main hall were duplicated perfectly, for example.

Cosmeston

Cosmeston is a recreation of a medieval Manor which actually existed in post Norman conquest (of Wales) times just to the west of Cardiff. Only part of the site has been excavated (the rest may be, one day, as I think the land is owned by the local Council) and buildings have been recreated on the sites where they originally stood, based on excavated foundations.

While I was there the place was deserted – weekday, see – it may have had better presentation on a weekend, but the audio guide was reasonably comprehensive.

Tintern Abbey

One of the greatest of the Cistercian foundations in Britain back in the day and extremely wealthy – even the destruction and neglect caused by Henry VIII’s dissolution of the Monasteries couldn’t entirely destroy it … and the ruins are both massive and majestic.

And a sign of just how bloody rich the medieval Catholic Church had become … and why it was such a temptation, one that Henry couldn’t resist.

Avebury

Coming back from Tintern I decided to stop over at Avebury, Stonehenge’s poor relation – mainly because the latter has become so grossly difficult to access – timed tickets that have to be booked at least several days in advance. And, frankly, unless it’s changed since the last time I was there in 1988 (it was bad enough getting in then), they don’t actually let you anywhere near the main large stones.

Avebury is a larger site, but the stones are less impressive … and, of course, most of them are missing, as is the case at Stonehenge. But access to the stones is free, it’s just the Parking they hornswoggle you with.

Like Stonehenge, all of the stones at Avebury are bluestone – that is, they’re not actually blue, they are simply from somewhere else than where they have been found.

Dover Castle

Dover Castle was one of the important Royal Castles during the Norman period and has remained an important part of England (and, later, Britain’s) defences against foreign invasion … yes, even during WW1 and WW2.

Continually expanded and modernised during the period, the core medieval castle remains much as it was externally, though the interior has had ‘modern’ (mostly 18th and 19th century) buildings added. The central Keep, however, is very much ‘as was.’ Some of the internal rooms have been furnished and decorated to show what they would have looked like during the medieval royal heyday.

Also on the grounds of the castle is the parish church of St. Mary in Castro which incorporates the remains of the famous Roman Pharos Lighthouse that watched over the Roman Port of Dubris.

There are views of the modern Port, more or less the same site (but improved) as the Roman Dubris, from the WW1/WW2 era artillery spotter’s control bunkers which are the seaward edge of the walled area – on the cliff’s edge looking over the channel. The spotters here gave control orders to gun positions up and down the coast.

Canterbury

I only went to Canterbury to see the Cathedral – didn’t have time for anything else. It’s a Cathedral. Lots of religious-y stuff. Stained glass windows etc.

Portus Adurni & Anderida

During the 4th Century AD barbarians began to seriously raid the atlantic and north sea coasts of Britannia and Gaul. One of the Roman responses was to build a series of forts along the coasts to base defensive reaction forces as well as provide protected anchorages for anti-pirate vessels belonging to the Classis Britannia and other fleets.

After the Romans pulled out the last ‘regular’ forces from Britannia some time in the last part of the 4th century it is not quite certain exactly what happened to these forts (or the ones in Britain, at least) but there is evidence of some ongoing settlement, possibly continuous and it is possible that these ‘settlers’ were late Roman Laeti – barbarian farmer-militia who received land grants to support themselves and were only paid a small amount of ‘pocket money’ to supplement this … as well as being provided with arms and, possibly, armour (certainly shields and helmets).

Whether these were Angles or Saxons, by the 9th-10th centuries some of these forts were important Anglo-Saxon settlements with the walls somewhat repaired … and when the Normans defeated Harold and took over England they took over these settlements and, in the case of Portchester (Portus Adurni – probably) and Anderida (Pevensey) they built Castles into them incorporating part of the remaining Roman walls.

They remained royal fortresses for many centuries and played an important role in the wars against the French but, as those wound down, they were sold off to local landowners (and later leased back to use as POW camps during the later wars against the French, especially the extended Napoleonic Wars).

They are all more or less ruinous today … Portchester is probably the best preserved, and Pevensey is less so. The others tend to be in even worse condition.

Fishbourne Roman Palace

The largest Roman era Palace north of the Alps – and it’s in this obscure (in Roman times) part of Britannia!

Discovered completely by accident and saved from developers (or part of the site is … about half or more is under the existing Village and roads) it is not known who it was created for.

When I was there in 1988 the theory was that it was a British client King, Cogidubnus, or an early Roman governor … but the guide who was on duty when I was there claimed that he thought it might have belonged to Vespasian, who was known to have a liking for Britannia and had just become Emperor around the time it was built. His working theory was that it was really only equalled by the Imperial Palaces on the Palatine or Nero’s ‘Golden House’ and, therefore, must have been Imperial.

Nice theory. Might even be correct. Unfortunately absolutely NO evidence of a conclusive nature has been found to support any of the theories. There may be some … buried under the village. Or there may be none.

Anyway, it’s interesting because of the elaborate mosaic floors which sort of mostly sort of survived and because the traces of the formal gardens were found and it has been possible for the curatorial staff to plant hedges and other plants to give an idea of what they may actually have looked like ‘back in the day.’

This is an amazing place … full of all sorts of Tanks and Armoured Vehicles, some of them quite rare (even to the point of being unique).

As some of you may know things were pretty desperate in Oz in 1942 – it was feared that the Japanese would actually invade Australia (we didn’t know at the time how limited their shipping capacity was … or the politicians running around like headless chooks didn’t … and that the idea of an actual serious invasion was a pipe dream) … and the UK and the US (who either didn’t care or were better informed about Japanese capabilities) weren’t interested in supplying us with modern war materiel such as combat aircraft and armoured vehicles.

For aircraft, we produced the Boomerang, which is relatively widely known, but less well known is that we produced a small number of tanks of modern design … but they never went into full production because the Yanks eventually supplied us with Stuarts which we used in New Guinea and Grants which were mostly used in Australia. The Brits supplied us with some Matildas, which were also used in New Guinea as well as for home defence.

The Museum also has a Canadian Kangaroo, a conversion of the Canadian Ram tank (which married a modified M3 Grant hull, no sponson, with an indigenous turret with a 2 pdr gun) which was never actually fielded in combat as a tank. There were other ‘variants’ of APC idea fielded by the Canadians (and the Brits) based on Sextons/Priests (SP Guns based on a Sherman chassis) with their guns removed or converted Shermans. The one below is a genuine Ram chassis!

Just a few days before I was there they’d had a ‘Tankfest’ weekend with some of their tanks put through their paces on the field outside … including the museum’s famous Tiger 301, which is one of the few Tigers still running … and you can see the track marks on the floor from where she was returned to the display hall.

All on the Beaulieu (Bowloo) estate … nice to be one of the landed nobility …

The National Motor Museum

I don’t know that it’s particularly national – it’s a private museum – but it does have a very nice, quite large, and moderately comprehensive collection of cars … I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.

The SOE Museum

Several of the properties on the estate were used to train SOE Agents during WW2 and there is a small museum dedicated to them …

Buckler’s Hard

It’s hard to believe it, but this small estuarial site just across the bay from Portsmouth once built men-o’war for the Royal Navy with nothing more than the simple slipways shown below – building forty three over a century or so, including three which fought at Trafalgar!

During WW2 the site was reactivated and used to build Motor Torpedo Boats (and, yes, it’s on land belonging to the Beaulieu estate!)

Beaulieu

It’s a moderately sized stately home, what more needs to be said? Except that it was originally the Gate House for the Abbey of Beaulieu which was dissolved and sold by Henry VIII for a tidy sum. Now much expanded over the years since, of course,

I spent a long … veerrryyy long … day at Portsmouth. Specifically the Historic Dockyard.]

HMS Warrior

Saw the HMS Warrior, Britain’s first major iron hulled steam warship (really steam & sail) which still rides at anchor as it did when I was last here in 1988.

Compared to HMS Victory (less than a century older) she’s much much less cramped, even for the ordinary sailors, and would have been much less unpleasant to serve on board.

The ship was so modern that it was the first in the RN to have washing machines!

The Officers, of course, did rather better for themselves.

HMS M.33

One of only three surviving WW1 vessels to have served at Gallipoli, the M.33 was a 6″ gun Monitor (2 x 6″ guns) which also served in Northern Russia against the Bolsheviks where she survived several direct hits which, fortunately, either didn’t hit anything important and went straight through or didn’t explode and disintegrated without doing serious damage.

She’s in permanent drydock and was only saved as, over the years, the RN and the Dockyard played ‘pass the parcel’ using her as everything from accommodation through training and as a workshop.

She’s been restored to the WW1 Dazzle pattern camo paint that she would have worn at Gallipoli.

Inside was, of course, quite cramped even for the small crew she carried (around 30 men) and she barely had enough bunkerage to reach Gibraltar from Portsmouth … and, even then, on her first trip there to reach Gallipoli she had to be towed by the collier escorting her as the headwinds were enough so that she was chewing through fuel too fast.

The Mary Rose

When I was here last in 1988 they were still spraying her with a mist of cold seawater and you had to enter a temporary structure through a makeshift airlock.

The spraying ceased several years ago, and the wood is now stable enough that they have only to keep it in a permanent bubble in the new purpose built structure around it and pump that full of dehumidified air.

They’ve also had 30 odd more years to do a lot more preservation and interpretation of the finds that were made at the original sinking site and have, for example, identified the Master Carpenter’s probable bones and cabin, ditto the Master Gunner. They have also identified the probable Purser’s cabin as well as items belonging to one of the senior offices and the body and personal gear of one of the archers aboard.

Amongst many many other things, of course.

HMS Victory

The oldest commissioned warship in the RN. And bloody cramped. The further down you go the lower the headroom becomes … and for someone who’s 6’1″ and a bit it is really uncomfortable (especially since I’m not as limber as I was back in 1988 when it was, therefore, less of an issue) … on the very lowest level I had to bend over double to pass under the deck beams and about 3/4 even between them.

For fairly obvious reasons I couldn’t take photos on the lower decks … couldn’t straighten up enough.

Oxford

Headed into Oxford for the day – went to the Ashmolean Museum first … very large, so large I couldn’t fit it all in. Only looked at two floors – the very large and well done lower ground floor covering Conservation and Restoration techniques with a lot of actual artifacts that have been done one or the other (and, sometimes, both).

Then had a look at the Bodleian Library, but only the externals as the only way to see a limited portion of the interior is by a timed tour … no time, sadly.

Horrendous Traffic

We think Australian traffic is bad … British traffic can be truly horrendous. One of the roundabouts between Oxford and Bristol was so badly designed that took the road I was on over 30 minutes for the queue to travel 1.1 miles (less than 2 mph). It wasn’t because the traffic at the roundabout was particularly heavy, it was entirely because the design was so abysmally bad that it actually caused the bank up on that one entrance.

Even approaching Bristol on the M5 when things were slowed down because of works etc. traffic was moving at ~20 mph.

Bristol

The only thing I wanted to see in Bristol was the SS Great Britain, Brunel’s second Steamship and vastly larger than the SS Great Eastern (his first). Much better presented with a lot of the interior spaces furnished ‘as was’ back in its heyday and good museums before and after entry.

One amazing thing was that the so-called First Class cabins were not only about the same size as the steerage ones, but had two bunk beds instead of four … the only advantage they had was that they faced onto a large open lounge on one level and, on the level below, was a space almost as large which was used for dining. First Class travel left a lot to be desired … the bunk beds wouldn’t have even been 6′ long and about as wide as a moern day Economy Class airline seat … I would have had a hard time squeezing into them … no, not fun at all!

The ship itself has had some major conservation work done on it … the drydock it is permanently installed in had been drained and the lower part of the hull, which is severely rust and salt impacted, is set off in a climate controlled perspex structure along what would have been the waterline. Dehumidified air is pumped in continuously to prevent further rust damage and it seems to be working.

Bristol Aerospace

Then off to Bristol Aerospace Museum … based on the edge of one of the airfields the Bristol company started just before WW1 and with a fair chunk of vintage planes, not all of them Bristol designs, but all with some element designed or manufactured by the Bristol company … which is still going strong as a conglomerate with interests in many other things besides Aerospace stuff.

The museum also contains the last Concorde to fly … with the interior fitted out as it was at its last flight, as a passenger carrier, not as a testbed as the one at Duxford is.

Bath

The only thing I really wanted to see in Bath were the famous Roman Baths, but, it seemed, so did every darn tourist in England! Dodging and weaving in, around, and (not quite) under them I was impressed by the way they have opened up areas that (from memory) either weren’t open to the public or weren’t as well presented back in 1981.

No, I still didn’t taste the water … it smells of sulphur and, though they’ve evidently cleaned up the contamination that made it impossible to drink back when I was there last, the smell is just … awful.

(One think I didn’t know, the presentation claimed that Bath is not only the biggest such facility in NW Europe but it is the only natural Hot Water spring in Britain … I am not sure about the latter claim, I suspect it simply means that it’s the only really large one.)

Salisbury

It was sort of difficult to get into Salisbury as the Park & Ride buses were servicing a big Army Day event nearby … almost over by the time I got there … so I drove into town where, fortunately, parking was free as a result, and I managed to see the Cathedral and close.

And you’ve noted I have figured out how to upload photos to WordPress!

Blist’s Hill

Situated in Ironbridge Gorge, the putative birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, Blist’s Hill was going when I was here last in 1988 … and it’s now bigger, or at least as more buildings on display.

Lots of active and static displays dating back to the late 18th century but mostly 19th century … very well presented, with lots of re-enactors around manning the place. Not as many as there would be in ‘high’ season, but the crowds were also much less. Much less.

Even so, it was infested by at least four school groups … and avoiding them was a chore in and of itself.

Candle-making (don’t use pig fat!), blacksmiths casting iron at the ironworks, making horseshoes and other doo-dads at the forge (separate), a late Victorian Fun Fair (guess which was most infested?!?) and interiors fitted out in period style with re-enactors to answer and explain (assuming you managed to get in between the kiddies).

Black Country

The Black Country Living Museum (Dudley) is very similar, but looks at the industrial heartland as it developed after Ironbridge Gorge was out-developed.

The name comes from a comment made by a distinguished victorian era visitor who said ‘it’s black [smoke from forges and furnaces] by day and red [ditto] by night’ … eight hour days were well into the future!

It covers from the late 17th century through to the mid 20th century – and has an actual section of one of the canals that criss crossed the region with period canal boats as well as a ‘working’ coal mine (they’ve re-dug the shaft but they can’t actually mine unless they get government approval as the Coal Board owns all the rights).

Several Steam Engines, some working, some not (or at least, not on the day when I was there) including a model/reconstruction of a Newcomen Atmospheric Engine.

Lots of obscure marks of car and commercial vehicles that were manufactured locally by engineering companies right through to the early 60’s all of whom died because they couldn’t compete even with the big UK manufacturers who, in turn, had a problem competing with Ford etc.

Blenheim Palace

I remember visiting here in 1988 – and it seems even bigger than I remembered. But the externals are much more worn. Of course, it’s over 250 years old!

It’s the only non-royal Palace in the UK … and it’s huge. Set in ~2000 acres of estate … all of which belongs to HM The Queen and which is leased for as long as the Churchills pay a nominal rental of one guidon with an embroidered french Fleur-de-lis on it every year. If they forget, well, it escheats back to the Royals.