Hampshire Delights Part 3....

On our last full day in Hampshire we set off for Portsmouth, where our aim was to spend all day in the Historic Dockyard with the express intention of seeing The Mary Rose Exhibition, something we have been wanting to see for years but never had the opportunity to do.  Of course there are lots more attractions in the dockyard, which I will share with you, but I have always had a fascination with Henry Tudor and of course The Mary Rose was his flagship.  The following photographs show the timbers of the Mary Rose in situ in the museum,  the grey pipes are blowing warm air over the timbers to dry them out slowly.   Everything is behind glass at the moment but the plan is to remove the glass in four years time. 

 After serving for 33 years in several wars against France, Scotland and Brittany and after being substantially rebuilt in 1536, she saw her last action on 19 July 1545. While leading the attack on the galleys of a French invasion fleet, she sank in the Solent, the straits north of the Isle of Wight. The wreck of the Mary Rose was rediscovered in 1971 and salvaged in 1982 by the Mary Rose Trust in one of the most complex and expensive projects in the history of maritime archeology.   By pure coincidence our visit on 20th July 2014 was 469 years almost to the day after The Mary Rose sank.

There were many artefacts recovered from the wreck. This is the gun that identified the Mary Rose,

  and this gun with Henry's crest.

The surgeon's chest was found containing many of his implements.

Skeletons were found and were identified

which enabled them to reconstruct a fair representation of how they would have looked.

and the tools of his trade.

Of course there is so much more to see and we spent a fascinating two hours in the exhibition and fully intend to go back in four years time when the glass screens and air pipes are removed to see the Mary Rose properly.

We had a quick lunch in one of the many cafe/restaurants before our next visit to Nelson's Flagship - Victory, a 104-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, laid down in 1759 and launched in 1765. She is most famous as Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, but she was also Keppel's flagship at Ushant, Howe's flagship at Cape Spartel and Jervis's flagship at Cape St Vincent. After 1824 she served as a harbour ship.  In 1922 she was moved to a dry dock  and preserved as a museum ship. She is the flagship of the First Sea Lord since October 2012 and is the world's oldest naval ship still in commission

We were allowed to go on board

and below decks, where we were fascinated to see how the sailors of the day lived their lives,

 how they cooked,

 and slept.

Then back on deck

Then, as we were leaving,  the view from Britain's oldest commissioned warship (HMS Victory) looking at one of the very latest warships, a type 45 destroyer (HMS Dragon)!

Just time for a quick coffee and sit down before visiting HMS Warrior.

 Here's a true story about Warrior's Figurehead in the previous photo.

HMS Warrior, launched in 1860, was the pride of Queen Victoria's fleet. Powered by steam and sail, she was Britain's first iron-hulled, armoured warship and the largest, fastest and most powerful ship of her day. Warrior was, in her time, the ultimate deterrent, yet within a few years became obsolete.  Restored and back at home in Portsmouth, Warrior now serves as a ship museum, monument, visitor attraction, private venue.

We boarded this beautiful ship to look around.

Below decks the galley was certainly larger than the one on the Victory.

Seamen's belongings all organised.

Their rum ration.

Part of the Armoury.

The Engine room.

Another fascinating piece of our naval history which is well worth a visit.

Unfortunately, after 5 hours of sightseeing it was time to head back to our coach to get back to the hotel for dinner and packing for the journey home the following day.  

The following morning we set off for home just after breakfast but had one last stop on the way home, for lunch at Royal Lemington Spa with it's famous Bath House and Pump Room.

The Royal Pump Room and Baths is a Grade II listed building.  It was the most famous of several spa baths opened in Leamington between the late-18th and mid-19th centuries. People would travel from throughout the country, and indeed Europe,  to benefit from treatments using the town's healing waters. When 'taking the waters' became less fashionable after the mid-19th century the Pump Rooms became Leamington's only surviving spa facility, later also being extended to include the town's public swimming pool. After a major redevelopment in 1997 - 99 the building now houses Leamington Spar Art Gallery and Museum, a public library, a tourist information centre, cafe and assembly rooms.

The impressive Town Hall

and gardens.

After a pleasant lunch and walk in the sunshine taking in the sights of this delightful town, it was time to continue our journey home.

I can thoroughly recommend Hampshire for it's beauty and as a base to visit places of historical interest.

Hope you enjoyed our trip as much as we did.

The Tudor ship that captured the world's imagination when she was raised from the seabed in 1982 is the only sixteenth century warship on display anywhere in the world and the brand new Museum built around her reunites her with many of her 19,000 artefacts and crew. - See more at: http://www.historicdockyard.co.uk/maryrose/#sthash.Yvx5pTfX.dpuf

The Tudor ship that captured the world's imagination when she was raised from the seabed in 1982 is the only sixteenth century warship on display anywhere in the world and the brand new Museum built around her reunites her with many of her 19,000 artefacts and crew. - See more at: http://www.historicdockyard.co.uk/maryrose/#sthash.Yvx5pTfX.dpuf

The Tudor ship that captured the world's imagination when she was raised from the seabed in 1982 is the only sixteenth century warship on display anywhere in the world and the brand new Museum built around her reunites her with many of her 19,000 artefacts and crew. - See more at: http://www.historicdockyard.co.uk/maryrose/#sthash.Yvx5pTfX.dpuf

Hampshire Delights Part 2.....

After breakfast on Day two of our visit to Hampshire we set off to the village of Alresford to the railway station

where we boarded a steam train for a 20 mile round trip on the Watercress Line, which runs the 10 miles (16 km) from New Alresford to Alton where it connects to the National Rail network. The line gained its popular name in the days that it was used to transport locally grown watercress to markets in London.   MWM took a short video of our ride on the train, turn up your sound then you will hear all the train sounds.

After our train ride we had a short time in Alresford to get some lunch before boarding the coach again for a visit to Winchester. 

Our destination in Winchester was of course the Cathedral.

The Anglo-Saxon Old Minster was demolished in 1093-4 to make way for the present cathedral.

You can see where the Old Minster stood by the foundations that can still be seen to the side of the new Minster.   The Old Minster contained the shrine of St.Swithun, a bishop of Winchester who died in 863.  His relics attracted pilgrims from far and wide and by the year 1000 the church was "hung about on both walls from end to end with the crutches and stools of the crippled who had been healded by the saint'.  Old Minster was the most important royal church of anglo-Saxon England, among the kings buried there were Egbert in 839 and Alfred in 899 - later moved to the adjacent New Minster.   The Old Minster was also the burial church of King Cnut -Canute, d.1035 and his wife Emma and son Harthacnut d.1042.  

Edward the Confessor was crowned here in 1043. William the Conqueror and after him William Rufus 'wore his crown' in Old Minster at Easter every year they were in England until the monks moved to the new Norman Cathedral in 1093.  The new Cathedral received the relics of St. Swithun, the patron saint of the cathedral,  and the remains of Anglo-Saxon kings and bishops, the Old Minster was then demolished.  According to tradition, whatever the weather on St. Swithun's feast day (15 July) it will continue for forty days and forty nights, which is why in England we pray for fine weather on this date!

One of England's famous authors is also buried in the Cathedral - Jane Austen.

The Cathedral takes you through centuries of English church architecture, from the massive vaults

and it's early Norman crypt.

This mysterious life-size statue of a man contemplating the water held in his cupped hands is the work of the celebrated British sculptor Antony Gormley.  The crypt floods during rainy months and to stop the force of the flood water knocking over the sculpture it was filled with water.

It's Renaissance chantry chapels,

 it's beautiful ceilings,

original medieval tiled floors,

stained glass windows,

the view down the aisle to the main altar

and the great screen.

Winchester Cathedral is beautiful and so interesting with it's long history, well worth a visit.

It was almost time to head back to the meeting point for the coach so we ambled through the town taking in more modern architechure - the town hall,

and guess who this is

King Elfred (Alfred),  the only English monarch to be accorded the epithet "the Great".

We thoroughly enjoyed the train trip and the history of Winchester, I hope you did too.

Join me next time for Part 3 when we visit Portsmouth's Historic Dockyard, where we see Henry VIII's flagship The Mary Rose amongst other fascinating historic ships.