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.

Hampshire Delights Part 1......

Long time I know, and I really should be telling you about our trip to Italy in May, but we had a little getaway to Hampshire a couple of weeks ago so I thought I'd tell you about that first.

It was a coach trip (again) and we travelled down to Basingstoke, Hampshire, where we were based, on the Thursday morning stopping off at Banbury for lunch, arriving at the hotel about 5pm.    It was a long journey so we unpacked and had a short rest before getting freshened up for dinner.

The following morning we set off after breakfast to Runnymede to board a river cruise boat for a two hour trip along the Thames.  The water-meadow at Runnymede is the most likely location at which, in 1215,King John sealed the Magna Carta.   Magna Carta was the first document imposed upon a King Of England by a group of his subjects, the feudal barons, in an attempt to limit his powers by law and protect their rights.  Unfortunately we didn't have time to explore Runnymede as our boat was waiting for us.

It was a beautiful day as we sat up top on the boat enjoying looking at the houses along the river.

the wildlife,

other boats

before arriving at Old Windsor Lock.

There were two boats ahead of us waiting to go through the lock so we had to wait a while, then it was our turn to go through. Here's a short video of our trip through the lock.

How would you like to live in this Lockkeeper's Cottage?

We navigated the lock then the drama began!    The engine on our our boat started overheating and the captain had to turn it off, which left us drifting down the Thames!   He quickly got onto his headquarters on his radio and before too long another cruise boat arrived and they lashed the two boats together, we travelled further downstream under the steam of the other boat until it could steer ours to the bank where we could moor.   Waving the rescue boat away we waited a short while for another boat to arrive for us to transfer to, then, because we had already been out for almost two hours and had somewhere else to be, we were taken back to where our coach was parked and were on our way to our next visit.   It was a shame the cruise was cut short because of what happened but we did enjoy the excitement.

Our next visit was to Milestones Living History Museum in Basingstoke, where you can step into the story of Hampshire's social, retail and industrial heritage and imagine what life would have been like during the Victorian era and the 1930's as you explore the life-size streets, buildings, shops and vehicles.  Adults and children can dress in Victorian costumes, buy a 2oz ration of sweets in the 1940's sweet shop, enjoy a drink in the working Edwardian pub, climb on board some of the vehicles and see the vast collection of appliances from bygone days.

It doesn't look much from the outside does it?

Inside it's magic!

See the Marcel Wave machine above and how it worked below?

 In this next photo the item I'm holding is a posser, I used to help my grandmother do the laundry in a dolly tub using one of these to mix the laundry.

It was almost time to go home but we just had to visit the reconstructed pier with it's penny slot machines, where we put a £1 in a machine to recieved 10 x 1 old pennies to play the machines.  We had great fun, MWM won a packet of sweets on the crane grab machine, he also had his Xray taken which turned out to be a small picture of a skeleton wearing a hat and smoking a pipe and I had my fortune told by Madam Zasha!

Here's what it said:

The money which comes your way you spend wisely, although some may not think so.  We cannot all have immense wealth and this does not always bring happiness. A kind person like yourself has true friends.  The smiles on the faces of loved ones is ample reward for a few pennies well spent.

How nice is that? 

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Milestones and can really recommend it for a day out if you are in that area.  Unfortunately it was time to head back to the hotel as Milestones closed at 4.45 p.m. but as the hotel was only 15 minutes away we were able to have a much needed rest before dinner.

I hope you enjoyed Part 1 and will join me for Part 2 when we take a train ride and visit Winchester.