A street in Winchester

I am yet again away from home but in a way I consider Winchester (in the south of England) to be a second home.  I lived here for a good many years and it's very pleasant to be able to wander around my old haunts.  It is a very old and very attractive city with a beautiful cathedral.

Timber framed houses

In the same stash of postcards I came across last week were these three of timber framed houses.

The first is unfortunately no longer standing.  The Old Dutch House was built in the 17th century in the centre of Bristol.  It wasn't called the Old Dutch House until much later, in the 19th century.  The story goes that it was built from Dutch timber, possibly from an old ship.

It was damaged during an air raid early in World War II and demolished soon afterwards in 1940.

God's Providence House in Chester is happily still in use. Although there was a building on the site from the 14th century, the current house was built in the 17th century like the building in Bristol.  There is a shop at street level and another reached by steps forming part of Chester's unique Rows.

God Begot House in Winchester, the oldest of the three (dating from 1050) is one I know well from the years I lived in the Winchester area.  When I knew it, it housed a chocolate shop, which can't be bad, but now I believe it is an Italian Restaurant.  On my large first scan of the card, it appeared that there was a hotel and restaurant in the building.

It was once owned by Emma, wife first of Ethelred the Unready and then of Canute.  When she died she bequeathed it to the monks of St Swithun.

An entry for this week's Sepia Saturday on the subject of houses.

Unlikely looking transportation

"Wheels" is a ride that opened in 1986 in the National Motor Museum in Beaulieu, Hampshire, UK.  According to the back of the card this is one exhibit, entitled "Future Fantasy", on the ride which celebrates 100 years of motoring history with a glimpse into the possible future.

The card isn't postmarked or otherwise used but I'd guess that it dates from the time the ride opened.  I feel sure the cars of the future would look very different on the ride today, but I don't know for certain.

An entry in the Sepia Saturday theme of the week, contraptions.

Main gate, Portsmouth Dockyard

Men in hats pouring out of the main gate to Portsmouth Dockyard, some time before 1910.  The dockyard is now known as Portsmouth Historic Dockyard but the gate is much the same.  They were widened during the Second World War to allow large vehicles to pass through but they have the same globes on either side and the plaque to commemorate Queen Anne's visit in 1711 can still be seen to the right of the gates.  The lantern and archway have been lost.

You are free to wander around the dockyard these days to view 800 years of history, paying only to visit attractions such as HMS Victory.  However, I do feel it's proper for men to wear hats.

Note the wagon on the right of the postcard which advertises H. Caswell, Baker and Provision Merchant. Then "Shipping Supplied".  I don't think they need shipping.  Does Mr Caswell realise this is a dockyard?

A post for Sepia Saturday.  A click on the button will take you to the Sepia Saturday blog.

Portchester (Porchester) Castle

For me one of the most interesting things about this card is the way they spelled the name of the castle.  You'd normally spell it Portchester but it's not a casual mistake - it's the same on the reverse too.  It's not far from Portsmouth, on the northern shore of the harbour, so you'd think that it would be similar.  In fact the spelling has varied over the years from Portus Adurni by the Romans, through Portcestre after a Saxon warrior, Port.  It wasn't until the late 19th century that the modern spelling was officially adopted.  There is still a sign inside with the Porchester spelling.

It's a Roman fortification, probably dating from the 3rd century BC.  Of course it was added to and extended at various times.  The Saxons used it and the Normans added the castle to the fort.  Then it was used as a prison after 1665, and the again during the Napoleonic Wars when over 7000 French prisoners were kept there.

These days it is run by English Heritage.  It is rumoured to be haunted....

St Thomas' Church, Portsmouth

Looking for old cards with trees, I found plenty of views but none had much of a story to tell until I came across this one showing St. Thomas' Church in Portsmouth on the south coast of England. The card dates from somewhere between 1902 and 1909 because it allows "for INLAND communication" only. that regulation applied in the UK from 1902 but not in the rest of the world for a few years, France followed in 1904, Germany in 1905, with 1907 for the USA.

I didn't recognise the church at all and assumed that it had been destroyed, like so much of Portsmouth, during World War II.  A little investigation made me realise that I had missed an opportunity to visit it because it is now, greatly extended, Portsmouth Cathedral.

The original church dates all the way back to the early 12th century and was dedicated to Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury assassinated by Henry II in Canterbury Cathedral.  It was attacked by the French in 1337; it was closed for a time when the whole town of Portsmouth was excommunicated after the Bishop of Chichester was murdered in Portsmouth; it was damaged by cannon fire during the Civil War 1642–1651. The cupola on top was added in 1702.

It wasn't until 1927 that the church was chosen to be the cathedral for the newly created diocese of Portsmouth.  It obviously had to be enlarged but the work was suspended at the outbreak of war in 1939.

It survived the Blitz but the building works remained incomplete until 1991. 

I used to live in Hampshire and while there I did take this photo of the cathedral.  It's very different now, as you can see, but I like to think the large tree on the right could possibly be at least related to the one shown on the card.

Apparently Ronald Reagan once said, "A tree's a tree.  How many more do you want to look at?".  You can find out how many more there may be at Sepia Saturday.

City Cross, High Cross, or Buttercross

I bought this rather tattered card for two reasons.  The first is that I used to live in Winchester and regularly walked down the High Street.  Secondly, I found the message interesting:

My dear Ethel
Many thanks for your P.C.  Am looking forward to your letter.  So you are not going this week.  I don't think I am.  I had a card from Flo this morning asking me to meet her in Winchester so am looking forward to seeing her.  I wish you were there. We are having a dance here tonight. Two or three Controllers have been here today and all at my meal table. Love to Miss Emms. Love from Amy

And it was addressed to
QMAAC
RASC Supplies Office
Bovington Camp
Poole
Dorset

The card is dated 6 November 1919 which ties in nicely with the address.  QMAAC was the Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps, renamed in 1918 from the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps and was disbanded in 1921 when it was thought the women were no longer needed - the war effort was over.  Here is the tenuous link with the Sepia Saturday theme - women during the war though in this case WWI.  The women of QMAAC freed up experienced soldiers to go to the front line.  There were four sections: cookery, mechanical, clerical and miscellaneous. The women didn't enlist but enrolled.  They had ranks - the Controllers mentioned in the message were officers.  Most stayed in the UK but some 9,000 served with the British Expeditionary Forces in France.  Winchester had, and still has, strong links with the Army.

The High Street in Winchester hasn't changed very much.  The shop which was Allen's Sweets has had various occupants but the last time I saw it, it was back to selling sweets - this time chocolates.  Behind the Buttercross itself is the oldest building in Winchester, now a sandwich or pasty shop.  There are a few "then and now" pictures on Winchester Council's site, worth looking at if you like viewing progress.  Progress could be debatable because most, to my eye, seemed to look better "then" rather than "now".

This is my first entry for Sepia Saturday

Southampton docks

A fascinating map, to me at least because I lived nearby and worked in Southampton.  It is a German WWII map showing bombing targets, marked in yellow, of the docks in Southampton, England (July 1941). 

It reminded me of two recent posts, one from Relax Max, and the other from Adullamite.

Izaac Walton revisited

This card, almost certainly dating from the same time as the previous one, "Study to be Quiet", shows the full window dedicated to Izaak Walton.  It's in Prior Silkstede's chapel in the south transept of Winchester Cathedral, just above the simple black marble slab marking the tomb of Izaak Walton. 

Tomb inscription

Here resteth the body of Mr Isaac Walton who dyed the 15th of December 1683
Alas hee's gone before, Gone to returne noe more
Our panting breaths aspire, After their aged sire
Whose wellspent life did last, Full ninety years and past
But now he hath begun, That which will nere be done
Crownd with eternal bliss, We wish our souls with his.

Study to be quiet

The much quoted motto "Study to be quiet" appears in Izaak Walton's book "The Compleat Angler", published in 1653.  On the surface this is a book all about fish and fishing but closer reading reveals philosophy and politics amongst the songs, stories and anecdotes.  He revised and added to the book several times and the original 13 chapters expanded to 21 in the final version. Who knew there was so much to be said about fishing?!

He lived in Winchester, in the Cathedral Close, died there and is buried in the Fisherman's Chapel in the south transept.  This stained glass window shown on this postcard, bought during the 1980s, is above his tomb.

The motto will have recalled not only the quotation from the Bible but also a book by George Webbe:

"The practice of quietnes. Or A direction how to live quietly at all times, in all places, upon all occasions, and how to avoid or put off, all occasions of unquietnesse.  Delivered in six sermons at Steeple Ashton in Wiltshire by George Webbe, preacher of the word and pastor there."

I can only be grateful not to have had to listen to six sermons on how to be quiet.

This is a post for Postcard Friday, which is hosted by Beth Niquette at The Best Hearts are Crunchy.

New naval barracks

Devonport Barracks

Portsmouth Barracks

Portsmouth Barracks

Until 1859, there was no such thing as continuous service or a career in the Royal Navy for ratings.  If sailors didn't volunteer for service, they were press-ganged for a voyage.  The voyage of course could last for years and there was no guarantee that the ship would return to the same port.  The sailors would be left free to go home, often a considerable distance away.

Eventually somebody, somewhere, realised that it was a waste of skills, and that if the men could be offered continuous service, better use could be made of their experience.  Obviously that meant that accommodation was needed to house the men, and so hulks of old ships no longer in service were used.

The conditions on the hulks were pretty spartan to say the least, and one source says that they were "unpleasant and uncomfortable", and that "it is remarkable that so many hundreds should have been compelled to live in such undesirable quarters for so long".  Eventually to provide better conditions, the powers that be decided that these new barracks shown on the postcards should be built.

The first port to do this was Devonport, where the barracks were first occupied in 1899, soon followed by Portsmouth in 1903.  They were described as "palaces", with electric light, and taps in every room.

The postcards showing these new barracks must have been produced fairly soon after the Portsmouth barracks opened because the instructions on the left hand side of the back state that the space could be used for "INLAND communication" and needed a half-penny stamp.  That would indicate that not everywhere allowed communication on the back of the card, a situation that lasted more or less until 1907.

It's interesting to see the people leaning over the wall in Portsmouth.  Was it a curiosity or was something special happening?

N is for New Naval barracks.  A post for ABC Wednesday.

Lovely libraries

What is it about libraries? I can't pass one by without feeling the pull into another world. It's something separate from my love of books because, as you can see the libraries shown here are either inaccessible to the public except at a distance, or full of tomes which wouldn't provide light bedtime reading even if they were in a language I understand.

The library at Winchester Cathedral which houses, amongst other things, the 12th century Winchester Bible.  One of the 17th century globes on the card shows California as an island.

The library at Fontainebleau holds 16,000 volumes from Napoleon's library.

The French National Archives in Paris.  There are 100 km of shelves here, with another 200 in a new building in Fontainebleau.  This year another building will open in Pierrefitte will provide a further 360 km of shelving.  The oldest document is from the 7th century.

The Reading Room in the Laurentian Library in Florence, where the books stay in place chained to a desk, and the reader must move to the appropriate desk to read it.

Four beautiful cards from four beautiful libraries.  I've been lucky enough to have visited these apart from the first.  I used to live five minutes away for the first, and so of course I could visit any time at all....

Do you love libraries?  Can you explain the hold they have over me?

L is for lots of lovely libraries.  A post for ABC Wednesday.

James I, Charles I, and Inigo Jones

I'm not sure how legible the text is, even when enlarged, so I'll reproduce it here.

STATUES OF JAMES I AND CHARLES I

WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

The statues of James I and Charles I were placed in the Inigo Jones' screen at the entrance to the choir in 1640.  They are the works of Hubert Le Sueur who 'bargained with the King's Majesty of Great Britain to case in brass two statues of 5 feet 8 inches high ... for the sum of £340 of good and lawful money...'  The contract was witnessed by Inigo Jones in 1638.  The Dean and Chapter paid the King's workman £18 for the setting up of the statues.  During the Civil War the statues were stolen, bought by a royalist for £10 who hid them in the Isle of Wight and sold them in 1660 to Bishop Duppa, bishop of Winchester for £100.  He in turn returned them to the Cathedral, to their original position.  When the Inigo Jones' screen was destroyed early in the 19th century the statues were placed in their present position at the west end of the Cathedral.

The royalist turned a nice profit there, but was it good and lawful money, I wonder?

King James I reigned in England from 1603 to 1625 and was at the same time James VI of Scotland from 1567 to 1625.  He succeeded Elizabeth to the throne.  He is known for being firmly Protestant, one of the factors leading to the Gunpowder Plot in 1605, and for the production of the King James Bible in 1611.  He was constantly at loggerheads with Parliament.

King Charles I was his son, and continued to fight with Parliament.  In the end he dissolved Parliament and ruled without for 11 years.  In 1642 the Civil War between the Cavaliers (royalists) and Roundheads (parliamentarians) broke out.  Charles was executed outside Inigo Jones' Banqueting House in 1649.

Inigo Jones, 1573 to 1652, is considered to be one of the first notable British architects but the screen he designed for Winchester Cathedral wasn't well received.  It was out of keeping with the style of the cathedral and was replaced in 1820, and then again in 1875.  At this point, the Kings James and Charles were moved to the west end of the nave.

I lived in or near Winchester for almost 20 years.  I went into the cathedral fairly often.  I never noticed the statues....  The shame of it.

J is for James and Jones. A post for ABC Wednesday.

The Highland Light Infantry

The Highland Light Infantry was a regiment in the British Army from 1881 until 1959. It was formed by the amalgamation of two Scottish regiments and in the same way became amalgamated with the Royal Scots Fusiliers to become the Royal Highland Fusiliers in 1959.

The card has a divided back, with no mention of it being for inland use only, and a one penny postage stamp.  The postage was raised for postcards in Britain from a halfpenny to a penny in June 1918.  It increased to one and a half pennies (three ha'pence) in June 1921.  After considerable protests, this was once again reduced to a penny in May 1922.  The stamp on the card was in circulation from 1922 until 1934.  In fact a very high resolution scan shows the postmark to be St Michael's Tenterden, and the date April 1934.

And why were they called a "light" infantry?  It's tempting to say that it's because their equipment was lighter than regular equipment but it's more a description of their role.  Light infantries came into being as skirmishers who didn't fight in the disciplined tight formations of the ordinary infantry.  Today that distinction has gone and the role has, in the UK, been taken over by parachute or mountain infantries and special forces, none of whom have the heavy weaponry of other battalions.

The Highland Light Infantry was the only Highland regiment to wear trews as uniform, as can be seen on the card.  Kilts were authorised in 1947.

Traditional trews were almost skin tight garments cut on the bias so that the tartan would lie diagonally.  This bias gave the trews some stretch.  The seam would be at the back of the leg.  Modern trews are no longer cut on the bias and are more like trousers, but they have no side seam. 

The card is titled "Highland Light Infantry at Laffans Plain".  Laffans Plain is a former parade ground in Aldershot, Hampshire, in the south of England.  Aldershot was a village until it was decided that an army camp should be built there in 1855.  It is now a town with a population of over 30,000 and is known as "The Home of the British Army".

This post has a Scottish flavour to tie in with Burns' Night, tonight 25 January.  As a  tie-in in a different direction, I am reproducing Burns' Selkirk Grace (with English translation).  I think it is particularly poignant when remembering the earthquake in Haiti.

The Selkirk Grace

Some hae meat and canna eat,

And some wad eat that want it,

But we hae meat and we can eat,

And sae the Lord be thankit.

Some have meat and cannot eat
And some would eat but want for it
But we have meat and we can eat
And so the Lord be thanked for it.

Festival headquarters

PFF: Flooding in the cathedral

This picture shows the bust of William Walker, the deep sea diver who saved Winchester Cathedral.

Way back in the 13th century, the cathedral was enlarged using wooden foundations, but the area has a very high water table and the foundations were almost always flooded.  Eventually, just over a hundred years ago it was realised that there was a serious problem and that the cathedral had to be underpinned.

To cut a long story short, William Walker was employed to go down into the waters and place concrete underneath the weakened walls.  It took him from 1906 until 1911 to do the job, working in almost complete darkness, in deep and dirty water and in a heavy diving suit of the era.  Once it was done, the water could be pumped out and the walls reinforced and repaired.  The crypt still does flood to this day, especially during the winter.


The flooding of the crypt is not entirely a bad thing.  There is a wonderful sculpture of a contemplative figure there, Sound II,  (see the postcard I sent to Mary/theteach), created by Antony Gormley to take advantage of this flooding.  The materials making up the work are listed as lead, fibreglass and water.

There is an exploration of some of Gormley's works on the Tate Modern website.  When you get there, click on "Explore four of Antony Gormley's works", and then you will find Sound II as a thumbnail.  You can see many more photos of the sculpture, and from different angles, unfortunately taken when the crypt was dry - I say unfortunately because water really is an integral part of the piece.

But it's thanks to William Walker that we can see the sculpture in the crypt at all.

This is a post for Postcard Friendship Friday.

Hampshire lights

Three cards from the county in England where I live, Hampshire. All are unused and all have been bought recently to send, any day now, to random Postcrossing members.

Winchester, Hampshire - England
Autumn dusk falls on Winchester Cathedral

New Forest ponies in the evening light.

The Spinnaker Tower at night
Portsmouth - England
Portsmouth's newest landmark, the 170 metre high Spinnaker Tower, shines like a beacon at night.

From the ancient to the modern in this post.  Winchester Cathedral dates from 1079 and the New Forest, belying its name, dates from much the same time.  It was mentioned in the Domesday Book in 1086 and was taken as Crown land with laws put in place to protect the the forest and deer for Royal hunting.  Ponies still roam completely freely in the area.

The Spinnaker Tower, in contrast, should date from 2000.  I say it "should" date from 2000 for a reason.  It was planned as a landmark to mark the millenium, and was originally called the Millenium Tower.  The delays started before construction began and it ended up badly over-budget, and eventually opened in 2005.  In spite of its problems (such as the project manager being stranded in the external lift on the opening day - the lift still doesn't work) it is a popular attraction and really does look spectacular, both from the harbour and from land.

I chose these three cards to represent the county as far as I could.  The ancient cathedral city of Winchester was once the capital of England and is full of history in every corner.  The New Forest represents the very rural nature of the county.  Portsmouth represents the coastline of the county and modern rebuilding after the bombing during World War II.  The sea and the navy have played a very important part in the history of the area.  It was, of course, the place of departure for many settlers leaving for America.

Postcard Scavenger Hunt #5

The Round Table, Winchester: a sign of equality

Unused, bought June 2009.
King Arthur's Round Table, Winchester Castle

The card shows the Round Table hanging in the Great Hall in Winchester.  It is called King Arthur's Round Table though the name can be disputed on at least two points: first,
a round table isn't described until the 12th century although Arthur was king during the 6th century; second, examination by various scientific methods has dated the table to the 1270s.

Nevertheless, the table remains a symbol, a sign, of equality.  There is no head of the table so all who are seated around it are deemed equal.  According to history, it was created to prevent quarrels among the knights, none of whom wanted to be seated below others.  The names of the 24 knights are written around the edge of the table.

The Round Table later becomes a sign of the order of chivalry in Arthur's time.  These were knights created in glorified imitation of the crusading knights, and became very idealised and romantic.  They followed a strict code of honour, with the table less of an actual table and more the sign of the highest order of chivalry.

Festival headquarters

A Festival of Postcards (3rd Ed.) – Signs