Rust in Peace

This old Ford Anglia 105E lays under an old bridge on the former Didcot, Newbury & Southampton Railway. It like the remains of a few others nearby must have been driven up there and dumped. Years of abuse have left it in this state.

The line was shut in 1961 now little of it remains.

Deadly Boathouse

The Boathouse at Mongwell Park in Crowmarsh, this was the former Carmell College grounds till 2003. On the left hand side is a Defended building from the second world war. The walls are 1meter thick embrasures made to look like windows. The front has been cutaway to take doors to form a  second boathouse.

The Defended building formed part of the Thames Stop line during the second world war.You can read my blog here

Perilously close

The flood waters from the river Thames come close to the new housing that has been built on the former Wilders site in Crowmarsh.

 No doubt they are safe but I wonder if they think have they bought the right place

No Entry

Parking in the Riverside carpark in Wallingford could be interesting, wonder if they charged for parking a boat.

The floods at this point in time were about 30cm higher that on Christmas Day

Looking for dinner

Sat on a marker in the Thames near the Grotto at just outside Streatley was this Cormorant these are becoming a pest along the Thames taking the fish.

Ghost in the window

 Not often you see a ghost bike in the window of a shop. Not sure if it is in memory of the shop which moved or the fact this is no longer a bike shop which it has been as long as I can remember.

Note the other ghost in the window.

Merry Christmas

Seemed an apt photo for the day and Taken on Christmas Day 2010. 

St Marys Church Cholsey

May I wish all of those who read my Blogs a

 Merry Christmas 

Robin with dinner

This little fellow made me smile. He hopped on top of the rabbit cage I was cleaning out proudly showing me a spider he had caught for dinner and waited while I took his photo.

You just have to love robins following you round the garden waiting for something you uncover for them

Silly Bridge

Silly Bridge in Cholsey. It's name could have come from a couple of sources. As a kid one of the favorites was a tank drove over the side of it, I also read of a ghostly presents and ghost train but in all my years living in the village no one has mentioned that story. You need to look back at the history of it to understand why it is called that. When Brunel built the Great Western Railway it first stopped just outside Cholsey at Moulsford which discussions took place which way it went. Didcot won and the railway went forward causing a large cutting to be dug  which went through a roman road that took the villagers of Cholsey to their common land after much argument he built the bridge and not long after the enclosures act came in and the only person to benefit was the local land owner.

There could be another reason for the name, a Mental Hospital was nearby and many of the patients used to jump off it and kill themselves. 

Old Culham Bridge

The bridge takes the old Henley Road over Swift Ditch now it is a footpath with some history. Swift ditch was dug as a bypass for the Thames at Abingdon where back in the middle ages it was full of reefs and shallows that the barges going upstream had trouble negotiating. Once Swift Ditch was done the barged stopped nearby and goods where transfered to smaller ones which would have been built and stored in the basin in front. There was also a civil war skirmish here between the Royalists and Roundheads you can see the plaque on the bridge. During the second war there were two pillboxs built on it as well and you can see the outline of the bases still there.  It was also a toll bridge and the old house is still there over to the right.

The Ditch is a shadow of it's former self now and the bridge was bypassed in the 1920s leaving an historic bridge very few people see.

Parked up tanks

For my sons 21st Birthday I treated him to a tank driving day where here he got to drive a Chieftain Battle Tank, Abbot self propelled gun and a personnel carrier along with messing around on a quad bike. I wend along to watch and got driven around on all three of the tanks as well I loved it and hope my son had as much fun driving them.

A personnel carrier and Abbot parked up on the site

Ford RS 2000

The RS2000 one one of the most successful rally cars that Ford produced. This version is the Mk1 and to me by far the nicest one made.

  The photo was taken at the Wallingford Classic car day.

Swans at Fairmile

Fairmile Hospital in Cholsey. The place used to be a psychiatric hospital but originally was called Berkshire Lunatic asylum. The crests over the entrance show Reading and Newbury's coat of alms indicating the area it took in. The place closed in 2003 and in 2010work started on converting the place into residential use. Last week the hording which stopped you from seeing what was going on was removed and the sculpture of the swans erected. The place still has a few weeks work before it is finished.

You can read more on Fairmile  in my Blog

 

Rainbow on Station Road

I went off down the road to the local shop to get a couple of items when it started to rain. On the way back I turned round to cross the road and spotted a full Rainbow. I quickly ran in and got my camera and took a couple of shots by. The result of doinga panoramic view is this.

My apologies for the join not sure how to get over that.

Pigeons on the light

I had gone over to read the inscription on a monument at the Market Place  in Reading when I noticed a pigeon looking down at me so it seemed rude not to take a photo.

Grey Squirrel

The Grey Squirrel also called a tree rat by some and considered vermin but cute all the same. They are quite cheeky at times stealing food. This one was trowing nuts on top of my caravan down at Fforest Fields camp site in Wales so I got my camera and took it's photo, it even posed for me.

You wonder what it was thinking as it looked at me.

Sunset at Newborough beach

This photo was taken a few years ago now and is  at Newborough beach Anglesey. I had gone there with my wife on holiday and were taking the dogs for a walk. I had just got in the position of getting the sun going down when my son phoned me on my mobile by the time I took the photo I was just left with this

It was taken with a Canon PowerShot S2 IS in 2005

Midday photo 12/12/12/12

 Midday on the 12/12/2012 taken as 12 min past the hour one of those things you tend to do. Jessops were running something where you took one at Midday where as Geograph did it properly and we took the photo at 12 min past 12. The photo is along Avon road in Chilton which used to be part of UKAEA Harwell formally the RAF station. This was part of the perimeter road which lead to one of the runways behind me. After the war when the UKAEA took over this part was the Prefab Housing estate, it was demolished in the 1980's. Now as you can see a new housing estate has been built over on the right.

What I did not say above was that the area on the right was the bomb store in the war and after the war chemicals were stored there, it was only a few years ago they realized this and it cost a lot of money to restore the area.

Lone tree hill

This oak tree was the only one left standing on the side of the hill at Fforest Fields Camp site in Wales. The whole of the hillside had been cleared of the fir trees that had grown there over the last 50 odd years. The intention is to plant native hardwood trees like this oak

Flooded arch

The floods along the Thames in December 2012 caused havoc with bridges and roads  closing. The Thames path was imposable to walk and the footpath through the arch here in Wallingford  became part of the river it was beside.

 

When I took this photo the floods has subsided by 30cm

Pylons

Pylons looking towards Didcot Power Station taken from the Westfield Road in Cholsey

I remember them building these back in the 1960's

A big hopper

I spotted this while out for a walk along the Kennet looking for Pillboxes. I had just looked at one and was about to turn back to go back to my car when I noticed this rather large object standing there like and alien space craft. I fund a way in to the area for a look round and took this photo. In the background is an old building and what looks like a mixing tank.

This may have been part of Colthrop Paper Mill

Didcot Power Station

I remember them building the place back during  1960's I remember the huge pylons being built near my village and then heading off in the direction of Reading. around 1971 I had tour round the place and at one stage I even went for a job there but never got past the first interview. During the 1970s the place was besieged by Miners during the coal strike but was still supplied by a constant stream of lorries I remember going along the A34  This photo was taken from Great Western Park which is a new housing estate nearby.

Didcot Power Station is due to close in 2013.

The Princess Elizabeth

On Tuesday 4th December the Cathedral Express Steam Train Princess Elizabeth  cam through Cholsey on it's way to Chester. It was due around 8.03 but ended up half hour late but it was going to see.

The express going through at speed and I might add it made the hair on the back of your neck stand on end.

Building the crane

This took place over Easter weekend at where I work. The crane took a day to build  and a second crane was used to fit the sections together. Once together it was to lift over cooling units over the building.

The crane  ended up idle most of the weekend after a technical problem and the fact the wind speed became to high for the crane to operate.

The Bus Shelter

The old bus shelter on the Forty in Cholsey. It was built to celebrate H M George V in 1932 and has survived all this time though has had a few changes. It used to have sides and a back but was constantly getting damaged so ended up in it's present form.

 

The photo was taken in Dec 2010.

Floods at Wallingford

The Thames at Wallingford during the floods taken on 1st Dec 2012 this view is looking upstream of the bridge with the riverside park over the right.  After looking at the flood marks I could see a line marking the maximum hight which was just above the 2007 level and below the 2003 one

The photo is a stitched panoramic view taken by hand.

Wallingford Bridge

This is a panoramic view of Wallingford Bridge showing the entire length. Once this was a toll bridge and the remains of the toll house can still be seen on the bridge as a viewing area looking towards the riverside park.

Some history on Wallingford Bridge

Streatley Farm

This photo was taken from the top of Streatley Hill looking towards South Stoke which is in Oxfordshire . Further on you may be able to make out North Stoke. You can also just make out the River Thames running from the left.

Huntley & Palmers

 I remember the factory in Reading from when I used to go to school down the road from the place. It used to be huge, taking up qute a bit of the Kings road and employing thousands of people over the years.

 The original factory used to be over on the left and spanned the Kennet which we look down the river. Now all that is left to remind you of what once was here is the Huntley and Plamer Building to the left of the bridge.

Ferry Lane

This is ferry lane in Cholsey on a November Sunday afternoon. the river Thames which is at the end  has flooded as you can see. This used to be called papist way till it's name got changed.
The lane here was resurfaced in the spring doing away with all the deep pot holes that were there it now remains to be seen how it stands up to the flooding and winter frosts that we now get. The water will rise more yet and most likely come up to near where the bottom of the photo is before receding again.

"During the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Roman Catholics of England were persecuted.  One of  the Catholic families - Hildesley/Hilsley/Ilsley - lived at Littlestoke Manor across the river from Littlestoke ferry.  Other significant Catholic groups lived up and down the Thames and as a result the river became a means for them to communicate with each other and meet for mass.  The ferry lane here became known as Papist Way."

The Town Crier

The Town Crier

This is the first of what I intend to be a daily blog so Thought I'd start it off with a happy photo of Newbury Town Crier.

A very pleasant man to talk to with a deep voice

Buscot Weir

Buscot weir is along the River Thames Near Lechlaid, the Thames meanders along is a series of bends and the weir feeds in to a pool which flows off to the right. Out of sight is a second weir which feed into a cutting and a lock cut.

This is a stitched photo I took.