Newbridge-on-Wye

A few months ago I visited a church in this town but took a few moments to get some photos of the village and one particular building I had noticed.

  By the church a reminder of the sacrifice the village made during both world wars

  From there you look down the road through the village with the Welsh hills beyond

 Over the road is the village school 

 But it is this old hotel I found of interest

And the Art Deco canopy over the door with Temperance & Commercial on the ends. Fist time I have come across this, Obviously did not want drunken travellers staying here. Sham it closed it would have been interesting to see inside.

Taking Part in Our World Tuesday

St Barabus Peasemore

This weeks church fetured in my Church Exploer Blog is St Barabus Peasemore  situated in a pleasent Berkshire village not far from Newbury

Agapanthus

So we planted these lastyear or so but they never came to anything till I noticed this flower growing in the flowerbed looking like  a seeded onion, it then flowered and turned into this Agapanthus, boy was I chuffed seeing it come up at last

Hopefully Next year I will have some more

Freshly Made

View from the mound

The mound I am talking about is a huge spoil heap from the excavation work on some of the buildings on the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory site. It has been made into a walk and nature reserve and many people go there for lunch The other day I took a final look from the mound before I retire from work. the one thing I wanted to photograph was a nearby estate built on the site of the old RAF Bomb Store
The place used to part of RAF Harwell but now little remains of what was here. If you look at the link to the Bomb store you can see what it looked like when I first took some photos from the mound

 So this is what the estate looks like now it is finished, I might add it looks a very nice one to live in as well though I can say I don't think the part in the foreground will be built on as there are rumours of a new experiment going there

Just over to the right is this structure which I really do not have a clue as to what it is

 Turning arund I spotted this new building going up or should I say nearly finished, again I could not tell you what it is for.

The last think I looked for ws this, theplaque beside the road on the Harwell Magnox site

which is on the otherside of a boundary fence you cannot go to but I took the photo through the fence

 The only people who ever see this are the guys who work on the site or who can see it from the Runerford side of the fence

It was placed there many years ago when it was a an active site. A little piece of hitory very few people get to see. 

Taking Part in Our World Tuesday

St Nicholas Beedon

St Nicholas is part of the East Downland Benefice 

and can be found off the A34 on the Oxford Raod which was the A34 origonaly before the built the new one cutting the village off making it a quite place to live. The church dates back to  1220 and has one of the best scratch sundials (mass dial) I have seen. Please visit my blog and look around the church

Thistle Sky

Walking through our local allotment gardens I spotted this huge Thistle begging for a photo

Happy Skywatch Everyone

Hidden Courtyard

Swan Upping

Now this is somthing I have always wanted to see and Fiday I made an effort knowing that the Swan Uppers had stopped off at Moulsford overnight. I knew they were starting off at 9am and would pass our village not long after so it was off to Ferry lane to see the flotilla

I was caughy on thr hop as I only noticed the first of them through the nearby trees and managed to get this shot

The gut ath the back is sat on the tool box

This boat was next

Then this one of the Dyers' Company.

That is their flag

They were backed up by qute a few boats like this one flying the Queens flag

The swan markers flag

The  Dyers' Company. flag

Here you have both   Dyers' Company. and Vintners' Company

This noat camer after towing

This skif with the  Swan Marker

 The flag of the marker of Swans

The marker of swans himself Mr David Barber MVO who has had the post since 1993

Next year I intend to be at one of the main places that ring the swans

Taking Part in Our World Tuesday

St Matthew Harwell

Each week I have been trying to feature a church from my Church Explorer Blog, This is not because of any Religious beliefs it is because I feel we in the UK are loosing too many of our churches that are closing because of the lack of a congregation to attend because there are too few clergy to go around an dtoo fee people in the area. I feel the churches need recording because they are part of out heritage and history and should be preserved.
This weeks church is St Matthew Harwell, please visit the blog if you can.