I just wanted to show that, whilst you may not think it so, we do have some interesting architecture in gosport. This is the round tower of what used to be, when first built, the towns grammar school. Today, it is The Gosport Art Gallery and Museum.
As the museum, it houses a number of collections that have been acquired over time. In yesterday afternoon’s U3A Local History session, one of the managers of the museum showed us some of the very interesting artefacts the are held on the upper floors.
One of the more interesting was a detailed set of plans for the electric tramway that was installed in the early 1900’s. Plus part of a sail from a J Class yacht, The Shamrock 5, built for the Americas Cup in the 1930’s. Everything about the small piece of the sail was amazing; the weight from the lead ballast inside the sail (we are talking one and a half maybe two square feet of sail and woodwork), which looked like it had been torn off. The layers of cloth, the intricacy of the needle work, all of it just amazing.
We then got taken upstairs, into the area the public doesn’t see. Housing many of the collections a lot of which are still to be catalogued. It was disappointing to hear of the museums under resourcing forced upon it by the parent organisation, and yet buoyed by the dedication of the entirely volunteer group that runs this part of the museum.
Yet another fascinating U3A session.
This morning I headed towards another of Gosport’s historical sites, Haslar Hospital. No longer a functioning establishment (much to the disgust of the locals), it is slowly being turned into prestige homes.
One of the locations well worth a visit are the Coffee Quarters, a rather nice cafe, which is where the Camera Club meets once month for coffee and a chat. They do some rather nice looking cakes. I haven’t indulged yet, but I will do.
We spent a very pleasant couple of hours talking about various aspects of our hobby. After that, I headed home.
Bills Posts 