Hi Steve,
The header photo really is a Grabshot, taken from the car as we went past.
I’ve been looking forward to writing the letter this week. After I read Gilbert’s Letter IV, in which he talked about a local industry that focused on a local stone that is worked in the Selborne area. I immediately thought of a parallel and embarked upon a small adventure of discovery.
I’ve seen one site (Heidelberg Materials) where there are stockpiles of what I assume are aggregates of different grades for different purposes. Where did those aggregates come from? Some of it may be the result of dredging, but the dredgers don’t discharge at Fareham, as it is too small.
Also, Gosport isn’t an extraction site in its own right, so it must be a distribution centre, which does make sense. I think most towns will have facilities like this as they will be needed for construction work. In this case, the aggregates will mostly be gravel, crushed stone and possibly sand.
What Fareham Port is used for is to load small coaster cargo vessels, one in particular, The Goole Star, which was, for a period of time, captained by a friend of mine (met through Amateur Radio), we’d quite often chat whilst he was moving material to Newport on the Isle of White – for their distribution point.
I thought it was good that an imprecise parallel existed between Selborne and Gosport. I have to say that I have thoroughly enjoyed spending a bit of time researching this topic, and it puts me in a good frame of mind for Letter V.
On an entirely different note, I found out that having used the contacts page on the Gosport Museum website to ask about fossils found in the local area, that message would have gone to the headquarters of The Hampshire Cultural Trust, where it would have been completely ignored. That there was n acknowledgement at all was a bit disappointing, but having followed my post from that contacts page with a chat with the Museum staff, I have now used what I hope is the correct email address to have another go. Let’s see what happens with this attempt.
I shall be reading Letter V tomorrow (Monday 16th). I hope it sparks another interesting week of discovery.
All The Best.
Bills Posts 