Category Archives: personal blog

The picture is nothing at all to do with the title of today’s post. It’s a picture from the Isle of Wight Steam Gala we visited on Saturday. I have a job to do, which needed a washing up bowl. We didn’t have one, so obviously I had to go and buy one. The shopsContinue reading “1030 – A washing up bowl”

We were on the commercial railway, heading toward Shanklin. It was a bit of a mixed day. Breakfast in a cafe just across from Shanklin station, which was very nice. Then a walk through the town centre and on down to the waterfront. I hadn’t appreciated how high up we were. We got the cliffContinue reading “1029 – The Isle of Wight Steam Railway”

It was a fairly random decision that led us to go over to the Isle of Wight today. We wanted to take train from Ryde to Shanklin basically, just for heck of it. It was that which led us to being on the wightlink fast cat at 0915. Apart a bit of niggling pain inContinue reading “1028 – we do take the ferry across…”

I came across the water today. No, not a long journey onboard the Santonia from France. Just across from Portsmouth to Gosport. I have to say that the Gosport ferry service is alway run with consummate professionalism. The captains who operate them are able to steer them with such skill, I’ve never known one missContinue reading “1027 – Ferry cross the…”

I know there is a way of including an audio file, I’m just trying to get at the file. It’s what recoded this morning, 22 Jun 23 at around 4AM. The birds going wild. It is, without doubt, the most beautiful alarm clock you will ever hear. It is so loud here in Waterlooville.

I wanted to walk a circular route, and I am not having much luck finding a nice one here in Waterlooville. Part of the walk had me alongside the dual carriageway heading into town, not at all pleasant. At least with my morning walks in Gosport I am minimally affected by traffic fumes. I thinkContinue reading “1025 – out for a walk”

Waterlooville is a strange place. Quite dense housing, with small patches of really quite dense wooded areas, too dense to walk through, and having a really dense canopy. Having said that though, it’s still quite pleasant to walk through. I really do enjoy walking through a nice wooded area, but get so few opportunities toContinue reading “1024 – A walk in the woods”

The header picture is of an alley way just off the town centre of Waterlooville. Apart from the charity shop, every frontage is boarded up. And there were other areas closer to the high street like this. In its heyday, it must have been a bustling complex of shops. I wonder what went wrong,vane whetherContinue reading “1023 – A poorly town centre”

It’s a bit of a dark one this, and the start of this weeks research round is about The Plague and it’s impact on Gosport. Certainly it was bad enough to warrant an entry in the timeline. One claim made was that the town was a, if not the, point of entry into the country.Continue reading “1022 – Gosport in 1348”

Yesterday’s post contained some questions. I said that I would try and get into the library. Well, I did that. I have to confess, that I really didn’t expect to have any success, but as usual, it was a local history enthusiast that really save the day. All of today’s information is courtesy of JoanContinue reading “1021 – Gosport 1204”