A Halloween Story from Old Hampshire

Back in the late 1980's we lived in a very old house, parts of it dating back to 1530.

In the local county museum, I'd found some information on very old local customs dating back to when witchcraft was allegedly widespread in the area. One superstition was to leave three iron nails on top of a door frame, apparently the devil can't abide iron, so the story went, making it impossible for him to hide on the door frame and jump on your back as you passed through the door.

Shortly after I was making changes to my daughters bedroom when we found a tiny old door which had been bricked up and plastered over. As we uncovered it we found - you guessed it -Three Iron Nails.

We left them there - can't be too careful.

Scow update

The restoration of our Scow isn’t going very quickly, in fact all I seem to have accomplished is to take things to pieces. The deck, which I removed before we went on holiday seems to smile, provocatively at me every time I go in the garage.

But with a keen interest in Scows it was nice to find this one in the boat compound at Bucklers Hard on the Beaulieu river. I took loads of pictures to get some ideas of the fittings and arrangements which will be useful when I start rebuilding.



This nice example is a Beaulieu Scow, built locally, I’ve seen a few sailing in the mill pool below Beaulieu village, where there’s a small sailing club.



On the same subject I got a nice email from Leafy, who lives, paints and blogs from Mersea Island on the east coast, she is a Scow sailor and her delightful graphic is based on her restored Scow.

You just wouldn't!

But they clearly did!!

Just goes to show there's a little bit of Benny Hill in all of us.

With apologies in case you didn't guess wind is gas!!

First Frosty Mornings

Cold star lit nights and frosty twilight mornings demonstrate that Autumn is with us. A week from now it will be Halloween, then Bonfire Night followed by the run up to Christmas.

With daylight saving time (British Summer Time) in place for another week it's still quite dark at 7 AM, but the river has a seasonal beauty which well worth getting up and out early to see.

Above the mist is still rising from the river, the yachts lying peacefully at their moorings, while in the background a container ship makes it's way up Southampton Water.

Retuning back up the river the daylight was coming on quickly and by the time I got home for breakfast the sun was shining at the start of a glorious day.

Millau

The Bursledon blog has been on autopilot for the past couple of weeks while we were on holiday.

We stayed in a small coastal town in the Languedoc region in the South of France. Our journey there took us across the “Massive Central”, at the southern end of which lies the Millau Bridge.

We’ve driven over it several times but always in poor weather conditions, rain or low cloud or at night. This time however we got to see the bridge in spectacular early morning sunlight.



At the deepest point the valley floor is getting on for some 300meters (over 1000 ft) below the roadway. Even more remarkable and just about visible in the picture, is that the bridge is built on a curve.

During an interview when the bridge was first built, architect Sir Norman Foster was questioned about the curve, his reply was that having gone to such lengths, such expense and enormous technical challenge to create the bridge, it was important that drivers should be able to see and appreciate the bridge as they passed across it.

He’s is right.

New Boat

No, sadly we haven't resolved our dilemma over the replacement for Greta.

Hamble River Rowing took delivery of a new Bursledon Gig this week, well a hull anyway. The fibreglass hull will be fitted out over winter to be ready for next year.

The current HRR boats will be out on the river on 6th November to take advantage of a big tide to row up to the Horse and Jockey pub at Botley.

More Houseboats

Last year I mentioned there were a few houseboats on the river, here are three more, each one of completely different character. They lie upstream of Bunny Meadows in what was called Crablake.

First up is what looks like a steel lighter, with an oversize garden shed on deck. That said, I do like the curved roof and the yellow paintwork, I often see swans pecking at the window so I guess the owner feeds them regularly.

This barge is authentic, built in steel and exactly the type you still see on some of the major European rivers. Whether or not she could sail I don't know, but that mast is a substantial price of kit, I bet it's "fun" lowering it to shoot a bridge.

Built on a motorboat hull, this houseboat has been receiving a lot of upgrading and maintenance over the last year of so and looks lovely.

All three have walk ashore access and dry out on the mud between tides.