Beauty berries

 

Hurrah after a few years wait we have achieved what we set out to do....purple and orange berries side by side on our back fence🧡💜 The callicarpa is a cutting from my parents' plant. Simple pleasures.

Arilx

A grave day

 Tragically Charles Cook died on 20th March 1767 aged only 30. He was killed by a falling tree. Whilst I can't find anything about the man when he was alive [bar he had a wife called Sarah] his demise is all there for you to see recorded on his incredible gravestone. He is wearing a rather marvellous tricorn hat and one has to assume that whoever paid for this was someone with money as it must have cost a pretty penny with all that florid carving. It has been restored and is now listed and I can see why. You don't often come across examples as good as this in Sussex. This one is in Walberton and is well known locally. Hope everyone has a good weekend.

Arilx 

The Garden in the Ruins

Below is a black and white image of the former Great Hall in Nymans House which was owned by Maud and Leonard Messel. I say former because, on one fateful night in February 1947, it caught fire and with the post war shortage of building materials it had to remain a ruin. Only the Northern wing was repaired and made habitable for the family once again. The ruins stood proud, but inaccessible to any visitors until August 2022 when it was reopened to the public as 'the garden in the ruins'. Even now you can only see it on limited dates [depending on whether there are volunteers available to man it] and during certain times of year. That has always been the case for me. However, pick a random Monday in September when you've popped in with your friend Jak on her first visit and hey presto! 

What a little gem and all the better for it being a complete surprise. It's divided into six compartments for want of a better word each split by different screens. These pay homage to the Messel's son Oliver who went on to become a very famous theatre set designer. His sister was Anne who was the mother of Anthony Armstrong Jones. She was the last person to live in Nymans until her death in 1992.

Arilx

 

More from Alton

 As I'm usually that gal with a plan up her sleeve, my original one had to be scotched because what I'd chosen wasn't open. A quick spin round a well known search engine told me that Alton has a sculpture trail and as we were taking a wander anyway a nose along the High Street seemed as good an idea as any. My friend Jane has lived here for more than thirty years, but she too was seeing some things for the first time. Sometimes it's just nice to be able to follow a route which someone else has devised and not have to do the thinking. We arrived to find the added bonus of the vintage vehicles....usually the centre is like a ghost town on a Saturday afternoon apparently so it was rather splendid to see the place buzzing. Brief notes included as appropriate😀

Outside the Railway Arms we have two pieces of work by Richard Farrington. One shows us how two men would have transported a large barrel up a flight of steps and the other one....I'm going to whisper so that I don't look like a complete philistine, but it looks like it would be right at home in the Thomas the Tank engine yard. Perhaps the fact that Alton is on the Watercress Line with regular steam trains running along it was his inspiration. There's a reason that I'm not gainfully employed as an art critic!

This one's been included simply because of its rarity value. There aren't many places you get to see the Royal Cipher for Edward VIII as he only reigned for 325 days. Apparently there are a handful of postboxes, but I've yet to clock one so this little find was pleasing for that reason alone. It's on the Telephone Exchange.

Another mild obsession of mile stones or mile plates as in this 19th century metal example. The shortening of Winchester to Winton is merely a cost cutting exercise....less space needed less metal needed.

On the former Red Lion is this rather stunning Gothic looking hanging bracket. A local blacksmith called Nimrod Lock made it.

Many homes will have had or possibly still have a set of kitchen scales made by the famous Birmingham firm of W & T Avery Ltd. This set though outside the town hall could weigh up to 10 tons. I'd like to know what they were weighing....any ideas anyone?

'The Bear' by Mark Coreth [2005] and two cars which just made me laugh as they look like they've escaped from one of the Pixar animations. It wasn't quite so amusing when I saw a beautifully preserved Peugot 205 accompanied by its very proud owner. Suddenly I felt a bit of a veteran myself as I learnt to drive in one of those!😆 

Hope everyone has a good weekend. We have a couple of non Mythago weekends upon us so further outings are in the pipeline.

Arilx

1982 does Medieval

 I only wish I could tell you who created this marvellous Medieval inspired incised artwork. All I know is that it was done in 1982 and you can find it in the Cross and Pillory House in Alton, Hampshire. Whoever it was understood odd angle that the original Medieval artists depicted the human face with....I have seen many a fellow in church wall paintings looking very much like that chap in the pillory. We were taking a post prandial stroll with our friends who live in the town. I saw many other marvels which I'll share, but this one was my stand-out and I want to give it the floor.

Arilx

Paralympics

There's so much noise about the Olympics that I rather feel that the Paralympics is the poor relation when it starts. I have so much admiration for the incredible feats that the participants achieve...I simply can't do what they can despite being a so called 'able-bodied' person. As the Games are on right now it seemed the perfect time to share this aptly decorated phonebox which has been kept intact throughout the whole period.

 

The 'balloon' was an old exercise ball found in a skip a few weeks ago! I love the way this phone box has taken on a life of its own and I always check to see whether it's been done up for a special event. For any fellow fans of such things it has its own dedicated Insta page as 'ComptonPhoneBox' where you can enjoy some of its previous incarnations. Usually we don't have time to stop, but we were heading home after a fantastic weekend so there will be some photos and stories to share.

Arilx