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