Tuesday - January 10, 2012

Southampton. Some photos and some history

Oh damn oh damn!
Everything you will see below was lost because I was careless and had many tabs open and hit that red ‘X’ in the upper right one more time then I needed to.
I was hitting save as I went but to no avail.  Good thing in part I had some saved in Word. But I’ve now been at this for hours so this is it for me for today.
Chrome doesn’t ask if you want to restore previous closed tab.  Does it?  I haven’t seen it if it does. Rats!

Happy to report I’ve shaken, at long last, the miserable bug I’d caught. 
Unhappy to report that now my wife has some sort of bug, not quite the very same but does have a bad cough. So it’s been my turn to play nurse. Which is frustrating cos there’s nothing worse then having someone ill, you know what they’re feeling because you’ve had it, and there isn’t a darn thing you can do about it. You wanna help but ......

I have some items to share in the way of photos and history.  And I’m now over two years behind in posting one set.  Back around Oct. of 2008 I made one of our trips into Southampton.  Every few months a friend and I go there and haunt the electronic stores but most especially Maplin’s.  I don’t think I’ve ever been there but that I haven’t spent money. There’s always something they have that I can’t live without.

So on the trip in ‘08 I brought my camera and took a bunch of snaps.  The ancient Bargate is in fact right outside Maplin’s door.  You can’t turn in any direction without bumping into some serious history over here .  Then last month we went back again. But I didn’t have a camera with me, and I found myself in a different part of town I had not seen before. It was just before Christmas, and we parked a long way from where we had to go. And there was this wall, and another, and a tower.  Wow.  Turns out it was all once connected to the ancient main gate about a mile from where we were.  A lot had been lost in the war after German bombing, Southampton being a major port. And there was also a Spitfire factory there. So I borrowed my friend’s phone/camera and got off a few shots.  But as he was leaving for Italy within days to spend Christmas there with his married daughter and grandkids, I didn’t get the pix until today. And I figured I’d stalled long enuff and so am sharing now.  Hope you enjoy and heck. It’s a welcome change from my usual mad man rants.  Gimme a minute.  I have to grab the coffee from the kitchen.

I look at things here from the past and the people who put things together in ages when nobody had heard of health and safety. You know, something needed doing and they just did it.  And they didn’t apologize all the time either. So here’s what I’ve been up to most of today.  I’ve been editing and cropping all this stuff.
It doesn’t look like a lot but darn if it isn’t all time consuming.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF SOUTHAMPTON, HAMPSHIRE, ENGLAND

http://www.localhistories.org/southampton.html

ROMAN SOUTHAMPTON
About 70 AD the Romans built a town on a bend in the River Itchen. The Roman town was called Clausentum. The streets were laid out in a grid pattern and they were gravelled. All the buildings in the Roman town were, at first, built of wood but in the 2nd century wealthy people rebuilt their houses in stone. They had panes of glass in the windows, painted murals on the walls and mosaic floors. Of course, poor people could afford none of these things. They lived in wood and plaster huts.

BARGATE

The main entrance to the walled town of Southampton was through the Bargate at the northern end of the town. Since the time of Henry II, many of the Kings and Queens of England have passed through the Bargate. By 1175, a simple square stone tower had been built, and the arch completed. There was a ditch in front of the gate with a bridge over it and ramparts on either side. Between 1260 and 1290, the ramparts were replaced by a stone wall. Round drum-towers were built on either side of the gateway and a hall was constructed on the first floor. The façade between the towers was added by 1420, with battlements and machicolations6. The ditch was filled in 1771, when the road through the bargate was paved. The shields were added in the 17th and 18th Centuries, showing crests of the families who ruled Southampton at the time; the shields of St George and St Andrew were also added at this time.

A penny postcard, 1920.

Guarding the Bargate are two lions, reflecting the local legend of Sir Bevis of Hampton, the mythical founder of Southampton. The first lions were put up in 1522, when the Bargate was decorated for the visit of King Charles V of Spain. The original wooden lions were replaced by the current lead lions in 1743. There were also two painted panels hung on either side of the gateway showing Sir Bevis and Ascupart, which are now preserved inside.

The Southampton Blitz
Southampton suffered badly from large-scale air raids during World War II. As a large port city on the south coast, it was an important strategic target for the German Luftwaffe. According to A.R.P. (Air Raid Precautions Department) reports over 2,300 bombs were dropped amounting to over 470 tonnes of high explosives. Over 30,000 incendiary devices were dropped on the city. Nearly 45,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed, with most of the city’s High Street being hit. There were reports that the glow of the firestorm of Southampton burning could be seen from as far away as Cherbourg on the coast of France. Nazi publicity declared in propaganda that the city had been left a smoking ruin.
By far the worst were on 23 and 30 November and 1 December 1940 and these attacks are generally referred to as “Southampton’s Blitz”. During this three day period, much of the town centre was destroyed.

More than 3.5 million members of the Allied Forces including over two million United States Troops embarked from Southampton in 1944 - 45 for the Invasion of Occupied Europe.
http://h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/A80859054

illustration late 1880s

There have been settlements in the area of modern day Southampton since at least Roman times. After the Romans left the region, the Saxonsbuilt a sizeable town known as Hamtun. Despite being initially a successful settlement, it suffered badly at the hands of Viking raiders during the 9th and 10th centuries. The town was probably a victim of its own success; exporting wool and housing a Royal Mint at the time.

There is a tour of sorts here and you can follow what’s left of the old wall around the city. At one time I was informed, Southampton had more ancient walls and things still standing then any other city of it’s size.  I have no idea about now however. So much was lost in the war.

I mentioned earlier that I found us in a part of the city I had not seen before. WOW. It wasn’t spectacular in the sense of size or anything ornate. But the idea that any of this was still standing.  The next pix were taken between the black iron bars that made up a fence. Like this shot. 

And just around the corner I saw this.

I wanted to see what was on the other side of that and through that opening. And the only way to do that was walk down the ally and climb the fire escape on the building opposite. Now let tell ya that was a small trick because the railing was coming away from the wall and had movement. Yeah. It swayed and so I took it fairly slow, but got off these next shots.

Titanic departs Southampton on her first, and only, passenger-carrying voyage. She is pulled by a tug, belching black smoke.

Well, our trip’s at an end. Finally. Oh yeah. See that red square over there on the right?  The sign it surrounds was obscured so I thought you’d be happy to know it’s .... a Burger King.

Posted by peiper     on 01/10/2012 at 02:41 PM   
Filed Under: • Art-Photography • History • UK •  
• Comments (2) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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