Photograph

St Leonards Church, Bursledon, Hampshire

Today 13.09.17, in the South of France, it was another beautiful hot day.  We went along the coast to Nice and Monaco, visited a few places on the coast and then popped over to Italy, and then made our way up into the French Alps.  Found a lovely Alpine Town with a wonderful church, which I will post about when the laptop is better.  So, as I can’t post about the lovely churches I have visited in France, I found an English one that I can.

St Leonards Church is in Bursledon, a village in Hampshire, on the south coast of England.  We were visiting Hampshire back in July and on the way home stopped for something to eat in Bursledon, when I noticed the church.  It was about 7.00 pm, so I knew it would be locked, but it’s such a pretty church I took photos anyway, as goodness knows when we will be passing again.  

A little history…..

The church in Bursledon can trace its history back to the last half of the twelfth century.

All churches can be given a ‘date’ by the styles of architecture they contain: St. Leonard’s has features that seem to confirm that it was indeed founded in the later twelfth century. The simple elegance of the Chancel Arch, dividing the nave from the raised area at the east end of the church, is of early English style and can be dated to 1190-1300. The font is perhaps earlier and, although unfinished and retooled in places, it is of transitional style dateable to 1160-1190.

The blocked doorways in the nave, presumably once the main access points for monks and congregation before the Victorian extension, date to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The small lancet window in the chancel, although restored in 1888-9 is of a thirteenth-century design.

In the 1830′s St. Leonard’s had two transepts added, making a cross-shaped church in plan. However, these proved unsatisfactory and in 1888-9 the church was extensively re-modelled. There is a brass plaque in the nave detailing the work that the architect, John Sedding, carried out. It seems that Sedding kept what was best about the old church and sensitively extended the nave and replaced the transepts, to accommodate the growing population of Bursledon.

 

 

 

Re-Visit Twin Lighthouses, Sutton Bridge, Lincolnshire

Today 12.09.17, in the South of France it was lovely and hot, we visited some beautiful churches, hill top towns and villages, also a picnic on the beach…….plus a few French Lighthouses.  Still cannot upload any photos, so I found some of a re-visit to the twin lighthouses at Sutton Bridge, Lincolnshire, I wanted to see if  ‘The Sir Peter Scott Lighthouse’ was open, but I think we were too late.  Still I got some better photos of both lighthouses for my collection.  

Tomorrow we are visiting Monaco, should be interesting, as husband wants to drive around the roads, as if driving in the Grand Prix, well he has to have some reward for my churches 🙂 Then we might go into Italy and do a circuit up into the mountains, and then back to Grasse where we are staying.

West Lighthouse.

Sir Peter Scott Lighthouse, East Lighthouse.

In this view, you can just see the top of the West Lighthouse.

Evening Light At Wells-next-to-Sea, North Norfolk

A few weeks ago, late August 2017, we visited Wells-next-the-Sea on the North Norfolk coast.  I had a  practise at taking some more evening photos.  I was hoping to take some evening photos of Cannes on the French Riviera tonight, but the traffic was horrendous, so we gave up trying to get along the coast.  This morning we had a wonderful day driving through the French Alps and saw some amazing rock formations, which I will post later, but my laptop is still not letting me down load any new photos.  So while we are away, it will be old photos only 🙂  I must say their wifi in Grasse, where we are staying, is so fast, amazingly so.  Anyway hopefully tomorrow  I will get to photograph some more old churches to go with the few that I have visited so far. 

 

Margate Lighthouse, Kent

I bought a lighthouse book the other day ‘Lighthouses of England -The South East’, and while reading through it, I recognised a lighthouse.  At the end of October 2015 we went to visit our daughter and her family in Kent……looking back now, the weather was amazing for the end of October.  Anyway we had gone to do Halloween with our youngest grandson and he wanted to go to the beach, like they all do at 6.5 years old.  So we arrived  at Margate, a seaside town and the place was packed, there was some kind of bike race on.  I know nothing about this sport, but I took loads of photos because I liked the way the bikes moved on the sand.  I’m glad I did, because I got the lighthouse in a few of them.

A little history……Margate’s first lighthouse was built in 1828 to mark the town’s newly built breakwater. The original lighthouse was a round Doric column.  It had a square gallery and cylindrical lantern, but this tower became a victim of the Great Storm of 1953.   Strong seas pushed the old tower over, leaving it leaning at a precarious angle for several hours, prior to it collapsing, along with a large section at the end of the pier.  In 1955, the current octagonal concrete tower was built, topped by a copper lantern housing a fixed red LED light.

 

Fishguard North Breakwater Lighthouse, Wales

The lighthouse that I had noticed on our way to Strumble Lighthouse, in Wales, September 2017, was in Fishguard Harbour which opened in 1906. The new development included a stone breakwater, extending from Pen Cw at the north end of the quay into Fishguard Bay. This breakwater was later lengthened to about 850m and a octagonal brick lighthouse, lower part black and upper part white, was constructed on the eastern end.  The light is operational and flashes green, every 4.5 seconds.