Hampshire Industrial Archaeology Society
FOCUS on Industrial Archaeology No. 76,
June, 2011
Aeronautica scheme gathers pace
Friends of King Alfred Buses
Providing Access to Hampshire’s
Heritage
More Transport Trust ‘Red Wheel’
unveilings in Hampshire
Heritage Lottery Fund grants
Meetings Reports 2010/11
South East Region Industrial
Archaeology Annual Conference,
See SERIAC 2011 page
Reports
Twyford Waterworks Trust
Toothill Brickworks walk
Hampshire Mills Group
walk around Alton
Maritime
Miscellanea
Book Review
Tail-enders
Aeronautica
scheme gathers pace
Angela Smith
There have been a number
of connected events over the past five months dealing with various aspects of
Following the arrival of the Calshot Spit Light Vessel in early November, the next arrival on the site in February was a workshop built on the old linkspan site by Berth 49, on the opposite side of the dry dock’s caisson from Berth 50. The building was mainly paid for by a grant from Southampton City Council to house the three trams which have been taking up valuable space in their heritage collections stores for nearly eight years. It could be said to resemble an oversized nissen hut, built of shiny (at the moment, until the gulls target it) corrugated steel, which happily matches the Ocean Terminal alongside.
A security fence was already in place and this has been extended by large hoardings to also enclose the adjacent lightship. The workshop is being fitted out with cables and sockets to the specification of the users – Tram 57 Project and the Dunkirk Little Ships Restoration Trust – who will be paying for the installation. The concrete surface, being a dockside structure, is giving a slight cause for concern as it is a little rough and starting to break up in some areas. It was also laid down as large slabs over a void and there are gaps plus drainage holes so, as we don’t want to be dropping too many nails and screws down into the water, these will have to be dealt with in the not too distant future.
The next big event did
not concern the docks site, but was the official fundraising launch of the
Spitfire Tribute, which is to be sited at Berth 50. Last year a national
competition was held to design a suitable memorial to the Southampton-designed
and built aircraft, which was won by an Australian, Nick Hancock. On March 5th –
the 75th anniversary of the Spitfire’s maiden flight –
the launch ceremony was held at Solent Sky but, prior to that, Nick was a
passenger in a two-seater Spitfire, which is owned and piloted by Carolyn
Grace, as it flew around
The Tug Tender Calshot has been at 42 berth for 13 years and, on April 5th, it was its turn to be moved to Berth 50. After many days of summer-like weather, this Tuesday reverted to winter – showery, cold and blowing a gale. The windsock at Berth 48, which was my viewpoint, was horizontal. Calshot was eventually towed off by vessels from Williams Shipping and, with fireboat Switzer Sussex giving a watery salute (and, I understand, showering everyone on Calshot!), was moved to Berth 50. Since then the Calshot’s small team of volunteers has been busy trying to tidy up the site around the pumphouse and on the quayside which had been left something of a junkyard by the various previous users of the site. Contrary to television and newspaper claims that this was Calshot’s ‘final voyage’, the diesel engine is in good working order and, if an HLF grant can be obtained for necessary restoration work, she will be taking to the seas again in some capacity.
Meanwhile, a few people
from Dunkirk Little Ships and the tram project were starting to prepare the
workshop. A ‘master plan’ had been worked out as to where three trams and one
boat could be positioned. We were blessed with sunny, warm and slightly breezy
conditions for the arrival on May 6th of the Dunkirk Little Ship Dorian from
In the absence of
Councillor John Hannides, who was unable to attend at the last minute, an
opening ceremony of the workshop by ‘cutting the tape’ was performed by Dunkirk
veteran Lionel Tucker, along with the main users – Alan Jones and John
Clark from Solent Sky,
Dorian was
built at
Friends of King Alfred Buses
(From Press Release by Peter Murnaghan of FoKAB, as
published in ‘Hampshire Chronicle’ of
The Friends of King
Alfred Buses has moved into a new workshop for its collection of 14 local buses
and will allow the volunteers to carry on preserving and restoring the fleet of
old buses. The future had been uncertain after FoKAB moved from its base of
nine years at the bus station at Friarsgate which is set to be redeveloped in
the Silver Hill Renaissance. The New Chesil Workshop in the Bar End area will
now take over as the maintenance base for the volunteer enthusiasts.
Peter Murnaghan, chairman
of FoKAB, said that finding the new building was a great relief. He said: “We
were facing the real possibility that the charity’s successful New Year’s
Running Day might have been jeopardised if we had not been able to secure a
suitable building in which to maintain our fleet of buses to a high standard.
Without these facilities, we would have been unable to tackle the major
engineering work involved in rebuilding elderly buses and maintaining them all
for active service.
“We have been really
grateful to Stagecoach for their support and help over the last nine years,
while we have occupied the old bus garage. It has allowed us to achieve a great
deal of progress in restoring our historic fleet and this work can now continue
at the New Chesil Workshop.”
The reference to Chesil
harks back to the premises occupied by King Alfred Motor Services when the
company was operated by the Chisnell family between 1920 and 1973. Its three
bases were all in
The annual Winchester Bus
Running Day at New Year attracts over 20,000 passenger trips and is supported
by over 70 active volunteers from within FoKAB’s membership, plus the bus crews
of around thirty visiting heritage buses and coaches. In addition, FoKAB
provides transport for community and charity events. Such journeys are all
provided by volunteers at no charge to the users. However, because FoKAB is not
a commercial operator, it is unable to hire out its buses to members of the
public.
New Friends of King Alfred Buses DVD – ‘Long Live the King’, featuring running days from
2009, 2010 and 2011, restoration and preservation, and Sparsholt Countryside
Diary. £12 + £1 p&p from Keith Andrews at 13 Ashley Close,
The 2012 Running Day is Sunday January 1st, so put it
in your diary NOW!
PATHH
No, not a mis-spelling.
PATHH stands for Providing Access to Hampshire‘s Heritage. PATHH’s origins lie in the
CROW (Countryside and Rights of Way) Act passed in 2000. Within the act is a
cut-off-date for recording historic rights of way; after 2026 it will no longer
be possible to re-dedicate a right of way created before 1949 using historical
evidence. Until this act it has been possible to have a right of way dedicated
and an alteration made to the definitive map by demonstrating that the route
was once a public highway. Rights of way never legally expire unless an
official extinguishment is made and so, if it can be proven that a route was
once open to the public, it may be possible to re-dedicate the route as a
public right of way.
In 2004 a new nationwide
drive to identify historic routes before the cut-off date began –
the ‘
The success of the
project led HCAF to seek further funding to expand the project around the
county. The new project is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and is being
managed by the Hampshire and Wight Trust for Maritime Archaeology with support
from Hampshire County Council and the New Forest Access Forum. There was an
appeal for volunteers in the winter edition of the county council’s ‘Hampshire
Now’ magazine, for people interested in maps, and all vacancies were filled,
although there may be opportunities at a later date. These volunteers are using
a selection of historic maps held at the Hampshire Record Office –
Tithe maps, Inclosure maps, Ordnance Survey maps and Highway Handover maps.
Making an amendment to
the definitive map is a lengthy process and the project is not designed to
circumvent the legal requirements to make such a change –
only provide a possible starting point.
Heritage Lottery Fund grants
Five major HLF awards
amounting to £11m were announced on May 30th. These are the Grade II* listed
Wentworth Castle conservatory in Barnsley, South Yorkshire (£2.4m) –
one of the last surviving winter gardens in the country, Grade I listed
Wakefield Cathedral (£1.58m), Penarth Pier Pavilion in the Vale of Glamorgan
(£2.4m) for restoration of the building, Grade II listed Middlesbrough
Transporter Bridge (£2.6m) for new lifts and a gondola to allow the public to
see the view from the top and – in our patch – HMS Alliance at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum in
Gosport. HMS Alliance is the last surviving WW2 A-class submarine and will
receive £3.4m to repair its bow and stern and deal with extensive corrosion on
its surface: the funding will also provide new facilities for visitors to the
museum.
On May 17th, Stage One
grants towards five major HLF awards which will amount to more than £52m were
announced from a short list of twelve. Among the unsuccessful applicants were
the East Lancashire Railway, Ditherington Flax Mill and Maltings in
Each of the five selected
now has two years to submit fully developed proposals for a firm award. The
Hastings Pier and White Rock Trust in
Hoxton Hall, a music hall
in Hackney dating from 1863 and Grade II listed, has been given more than
£200,000 by the HLF and invited to apply for a further £2m at a later date. The
hall said it needs the money to continue working as a theatre and community
space, and also hopes to widen research into the history of the building and
surrounding area. However, the dilapidated
More Transport Trust ‘Red Wheel’
unveilings in Hampshire
Angela Smith
Following on from the Red
Wheel plaque unveilings at Hythe Pier and Calshot last July, covered in the
December edition of Focus, Hampshire
has once again been honoured with two more plaques denoting sites of
significant transport heritage. Unlike the day in July which was cold, windy
and showery, April 19th was sunny and warm – though with a chill
wind at the second site.
Transport Trust members
assembled at Bucklers Hard during the morning for an unveiling at
Bucklers Hard was the
29th Red Wheel to be unveiled, so number 30 was the Mulberry Harbour and PLUTO
remains at Lepe Beach, where the ceremony was carried out by Dr Lewis and Gilly
Drummond from the Cadland Estate. After cake and tea in the café, everyone
began wending their way homewards.
Speaking to Stuart
Wilkinson, we learned that a potential Red Wheel for Micheldever Station was
being blocked by South West Trains because the award was not for the station
but because records showed that the very first motor car to be tested in this
country had been brought over from
Reports
Twyford Waterworks Trust
Ian Harden
The HLF Project is
progressing well, including receipt of an estimate for the restoration and
return to steam of the ‘metal’ parts of the boiler and submission of the
planning application for the toilets and workshop. With the realisation that
more time was required to complete the Trust’s submission to HLF, a decision
has been taken to delay this from June to August. Southern Water has announced
its support for the Education and Interpretation project both financially and
by making their educational materials available to the Trust, representing a
major boost.
The New Year Open Day to
coincide with the FoKAB Running Day in
Further assessment of the
Archives is underway including the scanning of the many transparencies that
tell the story of the Works. A valuable donation of slides taken when the
engine was still in steam commercially has also been received.
Volunteer work on Sundays
and Tuesday evenings has continued over the winter and spring. In the Engine
House, a preliminary examination of a Corliss valve on the engine and the
results from that, together with a discussion with our counterparts at
The Engine House itself
has been tidied ready to receive visitors and the handrails repainted and
lacquered to improve the overall appearance of the room, while the Boiler House
has been prepared for inspection by various bodies, the much reduced amount of
scaffolding proving a great enhancement.
In the Diesel and
Transfer Houses, both
Outside, a timber
framework dubbed ‘Amport House’ is under construction around the Amport pump
and cladding will be added during the summer for protection from the elements.
Nearby, many stored items in the Quarry have been repositioned to create more
display space on open days.
A number of these jobs
were undertaken during the appropriately named “MAD” (Make a Difference)
Weekend in early April. During this popular event, rotten fence posts were
replaced on the Nature Trail, the lime storage doors not painted last year were
scraped, sanded and primed, and many of the picnic benches treated with
preservative. The unseasonably good weather at this time was much appreciated
for this task. Elsewhere, parts of the Ron Mapp Room have been repainted and
the chairs refurbished. The Toilets have also been redecorated.
May Day 2011 marked the
start of the year’s open day season and good weather encouraged another good
attendance and proceeds to match. The remainder of this season’s programme
follows the popular themes of recent years and events are planned for the first
Sunday of each month.
Twyford
Waterworks Special Events
July 3rd: Miniature Steam & Models Day; August
7th: Rural Crafts Open Day; September
4th: Fire Engines and Vintage Vehicles;
October 2nd: Autumn Rally –
free bus service to and from
Admission £4 (under 16s
free).
Additionally, on August
14th, 21st and 28th, there are Guided Tour Days. Each tour will last approx
1 to 1½ hours around the
whole site. Tours start every 30 mins from
Toothill Brickworks Walk
Carol Burdekin
On Saturday 7th May,
fourteen of us met
It was an enjoyable
afternoon and, luckily, despite heavy rain in the morning after weeks of dry
conditions, the afternoon was fine and warm. It is hoped we will do something
again next Spring with Jon and a walk along part of the course of the Redbridge
to
Hampshire Mills Group walk around Alton, Saturday March 19th
Angela Smith
Organising a walk in
mid-March might have seemed a trifle foolhardy, but HMG members were blessed
with a sunny day after a frosty start for their quarterly meeting in The French Horn at
Alton has some amazingly ancient buildings still to be
seen once you get away from the main High Street. Although old mill sites took
priority (alas, none survive in the centre), other buildings of interest were
pointed out. The photo shows the group in front of the former Fielders Brewery
which went bankrupt in 1847, later taken over as Hetherington’s Foundry and is
now the Alton Community Centre. Hetherington’s had large hot floors and
produced a large range of goods from kitchen ranges, building tie plates –
which can still be seen around the town – wagon parts and more (many thanks to Barry Duke and
Jane Hurst for this information – your scribe failed to make a note of this during the
walk). The enormous King’s Pond to the south of the railway station was formed
by the damming of the River Wey in the late 1700s by papermaker William King.
Apartment blocks now stand on the mill site. The walk ended at the
HMG Mills Book – new
edition
Some members of the
Hampshire Mills Group have been very busy surveying mill sites in the county to
produce an updated version of the Mills Guide which was published by Southampton
University Industrial Archaeology Group way back in 1978. The new book will be
in separate volumes covering certain rivers, and Volume 1, which is about to go
to the printer, covers the Central area including mills on the Rivers Itchen,
Hamble and Meon, as well as tide and spring fed mills. The information has been
collated into book form by HMG’s webmaster,
Maritime
Angela Smith
SS Shieldhall 2011 Excursion Programme cancelled
During its dry-docking in
Falmouth during May, corrosion in a few of the ribs and pitting in some plates
underneath Shieldhall's engine room, found while work was being carried out
there, has meant its passenger certificate cannot be renewed until this has
been rectified. So it looks like the whole of the 2011 programme will have to
be cancelled as the work is estimated to cost well into six figures. With loans
still to be paid back for some of the £80,000 for the dry-docking, it is
unlikely that such a large amount can be raised for remedial work in time to
sail before the end of the season, although the management team have not
totally ruled out being able to undertake the August and September sailings.
Shieldhall left
Although the threat of
‘going for scrap’ was bandied about by the press, Shieldhall is a member of the
Southampton Heritage Federation and will ultimately be part of the Maritime
Group’s plan in the Trafalgar Dry Dock/Berth 50 ‘Aeronautica’ scheme in
Southampton Docks whether it is operating or not.
Visit the website at www.ss-shieldhall.co.uk to check up-to-date information.
HMS Warrior
has gained its museum accreditation from the Museums, Libraries and Archives
Council (MLA). The award comes ahead of celebrations to mark 150 years since
the ship was launched. HMS Warrior is the third attraction at Portsmouth
Historic Dockyard to receive Museum Accreditation after the
Queen Elizabeth II – no real news on the ship’s future from Dubai, but an
‘enthusiast’ was invited on board a couple of months ago to look around and
take video, some of which was on BBC’s South
Today. It showed a small permanent workforce maintaining the vessel and the
visitor said that she was in pretty good shape.
City of
The Irvine Herald of
The Cunard
The Titanic exhibition at
Miscellanea
Hockley Viaduct
Hampshire County Council
and Winchester City Council have backed the plan by campaigners to ensure a
scheme to convert the viaduct into a cycle route. WCC has talked to Sustrans.
The conversion is likely to take several years. Julia Sandison of The Friends
of Hockley Viaduct said that the Council announced in 2007 a 12-year, £500,000
programme to repair and restore the viaduct but to date nothing has been done.
The ‘Friends’ have completed vegetation clearance along the structure and
recently the county council cleared all the vegetation along the trackbed. Both
councils are involved as HCC owns the land and WCC owns the structure. If the
plan to turn it into a cycle path goes ahead, the route would stretch for two
miles from Hockley Link into central
Cemetery gates reinstalled
The 166-year-old entrance
gates to
Bursledon Brickworks receives award
In April Bursledon
Brickworks received a prestigious award from the Institution of Mechanical
Engineers. These awards recognise British feats of engineering that have
changed the way we live. The Hampshire Buildings Preservation Trust runs the
brickworks, which is open on Thursdays and monthly open days. The site has the
only steam-driven Victorian brickworks in the country and can trace its roots
back to 1897 when it was founded by the Ashby family, who previously had been
based at Chandlers Ford until the clay deposits were exhausted. SUIAG members
had visited the Bursledon site shortly after it closed, your editor being one
of those exploring the abandoned buildings. As a matter of interest, Eling Tide
Mill also has one of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers plaques on
display.
Special Events: July 17 -
Victorian Family Fun Day; August 21 -
Railway Extravaganza: Hampshire Narrow
Gauge Railway Trust‘s 50th Anniversary; September 8 to 11 - Heritage Open Days; September 18 - Naughty Forties and Thrifty Fifties;
October 23 – Hallowe’en Special and
Autumn Steam Festival; November 20 - Christmas
at the Brickworks. (Admission:
Adults £5, Concessions £4)
Bursledon Brickworks,
Book Review
Racing Ace - the fights and flights of Samuel ‘Kink’
Kinkead
by Dr Julian Lewis, MP
Published by Pen &
Sword Books, £25. 288 pages.
Dr Julian Lewis has
carried out a comprehensive study of Samuel Kinkead, DSO DSC DFC, who was a
member of the team which won the Schneider Trophy for
Tail-enders
A Hythe 'Treasure Trail' pack (that's the Hampshire Hythe, not the one in
Hampshire Record Office in
A rare five guinea
The Hampshire & Wight Trust for Maritime
Archaeology is one of the winners of
the prestigious 2011 European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage. The awards
were being presented in June during a Europa Nostra Awards ceremony in
Crux
Longbridge Mill milling dates:
Hockley Mill
will be open
Plans for Eling Tide Mill: Totton & Eling Town Council is putting together
an HLF application to replace the second waterwheel at Eling Tide Mill with one
which can produce electricity to sell to the National Grid. The wheel would be
able to operate for up to 10 hours, depending on the tides, and in a year could
produce 55,000kw. It has been estimated that the project could cost £1m.