Category: March 2015

Winchester, an exercise in not getting lost

Right, which way now?
Right, which way now?

3 March 2015

It started with a bus. The bus was late due to the roadworks on the bridge. It crawled along but it got me there in the end. Then there was a train. The train was delayed due to signalling problems at Woking. It arrived at the wrong platform, necessitating a mad dash up the stairs and down the stairs but I got there in the end. Good job I’m intimately acquainted with Southampton Central station so I knew where to go. I’m pretty sure a few people missed it. At least I’d had time to grab a coffee from the station cafe beforehand. Continue reading Winchester, an exercise in not getting lost

The rise and fall of Southampton castle

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1 March 2015

Interesting as my exploration of Clausentum may have been, there really wasn’t all that much walking involved. On such a bright day it seemed a shame to go home so soon so I carried on walking with no real plan. My feet led me over the Big Bridge. On the other side the desolate park was looking anything but desolate as I passed,  brightened by a large cornelian cherry beside the railings, vibrant with an overload of tiny blooms that I’d taken for leaf buds from a distance. Either way it is a sign that spring is in the air. It felt like a day for history so, on a whim, I decided I’d go from a Manor House I couldn’t really see to a castle that isn’t really there. It seemed like a plan.

Continue reading The rise and fall of Southampton castle

Clausentum, the beginnings of a city

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1 March 2015

Before the medieval town of Southampton was even thought of, or the villages of Hawick and Hamtun that came before it, there was a Stone Age settlement on a wooded bend of the banks of the River Itchen about three miles from Southampton Water. In AD 43, the Romans invaded Britain and, around thirty years later, built the fortress settlement of Clausentum on the spot.  The sharp bend in the river enclosing a promontory of land made it easy to defend the site with just a wall and two ditches and inside this enclosure wooden huts and wharves were built. On Sunday morning, I thought I’d explore what little remains of Clausentum, I didn’t have far to walk because my village grew up around it. Continue reading Clausentum, the beginnings of a city