Tuesday, 14 April 2009

Barge boards

I`ve become interested in the fancy barge boards you sometimes see on old houses. It makes a huge improvement to the look of a house if the builder made the effort to source a different design as an embelishment.
Sydney Road, Haywards Heath

Sydney Road, Haywards Heath

Polegate

Brighton

Old school near Saffrons



Wednesday, 8 April 2009

Ornate plaster work

This house is in Dyke Road, Brighton, and has this amazing plaster work on the front.

Folkington by moonlight

I took these photos at about 21:30hrs with a full moon out...



Monday, 6 April 2009

Offham chalk pit tramway

This huge chalk pit needed a way of getting the chalk from the pit to the lime kilns to process it. The road, using horse and cart, could not carry enough and so an incline railway was built to take the chalk down to the boats and a wharf made alongside a brand new cut which led to the river Ouse.

This old map shows the cut and the tramway

This is the most detail I could get

Looking towards the pit with the cut in the foreground

You can see the huge brick bulkhead that held the tunnels of the incline railway

The tunnel entrances, dated as 1805

Looking up the tunnel, the loaded wagon would pull the empty one up
The wharf was to my right and the cut led to the river

Hamsey toll lock

Hamsey toll lock was the first lock on the Ouse Navigation and the men in charge of the barges would pay the toll here as there was a toll house present. In 1926 Harold Cannings was living in the cottage and told of the horrendous floods that occured there.

This is a view looking north to where the Navigation started. The river curves away to the right and the cut (Mighells cut) runs to the left of the pylon.

Looking south you can clearly see where the lock was, no trace remains.

This bridge at Hamsey is over 200 years old as the cut was completed around 1790

Sunday, 5 April 2009

Mosque madness

They really think it makes a difference!!! How worrying is that?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7984556.stm

Easter bonnets for the olds

Ruth and Judy went to the home where Ruths Gran is and helped make them some bonnets!

Saturday, 4 April 2009

Victorian Post Box at Milton Street

The Victorian post boxes were the very first ones and date from 1901. There is a good example of one in the front wall of a lovely solid-looking house at Milton Street.