The Clocks of Waterlooville

This post has been inspired by a comment left by Steve in an earlier post. Here I have taken a series of photos of Waterlooville town centre from a location just outside Lloyds TSB bank. I have added arrows to indicate where a total of 3 clocks can be seen. Waterlooville now has 3 fully function clocks all of which have 4 clock faces. Click on the image if you want to view a bigger version of the mash up:

So why the fuss?
Well lets have a look at the clocks. On the left we have the Clock House Building with a working clock visible from quite a distance up and down the streets. It dates back to at least the 1970s, probably earlier (50s or 60s?).

Then in the centre of the image we have St Georges church tower with a clock at the top. This is viewable from the centre and down in the direction of Denmead and Hambledon Road. The current St Georges church was rebuilt in 1970.

So that leaves the clock on the right of the image. We have established that we already had two clocks that have been available for decades, so what about the little tower on the right?
Well in the noughties (about 2005) Havant Borough Council decided we needed another clock in close proximity of two existing clocks (all are within 50 to 200 yards of each other) and as you can see, from Lloyds TSB they can all be seen at the same time.

Yes, in this day and age when political parties encourage us to be independent and fuel consumerism to create economic growth, the days when everyone on the street has a watch, mobile phone or can even ask someone for the time. Yes in these days, our local government approved a new public clock, with all the accompanying expenses.

BTW spot the man with the shopping trolley who appears 3 times in the image. I think he is capable of doing quantum jumps and can appear in many places at the same time!

Work on St Judes Southsea

I think I have broken my record for the number of posts in one month.
Some interesting changes are being made to St Judes in Southsea, A mixture of old and New...

I like this feature. In the new wall just outside the new entrance is a stone seat, for weary worshippers or shoppers to rest their feet:

A modern buttress, that merges the new on the right, with the old on the left:

One of the old buttresses:

I don't think this is actually a new feature, modern yes, but not a part of the new build. Here we have an original gargoyle from the old drainage system replaced with modern guttering. It looks like some water is still getting to the gargoyle, I think it is supposed to be blocked off.

Southsea then and now

Whilst visiting Southsea, I realised I had a photo of the sea wall near the war memorial and aquarium in my collection, so decided to take a similar photo today. This one was taken in the early 1980s or maybe the 1970s, the tide was out and there is no sign of the Spinnaker tower:

Today the tide was high at Noon. The Spinnaker tower is hiding behind the war memorial:

I'll try and get a better photo in future, try and match the exact spot I was standing in the 80s/70s.
The focal length probably also needs to be different.

Love Your Bike Day, Portsmouth 2010

Just got back from the Love Your Bike Day at the Southsea skate park. Here are a lot of photos of the event.

Someone relaxing on their recliner:

The Gocycle electric bike, but unfortunately the company didn't show up with some batteries and other units, I would have liked to have a go:

A custom chopper:

A customised paint job on this childs wooden bike, I think local schools had a go at painting these:

A bamboo bike. This is imported, the frame is made out of bamboo:

Close ups of the bamboo frame:

Actually this trike wasn't being exhibited, it was someone's everyday bike, I liked it because of the child's seat facing backwards at the rear:

Some action shots in the park:

And finally a bike harp. Yep it has strings on the frame with pick-ups that feed into an amp:

Looking for buses from Waterlooville?

I seem to get a lot of visits from people trying to find info and timetables about buses. Oh the wonders of Google Analytics!

So here is some basic information about the local buses. There are two bus companies that operate most of the routes. Generally First operate most of the routes into Portsmouth, whilst Stagecoach operate routes that don't go into Portsmouth. There is of course overlap between the companies and routes.

All the info you need about the timetables and routes can be found on the bus companies web sites:

Stagecoach South

First Bus Hampshire

Also I have these links permanently in my 'Other Links' menu.

Apart from that general info, bus users might also be interested to know that another new bus service will be starting later this year (i forget when). The X43 will operate between Clanfield, Waterlooville, QA Hospital and Portsmouth. Probably using the motorway into Portsmouth like the other 'X' routes.

Monckton gets a pasting

I came across this presentation by Prof John Abraham this week (via Climate Shifts) and was very impressed by the thoroughness of the research. Christopher Monckton has been doing presentations himself, touring the planet and addressing the US government. Monckton also recently joined UKIP.

Anyway, I strongly recommend watching and listening to Johns presentation, it takes a while to get started, but it is astonishing how many errors John finds in the various slides Monckton uses. When you think of the small and minor errors found in mainstream climate science, it is astonishing to think that Monckton has the courage to even show his face, let alone make any presentation to an audience.

The presentation uses Adobe Presenter, which I believe is based on Flash and should work in most browsers.

John Abraham Presentation

Waterlooville photos

I have been doing this blog for a while now and have focused on stuff that interests me, which inevitably means most posts have an environmental bias. The other thing is that I get a few people visiting the blog from outside the area, including foreign locations.

So I thought I would show some photos of locations around Waterlooville that are sort of connected to the history.

First of all, we have two pubs, The Heroes and The Wellington, that are linked to the Battle of Waterloo (by name) and the soldiers that camped in the area on their way back from the battle.
The Wellington:

The Heroes (i think the sign has a picture of heavy cavalry of the period)
Actually, isn't the foot soldier French?? I'll have to have a closer look in future!
(Added: having looked at some uniforms, the soldier on foot by the horse is closest to the uniform of the Kings German Legion):

As well as the two pubs, a few years ago the local government spent some money re-paving the town centre and created a bus only route through the centre. When they did this they got some artists to create plaques that are embedded in the floor, including this one that commemorates the Waterloo heroes (the text says "The infantry from the Battle of Waterloo camped here on the way back to barracks in 1815"):

Another plaque celebrates the ancient forest of Bere. Which of course is almost non-existent now (well you knew the environment would creep in some where didn't you!). Actually it does still exist as remnants in Jubilee Park, Park Wood and The Queens Enclosure, all of which are within walking distance from the town centre:

The plaques are located along some mock tram tracks that the same artists thought were a good idea. Trams once travelled along tracks from Portsmouth up to Waterlooville and on to Horndean. The mock tracks look nice, but I think I would prefer to see some real trams:

Then there are the new obelisks. Oh dear, does anyone really like them?
On each face they have a picture that is supposed to be linked to Waterlooville, some make sense, others are a bit tenuous: