The first Old Fart’s railcard adventure

In early May, an author friend, Terry Tyler, mentioned getting a third off the cost of her rail tickets using a special rail card for the over-sixties. Entering the seventh decade of life doesn’t have too many benefits, so I thought I’d investigate. After a quick discussion with Commando and a simple online process, I was the proud owner of a sparkly new Senior Railcard. Actually, it’s an app on your smartphone, not a physical card, although you can order one if you wish. Having shelled out the princely sum of £30 each, we thought we’d better get our money’s worth, so on 7 May, we took our Senior Railcards on a trial run.

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More Monks Brook at Valley Park Chandler’s Ford

At the end of June, Commando took me along for the ride when he went to a training event at Up and Running in Chandler’s Ford. Obviously, I wasn’t interested in learning about running shoes, but the nearby footpath leading to Valley Park and five (or six according to some sources) parcels of woodland did capture my attention, especially as Monks brook ran through them. So, I waved goodbye to Commando, then set off to find the footpath and make the most of the next hour or so.

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Following Monks Brook through Fleming Park

Fleming Park

Monks Brook has been a feature of my walks for many years. Regular readers of this blog will have followed me more than once as I walked beside it from Woodmill to Swaythling or Eastleigh. I have mentioned it in passing when I’ve been at running events in Eastleigh or crossed it, heading from Lakeside to Stoneham Lane. Originally, it was called Swaethling Well, swaethling, being an old English word meaning misty stream, and the modern area of Swaythling took its name from the brook. In the fourteenth century, the water upstream of Swaythling was renamed Monks Brook after the monks of Hyde Abbey near Winchester. The stretch between Swaythling and Woodmill was still known as the Swaethling Well. This is the part of the brook I know best, but I have long wanted to explore more of this seven-mile stretch of water. On 28 September, when Commando said he was going for a run at Fleming Park, I grasped at the chance to follow the course of the brook further upstream. How far I’d be able to get remained to be seen.

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The little details

The view from the huts at Netley

When writing historic fiction, the little details are the things that bring the story to life. At the beginning of the pandemic I was writing Plagued and I was totally immersed in the world as it was in 1918. I’d read several books of soldiers personal accounts of their time in the trenches, books written by a nurse on the Western Front, details of the chain of evacuation, information about Netley Hospital and about the Spanish Flu. The photographs I found helped me get the feel for what it would have been like, both in France and in England, but it was the little details about the era that made all the difference.

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They think it’s all over . . .

Mark & Nicole’s wedding

In March 2020, when it became clear that COVID 19 was going to change our lives, I remember wishing that I had a magic wand and could fast forward until it was all over. By November 2021, life really did feel as if it was getting back to normal. I’d had a much needed haircut, although I’d opted to keep it longer just in case things went pear shaped again. Parkrun was back. Races were back. Mark and Nicole had finally managed to get married. We’d even been away for the weekend to Witney and visited a museum. The real feeling that it might be all over, though, came with two long put off appointments.

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Where have all the pubs gone?

The Engineers Arms Northam

In the first half of the twentieth century, the pub had an important role in working class men’s lives. It was a place they could escape to at the end of a hard day’s work and somewhere they could gather with their friends. One of the things I noticed when I was researching Plagued and Land Fit For Heroes, was how many pubs there were in working class areas back then. Almost every street corner had one. Looking for a pub where my characters could go for a chat and a pint, I was spoilt for choice. In Plagued, I picked the Prince Consort in Netley and the Junction Inn in St Denys for Thomas, Joe and Bert to meet, The Cowherds, the Engineers Arms and the Park Inn were also mentioned. The Park Inn is now a lap dancing club and The Engineers Arms is derelict, but the other two pubs are still open. The same cannot be said for many of those street corner pubs. So where have they gone?

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Bears, bunnies, bikes and omens

After the success of my walk to the Common, on 26 April, I decided to have another crack at walking along the river. This time, I thought I’d tackle it from a different angle. Rather than trying to get through the crowds at Riverside Park, I decided to start with an uphill walk and then stroll down Cutbush Lane to Mansbridge. Logic told me that this side of the park was likely to be less crowed. The area around Mansbridge is far less populated than Bitterne Park after all.

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Common people and forgotten dead

My next foray into the world of longer walks came on 24 April 2020 with a walk to The Common. Before I left home I had an idea actually walking on the Common was going to be even more of a nightmare than Riverside Park but I figured the walk there and back would take care of my daily exercise and anything else was a bonus. Besides, I wanted to see the new gates I’d heard about. After a long, slow, uneventful, uphill slog, on a very hot day, I made it to the gates. My first observation was that they were very turquoise, an incongruous colour for a park to my mind, even though I’d have liked it anywhere else. Then I spotted the yellow note pinned to them. For a second I thought the powers that be might actually have closed The Common, although how they’d ever police such a thing was a mystery. Then I got closer and discovered it was just a message about social distancing.

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A reconnaissance mission

23 August 2019

Plotting routes for long training walks isn’t always easy, especially if you want to keep things interesting. An out and back route is the easiest but it means covering the same ground twice and I much prefer a circular walk. After a lot of messing about with maps I thought I had a fairly interesting eighteen mile route planned but there was one fly in the ointment. Avoiding walking along Wide Lane twice meant taking the trail across Monks Brook Meadows and, with all the building work going on there, I wasn’t sure if we’d be able to get through. Luckily, Commando had a session at the Running School this afternoon so I thought I’d check out the footpath while he was being tortured.

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Happy Birthday Southampton Parkrun

6 July 2019

This Saturday was Southampton Parkrun’s seventh birthday. As there was a music event going on on the flats where parkrun usually starts and finishes, the run was moved to the alternative course, beginning and ending close to the Cowherd’s Pub. Of course, this meant a bit of a longer walk for us to the start but, as that also meant more steps in the bag for me, I wasn’t complaining.

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