ABC Wednesday O is for Over the Edge of England

On the 2nd October 2010 we finally flew on Flybe from Manchester to Jersey.

We should have gone in April but our flight was cancelled at the last minute due to the volcanic ash cloud. The airline refunded us less a booking and credit card fee of £12, but our travel insurance failed to pay up for the cancelled holiday.

However the Maison des Landes Hotel moved our booking to October.

I took these two photographs through the plane window. We are somewhere over the South coast of England, possibly near the Isle of Wight.

I'm still working my way through the almost 300 photographs I took that week and will present the best fifty or so on my website in due course.

Meanwhile one taster can be found on my sithenah photoblog.

For more O posts visit ABC Wednesday.

Weekend Reflections:Waiting in St Helier

Another photograph from our recent visit to Jersey.

Here reflected in the windows of Top Shop are the buses from Maison des Landes waiting to return us to the hotel after some afternoon shopping in St Helier.

For more weekend reflections visit Newtown Area Photo.

ABC Wednesday N is for Noirmont Point

The headland known as Noirmont Point was acquired by the States of Jersey on behalf of the public in commeration of those men and women of Jersey who perished in the Second World War 1939-1945.

Noirmont Tower (also known as La Tour de Vinde) was built on an offshore rocky outcrop below the point in 1811.

West is Portelet Bay in the middle of which stands Janvrin Tower. It was built as a defense against French attack during the 1800s, but it stands above the tomb of a sailor called Philip Janvrin. On returning to the island from a trip to Nantes in the year 1721, Janvrin and his crew were not allowed to land, for fear that they might be infected with the plague that was afflicting the people of that area of France. They where ordered to stay in quarantine on their ship in the nearby Belcroute Bay. It's not known whether the crew were actually suffering from the plague, but sadly poor Janvrin died and his widow was still not allowed to bring his body ashore. Permission was finally given for his body to be interred on 'Ile au Guerdain', so that he would be within sight of his St. Brelade home.

Here we see the top of an underground German Command Bunker which extends to a depth of 40ft on two floors. It was the Command Post (Leitstand) for the naval coastal artillery battery Lothringen located here.

One of four built to a similar design in the Channel Islands, the bunker was surmounted by a range-finder and two periscopes to determine the direction and speed of sea targets. Sealed up for safety reasons shortly after the war, the bunker escaped the scrap-drive of the early 1950s, with the result that it is the only example of its type in the Islands to retain the impressive 7 inch-thick armoured cupolas. The bunker has been restored to a very high standard and provides a unique insight into the sheer scale and thoroughness of German military engineering.

Also here is a Coastal Artillery Observation Tower. This massive structure, with its brooding clifftop presence over the Island's sea approaches is, for many, one of the most potent symbols of the Occupation. The tower was, in fact, known as a Marine Peilstand or naval direction-finding tower, and is one of three constructed in Jersey, out of a planned total of nine.

The design of these towers is unique to the Channel Islands, and may take its inspiration from the 18th Century Round Towers that ring the local coastline. The observation slits, set in 2 metres of concrete, provide an impressive setting for the distant sea views towards France. On top of the tower is a mounting for a 2cm Flak Oerlikon anti-aircraft gun.

More photos and interesting stuff about Noirmont Point can be found on the blog German Bunker in my Garden

Also worth a look is the website of the Channel Islands Occupation Society, a non-political, voluntary organisation, dedicated to the preservation and recordal of all aspects of the German Occupation of Jersey during the Second World War.

For more N posts visit ABC Wednesday.

Weekend Reflections:Lion Park Lake

At the back of Jersey Goldsmiths in St Lawrence parish is Lion Park.

The lake is home to a pair of flamingos.

You can see a closer view of one of them on sithenah.

For more Weekend Reflections visit Newtown Area Photo.

ABC Wednesday M is for Maison des Landes

Last week we flew to Jersey where we stayed at the Maison des Landes Hotel.

Maison des Landes is a charitable trust set-up by the Lions Club of Jersey to provide holidays specifically for the disabled. The hotel is situated nine miles from St Helier on the gorse and heather covered headlands of Les Landes, with panoramic views of St Ouen's Bay and the Atlantic.

I took lots of photographs during the week which I'll be sorting out in due course. For now here are a few shots of our hotel room.

The weather was mostly unkind especially for the first part of the week but the camaraderie amongst the guests made up for that. We shared our breakfast table with Jack from Merseyside who has been coming every year since the late 70s and Margaret from Clydeside who was on her own this time but has been often before as a carer.

There was also a group of 10 people with varying disabilities from the Harrogate area looked after by five volunteer carers organised by Breakaway Holidays; a one-legged woman from West London; a lady with MS who'd brought her sister for a change and several other couples and individuals.

The wheelchair we had hired for the week kept losing power after only a short time, despite appearing fully-charged. The splendid hotel staff though did their best to mitigate the effects of the problem. We were taken out on day trips to different parts of the island, the routes and destinations tailored to account for the weather and the preferences of guests.

All in all we had a lovely time and I'll be sharing some of the highlights in subsequent posts.

For more M posts visit ABC Wednesday.

ABC Wednesday: L is for The Ladysmith

The Ladysmith public house on Wellington Road, Ashton under Lyne, opened in 1860 as a beerhouse named the Railway Tavern. It became fully licensed in 1865 as the Railway Hotel. In 1983 it was renamed the Ladysmith after the former barracks in the town.



For more L posts visit ABC Wednesday.