Salisbury Club Site, Wiltshire

    

The next day was earmarked for a return to Beaulieu’s National Motor Museum, so we headed off with a book packed for me to kill the hours that would surely arise, those filling the gap between my interest in matters vehicular and my husband’s. Hector’s rain had arrived during the night, along with winds strong enough to push the van about a little, but none of it to the degree suffered further north.

We re-entered the estate clad in raincoats and glad to be heading for under cover entertainment, and there we split up to pursue our own agendas. I reckoned I should be right until lunch time, and to Chris’s surprise, it was he who gave me a call on my cellphone to remind me it was lunchtime.

After lunch, I took custody of the car keys, expecting to retire to the car for an hour or two’s welcome reading time before he was finished with the museum, but again he was surprised when I re-joined him three hours later in the Top Gear exhibition, having happily filled the intervening hours. It is true that I had been out enjoying the other attractions on the Estate during that time, but certainly had not been driven to seek other distraction. 

The weather had improved markedly, and I spent some of that time riding the overhead monorail, re-walking the Mill Pond Walk in reverse, and poking about the grounds of the abbey ruins. The moral of all this is that there is plenty to entertain all kinds of people here at Beaulieu! Despite the odd pronunciation (of “Bewley” to rhyme with spew-lee) this is indeed a very beautiful and interesting place.

The Motor Museum is worth a visit if only to enjoy the history and quirkiness of motoring and the people involved. (I am simply not interested in the specifications of each and every vehicle).

I mentioned after our first visit that this museum was set up as a tribute to Edward Montagu’s father. John Montagu (later 2^nd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu) was a pioneer motorist and promoter of motorised transport with a keen interest in transport and surprisingly for a member of the aristocracy, worked in the Locomotive Department of the London & South Western Railway in the 1880s.

Montagu took his first motor car journey in 1897 and within months he had ordered his first car, a 6hp Daimler. A year later a larger 12hp Daimler was acquired, this the vehicle he drove the Prince of Wales around the New Forest and used to compete in the 1899 Paris – Ostend race and the Thousand Mile Trial of 1900.

In 1902 Montagu began publishing the weekly motoring journal The Car Illustrated, followed in 1903 by the monthly travel publication The Car. These not only described automobile developments but also progress in aviation, speed boating and railways.

As a Member of Parliament Montagu became a leading supporter of motoring in Britain. He was the main promoter of the 1903 Motor Car Act, which led to a new 20 mph speed limit and the licencing and registration of both cars and drivers.

Interestingly in Great Britain, unlike Europe, there was a huge mistrust of  motorised methods of transport. The Locomotive Acts of 1865 and 1878 imposed many restrictions upon the use of powered vehicles on the nation’s roads. These included a 4 mph speed limit in the country, reduced to 2 mph in town, and the need to have someone walking in front, originally carrying a red flag (hence “the Red Flag Act”) to warn other road users. These regulations did little to encourage motor vehicle developments.

Other facts gleaned from the museum that caught my fancy were:

•  Postcodes were first introduced in Britain in 1857, when London was divided up into ten postal districts to make addresses more accurate for mail delivery. Other major towns and cities followed in the 1860s.
• Britain’s first road map, the Gough Map, was introduced in 1360, showing roads and distances for the whole of Britain, drawn in pen, ink and coloured washes on animal hide.
• Britain’s first road atlas, Britannia Atlas, was created in 1675 by John Ogilby, containing one hundred road maps in the style of a scrolling parchment.
• The first speeding ticket was issued in 1896 to a Walter Arnold, who was fined one shilling for travelling at 8 mph in a 2 mph area.
• In 1985 UK experienced its worst motorway traffic jam, stretching for forty miles on the M1 between junctions 16 and 18, caused by road works! Nothing changes!

We did not leave Beaulieu until nearly 4 pm, in time to stop by Lyndhurst to visit the New Forest Centre for some information and to pop into Budgeons, the nearest Lyndhurst has to a supermarket. En route we called into the local pub and booked a table for the next evening to celebrate a very special occasion, before returning to camp to discover two more camping parties in.

Yesterday morning heralded in the eighth decade of my husband’s life, aka his 70^th birthday, a milestone nomally celebrated with the receiving of gifts, good wishes and the throwing of a significant party. I was the first to congratulate him on attaining such a venerable age as I rolled over and peering through my hayfever affected eyes, wishing him a Happy Birthday. His brother interrupted the morning shave with a call to offer the same, his sister sent a text and his daughter caused his withdrawal from a musem later in the day to offer the fourth felicitation. Apart from that, and allowing him to rule the day, ending with an excellent meal out in the evening, the day went otherwise unnoticed. The Chauffeur thinks little of birthdays, abhors gifts and being the centre of attention; the day went according to his wishes.

We headed off mid-morning to Bucklers Hard, the site of past industry on the Beaulieu River, all within the Beaulieu Estate visited the day before. Buckler’s Hard was originally planned as a sugar port in the 1720s, but became a successful naval shipbuilding centre from the 1740s, building ships which fought at Trafalgar. Fifty Royal Navy ships were built here between 1745 and 1814 together with many merhant vessels.

In 1744, Henry Adams, a Navy Board Overseer, arrived at Buckler’s Hard and found fame as a Master Builder of vessels for the navy of King George III and Buckler’s Hard becomes a prosperous and well known naval shipbuilding centre and remained so under the hands of Henry’s descendants who followed in his footsteps.

After a century as a shipyard, the village became a sleepy backwater until its charms were discovered by Victorian tourists. Despite the interuption of two World Wars, in which the river played its part, tourism has given Buckler’s Hard a new lease of life in the 20^th and 21^st centuries.

There are numerous stories, faces and events linked with this spot, most of which you and I will have heard although most likely not have recorded the connection with “Buckler’s Hard”.

• In 1904, John, 2^nd Lord Montagu, he who inspired the creation of the Motor Museum, took up “sea racing” with his friend Lionel de Rothschild. Competing in the Solent and elsewhere, they won the Harmsworth Cup and became world motor boat champions in 1905 and 1906.
• In 1914, Buckler’s Hard became an emergency site of the repair of motor launches during the First World War.
•  In 1942, the Admiralty requisitioned the River, followed by Bucker’s Hard a year later. It was used as a base for motor torpedo boats. A year later Lieutenant-Commander Nevil Shute, the author of “A Town like Alice” and a whole lot else, experimented with the Swallow, a rocket-propelled pilotless aircraft on the River; the results were used in the development of remotely guided weapons.
• A little later, hundreds of men and landing craft sailed out of the River to play their own part in the D-Day landings on the Normandy beaches. 
• In 1967, local hero, Sir Francis Chichester and Gipsy Moth IV returned to their home port of Buckler’s Hard following their circumnavigation of the world. 

Amazingly the river itself, the twelve mile long Beaulieu River, is one of the few privately owned rivers in the world. It forms the south-eastern edge of the Beualieu Estae and the associated rights and obligations now exercised by Lord Montagu derive from those granted to the monks of Beaulieu Abbey by King John back in 1204. The custodianship of the river by one family over four centuries has ensured that riverside development and the number of moorings have been carefull controlled. The result is a river which is largely unspoilt , both in terms of its landscape and as a haven for wild life. 

The tourist attraction carries a separate entry fee from that of the Motor Musem and Palace upriver, and offers so much if the visitor takes advantage of all that is on offer. There is a café near the entrance, a most excellent Maritime Museum to occupy the intelligent punter for well over an hour, a restored shipwright’s cottage and the St Mary’s Chapel, and the Master Builder’s House Hotel which offers accomodation, meals and refreshments of the liquid kind, the remains of the 18^th Century launchways, a look at the exterior of the Shipwright School, a River Cruise for an added fee and a delightful riverside walk back up to the Motor Museum.

Chris was called away from the museum by a phone call and so had to return after lunch to finish his exploration. I took the opportunity to walk upriver, hoping to reach another “hard” site, but after twenty five minutes of brisk walking, gave up and returned to find the Birthday Boy waiting for me.

It was time to head across the Forest to Brockenhurst, passing across more beautiful moorland soon reaching a carpark from where we had decided to walk. We had picked up a walking brochure the day before from the Forest Centre in Lyndhurst; Chris having chosen that titled “Brockenhurst Village” although we decided to cut the urban section out due to the afternoon already racing away from us.

We crossed boggy areas, bridged creeks and the more significant Ober Water, passed under beautiful ancient trees and skirted clumps of healthy gorse, wandered through small herds of ponies and passed more than a dozen other walkers. It was a delightful walk although by the time we reached the car, I realised I had probably over done the exercise for the day, especially given we had many hours ahead.

After returning to the camp to find even more campers having arrived, we showered and dressed in our glad-rags, and turned up at the local “Forest Inn” for dinner at 6.30 pm. And what a wonderful dinner we had; we waded through three courses each, coffee, a bottle of wine and two carafes of water, while making a dismal attempt to participate in a television and film based quizz. We returned home about 11 pm, way past my normal pumpkin hour but having had an excellent day.

This morning we delayed our departure, with only thirty miles to cover and entry to the next camp site  not allowed until after 1pm. We left a few minutes after 11 am, after filling the hole we had dug to level the van, then found a layby to hang about in for a hour or more, hitting the Salisbury Saturday traffic early afternoon.

The camp here is a busy one, tents, caravans and a large number of motorhomes lined up across the grassy expanse opposite the slopes of Old Sarum, to the north of the city. It rained during the afternoon but none of it a bother. Tomorrow’s forecast is looking good and I have a lengthy list of “must-does”  which we have little chance in fitting into our stay. Same old story!