South Lakes Wild Animal Park

It is quite a few years since we last visited this animal park. We used to go when our children were young, but today we went without the children who have grown up. Entrance fee was £11.50 each, and £1.50 of that went to a charity for Samatran Tigers. It was a lovely sunny Easter Sunday. The following are probably my best pictures ....

Giraffe.

African Lion.

The emperor tamarin from South America - thought to have been named after Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany due to their distinctive long, white, drooping moustache.

Not Finding The Egg

The Beatrix Potter museum have put some eggs round the Lakes. You must understand the cryptic clue to find the location, then find the egg and claim a prize. One clue pointed to Conishead Priory, near Ulverston, so we looked round the grounds for a couple of hours but did not find the egg...
I looked in a tunnel under the road near the overflow carpark.
down near the shore line at Morcambe Bay...
along many tree lines pathways.

Afterwards I went to the buddhist temple at the priory, took off my shoes and walked on their soft new carpet looking at the golden Buddhas and the votive offering which even included packets of crisps, fizzy drink bottles, and penguin bars. Things have moved on since a previous visit where people left mostly candles, fruit, and flowers.

We heard that somebody else did find the egg today as it was marked as found on the internet. I'd love to know where.

Otmoor Revisited

A bird watchers paradise and near this area of wetland a large hide is being built so we can watch without being seen.

Day Trip To Plymouth

The weather forecast was for heavy rain, but as things turned out, while my daughter went to an audition and interview at Plymouth University, I got a good look round a City I do not know.
The harbour wall has a number plaques commemorating early settlers going off to America.
The lighthouse, called Smeatons Tower, was originally built on Eddystone reef, and moved stone by stone in the 1880s, to its current commanding vantage point, when the sea was undermining the rock on which it stood.

Mr Hopkins Revisited

I recently signed up for Friends reunited, and uploaded an old class picture from when I was 8 or 9. And these are the interesting things (for me anyway) I've found from other people... A picture of Mr Hopkins our English teacher from about aged 13 to 15. His comment on my first essay in his class was "5/10 : All very sad. Your story is too breathless to make much sense".

The next one was "8/10: A lively imaginative piece of work."

But a little later..."At present you are trying too hard for the unusual word and your writing is strained. However I expect you'll come to terms with it.'

Cowley Road

I used to live in Oxford, just off the Cowley Road. To me it is still the most amazing road in Oxfordshire.
Most street end houses have a splendid wall mural - as do the public loos. Expand the image to see "When you mentioned Street Art did they look at you like This."
Shops like Bead Games are like going into another world.

Mr Pepper Revisited

This picture would have been taken about three years after I was in Mr Pepper's Class. But the style of the clothes, the mix of children, and variations in size, and the setting are the same.

Mr Pepper was quite unlike any teacher I had known before. The lessons were fun, but a little scary because he called on each of us to take part. Up until then I managed very well to keep in the background.

Taken at Whitehall junior schools in Evington, Leicester - another from Friends Reunited

Netherne Hospital 1977 and Netherne Village on the Hill 2009

Here are some pictures of Netherne Psychiatric Hospital, near Coulsdon in Surrey, as it looked around 1977.

The Main Entrance.
The Main Entrance with a direction sign. Press image to see the directions on the sign.
The Chapel.

The Water Tower.

A view of the Wards.

Netherne Hospital opened its doors on the 1st April 1909.

Prior to 1840 patients from Surrey either got sent to Bethlem or a private asylum. In 1840 Wandsworth Asylum was built to accommodate Surrey patients; a second asylum was built at Brookwood, and a third at Cane Hill, but when London expanded to take over a large area of Surrey south of the River Thames, Cane Hill was used for London residents. Then as Brookwood filled up and was no longer large enough for Surrey it was decided to erect a new asylum at Netherne on a farming estate on a hill two miles from Coulsdon.

The direct path to the Asylum was quite steep and crossed high above a railway cutting, and so a zig zig road was constructed up the hill for vehicles.

Netherne was initially designed for 960 patients, but with plenty of room to grow. The main building itself was in the shape of a south facing arc so that all the wards could get the sun during the day. It was unlike previous Victorian custodial style asylums, and built of pale red brick and portland stone on two levels. There were villas separate from the main hospital to give some chronic patients - who worked on the land, and convalescent patients - ready to be discharged, a less institutional type of place to live. There was also a chapel, admin block, recreation hall, accommodation for nurses, and a cemetery. The whole estate was about 350 acres, and employed patients on a farm which included cows for milk, and a piggery with about 120 pigs to consume the food waste.

Thanks to the Surrey Mirror of 9th April 1909 for some of the details.

Yesterday, I drove my son over to Croydon. He had to be at work on Boxing Day and transport was a problem. Then being near my old haunts I went to what was once Netherne Mental Hospital and took this picture of what was once Dickens Ward. The view is little changed. The hospital buildings have been changed to flats, and new houses built all around. The new development is probably about ten years old now, and continues to grow with new houses and is called Nethern Village or Netherne on The Hill.

I have updated this post after adding an entry for 1st April to a new blog called Mental Health on this day in History

In an Oxford Shoe Shop

One body remained in the Shoe Shop after a busy day of Sales

Elvis Has Left The Building

About eight years ago I first went into Borders in Oxford and thought that I had discovered the future. There was a big book shop with comfy reading areas and Cafe, a large CD and video area down an escalator, and most of the CDs I could listen to over head phones from their library. So I was able to find lots of new music before buying. Back then I was into World Music. But today this young lady locked the door for the final time.

Elvis has left the Building.