Shepton Mallet prison

In August 2018 I was in Shepton Mallet prison. This was the second time I've been to prison. But only as a visitor I hasten to add. And to make things clear, both prisons have closed down.

My first prison visit was to Pudu prison in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 2003. The prison has since been demolished to make way for development.

Shepton Mallet prison in Somerset, England, was used from 1610-2013. It was the oldest working prison in Britain. It is now open for jailhouse tours. The prison was built in 1610 and first used in 1625. It closed in 1930 as it only housed 51 people, but then opened again in 1938 as a depot for the The Royal Pioneer Corps. Historical documents were housed there, including The Magna Carta, The Domesday Book and volumes of the HMS Victory logs.

From 1942-1945 the prison was occupied by the American Military Custodial Service and housed 768 prisoners.

The last person to be hung for rape was in 1945. The Kray twins were held here for a month in 1952 awaiting court martial.

We went on a self guided tour, rather than a guided one.

Some of the cells -

The exercise yard -

The execution room

and the holding room where the prisoner was kept prior to execution

This was used for visits -

The prison will in the near future be turned into apartments by City and Country. The listed cells blocks, former Treadwheel House and workshop buildings will all be turned into residential use, while the addition of sensitively designed new buildings will provide additional housing.

Mars and Saturn 2018

End of July and early August 2018, Mars was very visible in the southern sky and visible from the UK. With its red-orange colour, it was easy to spot after sunset.

In 2018, Mars appeared brightest from July 27 to July 30, photos taken on 25th. Mars Close Approach was July 31. Mars Close Approach happens about every 26 months.

https://www.schoolsobservatory.org

Mars will be visible in the night sky until around mid-August.

Saturn was also visible in the southern sky at the end of July. The constellation Sagittarius was very close to Saturn, though I wasn't able to see that.

 Saturn 24 July 2018 -

https://www.schoolsobservatory.org

UPDATE 20 AUG 2018
Mars was still visible.
Saturn was very close to the moon and although I saw it, I couldn't get a photo.

Bøyabreen, a glacier in Norway

On our journey through the Norwegian fjords, we stopped at the Norwegian Glacier Museum in Fjærland. This is also the visitor centre for the Jostedalsbreen National Park. From here you can just see part of the Bøyabreen, or Boya glacier.

 An oystercatcher -

 Looking away from the glacier -

This glacier is an arm of the Jostedalsbreen. We left the museum and headed for the glacier.

The sun came out and gave a blue tinge to the side of the glacier -

Nærøyfjord, Norway

In 2016 I visited part of the World Heritage site of Geirangerfjord in Norway. In June 2018 I managed to visit the other half of the WH site, Nærøyfjord. To get to it, we took the railway from our hotel in Voss to Myrdal, and there we transferred to the Flam Railway. This took us down to the fjord. This is one of the steepest descents in the world and this adhesion type railway on normal tracks is the steepest in the world. It descends 863 m. Myrdal is at 865 m and Flam at 2 m. Consequently the line goes round and round. It is 20 km in distance and has 20 tunnels totally 6 km. The maximum gradient is 55%, 1 : 18. It takes one hour. The railway criss-crosses the river. In this photo taken from the train window, 2 levels of tunnels can be seen -

It is one of the world’s most scenic rides with high mountains, rivers cutting through deep ravines and waterfalls cascade down from snowcapped mountains. At the really impressive Kjos waterfall, 93 m free fall. The train stops to allow passengers to get off for photos. A girl was dancing and singing high up by the fall. 

The line ends at Flam, 

Flam is the start of the Aurlandsfjord - 

We then took a cruise along this fjord, to Gudvangen. 

It is the second arm of the fjord that is the Nærøyfjord. These are small branches of the main Sognefjord. The Sognefjord is the longest and deepest in Norway and is 204 km long and more than 1300 m deep, with the mountains rising to 1700 m. The Naeroyfjord  is UNESCO World Heritage – it comes under the West Norwegian Fjords along with Geirangerfjord which I did in 2016. Naeroyfjord is the narrowest of the fjord arms with very steep mountains. 

The Naeroyfjord area is famed for the anorthosite rock and there is just one quarry, no more are allowed under WH. All the mountains are white anorthosite, although of course the outside has weathered to dark colours. Anorthosite is igneous and contains aluminum oxide though it is too expensive to extract.

St Antholin's Spire, Forest Hill

I've been using Forest Hill library for many years, but it was only this year that I found out about the nearby St Antholin's Spire. This is a church spire without the church!

The original St Antholin's Church was located in Budge Row in the City of London. After it was destoyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666, the church was rebuilt on designs by Sir Christopher Wren. It had an octagonal stone spire.

In 1829 the upper part of the spire was replaced. The removed portion, including the dragon's head weather vane, was sold for £5 to Robert Harrild. Harrild was a printer and erected the spire on his property, Round Hill House, where is still remains, surrounded by modern houses.

The spire is Grade II listed by Historic England but its future is unknown.

This Cedar of Lebanon tree is very close to the spire, and once stood in the garden of Harild's grand manor house. The houses later became the Sydenham and Forest Hill Social Club, then was demolished in the 1960s when the townhouses were built.

St. Antholin's Church was demolished in 1874. See Wikipedia entry.

Read more about the spire on Forest Hill Society.

UPDATE 2019 :

The NewsShopper 19 Nov 2019 reported that the spire will be restored.

Jupiter, May 2018

Jupiter has been really bright the last few nights.In May 2018, Jupiter is the second brightest planet, after Venus. Jupiter ascends in the east after sunset, and I have been getting a clear view of it in the south sky as it is dark, from around 9.30 pm.

According to earthsky.org, Jupiter is at its best this month in all of 2018. It is brighter than any star.
However Venus, which is in the western sky, is brighter, so I need to look out for that.

I only have a digital camera and no tripod, so can't get any good photos. These are the best I could do!

10.30 pm on 19th May

9.38 pm on 20th May

camera shake, not Jupiter on the move!!!

9.44 pm on 22nd May

On May 27th, the almost full moon rose in the sky and situated well to its right was Jupiter -

The full moon was on 29th but it was too cloudy in London to see it. This is the 30th view -

I did see Venus in Jan 2017.