Wandsworth Common windmill, London

Wandsworth Common windmill is less than 500 m (430 m) from where I grew up as a child. I used to go to Wandsworth Common so often, to play and for dog walking. But I didn't know the windmill was there. One reason is because Wandsworth Common is actually divided into separate areas by two different railway lines. So the majority of my childhood visits were confined to the east side and the mill is located on the edge of the opposite side, over both railway lines. 

Wandsworth Common windmill was actually used as a water pump, not for milling grain, so should be called a windpump. It was a smock mill, built in the 1830s and situated right above the railway line. It is hexagonal with weatherboarded sides. It was constructed by the London and South Western Railway Company to pump water from the cutting into a nearby lake, known as the Black Sea. William Wilson, founder of the Prices Patent Candle Company created a garden around the lake as part of his estate.

The windmill stopped working in 1870 when the lake was filled in. The sails and fantail were removed.

A road runs right in front of the windmill. View from the side, the cap has been reconstructed -

The whole of Wandsworth Common

And the location of the mill -

Just over the nearby bridge is the rather impressive Royal Victoria Patriotic Building. This Victorian building is in a Gothic Revival style combining Scottish Baronial and French Châteauesque. It was built in 1859 as the Royal Victoria Patriotic School, by popular subscription as an asylum for girls orphaned during the Crimean War. Now it is a mixed community of flats, studios, workshops and a drama school.

And I have 2 boxes of Price's candles, my mother bought them decades ago! Probably from the early 1970s when the power cuts were happening.

Price's candle factory building is still there at 100 York Rd, which is at the very top left of the first map above. When production of candles etc stopped, the place was used as a retail shop, but is now closed.

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See Wikipedia page about the windmill. And Historic England entry.

Arkley - Barnet Gate windmill, London

There are a few windmills left in London, and I keep discovering ones new to me. There are 4 windmills that are sometimes open to the public, see my introduction on windmills. There are also several more that are private. I discovered one of those last week.

In March 2021 I was on a 107 bus between Borehamwood / Elstree and High Barnet, when I saw a windmill at Arkley. As the bus sped by, I only got a glimpse but it looked in good condition, so decided to investigate further.

The Wikipedia list of London windmills.

Arkley Windmill or Barnet Gate Mill is a Grade II listed tower mill. It is at Barnet Gate, which used to be in Hertfordshire, but is now in the London Borough of Barnet. It was built in 1823.

As there is no public access, it was very difficult to get a good photo, as there were tall hedges in the way. Also the 4 sails were camouflaged against the grey rainy sky.

The tower mill is 4 storey. Wikipedia has a lot more technical information. There is also some information and a lot of historical photos on Windmill World. And the listing on Historic England.

The end for some cruise ships

In Aug 2020 I did a blog about cruise ships moored along the south coast of England, due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Cruising worldwide had come to an end by April 2020, BBC article "Coronavirus journey: The 'last cruise ship on Earth' finally comes home" describes how the last 3 cruise ships at sea with passengers docked on 20 April. 

And one year later, the majority of cruise lines still weren't sailing. A few were doing very limited routes. Some cruise lines collapsed, including my favourite, the British company Cruise & Maritime Voyages (CMV). The CMV ships were old but had character and most importantly for me, were small, meaning less passengers. CMV went under on 20 July 2020. I had 2 cruises booked, having already transferred them from earlier ones that had been cancelled. 

At first it was hoped that the ships would be sold and continue their life as cruise ships. In Nov, the auctions of the CMV fleet was over, with five ships heading to new owners or to scrap. It seemed that at least 2 ships would go for scrap, including my favourite ship, Magellan. She was sold, but then the new owners decided to scrap her. 

Magellan left Tilbury on 11 Nov on her final voyage, to the scrapyard at Alang in India. Alang is in Gujarat state on the northwest of India. Its beaches have become currently the world's largest ship graveyard.

Purely by chance, a friend sent this link to a YouTube video, "How to Beach a Giant Ship" which shows the ferry 'Ostend Spirit' hit the beach for demolition in Aliaga Turkey. The ship is literally run aground at speed into the scrapyard. 

Then on 2 March the BBC News had an article "UK cruise ships scrapped in India's 'ship graveyard'". The article opened with an upsetting photo of Marco Polo ship, already beached at the scrapyard. The article mainly focused on the environmental concerns of scrapping ships and the hazards found in the ship graveyards. BBC also did a feature on Radio 4.

30 Jan 2021, from CMV friends facebook page -

I still don't know what has happened to the ship Columbus, as far as I know she has been sold for scrap. This article of 9 Feb suggests she is going for scrap, "Columbus Is the Next Cruise Ship Most Likely To Be Scrapped". She left Tilbury on 18 Nov 2020, having been there for 218 days. Whereas Magellan left Tilbury quietly, Columbus departed fully lit and gave three long blasts. She is currently (6 March) south of Oman and heading for the west coast of India. 

Magellan in 2019 -

and repainted by 2020  -

Snow moon Feb 2021

 The full Snow Moon reached peak illumination around 8 am GMT on Saturday, February 27. It was daylight here, so I didn't see the moon - I only saw it as it rose on Sunday evening, 28th. It is named snow moon from the snow on the ground - the snow in London was a couple of weeks earlier!

When the moon rose on the 28th I managed to catch it as it came up by some cranes.

And 1st March -

Novo Jewish Cemetery, London

One of my several projects on the go is walking the length of Regent's Canal. As it is almost 14 km long, I'm doing it in stages. And it's taking a long time as I keep getting side tracked by places of interest along the way. My latest diversion was along the stretch of canal at Mile End. I discovered there is an ancient historical Jewish cemetery nearby.

The Novo cemetery is a Grade II listed Sephardic Jewish cemetery located within the grounds of Queen Mary University of London in Mile End. I know very little about Judaism and nothing about the Sephardi Jews, but was intrigued to read that this is only one of two Sephardic cemeteries in England. The other one is in Manchester.

The first Jews to settle in England came from Normandy at the invitation of William the Conqueror, who offered them royal protection. Then Edward I expelled them in 1290. They were admitted back to London in 1650.

Although The Novo Cemetery is located inside the grounds of the Queen Mary University, anyone can freely walk in. The cemetery opened in 1733. Prior to this, Jews were buried in the Velho Cemetery at Mile End, but that became full. Velho means old and Novo is new. The Velho Cemetery is located further along Mile End Road, but access is only by appointment. A blog on Velho.

Google Earth image showing the 2 cemeteries. Regent's Canal is seen in the top right -

Most of the Sephardi community had moved out of the area by 1895  when Novo was almost full. It was closed for burials for adults in 1905 and for children in 1918. It suffered some damage from bombs in WW2. It obtained Grade II listed status in 2014. The cemetery you see today is the 1855 extension. The older section (1733-1855) was cleared with around 7,000 graves moved to Brentwood in Essex.

As you look over the cemetery, it is apparent that it is full of gravestones, which represents equality of all people in death. And I noticed that many graves had small stones or pebbles on them. These are called visitation stones. "The act of placing visitation stones is significant in Jewish bereavenment practices. Small stones are placed by people who visit Jewish graves in an act of remembrance or respect for the deceased. The practice is a way participating in the mitzvah of burial. The stone is placed by the left hand."

I also noticed there were no flowers. I read it is not customary in Judaism to leave flowers at a grave after visiting.

A blog showing photos of every single grave in the cemetery. 

This photo shows small pebbles on the front graves and a larger stone on the grave behind -

Snow & Beast from the East 2

The first snow of winter in London was on 24 January 2021, it snowed in the morning but had mostly gone by the evening. The west side of the country had a lot more. After that, it rained on many days. January was declared the coldest for 10 years.

February started with mild weather and on the 5th it was a sunny day with blue skies.

Then Storm Darcy arrived, followed by the Beast from the East 2. In 2018 the Beast from the East hit the east side of England and London had snow. That was at the end of February. The cold air came from Siberia. This Feb, 2021, the Beast from the East 2 arrived in early Feb. This time the cold weather came from the Black Sea area. It started with Storm Darcy, named by the Dutch weather service. Strong winds and heavy snow spread from the Netherlands to the southeast side of England. 

London didn't really have much wind. Feb 6th was still mild, 7° C in London. That changed on the 7th, when it snowed off and on all day, though didn't really settle in London as the ground was so wet. It then snowed during the night and next morning and went down to - 2° in London. 

On the 8th afternoon I went for a walk to enjoy the snow.

There was more snow on 9th morning. 3 foxes were looking for food -

The sun came out on the 10th. Note the fox footprints on the shed roof -

The media had some nice photos of the frozen fountains in Trafalgar Square. I went to have a look a couple of days later, but there was nothing, so don't know if they had been cleared. 

The coldest morning for 25 years on 11 Feb. In London it was -2°  C    -

There was a bitterly cold wind at the end of the week, but the forecast was for warmer weather.

And the Thames froze in a few places, the first time since 1963

Icicles -

Sunrise on 12 Feb, Chinese New Year -

The 13th morning temperature in London -

Icicles on Horniman's museum roof

The snow lasted a week in London. On the afternoon of the 14th it was above 0°  C and rained in the evening, removing the last of the snow. It was nice whilst it lasted.

Pigeons

A neighbour feeds the birds and I was quite happy to see several wood pigeons enjoying the free feed. In fact for several months it was just wood pigeons that would come. Wood pigeons are the largest pigeon and are quite attractive birds. They have plump looking bodies with a pink breast and a white patch on the neck. They take off with a loud clatter and have a distinctive cooing call, 

According to the RSPB they are also UK's commonest pigeon. That is surprising as I thought the feral pigeon was much more common, but maybe there are still lots of wood pigeons in the countryside. 

They must be constantly on the look out for food because whenever I went to a window, they would fly down hoping to be fed. Quite often one would spend time chasing off another instead of eating. And a pair would sleep in the tree right in front of me. Getting ready for bed -

Unusual to see them resting on the fence like this (photo taken through double glazing) -

This one was sunbathing on a shed roof -

Wood pigeons feeding together

But things have changed. Slowly feral pigeons started joining the free food and the wood pigeon numbers decreased. Feral pigeons are also known as rock doves and are the wild ancestors of today's domestic pigeons. Those domestic pigeons were originally bred from the wild rock doves. The rock, domestic and feral pigeons are thus all the same species and will readily interbreed. Generally feral pigeons don't interbreed with wood pigeons.

Pigeons have quite a bad reputation in cities worldwide and are often called flying rats. And their droppings can be a huge nuisance. I have mixed feelings. On the positive side I admire their huge variation in colours and patterns. They come in all shades. There were some quite pretty ones amongst them.

Feral pigeons are also known for their vertical takeoff. Other birds that take off vertically are some shorebirds and ducks. A BBC video of this.

By Sept the wood pigeons had disappeared, leaving just the feral pigeons. They wait in the morning for their food, and then in the afternoon they start to gather, hoping to be fed again. 

Then during the winter I was pleased to see 1 wood pigeon had returned. I am now seeing it every day, I assume it is the same one, as it is the only one. The feral pigeons sometimes try to chase it away. I keep an eye out for it and if I see it in a nearby tree, I throw out some bread or peanuts.

And apt cartoon (Jan 2021) to end the blog on pigeons -