Hampton-in-Arden

Hampton-in-Arden is a former Warwickshire village, which since 1974 has been in Solihull. Hampton-in-Arden was mentioned in the Domesday Book when it was held by Geoffrey de Wirce [1] and later by the Mowbrays and then the de Montford family of Coleshill before reverting to ownership by the crown. In later times the Manor of Hampton was bought by Sir Robert Peel.

Hampton was originally a large parish that includes Balsall, Knowle and Nuthurst but nowadays the parish is much reduced in size. It is bordered to the East by the river Blythe, to the West is largely farm land though to the North West it isn't long until you get to the sprawling complex that is the National Exhibition Centre and Birmingham Airport!

The village's oldest building is the Norman church of St Mary and St Bartholomew. There are a number of other buildings dating from Tudor times with parts of Moat Farm dating from the medieval period.

[1] "Parishes: Hampton-in-Arden." A History of the County of Warwick: Volume 4, Hemlingford Hundred. Ed. L F Salzman. London: Victoria County History, 1947. 81-86. British History Online. Web. 9 March 2019. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/warks/vol4/pp81-86.

Colin P Witter Lock in Stratford-upon-Avon

Just down from Bancroft Basin in Stratford-upon-Avon where the river Avon and Stratford Canal met used to be the Lucy's Locks. These were staircase locks which allowed for a difference of nearly two and a quarter metres in height in the water level on the Avon. The locks were filled in in 1959 [1].

They were replaced by the Colin P Witter Lock built in the early 1970s next to the old site of the Lucy's Locks [2]. The lock has steel girder supports due to the depth of the lock and the unstable nature of the ground. Much of the work was done by volunteers from Gloucester prison. The gates were donated by the Port of London Authority from the abandoned Grand Surrey Canal.

Head on view of the lock

A river cruise boat is in the lock

[1] Charles Hadfield and John Norris, Waterways to Stratford (David and Charles, 1968) p. 60
[2] Jamie Davies, Shakespeare's Avon - the history of a navigation (Oakwood Press, 1996) p. 141

National Museum of Computing, Bletchley

A true geek heaven is the National Museum of Computing in Bletchley which has a remarkable collection of computers ranging from the earliest electronic machines to fairly recent microcomputers. The highlight though is the ICL mainframe room full of "old iron".

Mainframes that filled rooms used to run the world, though have less power than the average smart phone these days. Of course thats not the whole story, mainframes were designed to munch through tens of thousands of records and transactions. You wouldn't really want to use an iPhone to calculate and print payroll for a few hundred thousand employees overnight!

Lower Heyford

Lower Heyford is a village in Oxfordshire next to the river Cherwell and the Oxford Canal and is about midway between Banbury and Oxford.

There has been settlement in the area since before Anglo-Saxon times, the pre-Saxon Aves ditch marking the Eastern boundary of Lower Heyford parish. The village is known in Saxon chronicles and the later Domesday Book as Hegford or Haiforde. The village is also sometimes known as Heyford Bridge. It is thought the village has been continually inhabited since the sixth century at least.

After the Norman conquest Lower Heyford was given to Geoffery de Montbray, a senior and trusted adviser of William and the bishop of Coutances. In later times (the sixteenth century) the manor was sold to Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Corpus Christi still owned the estate in the 1950s.

Economically Lower Heyford had always been a rural backwater and the local economy was mostly agricultural. The village had a couple of watermills on the Cherwell, the arrival of the Oxford Canal in the 1790 meant that coal could be easily bought from coal fields elsewhere in the Midlands and unloaded at Heyford Wharf.

[1] "Parishes: Lower Heyford." A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 6. Ed. Mary D Lobel. London: Victoria County History, 1959. 182-195. British History Online. Web. 2 March 2019. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/oxon/vol6/pp182-195.

Anne Hathaway's Cottage, Shottery

The wife of William Shakespeare, Anne Hathaway, lived in this farmhouse as a child. Parts of the farmhouse (it is a bit big to be a cottage despite the name) date to the fifteenth century or earlier [1] with the upper part seventeenth century. It is a large farmhouse with a hall and two wings and was once attached to ninety acres of farmland. The building remained owned by the Hathaway family until 1846 and since 1892 has been owned by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.

The farmhouse or cottage is in Shottery, a separate village just outside Stratford-upon-Avon though these days where Stratford ends and Shottery starts is a moot point.

[1] Nikolaus Pevsner & Alexandra Wedgwood, Warwickshire (Penguin, 1966) p. 397

Bicester North railway station

Bicester North railway station in Oxfordshire was built as a stop on the Great Western Railway Chiltern Main Line, opening in 1910. It was Bicester's second station - the other being the London and North West Railway's Bicester London Road, later called Bicester Town and nowadays Bicester Village on the line to Oxford).

The station as built was far more elaborate than the station which exists now. Like many stations before the Beeching cuts of the 1960s Bicester North had a goods yard and a couple of through roads. The Chiltern line was drastically cut back in the late 1960s, being singled for a lot of its stretch though a loop was retained at Bicester North [1]. The track was redoubled in the early 2000s and remodelled through the station to allow for higher speeds. The space formally occupied by the through road became the new Up (London) bound track through the station. The platform was widened as a result (which is why the waiting rooms and other buildings on that platform are so far back!)

The main station building is little changed since the opening of the station with the original canopy. The footbridge has been changed over the years though is largely as it was since the station was built, though lifts have been added. Originally the bridge had to span four tracks hence its width!

Chiltern 165 002 pulls into the station on a Marylebone bound service 

Main station building

View of the footbridge, note the width of the Up platform

View towards Banbury

Platform shelter, advertising Chiltern services to Stratford-upon-Avon

[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Princes Risborough to Banbury (Middleton Press, 2001) plate 63

Atherstone

Atherstone is a town at the very North of Warwickshire near the borders with Staffordshire and Leicestershire. Atherstone is in between Nuneaton and Tamworth and is also close to the site of the battle of Bosworth, which may have actually taken place in fields near Atherstone and not Bosworth.

Settlement in Atherstone dates back to Roman times with a Roman settlement in the adjoining village of Mancetter and the Roman road Watling street running through the town. Atherstone was listed in the Domesday Book and was granted a yearly fair by King Henry III in 1246 [1].

Atherstone became an affluent market town surrounded by agricultural lands and in later medieval times a centre for cloth and textile manufacture, being well known for it's hat industry. During the Industrial Revolution Atherstone was linked to the canal network by the Coventry Canal and the rail network by the West Coast Main Line though was eclipsed by the likes of Birmingham and Coventry industrially.

Church of St Mary

Former wharf on the Coventry Canal

Lock house on the canal

This part of the Roman road Watling street goes under the West Coast Main Line

[1] "Parishes: Atherstone." A History of the County of Warwick: Volume 4, Hemlingford Hundred. Ed. L F Salzman. London: Victoria County History, 1947. 126-131. British History Online. Web. 23 February 2019. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/warks/vol4/pp126-131.