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.