Ringwood

After Lyme Regis we headed off for the New Forest, pausing to catch our breath at Ringwood. An old market town tucked in under the bend to the east of the A31, at its junction with the Salisbury Road. With most of the old town being just below the 'M' for museum in the snap above - a snap which nicely illustrates the advantages of maps made by cartographers rather than computers and not paid for by people paying to have their pin dropped in. With the other sort of map being included at reference 2.

A mysterious hole in the coast road heading east out of Lyme Regis. A sink hole no less. Now guarded by lots of cones and some lights, pending the arrival of workmen to do something about it. Maybe the same geology as drove the large buttresses noticed at reference 4.

A bit further on, this serious looking bit of agricultural machinery. Closer inspection revealed it to be a Horsch coulter, a contraption which unfolds to do all kinds of stuff, including planting seeds. All is explained at reference 5.

Fully deployed in this snap lifted from reference 5. One can only suppose that one has to have a lot of very big fields to justify what must be the considerable purchase price. The Internet is coy about price, so my guess is more than £50,000. Maybe there are lots of them in fields of the Ukraine.

Escaped from the A31 to find ourselves in a large car park, next to a surprisingly lively shopping centre, with the old town just beyond.

Facilities by Danfo, the people we had come across earlier in the year at Shanklin, on the other island and noticed at reference 6. I don't recall coming across needle disposal before, at least not in this context.

Coffee etc at a large and airy coffee shop, where BH spent quality time admiring all the cobwebs in the upper reaches. Clearly the cleaners stopped at mop-height.

And so onto the large and handsome church of St. Peter and St. Paul, perhaps once in the gift of the head of the Compton clan, memorialised above.

The handsome chancel.

Looking west from the east.

Extra mural activities. Which I had assumed were something churchy, something bible study orientated. But checking today I find that it is an IT training company, to be found at reference 7.

Suitably refreshed, we headed out east, to learn the hard way that while the A31 eastbound might carry you across the New Forest, it does not provide much in the way of access to the forest. Stony Gate failed us, only providing access left, while we wanted access right. Pushed onto Cadnam where there was a proper junction and we were able to head back south along the A337.

I had completely forgotten where we took our picnic, although I did remember BH buying the bread for it at Lyme Regis, thinking perhaps that it was a fairly leafy car park at Ringwood, quite possibly equipped with benches, so it may well be that we picnic'd at one of them. But looking at the map today, it all comes back to me. The picnic was taken at the Cadnam Cricket Ground, just off the A337, snapped above. A place where the grass had been cropped very short by the horses scattered all over. I associated to the Surrey disease whereby people keep far too many horses on far too little ground, which last eventually turns into mud. Bit a very pleasant place for a picnic for all that.

Do not be confused by another cricket ground turned up by Bing, across the water, outside Southampton. Stick with reference 8.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/10/fake-153.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/10/piano-63.html.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ringwood,_Hampshire.

Reference 4: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/10/sub-tropical-gardens.html.

Reference 5: https://www.horsch.com/en/products/seeding-technology/disc-seed-drills/avatar-1225-/-1825-sd.

Reference 6: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/07/danfo.html.

Reference 7: https://www.doulos.com/.

Reference 8: https://cadnamcc.play-cricket.com/home.