Weekender: Chichester
For Joe and Elaine Ormerod and their grandsons, Chichester provided a great base for exploring naval and motoring history
Joe and Elaine Ormerod and family explore maritime and motor history
GOODNESS ME, DOESN’T time fly? The school holidays had come around again, and our two excited grandsons were ready for their next adventure. We were staying at Chichester Camping and Caravanning Club Site and had already planned lots of visits for the holiday; so we wasted no time on our first day, catching a bus that delivered us close to Portsmouth Historic Dockyard just as it was opening. I’d ordered our tickets online – by far the cheapest way – and joined the shorter queue to collect them. We dashed off to the far end of the Dockyard to visit Nelson’s famous flagship, HMS Victory, before it got too busy. We were issued with headphones and handheld audio guides, which the boys enjoyed. Laid down in 1759 and launched in 1765, HMS Victory is best known for her role in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. At the time of this historic battle, the ship had 821 crew and 104 guns. Since 1922, HMS Victory has been in dry dock at Portsmouth. She is currently undergoing a 13-year, £35m conservation project, involving timber preservation, checking the rigging and engineering. This work didn’t detract from our visit, though, because we could see where restoration had already been carried out. Thomas and Daniel sought out each information point to use their audio guides. Emerging on deck, we found the brass plaque that indicates where Nelson fell at the Battle of Trafalgar. “Wow,” exclaimed Daniel, “right here?” Hearing this, a nearby guide produced a piece of shot from his pocket and explained that it was an example of the type of ammunition that killed Nelson. Thomas was a little dubious that this could kill a man, until the guide explained that when it came at speed, it did a lot of damage. Later, going below, we saw where Nelson died. Daniel was in awe, history unfolding before his eyes. We all voted this a really brilliant tour.
Fish and chips for lunch
Our visit passed so quickly, it was already lunchtime when we left HMS Victory. We headed for Boathouse Number 7, a large, hangar-like building, where we dined on
fish and chips. Then, suitably refuelled, we decided our next step would be the harbour tour by waterbus, which was included in our tickets. This fascinating trip gave us a different perspective, both of the contemporary ships, such as destroyers and frigates – this is a naval base – plus a great view of HMS Warrior, which we were visiting next. Back on dry land, we climbed aboard HMS Warrior. She was launched in 1860 and was Britain’s first iron-hulled, armoured battleship. Powered by steam and sail, she was the fastest and most powerful warship of her day. In fact, enemy fleets were so intimidated by this obvious strength that her 40 guns were never fired in anger. HMS Warrior returned to Portsmouth in 1987 and has been a museum ship ever since. The years between HMS Victory and HMS Warrior saw some changes in marine design – the height of each deck is greater and there are better facilities for the crew in the younger ship. By now, though, we were getting tired; so after refreshments, we caught the bus back to the campsite.
Museum for the car crazy
Rain was forecast for the whole of the next day, but Joe and I had planned for this eventuality. We knew our car-mad grandsons would love the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu. There’s more to Beaulieu than cars, although this very impressive collection includes 285 vehicles, the oldest dating from 1875 – the Grenville Steam Carriage, with a top speed of just under 20mph. In contrast, you can also see Damon Hill’s Williams-renault FW18, in which he became Formula One World Champion in 1996. And then there are all the cars in between: from my favourite, a Rollsroyce Silver Ghost dating from 1909, to many other vehicles that took Joe and me down memory lane. As a keen Land Rover fan, Daniel just had to find one particular exhibit – the Land Rover R.04 is one of the oldest surviving pre-production models, dating back to 1947. The boys are also keen on Lego, so they gave the Lego caravan a critical viewing, declaring it brilliant. However, Thomas’s favourite was definitely the Royal Caravan, made by Rollalong and presented by the Caravan Club to Prince Charles and Princess Anne in 1955. We stopped for an early lunch in the museum’s excellent café, then continued our visit. You can also see motorbikes through the ages, and lots of motoring memorabilia, amounting to about 46,000 objects, such as lamps, posters and driving licences. At one point, Thomas and Daniel disappeared around a corner, where they found the Pods: little vehicles for two. Joe and Daniel climbed into one, Thomas and I sat in another, to take an audiovisual tour through the history of motoring. This was great fun, but informative, too. Outside, and back in the rain, we took a ride on the monorail, which glides over the gardens to Palace House, home of the Montagu family and Beaulieu Abbey. We wanted to squeeze in a visit to Chichester, passing through the
‘Rain was forecast for the whole day, but we knew our car-mad grandsons would love to see the Motor Museum at Beaulieu’
New Forest en route, where we saw some wet, miserable ponies trying to find shelter under the trees.
Cathedral city
We decided to catch the bus to Chichester, which stops just outside the cathedral. The first building we saw, however, was the Market Cross, originally built in 1501 as a covered marketplace. We were about to investigate further when the rain came down, so we hurried inside the cathedral. We were just in time to join one of the free guided tours – our guide pointed out lots of things we would never have noticed. Thomas and Daniel were always at the front of the group, completely absorbed. There’s been a cathedral here since the 1100s and on one occasion, it and most of Chichester suffered a serious fire. The cathedral was rebuilt and reconsecrated in 1199. Built in the Norman style, then added to in the Gothic style, the building seems to have been prone to disaster. Several tower collapses have occurred, which also explains why the bell tower is separate from the cathedral – unique among England’s medieval cathedrals. We had packed a lot into the day and all four of us were tired; we caught the bus back to the campsite. On our final day, we set off to the Park and Ride outside Portsmouth. Our Historic Dockyard tickets were valid for a year and there were more things we wanted to do. We caught the waterbus to Gosport to see HMS Alliance, Britain’s only remaining World War II submarine. The visit started at the torpedo store, and we had to walk single-file through the accommodation area to the control room. I asked our guide how the size of current submarines compares with HMS Alliance – it looked enormous to me – and was told to “multiply by 10”.
Tudor flagship
Our last stop was the Mary Rose, Henry VIII’S favourite warship, which sank in the Solent in 1545 and was raised in 1982. The museum has innovative projections onto the hull of the ship, together with authentic sound effects recreating what life was like on board in 1545. Despite this, it failed to capture the boys’ imaginations. There’s a wealth of fascinating information and artifacts, but just not for the boys at their ages. As we left the exhibition, Daniel said, “Oh look, can we go on that?” – ‘that’ being HMS M33, which was built in 1915 and is one of only three British warships surviving from World War I. Alas, there was no time, but as I pointed out, our tickets last for 12 months. Guess where we’re going next year?