GLOBE INN FUN

There was an old woman who lived in a boot,
She had so many children, she built them a chute.

Excuse the nursery rhyme remix, I couldn't resist it!
Anyway, the kiddies slide at the top was in the gardens of The Globe Inn in Sandhurst.
The picture under it being the Globe Inn itself.
Despite its beer garden having a riverside vantage point, the pub later closed down and became a Chinese restaurant.

UPTON OR PORTWAY?

Well there is no mistaking where I was when I took the top picture - Upton St. Leonards.
When I was viewing the sign, I thought I recognised the thatched cottage in the design, albeit with a certain amount of artistic license involved, and I'm 99% sure that it is depicting the one in the above photo.
The only thing is, this cottage is in Portway!
I thought Upton St Leonards and Portway were 2 separate entities but it looks like they come under the same banner.

DERELICT DOCKS

I really liked the run down look of this dilapidated building near Gloucester docks.
Not sure how the central part of the building managed to get a large chunk ripped out of it mind you because the surrounding structure is still fairly intact to a certain extent, but the wild plant life has made a pretty good home for itself - it's even reached the rooftop!
Incidentally, in case you thought that there must have been a lot of debris flying around in the air when I took the picture, well no, I just decided to oomph the image up a bit by adding a touch of grunge!

WITCOMBE'S ROMAN RUINS

This is what remains of a Roman villa on a hillside near Great Witcombe.
It was excavated in 1818 and photographed by me in 1997.

SHAPRIDGE SHELL

The remains of this old building on a hillside near Shapridge were being held in place by bits of scaffolding and wooden buttresses.
To me, however, the building seemed beyond repair to be considered for restoration work, and I don't think they would go out of their way to hold it together with the intention of knocking it down later, so I've no idea why it was being kept in this condition in the first place.
It must have some local interest, perhaps it's a rare example of a particular style of architecture or maybe somebody famous once lived there?!!

COUNTRYSIDE STRUCTURE

Now here's a little building that I liked.
It was somewhere around the Coberley area only I can't recall if it was hidden away all on its own or was part of a farmstead, but I thought the wild growth on its rooftop made it appear like an ancient Scottish croft.

THE QUAY CLUB

Woah....tacky or what?!!
I don't think the leopard skin look would have even attracted the junglist crews!
Anyway, banter aside, this was the nightclub that took over from KC's discotheque in the 90's.
However, here was one Gloucester club that didn't manage to find the quay to survival and so had a rather short lifespan as a consequence.

THE SUB TONE

I took this picture of Cheltenham nightclub, The Sub Tone, back in 2003 when it was fairly new on the scene.
It's still doing the biz today after a decade of attracting some of the top DJ's around, although nowadays the painted info on the outside has disappeared.
"Phat & Phunky" of course referring to the music rather than the clientele!!

PRINCE ALBERT IN GLOUCESTER

Yet another picture of mine showing a pub that's no longer on the go.
This time it's the Prince Albert in Gloucester.
Well this is how the building looked in the mid 90's anyway, but sometime around the early 2000's I think, it was turned into a trendy pub. The name change I now can't remember but I do recall the horrible exterior paintwork done in a colour-scheme of dark grey and purple!! No idea if it is still like that these days.
Incidentally, I had to stand in the middle of a roundabout under a tree to get this shot!

THE AIR BALLOON

2 shots of The Air Balloon with 2 different looks.
I'm pretty sure the picture with the dark boarding signs up was the first in the sequence as the flowery one above it has an extension at the back of the building that isn't on the lower photograph, but both were taken in the 90's.
And if anyone fancies tracking down this little pub to give it a try, you'll find it on the outskirts of Birdlip.

GOLDEN HEART INN

Here's a view of the front and back of the Golden Heart Inn which is near Birdlip.
It's a quaint old Cotswold pub and B&B.

CHACELEY POND

A view from the pond in Chaceley looking across at the church.

ELDERSFIELD POND

Geographically, this place called Eldersfield is nearer the Malvern Hills than the Cotswolds, but because it was on the map of the Cotswolds I was using back then, I thought I'd include it in with my cycling pictures.
It's a neat little village - but one thing marred this particular visit. I took my sunglasses off to take a couple of photos when I was having a wander around the place, but went and left them behind when I departed.
So if anyone living there found a pair of flip-style sunglasses sitting on a wall back in the mid 90's - they're mine!!

LAMBS IN THE SHADE

One black lamb and one white lamb frolicking around in the shadows of the trees at Port Ham.
They seemed to have sussed how to stay clear of the nearby nettles anyway!

COW IN THE SHADOWS

I spotted this cow hiding in the shadow of a tree in Highnam.
It wasn't feeding because there wasn't any grass around the trunk so I suppose it was just getting out of the sun for a while.

SANDHURST HORSE

This was in the middle of a morning heat-haze so perhaps the horse was just about to find a bit of shade under the tree.
The shot was taken in the Sandhurst area.

GOAT POSE

Not sure why, but this image almost has an Alpine look about it - I kind of half expect to see Heidi skipping past!
Anyway, far from being up a hillside, the real location couldn't be flatter as it was taken around the Over area.

BUFFER BUFFET

I found this scene rather amusing for some reason - cattle having a feast on these abandoned rail lines on the outskirts of Gloucester.
The cow in the bottom picture was looking at me as if I've never seen cows having a railway buffet before!!

SEVERN DEBRIS

You can see the river Severn's normal water level on the right, which now should help you envisage the level it reached when it burst its banks prior to this photo.
Just look at the amount of debris the river carries around, the trail left by the flood water goes on the entire length!
This snap was taken at Sud Meadow.

DEFUNCT DREDGER

I got the impression that this dredger along Sharpness Canal had been retired from service.
The aquatic plant-life appeared to be taking over the vessel...revenge perhaps??!

POND PLANT

There's not much to this photo really - I just liked how the wispy yellow shrub looked against the deep blue pool in the background.
The picture was taken in the Port Ham area.

UNDER UPTON WOOD

Although I know the location of this place, I'm not so sure what name it goes under.
It's an area near Prinknash Abbey, with Upton Wood in the background.
The buildings in shot appeared to be occupational buildings rather than domestic homes, so perhaps they are connected to the Abbey in some way.

AWRE INSPIRING

Here's another image that has a pleasant calming effect.
It's a view across the Severn as seen from Awre, so this would be looking over at roughly where Slimbridge is.

LAKE AT FRAMPTON

Here's a nice relaxing photo I took of the lake at Frampton on Severn.
Although it was all very peaceful on this particular visit, I'm pretty sure this place is used for all sorts of water sports, so on another day I could have been snapping images of speedboats and water-skiers!

A DOZEN COWS & NO DUCKS

At least these cows, unlike the ones in yesterdays image, managed to get down to the waters edge for a feast!
This photo too was near Tirley.

3 COWS & 100 DUCKS

These ducks seemed to be keeping the cows away from the waters edge by taking control of the area in large numbers!
This little scene was captured near Tirley.

OLD WIND POWERED WATER PUMP

This old style wind powered water pump reminded me of the kind I used to see in old cowboy movies, but this aint Texas, I think this picture was taken somewhere around the Caudle Green / Syde area, although I can't recall it's precise location now.

ON REFLECTION

The reflection of the tree in the centre seems to be a perfect fit for the small stream beside it.
This little scene was around the Sandhurst area.

SEVERN SKY

This would have been a pretty bland shot if it was just an ordinary blue skied day, but because of the dramatic cloud formation and reflection, it's been turned into something a bit more eye-catching.
The picture was taken at Sud Meadow.

POST MODERN BARN

I spotted this little barn scene out the corner of my eye as I was whizzing through the countryside one day.
It couldn't be more basic but I just liked how the white horizontal lines against the black vertical lines went together.
Reminded me of the minimalist artwork of John McCracken...although I doubt that's what the Sandhurst farmer had intended!

GLOUCESTER RUGBY GAMES - 1996?

I can understand why all this red & white imagery attracted my attention as I was cycling past and so stopped to take a snapshot of the display, but why I ended up doing a second shot of it I've no idea because I have no interest in rugby whatsoever!
Anyway, I have these photos down as both taken in 1996, but I notice that there are 2 different sponsors on the board. So either one of them isn't 1996, or maybe if one sponsor was for a league game and another sponsor for a cup game, then both could still be from the '96 season I suppose.
Don't ask me who won or what the scores were because I aint got a clue, but perhaps if a supporter of Gloucester, Pontypridd or Dunvant spots this post, they might be able to fill in the details.