DISUSED FUEL DEPOT

This derelict old fuel depot in Hempsted goes back to the war days.
I didn't go any further than this point with my camera but apparently there are still underground bunkers at this location.

KING JOHNS TAVERN

Like the one in yesterday's post, this is another pub that has had a change of name since I took the picture.
This was the King Johns Tavern in Tewkesbury, and although the building is still there, it is now called the Boat House.
You should be able to make out on the photo that along the car park area of the pub, it has King Johns Tavern spelt out using red flowers.

OLD FERRY INN

This Severnside pub at Chaceley Stock has had a couple of different names over the past few years, but I think it was called the Old Ferry Inn when I took this picture back in the late 90's.
It is presently named the Yew Tree.

SEVERN DUNE

The silty mud along the edge of the river Severn is usually to be avoided for walking on because your feet just sink way under. There is the odd occasion in summer, however, when the mud dries out and cracks in the heat, and so I took advantage of one of those moments to venture onto the muddy edge and grab this nice shot of a grassy dune.
Location was around the Sud Meadow area.

SLIMBRIDGE SIGN

I recall I quite liked the village of Slimbridge, but I never actually visited their bird sanctuary area. I remember thinking that it might be a bit on the touristy side for me, so this big roadside sign was as far I got!

THE PHEASANT

This old pub sign no longer exists.
The Pheasant, located around Staverton way, closed down and was later transformed into an Indian restaurant called "The Pavillion".
The sign was actually right across the road from the pub, but today, although the post is still in the same position, the sign itself has since been taken down.
For some reason, the Indian restaurant does have it spelt as Pavillion (with 2 LL's) on the building, but according to my dictionary, it is spelt with 1 L, as in Pavilion..!!

NEWNHAM BANNERS

I couldn't help notice these arty banners protruding from a building in Newnham as I was cycling through the town centre.
They all seem to have an Afrocentric kind of look so I'm guessing they may have been advertising an art exhibition or festival that was taking place at the time.
This would have been around the mid/late 90's period.
Made a nice change from hanging baskets anyway!

BARROW BARRELS

How's this for a picturesque thatched cottage? Looks like it's straight out of a book of fairy tales!
I'm not actually sure though if it is a domestic home or a workplace - perhaps a bit of both. There appears to be 2 large circular features resembling some kind of air ventilation in the walls that could indicate that it is a place of work, then again they may be ornamental carriage wheels to give it that country cottage look.
Well whatever, what I do know is that I took this photo around the mid 90's in a small village called Barrow.
Your guess is as good as mine as to what was in the barrels - wine?...beer??...gunpowder???

OLD MILL HOUSE

This property in Blaisdon had 2 slightly different names when I took the picture back in the 90's - the one on the post says "The Mill House" and the one on the wall has it as "The Old Mill".
So whatever it's called, since then, it has had a 3rd name added to the collection because it now has a "Bed & Breakfast" sign up as well!

COLONY HALL

I took this picture of Colony Hall when I was cycling through Whiteway in the mid 90's.
Quite a nice little building it is, tucked away on a small piece of ground off the main road.
Whiteway, as I'm sure most of you who live locally will know, is a village that was started up by devotees of Tolstoy and who opted to live an alternative lifestyle.

THE COVERED MARKET

This was taken at the Covered Market in Oxford in 2002.
As you can see, it's an old fashioned indoor shopping zone made up of stalls and small open-plan shops.
The main shop that is the focus of attention in the photo is called The Garden, the place to go for fresh flowers and the like.

SYDE CORNER

This is typical of the kind of detail you'd see in many villages in the Cotswolds - lots of local stonework with plenty of plant life beside it.
And this particular pleasant little corner was in Syde.

BARBERS BRIDGE NURSERY

The flag at the top attracts the attention of passers-by, and when going over to investigate you encounter all these luscious flower displays.
The location was Rudford and the name of the place is Barbers Bridge Nursery.
Although the garden centre itself was on a small, intimate scale, well compared to retail park warehouse equivalents at least, their ideas were on a grand scale - from large hanging baskets to creative ornamental exhibits.
I took these pictures around the mid 90's, and if anyone is interested, Barbers Bridge Nursery is still in business today.

WALHAM WADERS

The algae on the surface of the water almost turns the shot into a semi-abstract image, but the ducks didn't seem to mind the coating.
This splash about took place at a pond in Walham.

SWAN SAFARI

It looks as if the swan could have done with a machete to make its way through this thick grassy growth, but it seems there was just enough water there to help it plough through it all.
The location was near Tirley.

OVER THERE!

These goats seem to be unconcerned about the Unidentified Fruity Object hovering menacingly nearby.
Out of curiosity, I conducted my own investigation into the UFOs appearance, and it turned out to be a promotional prop for a field where you pick your own strawberries.
This was at a place called Over Farm - so this may also explain the oversized fruit!

THE TWO BEARS

I've often seen guard dogs at the perimeter fence of country houses, but this is the only time I have seen guard bears!
This unusual sight was in Hempsted.

THE EAGLE HAS FLOWN

Earlier in June, I put up a few pictures I took in the mid 90's at Cowley Manor gardens, focusing on their grand old fountain which had fallen into disrepair.
On one photo was a close-up of a stone eagle that was part of the fountain decoration, but on another photo it revealed that there should have been an eagle on the other side of the fountain too, making a symmetrical matching pair. However, the other eagle wasn't there, just its plinth.
So, a while later, still in the mid 90's, I was having a wander around Highnam Arboretum, which is 12 miles away from Cowley, and I spot this stone eagle above, sitting under one of the trees - an exact match to the one in Cowley.
So is it the missing one from the fountain I wonder, or a look-a-like?

UNDER THE TREE

Not sure if there was a clump of mistletoe higher up on this tree in Stroud, but I caught this little romantic scene going on underneath it.

THE ROTTEN APPLE TREE

There were a couple of times on my cycling trips that I found myself filling my backpack with apples from trees that were growing on empty wasteland. Be as well to put them to good use I reckoned rather than just have them wither away.
The example above, however, which was located in a piece of waste ground near Upton St Leonards, although it had lots of apples on the tree, it was in fact the middle of a frosty December when I took this shot and so all the apples had either gone rotten or had been half pecked away by birds. Needless to say, my backpack remained empty after stopping off at this one!
You'll also be able to see that the tree had a large clump of mistletoe attached to the centre of it.

TWO ORCHARDS

Here's a couple of orchards, the top one not yet with its fruits but the other fully laden with apples.
However, silly me forgot to take note of where they were so now I can't refer to their location.
All I know is that they are definitely 2 separate spots, but what with there being dozens of orchards around this neck of the woods, it may be a while before I can hunt them down on a map, so you'll just have to settle for the nice blue skies for now.

WATERSMEET INN

This is an anglers pub called the Watersmeet Country Inn which is located in Hartpury.
Well it's not just a pub, it also has hotel facilities.
The main feature about the place though is that it has its own fishing lakes.
The top picture was taken at the front of the pub doorway, and at the back of the building are the lakes, one of which is featured in the second shot.
I took these snaps in the mid 90's but the entrance area to the pub & hotel have since been modernised.
Incidentally, those trees with their egg shaped fruits are John Downie apple trees, which I think were removed during the modernisation work.

FISHING IN AWRE

I stumbled across this old fishing shack at the top when I was having a wander around the village of Awre in the mid 90's.

It had a stack of conical fishing baskets at the side of the shack as you can see in the second picture.

I discovered afterwards that these are quite unique to the Severn and are called "Putcher Traps".

If you go back to the top image you will see a small bridge on the left, so naturally I went over it out of curiosity and it lead me down to the river's edge where I then encountered more of these putchers stacked up in a grid structure, as seen the third photo.

This is the arrangement that has them waiting for the tide to come in, hopefully to supply the baskets with salmon!

PARK PENITENTIARY

Despite yesterday's birds living in the equivalent of a ghetto, I still think they ended up in a better situation than these ones here, locked up in a cage in Gloucester with a view looking out into the open space of the park that gives them a teasing reminder of their plight!

DILAPIDATED DOVECOTE

In contrast to the pleasant, luxurious even, bird tables and shelters I've put on display over the past few days, I suppose this structure here could be considered a ghetto.

The crumbling feature at the top joins 2 derelict buildings in Gloucester docks and the pigeons have turned it into a makeshift home for themselves.

I used a zoom for the second shot to show all of the nooks & crannies where they have taken up residence!

BIRD TABLE AND DOVECOTE

Thought I'd end the run of bird table pictures with the one at the top which is probably the most extravagant example I've got, a 4 tier Tudor mansion by the looks of it!
The maker of the bird table would have no doubt been inspired by the real thing, as it were, and the image below it is one such Tudor beamed dovecote, located in Hempsted.

BIRD TABLES 7 & 8

Spoiled for choice some birds were in the Cotswolds, as you can see with these 2 contrasting bird table styles.
The top one is almost like a scale model of a real Tudor house - and the ones below it look as if Anthony Caro had been commissioned to design them!
These were actually part of a display outside a garden centre somewhere around Gloucester.

BIRD TABLES 5 & 6

Here's a couple of examples of bird tables on display that kinda have a similar look to the homes they are beside.
The top image was taken near Huntley and you may be able to spot a resemblance going on with the structure on the bird table and the conservatory at the house.
The other shot, taken around Sandhurst, features both houses with a typical Cotswold old wooden beam look.

BIRD TABLES 3 & 4

The owners of the top garden sure liked their birds - bird table, bird feeder, bird box.....
I was rather fond of their old style bird table, complete with weather-beaten slates and roof feature!
Not 100% sure of the location of that one but it was either Botloe's Green or Clifford's Mesne which are up near Newent. If I track it down I'll put the correct place in later.
The other photo I do know was taken on the outer rim of Gloucester and in this garden they had quite a plush Tudor beamed bird table.

BIRD TABLES 1 & 2

Here's 2 posh bird tables set in rather grand surroundings.
The top picture with the white doves making a home for themselves, was taken in Wallsworth, the building in shot being the Nature In Art Museum.
The 2nd picture with the white regency styled building was taken in Maisemore.
I actually ended up at the Maisemore house by mistake. Not having been to this area before, I cycled along a side-road which I thought was taking me into a park or suchlike, but when I reached the white building I had the feeling I was in someone's private driveway, so I quickly took this snap and scarpered!
I discovered later that it was a private dwelling.