Today Is Tomorrow's History
The annual Swan Upping event on the River Thames, started on Monday at Sunbury Lock in Surrey. I grabbed my camera, jumped on my bike again and followed the flotilla on the first leg, through to the Swan pub in Staines.
The annual swan upping event on the River Thames took place again in July, where hopes were high for an improved count over last year, when avian flu had badly affected bird numbers. This year, however, the flooding and high river levels will have washed away many nests, although some may be rebuilt later in the season, resulting in a lower count than might be expected, but still improved on last year.
It was 10 years ago since Chertsey last saw flooding like this. It was largely the same places that flooded and the same people whose lives were turned upside down again. In the meantime there has been very little progress (none?) in preventing flooding from causing distress and financial hardship for those affected, not to mention the health affects from being exposed to raw sewage, which is routinely dumped in our rivers.
It was 20 years ago today (November 26th, 2023) that Concorde made it’s last ever flight before being permanently retired from flying duties. That flight was a non-commercial flight which took it from London Heathrow airport to its final landing strip at Filton Airfield in Bristol.
Quite by chance I happened to be in London on October 24th, 2003 when Concorde made it’s last ever commercial flight, and permission had been granted for 3 of the aircraft to allow them circle at low altitude over London before landing for the final time at Heathrow airport. I was completely ill-equipped to take advantage of seeing the Concordes fly over Tower Bridge, having just a Canon EOS10D (6.3MP folks!) and a 24-70mm lens.
I did manage to get shots of all 3 of them, but I just can’t tell the difference other than the times that they flew over! This is definitely the last one though, which was Concorde call sign G-BOAG, piloted by Captain Mike Bannister.
Brooklands Museum in Weybridge, Surrey has a Concorde as part of its display of aircraft, and it is possible to book a simulated flight aboard the plane, with Captain Mike Bannister acting as the pilot for the flight. I managed to book a flight and discovered that it was capable of flying at Mach 2 or supersonic flight. There was a bit of shaking and bumping as we reached Mach 2 but it was great fun being there.
On leaving the aircraft after “landing” back at Brooklands you can walk past the cockpit and see one of the reasons that the Concorde was retired, as it is based on a very analogue system of switches and dials.
During my project to photograph the remains of the Brooklands Motor Racing Circuit at night, I was allowed onto the Brooklands Museum site and just had to take advantage of a lot of waiting around for long exposures to develop, by taking a “selfie” with Concorde!
It’s sad to know that it will never fly again, although it feels exciting to have been around when it was flying. Even as kids growing up we would occasionally hear it fly overhead on one of its many flights, and look up eagerly at an amazing piece of technology, and as it turns out now, history.
:D
With the news of extreme temperatures, and the fires in Greece, finally hitting the headlines in the UK, it’s pertinent to remind ourselves that, despite the current wet weather, these things are affecting us at home too.
Last year, around 50 hectares of the Hankley Common nature reserve in Surrey, were affected by a wildfire that took several days to get fully under control. After the fire had been put out I went to see the damage.
Continue readingThe Royal Tradition of Swan Upping takes place every July on the River Thames, so I got my bike out again, and headed down to Shepperton Lock to meet up with the Swan Uppers, on the first day of Swan Upping of 2023.
The alarm went off at 3:20am, and 12 minutes later I was on my bike heading towards Bushy Park, one of the Royal Parks, to see what sunrise would bring. As it was Clean Air Day, I decided that I would use zero emissions transport, which meant it took me around 50 minutes to get there, hence the early start, to be in time for sunrise.
I mostly followed the route of the River Thames, from Weybridge to Hampton Court Palace, and one of the things I noticed was there are a lot of flies and midges around at that time of the morning! With it being dark, it wasn’t easy to see them, so my breathing was in through the nose, and out through the mouth. Only one got through!
Continue readingOne of the truly remarkable things about my Spirit Of Brooklands project, was the realisation that nature is incredibly resilient, and, when left to its own devices, could prosper after apparent destruction. You would think that the laying of 3 miles of 6 inch concrete, would bring an end to the chance of anything growing there, but as this photo shows, nature can break through, and even thrive.
Continuing from my previous blog post Sunset OR Light Pollution.
Once I had decided that I wanted to continue with my Spirit Of Brooklands project, I then had to work out how to gain access. Now most of it is publicly accessible, but the land obviously belongs to someone, and if I wanted to publish the resulting photos, then I would need consent from the landowner.
As we enter 2023, I realised that it was 15 years ago that I took the first photo that formed the basis of my Spirit Of Brooklands project.
At the time, I had just bought a new camera which was meant to be good at long exposures, and I wanted to test it out. The darkest place I could think of was a banked section of the former Brooklands Motor Racing Circuit, where there was no artificial lighting, so would be pitch black after dark.
You must be logged in to post a comment.