I was on the U1A bus to the airport at 7.30 am to pick up our rental car for the next week. A large MG hybrid.

Back to our Dover St. airbnb to collect the "girls" and off to the New Forest.

The first thing we noticed was the distinct lack of roaming horses and donkeys. Perhaps they "winter" somewhere else.

Beaulieu isn't as scenic in winter, and with the exception of the buildings around the water, not a lot to keep us for long. If you absolutely want to know more, check out my previous blogs at Beaulieu.

Bucklers Hard will always be scenic. Here we encountered a parking system that might be a world first. We walked from the car to the entrance and saw a sign that said, pay at machine befor eleaving. I thought, OK, a quick 10 minurtes to show Lee around and we'll leave rather than pay.

As usual, I'm posting some more of the history of Bucklers Hard below ... for those who want to venture further down my rabbit hole.

I love rounding the wall and having the expanse of the "village" open up with the Beaulieu River at the bottom where the three ship building slipways are still cut into the bank. To visualise Nelson great battle ships sitting in their cradles is a treat.

In building 43 ships for the navy, including 3 that served under Nelson at the battle of Trafalgar, they consumed over 86,000 oak trees. YES ... YOU READ CORRECTLY. Now you know why there aren't a lot of trees in the New Forest.

We revisited the chapel in one of the cottages. Here is a statue called the "Black Madonna". Even this Ferret going down many rabbit holes cannot find any explanation for this wooden statue. How to explain a statue of Mary with a hollow back into which you can insert your hand and then move her left hand from side to side. "Move along please, nothing to see here"

Fifteen minutes was surely short enough to avoid paying for parking.

NO. The car number plate had been photographed on the road into the carpark, fed into a computer which then calculated the fee ... payable before exit.

I'll post a separate blog about our next stop ... Christchurch. The original one, not the Kiwi one.

Buckler's Hard was possibly originally named after the Buckle family, who had been resident locally since at least 1668.

The suffix 'Hard' was added, as is the case elsewhere on the south coast, to signify 'a natural, firm landing place'.

The Buckles, however, were not involved in the development of the site.

In the early 1720s, John, 2nd Duke of Montagu, devised a plan to use Buckler's Hard as the location for a port and refinery for sugar brought in from West Indian plantations then in the Duke's possession.

In the early 1720s, John, 2nd Duke of Montagu, devised a plan to use Buckler's Hard as the location for a port and refinery for sugar brought in from West Indian plantations then in the Duke's possession.

The port was to be known as Montagu Town.

John Montagu, 2nd Duke of Montagu, founder of Montagu Town
Accordingly, what was previously just a landing place without houses, wharves or other items of infrastructure; was cleared of trees, a smooth slope was created leading down to the river and a quay constructed.

The 'new town' to some extent was planned as we see it today and included two sets of cottages, some thatched, running down to the shore, separated by a wide grassy street suitable for use as a general concourse and also as a site for markets and fairs.

The cottages, however, were not originally in continuous terraces but rather were in blocks with gaps between - later additions have filled the gaps.

But, unfortunately for the Duke, even before construction of many of the cottages was completed, the venture failed after access was lost to the principal sources of sugar on the Caribbean islands of St. Lucia and St. Vincent; and the site eventually reverted to its previous, popularly used name: Buckler's Hard.

Born in 1713, Henry Adams in 1744 was sent to Buckler's Hard from his post as a shipwright at the royal shipyard at Deptford, to oversee an Admiralty contract placed for the construction of a 24-gun ship, the Surprise.

Such secondments usually finished on completion of the related contract and the overseer would return from whence he came, but Adams by 1748 had married a local girl and, with support from the Duke of Montagu's steward, had set up as a shipbuilder.

Henry Adams stayed at Buckler's Hard until his death in 1805.

Adams quickly obtained a contract to build the 24-gun sloop, the Mermaid, which was launched in 1749, and after a brief absence of additional naval contracts, and despite further business cycle peaks and troughs, went on to build the hulls of many of the famous wooden warships of the day, including notable vessels used by Horatio Nelson's navy during the Napoleonic Wars.

From 1793, though, the day-to-day running of the shipyard was put in the hands of Henry Adams' sons, Balthazar and Edward. But although no longer directing shipyard operations, the old man had a semi-circular room built at his home, now the Master Builder's hotel, bar and restaurant, from where he would watch the shipwrights at work, calling them to him to be corrected whenever he noticed something of which he disapproved.

Buckler's Hard naval contracts after that time were in names of both sons: B & E Adams who completed a number of merchant vessels and a further fourteen Men of War - the last, the 74-gun Hannibal, was completed in 1810.
(2) Launch days
Launch days for some of the larger vessels were well-attended, joyous occasions, often the culmination of up to three years hard work by shipwrights, craftsmen, labourers and others.

Dignitaries often named the vessels and a bottle of wine was sometimes broken on the bow.

The launch of The Cambridge at Deptford in 1755 illustrates a scene enacted many times at Buckler's Hard, though probably without an accompanying Man of War - in this case, the 100-gun Royal George
But dignitaries could not always be relied upon - following the launch in 1800 of the 74-gun Spencer, for example, the Portsmouth Telegraph reported that 'as Earl Spencer did not come, as was expected, to name her, she was christened The Spencer by Sir Charles Saxton...' and went on to say that 'although the weather was unfavourable, a great company was assembled on the occasion' further noting that 'Mr Adams provided a costly and elegant collation for his friends.'

And then in 1804, at the launch of the 74-gun Swiftsure, between 3,000 and 4,000 people attended, some travelling in on foot and others in carriages. One hundred and ten guests were entertained at a celebration dinner, and the Ship Inn is said to have served an impressive 2,100 pints of beer.

But there was, of course, also serious business to be conducted as the hugely impressive hulls - 74-gun vessels were typically 170 - 180 feet long and almost 50 feet in breadth - were slid into the water. When in mid-stream, men on the deck threw ropes to others in small boats prior to what has been described as 'the long and strenuous tow' by men in rowing boats, to Portsmouth where masts, rigging and fittings were added.