We've had a pretty quiet couple of days here in Southampton. Pretty well caught up on our sleep without any jet lag, however we were somewhat sleep deprived by the time we arrived.

We arrived with a bottle of Whitley Neill Lemongrass & Ginger Gin, which Keith then proceeded to make into Martinis. 3 Jiggers of gin, half a jigger of Noilly Prat Vermouth and a splash of gin for the glass. How Ches remained upright as long as she did is a mystery. Drew had killed the "fatted chicken" for a welcome roast dinner.

Drew and Keith bought their apartment 3 years ago. It's one of 4 apartments at 8 Rockford Place. They had originally signed a contract to buy the apartment on the top floor, however the owners couldn't buy into London, so withdrew. That was so fortunate because shortly thereafter, when Keith was visiting us in Australia, Drew rang to say that he had found the apartment in the middle was bigger and just on the market.

The significance of Rockstone Place is that it is one of the best addresses in Southampton and at No 8, they are just 3 doors up from the former residence of Major-General Charles George Gordon CB (28 January 1833 - 26 January 1885), also known as Chinese Gordon, Gordon Pasha, and Gordon of Khartoum. It was actually his father's house, but the only residence he lived in for any time. The houses were originally large three-story homes, converted into schools, then offices and finally apartments. Four apartments per house.

I did a little googling about Gordon and it occurred to me that there is a similarity between he and Cliff Richard. That's Sir Cliff Richard of The Shadows. I was also astonished to find that Gordon donated 90% of his income to charities. I guess the army was footing the bill for his everyday life, so the money wasn't needed.

Sunday and Monday were lazy days with just a couple of walks into town as far as the Bargate. The Bargate was built in 1180 by the Normans as the main entrance to the town and separates the old town from the shopping precinct. The walk on Sunday was to reconnoitre where we might go to buy sim cards for our old phones and visit Waterstones bookshop. Half an hour, and I didn't buy a book. I must be improving.

June is LGBT Pride Month in Southampton, and as we walked back through the park, there was a band playing and the locals were scattered on the grass throughout, turning into lobsters.

While we didn't bring Tom on this holiday, we still needed Google Maps to navigate our way from Southampton on a circuit of Priories and Castle near Portsmouth. Who would have thought that our guide would be Sheila. All the way from Mackay in Queensland and she doesn't end a sentence with "ay". Swapping Tom for Sheila hasn't been all plain sailing; she does have a habit of announcing our arrival, when we have passed the entrance to a Priory by 100 yards or so. I say yards because we are in England; a country that has blended Imperial and Metric, just to confuse us. As in, we are driving by the mile but buying petrol by the litre not gallon. Which means that petrol at L1.90 isn't cheap at $AUD2.85 per Litre.

Reversing up 100 yards in English country lanes isn't for the faint hearted, so in future, when approaching our destination, I'll have Ches get out with a flag and walk ahead of the car to identify the entrance.

Tuesday was the day we had a quiet drive to Southwick (North of Portsmouth), Porchester Castle, Tichfield Abbey, Netley Abbey and Royal Victoria County Park. Just an hour and a half of driving time, with leisurely stops at each.

The most obvious observation we made as we left Southampton was how green is the countryside. We decided to venture as far south as the furthest destination and work our way back home. Sheila took us into the heart of Southwick and vaguely pointed into the direction of the Priory. All we could see was the entrance to the Defence School of Policing and Guarding. We did a Uey and tried another fork in the road. It took us through the village where every building was still decorated in coronation bunting.

After driving down a private dirt track, a guy mowing lawns told us that we would have to park out on the street and walk a track through the brush, around a pond and then we would find a single wall … all that remains of the priory. We looked up an image on the net and decided to go on to Porchester Castle instead.

Porchester Castle is huge. Built inside Roman walls is a Norman Keep, surrounded by a moat and the corner of the walls on the landward side. There is also a church and graveyard, however most of the space is a vast lawn. While it was lovely and sunny, the breeze was cool. We had morning tea provided by church volunteers at their café, walked the walls and entered the Keep via the drawbridge. This is a vast Keep; the second highest Norman Keep in the UK and it also so large that it would have housed hundreds of people.

It is believed that Marcus Aurelius Carausius was the first to begin building it. That's the Marcus Aurelius who wrote the stoic philosophy book; the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius ". He was a military commander of the Roman Empire in the 3rd century.

It wasn't always used to keep people out. It was first use as a state prison in 1655, during the second Anglo-Dutch war, when some 500 prisoners were held in the castle.

About 2500 prisoners were held in the War of Austrian Succession (1740-1748) and several other thousands during the Napoleonic wars (1793-1815). The castle could manage to hold about 8000 prisoners at a time!

On to Tichfield Abbey. Through a very narrow gateway in the walls, we found a line-up of sports cars including a Jensen-Healey. The owners had set up for a picnic in a corner of the grounds. A sign stated that the parking fee was L2.00, however we couldn't see a ticket machine anywhere. Only later did I discover that we should have gone to an online website and paid there. I guess the figure that there is no longer anyone who doesn't have a smart phone.

The highlights for both Ches and I were the chimneys and the floor tiles. The chimney because it was probably added when converting it from an abbey to a home. I looked up inside the chimney and saw that it took a decided turn to the right to bypass a large window that would have been fitted with stained glass. The flooring tiles have survived despite exposure to the elements for hundreds of years.

For those interested, I'll include more history about the abbey at the end of this blog.

We're not exactly in the countryside for most of the day. It's a case of driving through the suburbia that runs from Southampton to Portsmouth. It's lots of winding roads and traffic lights as we head further north to the grand Netley Abbey.

It's only when we go to sites such as English Heritage that we appreciate some of the things we had seen. For instance, we saw lots of bright red bricks built in among the original stone and flint walls. We assumed that they had been added to replace the crumbling ruins. There have been a number of places we've visited in both France and England where they have done this. Rather than restore faithfully, they insert brickwork to define what's new and what's old. In this case however, they were used to repurpose rooms, and make structural changes.

Disaster struck in the fourteenth century. The abbey was too close to The Solent. Passing mariners demanded hospitality and in 1338 stole large numbers of the abbey's flock of sheep. The days of the abbey's financial prosperity were over. It struggled with debt thereafter. In this case, when Sir William Paulet was converting it from an abbey into a Tudor residence, he used the red bricks to repurpose rooms.

We spent a long time here, as did Orta, in just soaking up the atmosphere. They say that people have been doing that for hundreds of years, with romantic poets and painters such as Constable inspired by the ruins. In the 1840s the abbey became a popular place for local people to come for tea, dancing and music. Some visitors complained that the romantic atmosphere was ruined by 'the popping of ginger beer'.

Later, changing attitudes led the owner to clear the vegetation and debris from the ruins. All traces of the later Tudor alterations were removed, and the abbey ruins were returned to their 'pristine elegance'.

Ches hasn't been able to find any Ginger Beer so far, so we very quietly strolled around. As with other sites today, we have only had to share them with half a dozen or so people.

Our final stop was the site of the Royal Victoria Hospital, also at Netley, All that remains today is a vast walking parkland with the sole building, the Royal Victoria Chapel. I'd always thought of a chapel as being a modest small building for intimate services. I guess the Victorians never did anything on a small scale.

The hospital has been demolished. Florence Nightingale and her colleagues often gave advice when not invited, where she saw bad plans proceeding, repeating the mistakes they knew all too well. "This occurred notably with plans for the immense army hospital at Netley, on the south coast of England near Southampton, named after the Queen, the Royal Victoria Hospital. Designed while the Crimean War was still in course, it was built for magnificence—it became the longest hospital in the world, an impressive site from the sea. However, it was on the corridor system, with double wards on each side, and so no cross-ventilation. Hundreds of patients and staff were exposed to the same air. Nightingale published three (unsigned) articles in a major architecture journal, The Builder, and numerous (anonymous) letters to the editor critical of it. Colleagues joined in the criticism and substantial changes in the plans were made. Nightingale also thought that the site was dangerous, exposing sewage from the city of Southampton at low tide, however, this seems not to have proved to be a problem."

Our major lesson for the day was that ice cream is not going to be a major feature of our summer holiday in Britain. At L3.00 ($AUD6.) for both a soft serve at the Royal Victoria Hospital and a minute serve of salted caramel at Porchester Castle, it's obviously the stock standard. We were always stunned at the small serves of ice cream we saw Kirsty and Phil eating on Location, Location, Location. It's for real.

Home by mid afternoon after a very leisurely start to our English sojourn. Sadly, when I came to post this blog, I realised that all of the URLs that I had included, to send you for more interesting information is blocked at this site. I had to delete them and it may have made the finished blogg somewhat disjointed.

Tichfield Abbey

The abbey of St Mary and St John the Evangelist was founded in 1231/2 by Peter des Roches, Bishop of Winchester, for Premonstratensian canons, an order founded at Prémontré in France and known also as the 'white canons'. The canons lived a communal life under monastic vows, but were also involved in the wider community, preaching and teaching the Gospel. Of the 14 or 15 canons here, two served as vicars to nearby parish churches.

The abbey owned many thousands of acres of land and had its own farm buildings and a series of fishponds. Titchfield was a good stopping-off place for journeys to the Continent, and Henry V (r.1413-22) stayed there before departing on campaign in France

At the Suppression of the Monasteries the abbey was granted in 1537 to Thomas Wriothesley, later 1st Earl of Southampton, who was a loyal civil servant to King Henry VIII. He played a key part in the suppression and was given monastic lands as a reward.

Central to Wriothesley's new domain were the 11 manors and 5,000 acres (2,024 hectares) surrounding Titchfield Abbey. He proceeded to transform the main abbey buildings into Place House, a residence fit for a rising courtier.

Royal guests at the house included Edward VI, Elizabeth I and Charles I with his queen, Henrietta Maria. Wriothesley's grandson Henry, 3rd Earl of Southampton, was a patron of William Shakespeare and it is believed that some of Shakespeare's plays were performed here for the first time.

On the death of the 4th Earl of Southampton Titchfield passed through several families, until 1781, when most of the building was demolished for building stone. In the early 20th century archaeological excavations helped to clarify the layout of the monastic buildings.