11th July 2024 • The HERALD • Page 27 v INDEPENDENT, LOCAL AND PROUD v New Build, Extensions, Renovations and Roofing • All aspects of carpentry, brickwork and Roofing • All Roof repairs • Patios and Landscaping • Bathroom and Kitchen design and install Architectural Services with design, planning, technical and 3D offered in association with 023 8028 4420 info@blaydondev.co.uk info@newforestas.co.uk Waterside Carpet Cleaning PROFESSIONAL CARPET CLEANING! Using Prochem Equipment and Materials • SPOT/STAIN TREATMENT • Fully Insured 023 8066 0878 or 07770 337917 www.watersidecarpetcleaning.com Your Local Professional Electrician • Complete Rewires • Periodic Inspection Reports • Fault Finding & Repair • New Consumer Units • New Circuits • Central Heating Wiring • Extra Sockets/Lights • PAT Testing • No Job Too Small • Part P Registered • Fast & Efficient Service • Free Estimates Telephone Gary on 07788 865081 forestelectrical@gmail.com FLOATING ISLAND VALLEY – PART 1 by Robin Somes, Fawley and Blackfield Memories in 1810, the valley was closed o from the sea, more or less as it is now, with the small stream running from Stanswood Mill towards the sea. In the next instalment, we will look at the oating island itself. and busier than it is now. Stanswood is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, when it was a manor, with the mill and 33 households. LiDAR mapping of the valley does show evidence of various earthworks, boundaries and other structures, from the mouth as far up as Dean’s Bridge. ese could well have been part of a small port – just one of many such ports on creeks and estuaries around the Solent, serving otherwise poorly-accessible rural areas. Finally, it is said that various buildings around Fawley – including the barn alongside Jubilee Hall, and an extension of the Falcon - incorporated timbers from ships stranded in the estuary when the mouth was closed o . When those buildings were demolished in the early 20th century, the old timbers were uncovered. Certainly by the time of the Ordnance Survey map Most people who have walked around Badminston will have encountered Floating Island, a boggy valley between Badminston and Stanswood, through which the Bourne stream runs from Mopley Pond. It’s likely that the valley (roughly Y-shaped, with the western branch running towards Mopley, and in the east, towards Ower) was once a tidal estuary reaching the sea at Bourne Gap, between Calshot and Lepe. At some point in the 18th century a storm - perhaps the Great Storm of November 1703 - raised a shingle bar across the mouth of the estuary, closing it o from the sea. ere remains some evidence of it being open to the sea. Firstly, on the northern bank of the valley is an earthwork, variously interpreted as a prehistoric burial mound, an ancient post windmill, a small castle, and a windmill from more modern (i.e. Victorian or Edwardian) times. e idea that it was a recent windmill, of which photographs or drawings still exist, is popular locally, although there is no factual basis for this. e most recent interpretation is that it was a small castle, “possibly constructed to control the crossing to the Isle of Wight”, during the 12th century. e site now being over a mile inland, with little or no sight of the sea, does suggest that the valley used to be ooded and navigable by ships, at least at high tide – how else could a castle there “control” the crossing? Even now, the valley bottom, which has built up for some three hundred years, is only a few metres above sea level. It also suggests that the area was far more inhabited Floating Island valley (Photo: Robin Somes) Local 11 Year Old Wins Poster Competition e Directors of Chapel Lane Blackfield (Management) Ltd recently held a ‘Doggy Poo Poster’ competition, for children under 16 to design a poster, to draw attention to the dropping of dog waste on the greens and elsewhere in the Immie’s poster Immie Brannigan receiving her certificate from Martin (Chalkie) White Organiser/Director Chapel Lane estate in Langley. Chapel Lane Black eld (Management) Ltd maintain the greens and open spaces bordering the Chapel Lane Estate in Langley, o the Kings Ride, for the bene t of their resident shareholders. 11 year old Immie Brannigan’s striking poster design was the winning entry; she received a certi cate and an Amazon gi voucher. Immie’s poster and others have now been placed around the open spaces and the greens on the estate, which they hope will reduce the amount of dog poo le in the area.
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