Tag Archives: Woolston

March 26, 2012 · 1:28 pm

Inspiration for my novel writing ~ The five elements influencing my blog

There are now five major influences on my creative writing although these are ever evolving:

  1. My Family History ~ My quest to find out that my great-grandmother who was born on the island of Alderney and, not out of choice, relocated to Woolston Southampton.
  2. The island of Alderney itself. It is wild, beautiful and like no other and each time I visit I come to love it more.
  3. Woolston, Southampton, which holds many happy memories of visits to grandparents and holidays as a child.
  4. Social History ~ learning, and to a certain amount predicting, how events in history had an impact on everyday lives.
  5. Early Flight ~ With my uncle and grandpa working at Supermarine before the war, until it was bombed and they were relocated. Once I started my research I became fascinated by those early pilots; their daring in venturing into the unknown.

I have written a great deal about one, two and three above and so my next two blogs will focus on four and five. You can see these influences in the cloud of topics to the right hand side of this blog and, for those of you who like things neat and structured, I apologise. I can only follow where my heart leads me and I am glad many of you have enjoyed and shared my thoughts.

My ideas for future writing are beyond these five elements, but all seem to share a common thread.

What are the influences in your writing?

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March 5, 2012 · 10:55 am

Trains and Boats and Flights! A Day to Remember

We often spent a week in the summer holidays with out grandma in Woolston and I must have been about eight years old when she took my sister and I on a little adventure. We waited excitedly for the bus at the end of Newtown Road, Woolston and climbed to the top deck for the first leg of our journey to the Floating Bridge, which then took us over the River Itchen next to where the Hoverport was situated, just opposite the site of the Supermarine Works. (long gone by that time) 

It was our first ride on a hovercraft and I remember the noise and anticipation as the craft lifted up on its skirts and glided down the slipway and on to the river. It was quite a different feeling many years later on a cross channel ‘flight’ when I likened the experience more to going up and down in a lift as we traversed the waves in the Channel from Ramsgate. This time though, as we sped along Southampton Water, we watched the familiar sights of Weston Shore and Calshot Spit pass us by and soon The Isle of Wight was in front of us, filling our horizon.

At Cowes we walked a while to find a quieter spot to have a picnic before making our way to catch a bus to Ryde where, never being people to shirk exercise, we walked alongside the train to the end of Ryde Pier where we caught the ferry, this time back to Portsmouth. Although it was nothing like the speed of the catamarans today, we were soon on the mainland once more and heading for the railway station. The ride back to Woolston took us behind Newtown Road and I can only just remember sitting with my Grandad on a style to watch the steam trains go by maybe four years earlier before he popped into the The Gardeners Arms where he played dominoes each day with his friends.

Happy memories eh? It was lovely that my last post stirred several memories for readers too. It would be lovely to hear from you if you have other stories to tell; either post a comment here, send me a tweet, say hello on Facebook or send me an email

dianaridina@yahoo.com

Riduna on Twitter

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Filed under Family History, Southampton, Supermarine, Woolston

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January 23, 2012 · 11:52 am

Frivolous Flying Fact No 4 The rum and the umbrella!

I read this amusing story in a wonderfully detailed account of early flght to The Channel Islands called:

                 From Sea Eagle to Flamingo – Channel Island Airlines 1923 – 1939

                                           by Neville Doyle

You can buy this through stockists via Amazon  or Brian Cook’s Aviation Bookhouse

Here’s the story paraphrased for your enjoyment:

The pilot Henri Biard explains that one passenger could sit in a cockpit in the bow of the plane and two more seated behind this. The pilot was sat just in front of the wings and engine.

It was a stormy day at the end of September1919; extremely cold with gale force winds and hail to contend with. Apparently back in Woolston Hubert Scott Paine ran out just before they set out and thrust a bottle of rum into the hand of one of the passengers, a Swedish millionnaire, to help to keep out the cold.

After about half an hour into the flight the temperature was deathly and the Swedish passenger took a swip from the bottle of rum, after which he tried to pass it back to the pilot. Unfortunately, all the rum poured out and was blown in the slip stream right back into the face of the pilot Henri, making him blinded for a few moments.

Not content with this, the passenger pulled out a gold handled umbrella, which he attempted to open above him. Quick thinking on the part of Henri, who could imagine disaster if the umbrella got caught in the propeller, he grabbed the umbrella and bashed the passenger on the head, knocking him out for the duration of the flight, another five hours!

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Filed under Book reviews, Channel Islands, Early Flight, Flying Boats and Sea Planes, Frivolous Flying Facts, Woolston

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