At Buckler's Hard

One of our first outings was to the historic village of Buckler's Hard, originally known as Montagu Town and part of the Beaulieu Estate . The cottages stand on either side of the eighty foot wide track down to the River Beaulieu. Originally built for markets and fairs this huge expanse of land was used to store wood in front of the houses when the village became a prosperous ship building area.

The first place to visit is the Maritime Museum which tells the Buckler's Hard Story. This is a fascinating place and well worth a visit before you actually go into the village itself as it describes what life was like in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century for the people who lived there.

In the museum is a huge model which shows the layout of the village at the height of its prosperity when making boats for the Royal Navy. Three of the war ships which took part in the Battle of Trafalgar were built here including Lord Nelson's favourite ship HMS Agamemnon.

Inside the museum are details of the ship builders and models of the ships that were built at Buckler's Hard as well as a reconstruction of the village pub - The New Inn - where you can listen in on the chatter and village gossip taking place as it perhaps would have in 1790. There is also a reconstruction of a poor ship labourer's cottage. This is in great contrast to the shipwright's cottage which you can visit in the village. I tried to take several photos inside but the one below was the only one that was fairly succesfull - I loved the cat in the window!

Next door to the Shipwright's cottage is St Mary's chapel - this was created in the 1880s from the old school house and is still used today for worship.

Down towards the river you can see the ship building launch ways and also the jetty from which scenic cruises leave every so often on a thirty minute sight seeing trip along the river.

We spent quite a while looking around and had a picnic in the woodland area beside the river before moving on to Beaulieu Village. There is a two mile walk between the two villages which takes you along the riverside.

Back Home

We set out early on Sunday morning to collect my sister and brother-in-law and then it was off down the Fosse Way to the Cotswolds where we stayed overnight at Burford. The next day we travelled down to the New Forest and our destination of Milford-on-Sea. We had super days of sunshine, occasional cloud and hardly a drop of rain - just a little spurt of wet sea air rather than rain as we explored the historic village of Buckler's Hard. On our way back we stayed overnight at Bourton-on-the-Water. I'll write more about all the places we visited later but for now I have so much to do - the usual holiday washing and ironing, shopping, lawn cutting, snail mail and e-mails to answer as well as visiting you all to see what you have been up to whilst I've been away.

The ten days of our holiday went by so quickly and I have so many happy memories and images in my mind - here, for now, are a few of them.

Boat at Keyhaven

Sunset at Milford-on-Sea

Fallow deer in the forest

Mare and Foal by Priscilla Hann in The Furlong Precinct at Ringwood

The sea at Boscombe

New Forest ponies at Beaulieu

Black-headed gull at Keyhaven

The Rescue Dog display team at Hythe Marina