Tag Archives: children

Quirky Dorset – Part 12

9 May

– – – Exploring The Countryside and Lanes of Dorset – – –

So we are looking at more ‘Quirky Dorset’ this week, things about Dorset that are a bit off the wall, unique, or just plain unusual. And today we are visiting a location on the Dorset coast and a rather unusual swimming pool!

The Dancing Ledge Swimming Pool

Filling the Swimming Pool

Dancing Ledge Swimming Pool Being Filled by the Tide

Dancing Ledge is a large, flat rock ledge that is all that remains of one of Dorset’s coastal quarries. There is some debate over where its name came from, some saying that it came from the way the waves seem to dance as they hit the rocks, and some saying that it was given that name because the ledge is roughly the same size as a ballroom dance floor. Either way, it is barren and beautiful.

Back in the late 19th century, children from the preparatory schools at Langton Matravers, notably Durnford School, would visit the ledge to swim. Durnford was a somewhat uncomfortable, spartan and severe school run by Thomas Pellatt and the daily ritual for the boys was ‘strip and swim’, and it literally was a complete strip, Pellatt himself being something of a naturist. There is no beach along that part of the coast, however, and the sea off the ledge was a dangerous place to swim because the waves could be large and the edge of the ledge was sheer, not to mention the very strong undertow. So much so that people have died being sucked under the ledge.

The swimming pool, Dancing Ledge

Reflections in the Dancing Ledge Pool

So Thomas Pellatt arranged for the quarrymen to blast out a ‘swimming pool’ near the edge of the rock so that the children could bathe more safely. Originally this pool had a grating over it which was locked when the children weren’t swimming, but this was quickly torn away by the stormy seas. This swimming pool was literally a giant, man made rock pool and of course it is still there today, the water being refreshed every time the tide comes in.

When the school closed at the time of the Second World War, regular use of the pool ceased. However, a few years ago it was cleared of debris and vegetation that had built up over the decades so that it could once more be used. In fact, I have swum there myself 🙂 !

On Dancing Ledge

The Sea Dancing at Dancing Ledge

Just as an aside, one of the most famous people to have attended the school and therefore swum in this pool was Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond novels.

Dancing Ledge is a lovely place but it is quite popular, especially at weekends. However, visit on a summers evening as the sun sets and it is a delightful place to just sit. And if it has been a hot day’s walking along the coast, there is no better way to cool off and refresh than to jump into this somewhat quirky ‘swimming pool’! Mind you, you will have to climb down to it from the upper ledge first!

Thanks for stopping by.

Until next time,
Your friend The Dorset Rambler

If you would like to contact me, my email address is terry.yarrow@gmail.com – comments and feedback are always welcomed.

All photographs, poems and words in this blog are the copyright of The Dorset Rambler and must not be reproduced without permission.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Daily Picture

24 Sep

This was a shot I took on a recent walk along the sea front. There were lots of children running around and playing but this little girl was just stood watching the sea and the waves. It was late afternoon and warm light from the low sun was striking the girl making her stand out from the darker sea.

Waiting!

Waiting!

The contrast between the frail child’s body and the powerful sea just struck me and it seemed like she was just waiting for the sea to swallow her up. I processed the picture to try to bring out this feeling of threat and the inevitable frailty of human life in its physical form. Fortunately of course, the physical life is not all there is…….!

A couple of days after I took this picture, the body of a 3 year old boy was washed up on a Hungarian beach as the family tried unsuccessfully to sail across to Europe. This sad event that was reported world wide just seemed to make this picture more poignant so I thought I would share it on my blog.

On a technical note, it was taken using a 500mm lens that has the effect of compressing the perspective which adds to the feeling that I was trying to convey.

Thanks for stopping by.

Until next time,

Your friend
The Dorset Rambler.

If you would like to contact me, my details are on my website which is http://www.yarrowphotography.com – comments and feedback are welcomed.

All photographs, poems and words in this blog are the copyright of The Dorset Rambler and must not be reproduced without permission.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Daily Picture

27 Aug

As you probably know, it takes quite a long time to prepare a full blog entry with photographs and I walk an awful lot so have limited time to spend at my computer. This means that there is often quite a long gap between posts. I thought therefore that I would occasionally post a ‘Daily Picture’ in between my full walk blog posts – this is the first of those and I hope you like it.

A Helping Hand

A Helping Hand

This picture which I called ‘Helping Hand’ was taken yesterday on a gentle walk along the sea front. These two cycled past me and the little girl, who I think is probably the granddaughter of the man in the picture, was struggling against a stiff head wind so he put his hand on her shoulder to give her a helping hand. I found it quite a moving scene because it made me think about my own grandson and the privilege we have as grandparents, along with the parents, to have an input into the lives of our grandchildren, helping them to grow into fine adults. This responsibility and privilege is something that I really treasure and I thought I would share this picture with you.

On a technical note, the picture was taken with a modern digital camera but the lens I used is a 40 year old manual focus 500mm Cat lens. This pre-dates autofocus and is a difficult lens to focus manually – in fact its a difficult lens to just hand hold – but it has a lovely shallow depth of field and separates out the subject beautifully from the background. When they passed me, I had to quickly grab my camera and run into a position where I could capture the shot. There was very little time because they were disappearing into the distance so I was really pleased with the way the shot came out. Incidentally, the light colour on the road is sand being blown along the road by the wind.

Thanks for stopping by.

Until next time,

Your friend The Dorset Rambler.

Comments and feedback on this blog are welcome. If you would like to contact me, my details are on my website which is http://www.yarrowphotography.com.

If you would like to join me on my walks, my Twitter feed is http://twitter.com/adorsetrambler.

All photographs, poems and words in this blog are the copyright of The Dorset Rambler and must not be reproduced without permission.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

The old and the new – year that is!

3 Jan

Image

First of all, I wish you all a very happy new year.  May 2013 bring you health, happiness and fulfilment, and a fresh discovery of all that is beautiful in God’s created countryside around you. For those of you who follow my blog, thank you for taking the time to read it and for all of your kind comments.

The end of the year always seems a good time to take stock and to review all that has happened over the last 12 months so I did a review of all the walks that I have done in 2012.  Excluding the ‘Sunday afternoon strolls’ (which don’t necessarily happen on a Sunday but you get the picture), the following are my statistics:

Full day walks completed – 100
Total distance walked  – 1,250 miles
Average distance per walk – 12.5 miles
Longest single day walk – 35.2 miles

I don’t normally keep such detailed figures but as I am writing a book on walking in Dorset, I need to check distances and timings.  The statistics make interesting reading however and just reinforce how very fortunate I feel that in my 65th year I still have good health and the energy to enjoy my favourite past-time.  I feel blessed!

The coming year will be a special one because it is not only my 65th birthday, but will be the year of my official retirement, my wife has a significant birthday ;), and it is also our 40th wedding anniversary.  And of course, God willing, it will be a year of lots more walking.

Looking back over the last year put me in ‘reminiscing’ mode and I came across some old photographs which were taken some 35 years ago :)!

Image

Image
What the well dressed walker was wearing 35 years ago 😉

A rather fetching outfit don’t you think ;), especially the red hiking boots, which incidentally were leather and cost me all of £7!  In those days, I wasn’t able to walk quite as much as I do now since I was the sole bread winner and had a young family and a mortgage to support.  This meant working full time and trying to make some money out of photography in my spare time.  Weekends were either valuable family time or were spent photographing weddings.

However, I did manage to carve out some walking time, sometimes escaping with one of my brothers for a Saturday jaunt, or perhaps taking my son along in a rather battered carrier that we managed to acquire :)!

Image
Father/son time 🙂

Another way I managed to get my walking time was by going out early in the morning.  I would get up at 3 am in the summer and be able to do a really good walk and still be home in time for breakfast and to spend the day with my family.  There is nothing better than being in the countryside or on the coast first thing in the morning before anyone is up and watching the sun rise as you walk, to watch the earth waking up after its night of slumbering.

Later, as my children were growing up, we developed a great arrangement – my son Paul and I would take off for a days walking whilst my wife and daughter would do ‘girly’ things.  Later, at my wife’s suggestion, we bought a two man tent and Paul and I started backpacking on some weekends, usually along the Dorset coast.  At first of course I carried everything on my back but as Paul grew, he gradually started to share the load.

Our trips grew over the years and we started to go away for walking weeks, often to the Lake District where we would camp in the Great Langdale Valley, but also to Scotland, North Wales, The Brecon Beacons and so on.  We would walk all day, cook dinner on the stove outside the tent, and then take an evening stroll to our favourite watering hole which was The Stickle Barn Inn.  I remember how much lighter the evenings seemed to be in the north of England and we would walk the mile or so back to the tent at 11 pm and it would still be light enough to see.  Of course it was probably helped by the fact that there was no light pollution!

Image
The Dorset Rambler and Son at The Stickle Barn Inn 🙂

These were special times and they have given me such wonderful memories.  To anyone reading this who has children, I cannot recommend highly enough the value of spending time together in the outdoors, especially in this computer age we live in.  It will build strong and deep relationships as well as encouraging a healthy interest in nature and the countryside.

Paul and I still walk together and thoroughly enjoy each others company, in fact I am blessed with having a great relationship with both of my children – well adults I should say :)!  What more could a man ask for!

I could continue to reminisce for hours but I fear you would become bored.  So to come back to where we started, I don’t necessarily wish you wealth as that is transitory, I wish you health and happiness as these are so much more fulfilling and long lasting.

A very happy new year to you all.

Be blessed!

Thanks for stopping by and reading the ramblings of The Dorset Rambler.

Until next time,
Your friend
The Dorset Rambler.

If you would like to contact me, my details are on my website which ishttp://www.yarrowphotography.com – comments and feedback are welcomed.

All photographs, poems and words in this blog are the copyright of The Dorset Rambler and must not be reproduced without permission.

Tags: , , , , ,