spamcan61

A local example for me of how little landmarks which are of no importance now but are there because of WW2: if I drive from Spamcan Towers into the next village there's a stretch of road (Derritt Lane) about 100yds. long where the surface level has been raised by about 3 feet, so it's level with the surrounding fields. The reason this section is raised is that during WW2 an airstrip was built across the road, so it needed levelling up.  No point in reverting to the original level after the war, so it remains like that to this day.

https://www.hampshireairfields.co.uk/airfields/win.html

Thanks very much for taking the time to write this, I live just outside the New Forest  on the Christchurch side, so I'm somewhat familiar with places like Lepe and Bealieu as they are today, fascinating to learn what went on in the fairly recent (relatively speaking) past.

I did the different axleguard each side thing on a Parkside Vanwide (IIRC) I left it like that as I can't see both sides at once ;-)

I'd never heard of it either, visibility for landing must've been poor with the cockpit that far back; presumably due to the girt big engine in front.

My son has strip of these round the edge of his desk, again cheapies from China, they're on 24/7 and suprisingly have lasted years.

On 01/01/2020 at 02:03, Stoker said:

Another recommended book that goes into more detail is Charles Thurlow's China Clay: Traditional Mining Methods in Cornwall, which can be found on Amazon for the price of a cup of coffee.
 

Thanks also from me for your comprehensive replies; I have ordered the above book via Amazon for a couple of quid, and noticed another relevant book by the same author so ordered that as well:-

https://www.amazon.co.uk/China-Cornwall-Devon-Charles-THURLOW/dp/B00AGE54ZG/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=charles+thurlow&qid=1578081846&sr=8-4

Turns out the seller of the above book lives literally 100 yards down the road from me, so I had my copy hand delivered this morning, small world!

As it happens I took the dog out for a walk yesterday morning and came across a ploughing competition in progress, so wandered over at took a few photos with my phone. Not quite the range of traction types shown above but still plenty of old (and not so old) machinery in action.