Stockbridge and the Storms of February 2014

Stockbridge before a storm

The town of Stockbridge has been facing the risk of flooding for the past two weeks as a result of the storms and heavy rains that have swept the country. The local flood coordinators hand delivered

a guide to residents on 7th February warning them what to do to minimise the risk of flooding and sandbags were issued by the Test Valley Council to be placed in doorways and over air bricks to prevent potential water entry.

The River Test above Stockbridge on 15th February 2014

By 14th February the water meadows above the town were widely flooded and the River Test had risen to its highest point - 9ft - on the marker at the main road bridge. But as the storms passed on 15th, only two properties in the fields above the town, one at the lower end of the High St and two on the Houghton Road reported water ingress - mostly from under the floor. The main river and the subsidiary channels across the High St were in full flood but water didn't escape their banks except where this was intended - as in the water meadows. With better weather forecast this week, it looks as if the threat of flooding has somewhat receded.

Even at it's highest point, the main river was flowing three feet below the road bridge and so there was no risk of it backing up - as it had when parts of the town flooded in 1963 because the river could't get under the low narrow arches of the old bridge that the present bridge replaced. The river keepers opened sluices to allow the river to spread as widely as possible over the water meadows and they kept the channels flowing smoothly, clearing branches and other debris as soon as it fell.*


View Larger Map

The Test rises at Ashe just short of Basingstoke, about 17 miles from Stockbridge, and flows over slight gradients through water meadows, chalk farmland and villages, being joined by the Bourne at Whitchurch and the River Anton at The Mayfly before reaching the town, so it can never gain the volume of a long river like the Thames. Nevertheless the water table remains extraordinarily high and the flow experienced over this weekend was impressive, so only great care taken with its management even in good weather will allowed it to continue to pass through the town without causing significant damage.

Rainfall map for January 2014

I have just seen the rainfall map above showing January rainfall for the UK and am interested to see that Hampshire is part of the area that has experienced the highest rainfall of all. It will be fascinating to see the map for February, but it does bring home how fortunate we have been in Stockbridge and how well designed and managed the river defences have been.

PS: The rainfall map for the early part of February confirms this winter to be the wettest on record, and the areas most affected are much as in January the map above.   

For photos taken from 7th February to 7th March 20-14 in and around Stockbridge, click here 

*The real heroes of that flood were Ray Hill, manager of the Houghton Fishing Club and his team who were out all night every night making sure that no trees and/or other detritus had fallen into the river and were impeding the free flow downstream.  Had they not done this, in very short order, the water level above the obstruction would have risen and serious flooding would have occurred above and beyond that which did.  Frequently they had to enter the water up to their armpits to reach and clear obstructions, all by the light of hand held lamps.  It was VERY dangerous work, because at any  moment a large tree could have borne down on one or other of them out of the darkness and carried them away with irresistible force.   

Postscript from Roger Tym in 2018: Since then, the Houghton Club have installed two flood protection devices.  Above the bridge, there is now a spillway installed to ensure that the water level of that part of the river that ends up behind the Greyhound (and along the carrier that flows parallel to the High Street and about 300 yards N of it, ending more or less at the recreation ground - where it then flows S – or what is left of the flow),  is never higher than ordinary summer levels – which are c.2.5 feet above the level of the water in the river proper at the same latitude.

The second device is a by-pass weir and gate at Kingsmere Weir, about 150 yards below the bridge.  If ALL the boards are taken out of this device, which is 8 ft wide,  the water level of the river above the bridge drops by some 1.5 ft.

These two measures should ensure that the north of Stockbridge should not flood again from excess surface water levels in the system.  They will NOT prevent long term ground water flooding both N and S of the High Street if there is prolonged rainfall in the Autumn and Winter, but that amount of rainfall would now have to be very considerably in excess of that which we had four years ago.  This is because the flooding then was caused by a combination of both ground water and surface water excesses.

I am familiar with this because I got the funding for both schemes for the Club (£50k from TVBC and the County) and applied for and obtained planning permission for them, but the Club will forever have to maintain them..

The Dazzling Fluidity of Days

There's a lot in this article from the New York Times that mirrors my own use of cameras since the 60s. And since the arrival of the iPhone 5s, I have almost stopped using a larger camera (a Lumix) and the Nikon DSLR is just gathering dust!

Furthermore the time spent with the family in Australia brought home to me how photos are now edited and shared on an almost real-time basis, with context replacing quality as the primary goal.

Indeed it is context that most needs enhancing now: photos should come not only with technical metadata about the photo itself, but facial recognition, links to the website and blogs of
those in the photo, the history of the place in which the photo was taken (especially of landscapes where battles and other historical events should be accessible though links), weather,
geography and topography, flora and fauna, links to any reviews which you or your friends might have written to the venue (for hotels, restaurants and clubs), and the like. The idea is to give the
fullest context to the shared event.    

This line of thought reminds me of the strap-line of this Journal: 'No medium has yet been devised for the translation of life into language, nor can any words recall the dazzling fluidity of days. Single yet fixed in sequence they fall like the shaft of a cataract into time and through it.'  (Freya Stark - Beyond Euphrates). For me, this is the great attraction of photography, as a single image can capture a moment in life in a way that prose or poetry can do only with great effort. And the growing ease of sharing our images moves us still closer to this dream. 

S. Venkiteswaran 1941 - 2013

Venky in Stockbridge High St 2013

My dear friend 'Venky' Venkiteswaran died on 21st December 2013 following several years of increasing ill health. His ashes were scattered in the Ganges at Rishikesh by his sons Kumar and Anand on 23rd December and prayer meetings have been being held before his funeral on 1st January.

Venky was an exceptional man; a brilliant advocate who passed early though university and law school and argued his first case before the Supreme Court when he was only 21. Most of his long career was spent in the Commercial Court where he specialised in shipping matters, founding the Chambers which bear his name and training many of India's leading shipping lawyers and judges.
Venky was the best kind of lawyer - a 'consigliere' - who was sought out as much for his worldly counsel as for his legal skills. He acted for many of India's shipowners, transport operators, agents, and port owners and was frequently called upon to advise the Government and the Director-General of Shipping as well as the Indian Register. Venky also headed Pandi Correspondents, set up at the request of three P&I Clubs to advise their Indian and foreign shipowners, and much of his time was spent in dealing with their more complex cases. He maintained exceptionally strong links with the Clubs in London as well as the insurance market. In 2004 his services to the shipping community were acknowledged when he was presented with the Varuna Award. He also acted for the Indian Commercial Pilots Association, and Indian Pilots Guild and defended their pilots in several notable crash investigations. He was even retained by the Indian Wrestlers Association! He served on the boards of the National Stock Exchange, SICIC and Gujarat Adani Port and other commercial organisations.

I first met Venky in 1972 and maintained a close relationship with him and his family - his wife Lakshmi, his sons Kumar and Anand and their wives Hema and Ranjini and his grandchildren - ever since. We visited several places in India and Europe together and while travelling often enjoyed his fine cooking skills. He attended the weddings of two of my children in Australia and he and Kumar even attended church with me in Litchfield. Fortunately, he was well enough in May to visit Stockbridge with some of the family and in July I visited him in Mumbai as one of those helping him gain accession of the Indian Maritime Law organisation which he had founded to gain membership of the CMI.

Venky was a great friend to many and an exceptionally loving father and grandfather. His death at only 73 leaves a great void and great sadness.

Many prayers have been offered at the ceremonies around his funeral. A lovely eulogy was given here

I have also created a small terrace in my garden in his memory - known as 'Venky's Terrace' where I can imagine his still taking a whisky with me in the evening.

 

 

Thomas Miller Carol Service 2013

The Thomas Miller Carol Service 2013 was held at St Katherine Cree Church, Leadenhall St, on 18th December 2013. The beautiful neoclassical church - the only surviving one in the City - has been extensively restored over the past few years with financial assistance from a number of City institutions including Thomas Miller and is now is a now very fine state of repair. I have written before about its fascinating history, notably here, and earlier posts have links to some of the carols we sing. This year, after the usual get-together over sandwiches in the office nearby, we retired to The Trident, a club in Mitre St, which has been taken over by one of our fellow retirees, Chris Simpson, and is now a well-patronised watering hole serving excellent food backed by Chris's warm hospitality.

Thomas Miller Carol Service 2011
Thomas Miller Carol Service 2010
Thomas Miller Carol Service 2009
Thomas Miller Carol Service 2008

Coventry Cathedral Carol Concert

The Cathedral seen through the John Hutton West window

A lovely traditional carol concert was held in Coventry Cathedral on 14th December 2013, with St Michael's Singers and the Cathedral choir singing with the Coventry Youth Orchestra conducted by Paul Leddington Wright. For more photos, click here 

Wellbeing of Women City Christmas Fair at Drapers' Hall 2013

Drapers' Livery Hall ringed with stallholders

The Wellbeing of Women Christmas City Fair was held once again at Drapers' Hall on 2nd December 2013, and was more successful then ever.  53 individual stalls were ranged around the Livery Hall, the Court Drawing Room, the Court Dining Room and the Court Room. A percentage of each stall's takings go tho the charity which also charges £5 entry. The Drapers give their hall for free. For photos, go here 

Favourite Gardens - The Buildings in Autumn

The grasses in autumn - photo taken with an iPhone

The grasses in autumn - photo taken with an iPhone

Making the Garden at Old Swan House 2013

The new area for grasses, the yew hedge and the lower terrace and paths (as yet ungravelled)

The garden at Old Swan House has been landscaped over the past two weeks by Brian Dibley, and is now almost finished. The plan was to update the pleasant but rather 80s garden to create distinct rooms including a gravel area in which to grow grasses, wall off the parking area with yew hedges, provide new paths and paving and create an orchard. Most of that has now been done, apart from planting and sowing the orchard and turfing part of the remaining lawn. And it has been too wet to gravel some of the new paths and the lower terrace. More photos will be put up when these are completed.

The urn contrasting with summerhouse

The urn and the borrowed landscape

A new path to the house using paving taken from elsewhere in the garden

Update: The planting begins!

Grasses being placed before being planted. The box are there just to stop the unplanted pots being blown over in the wind

Favourite Poems - Ithaca

Ithaca

When you set out on your journey to Ithaca,
pray that the road is long, full of adventure, 
full of knowledge.
The Lestrygonians and the Cyclop,
the angry Poseidon -- do not fear them:
You will never find such as these on your path,
if your thoughts remain lofty, if a fine emotion touches your spirit and your body.
The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,
the fierce Poseidon you will never encounter,
if you do not carry them within your soul,
if your soul does not set them up before you.

Pray that the road is long.
That the summer mornings are many, when, with such pleasure, with such joy
you will enter ports seen for the first time;
stop at Phoenician markets, and purchase fine merchandise, 
mother-of-pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
and sensual perfumes of all kinds,as many sensual perfumes as you can;
visit many Egyptian cities, to learn and learn from scholars.

Always keep Ithaca in your mind.
To arrive there is your ultimate goal.
But do not hurry the voyage at all.
It is better to let it last for many years;
and to anchor at the island when you are old, rich with all you have gained on the way; 
not expecting that Ithaca will offer you riches.
Ithaca has given you the beautiful voyage.
Without her you would have never set out on the road.
She has nothing more to give you.
And if you find her poor, Ithaca has not deceived you.
Wise as you have become, with so much experience, 
you must already have understood what Ithacas mean.

Constantine P. Cavafy (1911) 

For more Cavafy, see here 

Richard Shaw 1940 - 2013

Richard Shaw at Southampton University

My old friend Richard Shaw died peacefully on 16th October 2013, having suffered from a brain tumour since March.  A warm and kindly man,  he was one of the City's finest maritime lawyers and a specialist in Admiralty cases. He was a scholar at Bancrofts and read law at Oxford before signing on as an AB on a cargo ship for a voyage to Australia.  After a stint of teaching in Adelaide, he began his City career with Richards Butler and became a well-known admiralty specialist at Elborne Mitchell before leaving in 1979 to start his own firm, Shaw and Croft, with Roger Croft in 1980. He was especially useful dealing with cases that involved French, as he was fluent, his father having been the manager of Barclays in Bordeaux. His first case at Shaw & Croft was one of the world's largest collisions - the VLCCs Atlantic Empress and Aegean Captain which collided fully laden in a tropical rainstorm off Tobago, leading to a spillage of oil that is still listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest from ships. We handled the Atlantic Empress side of the case together and I learned a great deal from him. Later he was involved with the Piper Alpha oil rig explosion, the Aegean Sea oil spill, the Tricolor collision and sinking and in advising underwriters and the police in tracing the proceeds of the Brinks Mat robbery. 

Richard retired from Shaw and Croft in 1995 and went on to teach maritime law at the Southampton Institute of Maritime Law, specialising in marine insurance and salvage (he was the editor of Kennedy on Salvage). He was also active in the British Maritime Law Association and the Comite Internationale Maritime, where he was elected Member Honoris Causa in 2012.

Richard loved sailing, keeping a boat at Lymington near his country home and hill walking, in the company of his fellow lawyers Stuart Beare and Patrick Griggs. Richard leaves his wife Avril, who supported him throughout his long career and looked after him wonderfully during his illness, two sons and a daughter. His ashes have been scatted at Newtown Creek, on the north coast of the Isle of Wight, a place he loved.