Portland bill, with that famous lighthouse and it's foghorn.
Something I never knew was the fact each foghorn on each lighthouse around the UK was a distinct and easily recognisable but unique sound, being deaf I do hear the foghorn itself but probably couldn't tell them apart like most of you.
Interesting concept of remembering the sound of different foghorns while at sea.
Something not really needed nowadays with modern technology and sat navigation.
Sad to say in a way, shame it's not common to hear now, that foghorn provokes some memories.
It's something this generation and the future generations won't be aware of, sometime this foghorn is likely to stop being used. Who knows?
The fact that today's generations won't lay in bed late at night and know it's foggy outside due to hearing this foghorn seems a little sad.
There must be lots of my generation and older around the UK with their own memories of their local foghorn bellowing on those stormy or foggy nights.
Portland bill would certainly be a different place without the lighthouse itself, which hopefully will never happen.
Looking at Portland itself and the shape of it as it sticks out from the coast you can appreciate how important this lighthouse was many moons ago.
Chesil beach has seen it's fair share of shipwrecks for the evidence of that.
These days, Portland bill is the perfect getaway for some summer fun and peaceful hot days with long warm nights for the locals, many of whom are owners of the beach huts out there, that's while all the holiday makers pack Weymouth beach out.
Now as the summer draws in and gives way to Autumn, Portland bill gets quieter again one more.
Time for the (all wooden) beach hut owners to deal with any problems spotted over the summer, prepare it for the harsh winters Portland bill has, battering winds and rain, not to mention the salt spray from the sea.
Time for the local businesses, the restaurant/gift shop hut, and Pulpit inn to count up the summer takings and hope that along with the coming autumn and winter trade with Christmas specials and the like gets them through to next spring, summer.
Whatever happens, the charm of Portland bill is there to stay. A shame that foghorn is not always going to be a part of it.
Just reading this brings back all the memories of chilhood on the rock.....I left there when I was 13 but still had some of my best memories right there,hope to come back someday soon. Keep up the good work with this,always makes me smile to read your blog and see the pictures.
ReplyDeleteHiya Shelley,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment, funny how everyone who leaves say's that, they would all like to come back someday. I probably would if moved far away. :o)
Hard to take the place of your childhood out of you though I suppose.
Glad you like the blog, will make some changes I think, improve it some and make it better overall, including some more content.
Be interesting to see how you readers like it, or not. :o)
Rob
I remember so well the first time I heard the lighthouse. We had only been on Portland a few weeks and were living immediately behind the then Borstal. One evening the fog came down and as I looked out of the back window towards the Borstal I remember thinking how eerie it was - a ghostly sight. Andy was at work and the boys were in bed tucked up for the night. I settled down to watch TV and wait for Andy coming home around 9 o'clock when suddenly I heard this loud boom - I nearly jumped out of my skin! In those days, the foghorn sounded like a foghorn and I thought for all the world it was in the back garden. Soon we got used to it, just as we got used to the helicopters when they were practising night flying. A year of so later we moved to Southwell and the first time it sounded off again,I thought once more it was in the back garden. But, it was a comforting old sound, made you think someone was out there looking after you.
ReplyDeleteAnother time I remember being out the Bill with Iain and Jamie in their pushchair and I was pushing them just in front of the lighthouse when suddenly it sounded off and I took the full force of the blast in my back and was like a piece of jelly for days afterwards. Neeless to say I hardly ever walked in front of it again. I do miss the comforting sound of the old hooter but sadly progress comes first, or should it.
A ghostly sight indeed. ;o)
ReplyDeleteI like that look alot, you probably had a great view from behind the borstal, not been up there on a foggy night though.
I loved that BOOM! :o)
Sorry Sylv but that last paragraph made me laugh. :o/
I'd never walk in front of that bleeding great thing!
Did the lads wake up? lol...
I found a great comfort in a sense hearing that foghorn as a kid, hearing it now would make me feel nostalgic big time.
Rob
hello rob i came remenber the foghorn in the good old days and i can hear it clearly from courtlands and its nice 2 hear again when i come home from Denmark twinny
ReplyDelete