A damp and chilly morning today didn’t dissuade 8 of us to clamber aboard the Blue Star No6 bus for a trip to Lymington. 

It was quite a meandering route taking us into areas new to several of us.  Also, unfortunately, because of the recent bad weather the windows were badly obscured with mud splashes and raindrops and gave a good impression of travelling through a London fog.    A good bit of chat helped to pass the time until past Lyndhurst when the sun decided to put it’s hat on and come out to play and give us a bit more vision to enjoy the scenery. 

Arrived at our destination and trotted off to the St Barbe Museum which has a very welcoming cafe and we all settled down to some refreshment.    Strangely enough, although we ordered individually we had all chosen a drink and a toasted tea cake.

Entering the museum we saw exhibits of very local history which were clearly displayed and interesting to see and read about.  Moving into the second half of the museum the current temporary exhibition was displayed entitled “Wood engraving of the past 100 years”.    It explained how illustrations were made for books, posters and pamphlets,etc, prior to the photograph.  A drawing was made which was then traced over and transferred onto blocks of wood.    Engraving tools then cut or gouged into the wood following the lines of the drawing.  On completion, the face of the wood was covered in black ink, paper placed over it and the whole thing passed through a press thus providing the monochrome picture.    Ingenious!

There were about 50 or 60 framed pictures for us to admire many of which almost looked like photographs themselves.    A lot of the examples had been lent to St Barbe by the Ashmolian Museum but there were also quite a few which were privately owned and loaned for the duration of the exhibition.    Many of the engravings were quite intricate and one had to wonder at the number of hours that had been put into them. 

Coming out into bright sunshine we separated for an hour or so to do our own thing before catching the mid-afternoon bus for the return journey to Totton.    Luckily, this time,  the windows were sparkling clean and gave us the benefit of seeing The Forest in the best way possible.  All agreed it was a most pleasant day out. 

Not sure when the next trip will be nor where.    If anyone has ideas of possible venues for consideration  please let Christine or me know.    We intend to visit Gunwharf Quays later in the year once the work on the causeway into Southampton is completed.    At the moment we can’t guarantee arriving in the city in time to catch the connection to Portsmouth early enough to make it worthwhile.

Another success.    Ken.