Gosh, so used to having our first cup of tea whilst still in bed, it was a shock then when Ian left the cup on the side where I couldn't reach it and said we had to get up. Groan, it was only 7am, but I suppose we had talked about leaving early last night. Trouble was, I couldn't really remember much of what was said. We played 5 Crowns followed by Quiddler and I consumed nearly a bottle of red wine while playing. To say I woke with a sore head this morning was an understatement. I have sworn never again....well for the next few days anyway.
By 7.45 we arrived at the ferry terminal. The very nice lady said she would put us on standby for the 9 am ferry, our actual ferry wasn't until 10 am. So into lane 7 we went to await the verdict.
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| Not a car waiting when we arrived. |
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| The 9 am ferry |
There is a very narrow channel on the approach to Lymington, and seeing a catamaran approaching what looked to be head on, thought what a foolhardy thing to do. The Captain must also have been concerned because several blasts on the horn got the catamaran skipper's attention, he changed tack rather rapidly.
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| Heading straight for it. |
From Lymington, we drove to Southsea. Ian really wanted to visit the D-Day museum. I was a little unsure, thinking it wouldn't be my cup of tea, but actually it was fascinating. Put it this way, my attention never strayed far, and the story told opened both our eyes to events we knew nothing about. The price of the ticket (12.75 each) included access onboard Landing Craft Tank 7074, the last surviving LCT to take part in the Normandy campaign.
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| Navigation Binnicle and signal flags (if that wrong, blame Ian!) |
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| Top left, crew quarters. Top right, Captain cabin |
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| The Heads (toilets). Left side were for the crew and right, Captain and officers. |
There was a vast amount of information inside the museum, and plenty of short films explaining the story of D Day. One thing that I (as a female) found amazing was the Overlord Embroidery exhibition. Why that name? It was the codename for the battle of Normandy, and most appropriate as this was the subject of the embroidery.
I copied this from the ddaystory.com
The Overlord Embroidery was stitched by a team of highly skilled women at the Royal School of Needlework in London. They used a technique called appliqué, stitching smaller pieces of fabric onto a larger background piece to recreate the pictures in Sandra’s designs.
The embroiderers transferred the designs onto linen using an ancient method called ‘pricking and pouncing’. They pricked thousands of tiny holes through the lines on a tracing, pinned it on top of a panel and rubbed a fine powder called ‘pounce’ through the holes to make a trail of dots. They joined the dots together with a pencil line to reveal the design.
Close-up of panel two, where map plotters are seen highlighting current progress of allied forces
The embroiderers chose fabrics carefully, matching the colours in the designs as closely as possible. They cut out the shapes they needed and stitched them onto the panels. Sometimes they stitched several layers of fabric on top of each other. Sometimes they added stitches on top of the fabric to show extra detail.
More than 50 different materials were used in the Overlord Embroidery, including actual uniforms. Everything was stitched by hand.
It took five years to stitch the Overlord Embroidery. The final panel was finished in January 1974.
We will be off to Portsmouth tomorrow, taking the Park and ride bus. A site was found about seven miles away, it has all facilities apart from a washing machine. electric is metered but for the first time since leaving FS, no heating will be required. Today has been 18 degrees and tonight won't get below 10, long may it continue.
4 comments:
How wonderful to see the embroidery panels. It must be a well kept secret as I'd never heard of them before.
We did see the English version of the Bayeux tapestry in Reading museum, that was wonderful. Stitched we were told, "because England needed their own version". Well worth a look if you havent seen it before.
Fantastic to see the lovely embroidery which not many people know about, unlike the Bayeux Tapestry, which we saw sometime ago.
Thankyou for all the information.
Ann xx
Interesting post, Mrs IJ.
I pounced upon 'pounce' - I remember that Georgette Heyer used that word in her novels - face powder, I think.
The embroidery of the battle is a similar thing to the Bayeux Tapestry, isn't it? I wonder if it will last as long or be as lovingly preserved.
Mxx
When you enter the D-Day museum, to the left and away from the main exhibition was the Overlord Embroidery entrance. I wonder how many people see the sign and not bother to go in. I must admit, I also wondered what that had to do with D-Day. My brain never associated it with the codeword, but was I glad to go in.
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