Harry Mallington, Coxswain in the Royal Navy, Veteran of the D-Day Landings  - Interviewed at the D-Day Museum Portsmouth, Hampshire, UK

Photographed by Dan Bernard and Gail Baird for 131 Design for the Westbury Manor WW2 celebration on March 27th

Frank Rosier - WWll D-Day Veteran, Normandy, France
"We had just fought our way to the first village on D2 (day 2 of the D-Day landings) and were hiding in a culvert from a German Panzer division. I saw a shop hidden away from the main village and noticed it was a sweet shop. I turned to my mate and said: "I’m going over there, do you want some sweets? I ran over, kicked the door in, filled my pockets full of sweets and ran back to my mate in the ditch and started sharing those sweets out with the rest of the unit."

What got us, listening to this, is that this was the story of an 18 year old lad, the day after the Normandy landings who was thinking about totally normal behaviour in the most unnatural circumstances. The difference with this story is that within 30 seconds of his return, a German Panzer tank destroyed the shop with one shell.

131 Design are creating a large scale piece of work for the Light Nights event on March 27th at Westbury Manor, Fareham that is in conjunction with the Ashcroft Centre. The work will consist of 8 projections from 8 windows inside the manor house, depicting a personal interpretation of how WWII affected Fareham. Artists Gail Baird and Dan Bernard have created a compilation of short films using stop start animation and collage.

Other projection work has been exhibited at Newhaven fort, Hurst castle, Eastbourne Redoubt Museum and Spitbank Fort. Gail and Dan were also part of a group that 'lit up' the Round Tower in Old Portsmouth, at the White Nights event last October, which was a huge success.

'Light Nights: The Writing on the Wall'

In June 1944, just before D-Day, the streets of Fareham were full of soldiers - Canadian, American and British. They were waiting for the order to 'Go' - to cross the channel and land on the beaches of Normandy. They did not know when or where they were going....but as the final plans were drawn by Eisenhower and Montgomery at nearby Southwick House, the troops connected with the people of Fareham and with local children in the school on Osborne Road, now the Ashcroft Arts Centre. The Writing on the Wall is inspired by these events and by the permanent legacy that these events have left behind in Fareham

This event is inspired by true events that happened here, in Fareham, just before D-Day in June 1944 - a moving story of the human spirit in the darkest of times.

During the week before the event, Westbury Manor will be transported back to the 1940s with genuine WW2 vehicles on display.

Interg8te Dance company will be performing with a group of young people especially choreographed  for this event.

Celebration Day at Ashcroft Arts Centre, Fareham.

On 24^th February we will be celebrating the creative outcomes of 5 groups of young people, at the Ashcroft Arts Centre, Fareham. This is unique in that it is a joint exhibition of groups of young people, all of whom have faced difficulties in their life and come from across Portsmouth and Hampshire. The exhibition will occupy the whole of the centre and consists of 2 and 3D work, textiles, photography, print making and a published book.

131 Design  worked with 3 of the groups in a series of creative workshops that we developed and include young people from the Hillside Young Peoples Centre, young carers and a group of girls from Rowner.  The workshops were set up to engage young people with creative media, museums and cultural services, as well as to engage with professional artists and artistic practice.

The range of creative work produced was delightful in it’s quality and subtlety. It reflected the groups’ engagement, commitment and enthusiasm for the different projects and was full of energy and imagination. The young people worked intuitively with cameras and imagery, surpassing their own expectiations and surprising themselves with their outcomes. They also provided no end of support for each other and were all an absolute pleasure to work with.  The exhibition is up until March 1st.

IT'S ALL IN THE NAME
The name Wimpy is believed to have come from Popeye’s friend J Wellington Wimpy who loved hamburgers as much as Popeye loved spinach.


1954
The first ‘Wimpy Bar’ opened at the Lyon’s Corner House in Coventry Street London.
The bar was originally a specialist fast food section within the more traditional corner house restaurant.
The popularity soon led to the establishment of separate Wimpy restaurants serving only hamburgers based meals.

wimpy-burger-bars-sold-to-famous-brands

The Royal Garrison Church, Old Portsmouth , Hampshire , UK

The Royal Garrison Church is the oldest British Garrison Church in the world and has been called "The British Military Cathedral". But the church dates back to 1212. The Domus Dei, Gods House, was founded in Old Portsmouth by Bishop de Rupibus in 1212 as a Hospice, to shelter and help pilgrims from overseas bound for the Shrine at Canterbury, Chichester and Winchester. Originally it was a long, vaulted hall, divided on either side into bays to house patients, with the Chapel at one end. In the hall the aged, sick and homeless were tended by six Brethren and six Sisters. As the importance of Portsmouth grew as a Garrison Town, so did the importance of the Domus Dei. The Chancel of the present Church was the Chapel of the old Domus Dei and the Nave of the Church was the Hospital of Domus Dei. In 1449 Henry VI sent the Bishop of Chichester to the Church in order to pay the sailors and soldiers of the Garrison. Due to a disagreement in the amount of pay, the Bishop was murdered. For this the town was excommunicated and remained so for fifty years. The Church was closed in 1540 when the religious houses were dissolved by Henry VIII, the buildings were then used for a brief time as an Armoury. Later the south side of Domus Dei was converted into a residence for the Governor of Portsmouth and was called Government House. On 22nd May 1662 Charles II married Catherine of Braganza here. In 1672 James II visited the church and in 1709 communion plate was presented by Queen Anne to the Church. In 1778 George III and Queen Charlotte attended the Divine Service and in 1794 they welcomed Lord Howe after his victory on 1st June. In 1814 the church was visited by allied sovereigns, The Prince Regent, The Emperor of Russia, The King of Prussia, Count Platoff, Hetman of the Cossacks, Marshall Dlucher and the Duke of Wellington. In 1826 Government House was demolished and in 1846 the interior of the Church was tidied up and then in 1866 the reconstruction work started to really begin. The generosity of many individuals made possible the lavish redecoration and a fine organ was installed. The oak stalls were dedicated to the memory of famous men including Lord Nelson, the Duke of Wellington, Sir John Moore, Lord Raglan and Outram of India. The Church restoration was completed in 1868. In 1930 the original Union Jack from the Whitehall Cenotaph was presented to the Portsmouth Old Contemptibles Association. Small brass tablets in the Chancel record that many old Standards adorn the walls.
On the night of 10th January 1941 a fire bomb raid on Portsmouth gutted the Nave of the church but the Chancel was saved by the Verger Mr J Heaton who was assisted by soldiers and airman.

Incredible weather today, perfect for a spot of HDR... over used, really easy, gimmicky but good fun - I took this at Clarence pier, waiting for the Ark Royal to pass.

HDR explained

High dynamic range (HDR) images enable photographers to record a greater range of tonal detail than a given camera could capture in a single photo.  This opens up a whole new set of lighting possibilities which one might have previously avoided—for purely technical reasons.  The new "merge to HDR" feature of Photoshop allows the photographer to combine a series of bracketed exposures into a single image which encompasses the tonal detail of the entire series.  There is no free lunch however; trying to broaden the tonal range will inevitably come at the expense of decreased contrast in some tones.  Learning to use the merge to HDR feature in Photoshop can help you make the most of your dynamic range under tricky lighting—while still balancing this trade-off with contrast.

a good web site for this can be found at www.cambridgeincolour.com

Work currently in the exhibition 'Margins', at Ashcroft Arts Centre, Fareham will come down this Sunday. This week is the last chance to see the artwork from the young people at Hillside Young Peoples Centre, Paulsgrove and the Young Carers Centre, Portsmouth. The exhibition features photography and print making from Hillside that was produced in a series of creative workshops, designed and facilitated by 131 Design.

Alex Hibbert’s The Long Haul (Tricorn, £8.99) is another modern tale of Arctic exploits set against the Heroic Age. Each chapter begins with quotes from early explorers, and the book is as much a passionate defence of traditional exploration as it is an account of Hibbert’s trans-Greenland expedition – which, at 2,200km over 113 days, is the longest fully unsupported polar expedition in history. Less of a page-tuner than Avery’s account, it is fascinating for its insight into the practicalities of such an expedition – both before (‘networking is a necessary evil’) and during (‘high-calorie ghee butter is an acquired taste’). Hibbert’s unembellished prose matches his determination to explore the Arctic the purist way: no aeroplanes dropping food, no parachute sails to speed up the journey. And his achievement is all the more impressive because of his tender age – just 23 years. Gabrielle Jaffe

Just received foreword for the Long Haul - special thanks to Pen Hadow for that.

" I first spoke to Alex way back in 2005 when he was in the initial stages of planning his original journey to the South Pole and have followed his progress - successes and disappointments - ever since. Unusually in the polar expedition world, Alex was only nineteen when his plans began and a mere twenty-one when he set off across Arctic Greenland to attempt the longest unsupported polar journey in history. His team-mate, George Bullard, was two years his junior. Neither had decades of previous expeditions yet their ambition, spirit and indeed professionalism shines through from start to end. The Long Haul describes in graphic detail the long and tortuous path from the initial idea of a polar dream to the culmination of his epic return journey across the polar plateau of Greenland. From my own experience of polar expeditions I well know the frustrations and difficulty of achieving funding and Alex’s experience has been no different. What is remarkable is that despite his young age he took the disappointment of two failures to achieve sponsorship in his stride, instantly regrouped with a new plan, formed a new team and never faltered in his ambition to achieve a significant polar journey.

His emphasis on the purity of unsupported polar travel is apparent throughout the book. This is particularly evident with his use of self-laid supply depots in an age when they had been, by most, consigned to history. This is a genuine return to the origins of unsupported polar expeditions and one with true legacy. The Long Haul describes a journey that faced a combination of enormous physical challenge, battles against atrocious conditions, starvation and, as always in such remote areas, danger from the terrain, weather, crevasses and equipment failure.  Alex and George, who became almost a single entity, met each challenge with unabated purpose and their ultimate success bears testament to fine leadership, excellent preparations and very profound teamwork.  His description of the crisis in almost failing to erect their tent in a storm is chilling and illustrates well the ever-present dangers each and every day of the journey. The failure of a ski with 400 miles yet to haul for many would have been terminal. However, with initiative and an absolute certainty that nothing was going to stop them, they carried on. Finally, destruction of the final food depots almost spelled disaster and the final ten days of very real starvation is illustrative of this epic and at times, brutal undertaking.

The Long Haul is a humbling and moving story, personably told with great immediacy, of a massive journey and is a testament to vision and resilience by two young men who travelled 1374 miles in 113 days. The figures alone are astounding. It rightly deserves to be remembered as a classic polar achievement, regardless of its moment in history. I know for Alex this is not an end but merely a beginning and have no doubt he is already planning his next moves in the cold regions of the world. A man to watch, for sure."

Pen Hadow
London, January 2010

HMS Warrior Portsmouth - Shot this morning Portsmouth, Hampshire UK

HMS Warrior was the first iron-hulled, armour-plated warship, built for the Royal Navy in response to the first ironclad warship, the French La Gloire, launched a year earlier.

When completed in October 1861, Warrior was by far the largest, fastest, most heavily-armed and most heavily-armoured warship the world had ever seen. She was almost twice the size of La Gloire and thoroughly outclassed the French ship in speed, armour, and gunnery.

Warrior did not introduce any radical new technology, but for the first time combined steam engines, rifled breech-loading guns, iron construction, iron armour, and propeller drive all in one ship, and built to unprecedented scale.

Her construction started intense competition between guns and armour that lasted until air power made battleships obsolete in the Second World War. This race caused her to quickly become obsolete, and she was withdrawn as a fighting unit in May 1883. Listed as part of the National Historic Fleet, Core Collection, she is now a museum ship in Portsmouth, United Kingdom.

The Long Haul Alex Hibbert - foreword by Pen Hadow - published 15th March