Early life in my home town.

The above photograph which i took the other day in one of our local woods may just look like a heather covered mound of earth to you and me, but believe it or not it is evidence of early life in Woking. It is in fact a tumuli or a Bell Barrow built by Bronze age man around 1500BC.

Bell Barrows are buriel monuments (not chambers), thought to be for important members of the community maybe chiefs or elders. Bell Barrows are rare nationally and are even rarer in Surrey. The existance of this one indicates that Woking was probably an important site for early Bronze age man, but nobody knows why. All i know is that i find it quite incredible that Woking was inhabited over 3500 years ago. Quite humbling really.

The Shah Jahan Mosque.

Woking is the home of the Shah Jahan Mosque. Built in 1889 by the Orientalist Dr. Gottleib Wilhelm Leitner, the mosque was the first purpose built mosque to be built in Northern Europe. Leintner surprisingly, was a Hungarian Jew who as a child had studied at madrassah schools in Istanbul and who memorised large parts of the Quran. Later he worked as an interpreter for the British Raj (he could speak eight languages) and became a Professor at Kings College London before moving to the University of the Punjab.

He came back to England and in 1883 began the Oriental Institute in Woking.  The mosque was built to cater for the worship and spititual needs of the Muslim students at the institute and quickly played a vital role in the establishment of Islam in Great Britain. It also became world famous on account of its publications and missionary work in the early part of the 20th century. Up until the 1950's the Shah Jahan was the major Islamic centre in the United Kingdom and welcomed famous dignitaries from around the world on official visits, but by the 1960's the mosque's status had declined, and instead served as a place of worship for Woking's and neighbouring Muslim populations.

Today, the Shah Jahan mosque is the cultural and spiritual centre for Surrey's Muslims. Hundreds of followers visit the Shah Jahan to pay homage to their faith and to accommodate this, the mosque's 70 person capacity has been supplemented with two nearby prayor halls, which can hold up to 600 people each if necessary. Now a grade two listed building the mosque is very welcomong to visitors and offers guided tours for groups and schools.

I think the mosque is one of the most beautiful buildings i have seen. Its traditional Indo Saracen design has a dome, minarets and courtyard. Geometric patterns and Arabic calligraphy are used for decoration. On my recent visit i was unable to go inside the mosque as prayers were almost due to start, but i have been invited back by the very friendly Imam and will do another post with photographs. I can't wait!

The Muslim cemetery

Last Sunday i was a bit bored and restless and in need of some fresh air so i decided to re-discover an old haunt of mine - The Muslim Burial Ground on Horsell Common. This disused cemetery occupies the most unlikely of locations being surrounded by trees and set well back from the main road into Woking. I used to take my chidren when they were young to this part of the common and was surprised to find this relic of Woking's past. Not many people visiting Woking are aware of it's existence or historical significance.

The domed entrance to the burial ground.

The Muslim Burial  Ground was built in 1917 when many troops from the Empire were fighting in France during the First World War. The site was chosen because of it's close proximity to Britain's only mosque at that time, the Shah Jehan Mosque in Woking (more of which in my next post), and it's structure emulates many of the mosque's features, including the minarets, arches and the majestic dome.

Hidden from public view by the trees of Horsell Common.

Indian army soldiers wounded fighting in France during 1914-16 were treated in England in special hospitals along the south coast including the famous Brighton Pavillion. Those who died received burial rites according to their religion. There were special cremations for Hindu and Sikh soldiers. After concerns were raised that Muslim soldiers were not being buried according to their preferred religious customs - most importantly facing in the direction of Mecca, the sacred city of Islam, the War Office stepped in and purchased the site as a special burial ground. On completion, the burial ground received 19 burials of Indian Army soldiers and a further five during World War Two. The soldiers served in different regiments but most were recruited from small villages in what is now Pakistan.

Part of the original wall showing the arches and corner minaret.

In 1921 the War Graves Commission took over its upkeep. Local people remember it had a yellow gravel path, iron gates at the entrance and two inside seats for visitors. Unfortunately by the 1960's the cemetery was suffering vandalism due to its isolated location so reluctantly the decision was taken in1968 to remove the bodies to the Military Cemetery at Brookwood.

Now a grade two listed building the burial ground is an overlooked memorial to the Indian Army soldiers who gave their lives during the two world conflicts. In need of much work and attention it is now under the care of Horsell Common Preservation Society which is working with Woking Borough Council and the local Muslim community to find ways of funding its restoration and preservation. Lets hope they succeed.

Moss and Fungi.

Whilst i was out walking the other day in a local wood i came across these trees which had some type of moss growing up them. I thought how attractive this was. A little later i discovered a tree with fungi growing from its trunk and later a stump with a different fungi sprouting from it. It occured to me how much we miss when we are out on our day to day business, It's surprising what's out there when we look hard enough. Nature truly is wonderful.

Collective nouns - imput required!

If any of you have read my entire blog you will know that i have a thing about collective nouns and their unusual names. It all started when i was lucky enough to witness a "murmuring or a murmuration" of 
starlings See the blog here.  on a trip in Somerset. A murmuration is a large flock or flocks of starlings that contains literally thousands of birds. When they fly together before roosting time they look like a constantly moving swirling cloud producing a myriad of fantastic shapes in the sky.

Other collective nouns have been for a group of blondes. The suggestions so far are a "peroxide" or a "dither" of blondes.Apologies to any blonde ladies reading my blog! Just a bit of harmless fun.

A dither of blondes? Or a peroxide of blondes?

Other collective nouns requested have been for a group of lifeguards for which a "lush" of lifeguards has been suggested. I quite like this. Lush in this instance is English/Welsh slang for attractive or fanciable.

A "lush of lifeguards.

The final collective noun sought is for a load of bicycles which i photographed after a triathlon in Wales. So far nobody has come up with a suggestion for this one. The only one i can think of is a "spoke" of bicycles. Not really any good!

A "spoke" of bicycles.

If you have any suggestions for any of the above collective nouns leave your ideas in the message section.

Winter Wonderland!

Living in England, particularly in the south as i do, snow is not too common. It usually snows a few times during the winter, settling probably only a couple of times and is almost always gone after a couple of days. This year we have had heavy snowfalls and frozen temperatures that have now been with us for almost two weeks. As usual the snow caused traffic chaos with many people, including myself, unable to get into work. The snow was so dense i couldn't even get out of my cul-de-sac.The authorities gritted the main roads which immediately got clogged up with traffic as nobody could use the side roads. Absolute gridlock!

The scene from my front door. Notice the uncollected refuse bins!

The upside to all the mayhem was stunning scenery along my usual walks and a welcome silence with fewer vehicles on the roads. It was also nice to see loads of children outside playing in the snow and listening to their laughter, when usually they are all indoors using the playstation or watching television.

Snow and blue sky along the canal towpath near to where i live.

Today the temperatures have gone above freezing and a big thaw has begun. There is slush on all the roads and huge puddles everywhere. No doubt there will be floods as a result bringing more mayhem to parts of the country. That's the trouble with our climate - one extreme to the other and difficult to predict.

The frozen canal. Notice the trees on the opposite bank weighted with snow drooping into the ice.

A slippery walk up to one of the locks.

 

A snowy treescape.

The Snow Car.

We were out for a walk in the snow last week (more photos and a separate blog to follow) when by chance I came across this really clever snow sculpture of a Mini in one of the streets near my home. Although it was beginning to thaw the amazing detail was still discernable. For some reason it made me smile and feel uplifted. I just had to take a photograph and share the moment with all of you.

Let this be a lesson to you.

Between Christmas and New Year my computer somehow got a virus. Not your normal spyware or adware, but a really malicious Trojan Horse. It affected my internet explorer and ability to get on the internet.

But the worst it did was to target my photographs which i had stored purposely on a second hard drive in my computer. It has completely wiped out over 2500 of my digital photos and destroyed that drive to such an extent that it needs replacing.

I had been lulled into a false sense of security as i had not had any trouble from viruses or their like for a few years. Consequently i had not been backing up my files as often as i should have and am now suffering.

Let this be a lesson to us all. Learn from my mistake. Back up your data as often as you can!!  

Put a sock in it!

On our recent walk Matt and I had occasion to cross close to the runway of  little Fairoaks Airport. We happened upon this wind sock which at the base had a memorial to someone recently departed. I took a photo because I was drawn by the array of colours in the picture. Pity I captured our shadows as well!

Crossing the edge of the runway you have to duck to avoid the landing aircraft.

H G Wells (again) and unusual trees.

Last Sunday me and my eldest son Matt went for a lazy five mile walk part of which was over Horsell Common, which if you have read my previous post on H. G. Wells and his book War of the Worlds, was where the Martians first landed with their intention to take over the world. During our walk we came across an area called the sand pit. This was the exact spot depicted by Wells as the first landing area of the Martian spacecraft.

Horsell Common is an amazing place with plenty of different species of trees, scrubland and heath. There is also an abundance of native wildlife.

The Sand Pit as depicted in The War of the Worlds.
(picture from War of the Worlds music website)

The Sand Pit, Horsell Common.

Part of the sandy soil had been washed away and eroded over the years to expose the root system of several of the trees. This did not seem to affect their growth because they all appeared healthy and flourising. They obviously have a tremendous survival instinct.

One of the glorious trees.

The intricate partly exposed root system.