My late father-in-law Carlos Rocha Miranda was a Professor of Neurophysiology in Brazil and spent almost all his professional life researching aspects of how brains work. Decades ago he was joined in Rio de Janeiro for some months by Hugh Perry, a graduate of Oxford University and eventually Emeritus Professor of Experimental Neuropathology at the University of Southampton. Hugh stayed in the family home in Iposeria, Rio de Janeiro and they became close friends.
Wind the clock forward a substantial number of years and the planning for a visit from my mother-in-law Cecila and partner Toni included a possible lunch with Hugh and his wife Jess. They live in Lymington, just to the west of Southampton and on the southern edge of the New Forrest, so lunch would have to include an overnight stay. The plans firmed up and on the third day of their visit in early May we drove off to Lymington.
I have some historical connections with the town, so it was a delight to return. Lymington has a ferry link to Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight (IOW) and the service is run by Wightlink.
The ferry link in yellow
In 1996 I secured some leadership coaching assignments with Wightlink, which at the time was owned by Sea Containers, so spent some time on the ferry.
The Wightlink ferry arriving in Lymington from Yarmouth
Sea Containers also owned Hoverspeed which operated cross-channel ferries out of Dover to Calais and Boulogne and my work was often located near Dover. The managers were all down-to-earth, lovely people and I hope whatever I contributed made a difference to both the individuals and to the bottom line!
Four years later, in 2000, I organised a couple of days’ team building for NM Rothschild, which included a day on a 45ft yacht I had chartered out of the Lymington Marina. We had stayed in the Stanwell House hotel so this time it seemed the obvious place to book a couple of rooms. It had recently been completely refurbished over an eleven-month period and had only reopened in February this year so our timing was perfect.
After spending an inordinate amount of time looking for a section of the municipal carpark reserved for hotel guests, we dropped our bags at the hotel and made our way to a delightfully named street called Captains Row. Hidden behind an insignificant façade was a house that had been added to over the centuries and now provides a comfortable family home, albeit rather elongated, and a south-west facing garden.
Hugh and Jess are one of those couples that you immediately feel at ease with, welcoming and warm. Chat … drinks …. admire their house ….. chat ….. food …. puddings … chat ….. all under the warmth of some early summer sun. Time passed quickly; my mother-in-law was obviously delighted to be renewing a close friendship and the rest of us were curious to know more about this interesting couple.
Before supper in the hotel Celina and I walked up the High Street and, opposite St Thomas’ church, we found a self-designated ‘lifestyle’ shop called Willow. A glance through the window revealed a whole host of items to create ‘that look’ …. and somewhere some rather practical-looking dining chairs, so in we went …. and out we came some twenty minutes later significantly poorer. When they arrive in July, I am sure they will forever be reminders of Lymington!
If we had had the time, we could have driven south, parked the car and walked to Hurst Castle, a fortress with 38-ton guns and a lighthouse on the edge of The Solent.
Hurst Castle was built in 1544 on the orders of Henry VIII as part of his Defence Forts programme to guard against invasion from France. It defended the western entrance to The Solent.
The view north from the ramparts towards Lymington
Up against the ramparts there would have been a clear view of the iconic Needles on the western extremity of The Isle of Wight.
With friends of my daughter in 2011 off The Needles
Our visit to Lymington also reminded me of my stupidity concerning filling water and fuel tanks on a yacht. A client of mine had a share in a 40ft yacht based in the town marina and offered me a day’s sailing by way of saying ‘thank you’. After some good sailing on The Solent and a spot of lunch anchored in Alum Bay, famous for its colourful sand striations, we returned to the marina and cleaned up the yacht. I was asked to top up the freshwater tanks. To this day I cannot understand why the filler cap for the water wasn’t a different design to that for the fuel. Ten seconds of water funnelling down into a fuel tank and the damage was done!
Many years ago I visited Osborne House, the summer retreat of the late Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert, which lies just to the east of the IOW town of Cowes. Recently there has been a television documentary about it, how it was gradually increased from a summer pavilion to a large palace and how Queen Victoria stayed in mourning there for 15 years after Albert died aged 42 of Typhus. It’s already on the programme for the 2025 visit of my mother-in-law!
Osborne House
On my visit to Osborne I had noticed the mirrored floor-to-ceiling shutters in one of the State Rooms. I pinched the idea for our apartment here in Hove.
Options for the following day included taking the ferry to Yarmouth, a 40-minute trip, and lunch at The George, driving north to Salisbury to visit the cathedral or northeast to Winchester to see its cathedral. Both cities and cathedrals are stunning, but a fourth option was the most tempting. Lymington’s on the edge of the New Forest, with its stunning countryside and free-roaming horses …… and some 30 minutes from Bucklers Hard on the Beaulieu River and, blessed with gorgeous early summer sunshine, we plumped for this last one.
(To be continued)
Richard 24th May 2024
Hove
postcards 