Cowes Revisted

Sunday last we thought we would take a little jaunt over to Cowes, the other side of the river medina we have to take the 'Bridge', as we locals call it, which is confusing to non locals as its actually a chain ferry that draws itself across the river on very heavy chains with much clanking and grinding noises. We thought the trip would be a good education for our young labrador 'Prince'.

The base of the bridge is now all metal but when it was tarred wood we would ride our ponies on the ferry to cross over the river. I have done the crossing twice with my mare, on the newer version. She is rock steady, but I made slip on overshoes in a rubberised fabric, as the metal on metal would have been dangerous.

As you can see there have been earlier versions crossing with horse and carriages, The wooden bridge crossings were much less noisey, the chains made an almost pleasant clinking compared to the modern version.

Prince took the chain ferry in his stride, the noise must be quite horrendous for a dog's ears.

Cowes and East Cowes being hubs of marine building and Ports of call and industry were literally full of public Houses, many have closed nowadays, but many of the old favourites survive, The Anchor being one of them.

The church is one of many nested between all the buildings, I thought it a shame all the windows on churches have to be covered in mesh to prevent vandals smasing the windows and in many cases priceless stained glass.

There is a nice little view looking back to East Cowes through a gap in the buildings, by one of the many sailing Clubs. At the top of the picture you can see the fields those green spaces between the tree lines where my horse is kept.

Click on the pictures for a better look.. :)