Barry's Woods.

The southerly wind has made for a very warm day with dark clouds threatening rain at any moment. I had hoped to take Peter on the 'Mystery Tour' that I'd promised him as one of his birthday presents but he felt the chance of rain was too high and went off to do other things.

I'm falling back into the bad habit of staying up late which has the consequence of a late start the following morning so I will try to get my head down earlier, say 11.00. I had to give myself a good talking to this morning to get on with clearing up the last of the stuff from the carnival. But it's done, everything is neatly packed into plastic tubs in the loft and my study is back to normal. I also emptied out some of the boxes of Christmas decorations into tubs as well. Not that I really need all those decorations as the days of having a large tree that touched the ceiling are long gone but I'm emotionally attached to those decorations, they bring back so many memories. I'll give some to the charity shops before Christmas each year to make it easier to let them go.

Now back to yesterday and Barry's woods- 

 

I have a real admiration for people that keep their workplace tidy and Barry is certainly one of those. You could put it down to the fact that for 30 years he was an engineer at the nuclear power plant on Anglesey but his brother whose property we passed through first was just the same. I had noticed the tidiness as we walked through the first field where there was a neat stack of logs and an enormous pile of brush ready for burning. Often we go through fields or farm yards where old machinery and other scrap or even furniture is scattered around with brambles growing over them. Not the sign of a good farmer.

More tidy log storage using those giant IBC totes.

There are a number of Nissen huts in the woods that Barry uses for storage but until a few weeks ago he hadn't even known this one existed as it was buried under trees and undergrowth. He plans to put a hut on the concrete base.

The Nissen huts are there because a military radar base was built early on in WWII in the woods. This was part of Chain Home, a network of radar sites that gave early warning of German air raids. The Bunker, side view above, entrance below, was manned 24 hours a day by the WAAF (Women's Auxiliary Air Force)

The bunker consists of a number of rooms which have an ventilation system for when the bomb doors were closed. 

Further on in the woods nearer to the high wall of the gardens belonging to the mansion is a much older structure. It is referred to as The Ice House though it was more likely a root cellar as it isn't that deep. Barry has already removed the trees that were growing on the roof and he intends to do the same with the trees growing on top of the bunker before the roof caves in.

The last feature of interest was this double well/ spring. The square slate panel covers a second clean spring and the metal ring that holds it in place looks to be original. Barry cast concrete replicas for the top of the arch as the original stones were nowhere to be found.

From the beach we could see the mansion that the farms and woods were attached to. Originally Alltlwyd (Grey hill) Mansion (1875) it was the home of the family of William Hughes of Devil's Bridge. In recent times it became a hotel and was renamed Plas Gwyn (White Mansion),  and is now a care home.