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Benchmarks, canals and pillboxes

By Bill Nicholls

Brookwood, a place I have been to many times with my wife in the past when she went dog training at the village hall. Other times I would have stayed but that was before I came across Geograph. A look at my maps showed a canal near the hall, a railway station down the road and a cemetery on the other side of the railway. Not only that Pirbright camp was nearby though I did not intend to take photo's of the camp I remembered there was a military cemetery worth visiting.
SU9457 : Brookwood Village hall by Bill Nicholls the Village hall was the start from which I headed to the station to get some photo's to find a benchmark first SU9556 : Brookwood Station by Bill Nicholls on the station building which is Victorian in origin and still with many of the features remaining including a fine postbox SU9556 : Postbox on the platform by Bill Nicholls
The station provided me with a way to the cemetery via the tunnel that went to the platforms. From my memory of the cemetery I had seen on the map I quickly located it coming out in the British side through a side gate SU9556 : Plinth in the Cemetery by Bill Nicholls. I was not prepared for the size or extent of the place and felt quite humbled to be there. I visited the various parts including the Brookwood memorial though I did not manage to get any photos close up due to a service that was taking place. I finished in the American part SU9456 : Star Spangled Banner by Bill Nicholls
SU9456 : Known But To God by Bill Nicholls SU9456 : Inside the chapel by Bill Nicholls that turned out was from the first war.
Back to the Connaught road in Brookwood and onto the Canal passing by the village school and another Benchmark SU9557 : Close up of the benchmark by Bill Nicholls. The canal tuned out to be the Basingstoke canal LinkExternal link SU9557 : Basingstoke canal by Bill Nicholls and I started at the Brookwood Flight of of Locks SU9557 : Lock 12 by Bill Nicholls walking to Sheets heath Bridge SU9557 : Bridge on the canal by Bill Nicholls before going back to the hall for lunch. I had thought we were going home but my wife decided to stay longer giving me another couple of hours to explore so it was off to the Pribright bridge end of the canal only to spot a pillbox along the towpath SU9456 : On the left by Bill Nicholls this was a Type 26 Prefabricated version the first one I had come across. From here I walked along the Deepcut flight of locks SU9456 : Through the bridge by Bill Nicholls passing by the remains of the old railway bridge that took the line to Bisley Camp SU9456 : Wall by the bank by Bill Nicholls and along to Cowshot bridge SU9356 : Cowshot Bridge by Bill Nicholls where I found the canal had been drained for work to be done on the locks SU9356 : Dry canal towards the lock by Bill Nicholls. I ended my walk at Lock 18 SU9356 : Dry lock by Bill Nicholls where the canal was full of water then going back where my wife was waiting for me to go home. It was a good day's Geographing where I got photos of benchmarks, canals and a pillbox, not to mention the station and cemetery. My walk can be seen here LinkExternal link


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Sun, 6 Feb 2011 at 08:08
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