wiliam and harry

...I only had time for a quick stop to get a blip today and made the mistake of not checking the tide times.

Something that had been missing from my Purbeck coast series was Old Harry Rocks, so I thought I would address that by capturing an image from one of my favourite spots on Studland Bay. There is a small promontory of coloured sandstone that has a beautiful rock ledge to provides excellent foreground interest but, unfortunately, it was inaccessible beneath the high tide.

With Old Harry visible at the end of the Ballard Down headland, where does William come into it? Tenuously is the answer. William John Bankes, the Egyptologist, was a member of the Bankes family of Corfe Castle and Kingston Lacey fame. Most of the land in this frame was owned by the Bankes family as part of their summer estate. The old summer house is now the Manor House Hotel but the Bankes name lives on in the form of the Bankes Arms inn.

The last couple of days of sunshine have come to an end and we are promised a few days of heavy rain and local flooding. Joy...