Fortifications

Had a busy day today. I had to pick my son up from the station in the afternoon, as he was coming home from college, so I decided to call into my old school to wish them a happy Christmas and congratulate them on their good OFSTED result. It was lovely to see everyone again, and we had a bit of catching up. Needless to say at this stage of the term and after an OFSTED inspection, most seemed to be on automatic pilot.

The children from my final class were pleased to see me and I got lots of hugs from the girls and some of the boys (totally disrupting attempts to take the register). All was going well until I remembered that some of them were Liverpool supporters, so I had to take a bit of stick about the 0-5 drubbing which Spurs had taken on Sunday.

By the time everyone went back to class, I still had a bit of time to kill, so I went to a local nature reserve for a walk. Included in the reserve is the picture above. It is part of the fortifications around Plymouth. This ditch used to run around a large portion of the North of Plymouth, with forts and batteries being built at intervals along it. Most has been filled in and built on, but there are still sections which can be found quietly blending back into the landscape.

This particular section shows a strongpoint actually built into the walls of the moat. On top of the cliff on the left hand side sits one of the forts and this strongpoint was designed to produce a killing ground if the enemy got into the moat. Rumour has it that there is a tunnel which runs between the main fort and the strongpoint, but if one ever existed, I think its location has been long forgotten.

After the walk I picked my son up and went home. It was great to see him again and Mrs Mikey was especially excited to see her little boy (now six foot two!) again.

I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening printing and cutting up Santa's grotto pictures and matching them to the names of the parents who had asked for them. Eventually got them finished and ready to go into school tomorrow.