|
- [A mysterious triangular pillar at the entrance to Fort Monkton - it shows very well on Windows Live Local Birds Eye View] Today I examined
the OS 25" to the mile maps in the BL [Sheet Hampshire LXXXIII(83)/14]. The 2nd (1898) and 3rd (1910) Editions show nothing as the whole area to the south of Fort Road is blank for security reasons.
However the Revised (1933) Edition is much more fruitful (surveyed in 1931), as all this area is shown - this is two years after the date on the pillar.
The whole area was completely different
from today, and was a huge military camp called 'Monkton Hutments', with barracks, parade ground, chapel and narrow gauge railways. The pillar is shown in the centre of all this, and is labelled 'Clock
Tower'. There is no clock on it today, and no sign of where it was. It is possible the top has been rebuilt with ventilation holes where the clock was, it does look different from the rest of the tower,
or perhaps it sat on top, with three dials. Presumably the Royal Engineers were in the Hutments, and the clock was removed when the Hutments were cleared. The door would be explained by the neccessity to
wind the clock but for the still puzzling remaining feature - when I peered through the central crack in the door and let my eye accommodate to the dark I saw with difficulty what I interpreted as one or
two steps of a spiral staircase *going down* - I am pretty sure it was not going up - perhaps someone could check to clarify? Wolston Dixie (Added 20th August 2006)
|
