The Weston Green Sundial...and other bits

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The village sign built to commemorate the Queens Golden Jubilee

Weston Green...so that's what it's called. Now at last I can stop describing it as "...the nice group of old buildings near the 'Scilly Isles' roundabouts on the straight road toward Hampton Court Bridge. You know, the green bit with the nice hidden pub and the house with the sundial on it...?"

Just about London too for the sake of this blog. Apparently it's crept into Surrey but the fact that it's within the M25, has the afformentioned striking sundial tantalisingly visible from the road and that I seem to drive past it at regular intervals means it just about qualifies.

It's no suprise that the locals have gone down the village-sign route as the ancient layout and pattern of the old village is pretty obvious even to a casual visitor like myself. The old village green, pond (nowdays more a small crater with a marsh at the bottom) the pub, church and fine houses are all still there and the large amount of traffic seems more intent on rushing by than hanging around. Well worth a quick visit on a Sunday afternoon then...

This is the splendid sundial that had first grabbed my attention whilst hurrying toward a traffic-jam in Hampton Court. The latin motto 'Horas non numero nisi serenas' translates as
I count only the bright hours and is still apparently a big favourite for those commissioning their own more modern sundials, along with Time flies and other traditional time-related mottoes.
The date seems to be 1828 and it's quite an ornate item for what is not a particularly large or ostentatious building. Rather a stern looking sun as well but on the whole it puts other sundials in the shade (boom, boom!)
This low-level weather vane was also nearby. I doubt that it's very old and it seems to be peeling in several places but I was intrigued by the subject matter of a lion and three people. I'm sure it must be an allusion but I've no idea what to.
On the same row of houses, next door to the sundial cottage in fact, here's a very handsome Georgian mansion. It's currently undergoing a bit of renovation and I was intrigued to spot what looked like an insurance fire-plate above the door. In the 18th and 19th centuries the lack of a national fire brigade meant that your fire-cover was exactly that - a small private fire-brigade would come and put out your burning house but only if you were one of their customers! Hence the need to ensure the fire-marks were in a prominant position...A slightly closer view shows a plate depicting what seems to be a temple surmounted by a crown. Some scouting around on the internet led to the discovery of a fascinating booklet on the subject called Fire Insurance Wall Plaques by Rowland G. M. Baker. It was published in 1970 and is available in full online and well worth a quick look. What it does have are some excellent line drawings of fire-plates and from that it's quite possible to identify the plaque as being from the Royal Exchange - and in fact the 'temple' depicted was actually the Royal Exchange itself

The 'Weekly Journal' of 12th December 1719 records that "On Tuesday the Society of Gentlemen Subscribers of the new project for insurance of Ships and Merchandise waited upon the King with a petition for the Grant of a Charter to carry on their new undertaking, and we hear that they were graciously received and their Petition referr'd to the Privy Council". Their efforts were successful and they granted a royal charter in 1720. The company was first known as Onslow's Insurance from Lord Onslow its first governor. It began by dealing with marine insurance only. In 1721 a supplementary charter was obtained by the name of "The Royal Exchange Assurance of Houses and Goods from Loss by Fire", from the fact that their offices were sited in the Royal Exchange. The company also used a representation of the Royal Exchange building as the emblem on their fire mark. This was the old Royal Exchange build in 1669 after the Great Fire, and which was itself ravaged by fire in 1838. That fire unfortunately destroyed all the company's old records .

What can I say. I'm a sucker for old door-bell pulls... I assume this one had a thin wire cable going to one of those merry ' bell on a spring' affairs.

Getting away from the heart of Weston Green a short walk over the common takes you Esher Railway Station, or more accuratly to the nearby railway bridge. There were an intriguing couple of bricked up doors here, between the two lines. One had a tempting glass arch still intact which apparently used to service the station platforms. Presumably these are now too dangerous and have long since been blocked up.

A closer look shows a tempting array of higgledy-piggldy stair, undergrowth and the refuse of the ages. I wonder if it can still be accessed from the station above?

Out in the open air again I spotted an interesting looking badge on the side of the bridge. A bit too far away for me but a close-up on the camera provided all the required detail.

Joseph Westwood & Co Engineers & Contractors London 1888

There are a multitude of references to this company, or at least to Joseph Westwood. He seems to have been an employee at a Thames Iron Shipyard and stepped in to stop it going bust with the loss of 3,000 jobs, and followed that up by setting up his own foundry and specialising himself in ships and railway bridges. By all accounts his company - or an offshoot of it - were still trading at least up to the 1970's and undertook a vast range of engineering tasks and roles. A nice item to finish on!

Weather Vanes and Ornaments

I'm a little ambivalent with regard to weather vanes. For a start they tend to be quite a long way away and unlike coal holes you can't get up close to capture the details. Add to that the fact that my humble snapper doesn't have much of a zoom and they start to feel rather elusive.

As a practical tool they're a little suspect as well, right up there with sun-dials on the 'am I reading this correctly?' scale of disbelief so I think you have to look at them as really being basically objects of ornamentation with a slightly spurious claim to practicality.

Still, there are loads of them out there of various shapes and designs and you really can't ignore them for too long

Wimbledon Village SW19 Here's a fine traditional design to kick off with. I believe, although I might well be wrong, that this is a design based on a comet or shooting star. Not any old comet of course, but Halley's comet as depicted in the Bayeaux tapestry. Could it have found favour as a reminder of the wandering star leading the Wise Men to the Nativity?

Barnes High Street Another traditional design this time in the shape of a cloth banner. The word 'Vane' apparently comes from the Anglo-Saxon 'Fane' a type of flag, so this sort of design is probably based on the original. This particular example looks as though it's been through the wars a bit and is about ready for a bit of patching up.

Wimbledon Village provides another classic design, this time the Weather Cock. This is the archetypal image to sit on top of a weathervane and this is a nice three-dimensional copper version.

One site has an interesting explanation with regard to the popularity of cockerels as a motif

The popularity of weathervanes exploded when a papal edict from the 9th century A.D. help bring the weathervane to the skies of most of Europe. Rome declared that every church in Christendom must be adorned by a cockerel, a symbol to remind Christians of Peter’s betrayal of Christ: "I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me." (Luke 22:34)

Arrows would seem to be the clearest indicator of wind direction so it's no surprise to find a few variations on this particular theme and these make up the last of the 'traditional' designs.

Kingston-upon-Thames With new riverside developments going up over recent years weather vanes are an obvious bit of decoration to try to give them a bit of instant 'character'. I'm not sure I'd of bothered with this one though as 'bland and forgettable are the words that spring to mind. Almost the sort of weather vane you might buy down the local DIY store one Sunday afternoon.Bermondsey There you go, all that's required is a little imagination. It may be a simple arrow but the 'leaf-spring' effect and the attractive palm leaf base puts it into a different league to the sad effort above.

Then there are the 'let's just go mad on the filigree and and make it twirly' efforts like these two

Raynes Park A very ornate pillar with a very curious shape to the vane. I'm not sure that it depicts anything and it doesn't seem to be the clearest example to try and read. In fact it's quite busy' and dense up there...

Fulham Road That's more like it. Stick it up as high as you can get it; make it exceptionally delicate; add needle-sharp spikes and you've something that starts to resemble old drawings of radio transmitters!Lavender Hill, Battersea A whole new sub-set of 'vanes that put the vain in weathervane'. There are quite a few examples out there of vanes heralding the company beneath them and the fact that many of these companies have ceased to exist make these classic 'Faded London' territory. I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for more examples and maybe I'll even find out who W&Co. might have been.
On now to a series of themed or 'novelty' weather vanes. As these vanes are a means of adding a bit of personality to the building it's no great surprise to find that the designs often reflect either the local environment or an owners particular hobby.

One thing that seems to pop up as a regular topic on weather vanes is that of water and various associations with it. Most, but not all of these can be put down to location such as the one below

Old Stable Block, Morden Hall Park Well you might reasonably have expected a horse on a stable block, but the River Wandle runs about five yards from its walls. At one point regarded as one of the finest trout streams in the land even Nelson with one arm managed to catch a few, so up on top sits a trout.

Morden Hall, Morden The local 'Big House' also has the Wandle running through it and has also went for the trout theme. I'm not sure which of the two looks most trout-like though

Parkside Avenue, Wimbledon Common Straying slightly from the fish this attractive three-dimensional dolphin was on top of what looked like an extension in the garden. No obvious connection here so was the choice influenced by a personal connection or was it just down to the aesthetic appeal? The Grange, Wimbledon The Common does have a boating lake but I'd guess the owner has an affinity with slightly larger craft than this one. Slightly odd to see it on top of the garage though.

River Bank, East Molesey Similar to the above, being right next to the Thames is obviously the inspiration for this oneKingston High Street Likewise for the slightly more industrial barge from slightly downstream
OK, picture the scene. It's dusk and in the twilight, far off in the distance, you see a distinctive weather vane flushed out of the Autumnal mist. You take a shot anyway and hope for the best. That's how I ended up with this dark, blurred image of a grouse rising above the rooftops of Roehampton Vale, Richmond Park.
Brodrick Road, Wandsworth SW17 Quirky ones. There had to be some. This is presumably a day-nursery or a home with loads of children

Epsom Road, Merton At the other end of the chronological scale this old couple sit on top of a retirement home.To finish on, how about a couple of mythical creatures?
Kingston Road, Wimbledon Chase This wyvern seems to have take a bit of a battering and his wind directional days are long beyond him, if in fact he was ever a wind vane at all. He's too good to leave out though so I've given him the benefit of the doubt
Howards Lane, Putney SW15 And finally, leaving the best until last, how about this magnificent and by far the largest weather vane included to date. This ferocious beast sits on top of a private house and glares at you over the tree-tops as you drive by and is ornamentation on a grand scale. If he also tells which way the wind's blowing then that's just a bonus...