I have been to ... Southampton and Winchester

It was my wife's birthday earlier in the week, and we decided to go away this weekend as part of the celebrations. We chose Southampton because we have driven through it many times over the past few years on our way to board or disembark from a cruise liner ... but we have never stopped and looked around the place. Another reason is because a branch of my wife's family lived in Southampton and one of them – Charles Kennell – was a member of the crew of the 'Titanic', and died when she sank.

We stayed at the Chilworth Manor Hotel, which is situated near the village of Chilworth, just north of Southampton. The hotel was originally a private home, but over the years it has been the head office of an engineering firm and Halls of Residence for the University of Southampton. The University later converted it into a residential conference centre, and when they sold it, it became a hotel.

We arrived at the hotel just before 5.00pm on Friday afternoon, and after unpacking and having a drink on the terrace, we had a walk around the hotel's extensive grounds before returning to our room. We ate an excellent meal in the restaurant, and after yet another drink, we went to bed.

On Saturday morning, whilst on our way to breakfast, we became aware that a helicopter was flying very low overhead. In fact, it was landing on one of the lawns near the terrace. We stopped and watched its arrival, and after a wait of some ten minutes, a family that had been staying overnight boarded it, and it took off.

As the photographs show, the space in which the helicopter landed was only fractionally larger than the span of the rotor blades, and the lawn had a slight slope. Despite this, the helicopter seemed to have little difficulty getting in and out of the available space. I asked one of the staff who was acting as a safety officer whether this was a common occurrence, and he told me that on some days that had three or four helicopters land and take off from the hotel's grounds.

Once breakfast was over, we drove into Southampton. It took us less than thirty minutes, and we parked in the West Quay multi story car park. From there we went out into the main shopping area. After a spell of 'retail therapy', my wife and I walked northward to visit the Titanic Engineers Memorial, which is located in East Park.

From there we crossed over the road to the junction of Cumberland Place and London Road, which is where the Titanic Musicians Monument is fixed to the wall of a rather anonymous modern office block.

The original Monument was destroyed when the building that originally housed it was demolished, and the existing Monument is an exact replica of the original.

We then walked south through the East and Houndwell Parks on our way to the Southampton Maritime Museum. Our walk took us past Holy Rood Church. The church was damaged during the Southampton blitz, and now houses various monuments devoted to the Merchant Navy. The largest of these monuments is in memory of the Titanic's Stewards, Stokers, and other Crewmen.

Having paid our respects at this monument, we completed our journey to the Maritime Museum. This is a small museum, but the ground floor area contains several excellent ship models as well as a large model that shows what Southampton Docks looked like in the late 1930s. The upstairs floor is dominated be a huge scale model of RMS QUEEN MARY. This was made by the ship's builders, John Brown Shipbuilders, and depicts the ship 'as built'.

The rest of the gallery is made over to two exhibits. One is devoted to the history of the Ordnance Survey; the other tells the story of RMS TITANIC from the perspective of her relationship with Southampton. The exhibition is quite small, but does contain some interesting and unusual exhibits, including a watch that was found on the body of a dead crewman from Southampton and copies of 'Presumption of Death' certificates that were given to the families of 'missing' crewmen.

We then made our way back to our car and drove back to the hotel, tired but feeling that we had had an interesting day. We ate another excellent evening meal at the hotel, and after sitting on the terrace watching the sun slowly disappear, we went to bed and slept well.

On Sunday we decided not to drive straight home, but to make a short detour so that we could visit Winchester. Once we had eaten breakfast and checked out of the hotel, it took us about thirty minutes to drive to Winchester. We parked as close to the city centre as we could, and after a break for a drink in the local branch of Costa Coffee, we made our way uphill towards the area of Winchester where the museums are situated.

As our time was limited, we chose to visit the Royal Green Jackets Museum (which is also known as the Rifles Museum). The other military museums on the site are the Gurkha Museum, the King's Royal Hussars Museum (which is also known as Horsepower), the Royal Hampshire Regiment Museum, and the Adjutant-General's Corps Museum.

The entrance to the Royal Green Jackets Museum was guarded by two cannons. They were originally operated by the Egyptian Army and were captured by the Mahdists. After they were re-captured at the Battle of Omdurman, they were presented to the Rifle Brigade by General Kitchener.

The museum tells the story of the various infantry regiments that were the antecedents of the Royal Green Jackets, and includes sections on their involvement in the numerous wars fought by the British Army from 1741 onwards. The largest single item in the collection is a diorama of the Battle of Waterloo that has over 20,000 figures. This has a recorded narrative and light show that describes and illustrates the course of the battle.

Our visit to the museum lasted over one and a half hours, and had not time been pressing we could have easily spent longer looking at its exhibits. We will certainly try to re-visit this museum when we return to Winchester to visit the other military museums situated there. Our journey home from Winchester was uneventful, and we are both determined to return to the Chilworth Manor Hotel, Southampton, and Winchester as soon as we can.