El Galeón Andalucía

The Paddle steamer Waverley (see last week’s blog) is not the only historic ship to have graced local waters in recent weeks; Cardiff has also had a visit from this Spanish replica, the Galeón Andalucía. 

The galleon arrived in Cardiff Port on Tuesday 28 May and, having extended its stay for an additional week, departed on Sunday 14 June. During its stay, the galleon was moored in Roath Basin and was open to visitors every day from 10am to 8pm, at a price; the standard adult cost was £15, not an amount I was prepared to pay so this blog only has exterior photos of the ship. 

According to the information on the galleon’s website,

The Galeón Andalucía is an impressive 55-meter-long ship featuring six decks, meticulously built from iroko and pine wood. It boasts nearly 1,000 square meters of sail area spread across seven sails. Built by the Fundación Nao Victoria in Punta Umbría (Andalusia, Spain) with rigorous historical accuracy, it showcases the thousands-of-years-old maritime tradition of the Andalusian community.

Galleons like Andalucía were built in both Portugal and Spain from the early 16th century to transport cargo from the newly discovered territories in the Americas back to Europe. (Similar ships were also built in other European countries during the age of sail but these are not usually known as galleons.) 

Due to the richness of their cargo and the possibility of piracy at sea, the galleons were heavily armed, as you can see from the cannons poking out from the open portholes in the Andalucía, and, taking advantage of the weaponry they carried, the galleons were also used as warships until the mid-17th century when ships were purpose-built for the Anglo-Dutch Wars. 

Since it was built during 2009-2010, the Galeón Andalucía has sailed thousands of miles around the world, visiting more than 100 different ports in cities as diverse as Liverpool and Shanghai, New York and Singapore, Quebec and Manila. The website of the Nao Victoria Foundation, which built and operates not only this galleon but also other replica ships, explains that the Andalucía ‘travels as a floating ambassador for Andalusia as a tourist destination’. 

The Galeón Andalucía visited Cardiff as part of its 2026 European tour, during which the replica will visit ports in England, Ireland, and other European countries. I’m sure admirers of historical maritime transport in those locations will enjoy views of and visits to this very impressive ship.

Paddle steamer Waverley

I was sitting at my table/desk late one recent afternoon, working on my laptop, when I flicked my eyes from screen to window and noticed an unusual vessel chugging up the Bristol Channel (I am lucky to live in an apartment building on a clifftop overlooking the Channel). It was instantly recognisable: the paddle steamer Waverley. 

I went immediately to the Waverley Excursions website to check the Waverley’s timetable and was delighted to see that the paddle steamer would be in the local area, cruising to various locations around the Bristol Channel, viewing the local islands and sailing along the coastlines of England and Wales, for the following couple of weeks.

I checked when she would be in the local area and, the following Sunday morning, went down to Penarth Pier to watch the paddle steamer depart for her daily cruise and get these photos. You might wonder whether I booked a cruise but no; I’m a very poor sailor so the prospect of spending a couple of hours, even worse a whole day, on a boat is my worst nightmare. I do like to look, though. 

The excursions website proudly announces that, in 1970, the Waverley became ‘the world’s last seagoing paddle steamer’. Built in the world-renowned shipyards on the River Clyde in 1946, for the London & North Eastern Railway (LNER), the Waverley began her working life on 16 June 1947, cruising the waterways of south-western Scotland, from Rothesay to Loch Goil and Loch Long, into Loch Fyne and the Kyles of Bute, and later out to the Isle of Arran, and up the Clyde to Glasgow city centre. 

Since then, the paddle steamer Waverley has been registered as part of Britain’s National Historic Fleet ‘as being a vessel of pre-eminent national significance’. I first saw her over 40 years ago when I lived for a couple of years in Glasgow. At that stage, the Waverley was just beginning the next phase of her life, as the ’history’ page on the National Historic Fleet website explains:

WAVERLEY was sold [for £1, essentially a gift] on 8 August 1974 to the Paddle Steamer Preservation Society and refitted for the WAVERLEY Steam Navigation Company and her livery was returned to the LNER colour scheme of red, white and black. In 1975, she re-entered service on the Clyde, sailing at weekends from Glasgow and in mid-week from Ayr. In 1977, she spent a week on excursions from Liverpool and the success of this led to over a month being spent on the South Coast in the following year. In 1981, she was fitted with a new boiler and embarked on her first full season of Round Britain cruising, with the peak summer weeks spent back on the Clyde.

Between 1990 and 2003 the Waverley underwent a series of refits and restorations, getting new paddle wheels and a new boiler, as well as having her timber refurbished and her paint job restored to her LNER colours. All this has prepared the Waverley for her current busy schedule of cruises in various locations around the British coast. Check the excursions website if you’re a better sailor than me and fancy a unique paddle steamer experience.

Portland: Mulberry Harbour

I’m not particularly au fait with the names and/or functions of the various structures you can find around ports and harbours, and this hunk of what looked like concrete, rearing up from the waters of Portland harbour just offshore from Portland Castle, looks rather odd, too tall to function as a dock, too obvious to hold anything secret, lacking any obvious means by which to lift goods – in short, a mystery. Enter Professor Google … 

According to the Historic England website, these are two ‘Phoenix Caissons, sections of the structure known as a Mulberry Harbour designed for, and used in, the invasion of Normandy in June 1944. The harbour was a part of the vital support structure behind the successful operation’. It goes on: 

The ‘Mulberries’ were … pre-fabricated concrete harbours … 4,500 men were involved in their construction, and each ‘Mulberry’ was intended to be roughly equivalent in area to Dover Harbour and be capable of handling 12,000 tons of supplies daily. They consisted of a number of exotically code-named components: ‘Phoenix’ (a hollow concrete caisson); ‘Corncob’ (a sunken blockship); ‘Whales’ (floating pierheads); ‘Spuds’ (extendable steel legs); ‘Beetles’ (concrete pontoon barges); and ‘Bombardons’ (steel mooring buoys).

The Grade II-listed structures now present in Portland harbour are two of the ten ‘Phoenix’ caissons that were ‘towed to Portland in 1946 and were positioned to the west of the harbour to protect berthed vessels from prevailing westerly winds.’ In case you’re wondering what happened to the other eight, they were ‘sent by the Admiralty to the Netherlands to repair and block breaches in the dykes, following a great storm in January 1953’. 

If the structures themselves are not fascinating enough for you, on top of the caissons, there are six sculptures representing some of the crucial people involved on D-Day: two British sailors, two American G.I.s, and two dockyard workers. As you might imagine given the nature of the caissons, the manufacture and installation of these sculptures is an engaging story in its own right, and it is well worth reading the intriguing tale on the website of those responsible, Dead Walk Designs. The website also includes a gallery of the sculptures up close, as well as a video of the whole process – highly recommended viewing!

Weymouth: D-Day embarkation

When I visit Weymouth, as I seem to be doing now on a regular basis, it’s primarily for the wildlife, the birds, butterflies and dragonflies that are either resident or passing through on their Spring and Autumn migrations, and so almost every day I walk from my guest house on the front along to RSPB Lodmoor and back. Along the way I pass poignant reminders of the importance of this seaside town during the Second World War. 

One of those reminders is this sign, placed as you can see at the bottom of a flight of steps that leads from Greenhill Road down to Brunswick Lane at the edge of the beach. 

The text on the sign reads:

Rangers Way 2
At the start of June 1944, the 2nd Battalion US Rangers descended these steps en masse before lining up on the Promenade. They then marched to the Pavilion to board the boats for the crossing of the Channel to Pointe du Hoc, Normandy, France.
"We may never see their like again."

 And, one afternoon, when I was returning to my guest house from a walk around RSPB Radipole via a meandering exploration of the older parts of Weymouth, I found another similar reminder of this town’s strategic importance for the embarkation of soldiers heading to France 82 years ago. 

This harbourside plaque reads:

D-Day Embarkation June 1944

Weymouth was one of the main embarkation points for troops assembled in South Dorset in preparation for the invasion of France during World War II. The thousands of troops who embarked through Weymouth included the US 1st Infantry Division, who landed on Omaha Beach and the 2nd Ranger Battalion who successfully disabled the heavily fortified German artillery battery at Pointe du Hoc. In the days leading up to the 6th June landings this area in front of the old 1908 Pavilion was a bustle of activity with men and supplies being loaded onto landing craft. Over the following year more than half a million American servicemen and 150,000 vehicles would pass through Weymouth and Portland to the beaches of Normandy.

As the Rangers Way sign’s quotation of General Dwight Eisenhower’s famous statement says, ‘We may never see their like again.’

Cardiff Bay: Star Walk Wales

 

Until quite recently, I'd never noticed these panels set into the pavement outside the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay, and trying to find out more about them has proved difficult.
 

Online research produced the following:

• A report on The CAD Centre UK Ltd, dated June 2017, has the following mention: 'The provider [presumably The CAD Centre] is working with the architect of the Wales Millennium Centre by funding the first stages of the development of “Star Walk Wales”, an innovative project to commemorate key figures from Wales, where members of the public can interact with the “stars” and learn more about Welsh personalities.'
  
  
• According to their website, the installation work was done by a company called Atlantic Dwellings.
  
  
• A Twitter/X profile @StarWalkWales was set up in September 2016. It describes itself as follows:' Star Walk Wales, aims to create a made in Wales dedicated star-studded walk way in Cardiff Bay, to celebrate the life and work of Wales' finest achievers', but there are no posts and the account doesn't appear to be active. The website linked to this profile is also inactive.
  
  
• And it appears that the Welsh Government was not supportive of the project. Minutes of business discussed in the Senedd in November 2018 report: 'Commissioners were provided with an update on recent developments around the long-standing proposals for a ‘Star Walk Wales’. Commissioners concluded that they did not feel able to support the development of a ‘Star Walk’ on the Assembly estate.'

 

The Star Walk consists of just one 'star', a poet named Nigel Bevan. He is also something of an enigma, as online research has not produced any information about him and his work. So much for these 'stars' focusing on Wales's finest achievers!

Cardiff Bay: Pink hut

It's a strange little building, looks completely out of place where it sits, yet those two factors, and its bright pink colour, make the Pink hut one of the most recognisable buildings in Cardiff Bay.

According to the Cardiff Harbour website, the hut, which looks rather precarious on its thin stilt-like legs, was intended for use by 'local yacht clubs and other event organisers to start and control races in the estuary'. 

To be honest, that sounds very odd. Although the hut sits near the end of the eastern breakwater of the Barrage, the extreme tidal range of the Bristol Channel means that, at low tide, there is a large expanse of mud below the building, rather than water. 

And, in fact, I've read that the Pink hut has never been used for its intended purpose so now it's something of a pink elephant. Perhaps that's where the idea for its paint colour came from. 

An article on the Wales Online website, dated 6 October 2020, says the building had recently been set up as a personal gym, with a punch bag, bench, bar and weights, after being rented out to one of the Habour Authority employees. I don't know if that's still the case.

Weymouth: maypole plaque

Today is May Day and, in the few places around the UK where they still exist, maypoles will feature in the celebrations. The origin of the custom of dancing around a maypole seems still to be much debated, with various theories posited, mostly surrounding the worship of trees and/or tree spirits, the phallic symbolism of the pole and its relevance to fertility rituals, and the importance of the return of warm weather for agricultural production. 

There once was a maypole in Weymouth but it was removed many years ago, and its former location is now marked by this plaque at the intersection of St Mary Street and Bond Street. Though the pole is long gone, I was delighted to find a video on YouTube of two performances of maypole dancing at this location, from 2004 and 2005, by the children of Weymouth's Conifers Primary School.

Weymouth: ANZAC memorial

Today is Anzac Day in New Zealand, the day New Zealanders and Australians remember, acknowledge and honour all those who have served and died in wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations around the world, the Antipodean equivalent of Britain's Remembrance Sunday and the USA's Veterans Day.

I was a little surprised when I noticed this memorial to the ANZAC (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps) forces on the front in Weymouth but I should have realised that troops from all participating nations would have passed through many of the seaside towns and ports along the south coast of England, and so it was in Weymouth. As the inscriptions on the pillar explain:

'A. I. F. [Australian Imperial Force]
In memory of the ANZAC volunteer troops who after action at Gallipoli in 1915 passed through hospitals and training camps in Dorset'

And

'N. Z. E. F. [New Zealand Expeditionary Force]
These ANZAC troops later moved from Dorset to action in Palestine and the Western Front'

And, not shown here, the road side of the pillar reads:

'ANZAC memorial
We will remember them'

Plus, on a lower step of the platform

'They came from afar
in the cause of freedom'

Sponsored by members of the Weymouth and Portland Residents' Association, Weymouth and Portland Borough Council, individuals and local businesses, the memorial was dedicated on 1 June 2005 and commemorates the involvement of ANZAC soldiers in World War One and the presence of those troops in camps in the local area during that time. 

The Virtual War Memorial Australia website provides additional information:

Weymouth was the depot for the Anzacs Gallipoli casualties sent to UK hospitals for
treatment and then discharged as convalescent. The depot opened in May 1915 and was the joint Australian and New Zealand depot until the NZ depot opened at Hornchurch in Essex in April 1916. Weymouth then became AIF Command Depot No.2 which accommodated those men not expected to be fit for duty within six months, therefore, most of the Diggers repatriated as a result of wounds or sickness passed through Weymouth. During the years 1915-1919 over 120,000 Australian and New Zealand troops passed through Weymouth.
The Hotel Prince Regent opposite the ANZAC Memorial was previously known as Hotel Burdon and was one of nine military hospitals in Weymouth during World war One.

 

Cardiff Bay: Adventurers Quay artworks

This is Adventurers Quay, a large residential development on the edge of Roath Basin in Cardiff Bay and, as you can see, around the ground floor of the building, at pedestrian eye level, there's an artwork.

The artwork, which was installed in 1999, has two components, one a mosaic of ceramic sails coloured blue and white, the other, perhaps less obvious, the grilles that cover the window openings to the car park inside the building.

The 'Terracotta Sails' mosaic is the work of ceramicist David Mackie (b. 1965), a prolific artist whose website lists completed artworks dating from 1994 to 2024, several of which can be seen in the Cardiff area. As well as the highly glazed sails, there's an undulating row of terracotta bricks fashioned to resemble a rope running along the lower part of the artwork. I quite like this piece, though I think the concept lacks imagination, sails being a very common theme among the artworks around Cardiff Bay.

Passers-by might be forgiven for not realising that the 11 steel grilles covering the car park openings are an artwork, so simple are they. These are the work of Andrew Rowe (b. 1963), whose DAR Design website describes him as a 'designer, sculptor and artist blacksmith', who works 'to commission, providing unique design solutions for public art, architectural metalwork, street furniture and sculpture'.

Cardiff Bay: Blue Beacon

I'd walked past this artwork many times before I paused to look at it more closely, possibly because it's located outside Bute Town Police Station, and I've never thought it a good idea to be seen lingering outside police stations. 

I've called this blog 'Blue Beacon' but I've also seen this artwork called 'Lighthouse' and 'Blue Light' – I'm not sure which is correct. 

According to his website, this piece was designed by British sculptor Mark Renn (1952–2019), with assistance in the design development and fabrication management from Mick Thacker. 

The 60-foot-tall stainless steel construction is the work of 'A1 Stainless, South Wales Monuments, Richard Williams', and there's also an LED lighting system that produces a pulsing blue light at night. 

The granite base of the structure is inscribed with a poem, 'The Ballast Bank', from the publication Zen Cymru, by Peter Finch. 

You can read the poem in full on Finch's website, which offers the following explanation for the piece and its relevance to the location:

The Ballast Bank is a poem by Peter Finch which has been incorporated into Renn and Thackers' Blue Light public artwork at the entrance to the South Wales Police Headquarters on James Street, Cardiff. This station is built very near where in the early days of Cardiff as a trading port stood a quarter mile bank of off-loaded ballast. This had been dumped by arriving ships making space for their outgoing cargoes of iron and coal. The Bank is clearly visible on John Wood's late 1830s map of the town.

The artwork puts some of that ballast bank back. The poem delineates the races, language groupings, trades and ideas which flowed in and out of the burgeoning industrial town as it exponentially developed. In its original form the poem circled Renn and Thacker's silver tower to run across the station entrance steps, in through the doors, up across reception finishing on the reception desk's surface.

According to the newspaper Wales Online, there seems to have been some controversy and criticism about the erection of this artwork, not surprising when you consider that upwards of £70,000 of taxpayers' money was used to pay for it in 2013.

Cardiff Bay: Triple spout

I admit to never having noticed this fountain until I found it mentioned in the Cardiff Public Art Register; the register is available as a downloadable pdf, though be aware that it seems not to have been updated since 2008 and, in the interim period, some artworks have been vandalised, many have suffered damage and not been repaired, at least one has been relocated, and, despite Cardiff Council's history of neglect, more artworks have appeared around the city. 

The reason I hadn't previously noticed the 'Triple Spout' is that it's located in a hole in the ground in Cardiff Bay's Roald Dahl Plass. According to the Register entry, the location is 'a deep D shaped feeder pit that was historically used for balancing water levels in the adjacent Oval Basin'. 

The fountain is the work of British sculptor William Pye and was installed in 2000. Pye specialises in sculptures involving water; his website says he 'is inspired by the extraordinary qualities of water and fascinated by the natural laws of hydrostatics and how these can be manipulated'. Scrolling through the list of works on Pye's website I realised that I've seen at least one other previously, the font in Salisbury Cathedral, which I included in a blog written in January 2017, Salisbury Cathedral by day.

Weymouth: Civil War cannonball

When I turned from looking at the ghost signs I blogged earlier this week and looked across to the other side of Maiden Street, I immediately found another item of historical interest. 

Though I didn't at first notice the object itself, I did quickly spot this plaque on the side of the building. 

And then I almost bumped in to a young woman who obviously also had a fascination for the old and interesting. She was photographing, and thus brought to my attention, these two plaques cemented in to the pavement opposite the building (and she was delighted when I pointed out the ghost signs to her). The plaques read:

The Maiden Street Cannonball

Just below the top window of the building opposite is a cannonball lodged in the wall. While the cannonball may be a replica, the damage originates from the time of the Civil War.

At the beginning of 1645 the important strategic port of Weymouth was under Parliamentary command. However in early February a plot by local Royalist sympathisers led to a surprise attack which left Weymouth, across the harbour, in the hands of the Royalists. This plot is known locally as the 'Crabchurch Conspiracy'.

The Parliamentarians took refuge in Melcombe Regis but came under heavy bombardment from Royalist artillery during the following week. The cannonball which struck the building may well have been fired from an elevated position across the harbour on the Nothe headland during this time.

By the end of the month the Parliamentarians had stormed the bridge and retaken Weymouth. However the whole town was left in ruins and the local economy would take years to recover. 

The building itself, which now houses the RAFA Club, other commercial enterprises and public conveniences, is Grade II listed, and the Historic England website entry confirms that the building dates to the 17th century, though the windows are 19th-century upgrades. The entry also confirms the presence of the cannonball, with no mention of the possibility of it being a replica: 'A C17 cannon ball remains embedded in the gable masonry to the left of the casement.'

Weymouth: ghost signs

Although the main reason for my mini breaks in Weymouth is to find and enjoy the local wildlife, in particular the birds, and, during the summer, the butterflies and dragonflies, every time I wander the streets of the old town I find more new and interesting things. 

During my most recent visit, a couple of weeks ago, I turned from Custom House Quay in to Maiden Street, my eyes wandering all the time up, down and around the street and buildings, when I noticed these signs on the building on the corner of Maiden Street and Helen Lane. 

The sign is in three separate parts, which appear to read: 'manures and cakes' (this made me chuckle), 'grain', and 'hay, straw and English grain', though I think there are words above that are not now legible. 

Though I've not been able to find any information about the building or its previous use (it is not one of the many Weymouth buildings that are heritage listed), I assume it was once used as a warehouse. Being so near to the harbour, it could easily have stored agricultural products that had arrived at the port or were being stored prior to being shipped elsewhere. 

In case you are not familiar with the term 'ghost sign', Historic England defines these as: 'fading advertising signs, or shop signs that are preserved on buildings longer than the businesses they represent'.

Weymouth: 'Tom' the torpedo

The coast path that runs along the edge of Portland Harbour by the marina is littered with a diverse range of objects and signs. This is one of those. 

As the writing on the sign may not be easily readable in my photo, I've transcribed it below:

"Tom" the torpedo

Robert Whitehead became interested in remotely controlling and detonating underwater explosive charges, and in 1868 had successfully demonstrated a practical torpedo design. The British Navy became interested and after purchasing some of the torpedos, encouraged Whitehead to set up a manufacturing facility in England.

Whitehead bought an eight acre site at Ferry Bridge, and built a factory which produced torpedos, using Portland Harbour for testing. Before the turn of the century he was manufacturing 14 and 18 inch diameter units with a range of 1000 yards and a speed of 20 knots.

The arrival of Whiteheads at Wyke Regis meant a considerable influx of skilled engineers and tradesmen, all of whom needed houses, schools and places to relax. Over the following years streets of red bricked terrace houses appeared alongside the cottages of old Wyke, as well as a new school and pubs and clubs.

After Whitehead's death, production carried on day and night to support World War I, but after the war demand fell and the factory shut down. In 1923 Vickers bought the site, and in response to threats from Germany a massive modernisation of the works was initiated, and by the start of the Second World War some 1500 men and women were employed.

When peace was declared in 1945, the yard again found itself in difficulties and although production reduced substantially, design and development work carried on including wire-guided and rocket propelled units. The last test firing of a Whitehead 21 inch torpedo produced at Ferry Bridge took place in Weymouth Bay in 1966.

The torpedo on display was donated to Portland Marina by the Royal Navy Submarine Museum in Gosport www.submarine-museum.co.uk and it is a Mk 8, which was the mainstay submarine torpedo of WW 2 being responsible for the destruction of over two million tons of enemy shipping. The propulsion unit is a radial four cylinder semi-diesel engine, developing 350 BHP, giving a range of 5000 yards at 45.5 knots.

Weymouth: Bloody Assizes plaque

Installed in September 2025, this plaque is a new addition to the many that mark various aspects of Weymouth's history and can be viewed as part of the town's heritage trail. Today, Greenhill Gardens is a manicured park, with a café and benches where visitors and locals alike can sit and enjoy the expansive views of Weymouth Bay, but it is a location with a bloody history. 

Back in September 1685, twelve local men were hanged, drawn and quartered at Greenhill because of their participation in the Monmouth Rebellion. The plaque explains:

The Bloody Assizes

The Monmouth Rebellion of 1685 followed the death of Charles II and was an attempt to put his illegitimate son on the throne in place of James II. The uprising failed and hundreds of rebels were sentenced to death by the infamous Judge Jeffries [or Jeffreys]. Twelve rebels were hanged, drawn and quartered on gallows erected at Greenhill and their body parts then displayed in the nearby towns and villages.

Weymouth: Communication Board

I'm probably a bit behind the times here but I'd never seen one of these communication boards until this week as I was walking along the beach-side promenade in the seaside town of Weymouth on England's south coast, and I didn't initially understand what its purpose was.
 

Now that I've goggled and read some of the web pages I think it's a brilliant idea. In case you're also in the dark, as you can see from my image, a communication board is illustrated with symbols and images that are used to explain words. Those people who find verbal communication difficult, like children or adults with disorders that affect their ability to speak or those whose first language is not English, can point to symbols to ask questions or explain what they are looking at or tell a story. More formally, a communication board is a form of AAC (augmentative and alternative communication) for those among us who are non-verbal.
 

According to an article in the Dorset Echo, this communication board was installed in August 2025, and the BBC website reported, in March 2025, that boards have also been installed in several locations in Lyme Regis. I look forward to finding many more of these boards in other locations.

Cardiff Bay: Radio Flat Holm sculpture

In mid 2024 this four-metre-high sculpture of an old-fashioned style of radio appeared on Cardiff Bay Barrage. Financed by a National Lottery Fund Project that's supposed to be about rejuvenating Flat Holm Island, the hardwood artwork was designed and created by Glenn Davidson to celebrate the first radio transmission over open water by Guglielmo Marconi on 13 May 1897. Only that radio transmission was between Flat Holm and Lavernock, not Cardiff, and Marconi is not mentioned on the adjacent plaque because it turns out he was a fascist with close links to Benito Mussolini, and the sculpture has been sited so that viewers looking at it actually have their backs towards Flat Holm. So I fail to see how this sculpture is going to 'act as a symbol and encourage them [viewers] to explore the full range of the island's history', as envisioned by a Cardiff Council spokesperson. 

Almost two years on from its installation, the sculpture is already looking worn, its varnished surface badly affected by the elements, as is to be expected in such an exposed seaside environment. It will be interesting to see if Cardiff Council maintains and/or refurbishes the sculpture, something they have failed to do with almost every other public artwork around Cardiff Bay.