Video Footage – ABBEY MILLS: MERTON PRIORY CHAPTER HOUSE – 900 YEAR OLD WOODEN ARCH! PART 2! (7.8.2022)

Hopefully, these random videos will assist people all over the UK (and the world) to understand and appreciate this wonderful exhibition of 12th century British history! Furthermore, we want to assist the elderly, the vulnerable and people with disabilities and difficulties to experience this exhibition ‘remotely’ – so that they are not excluded from the sharing of British history – which belongs to us all! After teaching Chinese martial arts this morning, we drove from Sutton to South Wimbledon (a distance of 3.9 miles) which took about 30 minutes to achieve! We then walked a slightly longer way around the supermarket and along the river until we reached ‘Chapter House’ – a place we did not know exactly where it was! However, the day was sunny, we were happy and time was on our side!

Abbey Mills: Merton Priory Chapter House – 900 Year Old Wooden Arch! Part 1 (7.8.2022)

A friend of mine forwarded me a local newspaper article that explained that this artefact had been kept (in storage) for over 30 years at the Wandle Industrial Museum, before an expert realised what it was! Chapter House is a building in a car-park opposite a very large supermarket – but the entire grounds of an Augustine monastery lie under this car-park with only part of it currently being visible to the general public! This project requires a major input of money and expertise so that the entire complex can be excavated and enjoyed by the general public! I suspect the car-park needs to be removed and rebuilt at a higher level – so that the monastic ruins can be exposed and preserved in a safe and protected underground environment that the general public can visit. At the moment, adults and children can visit for ‘free’ with the exhibition being open only on Sundays between 11 am – 4 pm! The people that administer this project are friendly, knowledgeable and are willing to engage absolutely EVERYONE who finds their way into the Chapter House!

Down House: Meeting Darwin’s Bees! (9.7.2022)

We have visited Down House a number of times in the past for educational needs – and to marvel at Darwin’s copy of Marx’s ‘Das Kapital’ that is no longer on display (follow the link to read my article on the Buddhist Marxism Alliance UK website)! We last came in March (2022) as ‘Lockdown’ was abating! However, at this time we noticed that there was no Bees! We were told by a member of staff working in the ‘Out-House’ that the Bees are only at Down House during the Summer months and that they are moved to a warmer area (possibly in-doors) for the rest of the year!

Down House: A Curious Stone Wall… (9.7.2022)

The middle-classes possessed an idyllic physical space within which their bodies existed – a situation (and set of material conditions) that often generated a corresponding sense of a ‘spacious’ interior (or expansive mind-set) that could, providing the right education and motivation was present, lead to ground-breaking theorising and progressive scientific endeavour!

Down House: Sat in Charles Darwin’s Shelter! (9.7.2022)

It is said that Charles Darwin would walk around the ‘Sand-Track’ that ran around the exterior boundary of his property on a daily basis – to keep fit! Approximately half-way through – Charles Darwin had a wooden shelter (with a seat) constructed – where he would sit and think for awhile – before starting the journey home! As the years progress – we take family pictures sat on this seat!

UK: Soviet War Grave – Private V. Duschin [Владимир Душин] (1916-1945) – Soviet Forces – Shaftsbury Borough Cemetery, Dorset (Visited 31.5.2022)

There is an added complication involving the fact that Guys Marsh Military Hospital also treated primarily British, American and Soviet POWs who had been held by the Imperial Japanese and who had suffered terrible psychological and physical abuse! It is believed that prior to the Soviet Union declaring war on Imperial Japan on August 9th, 1945 – the Nazi Germans would ship tens of thousands of Soviet POWs to Japanese-occupied Northeast China – where they were worked to death or used for military and medical experiments. As V. Duschin was ‘liberated’, rescued, brought to England and had died at least six-months prior to the Soviet ‘liberation’ of Northeast China (and the eventual surrender of Imperial Japan on September 3rd, 1945). However, V Duschin is recorded as being rescued by the British Army during its drive across Northwest Europe – which must have been around December 1944 – January 1945, but the question remains ‘where’? There were hundreds of sub-camps of various sizes that the Nazi Germans ‘liquidated’ (that is ‘massacred’) as the Allies approached and it could be that V Duschin had been originally moved into Western Europe to work before his health failed. More research is required.

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