There’s much discussion about what name to give the most recent arrival on the banks of the Beaulieu River.
Nick de Rothschild, on whose land it sits, first suggested ‘The Angel of the South’. Its sculptor, Chris Campbell, fearing retribution from the great Mr Gormley, preferred another. My husband, Jeremy Norman, had a rather less respectful suggestion - don’t they say ‘a sailor has a girl in every port’?
Names apart, there’s great excitement in these parts about a young lady of great beauty and imposing stature who has come amongst us to bid farewell to those she loves as they depart to do battle on distant waters.
Ave atque vale - Hail and farewell, coined by the Roman poet Gaius Valerius Cattulus, are the words on this fine lady’s lips. Set high above the water at the prow of her small boat, she waves a shining cloth and bids ‘God speed’ to those warriors standing proudly and bravely on their own boats as they set off down the river and to war.
Exactly eighty years ago, on 6th June 1944, such an event occurred when a flotilla of vessels and troops, secretly assembled along the hidden bends of the river, together with Mulberry Harbours constructed there to transport and protect them, slipped silently down the Beaulieu River to join the great Armada assembling on the Solent. The D-Day fleet then made passage past the Needles and set course for the beaches of Normandy.
Jeremy’s father was amongst those courageous troops as a letter in our possession testifies. He amongst the few was lucky and returned home. Many were less fortunate and died fighting their way up those beaches.
There have been other memorable departures down these waters.
The small village of Bucklers Hard lies along the Beaulieu River. During the 18th Century, using timber for oak trees felled in the surrounding New Forest, it became home to a boat yard which supplied war ships for Horatio Nelson’s Navy including three that took part in the Battle of Trafalgar.
Those of us who are lucky enough to be long time residents along the Beaulieu River and the beaches of the Solent, will remember a day in April 1982, when, with a mixture of pride and trepidation, we waved, with similar words on our lips, to the great flotilla of naval boats and support vessels, ‘The Task Force’, as it set sail from the Solent on an 8,000 mile journey to rest back into British hands the Falkland Islands that lie deep in the Southern Oceans.
Chris Campbell’s magnificent sculpture, also doubling as a secure nesting site for sea birds such as oyster-catchers and ring plovers, is sited next to the remains of a gun emplacement, from where, on the 18th April 1944, an anti-aircraft Bofors Gun shot down a German Pathfinder Bomber which then crashed into a field in front of nearby Exbury House.
Should you wish to inspect ‘Our Lady of the South’ up close, her sculptor’s choice of name, you’ll need to first make contact with the adjacent ‘Palais des Vaches’ Art Gallery - www.palaisdesvaches.co.uk. Viewing by appointment only. To reach the sculpture look forward to an easy short stroll along a mowed grass path leading down to the river. Spectacular views across the Solent towards the Isle of Wight will lie ahead of you as you walk.
If however you prefer to see the lady from the water, commandeer your own craft or failing that take a ride on Swiftsure, named after one of Nelson’s Trafalgar warships built on the river, and which leaves regularly from Bucklers Hard.
If you do pass ‘Our Lady’ on the water, please wave back to her and remember the poet’s words - spoken so often and with such deep feeling to others in earlier times passing down these waters to war - Ave atque vale - Hail and farewell.
Farewells on the water are no stranger to the Beaulieu River and the Solent.
