With all these secondhand Enviros arriving and lockdown, its been difficult to keep up, however managed to catch 73 today on the 6 between the Town Centre and the Hospital. The 6 used to be very busy with DD on all journeys, but now is a shadow of its former self running every 20 minutes with saloons on weekends. 73 is usually found in deepest Essex, so quite nice to get it on a town route.

Difficult to get that definitive shot of the whole length with my cheap camera but did get reasonable clarity on video

clip youtu.be/lURQqoa6TKo

 

Difficult to get the exposure right for such a scene - so had to resort to blending.

 

~~~ More photos from Alaska ~~~

 

View my most Interesting photos

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the path less trodden.

St Michael, Hockering, Norfolk

 

I had long looked forward to coming back to Hockering. When I did it was to the pleasure of a church stunningly cared for, after many years of decay. I had witnessed the start of this TLC some ten years before, when I had the privilege to meet one of the great Norfolk eccentrics, one of the truly memorable characters of my journey around the churches of East Anglia. Sadly, it seems that he is no longer with us.

 

In 2006, I wrote: We came to Hockering the morning after the second exorcism. I couldn't honestly say that all was calm. It was a day of sunshine and blizzards, when the light first dazzled and then submitted to a baffling of snowflakes as fat as goose feathers. We church-hopped between the flurries, catching glimpses and seeking shelter. It was a day to battle with obscurity, and as I said to Peter later, it was difficult to know where to start. First of all, perhaps, there was the screaming skull. Or was it the cold spots? There were a lot of cold spots, apparently. But none of that could have happened without the phone call about the SatNav. And then later there were the Saints, and there were the extraordinary Berneys, and there was Catholic treasure from beyond the great divide. Such a lot to remember. Perhaps it's best to start at the beginning.

 

St Michael, Hockering, is a small-scale work of the early 14th century, vigorously enhanced in the late 15th or early 16th century, and then, in part, enthusiastically refurbished by the Victorians in the 1850s, as we shall see. However, it still retains a lot of its decorated charm, and the tower is curious because the buttresses stop short of the later bell stage, making it look like a small head on broad shoulders. The pretty pinnacles and battlements help to alleviate this; a crowning, if you like. The church sits among fields to the west of the village, and just to the north of the main road from Norwich to the Midlands, which slices clinically through the otherwise profoundly rural landscape of central Norfolk.

 

We were in Peter's car, heading across the A47 to St Michael. The keyholder was in the back. He was in his fifties I suppose, a cheerful man and, as it would turn out, a kindly man. He was heavily bearded, with longish hair, as if he had intended to be on the hippy trail to India, but had ended up in Norfolk instead. He wore a leather jerkin, rubber waders and a pearl earring. We were really grateful that he was giving up his time. He told us about the lot who'd come yesterday. They'd also been grateful. They hadn't known, of course, that if they'd waited a while he'd have been there anyway. He spent hours every day at the church, because he was verger and sexton and handyman and cleaner and silver polisher and carpenter and chief cook and bottlewasher all in one. We hadn't known that either of course, but it didn't matter.

 

Yes, that lot yesterday had been waiting for him when he got there, and he knew straight away it was an exorcism because there'd been an exorcism five years ago, and this was just like that. And five years ago funny things had been happening; you'd take the candle stocks off the altar and lock them away, and when you were back out in the nave you'd hear a clatter, and you'd go back to the vestry and find them rolling around on the floor. But now they had this woman with them who could sense evil. She could see it, she could smell it.

 

I was trying very hard not to catch Peter's eye. I feared it might break the spell. I have now visited nearly 1200 churches in Norfolk and Suffolk, but this was gold dust. I had never heard anything like this before. My mind rolled, and I felt a thrill of excitement.

 

Fifteen minutes earlier, when we'd first arrived at the church, I'd actually been feeling a little low. We'd just been subjected to the flat-lining pulse of Honingham St Andrew, and so to find another locked church was depressing, even though it had a keyholder notice. Through the magic of the OS street atlas of Norfolk we found the house where the keyholder lived; but when I knocked on the door, there was no answer. I waited and waited while Peter turned the car around. The house wasn't far from the church, but it was on the far side of the A47, which no pedestrian crosses safely. And I waited, and I thought to myself, I wonder if there's a key hanging up somewhere? Because some keyholders keep the key hanging up outside for other parishioners to use. And just as I thought I might look for it, the door opened.

 

Within moments, I knew that I was in the presence of one of Norfolk's great eccentrics, which is saying something, because in this day and age the county may well have cornered the market, at least as far as England goes. And before we left Hockering, which would be fully two hours in the future, I would know that, thanks to this friendly, candid man, if any church in Norfolk is to survive the next quarter of a century it will be Hockering.

 

He invited us in to his house while he looked for the key, but what had surprised him was that we had found his house at all. Because that lot yesterday had phoned him up and said they couldn't find his street, and asked him for the post code of the church so they could put it in the SatNav, and then they could let the SatNav direct their car to the church, and he laughed and said there was no need, he'd meet them there, and the church was easy to find because it was the big thing that looked like a church.

 

He'd got to the church, and they were waiting. Three clergyman and a woman who saw things other people couldn't see, felt things they couldn't feel. And she'd wandered around, poking in corners, and she found all these cold spots. There'd been one in the porch, and one by the font, and several in the vestry. Worst of all, up in the west gallery she'd sensed a screaming skull. That was the motherlode as far as evil was concerned, and the exorcism team sprang into action.

 

I made up my mind that, more than anything, I wanted to go up into the west gallery and sense the screaming skull. We got to the churchyard, but the porch was out of commission and cordoned off. It wasn't clear if this was due to falling masonry or demonic possession. Instead, we were let into the chancel, through the Priest's door.

 

Hockering chancel is an opulent 19th century refurbishment quite out of character with the rest of the church. The chancel arch and its matching stone reredos in particular are textbook examples of the international mid-19th century Early English style, familiar to church explorers from Vancouver to Calcutta and beyond. The arch in particular must have cost a fortune. Fortunately, the Victorians used the old bench ends for the stalls, or perhaps they had simply run out of money by then. Certainly, the 1890s rood screen does not match the stonework for quality.

 

However, west of the chancel arch is a small nave with a north aisle, and it is full of local character, with an air of the centuries conspiring, through a mixture of care and neglect, to leave us something unique. And best of all is Hockering's wonderful font. It sits beneath the George III royal arms on the front of the west gallery, and it soon distracted me from searching for skulls. The bowl is Victorian and perfunctory; the shaft is medieval, and wonderful.

 

It depicts eight Saints, standing in niches. Their heads were whacked off by 16th century protestants, and have since been replaced, but they are in the main in good condition, beautifully clear and identifiable. They include St Michael, St Andrew, St Margaret, St Catherine, St Christopher and the Blessed Virgin and child.

 

It has to be said that the interior of St Michael is slightly ramshackle, though pleasantly so. It is, however, very clean. This is because the keyholder has been systematically working his way through the building, cleaning and sealing dusty surfaces, polishing the wood and scraping the muck off the stone. So far, it has taken him almost two years of daily work, and he still isn't quite finished. Now, England is full of people who love their parish church, but it is rare to meet someone who so wholeheartedly backs up this love with the sheer sweat of his brow, and I admired what he was doing here immensely.

 

The majority of the benches in the nave are late medieval, with simple, carved poppyheads. At the front, a box pew bears the arms of the Berney family, who are one of the long-established stars in the firmament of Norfolk landowners. By the 13th and 14th centuries they were busy organising the peasantry in these parts, as well as elsewhere in Norfolk. Incredibly, they still live at Hockering Hall, the current incarnation of which is a modernist building of the 1950s.

 

And St Michael, which is by no means one of Norfolk's more significant churches, is still their church, and their patronage still falls heavily here. The current family attend the church every Sunday, and they form a significant proportion of the tiny congregation. I thought that this was wonderful, like something out of an Evelyn Waugh novel. Apparently, it is still the job of the churchwarden to make sure that nobody else sits in the Berney pew. A few months back, someone they hadn't seen before arrived early for the evening service, and sat down in it. There was a collective sharp intake of breath from the half dozen or so locals sitting behind, and the stranger had to be turfed out and rehoused in the cheaper seats.

 

Mortlock, visiting in the early 1980s, said that there was an air here of a church not being forgotten, but not cherished either. He'd probably say the same today, but I think this is simply because of the junkshop atmosphere of a quirky church with much of interest and more than a little rustic character. Typical of the quirkiness is the brass to Humphrey Smallpece,it reads Milleno, Quingenteno Anno ter quique deno et nono Domini, dum Rex Henricus et annum primum post deno tres regni Octavus agebat, Hic evit Humpfridus Smallpece aestate sepultus. This translates as 'In the summer of the year 1539, as King Henry VIII began the 31st year of his reign, Humphrey Smallpece died, and was buried here'. This is curious, because it means that here we have an inscription from the very earliest stages of the English Reformation, when England was still a Catholic country, and yet it is entirely secular.

 

At last, we went up into the gallery. It has been built into the splay of the west window, and is approached via the tower stairs, but it is too rickety to be used by the public anymore. It is cluttered with equipment - a lawnmower, planters, and old books under a carpet of dust. No screaming skulls, though. The keyholder could see in our faces that we thought it untidy, and he laughed. "This is what the rest of the church used to be like", he observed.

 

Finally, something genuinely extraordinary. Hockering parish possesses some 16th century plate, including an exquisite silver paten with the head of Christ in the centre. This can be dated accurately from a will bequest of 1520. There is also a cup of 1570, post-Reformation of course, bearing the inscription HOKRYNG TOWN. These are now kept in safe storage in Norwich, not at the church, but they had recently been returned to the parish from an exhibition, and were due to go back to Norwich later that afternoon. Our friendly keyholder produced them with a flourish for us to look at and photograph - tremendous treasures from a world ago, now rarely exposed to the light of day.

 

So, that was Hockering. We took the kindly keyholder home, and headed on to the relative sanity of the Wensum group of parishes to the north. As we drove, I was thinking about the Berney pew, Noel Coward's chorus running through my head:

 

The Stately Church of England, how beautiful it stands,

To prove the upper classes have still the upper hand

 

and wondered to myself if, when I came to write about Hockering, I should mention the exorcists. The thing is, I get an increasing number of crank e-mails from people claiming to represent organisations with wacky names like the Suffolk Paranormal Society, and the North Essex Ghost Hunters. They ask me if I know of any haunted churches for them to investigate. My answer, in the days when I still bothered to answer them, was no, of course I don't. How on earth could a functioning, welcoming, prayerful church possibly be haunted? I fear they may now and try and get their talons into Hockering, and it will be partly my fault. All I can say is that there are now no ghosts at Hockering, and I don't believe that there ever were.

Elsa is now freed from the backing, but is still attached to the plastic spacer on her back, and the doll stand. She is stood up, and we start to undo the various fasteners attaching her to the spacer. The most difficult to remove are the T-Tabs tacking the back of her head to the spacer. First we remove the tape over the ends of the T-Tabs on the inside of the spacer. Then we cut the T-Tabs. Then the rubber bands around her arms are removed, and the spacer can be removed from her back. The remaining posts of the T-Tabs in her head are cut, and the adhesive cap on her head carefully peeled off. There is still a wire wrapped around her waist, which is removed after opening up the back of her dress. We take the opportunity to look at the stamping of the edition number and size in her lower back: #102 of 2500, which matches the numbers of the Certificate of Authenticity. With the wire removed, the dress can now be closed back up. We then start removing the remaining T-Tabs that are keeping the dress from being fully opened up to its full extent. Then she is freed from the doll stand, and laid down to see the full extent of her dress and cape.

 

Deboxing my LE 2500 Elsa 17'' Doll. First the front cardboard box lid is removed, revealing the doll behind a clear plastic cover. Next the bottom box lid is removed, then the plastic cover removed, leaving the doll in the open, but still attached to the cardboard backing. Now she can be photographed without the glare from the plastic cover. Between the plastic cover and the bottom of the cardboard backing is the Certificate of Authenticity. My doll is #102 of 2500. Then the plastic T-Tabs tacking the dress to the bottom of the backing are cut, freeing the dress, and allowing the bottom flap to be folded down. We can now see the clear base of the doll stand, and Elsa's shoes. Raising her skirt shows that there is a wire tying her legs to the doll stand. Her shoes are same snowflake design as the Harrods, except that the color is a plainer blue, without the iridescence or silver paint making it look metallic. Like the Harrods Elsa, she has fixed angled feet, so she looks elegant in her high heels. We take a look at her eyelashes, which are slightly messy, especially on her left (our right).

 

Notes on the back of the LE Elsa's box:

 

From the Movie Disney Frozen

 

Disney Store proudly presents the worldwide Limited Edition Elsa doll. With its intricate details, this beautifully designed doll magically captures the beauty and spirit of Elsa, from Disney's newest feature film Frozen. Inspired by the movie, Elsa's side-swept braid is adorned with intricate snowflake jewels. Sheer organza sleeves lead to a sweetheart bodice and an elongated sheer dress overlay. Shimmery ice-blue snowflake embroidery and rhinestones embellish her gorgeous gown. Designed and carefully crafted by Disney Store artists, this limited edition doll is a must-have for Disney fans and collectors alike.

 

Certificate of Authenticity and Display Stand included.

 

First look at the Limited Edition Anna and Elsa 17'' Dolls, that I purchased from the Disney Store on the release day, November 20, 2013. The dolls are LE 2500, and cost $99.95 each. They will be photographed boxed, during deboxing, and fully deboxed. They will also be posed with other comparable dolls, especially the Harrods LE 100 Anna and Elsa dolls.

 

Product information from the US Disney Store website:

 

Elsa Limited Edition Doll - 17'' - Frozen

Released online and in store on November 20, 2013

SOLD OUT online in 12 minutes

$99.95

Item No. 6070040900950P

 

Ice dream

Elsa will provide chills of excitement with this spectacular limited edition doll. Designed and crafted by Disney Store artists, and inspired by Disney's Frozen, Elsa's side-swept blonde braid cascades over her finely detailed gown.

 

Magic in the details...

 

Please Note: Each Guest will be limited to ordering a maximum of one of this item per order.

 

• Limited Edition of 2500

• Includes Certificate of Authenticity

• Sheer organza sleeves

• Sweetheart bodice detailed with reflective ''icicles''

• Elongated sheer dress overlay

• Gown detailed with shimmery ice-blue snowflake embroidery, and rhinestones

• Braided blonde hair is adorned with intricate snowflake jewels

• Rooted eyelashes

• Fully poseable

• Display stand included

• Comes in elegant window display packaging

• Inspired by Disney's Frozen

 

The bare necessities

 

• Ages 6+

• Plastic /polyester

• 17'' H

• Imported

C Tuna chapter 1... Going Nowhere Fast

 

Recalling the drinking memories can be more difficult

than other recollections for some reason. In the eighth grade I have very vague memories of tagging along with Paul Smith and walking from our school, Our Lady of Victory on Lambton Avenue in the Borough of York, up to Jane Street and down the hill to Smythe Park where we turned onto Blackcreek then a block or so down into this maze of streets with newer homes. We had a few drinks from his families bar, which was new to me, liquor kept over for other times. I don’t think we got drunk or anything but we got in trouble from the nuns when we returned a little late for afternoon classes. It was Mother Eleanor the saintly school principal who was upset with us. Her idea of punishment was to take you in her office talk to you in the kindest humane way then hand you a thin flimsy wooden coca cola ruler and ask you to strap yourself several times. She’ll be in heaven a long time that woman. What still impresses me more than the adventure into the Smiths’ liquor cabinet was the revelation of a new standard of living found in this area of new and modern homes with two bathrooms and showers, carpets and new appliances and things called recreation rooms. Of course the Smith home only had to house four people whereas we were seven in all, eight when dad was alive. In our end of the neighborhood generally described as York Township the homes were built in the thirties and fourties, driveways were mostly gravel, the homes for the most part were two stories, for some reason we always rented. Twenty six Victoria Boulevard was no exception.

 

I have a romantic recollection of drinking at a young age, stumbling down Weston Road near Eglinton at night hearing a car drive by blaring the new Animals hit of the day the haunting House of the Rising Son, when I play the song today it still resonates in a very personal way. This would have been in about 64 which made me sixteen at the time. That evening I ran in to Thomas Russell by the Churchill Restaurant owned by old Albert who was always dressed in a greasy white apron over a greasy white t shirt. He would have been in his sixties he was never shaved he had rotting yellow teeth, some were missing, his look was that of a pirate who’d had to much vino and his piercing black eyes looked right through you. Albert would serve you greasy french fries for a dollar or so. There was an ample oblong counter with stools that spun though somewhat rickety. Albert would take your order “fries and gravy” was my usual request, he would write this down on one of those yellow lined order pads, stick the pencil back in his ear and slowly walk to the kitchen which was in the back of the shop past banquet seating for fifty or more, there was never anyone in the place, we would rumour with each other that it was a ‘front’ for something but we never really knew what. We probably never knew what a front was either. The Churchill was a lot like Freds Lunch further on up Weston Road, that is to say like Freds a place that had had its heyday, a leftover from the bobby sox crowd and who knows what came before that fad. I do wish he had turned the deep fryer fat up to cook his chips as they were always limp and soggy. A successful jockey parked a shiny blue Lincoln Continental on the side street named Hollis, I think his name was Al Blue or Al Coy something like that. A fancy car in a working class neighbourhood would get your attention fast. The jockey looked like my old OLV schoolmate Chuck Paquette who came from New Brunswick and left school at fifteen and this was agreed on by the nuns as Chuck had a job to go to. There was bad news for me later that night, it was following a dance at The Church of the Good Shepherd that I’d been ejected from for being drunk and rowdy. A local cop named Danny Morrison whom I would serve many drinks to later in life at the Queensbury Arms busted me while I was pissing in the hedges of the church that ran along old Eglinton Avenue way before they built a super road and tore down several houses. That Danny, he thought he was Sherlock Holmes catching me having a leak, he said, “what do you think you are doing”? I looked him in the eye half wobbly from the drink and said, “Having a piss”! I was charged with drinking underage, he sent me to the station after calling a yellow squad car from a police call box attached to a hydro pole, only the police had the key to the call box, it wasn’t long before the squad car picked me up.

 

Back then they’d let you out in the morning with a summons to appear in court within a few days. By the time you were released you would have sobered up, possibly have had enough time to piss yourself, barf all over the cell and scratch your name in the fading yellow green paint besides those other names like Danny Abraham, Bob Latus, Eachie, Holmes and more. In the morning a big red faced copper would give you shit as you were about to leave, shouting things like ‘why don’t you join the Armed Forces and we don’t want to see you here anymore’.

 

The fine for such an event was about $25 dollars and my mom and her boyfriend paid it on numerous occasions. His name was Johnny Basala. He was a worker for the Township of York, drove a truck and some equipment for the works department. I don’t know how my mum met him but he was her boyfriend for a few years and he’d be over on Victoria Boulevard on Saturday nights with a case of beer and his green 56 Buick sedan. At fourteen or so I had the urge to drive, felt that driving would give me some status make a man out of me. Johnny gave me lessons. He would let me drive with him beside me up and down our street. The Buick was an automatic driving it was simple. Mom and Johnny would go to the Legion on Saturday nights and there they’d meet Agnes and Wally who were their equals at drinking, often they’d all come back to our house because mom had the kids and if we were left alone to long we might kill each other. I suppose they gave me a glass of beer or two but I actually don’t recall this, growing up in that drinking environment, it seemed normal to drink. There is that stigma of drinking with your parents, that generational separation where you did things and you didn’t tell them, they’d be the last people you’d tell. We’d play cards with Johnny, me and Sue and Kevin and Shane and Barbara who was quite young this being around 1964. The shoes Johnny was filling, those of my dad would have been difficult for anyone to fill. There was a difference in them, white collar blue collar sort of thing, religion to, Johnny never pushed the religion on you nor did he ever raise his hand, well, in that regard, it wasn’t his place. He’s been dead a long time now, died from drink related matters. I remember him coming over on Saturdays all shaved and smelling good, his hair in a sixties look, pushed back at the sides like a Hungarian Elvis. He always wore long sleeved banlon shirts and trousers, never shorts. Mom was happy, she had some company, I never gave it a moments thought that they might have been ‘doing it’ in the bedroom, I could never think that of my mom. Besides having been raised a Catholic I bought into the myths they spread and I guess I may have thought kids fell out of trees for all I knew about sex, sex education, there was no such thing! You couldn’t talk about sex, it was a common belief that if you masturbated hair would grow on your palm.

 

There were two pool halls in the area that I frequented Nicks on Weston Road south of Eglinton and Glenvalley Bowling and Billiards on Weston Rd. near Victoria then owned by John Shura a big rotund almost blind Honky of a man in his fifties. I say he was almost blind because his black framed glasses were as thick as the small coke bottles he used to sell us from the water filled cooler besides the cash register and pool ticket timer. The timer made that distinct time clock sound whenever a cardboard ticket was inserted to signify the beginning of your pool game, you paid by the hour, it wasn’t much, maybe a dollar or less per hour. The second floor hall had big ten foot by five foot Brunswick tables with built in sturdy brass scoring knobs. On a wall near the table there was a wooden pool cue rack and beside that there was another wooden scoreboard with moveable brass numbers and a small chalkboard to write other numbers in, gambling was strictly forbidden, but everyone did. There was a smelly bathroom at the back of the room, smoke hung from the ceiling curling into the long fluorescent tubes. Everyone smoked back then, smoked and drank.

 

My recollections are clear of getting older guys to grab us beer at the Brewers Retail outlet located besides the A&P store where the Facelle plant made their toilet paper. One guy who got us drinks was named Bud he was in his early thirties and hung out at Nicks he was the best pool player in that place and he had a hair cut like Tom Waits, a big section of hair was always falling off his head and over his eyes, it kind of made him look dumb but he wasn’t he was real sharp. I switched from hall to hall and got street smart and wanted to be cool, be like the other guys who all drank on the weekends this is how it started. Before long my mom was encouraging me to drink at home on Saturday nights so I wouldn’t get in trouble on the streets, also I suppose so I wouldn’t get thrown in the can for drinking underage the age of majority being twenty one at the time. By not being thrown in the can mom wouldn’t have to pay the fine.

 

Drinking was about the only vice in those years it was pre pot by about three or four years at least in our part of town. This always irks me, you seldom hear folk saying, ‘better not drink beer or next thing you know you’ll be using heroin’. Smoking tobacco was encouraged on billboards in magazines, on TV commercials, everywhere. You could buy a pack of smokes for thirty five cents it seemed everyone smoked. My mom smoked Players Plain I’d go get them for her at lunch time often at the local Loblaws store. The light blue packaged cigarettes were just there in racks by the cash register along with several other popular brands such as Matinees, Export A, Belvedere, Dumaurier, just saying the names you can sense the marketing of this sleek product. At the store I would pretend I was looking at comics or magazines then I would quickly grab a pack or two when the cashier wasn’t looking, I never did get caught in that store. I smoked a mans cigarette when I started at 17, Players Plain, or Export Plain or Buckinghams the same as my father had smoked. Later when I got sick of tearing my lips on the unfiltered brands I switched to Rothmans King Size and when I quit at about 35 when Christine was born I was still smoking Rothmans. The Rothmans plant was located up around Dufferin and Caledonia. When you’d go by the factory you could smell the fresh tobacco being processed into cigarettes. Billboards used sexy symbols to plant the smoking ideas in your head, when I went to University in the early 70s I could smoke in the classrooms, and I did nobody ever complained though I think they may have wanted to.

 

As I went through my teen years I changed friends numerous times, from my athletic days playing baseball and hockey I found that those people were not around at night hanging out, playing pool, new faces entered my life, people like Mark Goodine, Kenny Goobie, Peter Hooker, Gooch who died in a house fire, Don Humes, Bugsy, Mike Cooper, Joe McCormack also known as Eachie, Mickey Clare, Dave Wellwood also known as The Goat, G Man, Pee Wee, Rocco, Tom the Newfie, Benji, Dave White, Joe Stickley, The Murphy Brothers, Vern and Maurice Mersereau, The Crane brothers Brian and Barry, the McKendrys Tom and Brian, Steve Boros, my brothers were around, Alex aka Big Al, Kevin aka The Kid and Shane aka ‘Toot’ who passed on early in life, Brian Hishon, Brian Campbell, Rick Fordham, Russ Codlin, Tom Brolley, Rick and John Adams, John Adamson, Brian Day, Gary Duseault, Scotty Collins, Wayne Polyshin who wore his hair in a fifties style the front thrown up with a little part through the middle this was a waterfall, Paul Harding, Greg and Danny Middlebrook, Terry Tiveron, Paul Antaya, guys you’d run into at Nicks or the Glenvalley, the Kirkpatricks were a big family Gary, Alec and their sister Linda who knew Mary Sales from Weston with the bouffant hairdo like Shelley Fabres from the Donna Reed TV show who ended up marrying Tall Danny McDonald who hung out at Dufferin and Eglinton who was friends with Frank Cece who got shot by a woman and lived and Kenny Tanaka whose folks had a variety store on the Danforth and whom I had a fight with at the ‘Y’ dance one Saturday night before Kenny Od’d, for what its worth I won that fight, there was Larry Wrentz, Walt Husk, the Walfords, the Wilsons, and on and on.

 

Some of the guys went to jail real early, guys like Eachie who eventually got deported to Scotland and Kenny Goobie who did a stretch in the O.R. in Guelph when he was just sixteen. Then for a while we hung around Jane and Wilson at that pool hall downstairs next to the other Playboy clothing store and met a new set of friends, Callahan and Spence, some singer last name of Thomas would come around, Burwash Bert Osbourne had just moved to the area from Bloor and Christie and there was Roman Mills, Mike Rousseau who disappeared in the 80s and Bobby Brooks and Brian Wilson and Bobby Miller who did a long stretch, then up to Keele and Eel where the friendship base widened into some guys with Italian backgrounds, Dominic Sonita who became a great plumber, Bruno Big Thumbs Rumolo who moved to Italy, Johnny and Jimmy Russell aka JR who worked for the post office for thirty years, Mario DePoce who managed Michelin Tires, Jim Vella an expert placement manager, Rick Campbell who married Charlotte Wilson who had a kid shortly after, Mario Molinaro aka Mars who runs a restaurant and catering business in Mississauga, Jake the Snake Nash sells paper penguins to put on lawns and used to sell potato chips for a big company , John Bell who had two kids with Cathy Cece and whose brother Dave died while buying a quart of milk, Tony Flaim who went on to fame with several bands as the lead singer most prominently with The Downchild Blues Band, Moose MacKenzie a millwright at GM, Handsome John Sonita from St Clair who died when his Lincoln crashed on the way to the airport where he and his girlfriend were off to France to open up a chain of boutiques, George Holmes who got shot by his brother Glen at the Fairbanks Tavern and can talk about it, Erico another employment placement specialist, Gillies with the gold tooth, Al Kaye who had nasty Doberman Pinscher dogs, John Stoddart a syndicated writer with a national distribution who recently was the recipient of the prestigous Stephen Leacock award for humour, Steve Magnus John’s cousin who studied psychiatry, the Woods brothers Johnny and Jimmy who worked at Otis elevator downtown with their folks who ran the cafeteria, Carlo Vescio who died tragically after struggling with his addictions for years and worked in the clothing business, Guy Basato who also died young, Stan Primrose a CPR worker, Big Danny Abraham, Eddie Sprangler who got hit by a train playing chicken and when the guy he was playing with went to pick his body up there was no head! Bob Latus who helped cleanup the crack dealers in Kensington Market and died at the hands of a car late one night on Victoria Park Ave. he was carrying a pot of soup that one of the vendors in Kensington Market had given him to take home after the place closed down, Fat Jack Hamilton was in charge of train wrecks in south central Ontario for CPR, Big Bob Butler a member of the Black Diamond Riders who worked security at the Jamboree in Havelock before he died, Les Fleury had a stroke in his mid twenties and couldn’t drive his sharp Barracuda any longer, Dennis Azcue who we all called Dump because he drove a dump truck for Mazza Construction, Brian Cross whose dad owned the Fish and Chip store on Rogers Road where a big metal fish used to hang above the store doorway and they took it to their cottage on the Trent River in Hastings and painted it gold Brian and his wife Minny were large and I saw them in the Dominion store one time in the 70s shopping and I said “what are you looking for the diet peas”? They ran a few Submarine shops later in life in BC, after making a pile of dough they came back to Toronto and sadly died recently, a week apart. Kenny Osler aka Crazy Ivan who went through the plate glass front window at Chris’s restaurant on Eglinton Ave, Ross McNab who calls Bingo at St Clair and Weston Rd, Luce who is a card dealer in Las Vegas, the Metes Ralph and Jimmy who along with others hung around a place called Greenleaves a snack bar with a pool hall and a few bowling lanes and for some odd reason this name Greenleaves represented a Downtowness that was different to our usual places it was located next to the General Mercer public school on Old Weston Road close to Siverthorn and St Clair where Pinky Pincevero hung out with Little Vince and red haired Ralph, Billy Putsungas who made the news one day as he had been popped with a few ounces of smack and a half million dollars in cash, not bad for a corner boy and Danny Russell hadn’t yet died of cancer, Steve Warren a class dresser, Bill the Greek and his brother Paul whose lives ended way to soon along with Bills’s wife Marissa, Carl Pennik who seemed to spend more time in Kingston Penetentiary than out, Brendan McCarney who still fixes furnaces, Eamon Lever who found work in the pest control field, Tommy Kallo a city of York employee before amalgamation, Donny Robbins who I’d run into at the Hills while he worked for a dairy company and there was only one queer guy back then, ‘they were queers not gays’, his name was Roy Deshekel, and there were more people at the Studio pool hall across the road where Dave Usher and Stan Saltzman would gladly take your money. There was always someone at the York Restaurant run by Steve a swarthy Greek who seemed to be permanently buzzed on Ouzo, while back at Macs’ BP station across from the pool hall guys like Mike Reagan, John Adams, John Crossey, George Stevens, Pete Miller, Doug Professor MacMillan and his brother John who were Stones fans, Scott Taylor and his brother Reid and their friend Ian the violin player, Wes Moffatt, Gary Oldfield, George Brady, Bud Walford, Dougie Wilson and Sam Mule` ‘the Barber’ another TTC guy and a big guy named Ray hung around they were car guys, they owned cars, some of them fast cars, sooped up things one guy even owned an Edsel that had an automatic transmission operated by buttons located in the steering wheel it seldom worked. I moved in and out of each group easily not ever saying “he is my best friend.” I had hundreds of friends all over the west end and a reputation that I could handle myself as C Tuna which fortunately I didn’t have to demonstrate on many occasions. While hanging out with other guys like Mars and Holmes I got around an even wider area including St Clair Avenue from Lansdowne to Old Weston Road where it was a different story. Here the young guys, hung out with gamblers like Al Nuce and there was a young hooker with dyed black hair named Pat Cox. Once the Pepsi crew hired Pat for splashes at one of those seedy Lakeshore Blvd Motels. A few times we played craps in the schoolyards. We’d run like hell when someone yelled the cops were coming. Sometimes we’d sneak in the pool at Earlscourt Park when it felt like it was a hundred degrees out. Holmes lived at a house in York Township at 63 Lonsborough St where some real rounders lived, not pretenders, Danny O’Donohue who was a safe cracker and is doing time for being involved in whacking a mobbed up guy, and Pat O’Hagan another Irish wiseguy in the rackets also lived there. Those two robbed the Biltmore Odeon movie theatre in Weston they went in a back window and an old lady spotted them so the cops were called and they had put to much charge on the vault, blew it up and everything in it as well as a wall. The cops came and arrested them, Pat O’Hagan seated in the theatres chairs pretended to be sleeping said, “I must have fell asleep during the movie”, with that the black cop we all called Leroy went for him and O’Hagan threw a stick of nitro at him, the copper was so shook up he had to take the rest of the year off of work! The house was run by this woman Pat Zona she had hands like a bricklayer and one time on a Friday or Saturday night after Holmes and I had had some drinks she asked me how old I was, at the time I was seventeen and she said, ‘boy, you’re pretty round for your age”, Pat died of cancer in 03. There was Johnny Sombrero who was always seen driving around in a dust covered black cadillac two door slinked down in the seat like Marlon Brando his wardrobe was classic Wild Ones, slicked back duck tailed hair with curly cues at front a black leather jacket with all of these chrome do dads stuck here and there, very menacing, his club was called the Black Diamond Riders and these guys hung together, they were for the most part older and definitely not to be messed with, Sombrero is not his real name few people know his real name. There was a guy named Jack somethng or the other today he runs Canada’s most famous country picnic the Havelock Jamboree. Sometimes we’d go to Dundas and Keele, the Junction and terrorize that neighborhood, walking around in tailor made pants with stovepipe bottoms, Cuban waistbands, classy shirts, shoes from Europe, winklepickers that were pointed like a cowboy boot and excellent for giving the boots, in the summer many of us wore what we called 409s, I thinks that’s what they cost, other shoes from Ingeborgs were also popular with the dressers and a lot of the guys were great dressers buying tailor made strides from the Playboy Shop which had two locations and was run by the Bagnato family, we all had credit in the clothing stores like Al Basians on Weston Road, I still owe him a ton. As I look back on things I guess it was affordable to dress well few of us had cars and the expense that a car brings. We might not actually have been ‘bad’ however the image was that of hoods, short for hudlum. Some of us had fedoras that is felt hats with brims and silk trim and Holmes had a different hat for every day my favourite was the grey stock broker wide brimmed bowler he wore, at times we would carry umbrellas and walking sticks, real Dukes and we weren’t afraid to use them my wife Julia said we were like the gang in the Kubrick movie A Clockwork Orange.. I recall going to Yorkville one weekend night in the mid sixties when Hippies were becoming fashionable and us greaseballs would go and terrorize longhairs for something to do. So this one time I am more than surprised when our intended victim stands up for himself and informs us he’s a Vietnam veteran he had killed people over there, had ‘stuff’ jujitsu or karate training taught in the marines and could kick the shit out of us all if he cared to. Right there and then, on the spot I had an awakening. I would shortly afterward reexamine my path of being a drunken lout and become a stoned and drunken lout.

 

Taking into consideration the height of a Giraffe, adults average over 6 metres, stooping down to drink water is indeed a difficult task.

The need to quench one's thirst overcomes all difficulties and they have to bend their front forelegs to get to the water. I saw this group of Giraffe's near a Dam inside Nairobi National Park. The mother was standing close by whilst the youngsters took turn to drink water.

 

I thought i'd try something new.

These steps lead to the difficult climb to the top - yes a climb - the elevator was broken down, but it didn't stop me. More to come.....

 

About the highway and castle:

 

Whiteface Castle and the Whiteface Mountain Veterans Memorial Highway were Depression Era public works projects similar to the New Deal Works Progress Administration (WPA) projects that followed. Construction on the toll road began in 1929, after passage of a necessary amendment to the state constitution, with a groundbreaking ceremony featuring then-New York State Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt. Eventually costing 1.2 million dollars and ending within 300 vertical feet (90 m) of the summit the roadway is 5 miles long and features an impressively steep 8% average grade. Officially opened July 20, 1935 in a ceremony featuring Roosevelt, by then President, the highway was dedicated to veterans of the Great War.

 

source: wiki

A round towered church with a spire; somewhat unusual I imagine. Someone might like to correct me on that and I find its quite common.

 

I had seen shots of St George taken from the air by my Flickr friend, John Fielding. I decided to see if any of the churches he had snapped were near to my route to Cambridge, and found they were.

 

I did not think of going to Shimpling this day, but as this and Frenze are under the care of the Church Conservation Trust, an information board at the latter said I should go to the former if I enjoyed Frenze.

 

So I did.

 

Driving through Diss, trying to program the sat nav, easy as the main road through the town, under the railway bridge was a solid line of traffic, I only hoped that Shimpling would not be back the way I had just come.

 

The route took me through some of the narrow streets of the town centre, a place to go back to to explore I think, but my route took me out north through the modern houses then into the flat countryside of south Norfolk.

 

I arrived in Shimpling, a few houses and farms; where could the church be, and just as I was about to stop and annoy the lorry behind, I saw the information board at the start of the farm track leading to St George.

 

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.

St George is a familiar sight to drivers between Ipswich and Norwich, off in the fields near Dickleburgh. A substantial, landmark church; and yet it is redundant. Coming from Suffolk, where the local Anglican Diocese goes out of its way to avoid redundancies if it can, Shimpling's redundancy seemed careless. This is not a tiny village, and if drawn into a group with Dickleburgh could surely have sustained a monthly service or so. Probably, if it arose nowadays, St George would not be declared redundant. From the point of view of the building, of course, it was both a blessing and a mercy, as the church is now in the capable, caring hands of the Churches Conservation Trust.

 

The setting of St George just to the south of its village is superb. A cart track leads up from a farm, difficult of access at the best of times, but suicide on this day when the snow still lay deep in the ruts, the mud sucking at our boots. If we had attempted to drive it then I guess the tractor would be getting to us about now. The keyholders both live about a mile off, but the walk was worth it.

 

St George is perhaps more typical of Suffolk than Norfolk, a rural church made opulent by the wealth of the later years of the 15th century. Then came the font, the benches, the roof, the surviving scattering of medieval angel glass. Otherwise, the feeling is of the much-maligned Victorians, who loved churches and wanted this one restored to its former glory. Geoffery Millard, rector through those times, has his memorial in the chancel, but all around it is the building that he would recognise instantly if he stepped into it today.

 

Amber light filled the space beneath the tower, and I was glad I was here, in this silent frozen space, this touchstone to the long generations. Some curiosities: under the benches at the west end, there is a trap door. Inside, some of the original medieval tiles have survived the Victorians; they merely built a wooden platform over them. Then, a wholly secular brass inscription of 1591 to Anthony le Grys is set in the mddle of the nave - but the inlay is the wrong size and shape, and so it must come originally from somewhere else. A small hole in the north wall of the sanctuary is surely too tiny to have been an aumbry. And yet, it is set back to take a door, and appears once to have had some sort of wooden tympanum set over it. Could it have been a squint from a shrine chapel? Or even from an anchorite's cell?

 

Incidentally, another curious thing: There is a Shimpling in Suffolk as well, and the churches of both are dedicated to St George, an otherwise unusual East Anglian dedication. The reason appears to be that the enthusiastic 18th century antiquarians, ruttling around in the Diocesan records at Norwich, accidentally applied the dedication of the Suffolk church to both, dedications having fallen out of use for two hundred years or more.

 

Simon Knott, March 2005

  

www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/shimpling/shimpling.htm

 

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SHIMPLING

¶Is bounded on the east by Dickleburgh, on the west by Burston, on the south by Thelton, and on the north by Gissing. It is a rectory appendant to the manor, and being discharged of first fruits and tenths, is capable of augmentation. The rectory hath a house and 16 acres of glebe: Norwich Domesday says, that Richard de Boyland was then patron, that the rector had a house and xv. acres of land; that the procurations were then vi.s. viii.d. and the synodals xxii.d.

 

Rectors.

 

1305, 6 kal. Dec. Robert de Boswyle, accolite, William de Schympling.

 

1328, 7 kal. Mar. Will. de Schymplyng, accolite. Roger, son of Will. de Shympling.

 

1338, 12 July, John de Cherchegate, priest to St. George's church at Shympling. Ditto.

 

1349, Robert Sampson, priest. Emma, late wife of Roger de Schymplyng.

 

1361, 13 Sept. Ric. de Halle, priest. Ditto.

 

1362, 21 Sept. Peter Scott. Ditto.

 

1386, 19 April, Tho. de Welles. Thomas de Glemesford.

 

1393, 28 March, Welles changed this with John Mulle for Mildeston rectory, in Sarum diocese. Roger de Ellingham and Joan Hardegrey.

 

1396, 29 March, Mulle exchanged with Will. Stone for Ludenham in Kent. Ditto.

 

1401, 29 Aug. John Drury, priest, who resigned Watton vicarage in exchange for this. Roger de Elyngham.

 

1408, 7 Aug. John Cok of Illington, priest.

 

1421, 8 Octob. Reginald Pepper of Berton Bendysch, priest, on the resignation of Cok. Ditto.

 

1421, 6 March, Tho. Young, on Pepper's resignation. William, son of Roger de Elyngham of Elyngham, near Bungey.

 

1422, 22 March, Rich. Senyngwell, on Young's resignation. Ditto.

 

1430, 20 Sept. Walter Skyde of Disse. Lapse.

 

1432, 23 Octob. Thomas Wright. Lapse.

 

1434, 14 Dec. John Grygby. William Elyngham of Elyngham by Bungey.

 

1437, 12 Octob. Richard de Schymplyng, on Grygby's resignation. William Elyngham of Elyngham by Bungey.

 

1449, 31 Jan. Robert Caade, resigned to John Beest, in exchange for Winterburn Basset rectory, in Wiltshire. Ditto.

 

1451, 21 April, Thomas Messinger, on Beest's death. Ditto.

 

1504, John Odiham.

 

1507, 4 Aug. James Galle. (fn. 1) Lapse.

 

1525, 19 Octob. Thomas Warde. Thomas Shardelowe, Esq.

 

1536, 26 March, John Lanman, (fn. 2) on Ward's death. John Aldham, lord of the moiety of Elyngham's manor here, by turns.

 

1563, 26 June, Thomas Oxford, alias Farmor, A. M. Stephen Shardelowe, Gent.

 

1572, 24 Nov. William Luffkyn, on Oxford's resignation. Stephen Shardelowe, and John Aldham, patrons.

 

1609, 1 Aug. Nicholas Colte. (fn. 3) John Sherdelowe.

 

1642, Jeremiah Gowen. (fn. 4) Adrian Mott of Braintree, and Margaret Carter of Stratford in Essex.

 

1649, Thomas Cole, (fn. 5) clerk, A. M. John and James Mott, Gent.

 

1684, 9 Dec. John Rand. John Buxton, Esq. united to Burston.

 

1706, 1 Jan. John Calver, on Rand's death. Robert Buxton, Esq. united to Gissing.

 

1729, The Rev. Mr. Thomas Buxton, the present rector, [1736,] united to Thorp-Parva.

 

The Church hath a steeple, round at bottom, and octangular at top, and four small bells; it is leaded, though the chancel is thatched, and the north porch tiled. It is dedicated to St. George, (fn. 6) whose effigies, with his shield, viz. arg. a plain cross gul. is to be seen in a south window of the chancel, and seems to be as old as the building, which in all appearance was in the beginning of the thirteenth century, (though the steeple is much older,) for then William de Shimplyng was lord and patron, whose arms still remain under this effigies, viz. arg. a chief gul. a fess between six de-lises sab.

 

Here was a Gild in honour of the same saint, (fn. 7) and a Chapel dedicated to St. Mary, which stood in Shimpling Hithe, of which there are no remains. This had some endowment, for Girrard the Prior, (fn. 8) and his Chapter at Norwich, with the Bishop's consent, granted to Richard the chaplain of Shimpling, 7 roods of meadow in Roreker in Shimpling, &c. in perpetual alms, paying yearly 5d. at the high altar in the cathedral, to which John Pierson of Gissing, and others, were witnesses, (fn. 9) so that this must be before 1201, for in that year Gerrard the Prior died; this was down before the general dissolution, for I meet with no grant of it at that time.

 

St. George and the dragon, and the arms of Shimpling, are carved on the font; the chancel is covered with large grave-stones, all disrobed of their brasses; several of them were laid over the rectors, as appear from the chalice and wafer upon them, that being the symbol of a priest; the rest that had arms, I take to be laid over the Shimplings and the Shardelows. The arms of

 

Shardelow are, arg. a chevron gul. between three croslets fitchee, az. Crest, a plume of feathers arg.

 

On a small stone towards the west end of the church:

 

Richard Lesingham, ob. 5° die. Octob. Anno Dni. 1705, Ætatis suæ - - - -

 

Here let him rest, Memory stile him dear, 'Till our Redeemer Shall in the clouds appear.

 

On a marble near the pulpit: arms of

 

Potter, sab. a fess between three mullets arg. Crest, an elephant's head erased arg. gutte de sang.

 

Here in expectation of a joyful resurrection, resteth the body of Cicill Potter, Gent. who dyed Jan. the 29th, 1693, aged 70 years.

 

In a window:

 

Gloria in Errelsis Deo.

 

Here are twelve penny loaves given to as many poor people, by the rector and church-wardens, on the first Sunday in every month, there being land tied for it.

 

In the Confessor's time Torbert held this manor of Stigand, it being then worth 20s. of whom the part in Gissing was also held by another freeman, and was then of 5s. value, but was risen to ten in the Conqueror's time, though Shimpling continued at the same value. This, as one manor, was given by the Conqueror to Roger Bygod, who gave it to Robert de Vais, (de Vallibus, or Vaus,) it being then a mile and a quarter long, and a mile broad. (fn. 10) The whole paid 5d. Geld. There was then a church and 10 acres glebe, valued at 12d. and several other manors extended hither, of which I shall afterwards treat in their proper places. The Vaises held it of Bygod's successors, till 1237, in which year Oliver de Vallibus (fn. 11) granted it to Richard de Rupella, (afterwards called Rokele,) settling it on him and his heirs by fine, (fn. 12) to be held of him by knight's service; he died in 1287, at which time he held it of John de Vallibus. This Richard granted it to be held of him and his heirs by Richard de Boyland, in trust for Ralph Carbonell, (fn. 13) who held it of Maud, wife of William de Roos, who was daughter and coheir of John de Vaux. This Ralph conveyed it to

 

Roger de Schymplyng, to be held by knight's service of Richard Rokeles's heirs; and in 1280, the said Roger (fn. 14) was lord, the manor being settled upon him, and Emma his wife, in tail; after their deaths it came to William de Schympling, (fn. 15) their son, who held it of Richard Rokell at half a fee, he of the Earl-Marshal, and he of the King in capite. This William married Margaret de Tacolveston, (fn. 16) on whom the manor was settled for life in 1303, it being then held of William de Roos and Maud his wife, and Petronell de Vaux, her sister. This William purchased a great part of the town of divers persons. He had a son named Roger, who presented in 1328, and held it till about 1345, when he was dead, and Emma his wife had it, at whose death it fell divisible between their three daughters: (fn. 17)

 

Isabel, married to John Kirtling, to whom this manor was allotted;

 

Joan, who had Moring-Thorp manor, and

 

Katerine, married to William de Ellyngham, who had Dalling manor in Flordon. Isabell had issue, Roger and Emma, who left none, so that this manor and advowson descended to Roger, son of William de Elyngham and Katerine his wife, daughter of Roger de Schymplyng, which said Roger de Elyngham held it in 1401, by half a fee, of John Copledick, Knt. who held it of the Lady Roos, she of Thomas Mowbray, and he in capite of the King. How it went from the Elynghams I do not know, but imagine it must be by female heiresses; for in 1521, Humphry Wyngfield had a moiety of it, and John Aldham had another part; he died in 1558, and was buried in this chancel, leaving his part to John his son, (fn. 18) who held it jointly with Bonaventure Shardelowe, in 1571; Mr. Aldham had a fourth part of the manor, and a third turn, and Mr. Shardelow three parts and two turns. The patronage and manor was in Mr. John Motte, who was buried October 7, 1640, and John Motte, and his brother James, presented in 1649. It looks as if the Mottes had Aldham's part, and after purchased Shardelow's of Mr. John Shardelowe, who held it till 1611, together with Dalling manor in Florden, which was held of Shimpling manor. He conveyed it to Edmund Skipwith, Esq. and Antony Barry, Gent. and they to Thomas Wales, and John Basely, Gent. who conveyed it to the Motts, from whom, I am apt to think, it came to the Proctors, for John Buxton of St. Margaret's in South Elmham had it, in right of his wife, who was kinswoman and heiress of Mr. Proctor, rector of Gissing; after this it came to Robert Buxton, Esq. who died and left it to Elizabeth his wife, who is since dead, and Elizabeth Buxton, their only daughter, a minor, is now [1736] lady and patroness.

 

The Leet belongs to the manor, and the fine is at the lord's will.

 

As to the other parts of this village, (fn. 19) they being parts of the manors of Titshall, Fersfield, and Brisingham, it is sufficient to observe, that they went with those manors, except that part held by Fulco, of which the register called Pinchbek, fo. 182, says that Fulco or Fulcher held of the Abbot in Simplingaham and Gissing, 70 acres, and 4 borderers, being infeoffed by Abbot Baldwin in the time of the Conqueror; this, about Edward the First's time, was in Sir John Shardelowe, a judge in that King's reign, in whose family it continued till 1630, when it was sold to Mr. Mott. The seat of the Shardelows is now called the Place, and is the estate of the Duke of Grafton; and (as I am informed) formerly belonged to Isaac Pennington, (fn. 20) alderman of London, one of those rebels that sat as judges at the King's trial, for which villainy he was knighted. He lived to the Restoration, when, according to his deserts, his estates were seized as forfeited to King Charles II. who gave this to the Duke of Grafton; upon the forfeiture, the copyhold on the different manors were also seized, which is the reason that the quitrents to Gissing, Titshall, &c. are so large, they being made so when the Lords regranted them.

 

¶I have seen an ancient deed made by John Camerarius, or Chambers, of Shimpling, to Richard de Kentwell, clerk, and Alice his wife, and their heirs, of 3 acres of land in this town, witnessed by Sir Gerard de Wachesam, Knt. and others, which is remarkable, for its never having any seal, and its being dated at Shimpling in the churchyard, on Sunday next before Pentecost, anno 1294. (fn. 21) This shews us that seals (as Lambard justly observes (fn. 22) ) were not in common use at this time; and, therefore, to make a conveyance the most solemn and publick that could be, the deed was read to the parish, after service, in the churchyard, that all might know it, and be witnesses, if occasion required. The Saxons used no seals, only signed the mark of a cross to their instruments, to which the scribe affixed their names, by which they had a double meaning; first, to denote their being Christians, and then, as such, to confirm it by the symbol of their faith. The first sealed charter we meet with is that of Edward the Confessor to Westminster abbey, which use he brought with him from Normandy, where he was brought up; and for that reason it was approved of by the Norman Conqueror; though sealing grew into common use by degrees, the King at first only using it, then some of the nobility, after that the nobles in general, who engraved on their seals their own effigies covered with their coat armour; after this, the gentlemen followed, and used the arms of their family for difference sake. But about the time of Edward III. seals became of general use, and they that had no coat armour, sealed with their own device, as flowers, birds, beasts, or whatever they chiefly delighted in, as a dog, a hare, &c.; and nothing was more common than an invention or rebus for their names, as a swan and a tun for Swanton, a hare for Hare, &c.; and because very few of the commonality could write, (all learning at that time being among the religious only,) the person's name was usually circumscribed on his seal, so that at once they set both their name and seal, which was so sacred a thing in those days, that one man never used another's seal, without its being particularly taken notice of in the instrument sealed, and for this reason, every one carried their seal about them, either on their rings, or on a roundel fastened sometimes to their purse, sometimes to their girdle; nay, oftentimes where a man's seal was not much known, he procured some one in publick office to affix theirs, for the greater confirmation: thus Hugh de Schalers, (or Scales,) a younger son of the Lord Scales's family, parson of Harlton in Cambridgeshire, upon his agreeing to pay the Prior of Bernewell 30s. for the two third parts of the tithe corn due to the said Prior out of several lands in his parish, because his seal was known to few, he procured the archdeacon's official to put his seal of office, for more ample confirmation: (fn. 23) and when this was not done, nothing was more common than for a publick notary to affix his mark, which being registered at their admission into their office, was of as publick a nature as any seal could be, and of as great sanction to any instrument, those officers being always sworn to the true execution of their office, and to affix no other mark, than that they had registered, to any instrument; so their testimony could be as well known by their mark, as by their name; for which reason they were called Publick Notaries, Nota in Latin signifying a mark, and Publick because their mark was publickly registered, and their office was to be publick to all that had any occasion for them to strengthen their evidence. There are few of these officers among us now, and such as we have, have so far varied from the original of their name, that they use no mark at all, only add N. P. for Notary Publick, at the end of their names. Thus also the use of seals is now laid aside, I mean the true use of them, as the distinguishing mark of one family from another, and of one branch from another; and was it enjomed by publick authority, that every one in office should, upon his admission, choose and appropriate to himself a particular seal, and register a copy of it publickly, and should never use any other but that alone, under a severe penalty, I am apt to think, in a short time we should see the good effects of it; (fn. 24) for a great number of those vagabonds that infest our country under pretence of certificates signed by proper magistrates, (whose hands are oftener counterfeit than real,) would be detected; for though it is easy for an ill-designing person to forge a handwriting, it is directly the contrary as to a seal; and though it is in the power of all to know the magistrates names, it is but very few of such sort of people that could know their seals; so that it would in a great measure (if not altogether) put a stop to that vile practice; and it would be easy for every magistrate to know the seals of all others, if they were entered properly, engraved, and published: and it might be of service, if all the office seals in England (or in those foreign parts that any way concern the realm) were engraved and published, for then it would be in every one's power to know whether the seals of office affixed to all passes, &c. were genuine or no; for it is well known that numbers travel this nation, under pretence of passes from our consuls and agents abroad, and sometimes even deceive careful magistrates with the pretended hands and seals of such, it being sometimes impossible for them to know the truth, which by this means would evidently appear. And thus much, and a great deal more, may be said to encourage the true and original use of that wise Conqueror's practice, who can scarce be said to put any thing into use but what he found was of advantage to his government.

 

This rectory is in Norfolk archdeaconry, and Redenhall deanery: it had 69 communicants in 1603, and hath now [1736] 23 houses, and about 130 inhabitants. The town is valued at 300l. per annum. (fn. 25) Here are 3 acres of town land, one piece is a small pightle abutting on the land of Robert Leman, Esq. another piece is called Susan's pightle, lying in Gissing, and was given by a woman of this name, to repair the church porch, (as I am informed,) the other piece lies in Diss Heywode, and pays an annual rent of 5s.

 

The Commons are Kett's Fen, which contains about 4 acres; Pound Green, 1 acre; Hall Green, 4 acres; the Bottom, 6 acres; and the Lower Green, 6 acres.

 

www.british-history.ac.uk/topographical-hist-norfolk/vol1...

Rural

This is how I once thought of my parents, or maybe any authority. 7" x 6"

First try with a Mavic 2 Pro drone. The lighting was difficult, looking into the faint sun. But I was dismayed by the image quality (noise!) until I looked at the exif and seeing how I had neglected to correctly set the camera. ISO 1600 (totally unnecessary in the light present). It appears that the Hasselblad does not perform well at high ISO, but I look forward to expanding the available scenes once I get up the courage to fly more than 50 feet and over water and trees.

Space travel is difficult and expensive – it would cost thousands of dollars to launch a bottle of water to the moon. The recent discovery of hydrogen-bearing molecules, possibly including water, on the moon has explorers excited because these deposits could be mined if they are sufficiently abundant, sparing the considerable expense of bringing water from Earth. Lunar water could be used for drinking or its components – hydrogen and oxygen – could be used to manufacture important products on the surface that future visitors to the moon will need, like rocket fuel and breathable air.

 

Recent observations by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft indicate these deposits may be slightly more abundant on crater slopes in the southern hemisphere that face the lunar South Pole. "There’s an average of about 23 parts-per-million-by-weight (ppmw) more hydrogen on Pole-Facing Slopes (PFS) than on Equator-Facing Slopes (EFS)," said Timothy McClanahan of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

 

This is the first time a widespread geochemical difference in hydrogen abundance between PFS and EFS on the moon has been detected. It is equal to a one-percent difference in the neutron signal detected by LRO's Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector (LEND) instrument. McClanahan is lead author of a paper about this research published online October 19 in the journal Icarus.

 

Read more: 1.usa.gov/1uaa8s2

 

Photo caption: LRO image of the moon's Hayn Crater, located just northeast of Mare Humboldtianum, dramatically illuminated by the low Sun casting long shadows across the crater floor.

 

Image Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University

 

NASA image use policy.

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.

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Difficult to imagine that this is a scene beside a "wave pool". We enjoyed in that pool with artificially generated waves till evening.. and they turned on lights it became so calm.. after it became dark. It was so beautiful view and great to have dinner on the other side watching it. Enjoyed our office "family day"

 

I couldn't carry my tripod. Used a chair for longer shutter. No processing except crop & copyright.

~Bill Dana

Very true quote *lol*

 

This was actually the first picture I made of our kitty when we got her last Friday.

She has been sick a bit and we went to the doctor yesterday, hopefully she'll be okay again soon!!!

 

Happy Pink Tuesday =^.^=

 

Facebook I Website

 

(-: Please no huge glittering group awards and invitations :-)

All my pictures are copyright protected. Please do not use without my written permission

St Mary, Hinderclay, Suffolk

 

This lovely little church is a regular port of call of mine. It is difficult to resist it when I'm passing near by.

 

It is about twenty years since I first visited Hinderclay church. My saintly and long-suffering family had dropped me off near Centreparcs in the Thetford forest early that morning, in order that they might spend their day toiling and weeping beside the vast swimming pool there, with its bars, restaurants and modern leisure facilities. I'd have been quite interested to see the inter-denominational Emmanuel Chapel on the site, but I'm not a great one for lying around. Instead, I headed off on my bike, cutting a swathe across the north of the county, along the hideous A11 through Elveden, and then the Grafton estate, through Barnham, Euston and Fakenham.

 

Let us be frank: the Elveden area is not great cycling country. The roads are busy, flat and dull, the villages undistinguished. At Euston, there is a brief vision of horsey poshness. But then, beyond Barningham, the countryside opens up, rolling gently, and bubbling with woods and meadows. This is the Suffolk I know best, and love to cycle through; villages hidden as surprises, church towers peeping over distant hedgerows. It was good to be back. I passed through tiny villages, miles off the main drag; Coney Weston and Market Weston, Knettishall and Thelnetham. Who outside of Suffolk has visited these places, or even heard of them? Indeed, who inside? I tried their names out on friends in Ipswich, none of whom could place any of them. One person knew that Knettishall had been a World War II airfield, that's all.

 

A glorious sight near Thelnetham is the grand sail-mill, working this day, her great sails at a crazy angle, turning impossibly across the field. An 18th century Suffolker dropped back into the modern landscape would probably find this the biggest change, that nearly all these graceful giants have disappeared. And here, the road rolls down into Hinderclay. It was early afternoon by the time I got to this village, which holds a special interest for me. It is one of a handful of Suffolk parishes I know of that has a recorded Knott family, living here in the 17th and 18th centuries. They are not my Knotts - mine all came from east Kent, but it feels like a connection. There are Knott graves in the churchyard, a quiet little place almost entirely surrounded by mature trees, making the church difficult to photograph.

 

The tower is pretty and perpendicular, with little chequerboard patterns set into the bell windows. The letters SSRM in the battlements probably stand for Salve Sancta Regina Maria, which the Catholics amongst us will instantly recognise as the opening words of the Hail Holy Queen. This suggests that the medieval dedication of this church was to The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin. This was the most common medieval Suffolk church dedication, and has been restored correctly in several places, Ufford for instance. The tower appears off-centre, because the south aisle hides the unclerestoried nave.

 

Stepping into this building is a delightful surprise. As it opens beyond the south aisle, the interior, with its uncarved font, pammented floors and simple furnishings is almost entirely rustic, except that it is flooded with coloured light. This comes from the glass in the south aisle. The windows, mainly from the 1980s, are by Rosemary Rutherford. She was the sister of the John Rutherford, rector here from 1975, and after she died in 1972 he adapted her designs to be installed in this church. These are therefore her last works, and they are perfectly poised in their simplicity and abstraction. There is a Baptism of Christ, a nativity scene and the Annunciation, while a Crucifixion is flanked by Mary at the empty tomb and the Resurrection. Perhaps the best depicts Mary Magdalene, tiny at the bottom, anointing Christ's feet. The last window to be installed, at the west end, came in 1994 thanks to the participation of Rowland and Surinder Warboys, two well-known Suffolk stained glass artists.

 

These windows are the best of Rutherford's work, I think. You can see more of it in a number of churches in north Essex, as well as at Boxford and Walsham in Suffolk, and at Gaywood in Norfolk.

 

In a bigger, noisier church, the 1711 memorial to George Thompson would not stand out, but here the rather alarming cherubs are about as discreet as a stag party in a public library. Thompson was from Trumpington in Cambridgeshire, and the inscription tells us in elegant Latin that he died at the age of 28.

 

The benches towards the west date from the early 17th century, when Anglican divines were trying to fill their churches with beauty again. Their hopes, of course, would be dashed by the rise to power of the Puritans. These bear the date 1617, sets of initials, probably those of churchwardens. I was interested to see that one set was SK, my own initials. It wasn't until after my visit that a researcher, seeing my name in the visitors' book, wrote to me and told me that they were probably the initials of a member of the Knott family.

 

There is a comprehensive record of the Guild here, dedicated to St Peter. The alcove in the north aisle probably marks the site of their chantry altar, although there is a large opening from the south aisle chapel, like the ones at Gedding only oriented north-south, which suggests that there was an altar here, too.

 

Hinderclay is perhaps most famous for its gotch, a large, leather beer pitcher used by the bellringers. It has a dedicatory inscription, and the date 25 March 1724, which was New Year's Day that year (and the the feast of the Annunciation, although this wouldn't have been celebrated in those protestant times). It also says From London I was sent, As plainly does appear, It was with this intent, To be fild with strong beer, Pray remember the pitcher when empty. It used to be on display at the Moyse Hall museum in Bury St Edmunds. In fact, I knew it well, having been a regular visitor there, and it was good to place it in its proper context at last. I wondered if any of the Knotts had drunk from it.

A very difficult bird to see well, present in Colombia only in the Eastern Andes at semi-humid forests between 700-1,800m. A very vocal skulker in thick cover, photographed here at Laguna de Tabacal near La Vega (Cundinamarca).

 

Visit our web page: www.birdingtourscolombia.com

Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/BirdingToursCol

Follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/birdingtourscolombia

 

being a teacher in a high school is such a problem! it's hard to find a common language with pupils. Miss Tracey graduated from college not so long time ago and she still cannot get used to their behavior. Martin tries to show his strength to girls by beating shy Kris, girls gossiping about guys, there are only love and parties in their heads..poor, poor miss Tracey!..

 

;D

Difficult with the reflections in white Lego. Built with inspiration from a photo I found on Instagram by user Noah Walker.

The Kendall Katwalk trail is part of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). This section of PCT has a rating of "Most Difficult". Our trip was eleven miles in length with less than 3,000 feet of elevation gain.

It's difficult to choose the color!!! #Ireland #Dublin #colordoors #jump #pink #violet

 

6 Likes on Instagram

  

Difficult to miss this iconic piece of Paris street art ~ en route to the Pompidou Centre.

Artist Jef Aerosol and collective Groupe Doublet made it happen

Our guitar facilitator and youth mentor, Altair, knows the hardships of a difficult childhood, having himself had a pretty tough time after losing his own father at an early age.

Today he’s happy to pass on his knowledge of the instrument he enjoys most of all, the guitar. He also has a growing interest for the importance of the third sector in the development of a more just Brazilian society and hopes his small contribution will be of some value in reaching that goal.

 

With Beija-Flor na Comunidade (Hummingbird in the Community), it means we are taking Hummingbird to the community instead of the community coming to us. In other words, Hummingbird is spreading its wings!

 

The programme is part of a new strategy being developed by our youth mentors to get a preliminary feel in connection with their objectives to implant small Hummingbird nuclei in the more distant parts of our community, thus bringing our activities to the poorest kids who have no means of reaching our main centre.

 

The first community to be receiving some of Hummingbird’s vibrant activities is the Sitio Joaninha, which is a rough hilly area about 6 kilometres away from us, where many of the families who used to work on the rubbish tip live. The tip was closed down a few years ago and the area covered with topsoil so as to recuperate some of the natural vegetation.

 

Most of the shanty homes were constructed during the active years of the tip, when entire families found their livelihoods under the most unhealthy and hazardous working conditions. Since its closure there has been very few alternatives in the way of work and habitation, so very few have been able to move to better conditions. To the contrary; the area has rapidly grown to accommodate even more poverty-stricken families who have no other alternative than to grab a small plot of land and try to survive on what little is available in terms of public amenities in such places.

 

The majority of homes have no running water and depend on the council delivering drinking water by truck each day. Electricity is acquired through a series of illegal connections, which people have hooked-up to the main electricity network through a maze of literally thousands of metres of wiring crossing the landscape in all directions in order to bring power to one’s home.

This is quite common during the rapid growth of favela (shanty) areas and pressures from the inhabitants will eventually cause most councils to come up with a more satisfactory and less risky solution.

 

Many of the children who live here have a long way to walk to reach school, as there is no public transport. The tendency is therefore not to go, especially during the rainy or colder seasons. Very few have the willpower or even the means of getting to Hummingbird to participate in all the good things we have to offer in our Street Migration Prevention Programme, although there are some who do.

 

This is the main reason for us to bring Hummingbird to the kids. If we can manage to finance a more permanent solution we will be able to continue with a variety of activities throughout the entire year and not just during the school holiday season, which is our proposal in this phase of the project.

 

Imaging was difficult under the moon and haze, though the irregularity of the tail may be showing disconnection of the tail.

 

equipment: Takahashi FSQ-106ED refractor with Reducer QE 0.73x at f/3.6 and Canon EOS 5Dmk2-sp2, modified by Seo-san on Takahashi EM-200 temma 2 jr. equatorial mount autoguided at the center of the condensation of the coma with side by side mounted Takahashi FS-60C, Starlightxpress Lodestar Autoguider, and PHD guiding

 

exposure: 47 times x 30 seconds at ISO 1,600 and f/3.6

First exposure started at 19:43:46 and the last at 20:13:40 November 16, 2013UTC.

 

site: 1,094m above sea level at lat.35 53 27 N. and long. 138 25 13 E. near Kiyosato

Lone pine is difficult to grow on the rocky slopes of the Teide volcano, blown by strong winds all year round.

Trying hard!

 

slurl.com/secondlife/Verdigris/229/239/43

Difficult natural balcony light. Blåmeis in Norwegian.

.

Made a run over to the mud cobra field.

Brutally hot with a lot of dust to deal with.

 

Used the Nikkor 70-300 VR this morning.

The dark shadows made it difficult to get

any real good photos. F4.5 just doesn't

do so well like the Nikkor 70-200 2.8.

 

OK, lets talk about the ants in my pants ;-0-

 

As most of you already know I do a lot of

crashing and smashing through the many

palm oil bows here in the mud cobra field.

 

And, on said palm oil bows there is a considerable

number of unwanted creatures waiting to do a big

Buzz Kill all over your soft tasty flesh... And, while

trail blazing through the gauntlet of palm bows I

now and then run into a nest of nasty red ants.

 

When this happens, they explode all over me !

Ants in my pants, shirt, ears, eyes, helmet, and

every crack, cervices, an opening they can find.

 

In otherwards, it's time to bail out, strip down &

start eliminating each and every one of them.

And, this is going to take some time to do ;-(

 

Even once back home, they are still appearing

out of nowhere & digging their sharp pinchers

into my old carcass in an attempt to eat me ! !

 

FYI,

Pumpkin is under the deck at the rest area.

 

Thanks for stopping by ;-)-

 

Jon&Crew.

 

Please help with your donations here.

www.gofundme.com/saving-thai-temple-dogs.

  

Please No Awards, Gyrating Graphics,

Invites or Large Group Logos, Thank You.

 

.

Which one would you take! I personally would take the Lamborghini Murciélago LP670-4 SuperVeloce. :)

Sninnin' on that dizzy air

I kissed you face I kissed you hair

-Just like heaven

 

Another first for me today, I made clones!

It appears Im taking over the page one spin at a time.

I had sooo much fun taking these, I was so mad I had to stop just to go to work.

Explore 322

En Belgique, 424.000 enfants vivent aujourd’hui sous le seuil de pauvreté. Ce qui représente une personne sur quatre en Wallonie et une sur trois à Bruxelles ! Ces familles se débattent dans des difficultés financières qui entraînent souvent une cascade d’autres problèmes en matière de santé, de logement, d’enseignement, d’emploi, de participation à la vie sociale… Et certaines sont encore plus exposées que d’autres, comme les familles monoparentales et les familles issues de l’immigration. Agir dès le plus jeune âge permet donc de donner à ces enfants de meilleures chances. Raison pour laquelle les bébés de 0 à 3 ans sont la priorité de l’opération Viva for Life.

Cette pauvreté a un impact direct sur le développement des enfants et le souhait de Viva for Life est d’apporter des moyens aux associations actives sur le terrain de la petite enfance et de la pauvreté. L’année passée, 33 d’entre elles ont été financées grâce à vous et ont permis de mettre sur pied des projets de renforcement de liens entre parents et enfants vivant cette situation. Pour cette nouvelle édition, l’accent est mis sur le périnatal et le préscolaire car il est important d’intervenir tôt pour aider ces familles en difficulté.

Cette opération est menée en partenariat avec les pouvoirs publics, l’ONE, la Fondation Roi Baudouin, la RTBF et CAP48. CAP48 participe à cette opération en apportant son expertise dans la gestion des dons et des financements aux associations. Les projets éligibles peuvent concerner différentes tranches d’âge mais leur action doit être significative envers les enfants âgés de 0 à 3 ans.

L’opération a pour vocation statutaire de soutenir divers projets, ayant le statut juridique d’association sans but lucratif, de fondation (sauf les fondations qui se limitent à l’activité de récoltes de fonds) ou de société coopérative à responsabilité limitée à finalité sociale, à l’exclusion de toute société commerciale et de toute institution créée et dirigée par les pouvoirs publics.

L’opération finance prioritairement le renforcement des associations actives sur le terrain de la petite enfance et de la pauvreté. Les projets éligibles peuvent concerner différentes tranches d’âge de 0 à 6 ans, mais leur action doit être significative envers les enfants âgés de 0 à 3 ans.

 

In Belgium, 424,000 children today live below the poverty line. This represents one in four in Wallonia and one in three in Brussels! These families are struggling with financial difficulties often lead to cascading other health problems, housing, education, employment, participation in social life ... And some are even more exposed than others such as single parents and families of immigrant. Acting at a young age makes it possible to give these children a better chance. Why babies from 0 to 3 years are the priority of the Viva for Life operation.

This poverty has a direct impact on child development and the desire to Viva for Life is to provide resources to organizations active in the field of early childhood and poverty. Last year, 33 of them were funded thanks to you and helped establish links building projects between parents and children living situation. For this new edition, the focus is on the perinatal and early childhood because it is important to intervene early to help those families in need.

This operation is conducted in partnership with governments, the ONE, the King Baudouin Foundation, RTBF and CAP48. CAP48 part in this by providing expertise in the management of grants and funding to associations. Eligible projects may involve different age groups but their action must be meaningful to children aged 0-3 years.

The operation has a statutory role to support various projects, having the legal status of non-profit association, foundation (excluding foundations which are limited to fund-raising activity) or cooperative company with limited liability purposes social, to the exclusion of any commercial company and any institution created and run by the government.

The operation primarily finances the strengthening associations active in the field of early childhood and poverty. Eligible projects may involve different age groups of 0-6 years, but their actions must be meaningful to children aged 0-3 years.

Keep going… Difficult roads lead to beautiful destinations.

  

learninginlife.com/keep-going-2/

how difficult it would be to be a palm tree knowing that when you got high enough you would be cut down.

Cavendish Mews is a smart set of flats in Mayfair where flapper and modern woman, the Honourable Lettice Chetwynd has set up home after coming of age and gaining her allowance. To supplement her already generous allowance, and to break away from dependence upon her family, Lettice has established herself as a society interior designer, so her flat is decorated with a mixture of elegant antique Georgian pieces and modern Art Deco furnishings, using it as a showroom for what she can offer to her well heeled clients.

 

Today however, we are just a short distance from Cavendish Mews, in front of Mr. Willison’s grocers’ shop. Willison’s Grocers in Mayfair is where Lettice has an account, and it is from here that Edith, Lettice's maid, orders her groceries for the Cavendish Mews flat, except on special occasions, when professional London caterers are used. Mr. Willison prides himself in having a genteel, upper-class clientele including the households of many titled aristocrats who have houses and flats in the neighbourhood, and he makes sure that his shop is always tidy, his shelves well stocked with anything the cook of a duke or duchess may want, and staff who are polite and mannerly to all his important customers. The latter is not too difficult, for aside from himself, Mrs. Willison does his books, his daughter Henrietta helps on Saturdays and sometimes after she has finished school, which means Mr. Willison technically only employs one member of staff: Frank Leadbetter his delivery boy who carries orders about Mayfair on the bicycle provided for him by Mr. Willison. He also collects payments for accounts which are not settled in his Binney Street shop whilst on his rounds.

 

Edith, is stepping out with Frank, so as she nears the shop, she hopes that the errand she has to run for today will allow her to have a few stolen minutes with Frank under the guise of ordering a few provisions required immediately. As she crosses Binney Street, Edith is delighted to see Frank busily decorating the front window. Mr. Willison always has a splendid window display of tinned and canned goods, but as she approaches the window she can see that it is especially festive, draped with patriotic bunting of Union Jacks and blue and red flags. As Frank, crouched in the window, carefully places a jar of Golden Shred marmalade next to a box of Ty-Phoo tea and in front of a jar of Marmite where it glows in the light pouring through the plate glass, Edith taps gently, so as not to startle her beau.

 

Frank smiles broadly and waves enthusiastically as he looks up and sees his sweetheart on the other side of the glass and he beckons her in as he slips back into the shadowy confines of the grocer’s.

 

“Please come in, milady!” he says cheekily as he opens the plate glass shop door for her, bows and doffs an invisible cap as the bell tinkles prettily overhead. “Pray what may we get to you? Let Willison’s the Grocer’s satisfy your every whim.”

 

“Oh Frank!” Edith giggles as she steps across the threshold. “Get along with you!”

 

Stepping into the shop she immediately smells the mixture of comforting aromas of fresh fruits, vegetables and flour, permeated by the delicious scent of the brightly coloured boiled sweets coming from the large cork stoppered jars on the shop counter. The sounds of the busy street outside die away, muffled by shelves lined with any number of tinned goods and signs advertising everything from Lyon’s Tea* to Bovril**.

 

“Where is Mrs. Willison?” Edith continues warily, her eyes darting to the spot behind the end of the return counter near the door where the proprietor’s wife usually sits doing her husband’s accounts, looking imperiously down her nose at Edith through her gold framed pince-nez***.

 

“Luckily the old trout is out with Mr. Willison attending Miss Henrietta’s school.” Frank explains.

 

“Don’t tell me that impudent little minx is in trouble?” Edith asks with a cheeky spark of hope in her voice. She knows that it’s uncharitable, and unchristian of her to wish the young girl ill, but she is still riled over the last time Edith met Frank near the rear door of Mr. Willison’s grocers, where, as he stole a kiss from her, Henrietta spied upon them. Henrietta, who had seen the young couple from a lace framed upstairs window where she was often seen spying on the comings and goings of the neighbourhood, called out loudly to her disapproving mother downstairs in the shop that Edith and Frank were loitering in the back lane, which caused the woman with her old fashioned upswept hairstyle and her high necked starched shirtwaister**** blouse to come hurrying to the back door as fast as her equally old fashioned whale bone S-bend corset***** and button up boots would allow her, where she promptly berated both Edith and Frank with her acerbic tongue, accusing them of lowering the tone of Mr. Willison’s establishment by loitering with intent and fraternising shamelessly. Edith’s cheeks flush at the mere memory of that embarrassing moment with Mrs. Willison.

 

“No,” Frank goes on. “Miss Henrietta is receiving an award at school today for an essay she penned.”

 

“With poison, no doubt.” mutters Edith. She sighs heavily before continuing, “I hate how you call her ‘Miss Henrietta’. She’s no better than you, Frank. In fact she’s a darn sight lesser if you ask me.”

 

“Now, now, Edith. Calm down.” Frank places his slender hands on her forearms and wraps his long and elegant fingers around them comfortingly. “You may well be right, but she is my employer’s daughter.”

 

“And full of her own self-importance.” Edith interrupts.

 

Frank politely ignores her outburst as he continues, “So I must address her as such.”

 

“Well, it’s not right, Frank.” Edith sulks.

 

“That much is true too,” Frank agrees with a sad nod. “And you know I am a man who wants to right the wrongs dealt to hardworking fold like you and I, but this is one fight I can’t have yet, Edith. This bit of deference I need to keep up if I want to keep my job.”

 

“All the same, Frank. I don’t think it’s right.” Edith opines again.

 

“Anyway, let’s not let Henrietta Willison spoil this wonderfully rare moment where we find each other alone together, Edith.” Frank says, pulling her into an embrace. Quickly looking around the quiet shop interior filled with groceries to make sure no-one will see them, Frank gently kisses Edith lovingly on the lips.

 

After a few stolen moments, Frank reluctantly breaks their kiss.

 

“Oh Frank!” Edith exclaims, her head giddy with pleasure and voice heady with love.

 

“Now, Miss Watsford,” Frank asks in a mock businesslike tone. “What can I do for the maid of the Honourable Miss Chetwynd today?”

 

“Well, it’s a funny coincidence, but you happened to be putting what I need in your window display, just as I arrived, Frank.” Edith elucidates. “I need a jar of Golden Shred orange marmalade urgently.”

 

“Urgently?” Frank queries. “Gosh, that does sound extreme.”

 

“But I do, Frank. Miss Lettice has a potential new client coming up from Wiltshire today, and being a somewhat impromptu visit, I haven’t any cake to serve them. I was just about to make my Mum’s pantry chocolate cake when I realised that I’m out of orange marmalade.”

 

“Well that does sound like a serious situation.” Frank agrees.

 

“Don’t tease me Frank! I’m serious.” Edith’s pretty pale blue eyes grow wide. “If I don’t provide something nice to eat for Miss Lettice’s potential new client, everything could go awry, and then I’d get into such trouble.”

 

“Well, I can’t have my best girl getting into trouble because she is missing the essential ingredient to her mum’s delicious chocolate cake, can I?” Frank says. “However I don’t understand why you have marmalade in a cake. It sounds a bit odd to me.”

 

“That’s because you aren’t a baker, Frank. Mum taught me this recipe for chocolate cake which is based on cheap everyday staples you have in the pantry, and that’s why she calls it a pantry chocolate cake.”

 

“Go on,” Frank says, placing his elbows on the counter and resting his smiling face in his hands. “You have my full attention.”

 

“Well, I use the marmalade to give the cake a nice citrus flavour in addition to the chocolate, and it keeps it moist, so it doesn’t dry out when baking. This way, I don’t have to worry about peeling or squeezing oranges either.”

 

“Fascinating!” Frank breathes, smiling broadly as he listens to Edith.

 

“And that’s why I need the marmalade, Frank.” Edith says nervously. “I’ll be lost without it.”

 

“Well, that is a problem, but it’s one I think I can remedy easily.” He smiles as he fossicks behind the counter and withdraws a jar of orange marmalade from somewhere unseen beneath it. Smiling proudly, as though he is a magician who has just conjured his best magic trick, he places it on the surface of counter.

 

“Oh you’re a brick, Frank!” Edith exclaims with eyes sparkling at the sight of the jar as she reaches out and takes it, placing it carefully into her basket.

 

“I’ll add that to Miss Lettice’s account, shall I?”

 

“If you would, Frank.”

 

As Frank writes the purchase on a scrap of lined paper to give to Mrs. Willison to enter into Mr. Willison’s ledger in her fine looping copperplate when she returns, he asks, “So do you like my window display then, Edith?”

 

“Oh yes!” gushes Edith. “Very much so, Frank. It’s wonderfully gay and patriotic.”

 

“I should hope it would be!” Frank replies, as he finishes scrawling Edith’s purchase on the paper with a slightly blunt pencil.

 

“Why, what’s it in aid of, Frank?”

 

“Edith!” Frank gasps. “I must have failed abysmally if you can’t tell.” He frowns, lines of concern furrowing his young brow. “Mr. Willison will never let me arrange the window again if you’re anything to go by.”

 

“Oh, get on with you, Frank!” Edith laughs.

 

However, Frank doesn’t join in her light hearted laughter and continues to look dourly at the back of the window display he has set up. “I’m serious, Edith. Mr. Willison finally let me arrange a window on my own because I implored him that I wanted to do it, and you can’t even identify what it’s promoting.”

 

“Well,” Edith defends, blushing as she does so. “To be fair, I was more concentrating on you, Frank.” When the worried look still doesn’t vanish from his face she adds. “Now that you aren’t standing in it, distracting me, I’ll go and take another look.”

 

She turns around and walks over to the window and peers through the side over the tops of a pyramid of Sunlight soap and a stack of Twinings tea varieties. An equally high pyramid of biscuit varieties, all in bright and colourful tins stands on the other side, whilst several more tins of biscuits appear at the back of the wide window ledge used for advertising. In front of them stand tins of golden syrup and black treacle, jars of marmalade, packets of tea and jelly crystals, containers of baking powder and cocoa, and at the very front of the window, almost flush against the glass, a cardboard cut out of a gollywog advertising Robertson’s marmalade and a little boy smiling as he promotes Rowntree’s clear gums, which Edith knows Mr. Willison keeps safely out of reach behind the shop counter and away from sticky little fingers. Edith gasps as she realises why Frank had hung bunting in the window, for at the back of the display, where usually there would be an advertisement for Lyon’s Tea or Bisto Gravy******, there is a poster promoting the British Empire Exhibition******* at Wembly********. A crowd of figures from British history and the nations of the British Empire crowd for space along several rows, many proudly waving the flags of Empire, whilst the exhibition name and dates are flanked by two very proud stylised Art Deco lions.

 

“The British Empire Exhibition!” Edith gasps, as Frank’s head appears next to a Huntley and Palmer********* biscuit tin on the opposite side of the display to her. “Now that you aren’t crouched in the window, I can see it clearly, Frank.”

 

“Mr. Willison gave me strict instructions to fill the window with only British made products.”

 

“And you’ve done a splendid job, Frank.” Edith replies, causing her beau to smile with pride and blush with embarrassment at her effusive compliment. As she looks at all the products again, she adds, “And I’m glad to see McVite and Price********** at the top of the pyramid of biscuits.

 

“Well, I couldn’t very well step out with the daughter of a McVitie and Price Line Manager and not have it on the top, could I, Edith?”

 

“Indeed no, Frank.” Edith smiles. “Dad will be pleased as punch when I tell him.”

 

“Well, I’m glad to hear that, Edith.” Franks says with a sigh.

 

“I think it will be quite a spectacle,” Edith muses, as she stares at the poster. “I’ve read in the newspapers that there will be fifty-six displays and pavilions from around the Empire! Imagine that! There will be palaces for industry, and art.”

 

“And housing and transport too***********, don’t forget.” adds Frank. “Each colony will be assigned its own distinctive pavilion to reflect local culture and architecture.”

 

“I would like to see the Queen’s Dolls’ House************.” Edith sighs. “I hear it is a whole world in miniature, and it even has electric lights.”

 

“Well, isn’t that fortunate?”

 

Edith pauses mid thought and looks quizzically at Frank. “I suppose it would be,” she considers. “If you were a doll living in the Queen’s Doll House.”

 

Frank starts laughing, quietly at first before growing into louder and louder guffaws.

 

“What, Frank?” Edith asks, blushing. “What have I said? What’s so funny?”

 

After a few moments, Frank manages to recover himself. “You do make me laugh, dear Edith.” He wipes the tears of mirth from the corners of his eyes. “Thank you.” He sighs. “I was really saying it’s fortunate because, I was going to ask you whether you would like to go and see the British Empire Exhibition. I’m just as keen to see all the marvellous wonders of Empire as you are.”

 

“Oh Frank!” Edith gasps, any discomfort and displeasure at her beau laughing at her forgotten as she runs around to his side of the window and throws her arms around his neck. “Frank, you’re such a brick! I’d love to!” And without another word, she places her lips against his and kisses him deeply.

 

*Lyons Tea was first produced by J. Lyons and Co., a catering empire created and built by the Salmons and Glucksteins, a German-Jewish immigrant family based in London. Starting in 1904, J. Lyons began selling packaged tea through its network of teashops. Soon after, they began selling their own brand Lyons Tea through retailers in Britain, Ireland and around the world. In 1918, Lyons purchased Hornimans and in 1921 they moved their tea factory to J. Lyons and Co., Greenford at that time, the largest tea factory in Europe. In 1962, J. Lyons and Company (Ireland) became Lyons Irish Holdings. After a merger with Allied Breweries in 1978, Lyons Irish Holdings became part of Allied Lyons (later Allied Domecq) who then sold the company to Unilever in 1996. Today, Lyons Tea is produced in England.

 

**Bovril is owned and distributed by Unilever UK. Its appearance is similar to Marmite and Vegemite. Bovril can be made into a drink ("beef tea") by diluting with hot water or, less commonly, with milk. It can be used as a flavouring for soups, broth, stews or porridge, or as a spread, especially on toast in a similar fashion to Marmite and Vegemite.

 

***Pince-nez is a style of glasses, popular in the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries, that are supported without earpieces, by pinching the bridge of the nose. The name comes from French pincer, "to pinch", and nez, "nose".

 

****A shirtwaister is a woman's dress with a seam at the waist, its bodice incorporating a collar and button fastening in the style of a shirt which gained popularity with women entering the workforce to do clerical work in the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries.

 

*****Created by a specific style of corset popular between the turn of the Twentieth Century and the outbreak of the Great War, the S-bend is characterized by a rounded, forward leaning torso with hips pushed back. This shape earned the silhouette its name; in profile, it looks similar to a tilted letter S.

 

******The first Bisto product, in 1908, was a meat-flavoured gravy powder, which rapidly became a bestseller in Britain. It was added to gravies to give a richer taste and aroma. Invented by Messrs Roberts and Patterson, it was named "Bisto" because it "Browns, Seasons and Thickens in One". Bisto Gravy is still a household name in Britain and Ireland today, and the brand is currently owned by Premier Foods.

 

*******The British Empire Exhibition was a colonial exhibition held at Wembley Park, London England from 23 April to 1 November 1924 and from 9 May to 31 October 1925. In 1920 the British Government decided to site the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley Park, on the site of the pleasure gardens created by Edward Watkin in the 1890s. A British Empire Exhibition had first been proposed in 1902, by the British Empire League, and again in 1913. The Russo-Japanese War had prevented the first plan from being developed and World War I put an end to the second, though there had been a Festival of Empire in 1911, held in part at Crystal Palace. One of the reasons for the suggestion was a sense that other powers, like America and Japan, were challenging Britain on the world stage. Despite victory in Great War, this was in some ways even truer in 1919. The country had economic problems and its naval supremacy was being challenged by two of its former allies, the United States and Japan. In 1917 Britain had committed itself eventually to leave India, which effectively signalled the end of the British Empire to anyone who thought about the consequences, while the Dominions had shown little interest in following British foreign policy since the war. It was hoped that the Exhibition would strengthen the bonds within the Empire, stimulate trade and demonstrate British greatness both abroad and at home, where the public was believed to be increasingly uninterested in Empire, preferring other distractions, such as the cinema.

 

********A purpose-built "great national sports ground", called the Empire Stadium, was built for the Exhibition at Wembley. This became Wembley Stadium. Wembley Urban District Council was opposed to the idea, as was The Times, which considered Wembley too far from Central London. The first turf for this stadium was cut, on the site of the old tower, on the 10th of January 1922. 250,000 tons of earth were then removed, and the new structure constructed within ten months, opening well before the rest of the Exhibition was ready. Designed by John William Simpson and Maxwell Ayrton, and built by Sir Robert McAlpine, it could hold 125,000 people, 30,000 of them seated. The building was an unusual mix of Roman imperial and Mughal architecture. Although it incorporated a football pitch, it was not solely intended as a football stadium. Its quarter mile running track, incorporating a 220 yard straight track (the longest in the country) were seen as being at least equally important. The only standard gauge locomotive involved in the construction of the Stadium has survived, and still runs on Sir William McAlpine's private Fawley Hill railway near Henley.

 

*********Huntley and Palmers is a British firm of biscuit makers originally based in Reading, Berkshire. The company created one of the world’s first global brands and ran what was once the world’s largest biscuit factory. Over the years, the company was also known as J. Huntley and Son and Huntley and Palmer. Huntley and Palmer were renown for their ‘superior reading biscuits’ which they promoted in different varieties for different occasions, including at breakfast time, morning and afternoon tea and reading time.

 

**********McVitie's (Originally McVitie and Price) is a British snack food brand owned by United Biscuits. The name derives from the original Scottish biscuit maker, McVitie and Price, Ltd., established in 1830 on Rose Street in Edinburgh, Scotland. The company moved to various sites in the city before completing the St. Andrews Biscuit Works factory on Robertson Avenue in the Gorgie district in 1888. The company also established one in Glasgow and two large manufacturing plants south of the border, in Heaton Chapel, Stockport, and Harlesden, London (where Edith’s father works). McVitie and Price's first major biscuit was the McVitie's Digestive, created in 1892 by a new young employee at the company named Alexander Grant, who later became the managing director of the company. The biscuit was given its name because it was thought that its high baking soda content served as an aid to food digestion. The McVitie's Chocolate Homewheat Digestive was created in 1925. Although not their core operation, McVitie's were commissioned in 1893 to create a wedding cake for the royal wedding between the Duke of York and Princess Mary, who subsequently became King George V and Queen Mary. This cake was over two metres high and cost one hundred and forty guineas. It was viewed by 14,000 and was a wonderful publicity for the company. They received many commissions for royal wedding cakes and christening cakes, including the wedding cake for Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip and Prince William and Catherine Middleton. Under United Biscuits McVitie's holds a Royal Warrant from Queen Elizabeth II.

 

***********The Palace of Engineering was originally called the Palace of Housing and Transport when the British Empire Exhibition opened. It contained a crane capable of moving 25 tons (a practical necessity, not an exhibit) and contained displays on engineering, shipbuilding, electric power, motor vehicles, railways, including locomotives, metallurgy and telegraphs and wireless. In 1925 there seems to have been less emphasis on things that could also be classified as Industry, with instead more on housing and aircraft. The Palace of Industry was slightly smaller. It contained displays on the chemical industry, coal, metals, medicinal drugs, sewage disposal, food, drinks, tobacco, clothing, gramophones, gas and Nobel explosives.

 

************Queen Mary's Dolls' House is a dollhouse built in 1:12 scale in the early 1920s, completed in 1924, for Queen Mary, the wife of King George V. It was designed by architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, with contributions from many notable artists and craftsmen of the period, including a library of miniature books containing original stories written by authors including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and A. A. Milne illustrated by famous illustrators of the time like Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac. The idea for building the dollhouse originally came from the Queen's cousin, Princess Marie Louise, who discussed her idea with one of the top architects of the time, Sir Edwin Lutyens, at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition of 1921. Sir Edwin agreed to construct the dollhouse and began preparations. Princess Marie Louise had many connections in the arts and arranged for the top artists and craftsmen of the time to contribute their special abilities to the house. It was created as a gift to Queen Mary from the people, and to serve as a historical document on how a royal family might have lived during that period in England. It showcased the very finest and most modern goods of the period. Later the dollhouse was put on display to raise funds for the Queen's charities. It was originally exhibited at the British Empire Exhibition in 1924 and again in 1925, where more than 1.6 million people came to view it, and is now on display in Windsor Castle, at Windsor, as a tourist attraction.

 

This bright window display may look like it is full of real products from today and yesteryear, but just like Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House, these items are all 1:12 scale miniature pieces from my own collection.

 

Fun things to look for in this tableau include:

 

The window is full of wonderful British household brands, some of which like Robertson’s Golden Shred Marmalade, Marmite, Oxo stock cubes and Twinings tea we still know today. All these pieces have been made by various artisans including Little Things Dollhouse Miniatures in Lancashire and Beautifully Handmade Miniatures in Kettering, or supplied from various stockists of 1:12 miniatures including Kathleen Knight’s Dolls’ House Shop and Shephard’s Miniatures in the United Kingdom, or through various online stockists. I created the Union Jack bunting that is draped to either side of the display. I also recreated the British Empire Exhibition poster.

 

The two carboard displays at the very front for Rountree’s Gums and Golden Shred Marmalade are 1:12 size artisan miniatures made by the British miniature artisan Ken Blythe. The Golliwog advertising Robertson’s Golden Shred Marmalade in particular has some nostalgia for me, and takes me back to my own childhood. The famous Robertson's Golliwog symbol (not seen as racially charged at the time) appeared in 1910 after a trip to the United States to set up a plant in Boston. His son John bought a golliwog doll there. For some reason this started to appear first on their price lists and was then adopted as their trade mark. I have pins with the Robertson’s Golliwog on it that I collected as a child. Ken Blythe was famous in miniature collectors’ circles mostly for the miniature books that he made: all being authentically replicated 1:12 scale miniatures of real volumes. I have quite a large representation of Ken Blythe’s work in my collection. However, he did not make books exclusively. He also made other small pieces like these advertising pieces for miniature shops. What might amaze you, looking at these cardboard stand-ups is that they are just like their real life equivalents, both front and back! To create something so authentic to the original in such detail and so clearly, really does make this a real miniature artisan piece. Ken Blythe’s work is highly sought after by miniaturists around the world today and command high prices at auction for such tiny pieces, particularly now that he is no longer alive. I was fortunate enough to acquire pieces from Ken Blythe prior to his death about four years ago and through his estate courtesy of the generosity of his daughter and son-in-law. His legacy will live on with me and in my photography which I hope will please his daughter.

 

Golden Shred orange marmalade and Silver Shred lime marmalade still exist today and are common household brands both in Britain and Australia. They are produced by Robertson’s. Robertson’s Golden Shred recipe perfected since 1874 is a clear and tangy orange marmalade, which according to their modern day jars is “perfect for Paddington’s marmalade sandwiches”. Robertson’s Silver Shred is a clear, tangy, lemon flavoured shredded marmalade. Robertson’s marmalade dates back to 1874 when Mrs. Robertson started making marmalade in the family grocery shop in Paisley, Scotland.

 

In 1859 Henry Tate went into partnership with John Wright, a sugar refiner based at Manesty Lane, Liverpool. Their partnership ended in 1869 and John’s two sons, Alfred and Edwin joined the business forming Henry Tate and Sons. A new refinery in Love Lane, Liverpool was opened in 1872. In 1921 Henry Tate and Sons and Abram Lyle and Sons merged, between them refining around fifty percent of the UK’s sugar. A tactical merger, this new company would then become a coherent force on the sugar market in anticipation of competition from foreign sugar returning to its pre-war strength. Tate and Lyle are perhaps best known for producing Lyle’s Golden Syrup and Lyle’s Golden Treacle.

 

Peter Leech and Sons was a grocers that operated out of Lowther Street in Whitehaven from the 1880s. They had a large range of tinned goods that they sold including coffee, tea, tinned salmon and golden syrup. They were admired for their particularly attractive labelling. I do not know exactly when they ceased production, but I believe it may have happened just before the Second World War.

 

Founded by Henry Isaac Rowntree in Castlegate in York in 1862, Rowntree's developed strong associations with Quaker philanthropy. Throughout much of the Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries, it was one of the big three confectionery manufacturers in the United Kingdom, alongside Cadbury and Fry, both also founded by Quakers. In 1981, Rowntree's received the Queen's Award for Enterprise for outstanding contribution to international trade. In 1988, when the company was acquired by Nestlé, it was the fourth-largest confectionery manufacturer in the world. The Rowntree brand continues to be used to market Nestlé's jelly sweet brands, such as Fruit Pastilles and Fruit Gums, and is still based in York.

 

Twinings is a British marketer of tea and other beverages, including coffee, hot chocolate and malt drinks, based in Andover, Hampshire. The brand is owned by Associated British Foods. It holds the world's oldest continually used company logo, and is London's longest-standing ratepayer, having occupied the same premises on the Strand since 1706. Twinings tea varieties include black tea, green tea and herbal teas, along with fruit-based cold infusions. Twinings was founded by Thomas Twining, who opened Britain's first known tea room, at No. 216 Strand, London, in 1706; it still operates today. Holder of a royal warrant, Twinings was acquired by Associated British Foods in 1964. The company is associated with Earl Grey tea, a tea infused with bergamot, though it is unclear when this association began, and how important the company's involvement with the tea has been. Competitor Jacksons of Piccadilly – acquired by Twinings during the 1990s – also had associations with the bergamot blend. In April 2008, Twinings announced their decision to close its Belfast Nambarrie plant, a tea company in trade for over 140 years. Citing an "efficiency drive", Twinings moved most of its production to China and Poland in late 2011, while retaining its Andover, Hampshire factory with a reduced workforce. In 2023, Twinings ceased production of lapsang souchong, replacing it with a product called "Distinctively Smoky", widely considered to be inferior quality.

 

In 1863, William Sumner published A Popular Treatise on Tea as a by-product of the first trade missions to China from London. In 1870, William and his son John Sumner founded a pharmacy/grocery business in Birmingham. William's grandson, John Sumner Jr. (born in 1856), took over the running of the business in the 1900s. Following comments from his sister on the calming effects of tea fannings, in 1903, John Jr. decided to create a new tea that he could sell in his shop. He set his own criteria for the new brand. The name had to be distinctive and unlike others, it had to be a name that would trip off the tongue and it had to be one that would be protected by registration. The name Typhoo comes from the Mandarin Chinese word for “doctor”. Typhoo began making tea bags in 1967. In 1978, production was moved from Birmingham to Moreton on the Wirral Peninsula, in Merseyside. The Moreton site is also the location of Burton's Foods and Manor Bakeries factories. Typhoo has been owned since July 2021 by British private-equity firm Zetland Capital. It was previously owned by Apeejay Surrendra Group of India.

 

Bird’s were best known for making custard and Bird’s Custard is still a common household name, although they produced other desserts beyond custard, including the blancmange. They also made Bird’s Golden Raising Powder – their brand of baking powder. Bird’s Custard was first formulated and first cooked by Alfred Bird in 1837 at his chemist shop in Birmingham. He developed the recipe because his wife was allergic to eggs, the key ingredient used to thicken traditional custard. The Birds continued to serve real custard to dinner guests, until one evening when the egg-free custard was served instead, either by accident or design. The dessert was so well received by the other diners that Alfred Bird put the recipe into wider production. John Monkhouse (1862–1938) was a prosperous Methodist businessman who co-founded Monk and Glass, which made custard powder and jelly. Monk and Glass custard was made in Clerkenwell and sold in the home market, and exported to the Empire and to America. They acquired by its rival Bird’s Custard in the early Twentieth Century.

 

Marmite is a food spread made from yeast extract which although considered remarkably English, was in fact invented by German scientist Justus von Liebig although it was originally made in the United Kingdom. It is a by-product of beer brewing and is currently produced by British company Unilever. The product is notable as a vegan source of B vitamins, including supplemental vitamin B. Marmite is a sticky, dark brown paste with a distinctive, salty, powerful flavour. This distinctive taste is represented in the marketing slogan: "Love it or hate it." Such is its prominence in British popular culture that the product's name is often used as a metaphor for something that is an acquired taste or tends to polarise opinion.

 

Oxo is a brand of food products, including stock cubes, herbs and spices, dried gravy, and yeast extract. The original product was the beef stock cube, and the company now also markets chicken and other flavour cubes, including versions with Chinese and Indian spices. The cubes are broken up and used as flavouring in meals or gravy or dissolved into boiling water to produce a bouillon. Oxo produced their first cubes in 1910 and further increased Oxo's popularity.

 

Bournville is a brand of dark chocolate produced by Cadbury. It is named after the model village of the same name in Birmingham, England and was first sold in 1908. Bournville Cocoa was one of the products sold by Cadbury. The label on the canister is a transitional one used after the First World War and shared both the old fashioned Edwardian letter B and more modern 1920s lettering for the remainder of the name. The red of the lettering is pre-war whilst the orange and white a post-war change.

 

Peek Freans is the name of a former biscuit making company based in Bermondsey, which is now a global brand of biscuits and related confectionery owned by various food businesses. De Beauvoir Biscuit Company owns but does not market in the United Kingdom, Europe and United States; Mondelēz International owns the brand in Canada; and English Biscuit Manufacturers owns the brand in Pakistan. Peek, Frean & Co. Ltd was registered in 1857 by James Peek (1800–1879) and his nephew-in-law George Hender Frean. The business was based in a disused sugar refinery on Mill Street in Dockhead, South East London, in the west of Bermondsey. With a quickly expanding business, in 1860, Peek engaged his friend John Carr, the apprenticed son of the Carlisle-based Scottish milling and biscuit-making family, Carr's. From 1861, Peek, Frean & Co. Ltd started exporting biscuits to Australia, but outgrew their premises from 1870 after agreeing to fulfil an order from the French Army for 460 long tons of biscuits for the ration packs supplied to soldiers fighting the Franco-Prussian War. After hostilities ended, the French Government ordered a further 16,000 long tons (11 million) sweet "Pearl" biscuits in celebration of the end of the Siege of Paris, and further flour supplies for Paris in 1871 and 1872, with financing undertaken by their bankers the Rothschilds. The consequential consumer demands of emigrating French expatriate soldiers, allowed the company to start exporting directly to Ontario, Canada from the mid-1870s. On 23 April 1873, the old Dockhead factory burnt down in a spectacular fire,[1] which brought the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) out on a London Fire Brigade horse-drawn water pump to view the resulting explosions. In 1906, the Peek, Frean and Co. factory in Bermondsey was the subject of one of the earliest documentary films shot by Cricks and Sharp. This was in part to celebrate an expansion of the company's cake business, which later made the wedding cakes for both Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten (later Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh) and Charles, Prince of Wales (later King Charles III), and Lady Diana Spencer. In 1924, the company established their first factory outside the UK, in Dum Dum in India. In 1931, five personnel from the Bermondsey factory went to Australia to train the staff in the new factory in Camperdown, in Sydney. In 1949, they established their first bakery in Canada, located on Bermondsey Road in East York, Ontario, which still today produces Peek Freans branded products. After 126 years, the London factory was closed by then owner BSN on Wednesday 26 May 1989.

 

Carr's is a British biscuit and cracker manufacturer, currently owned by Pladis Global through its subsidiary United Biscuits. The company was founded in 1831 by Jonathan Dodgson Carr and is marketed in the United States by Kellogg's. In 1831, Carr formed a small bakery and biscuit factory in the English city of Carlisle in Cumberland; he received a royal warrant in 1841. Within fifteen years of being founded, it had become Britain's largest baking business. Carr's business was both a mill and a bakery, an early example of vertical integration, and produced bread by night and biscuits by day. The biscuits were loosely based on dry biscuits used on long voyages by sailors. They could be kept crisp and fresh in tins, and despite their fragility could easily be transported to other parts of the country by canal and railway. Carr died in 1884, but by 1885, the company was making 128 varieties of biscuit and employing 1000 workers. In 1894 the company was registered as Carr and Co. Ltd. but reverted to being a private company in 1908. Carrs Flour Mills Limited was incorporated after acquiring the flour-milling assets. It became part of Cavenham Foods in 1964 until 1972, when it was sold to United Biscuits group, along with Cavenham's other biscuit brands Wright's Biscuits and Kemps for $10 million. United Biscuits was sold by its private equity owners to the Turkish-based multinational Yıldız Holding in 2014; in 2016 all UB brands including Carr's were combined with Yildiz's other snack brands to form Pladis Global.

 

Macfarlane Lang and Company began as Lang’s bakery in 1817, before becoming MacFarlane Lang in 1841. The first biscuit factory opened in 1886 and changed its name to MacFarlane Lang & Co. in the same year. The business then opened a factory in Fulham, London in 1903, and in 1904 became MacFarlane Lang & Co. Ltd. In 1948 it formed United Biscuits Ltd. along with McVitie and Price.

 

A co-operative wholesale society, or CWS, is a form of co-operative federation (that is, a co-operative in which all the members are co-operatives), in this case, the members are usually consumer cooperatives. The best historical examples of this are the English CWS and the Scottish CWS, which are the predecessors of the 21st Century Co-operative Group. Indeed, in Britain, the terms Co-operative Wholesale Society and CWS are used to refer to this specific organisation rather than the organisational form. They sold things like tea, cocoa and biscuits.

 

Sunlight Soap was first introduced in 1884 by William Hesketh Lever (1st Viscount Leverhulme) and introduced to the market in 1904. It was produced at Port Sunlight in Wirrel, Merseyside, a model village built by Lever Brothers for the workers of their factories which produced the popular soap brands Lux, Lifebuoy and Sunlight.

 

Before the invention of aerosol spray starch, the product of choice in many homes of all classes was Robin starch. Robin Starch was a stiff white powder like cornflour to which water had to be added. When you made up the solution, it was gloopy, sticky with powdery lumps, just like wallpaper paste or grout. The garment was immersed evenly in that mixture and then it had to be smoothed out. All the stubborn starchy lumps had to be dissolved until they were eliminated – a metal spoon was good for bashing at the lumps to break them down. Robins Starch was produced by Reckitt and Sons who were a leading British manufacturer of household products, notably starch, black lead, laundry blue, and household polish. They also produced Jumbo Blue, which was a whitener added to a wash to help delay the yellowing effect of older cotton. Rekitt and Sons were based in Kingston upon Hull. Isaac Reckitt began business in Hull in 1840, and his business became a private company Isaac Reckitt and Sons in 1879, and a public company in 1888. The company expanded through the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries. It merged with a major competitor in the starch market J. and J. Colman in 1938 to form Reckitt and Colman.

to get a decent flik at this gaff, sun coming over the top of the wall. paint and caps didn't work properly but was a good day with sound people!

Kelly Woods

About Kelly Woods

 

Kelly is a Celtic term for ‘a wood’. The Kelly Glen was originally part of the estate around Kelly House (since burned down), so it’s a mix of planted specimens and natural regeneration. Although difficult to categorize, it could be classified as an W16 National Vegetation Classification (NVC) woodland community, which is defined as one with a predominance of oak and birch with wavy hair grass with a sub-community of blaeberry and broad buckler fern.

History

 

The first OS maps show the wood covering a much larger area than today and as being a mixture of conifer and broadleaf. The conifers were felled at some stage but their effects on the ground vegetation from shading and acidification are still being felt.

Current State

 

The woods are in a state of benign neglect with some areas being encroached by Rhododendron Ponticum. There is grazing pressure from deer, which may be hindering woodland regeneration. Luckily, there is a Tree Preservation Order (TPO) on the whole wood.

Objectives

Short Term Goals

 

Make contact with the owners of the wood.

 

Raise awareness of the value of the woods.

Long Term Goals

 

Eradicate Rhododendron Ponticum, in particular in the ravines, where the humid microclimate is ideal for rare species of ferns, mosses and lichens.

 

South Ayrshire (Scots: Sooth Ayrshire; Scottish Gaelic: Siorrachd Àir a Deas, is one of thirty-two council areas of Scotland, covering the southern part of Ayrshire. It borders onto Dumfries and Galloway, East Ayrshire and North Ayrshire. South Ayrshire had an estimated population in 2021 of 112,450, making it the 19th–largest subdivision in Scotland by population. With an area of 472 sq mi, South Ayrshire ranks as the 15th largest subdivision in Scotland.

 

South Ayrshire's administrative centre is located in its largest town, Ayr. The headquarters for its associated political body, South Ayrshire Council, is housed at the towns County Buildings located in Wellington Square. Ayr is the former county town of the historic Ayrshire county, with the political activity of the Ayrshire County Council being based at County Buildings.

 

History

South Ayrshire was created in 1996 under the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994, which replaced Scotland's previous local government structure of upper-tier regions and lower-tier districts with unitary council areas providing all local government services. South Ayrshire covered the same area as the abolished Kyle and Carrick district, and also took over the functions of the abolished Strathclyde Regional Council within the area. The area's name references its location within the historic county of Ayrshire, which had been abolished for local government purposes in 1975 when Kyle and Carrick district and Strathclyde region had been created.

 

In 2021, South Ayrshire submitted a bid for city status as part of the 2022 Platinum Jubilee Celebrations. The bid was based on the area's rich history and links to royalty, and received backing from organisations and businesses including Ayrshire College and Scottish Enterprise. The bid was ultimately unsuccessful, with eight other settlements across the UK, overseas territories and crown dependencies being awarded city status, including Scottish town Dunfermline.

 

Geographically, South Ayrshire is located on the western coast of Scotland, sharing borders with neighbouring local authorities East Ayrshire, Dumfries and Galloway and North Ayrshire. The climate in South Ayrshire, typical of that in western Scotland, is milder than that of eastern Scotland due to the stronger maritime influence, as the prevailing winds blow from the sea into South Ayrshire, which is located primarily on the western coast of Scotland. The warm Gulf Stream also has a strong influence on western Scotland. With winds mainly blowing from the sea the annual mean temperatures are in the range 9.5 to 9.9 °C (49.1 to 49.8 °F) in coastal areas of South Ayrshire such as Ayr and Troon.

 

The sea reaches its lowest temperature in February or early March so that on average February is the coldest month in some coastal parts of South Ayrshire along with the Rhins of Galloway, Kintyre and the Hebrides. In February the mean daily minimum temperature varies from about 2 °C in most of the islands, 1 to 2 °C along most of the Solway Firth and lowland inland areas, but less than −1 °C in parts of the Southern Uplands and central Highlands. Inland, where the influence of the sea is less, January is the coldest month with mean daily minimum temperatures generally between −3 and 0 °C.

 

The number of hours of natural sunshine in South Ayrshire is controlled by the length of day and by cloudiness. In general, December is the dullest month and May or June the sunniest. Sunshine duration decreases with increasing altitude, increasing latitude and distance from the coast. Local topography also exerts a strong influence and in the winter deep glens and north-facing slopes can be in shade for long periods. Industrial pollution and smoke haze can also reduce sunshine amounts, but the decline in heavy industry in the Ayrshire area, primarily in Ayr in South Ayrshire along with Kilmarnock in East Ayrshire, has resulted in an increase in sunshine duration particularly in the winter months.

 

Average annual rainfall totals range from less than 1,000 mm (39 in) in the upper Clyde valley and along the coasts of Ayrshire and Dumfries and Galloway to on average over 3,500 mm (140 in) over the higher parts of the west Highlands, approaching the maximum values found in the UK (over 4,000 millimetres or 160 inches further north).

 

South Ayrshire's population is mostly concentrated around the adjoining coastal towns of Ayr, Prestwick and Troon located to the north-west of the council, which represents 68% of the council's total population according to data derived from the 2011 census, with a combined population of 76,846. Other areas of significance include the towns of Maybole and Girvan which are located to the south of the council area in the district of Carrick.

 

The economy of South Ayrshire, like many other areas, was badly affected during the worldwide financial crisis from 2009–2012. Despite this, total Gross Value Added for South Ayrshire has seen a steady increase over the last 20 years, reaching a peak in 2015 of £2.4 billion. South Ayrshire's GVA represents 1.9% of the total Scottish Gross Value Added income which is consistent with the previous 20 years. The largest employment industry in South Ayrshire and Scotland is the public administration, education and health sector. Compared with Scotland, proportionally there are more South Ayrshire residents employed in this sector than Scotland, while there are proportionally fewer employed in banking, finance and insurance sector than Scotland. Despite being a costal area, the smallest employment in South Ayrshire is in the agriculture and fishing sector.

 

The council and its neighbours of East Ayrshire and North Ayrshire work together on economic growth as the Ayrshire Regional Economic Partnership, with support from the Scottish and UK governments and other private and public sector organisations.

 

Educational provision in South Ayrshire is offered via eight secondary schools, forty-one primary schools, two special needs schools and five stand-alone Early Years Centres (although some primary schools have Early Years Centres attached). In terms of early years provision, there are also a number of private establishments which are operated in conjunction with South Ayrshire Council, rather than managed and operated entirely by the council.

 

Based on figures from the 2016-2017 academic year, within South Ayrshire, there were 6,091 secondary school aged pupils, 7,855 primary school aged pupils and 251 pupils attending special educational needs provision establishments.

 

South Ayrshire Council

 

South Ayrshire is governed by South Ayrshire Council which has been under no overall control since 2003, in which time various coalitions and minority administrations have operated. Since the last election in 2022, the council has been led by a Conservative minority administration which took office with support from two independent councillors and abstentions from Labour. The next election is due in 2027.

 

The council's civic head takes the title of provost. This is a largely ceremonial role, chairing council meetings and acting as the area's first citizen. Although an elected councillor, the provost is expected to be politically impartial. Political leadership is provided by the leader of the council.

Wider politics

 

At the 2014 Scottish independence referendum South Ayrshire rejected independence by an above-average margin of 57.9% "No" to 42.1% "Yes". With a turnout of 86.1%, there were 34,402 "Yes" votes and 47,247 "No" votes. Nationally 55.3% of voters voted "No" in the referendum compared to 44.7%, who voted "Yes" – resulting in Scotland remaining a devolved part of the United Kingdom.

 

At the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum a majority of voters in South Ayrshire voted for the United Kingdom to remain a member of the European Union (EU), with 59% of voters in South Ayrshire voting for the United Kingdom to remain a member of the EU and 41% voting for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union. With a turnout of 69.8%, 36,265 votes were cast for remain and 25,241 were cast for leave. 62% of Scottish voters voted remain whilst 38% voted leave, whilst nationally 51.8% of voters in the United Kingdom as a whole voting to leave and 48.2% voting to remain

 

Seemed to stumble on oysters, but recovered quickly.

The day began with fog, but the sun did its best.

This week’s HMAM theme of ‘ Thirtysomething” was difficult for me. It involved some thought.

I am not the person I was at any point in my 30’s.

I have faced a metamorphosis on every level….. Physical, spiritual, and mental.

I have given myself permission to be happy with my curves, my sarcastic wit, my more than occasional need to watch The Notebook or Steel Magnolias. It’s all me, and it’s all o.k by me.

And I’ve given myself permission to not beat myself up over the things I still may NOT be so happy with (my never-to-be six pack abs, a few parts that definitely are not where they were located in my 30’s , and my more than occasional need to watch The Notebook or Steel Magnolias.)

My 40’s have given me a lot & taught me even more. I think I’m a pretty good package these days! Not perfect by any stretch, but happy, healthy and able to embrace (& run with) all that being a woman entails.

The thirty-something me,……..NEVER would have uttered those words .

Can’t wait to see what my 50’s bring ! (ok, I CAN wait, it’ll be a while, not rushing anything!!! ;-)

Happy Me Again Monday!!!

    

Difficult to get good photos because this was hanging several feet behind a rope.

Sally really wasn't in the mood for a photo session. I clicked off fifty shots with little success even though I enticed her with a milk bone and squeaked her favorite toy. Oh Sally, we love her every day regardless of her mood.

So difficult to get these in flight clear of the feeders even when they momentarily hover

Difficult to make a good capture as they just keep swaying in the breeze!

Built in 1903-1905, this Prairie-style mansion was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for Larkin Company executive Darwin D. Martin, whom built the house as a way to bring his family, which had been scattered in various parts of the United States when his mother had died early in his childhood. The house was the culmination of immense personal wealth and professional success that Martin had enjoyed in his life despite his difficult childhood, starting as a soap seller in New York City, being hired by the Larkin Company in 1878, before moving to Buffalo and becoming the single office assistant to John D. Larkin in 1880, and in 1890, replaced Elbert Hubbard, who was a person that Martin immensely admired, as the Corporate Secretary of the Larkin Company. When the Larkin Company was seeking a designer for a major new office building for the company at the turn of the 20th Century, Martin, whom had witnessed Wright’s work in Chicago and Oak Park, wished to hire the architect as the designer of the new building, but needed to convince the skeptical John D. Larkin and other executives at the company of Wright’s suitability for the project. As a result, Martin decided to have Wright design his family estate. Darwin D. Martin became such a close friend of Wright that he commissioned the family’s summer house, Graycliff, located south of Buffalo on the shores of Lake Erie, to be designed by Wright in 1926, and spearheaded the effort to assist Wright with his finances when his personal residence, Taliesin, was threatened with foreclosure in 1927.

 

The main house is made up of four structures, those being the house itself, which sits at the prominent southeast corner of the property closest to the intersection of Summit Avenue and Jewett Parkway of any structure on the site, the pergola, which is a long, linear covered porch structure that runs northwards from the center of the house, the conservatory, which sits at the north end of the pergola and features a statue of the Winged Victory of Samothrace, which is visible from the front entrance to the house down the long visual axis created by the pergola, and the carriage house, which sits immediately west of the conservatory and behind the west wing of the house, enclosing the rear of the house’s main garden.

 

On the grounds of the mansion are two other houses, those being the Barton House, built at the northeast corner of the property along Summit Avenue to house Darwin D. Martin’s sister, Delta Martin Barton, and her husband, George F. Barton, which was the first structure to be built on the property and very visually similar to the main house, using the same type of bricks and incorporating many smaller versions of features found on the main house, and the Gardener’s cottage, built in 1909 to house gardeners who maintained the grounds of the property, which is the smallest and plainest of the three houses, which is sandwiched into a narrow strip of the property between two other houses, fronting Woodward Avenue to the west.

 

The main house features a buff roman brick exterior with raked horizontal mortar joints and filled in vertical joints, giving the masonry the appearance of being made of a series of solid horizontal bands with recessed joints, accentuating the horizontal emphasis of the house’s design and creating texture with shadows. The roof is hipped with wide overhanging eaves, with the gutters draining into downspouts that drop water into drain basins atop various one-story pillars at the corners of the house, with the roof having a T-shaped footprint above the second floor and three separate sections above the first floor, which wrap around the second floor to the south, west, and north, with the roof soaring above a porte-cochere to the west of the house, as well as a separate roof suspended above a porch to the east. The house’s roof is supported by pillars that sit near, but not at the corners of the building, with windows wrapping the corners. The windows are framed by stone sills and wooden trim, with some windows featuring stone lintels. The front door is obscured inside a recessed porch on the front facade, with the tile walkway to the door turning 90 degrees upon its approach to the doorway, a quite common feature of many of Wright’s houses at the time. The house is surrounded by a series of low brick walls with stone bases and stone caps, with sculptural decorative stone planters atop the pillars at the ends of many of these walls, with some of the planters containing carefully chosen decorative vegetation, and others serving as semi-hidden drainage basins for the adjacent one-story roofs.

 

Inside, the house features a foyer with a head-on view of the pergola and the conservatory to the north, simple but finely crafted wooden trim elements, the beautiful Wisteria Mosaic Fireplace between the foyer and dining room on the first floor that reflects light in different ways via various types of tile with different types of glazing, rough plaster painted a variety of colors, careful use of shadow to highlight certain elements while obscuring others, art glass windows featuring stained glass and clear glass panes in decorative patterns, wooden built ins and Frank Lloyd Wright-designed furnishings, a large kitchen with lots of white surfaces and wooden cabinets overlooking the garden, a living room with a vaulted ceiling and brick fireplace featuring an arched hearth opening, extensive use of expansion and compression via ceiling height to drive movement through the space, ventilation ducts that can be operated via decorative casement windows at the pillars ringing the various spaces of the house, wooden screens to obscure the staircase and second floor, custom light fixtures, art glass ceiling panels, and five large doors with art glass lights to the eastern porch on the first floor. The second floor of the house has multiple bedrooms with a variety of Frank Lloyd Wright built-in and freestanding furniture, wooden trim, and multiple bathrooms. The house is further decorated with Japanese art pieces procured by Wright in Japan, as well as being heavily inspired by traditional Japanese architecture, with usage of shadow and light to obscure and highlight different features, as well as the general form of the house, with the wide eaves providing ample shade to the interior during the summer months, while still allowing light to easily enter the space during the darker winter months.

 

To the north of the main house is an approximately 90-foot-long pergola with evenly spaced brick pillars framing the tile walkway, decorative wooden trim on the ceiling at each column, light fixtures at each column, and a glass transom and a door with large glass lights and a narrow frame providing a nearly unobstructed view of the interior of the conservatory at the north end of the pergola, focusing the attention of visitors upon their entrance to the house, as the conservatory and pergola form a continual visual axis from the foyer to the statue of the Winged Victory of Samothrace that stands in the northern end of the conservatory. This entire section of the house was rebuilt during its restoration, having been demolished in the 1960s after falling into disrepair. The pergola features a gabled roof that terminates at the bonnet roof around the perimeter of the conservatory to the north and at the first floor hipped roof of the house to the south.

 

The conservatory sits at the north end of the pergola, and has a latin cross footprint, with a glass skylight roof with a gabled section running north-south and a pyramidal hipped section at the crossing. The skylight terminates at a parapet that surrounds it on all sides, which features distinctive and decorative “birdhouses” at the north and south ends, apparently intended to house Blue Martins, but were not designed appropriately for the specific needs of the species, and have thus never been occupied. Two of the birdhouses survived the decay and demolition of the original conservatory in the 1960s, and were prominently displayed atop a wall in front of the house until the restoration of the complex in 2007. The interior of the conservatory features only a few concrete planters flanking the walkways and below the large Winged Victory of Samothrace that sits in the northern alcove of the space, with this apparently not having been what the Martin family had in mind, leading to the erection of a prefabricated conventional greenhouse made of metal and glass to the west of the Carriage House shortly after the house’s completion. The conservatory utilizes the same small tile on the floor as other areas of the house, with suspended wooden trim frames breaking up the large void of the space into smaller sections, supporting the space’s light fixtures and carefully framing the planters, fountain, and sculpture.

 

To the west of the conservatory is the two-story Carriage House, which features a simple pyramidal hipped roof with wide overhanging eaves, recessed corner pillars with central sections featuring wrap-around bands of windows on the second floor, a large carriage door in the center of the south facade, flanked by two smaller pillars and two small windows, and a one-story rear wing with a hipped roof. The interior presently houses a gift shop, but is set up like the original structure, demolished in the 1960s, would have been, with horse stables, red brick walls, a utility sink, and a simple staircase to the upper floor.

 

The house complex was home to the Martin family until 1937, when, owing to financial difficulties brought on by the loss of the family fortune during the 1929 Black Friday stock market crash and Darwin D. Martin’s death in 1935, the house had become too difficult for the family to maintain, with the family abandoning the house, allowing it to deteriorate. Additionally, Isabelle Reidpath Martin, Darwin’s widow, did not like the house’s interior shadows, which made it difficult for her to see. D.R. Martin, Darwin’s son, tried to donate the house to the City of Buffalo and the State University of New York system for use as a library, but neither entity accepted the offer, and the house remained empty until 1946, when it was taken by the city due to back taxes. In 1951, the house was purchased by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo, which intended to convert the house into a summer retreat for priests, similar to the contemporaneous sale of Graycliff by the Martin family to the Piarists, a Catholic order. However, the property languished until 1955, when it was sold to architect Sebastian Tauriello, whom worked hard to save the architecturally significant and by-then endangered property, hoping the house would avoid the fate that had befallen the Larkin Administration Building five years prior. The house was subdivided into three apartments, with the carriage house, pergola, and conservatory demolished and the rear yard sold, and two uninspired apartment buildings with slapped-on Colonial Revival-style trim known as Jewett Gardens Apartments, were built to the rear of the house. In 1967, the University at Buffalo purchased the house, utilizing it as the university president’s residence, with the Barton House and Gardener’s Cottage being parceled off, both converted to function as independent single-family houses. The university attempted to repair the damage from years of neglect and did some work to keep the house functioning, modernizing portions of the interior and returning several pieces of original furniture to the house. The house would exist in this condition for the next half-century.

 

In 1975, the house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and in 1986, was listed as a National Historic Landmark. In 1992, the nonprofit Martin House Restoration Corporation was founded with the goal of eventually restoring the historically and architecturally significant complex, and opening it as a museum. In 1994, the organization purchased the Barton House, and had the Martin House donated by the University of Buffalo in 2002. The restoration of both houses began under the direction of Hamilton Houston Lownie Architects shortly thereafter, and the Jewett Gardens Apartments were demolished upon the acquisition of the site by the nonprofit around the turn of the millennium. In 2006, the Gardener’s cottage was purchased from private ownership, and work began to rebuild the lost Pergola, Conservatory, and Carriage House, which were completed in 2007. Additional work to restore the house continued over the next decade, restoring the various interior spaces, with extensive work being put in to restore the kitchen and bedrooms. Finally, in 2017, the last part of the house was restored, being the beautiful Wisteria Mosaic Fireplace between the dining room and foyer, which had been extensively altered. An addition to the grounds, located on the former rear yard of an adjacent house, is the contemporary, sleek glass and steel-clad Eleanor & Wilson Greatbatch Pavilion Visitor Center, designed by Toshiko Mori, with a cantilevered roof that appears to float and tapers to thin edges, with glass walls on three sides, which houses the visitor information desk, ticket sales, presentation space, a timeline of the Martin House’s history, and restrooms. The restoration of the house marks one of the first full reconstructions of a demolished Frank Lloyd Wright structure, and is one of several significant works by the architect in Buffalo, including three designs that were built posthumously in the early 21st Century - the Fontana Boat House in Front Park, the Tydol Filling Station at the Buffalo Transportation Pierce Arrow Museum, and the Blue Sky Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Cemetery, which was designed for the Martin family in 1928, but not built until 2004.

 

Today, the restored Darwin D. Martin House complex serves as a museum, allowing visitors to experience one of the largest Prairie-style complexes designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, faithfully restored to its circa 1907 appearance, giving visitors a sense of the genius and design philosophy of Wright.

Tam Coc, Vietnam