The voices of young people in Langport car park are unusual on a February evening. It was 5.30 pm, not long short of sunset, a half dozen or so boys, twelve or thirteen years old, had gathered with their skateboards. Dressed in hoodies and jeans, they might have been attired for a summer’s night. The car thermometer said it was minus one outside, but it did not feel as though it was sub-zero weather, it felt like a day much later in the year, a day when it would be …
Were it to occur today, there would be countless images. Pictures and video recordings would be instantly shared around the world, social media would be crowded with posts and shares and comments. A Google search today produced the first images of which I was aware, Dennis Bown, a local electrician had made a cine film of the scene.
This week, forty years, a blizzard swept across the West Country, cutting off entire communities for days. The fall of snow was not heavy by the standards of countries accustomed to such …
Last night’s attendance was announced over the ground’s public address system, 2,330 including 120 supporters of Grimsby Town. It was barely more than a quarter of the crowd of 9,196 that attended last Friday’s FA Cup fourth round clash with Manchester United; there had been 2,176 away supporters at that match, so around 5,000 more Yeovil Town fans. Being honest, the FA Cup tie was a first visit to Huish Park in fifteen years; going to the fixture against Grimsby four days later was an opportunity to experience real football, …
A correspondent in the letters columns of today’s Financial Times identifies a problem with computer-controlled driverless cars that has so far seemed to have received little attention. Rosalind Maudslay of Rothbury in Northumberland asks what would happen on rural roads in places like Northumberland or Somerset or the Scottish Highlands. As someone driving roads in Somerset that are sometimes barely adequate to accommodate one car, let alone two, the letter struck a chord. How would Google technology deal with the roads around our village, particularly at this time of the …
The influence of the Julian Calendar continues in these parts. Whoever was responsible for the inscription in Low Ham church, from the Book of Proverbs Chapter 24 Verse 1, “My sonne, fears God and the Kinge and meddle not with them that are given to change,” perhaps had a feeling for a mood of the place. Not being given to change would explain why the local Twelfth Night celebration, the wassail, takes place this weekend.
The wassail was a ritual asking God for a good apple harvest, it traditionally took …
“Club Day” came with excitement. The sun shone and there was a mood of happiness in the heart of a small boy. The club members, my uncle among them, wore dark suits and rosettes and were led by a silver band. The club called for refreshments at various farms in the neighbourhood before gathering for lunch at the manor farm in the village.
The opportunity to ask someone for a first hand verification of those distant memories of the proceedings was too good to pass.
The nonegenarian sat with his …
