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For the fainthearted . . .

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Category Archives: High Ham and Somerset

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School dinner glasses

For the fainthearted . . .

The tumbler had a familiar shape, a retro design, or perhaps a glass that had somehow endured four or even five decades. Finishing the milk, the name of the French manufacturer could be read, as it must have been hundreds of times in childhood years. Such glasses were used at dinnertime in the Church of England Primary School in our village, school dinner each day was a two course meal served with water to drink (perhaps at Christmas orange squash was allowed). School dinners were predictable, meat potatoes and vegetable, …

Truly exceptional

For the fainthearted . . .

The word “exceptionalism” is used of the United States, the idea that people believe it has a unique role within the world community, but doesn’t every community believe it has a unique place within the wider community to which it belongs?

Certainly, growing up in the middle of Somerset, we had no doubt that our community had a unique role in the world. Our exceptionalism began on our road, the windmill at the top of Stembridge Hill was the only thatched windmill in the country, which was not, perhaps, the …

Happy excursions

For the fainthearted . . .

Sid used to organize the outings. He lived in our village, where there was no public transport, but never learned to drive, relying on a workmate for the daily journey to the shoe factory in which they worked. Perhaps it was the lack of a car that prompted him, though if that was the whole explanation he might just have planned trips for his own family; perhaps he was an innately sociable person. Sid organized day trips to West Country destinations. The thought only occurs in retrospect that there must …

Jack is still missing

For the fainthearted . . .

Spending the evening researching names and places in preparation for taking a group to the Western Front next week, thoughts turned to Uncle Jack. Many of the service records that were held in London were lost during the Blitz in 1940, Uncle Jack’s among them.

In memory, Jack and Augusta were an old couple. They would be sat in two armchairs beside a warm coal fire. Uncle Jack would keep a supply of cigarettes in a wooden bureau. The two shilling piece from my grandfather would release a packet of …

Pencil writing

For the fainthearted . . .

Picking up the pencil, there was the scent of it having been freshly sharpened. The wood smell brought memories from childhood days in Somerset.

In days before everyone had ballpoint and felt tip pens, pencils were pervasive. In our primary school, we were allowed to write with pens only in the penultimate year, until that time everyone was supplied with an HB pencil. Clipped to the edge of the teacher’s desk at the front of the room, there was a sharpener into which one inserted a pencil and turned the …

Barges down to the sea

For the fainthearted . . .

“Bradshaw’s Canals and Navigable Rivers of England and Wales:” a facsimile copy of the 1904 handbook came as a Christmas present.  The handbook was an attempt at reviving the fortunes of canals at a time when they had long been superseded by the railways, even the ownership of many of the canals lay in the hands of railway companies.

The local and the personal are the things that capture the imagination of most people and Bradshaw’s canal handbook probably describes one or more waterways with which most of its readers …

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