Monthly Archives: August 2020

Fishing means escaping

One school summer holiday ended with a day’s fishing on a boat from Lyme Regis. It must have been a bank holiday Monday, for there were a dozen or so men in the group, all from our small home area. … Continue reading

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No-one riots in Somerset

The Sunday afternoon of the August bank holiday weekend brings the annual blackberrying afternoon for our family. “Cecil’s hedges are best,” declared my sister. It is a while since Cecil was the farmer working the land, but, for us, they … Continue reading

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Historical onions

The stereotype of a Frenchman when I was young was a man wearing a black beret, hooped shirt and workman’s trousers, riding an old black bicycle, and carrying strings of onions around his neck. It seemed a strange image, but … Continue reading

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Gardening was a matter of necessity

Gardening was a matter of necessity. In our front garden, we had a few wallflowers and a lilac bush at the gate, in the back garden there was a full range of vegetables. Gardening was about digging trenches for potatoes, … Continue reading

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Unwritten past

I started primary school in September 1965. Long Sutton Primary School, where I spent the first eighteen months of my education, was probably typical of most small rural primary schools in England. In infant class, pupils were given blackboard slates … Continue reading

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