South Nutfield 6 - Roadsign

This signpost has changed. The number of fingers are the same but there has been a change of emphasize. The places are unchanged but the names given are quite different .

Crab Hill House -to- Crabhill House
Bletchingley, Godstone -to- Bletchingley
Outwood -to- Outwood, Smallfield
Redhill, Reigate -to- Redhill Aerodrome
Nutfield Stn, Nutfield -to- South Nutfield

Nutfield is part of Tandridge district council now, and so the emphasize is now on other places within that district rather than those outside where people passing through might really be wanting to go. So perhaps this is partly district council exclusivism and partly a desire to stop South Nutfield being used as a rat run. But the most curious change to me is the direction to South Nutfield, as this sign is in South Nutfield.

Do they no longer feel that they belong?

South Nutfield 5 - Oak Tree

This is an oak tree I have photographed many times in the past, but not for twenty or more year. I used to walk past it every day walking Kip - the dog I had back then. The shape of the oak has not changed much in all that time. But it must have grown. There are horses and ponies sheltered under it now. There were cows in my day, and then sheep.

South Nutfield 4 - Christchurch

On Christmas Eve we used to go from the Station Hotel pub to Christchurch, and sing the carols too loud. We used to get looks from a lady in the choir.

Laylines are supposed to meet at Christchurch, according to one internet site?

There used to be two churches in South Nutfield. The Free Church (evangelical) and Christchurch (anglican). Christchurch carries on as a church with a building, and the Free Church was knocked down to make way for two new houses. The Free Church had reformed into house groups anyway so it probably makes no odds.

South Nutfield 3 - Corner Stores

The remaining South Nutfield shop was known in my time as the Corner Stores. I helped Mr Barnett deliver groceries.

It has recently been taken over and called Holborns. The crowd outside are enjoying mugs of mulled wine round a smoking stove. Good to see community spirit is still alive in South Nutfield.

South Nutfield 2 - Shops

On the near wall there was a cigarette machine that never worked. It was already a bygone. Next to that was the newsagent where I'd collect my paper-round at 6:30 in the morning. Next door was the wool shop. Then the post office. Then the garage with petrol pump and pink paraffin where we got our car serviced. A bit further along was a grocers. Also gone, elsewhere in the village, are the baker, and the butcher. They were all there in the 1970s. They are all houses now. Just one shop remains.

South Nutfield 1 - Snibo Bridge

This is the railway bridge over Mid Street. We thought of it as the Snibo Bridge - it always used to have the letters Snibo graffiti'd across. Snibo stood for South Nutfield something something something. I once knew. The graffiti no longer gets repainted as a woodern fence has replaced the iron fence, and the railway has gone mainline.

One World Fair

The One World Fair, organised by Oxfam in Oxford Town Hall, brought many organisations together: fairtrade, human rights & environmental groups, crafts, seasonal gifts, toys, books, vegetarian café, and live acapella singing.

The Green Fair will be at the same venue on Saturday 13th December.

Green Village - Brown Town

Not far from Ardley (see previous post) on the B430, the Ben Jonson pub is the epi-centre of another protest movement. Villagers from Weston on the Green, and round about, don't want to be dwarfed by a new town - euphemistically called by the government an Eco Town.

No Cinerator At Ardley

Ardley don't want the Cinerator either

They are against the Incinerator proposals in North Oxfordshire as it will:

• Dramatically reduce air quality in Ardley and the surrounding areas, leading to health risks and poorer quality of life;

• Significantly reduce the housing prices in the Bicester area;

• Destroy the beautiful countryside that they know and love;

• Increase the traffic on the B430, M40 and all the roads in this area.

Don't think we want any of these things neither!!!

Graffitti in Paris

No To The Incinerator

In the normally picturesque village of Sutton Courtenay, posters have appeared in windows and on roadside verges.

Villagers are saying here 'No! to the Incinerator'

WRG (Waste Recycling Group) want to build an incinerator near the village, and OCC (Oxfordshire County Council) will make the decision. This artist thinks they are a push over.

A small tarn

This tarn is only a few metres across, and a couple of feet deep

A Cumbrian Apiary

In the Meadow behind Swarthmoor Hall there were bees .

Friends Meeting House

The Friends Meeting House in Ulverston has just been reroofed and the Friends (Quakers) will return their next week. It should now be good for another 75 years.
While work was underway the Friends met at Swarthmoor Hall nearby. We joined them for an hour of peaceful meditation in the wood panelled front room where Judge Fell and his wife Margaret gave sanctuary to George Fox - the founder of the Quaker movement - back in 1652.

The Old Man of Coniston

The view from near the summit of the Old Man, looking down the zig-zag path to Green Banked Tarn.

We took the back route up to the summit past Dow Crag,

Goats Water, and up Goats Hause.

Then we descended along the zig zag trail shown on the first picture, which took us through piles of discarded slate - from the old Coniston slate mines.

Port Sunlight

Near Birkenhead, model factory housing built round the Lever Brothers factory, and called Port Sunlight. We saw Bowls' greens in front of social clubs, and many buildings that can hardly have changed since they were built in the 1890s. The factory is still there, but I don't know how many of the factory workers could now afford the model housing.

Brixton railway Bridge

This bridge at Brixton always used to give me the feeling that I was entering London proper when coming from the South on the A23. To me it was the gateway to the capital. London seems to have grown, and even Purley and Croydon a few miles south with their red zones and London Corporation crests feel more like part of the capital now.

Abinger Hammer

This cyclist was with me for a long stretch of the A25. I kept stopping and he caught up and overtook, then I drove past him...

Abinger Hammer is one of those places that made a strong impression when I was young. Thats the famous Clock struck with a Hammer, jutting across the road, and the Abinger Arms behind.

The Silent Pool

Last time I went to the Silent Pool, near Shere in Surrey, it had dried out and all I could see was its muddy bottom. That was about fifteen years ago and a great disappointment. But today it was full of water but looking a bit overgrown with pond weed. Not quite the tree lined eerily quiet lake, of my imagination. There is a story that a brother and sister drowned here, and she is sometimes seen floating on the surface.

Over Cumnor Churchyard

Brick Lane artwork

When I found him, he was in one of his favourite haunts - Brick Lane in London

Monsters everywhere

Not There...

They had released him from the hospital. But to where? At Paddington Station The Great Western Staff Band played for the people waiting for trains. But he wasn't there...

Huge crowds near the embankment celebrated TFI Friday. But he wasn't there.

He was not there near Nelson Mandela beside Festival Hall ...

Two London Hospitals

St Mary's, Paddington

University College London Hospital

But he wasn't to be found at either. Where is he gone?

Out of picture

The picture shows his brothers and sisters. I presume as the oldest he took this picture. The narrative is his...

"After our evening meal we children took turns doing the washing up. Mother joined us in the kitchen to cook a fresh supply of soda bread. Baker's yeast was scarce but the recipe for soda bread also caused the dough to rise in the oven. She brewed regular supplies of ginger beer and dandelion and burdock drinks. She made the drinks from a 'starter yeast' that had been kept alive with sugar for as long as I can remember. It was still necessary, five years after the war, to obtain a child's green ration book to be able to obtain two eggs, double the weekly ration for adults...."

Just very everyday stuff.

"...On my first contact with other soldiers I was put off by some of their less attractive behaviour, such as drunken brawls, bad language, and boasts of promiscuity. However, after joining in their sports and writing letters for them we became good friends. They were also respectfully quiet when I knelt to pray by my bed..."

Then

"I'm just listening to the football commentary (Malawi vs Cameroon) and he's just said, "The clouds are looking heavy but we know God is with us so it won't rain. But if it does rain we'll accept it as one of God's blessings..."

Finally

He is not in the picture. Where is he?

Not the Lord Mayor's Parade

The Lord Mayor's Parade was making its way down a rainy High Street, but I've seen that just too many times. Instead I went to see the Oxford Castle Mound getting remade.

and Bonn Square getting a massive makeover. These events will not be repeated in my lifetime.

Oxfordshire Artweeks - Oxford

Some understated art at the Oxford Saïd Business School. Images in CD cases. The sheep was my favourite.

Meanwhile at St Marys University Church the back pulpit was decorated with tree etchings.

Stone Face

One of the many stone faces of Buscot Park