Cabot Circus Bristol

The Cabot Circus shopping centre in Bristol opened a few months ago.
We got there quite late when the crowds had gone.
The Christmas decorations were on a big scale.

Just click on the images to see them big. The last one needs it to get half an idea of the scale of the place.

Missed the fireworks

We should have gone direct to the viewing area, and not looked at the other sites.
crystal shops like this...
, party shops...
, lights
,more lights...

In the end when we did get to a tube station, an announcement kept repeating 'The viewing area for the fireworks is full. There will be no more admissions.'

We drove back to home just in time to hear Auld Lang Syne being sung in East Saint Helen's Street. Happy 2009!

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.