Floods in Marsh Lane; a scuffle in the garden; “the objectionable McEnroe”; the Royal Family’s intelligence – under-rated; Andy and Katie do well; painting for others; nine mints from Tristan; a stolen painting and a lost pen; Joan Spurgin; top-class cross country running, and coverage in Athletics Weekly.
On October 27th 1980, Gran records local drizzle and says: “But we were lucky. In Lancashire torrential rain had caused the Ribble and the Wyre to burst their banks and the road above Preston is flooded… I have been anxious about Marsh Lane”.
And later:
This evening my dear Jane phoned, guessing that I should be worrying about the family and, indeed, the Ribble has filled Marsh Lane right across, the Doulton’s house next door to Jane is flooded and water is in Jane’s downstairs in places and the carpets and other things are upstairs. As usual, Jane said, friends are being a wonderful help, and the piano and other furniture is raised on bricks and the council has taken precautions, but she and the children expect to be baling all night.
Gran discovers the next day that it was not the River Ribble that flooded Marsh Lane but a local stream, whose sluice gates should have been opened to allow flood waters to drain away. Minor damage is caused to the house and Jane, Andy and Katie had, indeed, been busy dealing with the problem overnight.
The piano, standing on bricks, is the very one that Gran had as a child, but it is only now that we have any proof that she did actually learn to play it. She writes of an afternoon visit to the Club, with entertainment provided, where, she says:
I liked best the pianist who accompanied those who sang, but played also on her own, selections of Strauss waltzes and Sinding’s “Rustle of Spring”, a great favourite of mine which is one I used to play in my youth!”
“Clouds had gathered and there was little to be seen of the sunset”, she ends her journal entry for October 31st, and:
I was visited by three “Halloween ghosts” who demanded “gifts or tricks” and explained that they hoped for sweets or biscuits. I told them that there were not often sweets in this house, but I gave them some shortbread with which they were delighted and wished me a happy Halloween!
On November 2nd she goes into the back garden where:
… there was a scuffle going on and I could only see a Jackdaw on its back with something holding it down. I thought vaguely that the antagonist was a squirrel for I could see that it was not a cat, but, as I approached, I was amazed to see a Sparrowhawk get up and fly off down the garden and over the fence. The Jackdaw also flew away, apparently unhurt. I did not think a Sparrowhawk would attack a bird as large as a Jackdaw, but this one was certainly pinning down its victim.
What Gran saw in the back garden! Image by Mick Sway via Flickr.
Over the years, the journal has given almost no details of the relationship between Gran and Grampa – just the occasional grumpy remark – but a slightly more caring aspect of Gran’s attitude to her husband is shown on November 3rd. It seems that Grampa has not been well and Gran phones Barry, she says, because she was “… feeling anxious about his Dad, and he said he would get in touch with his Doctor and try to find out more than I know at present”.
A few days later there is a small newspaper cutting between the pages of the journal, and Gran explains that:
There was a report in the “Daily Telegraph” and on television that a Bewick’s Swan had created a record by returning to Slimbridge for the eighth year in succession, but the newspaper called it a “Berwick” Swan and television showed a Mute”.
Such a typical example of how the Media nearly always fail to get a story about wildlife accurate!
A Bewick’s Swan at Slimbridge – named after Thomas Bewick and nothing to do with the town of Berwick! Image by Michael Day via Flickr.
Book 189
There is televised tennis from Wembley to keep Gran occupied in the middle of November. John McEnroe does well but Gran, while appreciating his great playing skills, thinks his character leaves much to be desired. He plays Harold Solomon, and she writes of him:
There was a scene between McEnroe and the audience who had, wrongly, I agree, clapped when he had served a double fault after arguing about a line decision. He is a great player we all know but his ill-temper and rudeness make him extremely unpopular.
And on the following day:
… the objectionable McEnroe beat Gene Mayer in straight sets… with the usual interruptions for his complaints and arguments. Mayer played a good and sporting game but was inevitably outclassed.
Gran experiences nicer manners herself later in the month. Mary Harding calls in to collect a painting of a Nerine, that her husband Frank had asked her to do, and is delighted with it, and then, Gran writes:
I had not quite finished my dinner when the Post Office man called for Mr Griffin’s key, to attend to his telephones, but said he was not allowed to work in empty houses in case anything gets lost and suspicion rests on the workman! A good idea, but I had to wait next door with him for an hour until Tim came home. He was such a nice lad, and so good mannered, it was a pleasure to oblige!
Gran painted this Nerine for her great friend Mary Harding. It now It hangs in her daughter Jill’s bedroom “as a memory of ‘Aunty Bunney’ and my Mum”. Image courtesy of Jill Roberts.
Television has provided a series of Deanna Durbin films lately, which Gran has much enjoyed. There is another on the afternoon of November 23rd, followed, Gran says, by:
…another Sunday programme this evening but the Royal Command Performance in honour of the Queen Mother’s eightieth birthday was mainly full of rubbish. I cannot help but feel that the intelligence and humour of the Royal Family are grossly under-rated and they must be bored at times. I see and hear very little at which I am amused and I am only of average intelligence! I finished knitting Ricky’s gloves.
Gran proudly notes the doings of grandchildren Katie and Andy at the end of the month:
Roehampton have accepted Katie provided she passes two A levels, and she has been for an interview at Homerton, Cambridge, in which area she would like to be, but no result yet. Andy went to Manchester on Saturday for an audition with Roger Rostron, Principal Flautist with the Halle Orchestra. Mr Doley, Conductor of the Lancashire Schools Symphony Orchestra sent him, as he felt Andy ought to progress from his present teacher, and Roger Rostron has accepted him for lessons although he takes very few pupils. Lucky boy!
Although Gran finds few new wild flowers to paint for her own collection these days, she still receives a small number of requests for flower paintings from friends and neighbours, such as the Nerine for Mary. She also has two to do for Girl Guides, telling us:
… rather a frustrating afternoon as I wanted to start painting the Bluebell emblem for a Girl Guide’s present from her Company as she leaves to go on to become a Ranger, but, by the time I could settle to it, the light had gone. I have to do a Forget-me-not for the second Guide.
Early in December we hear a little (the first time for a long time) about her Australian friend Ellen Kniep, who some years past, visited The Ridge and spent time with Gran and Norris.
Post brought a letter from Ellen Browne (Kniep) from Australia. She is recovering from the car accident in which her husband was killed but is still having trouble with her leg, which was badly broken. She has though, like Jane, found friends and neighbours wonderfully helpful and is beginning to take up her outings and Natural History again.
Among the Christmas cards that arrive on December 12th is one from somebody Gran has never mentioned before:
… one from Mr and Mrs Baggott, as usual. How loyal they are! Mr Baggott was one of our soldiers stationed near here during the war, before leaving for France, and he hung his “smalls” on our line to dry. He came back to see me after being moved on and had been on leave. He and his wife never fail to send at Christmas.
December 13th:
Today’s “Daily Telegraph” stated that the R.A.F. had selected a strong team for the International Cross Country at Crystal Palace this afternoon and included Julian Goater. Abyssinians were expected to win as individuals but the R.A.F. as a team.
As the Cross Country was to be televised at 4.15 this afternoon, I went early to the Shopping Precinct near the Station to complete my purchases for the Fowler family… The race was most exciting and I shouted myself hoarse for Julian who was soon amongst the first four, who included the two Abyssinians and Steve Jones, also of the R.A.F., and led at times.
The cover of Athletics Weekly – Julian Goater, running for the R.A.F., in the lead during the International at Crystal Palace.
Gran is delighted by the kind words spoken about Julian by the commentator and, she adds, “He, the commentator, even mentioned that Barry, Julian’s Dad, had been a champion half-miler”. She does not say that the commentator mistakenly refers to Julian’s father as “Brian”! The result of the race is that Julian is third, the first Englishman home, behind the two Ethiopians, and the R.A.F. is the winning team.
Christmas cards and parcels continue to arrive at The Ridge, including, “two registered letters from Tristan da Cunha. These last contained stamps, mint and franked and included a block of nine mint commemorating the Queen Mother’s eightieth birthday”.
Stamps from Tristan da Cunha, including the block of nine mint commemorating the Queen Mother’s eightieth birthday. Image courtesy of Andy Brenan.
Barry collects his mother and father on the morning of December 24th, driving them to Bushey for Christmas Day and the last few days of the year. Gran gives us an insight into the typical selection of presents that she receives on the day. “I was very lucky”, she says:
Barry and Jane Elizabeth giving tablecloth and matching napkins, Julian and Sue ankle socks, notelets and stamps, including a First Day Cover and mint from Bermuda, Jane and family paint brushes, Robin and Geoff talcum powder, notebooks and pencil, and Beverly and Ricky a delightful photograph of them with Thomas.
December 30th sees Gran and Grampa home again, Gran sad, as always, to leave the family. “Barry”, she says, “ stayed to lunch and cleared out the gutters for his Dad before going home again… I was sorry to see Barry go. He is a good chap to his ‘ancients’”.
In her summing-up of the year, 1980, we discover some of the events recounted, no doubt in the missing journal: she has attended fewer field meetings than usual, has been taken by Barry to see a rare Ivory Gull at Portland, and, she says:
I have painted several flowers for Ruth and for Tommy but have not added any to my own collection, and had the unpleasant experience of someone unknown, to whom I lent my albums of flower paintings, taking the Early Spider Orchid, the loss of which I did not discover until I went to replace those I had copied for Tommy.
An immature Ivory Gull like the one seen by Gran at Portland. A bird from the high Arctic and one of the rarest on Gran’s list. Image by Leon van der Noll via Flickr.
1981
Since mid-December, Gran has been fretting over the loss of a highly valued Parker ball-point pen (writing being such an important part of her life), given to her by Julian and Sue, and probably mislaid during a whist drive at Hillside. She has high hopes of finding it on New Year’s Day when she attends another whist drive there but is very disappointed that no-one there has seen it. However, she is back at the Club on January 7th, and, she exclaims:
… my day was made when Mr Taylor said he had some property of mine! Yes, it was my precious Biro, and he had found it in the back of his car. I was delighted. The entertainment consisted of that most boring of occupations, Bingo, and I was glad when it was over.
The next day:
I did a tiny arrangement for Mrs Taylor, in gratitude for the return of my precious Biro yesterday, using Wych Hazel, yellow Jasmine, Laurestinus, Heather and Sarcococca, with variegated leaves of Periwinkle. I took it to the Hillside whist drive, walking as usual past the Lake… Mrs Taylor was delighted with her posy…
Book 191
Another missing journal brings us to March 1981 and we learn on the 15th that Julian has enjoyed a great cross country victory, Gran writing of Jane Elizabeth and Barry, that “They are both delighted with Julian’s National victory…” No doubt Gran covered it at length in Book 190.
March 18th brings news of a lovely lady, an acquaintance of mine at Slimbridge whom, I note, has a birdwatching hide named after her at Titchfield Haven. Gran writes:
This morning I went with Ruth to have lunch with her friend Rosie Lee and we had a very enjoyable time. A Jay flew across Kiln Lane as we went along there and we went by a somewhat devious route on account of road closures, to Botley and thence to Curdridge, where Rosie lives in the attractive and friendly house called “Shanstead”. Rosie had also invited Joan Spurgin, a great ornithologist, who goes to Slimbridge to mind the Scotts’ dogs when they go away. She has met Ricky, Beverly and Tom and fallen for them in a big way, and the Scotts have a very high regard for Ricky also. To hear Joan Spurgin (my age!) enthuse about Rick and family made me even more proud of them! We had a most enjoyable lunch.
The link above is to an article by Kevan Bundell. It includes some appreciative words about Joan – clearly an important mentor to many young naturalists.
Athletics Weekly arrives through the door a couple of days later, with coverage of Julian, making a grandmother proud again!
The Spotlight on Julian in Athletics Weekly.
Post brought “Athletics Weekly”, with Spotlight on Julian, with an interview, an article by him on ‘Athletics’, highlights of the National depicting the position soon after the start, with Julian already leading, and a horde of other runners spread out behind him.
“… Julian already leading, and a horde of other runners spread out behind… “. Photo by Peter Tempest.
I have never lived in Chandler's Ford, though know bits of it well because both sets of grandparents lived there and I often visited.
I was fascinated by descriptions of rural life there during the 1930s and '40s and I have to admit it, am a bit depressed by its urbanisation since then.
I'm retired now, having worked first as a warden and ranger on mainly estuarine nature reserves (the Severn, the Solway and Montrose Basin) after which I spent ten years in Ecological Consultancy, based in Cambridge and then in Central Scotland.
Wildlife, especially birds, and wild habitats are what interest me and I'm most at home on British off-shore islands during migration time - the Scillies, the Isle of May, Shetland and Orkney, the Western Isles.
On the mainland, the New Forest is still a favourite place, though a long way from my home near Dunblane and sadly, somewhat depleted in its wildlife since I first knew it.
I’ve just read this morning’s blog. Enjoyed the pictures of Julian all covered in mud – the things people do ‘for fun’!
I thought I would just mention that the conductor of the LSSO was Malcolm Doley, and not ‘Dolief’, as Gran had it. Bless her.
Katie and I were in the orchestra at the same time as Malcolm’s own children. Just before Covid hit last year Judy and I attended a memorial service which they had organised after Malcom died at the end of 2019. It was amazing to reunite with so many members of our cohort after more than 35 years, and testimony to the strength of the bond Malcolm and the orchestra created between us all.
I’ve just read this morning’s blog. Enjoyed the pictures of Julian all covered in mud – the things people do ‘for fun’!
I thought I would just mention that the conductor of the LSSO was Malcolm Doley, and not ‘Dolief’, as Gran had it. Bless her.
Katie and I were in the orchestra at the same time as Malcolm’s own children. Just before Covid hit last year Judy and I attended a memorial service which they had organised after Malcom died at the end of 2019. It was amazing to reunite with so many members of our cohort after more than 35 years, and testimony to the strength of the bond Malcolm and the orchestra created between us all.
Andy Brenan.