This is our handsome village signpost.
Top left depicts the village blacksmith, an important part of village life. The old forge remains, but all his work tools and equipment were auctioned off a couple of years ago. His family were blacksmiths and wheelwrights in this village for several generations. They deserve their place on the sign.
Then there is a train, because we had the railway line and station until the line was closed in 1960.
The main house here, The Old Parsonage, was a beer house for the railway workers for a number of years from 1840 onwards. Funny to think of all the pints which were consumed in there over the years.
Finally, we have the ploughman and his horses because this is still a deeply agricultural area.
* * *
This afternoon I had to pull on my boots and walk to the village hall for the monthly TEDs meeting. I didn't want to go, but I always feel I must try to show my support as much as possible, duty called.
Of the dozen or so regular members, only six of us turned up for an afternoon of card games and chat. Can you tell, by the way none of us had shed our outer clothing, that the village hall is cold, despite the best efforts of four heaters.
I am not a card game player.
Snap, Happy Families and Fish are about the limit of my experience of cards. Luckily we were only playing for pennies and most of those were brought by the one man who supports the group.
We had several quick and fun rounds of a game called 'Newmarket' which was quite fun, once I had got the hang of it.
The next game was 'Bonk'. It was entirely incomprehensible to me because you can lie and cheat your way through it. If you put a card down and the next playing puts one down of the same value, 'Bonk' must be shouted out loud and a forfeit of a penny paid... or sometimes two pence.. I gave it a go and managed to stay in until the very end, which was quite a shame as I'd been trying to get out as quickly as possible...!
Next month a village elder is going to give a talk about her childhood and growing up in Dovecot Dell. She is also going to discuss some of the home-made concoctions with which her mother would treat ailments.
This will be much more to my taste.
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My goodness it looked cold in the village hall, but there again, it was made to look colder (crafty you!) by the b&w photo, tee-hee. I'm not a card player, either. I can't remember what suit (is that the word) is being played, or what cards have bene played, or the rules ... In fact, I find card games (indeed, most games) are bor-ring! All my life if I've had to play games, I've done my best to be 'out' early so I can do something more interesting, such as reading!
ReplyDeleteLove your kitchen, by the way, it's stunning! But it's large ... do you have roller skates to get around it? You must keep fit just walking up and down! (Only jealous - I'd like just a bit more space!)
Margaret P
Hello Margaret, I hope we manage to pull together a more exciting programme of events. The last three meetings have involved Board Games, Dominoes and Cards. Torture!
DeleteThank you for your kind comments about the kitchen. This end of the house was a completely unconverted and rat-infested old cart shed; the rest of the house had been converted (very badly) in the 1970's from the cow shed and stables to the main house - which is where our daughter lives with two of our grandchildren.
We thought long and hard about how we wanted to divide the spaces and opted for a big kitchen and a big bedroom and after that everything else just slotted into place. I confess that I have learnt to gather all my ingredients and equipment together before I start baking and cooking!
ps I never got beyond using one roller skate at a time, I have a really bad sense of balance!
DeleteWell, that's 100% better than me, Elaine, as I never learned to roller skate (or ride a bike, or swim, or ride a horse - I'm very good at not being able to do very much!)
DeleteMargaret P
I'd forgotten about Newmarket, seem to remember playing it in someone's front garden back in about 1968. Is it the one where you put down the queens (or is it kings or maybe aces) and put money on each one. Other than that I don't remember!
ReplyDeleteLove your kitchen, we left a big kitchen behind when we had to leave the smallholding.Here in town it is small but use-able but the cottage we are moving to has a small kitchen with odd layout and too many doors and will need refitting sometime - not looking forward to that. But it has really deep windowsills which I love.
Hello Sue, You are spot on. We had to put the kings down and place our money on them. First person had to play their lowest red and round it went. Fast and furious was the pace so it paid to be organised - thank goodness there was a lovely village elder playing for the first time, too. She struggled a little with the concept, so it gave me a little more time to think.
DeleteWhen we bought this place we were living in my dream cottage. This place was my husband's dream but he bribed me to come here with a promise that I could have my dream kitchen otherwise I would still have been perfectly happily pottering in my much smaller cottage kitchen.
You are certainly going through the mill with this move. I do hope that all the difficulties are smoothed away and things can proceed for you. I know what you mean about deep windowsills. Our son's cottage has them, one in particular is really deep, it just invites you to curl up in there with a good book.
Do you discuss village business while playing cards? Your house is called Parsonage Cottage...not the actual Parsonage I presume? The village must have been quite big at some point.
ReplyDeleteHello Linda, We simply get together and have a good natter, though that wins us frowns from the more serious players. I'll do a little post about the village sometime to the best of my knowledge it has always been small but families were much larger in times gone by so the population was larger.
DeleteParsonage Cottage was just a name I picked out for blogging purposes after my original blog (which had run for almost five years) was scraped so lots of my original and family posts are dotted about the internet, presented as belonging to someone else... So apologies, Parsonage Cottage and The Old Parsonage are fictitious. The main house is an old village farmhouse and our building is a very long stable/cow/cart shed which had been partly converted. We stripped it back to four walls and began again. Madness, but then we were more than a decade younger than we are now!
I love that sign, sound line an idilic place to live. Let you into a little secret. I used to work for the village baclsmith before I let school, alwayssay him as my Mentor. Even had him and his wife liveing next door to me for the last few years of their lives. Might add I used to be able to pick an Anvil up (15) but wehn my friend & I moved the anvil from his house to his sons after he died we struggled.
ReplyDeleteHello Bill, Oh, that is so exciting! I know that it must have been very hard work, but how wonderful. Did you work with horses? In later years our blacksmith stuck to making gates and smaller things but he was very much loved and highly regarded. Sad to say that after he died his relatives had a house clearance company go in and they simply threw his books, photographs of his work and papers pertaining to his work, right out into the skip. Luckily someone spotted that and got permission to rescue them and they now reside with the man who played cards with us. I am hoping that one day soon he will give us a talk on what he found.
DeleteYou must have been a very strong lad!
He did work with horses from time to time though I just did the odd jobs round the place like painting the gates he made. After he died I got some of his old stuff and have a small bench anvil. I did have a book with plans of how to do wrought iron work but seem to have lost it. I do have some of his work in my garden though, I incorporated it into our rose arch
DeleteNever heard of bonk before. That ladies mother sounds like my gran! Fever few sandwiches for breakfast if we were off colour or had a headache! lol I think she thought we still had to pay the Dr. Her herb garden was vast
ReplyDeleteHello Sol, Trust me, you are not missing much! I always try natural remedies first, wherever possible. I'm really looking forward to Joan's talk. She used to be the village schoolteacher so she loves an opportunity to do such things. One of my friends used to be her pupil and I know she struggles with calling her 'Joan', still thinks of her in the teacher role. Very endearing, on both sides!
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