THERE can’t be a more recognisable symbol of the British countryside than a thatched roof. Like this: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thatched_roofs_at_Selborne_-_geograph.org.uk_-_4564859.jpg There are estimated to be 60,000 thatched roofs in the UK, mainly in England (which has the most in the world), though there are a few in all the home nations. The history of thatching goes back […]
HERE’S a quiz question: Where is the centre of Great Britain? The answer is Whitendale Hanging Stones, about 13 miles from our Lancashire village, as calculated by the Ordnance Survey. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Whitendale_Hanging_Stones_-_geograph.org.uk_-_2169690.jpg The nearest habitation is the hamlet of Dunsop Bridge, four and a half miles south. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dunsop_Bridge_-_geograph.org.uk_-_4435165.jpg It is at the entrance to the spectacular […]
LAST week I went to London for the day (not because I wanted to but because I had to). I booked on the 8.01am Avanti West Coast train from Preston due to arrive at Euston at 10.12. The one-way fare was £115.50, and that was with my Old Person’s Railcard giving me 30 per cent […]
IN a previous column I wrote about Homage to PG Wodehouse, a 1973 tribute compiled by Thelma Cazalet-Keir, sister-in-law of Wodehouse’s beloved stepdaughter Leonora. Here are some more selections from this charming book. Claud Cockburn (1904-1981) was a leftie journalist who worked for the Times and contributed to the British communist newspaper the Daily Worker. But we won’t hold that against […]
I WILL be honest and say this item is just an excuse to show you some gorgeous birds. After I wrote about common pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) a couple of weeks ago, TCW contributor Derek Reynolds said he had seen a Reeves’s pheasant (Syrmaticus reevesii) near his home last year. These birds come from China and get their […]
I HAVE grown so used to the ignorant drivel spouted by lobby groups with ‘Natural’ or ‘Wild’ or ‘Green’ in the title (for example the recent ludicrous claim by 82 outfits that the countryside is ‘racist’) that it comes as a real shock when they say something sensible. Last week there was one such rare occasion […]
I’VE BEEN pleased over the last week or so to see and hear a cock pheasant in the field at the back of our house, although our labrador doesn’t share my enthusiasm. Like many male birds it is far more glamorous than the female, but this breed takes it to extremes. I particularly like his […]
NO ONE could accuse Clitheroe, our nearby market town, of being trendy, and that’s the way we like it. To prove it, just about the most popular place is a café which could be a time capsule from 50 years ago. It’s officially called Colborne House Café but everyone calls it Swales after the family […]
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