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Cuddington has been used in several episodes of Midsomer Murders, usually showing this building but without the adornment of a green car and builders skip! It's usually portrayed as a village hall or where villagers are gathering.
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I thought this sunflower looked a little bit like a Victorian lady in a bonnet with the frill framing her face, rather frilly sleeves, a pointing finger and a full skirt in green... It's looking over a wall near the school and I think might be in the school garden; just beside it are purply-red edged Morning Glories and a dense hedge of what looked like French Beans. The school was built in 1862-3, according to Pevsner, but the sun was shining on the back of it so didn't take a photo of the front in shadow.
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I walked on down the quiet street and noticed this name at the beginning of a lane. When I was a child we had a cat named Tibby, which seemed to be quite a common name. Apparently it dates from the late 18th to mid 19th Century and not in fashion any longer.
I turned down this narrow dusty lane, not having been along it for about 15 years and vaguely remember
ing water at the bottom.
I spotted this real water butt - did you ever wonder why plastic water butts are round? It's a daft idea, especially for a small garden - why not use a water tank which normally goes into your roof space? It's a rectangle, fits into any corner without wasting space and the lid, reversed and with a few large holes punched into the centre boss, allows rainwater to drain into it. It'll need to have a tap put in and then stand it on 4 bricks in each corner which makes it just the right height. I bought mine about 20 years ago at a car boot - naturally - and it's still doing duty and looking not too bad for its age.
I had remembered the water at the bottom of the lane; past Tibby's Cottage, round a bend in an almost enclosed lane then found, several feet below me in a narrow water course, a shallow stream flowing out of a pipe in the side of the wall on which a bridge stood - this also held back a large pond in a garden. It was dark and shady after the bright sunlight of the village street.
Walking back to my car I spoke to an older man demolishing a tree in the hot sunshine - a hefty job for such weather. Passing the church I remembered I'd written an article about 19th Century cholera in Gibraltar, a tiny hamlet across the fields, where many people had died from drinking infected water from the well. There's a plaque on St.Nicholas' wall commemorating them.
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Back at the car it struck me how the horse chestnut trees are turning rusty now but I haven't seen many conkers about this year. Must look harder!! The village store is on the right with a group of walkers just about to go in.
I'll have to go walking here again, there's lots more to see.
1 comment:
Yes I am trying to remember my camera, with Blog posts in mind. Strange you mentioned the wooden butt, I uncovered 2 here at the weekend.
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