It’s amazing what we can find when we look at old maps. Much to my surprise, a map from 1886 showed that within a few hundred metres of my home, in Trowbridge, Wilthsire, there was once a brick and tile works. The clay for the bricks was also excavated here from the hillside. Years ago, many brickworks were small in size and the bricks manufactured for local use. Towns were growing during the great industrial age as it moved into Victorian times. The site is now covered with houses, built around the mid-1970s, and so the question for me is: Is there any trace of the former use of this site?

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Where was the Cockhill Brick and Tile Works, Trowbridge?

The land in question runs next to a road called Cockhill, named after the area it passed through, and the site is now occupied by Cloford Close. Before we take a look to see what we can find, here is a brief history of the brickworks.

The 1841 Census lists a resident on the site as a brickmaker, and Kelly’s trade guide in 1844 lists a brickmaking business here. Therefore, it’s very likely that there had been bricks made on this site for at least some years prior to 1841.

In 1855 and 1859, a Post Office directory lists Walter Newth as a brickmaker, and in 1875, his son, Arthur Newth, is now listed as a brickmaker.

When 1889 comes around, the business was run by White, Nimrod and Sons, which might well have been the last of the brickmakers. This was likely as in 1901 the site was sold by its owner, along with some other property in Trowbridge. The land was part of Earl Manvers’ estate whose ancestral home was Thorseby Hall in Nottinghamshire. Coincidentally, my mum worked for his descendants at Thorseby Hall in the 1940s. The third Earl died in 1900, so there could well have been issues over raising funds to pay death duties requiring land to be sold.

The sale particulars in 1901 listed that the site had a three-bedroom cottage divided into two dwellings, a brick kiln, and a brick drying shed. The cottage in that year was occupied by a local builder, Mr E Lindzay. He was instructed to fill in and level the ground where the more recently dug clay had been extracted.

Let’s get back to looking for evidence of the clay extraction and brickmaking. The kiln and shed have long gone, but there is geological evidence of extraction. When entering Cloford Close from Broadmead, it’s noticeable that although on a hillside, this area falls away below the level of Broadmead and Cockhill.

Turning left after entering the Close and walking a hundred metres or so, a bank of earth comes into view. The hillside has been cut into, and anyone not knowing the history of this site will probably never question why. Climbing the steps that shoutcut back towards Broadmead, I can look back at the old clay pit and see the noticeable drop in the level that the land would have originally been. You can see this in the photograph below. Although it’s often difficult to judge heights in photographs, it is a significant drop and would have produced plenty of bricks.

Mr Lindzay and probably the builders of more recent times must have done a good job in filling in, as I have not heard of any problems with subsidence.

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What about Ivy Cottages? They were derelict for many years and have been renovated fairly recently and now occupied. The property, now back to a single dwelling, looks very much like it did when it was part of the brickworks; the modern replacement windows have been made to the same shape as the original wooden ones. I wonder if those bricks were made on this site?

I like to discover stories like this, especially when they are on my own doorstep. If you know of anything similar, perhaps where you live, please let me know in the comments.

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GB Racers Board Game - Review

In this digital age, it might surprise some that many people still prefer to play board games rather than video games. Whilst video games dominate the games market they do have their drawbacks. One of those drawbacks is having our eyes glued to a screen. It’s not good for them! Another reason is that they tend to be played either alone or online with people we never meet.

It might surprise you that the board games market in 2024 was worth $12.2 billion and is expected to grow to $20.6 billion in 2034. The increase is expected because more of us are increasingly getting tired of being on electronic devices and long for more physical things to do. In addition, we realise that we need to spend more time with others in person.

When I was younger there was no shortage of new board games coming onto the market, especially in the run up to Christmas. In recent times people have had to rely on the traditional board games such as Monopoly, Scrabble and Cluedo and let’s not to forget, snakes and ladders, Ludo and other age-old games. Chess, one of the oldest games on earth, is still played around the world by millions.

One of my friends, Anthony Balecke, loves to invent games. He has worked on many, but his pride lies in a motor-racing game which is in full production. It is based on F1 and is called GB Racers. The name of the game is from the Golden Ball a multi-sided die (plural is dice) that is used in addition to the usual pair of six-sided dice required in play.

If you want to practice this game on your own - you can. It is designed for one to six players. Twelve cars race around the track and a championship is set up for up to six races. The races are quick and last from ten to twenty minutes, depending on the experience of the players. The more you play the faster you get.

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The game is designed so that everyone has an equal chance of winning and, unlike that soul-destroying ending in Monopoly, you can reverse your fortunes late on in the game. Anthony designed the game so that at no point do players feel rejected and are just waiting for the end to come. His brand is Appleton Games and the philosophy behind the brand is that throughout play, during a game he has designed, anyone can win.

If you want to take a look at the game, and it is beautifully packaged and produced to a high standard, here is the link to the website: GB Racers. There is currently a price reduction for you and free delivery with the code FREEDEL10.

For full disclosure, I do not receive any payment, or commission in any way if you purchase GB Racers. Anthony did present me with a free game for my grandson which we play together.

If any businesses wish to stock the game, please get in touch with Anthony at Appleton Games using the contact form.

Last year I reviewed the Dingbats Wildlife Collection A5+ Notebook. You can read that review here.

I purchased this Earth Collection notebook a couple of months ago and have just got around to the point of needing it. I like the A5+ size as it gives a little extra width to the pages. The size is 15.5 x 21.5cm (6.1 x 8.5in).

The paper, like the Wildlife Collection, is excellent. It is ideal for all pen types which is good for me because I use fountain pens and don’t want feathering or bleed-through. The paper lets me write smoothly and without causing any issues with my fountain pens. The notebook is 100% recyclable with a degradeable faux leather cover. There is a choice of colours and animal themes in the following sizes: A5+ A4+ A6 and A6+, subject to stock availability, in the colour of your choice.

The paper is cream coloured and is acid free. I chose the dot grid paper, but you can select lined, grid or plain pages. All the paper is made from sustainable sources and has the FSC approval.

Dingbats are an eco-conscious company and dontate 2% of all UK sales to the World Wildlife Fund. The books are Vegan and this notebook has some differences to the Wildlife Collection, the first Dingbats Notebook that I bought. The notebooks are produced in Turkey, a nice change from China.

Like the Wildlife Collection, the Earth Collection has an expandable pocket inside the back cover and an elastic pen loop. It does however have two ribbon bookmarks rather than one. All the notebooks are stitched and truly open flat. In the Wildlife Collection the pages are perforated so they could be removed, but in this notebook there are no perforations. Both have an elastic closure.

A few other differences concern the pages. In the Earth Collection they are numbered from page one after the “how to” page, a Tab Key, Colour Key/Dingbat Key and three index pages. These are all very useful for journalling, somewhat similar to Bullet Journalling, though it doesn’t have to be used specifically for this. Pages one to four are faintly marked out for anyone wishing to create a “Future Log”, something done in the Bullet Journal Method1.

In the “how to” section Dingbats explain a method similar to Bullet Journalling and have suggested some ways to organise this notebook if you were going to use it to journal. It’s very helpful and would work. Each page has a very faint semicircle, marked along the outer edge, where you can use colours to help you find things, according to the colour key you have assigned.

For clarity, I purchased this notebook from Dingbats and have no connection with them. This review is entirely independent. Here is the Dingbats Notebooks website

I really enjoy using Dingbats Notebooks and look forward to filling this new one. The quality is superb and the ethos of the company is to be highly commended.

Let me know if you use Dingbats Notebooks, or your experience with any other brand.

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Fujifilm FinePix A400 Camera Test

It’s over seven years since Dad died. Mum, coming up to 95, is doing well and recently went through some of Dad’s old things. She gave me his digital camera, a Fujifilm FinePix A400 pocket camera. It’s small in size and easily slips into a pocket.

This camera must have been purchased around 2007 and so, by modern standards, is outdone in the amount of pixels it uses. This one is 4.1mp, whereas the modern replacements are around 12mp. That said, it should produce reasonable photos as long as they are not enlarged beyond a 12”x 8” print. Smaller sizes will be sharper.

I have decided to put the camera through its paces and see how it holds up in 2026. One thing I like is that it takes standard AA batteries, which means there is no need to buy an additional spare battery, as many cameras require. One issue today is that the camera uses an XD picture card to store the photos. These are no longer available, although plenty of used ones are for sale on eBay. They are charging as much as a used A400 would cost. Anyway, I have a card with it, which is fine for this test.

The first day I went to Bradford-on-Avon, as it’s very picturesque, especially in the lovely April sunshine. When I got home, I realised that I had the resolution set to normal rather than fine. You can see the results below.

Please click on the photos to enlarge, especially the ones in the galleries.

Bradford-on-Avon Photos

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The next day, the sun is shining, which, when it’s a bank holiday in England, is unusual. Taking advantage of the sunshine, I went into town, Trowbridge, and took a few more shots with the higher resolution.

Trowbridge Photos

It will be interesting to see how the camera performs in different lighting situations. It makes a change to have a camera in my hand rather than my iPhone. Of course, my iPhone can produce higher resolution photos, but the Fujifilm does have 3x optical zoom, which the iPhone lacks. Photos are easily imported into my MacBook using the cable or a card adapter. I prefer the cable as removing the card means the clock and date need to be reset, as they are under the battery cover.

I am sure that during the coming weeks I will use the camera in addition to my iPhone, and I will post some more photos for you.

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“Where there is a path, there is history.”

These are the opening words of the book, ‘The Postal Paths’ by Alan Cleaver. I have just completed reading this book and I would like to share with you my thoughts.

Alan is a journalist and author living in Whitehaven, Cumbria in the far northwest of England and on the coast close to the beautiful Lake District National Park. He’s a man who loves walking and a chance remark by a farmer about a postman’s path set him on a journey to find out more. How many postman’s paths were there in the United Kingdom. What history would they reveal? Alan spent several years researching and tracing the routes of those posties who trudged miles a day across rural landscapes in all sorts of weather.

This book has been on my wish list and has recently been available in paperback. I happened to comment on a post on X that the book was on my wish list shortly before the paperback was launched. A follower and subscriber here on Substack, Mike Lambert, who lives in the USA, kindly purchased a copy online and had it delivered to me.

I must say, as a lover of history and indeed the history of the Post Office and Royal Mail here in the UK that I found the book fascinating. Alan has done much research and spent time meeting the descendants of those postmen and postwomen who trudged the fields, dales and hills on their post round. Country walking routes were replaced first with bicyles, where practical, and then with red post vans quite some time ago. As a result, there are few posties who once had a rural walking route still alive.

It’s great to read the stories of postmen who created these paths by taking shortcuts across fields and moorland to reach an isolated house or farm and deliver their mail six days a week. Many routes were about 20 miles long and had to be trod whether there was rain, hail or snow. Those postal workers took pride in their work and became an essential part of the rural community.

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They brought not only the mail, but would deliver newspapers, medicine, local gossip and more. The stories are heartwarming. The posties dedication - inspiring.

If you like history with the human connection and a literary tour described by Alan as he discovered the postal paths and walked them, then this book is for you.

You can follow Alan Cleaver on X or Bluesky

Thank you for reading this story. If you haven’t subscribed yet, please use the subscribe button below. It’s always free to read all of my stories, with a paid option for anyone who wishes to help support what I do. Or you can use this Buy Me a Coffee link. Please feel free to leave a comment.

I hope your new season had got off to a good start. Each month during 2026 I will add a month review story. Hopefully, you will have read the stories, but sometimes some readers may have missed the emails if they rely on reading them in their inbox. Linking back to previous articles helps with search engine optimisation, so that Google and others are more likely to present them as search results.

Here we go!

March 8th

March 11th

March 15th

March 22nd

March 29th

Thank you for reading my articles, it is really appreciated. A big thank you too, to everyone who is a subscriber and receives them in the email inbox or on the Substack app.

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I always enjoy your comments which you can leave on the individual articles. if you would like to get in touch then, please use the Message button and it will open up your email.

Best wishes for a happy April.

Until next time - bye for now.

Roland

My Visit to Shoemakers Museum

This week I took a trip to Clarks Village, a retail outlet in the village of Street, Somerset. Since my last visit, they have opened Shoemakers Museum, and it was too good an opportunity to miss.

Opened last year (2025), it has taken two years to complete. The museum is alongside the entrance to the Clarks Village when you enter from the main car parks.

Having visited the shops and had lunch at The Cornish Bakery, Mrs M and I decided we had time to visit the museum. We are delighted that we did. The museum is well laid out and tells the story of Clarks from 1825.

Cyrus and James Clark started out as producers of sheepskin rugs. This area of Somerset is still well known for sheepskin products, although in recent years the number of producers has greatly decreased. The Clarks had an idea to use the offcuts from their sheepskin rugs to create footwear. In 1842, the first Clarks shoes were called Brown Petersburghs and were sheepskin slippers. They became popular, and the company soon reached sales of a thousand pairs per month.

The museum is laid out over two levels, and there is also a cafe and a fossil museum. The story boards and videos give you time to digest the story and see how Clarks grew to become a worldwide success. Shoes in Street and eventually a few nearby towns were exported far and wide.

When you enter the reception there is a small shop where you can start or end your tour, we chose the latter option. We worked our way around the museum in chronological order to learn how this Quaker family grew their business to the size that it became. I will give you details of the cost at the end of this story.

The above photo shows how Clarks have had a social conscience and have people in their time of need. Click on the photo to enlarge it.

It’s interesting that Quakers were banned from attending university until 1871. It shows that you don’t need to go to university to be successful. Many of the large and well known businesses have been started by Quakers during this time period, perhaps none of which would have been had the owners attended university. Maybe, there’s a lesson to be learned today.

Clarks were very keen on education and young apprentices, who were after all in today’s terms school-age children were sent to school. Two children would be employed for one job. They would take it in turns, one to be at school while the other was at the factory.

There are stories about some who worked in the factory. Below is Alf White, born in 1873, who started work for Clarks at just age 10 as an outworker. The board tells us that he completed his apprenticeship at age 16 and worked for Clarks until he retired. Not too many people these days work for one company all of their working life.

After looking at the story and artefacts on the lower floor we head into the fossil museum. Alfred Gillett was a cousin of the founders of Clarks. Born in 1814, Alfred loved to collect and research fossils. Street is famous for fossils and Alfred built up a large collection. He also collected Clarks objects and the Alfred Gillett trust manages over 100,000 objects in their collection.

For those with children there are many features designed for them to explore and enjoy. That is true inside the fossil museum too. When en route to the fossils it seems that you have to pass through the toilets! The toilets are off the hallway but with doors open it looks like you’re actually in them before you go through the door to the fossil collection.

We now make our way up to the next level using the lift in the main museum where we started our tour.

Up here is a reminder of what Clarks was like in more recent years. An area is set aside as a shop and children can dress up with the clothes provided to becomes sales assistants. It will great fun to measure their parents or siblings feet using the well recognised Clarks foot measure. The cash register in the far corner also works! Ting!

You will find many of the old advertisements in picture and video format. Maybe you are old enough to remember some of them. A bank of shoes is also on one wall where you can check to see if you wore any of those shoes in the past.

We completed our tour and had a look around the shop, which has a selection of gifts and books to purchase as a memento of your visit.

There is a cafe for visitors to enjoy, but having eaten not belong we started our tour we didn’t take advantage this time.

How much does it cost to visit Shoemakers Museum?

The cost for an adult is £12, although if you book online at least 24 hours ahead it reduces to £10. The ticket is treated as an annual pass and on two visits you can ask for a free car parking ticket from reception. Under fives and essential carers are free, and children from £5 online with a discount for a family pass. For details click this link for Shoemakers Museum Booking Page.

Here too is the link for more information on the main website.

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If you have any interest in shoes, industrial or social history, plus fossils then I can recommend a visit to Shoemakers Museum.

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I am in the process of reading Roland Allen’s book, “The Notebook — A History of Thinking on Paper” for the second time (yes, it is that good!). It’s just over a year since I read it the first time, and as soon as I completed it, I knew that I would read it again to spend more time appreciating the value of notebooks in both past and current lives.

There is much to tell, but I will leave you to read the book for yourself. However, what comes from the book is the value of writing down our thoughts and other information in a notebook, even in this digital age. Somehow, I doubt that people like Leonardo da Vinci would have been so successful or well-known today had he been able to use digital notes instead of paper.

A word that stood out to me in Roland’s book (there is another Roland) is zibaldone. In the 14th century, paper was becoming more available and affordable, and the Florentines started to record business transactions on paper along with the start of double-entry bookkeeping. The business owners expanded this to include other records, and soon personal notebooks came into use.

The zibaldone was born. This notebook in Italian means a ‘heap of things’ or ‘hodgepodge’. The plural for zibaldone is zibladoni to avoid any confusion. Many people started to write in their own zibaldone. They would keep personal financial records, write down quotations from books, recipes, use it like a diary, draw pictures, write down ideas, and much more. In other words, a ‘heap of things’, quite chaotic, not organised, and adding anything they chose to until the book was filled.

Today, we might be tempted to call a zibladone a commonplace notebook. Whilst that might seem logical, be wary of the ire of those who disagree. A commonplace book, as we know them, tends to be more organised and kept for more specific things, even though the subjects might be quite wide in topic. Commonplace books tend to be indexed to make finding the information more easily when required.

The use of zibaldone, and there are many ancient survivors to see today, shows the value of recording things in a notebook. The fact that today we can read the writings and drawings of people who died centuries ago is amazing. In that, I include Leonardo da Vinci, who left behind an amazing collection of notebooks that others benefited from, and even now we can do so.

I highly recommend reading Roland Allen’s book and learning the fascinating history of notebooks. We can all learn from those writers who kept a zibaldone and get back to writing on paper and recording our thoughts in notebooks.

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Do we take where we live for granted?

It’s possible that we all can take for granted where we live. Some of my readers may well live in places where tourists from around the world come to visit, and yet don’t see the same beauty or find places as interesting as they do.

Is there a name for this phenomenon? I don’t know, but it certainly is a condition we can be prone to. When I started Roland’s Travels, I started digging into history on my doorstep, and it opened up a whole new perspective on where I live. There is so much history to uncover without going many miles. There are also views hidden away from those who choose to drive and stick to the roads. Walking opens up things to see and discover, and strangely enough, even in towns along main thoroughfares. By properly looking around as I walk, rather than concentrating on getting from A to B, I have discovered many things that open up more opportunities to learn and research for stories here on Substack.

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Here’s a recent example.

Whilst visiting family in Chesterfield, I spotted a plaque on a wall which, as I approached it, looked interesting as it formed an old entrance. See the photos below. The sign told me that a hole in the wall was where chains were dragged across the road to stop traffic whilst trains crossed between the gas works and brewery - both long gone along with the train tracks. I showed my son-in-law, Craig, a lifelong Chesterfield resident. Whilst he recognised the entrance, he had no knowledge of what this was, and I am sure thousands of other locals don’t know either, even though thousands of vehicles pass it each day.

A check on Rail Map Online shows where the tracks used to cross and spread out into this former industrial area of Chesterfield. Of course, this opens up an opportunity for further discoveries if time permits! Chesterfield was once home to many industries, glass, pottery, engineering, and more due to the availability of coal, clay, and good transport links, first the canal, and then the railway.

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There are many relics of former industries and other human activities that can easily go unnoticed unless we train our eyes to look for the unusual. There are also many things that we might call ‘usual things’ that we miss, simply taken for granted because we live in an area. We might use the term, ‘hidden in plain sight’ to describe them.

Next time you take a walk, look around, up and down, and see what you can spot. Many shops have facades hiding once-beautiful houses that when we look up, we see that there is more to the building than the shopfront. Trowbridge town centre (my hometown) is full of such buildings, thankfully not destroyed in the 1960s rebuilding schemes that took place across the country.

Let me know in the comments (or message) if you spot or have spotted anything in your town that you never knew about until you took the time to look or research.

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Last year, I discovered The Handwritten Letter Appreciation Society. Many of us are coming to realise that a handwritten letter carries far more value than an email or other electronic message. The act of taking the time to handwrite and post a letter carries over to the recipient a certain amount of care and thoughtfulness that an email doesn’t.

The Handwritten Letter Appreciation Society is promoting the value of letter writing in this electronic, always-connected world. It’s refreshing to be off-line once in a while, and reconnect with friends like we used to in the not-so-distant-past.

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I became member 1860 last April and the current live count on the website is now over 2000 and steadily rising. The Society has a strong social media following on X (Twitter), Instagram, Facebook and Bluesky. A popular feature on the social media channels is #PostBoxSaturday when photos of postboxes from around the country, and indeed the world, are shared using this hashtag. You get to see some very interesting photos and learn some postal history.

Here’s the postbox that started in all, and is in a beautiful position in Swanage, Dorset.

The Society’s website has six bullet points that tells what the purpose of why it was established.

• To inspire people to write handwritten letters to each other.

• To unite letter writers in a bid to boldly cling on to the art of writing letters.

• To put the fun and meaning back into writing letters.

• To value the beauty of an individual’s handwriting.

• To encourage anyone and everyone to put pen to paper and send a letter to someone special.

• To gather together everything to do with handwritten letters in one place.

If you would like to find out more about The Handwritten Letter Appreciation Society, please visit the website, and if you use any of the social media channels follow the account. You can find me on X and Bluesky.

It’s February 24th and at last — a day without rain and the sky is blue!

For quite a while I have wanted to explore the village of Bathford, and as its name suggests, it is close to the city of Bath. Today is ideal, although the early afternoon sun is still quite low in the sky, which makes taking photos a little more difficult. Many of the shots require me to have the sun behind me, otherwise the glare will ruin the outcome.

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Bathford - early origins

This hillside village was known as Forde until the seventeenth century. At the foot of the hill, which rises steeply in the direction of Bradford on Avon, flows the River Avon, and hence would have needed to be forded to make progress to Bath, giving the village its newer name, Bathford. It has a long history, and around 940 C.E., King Edmund gave Forde to the monastery at Bath.

Like many English villages, Bathford has lost many of its public houses and shops. Today, it is served by one pub, the Crown Inn. The locals have formed a community co-op shop and café, housed in a former pub, The New Inn, of which the earliest mention was in 1733. The shop opened in 1994.

I park my car in a convenient spot along Church Street. This is a very old part of Bathford and typical of many villages that spring up around the church. Taking note of the fine old stone cottages along the road back towards the church, I will tell you about some of them later. At the start of the lane, the old school near the church can’t be seen as it’s covered in scaffolding and plastic sheets. That’s one photo I can’t take!

Bathford and the Tyndale Family

St Swithun’s Church is set on higher ground overlooking the school and the former stable block, converted to a house, Bathford House. This conversion has been renamed Bathford House. The house was destroyed by fire in 1913. The original house was a rectory occupied in 1686 by John Tyndale, a relative of the martyr William Tyndale (d. 1536), who was famous for being executed for translating the Bible into English. The Tyndale family occupied Bathford House until 1779. It was leased to them from the dean and chapter of Bristol. The Tyndale family went on to occupy other properties in Bathford for many years.

St Swithun’s Church

There is something I want to see in the churchyard at St Swithun’s. Entering through the lych gate, there is a gentleman taking advantage of the dry weather and sunshine. He’s working hard pushing the petrol-powered mower to give the grass its first cut of the year. Even with a petrol mower, it’s tough going with the graveyard being on a hillside.

With a rough idea of what I am looking for, I make my way up the hillside, heading left from the lych gate and to the east side of the church. Here I find what I am looking for. There are two tombs. They are old, and the inscriptions in the stone have worn away with countless times it has rained on them. Thankfully, in recent years, metal signs have been added to tell visitors who lie in these tombs.

In one of the tombs are the remains of Ann Nelson, the younger sister of Admiral Lord Nelson. She died on 15th November 1783 at the tender age of 23. Nelson was said to be deeply affected by her death. Next to Ann is her aunt, by marriage, Elizabeth Matcham, died April 8th April 1803, aged 74 years. See the photos below. Click on an image for the full-size view.

There are many old graves in the churchyard. With many of them grand affairs, it shows that many wealthy persons lived in Bathford during the past centuries. St Swithun’s church is old, but, like many churches, has been adapted and extended over the years, especially during the early 19th century. In 1870, the church was almost completely rebuilt, along with a new tower finished in 1880.

Leaving the church, I walk back towards where I parked my car outside the Bathford Parish Hall. Before I reach the car, I make a detour into Pump Lane. The name gives a clue. Attached to the wall of Sycamore House, once the home of the Dyson family and the place where the bagless vacuum cleaner was invented, there is the old village pump.

Just next to Pump Lane is Manor Drive leading to Bathford Manor House, which was built in the 1770s for the Tyndale’s after they surrendered their lease on Rectory House. Today, it’s private apartments, so I don’t walk along the driveway. Interestingly, in 1798, the house was acquired by Eleazer Pickwick, the family name that gave Charles Dickens’s inspiration for the title of his novel, Pickwick Papers, following a visit to Bath that he made. The Pickwicks were successful in business and ran a coach company.

Some of the finer houses along Church Street are difficult to photograph due to the high Bath Stone walls. One of which is Eagle House, an 18th-century mansion acquired in 1753 by James Ferry, a silk mercer. Between the years 1942-1983, the house was owned by Somerset County Council and was used for delinquent girls and then an approved home/school for younger boys.

The original post office, as has its replacement, has long gone, but there have been two over the years in Church Street, along with a provisions shop just before the end of the road near where it meets Bathford Hill.

I turn left down the steep hill to see the Blind House, a lock-up from 1837 that at one time served as a mortuary until 1924. This blind house replaced one built in 1820. It contains two cells. On the right going down the hill is the entrance to Portals, a papermill, described as ‘global experts in security papers’.

The Portals website tells us that there has been a mill on this site for centuries, and one was recorded in the Domesday Book (1086). The website tells us that:

Records show that paper was first produced on the site in 1809, and focus was mainly on the production of lightweight papers. Previously, the factory had produced corn, cloth, leather goods, flour, and even the famous Bath Oliver Biscuits.

Over the centuries, the mill was managed by a number of different owners before becoming part of the Portals Group in 1972. In 1973, the mill was converted to produce solely cylinder mould security papers, and to this day, it continues to be the only dedicated cylinder mould wood pulp security paper mill in the world.

It really is a long history of industrial occupation.

The road levels out on the valley floor, and next to Portals is the rugby club whose pitch still shows evidence of flooding. It lies next to the By Brook, which flows into the River Avon just a few yards further towards Bath. The last building at the bottom of the hill is the Crown Inn.

This pub was a traditional seventeenth-century building which was refronted in the early part of the twentieth century. When the road from Bath to London was turnpiked (tolled) in the early 1700s, the meetings of the Turnpike Trust were held here. I hope the trust members didn’t allow the beer to cloud their judgement!

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Before I head back up the hill, I take time to see the old bridge over which the main road crosses and goes unnoticed by thousands of drivers. The bridge crosses the By Brook and was built in 1665 and can still cope with today’s heavy traffic. The ford was beside it and was still used up to the mid-1900s. Just beyond it is the railway bridge, one of Brunel’s for the Great Western Railway as it runs from Bristol to London via Bath.

It’s now time to head back up Bathford Hill to see the community shop, but before I pass a cottage clearly proud of its past with a stone sign showing that it was once a bakery.

I walk into the drive opposite Church Street to see a house, Titan Barrow built in 1748. The house has been altered over the following centuries but still retains much of its original grandeur. The house provides beautiful views over the valley in which the River Avon flows towards Bath. In 1953, it was acquired by the Whitehaven Trust and is a Christian Science House.

The Bathford community shop is now clearly in view. The shop is a local initiative and formed as a cooperative for the benefit of the village. It shows what can be done when people come together for the benefit of their community.

Other shops too were on the junction with Ashley Road, leading off to the left, further past the community shop. I decide to turn into Dovers Park, on my right, a more recent housing development, which is just off the start of the High Street.

The High Street is a later edition to the village, having been created in 1759. Taking this route should provide me with an opportunity to take a photograph of Tyndale’s Bathford Manor House. Gratefully, a gap in the hedgerow allows me to take my photo.

There is so much more to tell about Bathford and every time I do research, it can open up another opportunity for a story. I decide it’s time to head back to my car and think about what to write, and also gives me some ideas for future stories. I am writing this a few days later, reflecting on what I have seen and discovered. It’s amazing how much history this small village contains.

Thank you for reading this story. If you haven’t subscribed yet, please use the subscribe button below. It’s always free to read all of my stories, with a paid option for anyone who wishes to help support what I do. Or you can use this Buy Me a Coffee link. Please feel free to leave a comment.

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Another month has gone by — admittedly it’s a shorter one with its twenty-eight days.

Here is a list of the stories that I published here during February 2026.

February 2nd Overheard in the Hotel Lounge: “I Wonder What the Temperature Is in Philadelphia?”

February 4th Discovering the Bullet Journal: A Simple, No-Frills Guide to Getting Organised

February 15th Poll (Now closed): Which is your favourite period of British history?

February 18th My Current Notebook Setup: Third Year of Analogue Living in 2026

February 20th A Poem About Me!

February 22nd The Rise of the British Beach Hut: How a Humble Wooden Shed Became a £500,000 Status Symbol

February 25th Why Filofax Is Making a Comeback?

I hope you have enjoyed reading these stories. There are more to come in March, so if you’re reading this and are not yet a subscriber, please do consider clicking the button below. It’s 100% free! You will receive my latest stories directly to your inbox or you can choose to read them in the free Substack app.

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The Filofax Yuppies!

Back in the 1980s, it was a common sight for the young, upwardly mobile (aka Yuppies) to be carrying a Filofax. It became a sign of being well-organised and successful. That look was replaced by the mobile phone, even though at first they were the size of a brick.

However, the Filofax (other brands are available) was not new to the 1980s. It had been around for decades and used by many in all sorts of occupations. Where did the Filofax get its start?

Ring binders, as we know them, were invented in 1886 by the German Friedrich Sonnecken. He also invented the necessary hole punch to make the system work. However, his invention and a couple of other binder systems before his were all about the storage of documents or the ability to change pages in them, reducing the need to print a complete new book or manual.

It was in 1910 when a Canadian engineer, J. C. Parker, invented a loose-leaf system for adding a diary, notepaper, addresses, and so forth. Now, people could keep important information in one place, with the ability to add or remove pages as their needs changed. He founded the company Lefax and sold what we now call ‘personal organisers’.

The History of Filofax

Over in England, Lefax came to the attention of businessmen, Colonel Disney, William Rounce, and Posseen Hill. They founded the company Norman and Hill Ltd. on 6th December 1921. A number of years later, the company was renamed Filofax and produced its first personal organiser in 1930. The name Filofax comes from the term File of Facts.

Filofax bought Lefax in October 1992 and phased out the name Lefax by the late 1990s. At the time of purchase, Filofax had outgrown Lefax and was selling ten times more than its American rivals.

The Filofax organiser proved to be worth more than its weight in gold when, during WW2 in 1941, Filofax’s London office was destroyed. The secretary, Grace Scurr, made use of her Filofax. Every night she took it home, and it contained key information about customers and suppliers. That information saved the company at this dreadful time and allowed it to continue to operate.

With the advent of electronic organisers, and eventually the smartphone, perhaps one would have thought that a paper-based system like Filofax would have been killed off. Today, though, there is a resurgence of users for the Filofax, including me. Technology has its place, but it has its own issues. Many are increasingly tired of being tied to technology that is demanding of their time as it contains so many distractions. We all know that just a glance at a smartphone can lead to clicking on apps that we never intended to view.

A paper organiser, like a Filofax, does not cause such distraction. It also works without batteries and never needs an operating system update or replacing because the manufacturer no longer gives support.

I love to use my Finsbury Filofax, which is personal size. A personal-size organiser has pages which are 95mm x 171mm (approx 3.75 x 6.75 inches). It’s probably the size that comes to mind when people think of Filofax. You can make three pages from an A4 sheet of paper.

Filofaxes are available in a number of sizes from the tiny Mini and slightly larger, Pocket, through to A4. Many options of pre-printed pages to insert into them can be purchased, such as diaries, to-do lists, finance planners, maps, and more. Of course, you can also make your own pages, and a search online will point you to those who produce templates that you can use. A website I visit a lot is Philophaxy1, where there is a lot of information on how to use your organiser.

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In my Filofax, I have a diary which is a week to a page, a To-Do section, a section which contains blank pages where I write any notes, a section where I record or prepare for any meetings, next come lists which are anything that needs to be listed excluding to-do items. Finally, I keep some key contacts, just in case I were to lose my phone. These are all separated by divider cards.

The beauty of a personal organiser is that you make it personal to you. It is a file of facts and has the ability of helping you to plan your time. YouTube has many videos made by those who use them and they will give you some ideas if you’re new or want to get back into using a Filofax. Everyone has different needs. For example, some will require a diary with a page for each day, as they would have more appointments to track than I do. A larger size, A5 or A4, might be better for the busy office manager, executive, or those running their own business.

There are other brands of personal organisers. Some are made with cheap plastic covers, others very expensive leather. Keep in mind that cheap rings will fall apart. Please note that even with quality rings you should always open your rings using the two levers at the top and bottom of the ring mechanism. Don’t be tempted to open the mechanism by pulling the rings, as this can strain them preventing them from closing tightly. Filofax2 has a range from under £25 to over £100. Of course, the price is dictated by size and the cover material. A leather one should last you many years.

Do you use a personal organiser? Let me know about it in the comments. Please feel free to share any tips or tricks.

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Whilst not entirely unique to the UK, the beach hut is very much part of the British coastal scene. Rows of huts, often brightly coloured, sit close to the rolling waves of the sea. In many places, the beach hut is only a few steps from the sea when the tide is in.

The History of the Beach Hut

How did the humble beach hut come to be? After all, these are only wooden sheds in a desirable location.

It all started with the bathing machines—a small wooden shed on wheels. Originating in the 1730s, the bathing machine was a place where bathers could change into their swimming costumes. The machines were wheeled up to the sea to allow the bathers to exit for their swim and enter from the sea to dry off and change back into their daily clothes.

The earliest use of the bathing machine was likely used by persons who would swim nude. The machine would allow them to get further into the sea and then quickly hide their body under the water, whilst the bathing machine hid them from the view of those on the beach. Beaches were segregated until 1901, and the decline of the bathing machine began.

With the coming of the Edwardian era, attitudes had changed, and many would now change on the beach under a coat or similar to protect their modesty. Many people today use a towel. The bathing machines fell out of use. Seizing the opportunity to recycle the machines, some would remove the hut from the frame and make use of it, creating what we know today as a beach hut. Some machines hung on as stationary changing rooms, but by the 1920s, they were almost extinct.

How many beach huts are there in Britain?

Today in Britain, there are around 20,000 beach huts along the coastline. They have become very popular for people to rent or buy. As a result, the cost of beach huts can often be more than the cost of a house in many areas. The record price for a beach hut was in Mudeford Sandbank, Christchurch, Dorset, reaching an eye-watering £500,000 — yes, you read that right, half a million pounds for a shed! The average cost in 2025 for a beach hut was £39,382. The lowest prices start from £5,000, but many are in the £75,000 - £100,000 price range. See the link below for a website selling and renting beach huts1.

To rent a beach hut, you can expect to pay from £30 to over £100 per day. They are in demand, so be prepared to book early. Some local councils own beach huts, and you would rent directly from them. Private owners can also rent out their huts when they are not personally using them.

Owners of beach huts have to pay business rates as the huts are not treated as domestic dwellings. Most do not have an electricity or water supply, and overnight stays are generally not permitted. This can add up to a few hundred pounds per year to over one thousand pounds. It gets all very expensive for the pleasure of owning a wooden shed! Having said that, there is no shortage of would-be beach hut owners, and the popularity seems as high as ever, especially since the Covid lockdown era.

I must admit that when I walk past a beach hut I often have a tinge of envy of those who are able to sit inside their shed with the doors wide open and enjoy the sea view whilst enjoying a cup of tea. There’s often room to have deck chairs in front of a beach hut and read a book whilst doing the odd bit of people-watching. The beach hut provides a place of respite from the rain, or on that rarest of British occasions, a chance to take cover from the sun.

Do you own a beach hut or would you like to? Have you rented one? Please let me know in the comments.

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Thank you for reading this story. If you haven’t subscribed yet, please use the subscribe button below. It’s always free to read all of my stories, with a paid option for anyone who wishes to help support what I do. Or you can use this Buy Me a Coffee link. Please feel free to leave a comment.

Back in January, I left a comment on a Substack note posted by Lis McDermott. Lis had mentioned many names in a poem and my not-so-common name was not mentioned.

Quite by surprise, Lis wrote a poem about me!

Here it is.

Let me introduce to a business acquaintance, Roland.
We’re both here on Substack, together bound
writing in our very different styles; he with pen in hand
extolling the histories of villages and towns oft-renowned,

Waxing lyrical about the joys of writing with an ink pen,
Enjoying luxury and obviously with the patience of a saint,
A man of great restraint among thoroughly modern men,
who, at the thought of ditching their digital gadgets would faint

Travelling around this green and pleasant land
for sites of interest - hidden gems, Roland’s searches
lead to follies, towers, houses both small and grand;
pubs, workshops and many beautiful local churches

For a good read, take a look
check out Roland’s Travels and Roland’s Notebook.

A big thank you to Lis. Please take a look at Lis’s Substack and do subscribe to read her work.

Visit Lis McDermott's Substack

Time marches on, and I am now in my third year of making more use of analogue tools in my life. A big part of this is in the way that I use notebooks for various tasks, and I thought today that I would bring you up to date with my current system.

As with any new methods, we learn as we go. My use of notebooks has changed over the months and years, and may well do so in the future. Sometimes, that’s because our needs change, and at other times, we see ways to improve.

My current notebook setup

In January 2025, I started Bullet Journaling and purchased a Dingbat A5+ Wildlife Collection1 notebook. It’s been a brilliant tool, and with plenty of spare pages, I have continued into 2026 in this notebook.

I keep another A5 notebook, just a cheap supermarket purchase for research notes for stories or things I am just interested in. It’s kept on my desk upright with other notebooks between bookends, always ready for action. When this book is full, I will switch to a Filofax Refillable Notebook. This has the advantage of being able to remove or add pages anywhere in it and to store them if required and continue using the notebook indefinitely. Many of the notes I write like this will end up as stories on Substack, and once used, can mostly be destroyed.

Next on my list are the passport-sized notebooks from Flame Tree Publishing2. I reviewed this notebook, and you can read the review by following the link in the footnotes. To suit my purposes, I have three on the go.

One is for Roland’s Travels, and this I make notes of the things I need to see and photograph when visiting somewhere. It’s annoying travelling to write about a place and leaving only to have forgotten to see a particular feature and photograph it. I can also make notes in this book of things I see that call for further research before I write the story.

The second one I keep is labelled ‘Words Learned’. When I come across a word that I need to check the meaning of, I record it in the notebook. If I don’t, although understanding the word at that precise moment of need, I will often forget it long-term. Writing a word down with its meaning helps me to retain it for future use.

My third notebook is titled ‘Commonplace’. This is my everyday carry, and anything that comes up I can make a note of it here. It could be anything from a phone number or an idea for a story to recording a conversation or important observation. Anything can be dumped into this book, and if appropriate, moved to another notebook or calendar later.

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On my desk is an A7 spiral-bound notebook just kept for adding tasks that I am working on at my desk. Perhaps an email requires me to pay an invoice, a quick note on the pad and I can carry on with what I am doing and that note will be acted upon when convenient.

My Filofax, Personal size, is my backup calendar. I do like to use my Apple Calendar3 and the reminders that can be set within it. But, just in case, major appointments are on paper in case of electronic issues. This organiser is also where I keep my To-do list and ideas for future stories here on Substack. A few phone numbers are kept too, just in case my phone becomes lost, as these days there are very few numbers that I have memorised. It’s worth thinking about this!

I am finding that this system of notebooks is working well. It’s an enjoyable way to reduce my use of digital tools. As I have mentioned in the past, by using pen and paper, I have found that my memory has greatly improved.

How about you? Are you using notebooks in your life? Let me know in the comments.

Thank you for reading this story. If you haven’t subscribed yet, please use the subscribe button below. It’s always free to read all of my stories, with a paid option for anyone who wishes to help support what I do. Or you can use this Buy Me a Coffee link below.

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I like to include the history of places I visit and it would be good to hear from my subscribers which periods of British history they are most interested in. It maybe, that like me, you are interested in many periods, so this is to see which is your favourite rather than define your interest in just one particular period.

Thank you for your support and I look forward to seeing the result of the vote.

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2026 is already over a month old!

Here are the posts from January.

January 4th Born from a Kitchen Blunder: The Secret History and Heavenly Taste of Bakewell Pudding

January 7th Tales from my Home Office #1

January 11th Henry Moule: The Victorian Vicar Who Invented the Modern Composting Toilet

Janaury 14th How to Manage My Inbox

January 18th Discovering Petwood Hotel: Dambusters History, Stunning Gardens, and Excellent Dining

January 22nd Hands-On with Dingbats Atopen Fineliners: Fast-Drying, Waterproof Ink That Delivers

There it is — January in a nutshell.

Thank you for reading and your support.

During 2023, I made great efforts to begin to reduce my reliance on digital tools. A search online showed me that many others too were trying methods that would help them to do the same. I noticed that journalling was becoming very popular, and a proliferation of notebooks had come onto the market to meet the need.

My research took me to online articles and YouTube videos of those who journal. It appeared that many of the popular videos were made by journalers who were very artistic. Their journals were full of illustrations, calligraphy, and other arty methods that are just not me. For me, I just want a method of having something simple and a little bit more than a diary.

I came across videos explaining a method which aroused my interest—a Bullet Journal.

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What is a Bullet Journal?

The concept of the Bullet Journal1 came to the fore when Ryder Carroll launched this method in 2013. A book, The Bullet Journal Method, was published in 2018.

The Bullet Journal is a method for recording actions, appointments, to-dos, plans, feelings, and more in a simple way. It essentially uses bullet points and as little as a few words to help organise our lives and record our thoughts. It’s flexible enough to be adapted to suit our needs. It’s not designed for those who want to write pages every day in a journal, stick in photos, and fun stickers. Keeping it simple is key and takes away the pressure some feel who are not natural writers of their thoughts and feelings.

A bullet journal can be started at any time. It doesn’t have to be regarded as a diary with a January 1^st start date. A notebook can stretch over a year. I did actually commence my Bullet Journal on January 1^st 2024, that’s because I decided to try this method only a few days earlier. My Dingbats A5+ Notebook2 is a little over halfway completed and so 2026 is rolling on in the same book and I expect it to be full around October time. If it were almost full, i.e. under a month or two space available, I would probably have started a new notebook. There are no rules on that. A notebook after completion can be labelled with the date range.

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I have included a video, by Ryder Carroll, further below, who is demonstrating the set up for you.

The first steps to take when you want to Bullet Journal include purchasing a notebook that you will enjoy using and will stand up to being used on a daily basis. If you, like me, prefer to write with a fountain pen3, ensure that the paper is fountain pen friendly.

If the notebook has pages that are numbered, the next task isn’t necessary. Number all the pages so that the book is indexable. The first two or three pages should be set aside for an index.

I created a Future log. This is a section of six boxes for six months spread over two pages. Anything major that is planned goes into the log. I don’t add anything mundane in these sections.

At the start of the month a page is set aside and each line is for one day with the date and first letter of the day listed. e.g. W1, T2, F3. You might prefer 1W, 2T, 3F. At the end of each day, a short highlight is recorded to remind me of something that happened on that day.

The next page is headed Tasks & Notes. On this page for that month any plans or notes to be remembered are added as they occur.

Next comes the daily log. The page starts with the day. January 1^st - Wednesday. Each line is a bullet line and starts with a code. I tend to start this at the end of the previous day so I can add things I need to be aware of or do and will add to it during that day.

The symbols used are as follow:

. Task (add the dot to to the centre height of your letters. Constraints here place it on the base line.
— note add any note you wish. It might be a note from a conversation, maybe you have made an order online and keeping a note to show when is useful, and so on. A note can be anything that is not a task or event.

o event/meeting

< Migrate to future log. (Turn the dot into this symbol and the same below) i.e. The task needs to be done during a future month.

> Migrate forward to the next day
<< Moved from the journal to an app. For example, you might move this to a reminder app.

* Immediate priority The asterisk can be added before the symbol at any time if a task becomes urgent.

= Write down how you’re feeling, your emotions.

When a task is completed, write over the symbol with an X. If at the end of the day anything still needs to be done, then decide what to do. Either leave it and make sure you go back over your days regularly or use the migrate symbol and deal with that accordingly. If a task needs to be done the next day, I migrate and add it to that day’s tasks. If anything no longer needs to be done, strike it out with a line. At the end of the month, look back and if there are any uncompleted tasks, make sure you deal with them.

Other pages

Pages for tracking things can be created. I have a page to record the books that I have read. A page can be started anywhere and at any time in your Bullet Journal that is suitable for you. Some journalers use fitness trackers, weight trackers, finance trackers, and business goals and results. It’s as flexible as you want it to be, but for me I want to keep it simple and not try to cram in too much. More detailed needs could be added to another notebook specifically for that purpose.

In the video below, Ryder Carroll explains the basics of setting up a Bullet Journal in the way I have described.

I have enjoyed using the Bullet Journal method and will continue using it. I still use additional to-do lists when helpful. For example: In my Bullet Journal there might be a need to go shopping. I will add that as a task, but everything required on that shopping trip will be on a separate list. The same is true of a DIY task. I recently decorated my hall, stairs and landing. That is a task listed in my Bullet Journal, but all the tools and materials required would go onto a list elsewhere. For this I use a section in my Filofax.

Do you use a Bullet Journal? Let me know in the comments how you are getting on, and please feel free to share any tips.

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Thank you for reading this story. If you haven’t subscribed yet, please use the subscribe button below. It’s always free to read all of my stories, with a paid option for anyone who wishes to help support what I do. Or you can use this Buy Me a Coffee link. Please feel free to leave a comment.

It takes all sorts to make the world go round.

We humans are fascinating creatures. When travelling, it’s a good opportunity to have conversations and learn more about those we meet. Sometimes, though, you come across those who want you to know something about them without engaging in conversation.

Here’s a little story about one such incident recently experienced whilst staying at a hotel1.

After dinner, Mrs M and I decided we would sit in the hotel lounge and enjoy a drink. For me, it was a Guinness Zero, whilst Mrs M’s chosen delight was a hot chocolate, which she assured me was ‘very good’.

In the hotel, a log fire was kept well alight in the lounge, making it a delightful place to relax. We obtained our drinks and walked into the lounge to find that a middle-aged couple had moved two high-back chairs close to the fire, facing it, and inserted a coffee table between them. The fire was completely hidden by them, taking away the atmosphere that guests love. At the time, these were the only two in the room.

We took our seat in a sofa not far from them to enjoy our drinks. They didn’t acknowledge us and began conversing with each other. She: “ I wonder what the temperature is in Philadelphia?” He starts searching on his phone for the answer. She then talks about when they visited the city. Only short sentences were spoken between them and, especially from her, loud enough to be heard. We moved on to another city in the US, and then another. They have been everywhere!

Mrs M finished her drink before me and headed off to our room. Not long afterwards, another couple came into the lounge and sat opposite me.

Having been quiet for a few minutes, the man spoke up and said, “Just confirmed the temperature in Philadelphia is ….”. And off we go! The same cities, the same story. How sad that some have to live out their lives trying to impress others.

Being a bit of a teaser, I was sorely tempted to play Top Trumps and, being sat on my own, my thoughts did turn towards creating an imaginary phone call. I resisted, but it would have gone something like this.

“Hi Peter. Thanks for the message. I thought it best to phone you about the car. I haven’t got that one yet in my collection. So, is it a Ferrari 356 GTB? 1973? What’s the mileage? Under 44,000 - not bad. £445,000 is a bit top-heavy unless it’s absolutely immaculate. So, a full respray and interior renovation. OK. I will take a look. Send me the photos first and I will pop over and look at it.”

Touché!

I wonder what they would have done? Maybe switched from US to Monte Carlo stories?

Just two persons making up part of life’s rich tapestry. I think it’s sad that some have to try to impress in this way. Have you come across a situation like this? Let me know in the comments.

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Thank you for reading this story. If you haven’t subscribed yet, please use the subscribe button below. It’s always free to read all of my stories, with a paid option for anyone who wishes to help support what I do. Or you can use this Buy Me a Coffee link.