Keith Sanders the Storyman Podcast

YOU'VE BROKEN AND LOST YOUR FALSE TEETH..."HOW MANY TIMES!"

Sat, 15 Feb 2025 06:00:00 -0500

A short podcast brought on by the fact that I have had to send my false teeth away once again to be repaired.

We travel to 1962 to find out why I have to have false teeth.

We move on over the years to hear about the progress of my teeth and what they had to change over the years.

We come to the present day where my teeth are made of modern high grade metal that can cope with the vagaries of living in my mouth!!

The big question is, would a modern cricket helmet have prevented all these problems??

Thank you for listening to our Buzzsprout audio stories.
You can follow many of these with added film and photographs as videos and slide shows
on our YouTube Channel at "cracker books on youtube".

WEB SITE CHANGE: New Web site at www.crackerbooks.fr

At the same time, Cracker Books have produced 10 complete page turning
e-books on their own Site.
All the books are free to download to any device.
Have a look at our bookcase and view all the book details. http://online.flipbuilder.com/crackerbooks/

Finally for lots of further information about what we publish and why
have a look at our website at www.crackerbooks.fr

THE NAVVY BARROW STORY

Wed, 05 Feb 2025 08:00:00 -0500

This is a story about New Bolingbroke, Lincolnshire.

A new town built around 1800 and the first of a series of dreams of John Parkinson.

The town was a success despite the fact that it had no original road connections to anywhere and the architectural designs of the town were a mix of country and city.

This is a fascinating town with an amazing history that is still ongoing.

John Parkinson's third dream made him bankrupt, but he was also an amazing man to have such foresight.

The final Wonderbun story. This time the dustcart was victorious.

Mon, 01 Jul 2024 11:00:00 -0400

It was another trip to the Ford Motor Company, but it was not so funny this time.
A moments inattention..........

"WE WERE USING MORE OF THIS DRUG THAN THE HUGE LOCAL GENERAL HOSPITAL"

Thu, 12 Jan 2023 11:00:00 -0500

The title of this story in our books is "How Many Tablets," but I now prefer the title above!
This is another Goliath and Bonnie story from Lincolnshire's Northcote Heavy Horse Centre in the 1990s.
You can access Goliath's own online picture storybook from our
Book Case site at http://online.flipbuilder.com/crackerbooks/

All downloads are free and you can use any device you choose.
There are 10 books on the bookcase, try a different one too!

"GOLIATH CALLS OUT THE SKEGNESS FIRE BRIGADE"

Thu, 12 Jan 2023 11:00:00 -0500

Another Goliath and Bonnie story from Lincolnshire's Northcote Heavy Horse Centre in the 1990s.
Drama and stress on a cold wet night.

You can download Goliath's own online picture storybook from our bookcase site at:
http://online.flipbuilder.com/crackerbooks/

All downloads are free and there are 9 other books for you to look at.

HOW DID WE GET INVOLVED WITH CANADA'S "NORTH WEST PASSAGE" a story from 1986.

Sun, 08 Jan 2023 11:00:00 -0500

It came about in 1986 and we were living close to Spilsby in Lincolnshire.

Sir John Franklin, Spilsby’s most famous “son” was born there in 1786 and subsequently lost his life together with the rest of his crew and two ships, undertaking the expedition to find the “North West Passage” in 1848.

This was the most sought after route “around the top of the World” which it was hoped, could allow vessels to reach the Pacific Ocean without having to risk that long, dangerous voyage around South America and “Cape Horn”.

The actual history of these explorations are covered in many publications. Indeed the Internet’s Wikipedia has most comprehensive information.

Back in Spilsby in 1986, the Mayor and Councillors were asked by the High Commission for Canada to commemorate the two hundredth anniversary of Franklin’s birth and indeed the High Commissioner Himself wished to attend.

A VERY UNUSUAL OPTHALMOLOGIST. Its a Rum Life In France, 2021.

Sun, 08 Jan 2023 08:00:00 -0500

Back to that interview with my lady surgeon who happened to say, “well the only little problem you might have with the new lenses is that your extreme peripheral vision might be affected when driving in the dark.”

“Oh that’s ok then, I replied. “I do not normally drive after dark and anyway the last time was for my last check up with Dr,…. my Opthalmologist last week when I got home at 1.30am in the morning.”

“I.30am,” she exploded. “ Did I hear correctly, are you sure.”

“Oh yes,” I continued. “ My appointment was for 10.30 pm oh and it was Saturday evening.

When I arrived, there were 5 folk in front of me, which is normal. Then as you know that final examination before the operations is quite lengthy. I had to wait a bit before driving because of the drops in my eyes. I suppose it could have been nearer to 2am when I arrived home.”

My surgeon was most surprised to say the least and completely dumbfounded.

In fact she nearly fell off her stool!

"IF YOU TOUCH A HORSE, A DOG OR EVEN A CAT IN THE NEXT THREE MONTHS, DO NOT COME BACK HERE!"

Sun, 08 Jan 2023 08:00:00 -0500

A story from the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre in about 2005.
On a wet and windy night one of the horses managed to dislocate my right shoulder.

Unfortunately, it was the same shoulder that I had broken when falling over "that" dog only a month previously.
The story goes on as I travelled to my out patients appointment on my motor bike with the sling loose around my neck!

R.M.S. QUEEN MARY IN JEOPARDY Another Spike Jones story from Boston Grammar School in 1958.

Thu, 05 Jan 2023 12:00:00 -0500

This is a re write of the story "Incident with Queen Mary."
Just a few changes.
It involves a contingent of CCF Naval Section Cadets let loose on HMS Vanguard while in Portsmouth Harbour.

WARP SPEED AT HARROGATE BUS STATION Harrogate, Yorkshire 1950

Mon, 02 Jan 2023 09:00:00 -0500

This is a story about a Bus Journey, well several bus journeys really.
A story of "Financial aspirations" of a 6 year old in 1950.

The scene is Harrogate, Yorkshire, in the North of England. A very smart and affluent town with more Rolls Royce cars to the mile than any other town in England!

All for the sake of a half penny!

"SPIKE TOOK US TO SEA IN A BATHTUB WITH WHEELS." A story from the Lincolnshire Coast in 1958

Mon, 02 Jan 2023 09:00:00 -0500

We were going into all this. Perhaps it was good that these machines had wheels, that would help when we touched the sand way out at sea.
You will have to imagine that you are taking a journey into rough offshore seas with breaking waves, in a steel motorised bathtub with wheels.

I do not remember anything of lifejackets or the like. If we did have them in the 1950s they would have been those dreadful double-sided cork contraptions that you would see issued to the unfortunate passengers on the Titanic!

There was no evidence of ships boats from the Frigate being ready for use, or “the Captain’s pinnace” available to whisk the Mayor of Skegness over for a visit.

You see, at Skegness, it was just the open beach and nothing else. If the Mayor was to visit, then the Captain’s pinnace would have to run ashore up the beach and then be pushed off again at the mercy of the surf pounding the beach! You should be so lucky!

"I STOPPED YOUR CAR BECAUSE I WAS LOOKING FOR THE DRIVER!"

Thu, 29 Dec 2022 10:00:00 -0500

Letter from France continued....
MILOU'S FIRST BRUSH WITH THE LAW.
We were driving a car originally registered in the Uk but that we had since imported into Franceand was now French registered!

Driving carefully on entering the town I had seen a light like a torch pointing in my direction.
Getting closer it began to wave from side to side and eventually I could see the blue uniform behind the light.
There was only very basic street lighting in the town and by now it was 9.30 in the evening.
I pulled in to the right just off the road right next to the Gendarme gentleman who signed for me to lower my window.
We began with pleasantries like good evening and he explained that he had stopped me because he was looking for the driver!

CHRISTMAS CAN BE A SAD TIME TOO... Reflections on Christmas 1991.

Mon, 19 Dec 2022 10:00:00 -0500

One of our first losses around Christmas was our very first Shire Horse Ebony.
He retired from Young and Cos Brewery in 1988 and came back to live with us in Lincolnshire.

He helped us with the opening of the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre, in fact, he was the star during those first few years.

You see he had already been a television personality during his time at Youngs Brewery.

Blue Peter the famous BBC television programme for Children had him in their studio. He was also a favourite of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and took part in her Huge Celebration on Horse Guards Parade.

He was also the principal character in a children’s picture storybook published by A and A Black called “Shire Horse”.

LETTER FROM FRANCE "TODAY I STOPPED THE TRAINS ON THE MAIN LINE"

Sat, 01 Oct 2022 05:00:00 -0400

A letter from France 1st October 2022.

TODAY I MANAGED TO STOP THE TRAINS ON THE MAIN LINE!

Not intentionally, well not really, but you see the local crossing barriers were stuck.

I had set out on my normal dog exercise trip with Mango and hey presto we found the crossing barriers in the down position.

(We cross the main line from Tours to Nantes every morning on our excursion.)

No bells ringing but the lights were flashing happily.

A small van had approached the crossing ahead of us, the driver got out and had a look down the line and then sasheyed through the barriers carefully.

A note here, the line both ways is dead straight for miles or rather kilometeres here.

You can see anything coming possibly a minute before it arrives.

Why a minute, well it is a fast line here, not maximum for TGV's but everything seems to be travelling at at least 80 mph when it goes over this crossing.

Goods trains just a little slower.

Anyway it must have been about 10 minutes past nine when I arrived back at the crossing with Mango and the barriers still not budging.

I decided to press the emergency button at the crossing and a chap came on the line virtually straight away.

I explained the problem and the fact that the barriers had been down for at least half an hour without moving.

I told him it was ok for the trains but not for the cars.

THURSDAY WAS MY DAY FOR STAMFORD A story from Ivy House New Bolingbroke, Lincolnshire in 1971.

Wed, 31 Aug 2022 10:00:00 -0400

This particular day, I had just pulled in to the side of the road close to the depot entrance, when there was an almighty bang and the front of the roof of the tyre retail premises was lifted off the brick cladding over the main front doors.
The dust and mess was considerable, covering much of the surrounding area.

I moved to go inside with caution, not knowing what I would be looking at.

Were there any bodies laying around? Was that the final bang or were there to be more?

In fact it was the only one but that initial bang had been followed by a tremendous amount of clattering as various pieces of metal and rubber gradually fell to earth after their being propelled into the air with great force.

The force was compressed air and I had been fortunate that I had not arrived a few minutes earlier!

Morris the very convivial manager at this particular depot was out, calling on clients. His tyre fitting staff had been taking a few short cuts in their endeavours.

When removing commercial tyres from wheels there are safety instructions that should be followed. The lads in the depot that day had their own ideas.

They had removed the locking ring and one side of the split wheel and turned the wheel and tyre over on a metal stand to knock the tyre off with a breaker tool.

Evidently, so the story was told to me, the tyre would not budge. After lots of tyre lubricant and more hammering and jumping around, no difference, it was fixed solid.

This often happened when the tyre had been on that wheel for a long time and had not had to be removed for any reason.

In these instances, the tyre and wheel has to be placed in a safety cage and slowly inflated to encourage some movement.

Compressed air is very very dangerous, everyone engaged in the tyre trade has received instruction regarding this at some stage in their early career.

Even me!
The lads at National Tyres, Stamford were fed up with this particular wheel.

The boss was out and they decided to take the short cut.

They attached the air line and began to blow the tyre off the wheel, without any safety cage. It was still laying there in the middle of the floor of the workshop, on its metal stand.

Its the amount of compressed air in a restricted place, contained and under increasing pressure that is dangerous.

Our lads that day had a very lucky escape.

Quite suddenly, the wheel and tyre began to part company and jointly were launched into the air vertically at very high speed.

Within a second or so, the wheel hit the steel girders supporting the roof of the building. The whole roof was lifted off its brick supports at the front and then the tyre and wheel separated and fell to earth almost as quickly as they had been launched.

Those commercial tyres weigh over a hundredweight or 200 kilos. The wheel probably weighs more than that, so all together there was getting on for a quarter of a ton of rubber and metal flying around the building at high speed and out of control.

Both bits landed not far from a clients car that was having new tyres fitted. He very nearly needed a

WHAT INTERNATIONAL "TWINNING" IS ALL ABOUT A story from Northcote in about 1987

Wed, 31 Aug 2022 10:00:00 -0400

The Official launch of the twinning with Boston and Fresnay was a big event.

Spilsby took a local community Brass Band and their were representatives from local football teams, young farmers clubs and other associations.

The actual event took a whole week end, Saturday and Sunday.

Visitors from Lincolnshire were accomodated in local homes and several families still maintain happy relationships even today.

Now to the main theme of our story......what twinning really means.

I was still working for Mortons Publishers at this time, the year we had created the Spilsby News. The local newspaper for Spilsby and the villages around the area.

At some stage in the proceedings in France, among many different subjects, we were discussing the fact that Spilsby had a special school for the mentally handicapped. Eresby School.

I explained the kind of things that were taught at the school which were not just academic subjects but also practical things like household jobs and the kitchen and home.

DVLA HEART CHECK UP IN LEICESTER A story from Northcote in 2008

Wed, 10 Aug 2022 11:00:00 -0400

The local surgery has five partners. I have tried almost all of them and my current doctor is brusque and always very much to the point.

I like his straight forward “no nonsense” approach, but many do not.

He began,” after everything else you have encountered this year, you will “walk” this examination.”

“Anyway, he concluded it is a very expensive form of heart check up and you are getting it without waiting and for free!” End of argument.

I telephoned the office of the secretary to the heart consultant at Leicester to confirm my appointment and explained that I would be travelling on my motor bike.

Quite spontaneously she burst out “You can’t do that, patients are normally driven home after this procedure!”

“Well, I explained, it has to motor bike as that is all I have!”

My Ford Escort (MX5) convertible had already been transferred to France on our large trailer to live there permanently. (See Digby locked us out story).

A sigh of resignation from Leicester ended that telephone conversation.

SIERRA COSWORTH EXPERIENCE (Rewrite) A story from Northcote in 1987

Wed, 10 Aug 2022 11:00:00 -0400

If I remember, I won and would have liked nothing better than to drive with John thorough the French Countryside for four days or so as fast as we could go, with safety.

However, and it was a big however.

It was only two and a half years after I had experienced a heart attack and really thought it inadvisable to take on something so stressful when I was still not really sure how stable the old ticker was from day to day!!

I believe John had second thoughts too as he was married with a young family and the event was a long return journey to one of the premier wine areas of France and back again, with the new wine.

It was not without serious risk.......although defined as NOT a race!!

The Cosworth was some beast and a delight to drive, certainly the fastest pair of wheels I had ever driven........we could really have had some fun with that car but with my health record at the time, I could not be certain we would return in one piece, or even return at all!

AN ANGEL APPEARED IN THE GUISE OF KEITH GUYLER A Northcote Story from 1994

Wed, 10 Aug 2022 11:00:00 -0400

A TIME OF TRIAL

Our bank were trying to foreclose on our mortgage because it had not been paid for over six months, we had over 15 very large Heavy Horses of various breeds in our care. Some like Goliath and Big Bonnie had very serious and also “expensive” health problems

We owed huge amounts to our feed merchant and vet as well as countless smaller suppliers.

Here I must mention the Vet practice. At that time we owed them over £10.000. They were fully aware of the situation and our intentions and they kept coming, often more than once each week.

For this kindness we were always very grateful.

"THEY ARE FRIGHTENED OF YOU IN THE X RAY DEPARTMENT" rewrite of story from Northcote 1998 to 2008

Fri, 22 Jul 2022 11:00:00 -0400

“They’re frightened of you in the x ray department,” he continued.
“But I must have this shot down at the joint.”

I couldn’t for the life of me think why they should be frightened!

I was in this trolley with sides, although coming to think of it one does feel something like a caged animal! And perhaps the mud and muck didn’t help either!

Well after that, I couldn’t get the arm down again. The problem seemed to be the trolley getting in the way of the x-ray machine and all we got again was the top of the arm and no socket at all.
By the time this was sorted it was lunchtime and I heard talk of moving me to the big Boston Hospital, and ambulances and all sorts.

The x-ray lady had gone to lunch and we would have to wait for another go.

Well the arm was stuck out at the side, it was supported on a pillow but very uncomfortable and I wiggled it about a bit. Then a bit more and there was this little “click”.

When the time came, after lunch, I suggested I felt better and how about walking to x-ray.

Well, we settled for a wheel chair.

LETTER FROM FRANCE WEEK 2022 Week 27, 27 June "The 4L needs fixing"

Sun, 17 Jul 2022 10:00:00 -0400

We began to look at Ruth's Renault 4L (our local shopping runabout) at the end of last week, as it had this smell on petrol hanging around and seemed to be getting worse.

I stuck a piece of cardboard under the fuel tank and yes to be sure there was a leak. Did not seem too great but obviously fuel was getting out and in the hot weather it seemed to us that it might be foolhardy to take it into town and risk someone slinging a match in our direction!

I might have mentioned this earlier, Ruth and I decided that at almost 78 years old, the time has come for me to stop crawling under cars to do all the repairs.

We had bought a decent 14 years old, one owner, C4 Grand Picasso last year that we very much like and hope it will last us several years.

The other cars, which still number four are off the road except for the 4L.

There is a nice Mk 5 Ford Escort Convertible, (exhaust fallen off). A nice Merco 190E (just not been used since covid), and the MG B GT that we were actually using the time we bought this little house in France.

Long story with the MG but is sits in our garage on a ramp and I have been doing things to it over the last 7 years or so!!

"IF YOU TOUCH A HORSE A DOG OR EVEN A CAT,".........rewrite of story from Its a Rum Life at Northcote.

Sun, 17 Jul 2022 10:00:00 -0400

“IF YOU TOUCH A HORSE, A DOG OR EVEN A CAT IN THE NEXT THREE MONTHS.....DO NOT COME BACK HERE !!”

Rewrite of a story from Its a Rum Life at Northcote,

Book Two 1998 to 2008

These very words were spoken to me quite seriously by the consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Louth County Hospital out patients clinic after I had arrived for his clinic riding my Honda “Superdream” 250 cc motor bike.

The fact that just at that particular time it was my one and only mode of transport was of no consequence. The added fact that as soon as removing my crash helmet I put the sling back on my arm, together with the fact that he had happened to see all this out of his office window, did me no favours.

It was when I has asked him for a course of physiotherapy that he became apoplectic.

SUBPOENED TO APPEAR IN COURT AGAINST A CLIENT WHO ASKED US TO LIE! "its a Rum Life " Book Three.

Tue, 12 Jul 2022 11:00:00 -0400

A few months passed and we received a strange phone call from those farmers and produce merchants we had carted the onions for, they were in a big way of business, located to the north east of Boston and about ten miles out of town.

They wanted to know if we were prepared to do them a favour by making a statement that we had never been paid for the delivery we made for them.

In explanation, they said that the onions had been of poor quality and they were disputing payment.

Onions are quite expensive when you are talking about 10 tons and the total was several hundreds of pounds, even in 1974.

We had been paid a fair rate for the delivery we made. We mentioned all this tarry diddle to Albert and he was sure their had been nothing wrong with the onions themselves. Albert could be relied on regarding anything to do with farming.

When we replied saying we could not possibly do what they asked, as it was untrue, they became very heated and difficult, offering various threats of one sort and another.

As this was the one and only job we had ever be asked to do for them, and we did not work for any of their so called “friends”, we felt that their threats could do us no harm.

Besides, the main issue was being honest, open and fair. Our reputation and work ethics were at stake!

WE OPENED A BOTTLE OF "GRAVES" TODAY. Letter from France Week 28 11 July 2022

Tue, 12 Jul 2022 11:00:00 -0400

Yes we have a proper cellar on the property, again all by accident as our whole coming to live here has been.

There is a small house here and a huge barn, a metal built barn, high and wide, easily big enough for a couple of large combine harvesters.

In one corner, the Fresneau family who built the property in about 1967, built a “cave”.

Every self respecting French family living in this wine centre of France has a “cave”.

Ours is half below ground and half above as the water table is relatively high, this being part of the old alluvial plain of the old river Loire.

What they did was excavate and line the hole with concrete blocks. Put in a concrete floor and then keep bricking up until a good headroom was achieved.

Then they put a thick concrete roof on the whole thing and pushed the soil or in this case, sand, back up level all around the structure.

It is fully insulated inside and there are good steps going down and stout wooden doors.

The family left us all their wine racks (sufficient for 400 bottles) and there were stands for the barrels that M. Fresneau (Pere) as he was called locally, used to make his own wine and appero.

SATURDAY MADHOUSE AT THE BELL INN Tales from Ivy House, New Bolingbroke, 1974

Mon, 11 Jul 2022 12:00:00 -0400

Then just as suddenly it was all over and relative peace and quite reigned until the next group of buses from another large part of the midlands would descend on that modern “oasis” and it would all begin again.

We admit to finding good reason to quit the scene rapidly. It was truly a mad house every Saturday Morning in those months that folk from the huge midlands towns and cities took their holidays on the Lincolnshire coast.

This was how Hylda made a large proportion of her living. Of course there was substantial beer sales to bus passengers as well as the sandwiches and tea.

Local trade for a pub stuck out in a tiny hamlet in the countryside was negligible. Hylda was a good cook and providing meals to paying clients must have been part of her regular trade too.

One other result of all this summer time invasion was satisfying the VAT man!

I do remember distinctly Hylda remonstrating in her usual way about how the VAT inspectors wanted her to work out how many breakfasts she provided free of charge to the bus drivers who brought their passengers to stop at the pub.

They expected her to pay the VAT on those breakfasts even though they had been provided at no charge!

She was typically furious and it was not a good idea to pay a visit close to any time the VAT man had also been calling, as this was not the only “weeze” that they thought up to get more income from hard working folk like Hylda.

CREATING OUR FIRST WINE CELLAR Tales from Ivy House, New Bolingbroke, Lincolnshire UK 1973

Mon, 11 Jul 2022 12:00:00 -0400

Back to Ivy House and the now established wine cellar, we had plenty of storage capacity and as the years went by we learned much more about wine and how to keep it.

Buy the late 1970's we were making annual trips to France ourselves and managed to bring back a variety of different wines to augment the cellar.

A calamity happened one winter when the water level in the basin rose so high it came up into the garden...and the cellar flooded to a depth of about 12 inches.

The wine was ok but those cardboard boxes of tinned food did not fair too well.

The cardboard disintegrated and the tins were to be found floating around in varying condition of “distress”.

Many had begun to “blow”.

When tins of food are kept too long and experience varying differences in storage conditions, they can begin to explode!

By now, what with the age of the tins and now finding them floating around the cellar, the labels had come off many of them too.

This was going to make identification somewhat difficult.

I telephoned my Mother who for the previous four years or so had not even mentioned her tins of food. She went ballistic....

Her “valuable” store of comestibles had been violated and I was the cause.

One would think I had destroyed the World food bank to hear the racket down the telephone line.

When she had finished ranting, I told here they were unsafe and were going to be binned at the earliest possible moment.

I was “sent to Coventry” for another period of several months, which suited me fine!

HUGE DIVERSIONS Motoring Story 2.5 Harrogate to Scarborough in 1948 via Middlesborough

Sat, 09 Jul 2022 12:00:00 -0400

The bridge has over the years been the subject of many amusing stories, the main one was televised when a gang of locals sold it to some gullible folk in America...it was only a story of course!
So, whenever we set off to visit Scarborough, I requested going by Middlesborough.

Even the most mediocre student of geography can tell that Harrogate to Scarborough via Middlesborough does not make good sense. Even the return journey, it is miles and miles out of the way.
Mind you I could be very persistent and dogged and difficult.

I had to pay for this attitude from time to time...one memorable time was being abandoned or rather, “put out” of the car in the middle of the North Yorkshire Moors for my “persistent difficultness”!

The car went off without me….completely out of sight...for what seemed like ages.

But it did come back again!

I was told they had missed my company or something like that.. and I was let in again, if I agreed to be somewhat better behaved!

So, you see, I never did get to Middlesborough very often...it was only actually when going to visit those good friends in Whitley Bay...even then it was a very round about trip!

JUST LIKE USING YOUR OWN CAR ON THE BIG DIPPER Motoring story 3 The Humber Ferry 1954

Sat, 09 Jul 2022 11:00:00 -0400

It was also much more exciting, not just the ferry trip but getting on to the ferry at New Holland was like taking your car onto the big dipper at the fair.

I jest not, it was truly heart stopping especially in frosty or snowy weather.

At the Hull end on the north bank of the River Humber everything was conventional and made of metal and strong and short and everything like that!

Back on the South bank it was as if you had gone back into the middle ages before anyone had heard of steel or strong structures.

It was wooden and wobbly, with piles stuck into the mud attached to wooden crosspieces and lot and lots of planks that rattled along as you crossed them.

There must have been a reason for it, I know the boats were further out into the river than at Hull, so it must have been shallow and inaccessible close in to the bank?

Anyway, for a small boy it was like a trip to the fair….but using your own car on the rides!

I think my mother just closed her eyes, I know she did not like this part of the journey one little bit.

To start with, car owners wishing to access the ferry boats had to mount the railway platform at New Holland and then just continue on the extension of the platform that quickly became a wooden structure held up by what looked like telegraph poles.

I think it is fair to say it was unique, there was nothing else quite like it and doubtless the health and safety mad world we live in now would have it condemned out of hand!

WARP SPEED AT HARROGATE BUS STATION Motoring Story 2 Harrogate, Yorkshire 1950

Fri, 08 Jul 2022 12:00:00 -0400

Samuel Ledgard's buses operated from Bradford, the smoky rather more downmarket cousin to Leeds the main business hub of West Yorkshire.

Now you see, Ledgard's buses were a bit older and more basic. They had wooden seats for a start. Have you ever travelled on a double deck bus with all wooden seats?

Consequently Ledgard's did not charge as much as the West Yorkshire company.

A Ledgard's double decker heading for Bradford left the Harrogate bus station a minute or two before the West Yorkshire double decker for Leeds.

I had worked out carefully that if I could catch that Ledgard's bus I could save a half penny on that one journey and that money would be mine.

In 12 days I could gain sixpence!

THE CAR SOON BECAME A MASS OF FLAMES Motoring story 1 Harrogate Yorkshire 1947

Fri, 08 Jul 2022 12:00:00 -0400

It was just as we approached the junction, I was seated in the rear with Grandmother Annie Munford when a most unusual and unpleasant smell began to drift around the interior.

Mother smoked like a chimney all her life and we were all used to “Fag smoke”, but this was much different.

It did not take long for smoke to begin oozing from behind the roof lining. Then quite rapidly the roof inside began to glow and the decision was made to stop and abandon ship!

Fortunately the item of most immediate importance, the eggs, were in the boot and quickly accessed by opening the drop down boot lid. By now we were all out of the vehicle and stood in amazement as flames began to engulf the bodywork where we had been sitting only a few moments before.

In later years and with some more knowledge I could probably have saved the car by disconnecting the battery, but as I was only almost four years old at the time my interest in cars was still purely that they were great fun to ride in, and look at, even if they were sometimes in flames!

RABBIT FARMING Who would have thought it! Northcote in the very early days. 1984

Tue, 05 Jul 2022 12:00:00 -0400

I might ad that in the almost three years that I was engaged in Rabbit farming, I never ever had one sick rabbit. This I considered a major achievement.

Not that I can say the same for myself as just entering the second year of the enterprise I suffered a heart attack.

It happened one night quite unexpectedly. Severe pain down left arm and incredible pain in my chest. A huge angry hot orange was doing its best to push its way out of my insides.

All I could do was lie still on the bed. Sweat poured off me and yet I was icy cold.

Ruth wanted to call for help, but I persuaded her that I could survive and if I were to be carted away what would happen to those hundreds of rabbits that depended on my twice daily care?

I did survive, obviously, but come the morning, I was as weak as the proverbial kitten!

I managed to crawl out of bed at 6am, fed the horses we had at that time and then began to walk across the field to the rabbits.

It took me 15 minutes to cross the field that first time. I clung on to each and every fence post and the wire in between.

Once in the feed store which had been a piggery before our time and was destined to be a tea room for the new visitor centre far into the future; I sat and rested for another 15 minutes.

NIGHTMARE BREAKDOWN CALL OUT A Tale from Ivy House, New Bolingbroke, 1983

Tue, 05 Jul 2022 11:00:00 -0400

Keith was phoning from a cafe on the M1 at Crick in Northamptonshire.

The first thing he had to tell me was he had lost both rear wheels from one side of the lorry.

It was fully loaded and he had been going fairly slowly through a restricted part of the motorway where it was single carriageway only.

His rear wheels had come off in this section and just spun away across the remainder of the motorway.

Mixed blessings here as with it being roadworks and restricted, then there was a free recovery service for vehicles breaking down in this section.

Keith had been recovered to the cafe parking area and had managed to recover his wheels too.

Earlier in the journey, he had needed two new rear tyres to be fitted in Brighton and the tyre fitters had been too enthusiastic with the pneumatic nut spinner and overtightened the wheel nuts. The threads had been damaged and during the journey north the wheel nuts had worked their way off the studs on the brake drum.

NB The picture is not of a Mastiff, but a much more modern lorry, it shows the same type of demountable body system.

"WONDERBUN" LOOSES A FRONT TYRE ON THE M62 Another Tale from Ivy House, New Bolingbroke, about 1973

Tue, 05 Jul 2022 11:00:00 -0400

There have been tales of Lady drivers, driving examinations, first potato powder trips to Lancashire, romantic encounters in Thetford Forest and of course the demise of Wonderbun.

This story happened in the middle of all the other events. I was the driver this time and engaged in delivering a load of TMC complaint tyres to their examination centre in North Lancashire.

Wonderbun was an Austin FKJ140 12 ton capacity two axle diesel lorry with very large box van body, This was one of the reasons we had bought her from Glentons, plus the fact that she had a large capacity hydraulic tail lift fitted.

CRACKER AND THE WASP A story from the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre about 2005

Tue, 28 Jun 2022 11:00:00 -0400

I could see the situation was getting worse, I stopped the dray and instructed all the passengers to get off the vehicle without delay, if not even quicker.

I was by now holding Cracker on the reins with extreme difficulty. Once everyone was off the dray I also got down and went to the head of the horse.

I could not ask the groom to look at the horse's head while I stayed in the seat, as the groom was not a trained horseman and I had doubts that I would be able to hold him for much longer.

There was a wasp inside his blinker. The blinker is the side covering to the eyes on the bridle that prevents the horse looking sideways or being concerned by things behind. (Technical bits explained at the end.)

WHY A VICTORIA ? The story of a Horse Drawn Carriage.

Fri, 24 Jun 2022 11:00:00 -0400

Then there is the period in which it was built, during the reign of Great Britain's Queen Victoria. During her period in history, ladies would be wearing wide skirts with crinolines to support their skirt structure. These were popular with Queen Victoria and consequently became a main fashion item.

Ladies wearing this kind of skirt could not get into a carriage with normal door and step arrangements. Their skirts were too wide.

So the “Victoria” Carriage arrived with its wide sweeping rear mudguards and plenty of room for those wide skirts. It was as simple as that, the carriage was developed to cope with the high fashion of the period. It was primarily a ladies' carriage.

A FRIDAY IN MARCH Another tale from Lincolnshire's Northcote Heavy Horse Centre

Fri, 29 Apr 2022 10:00:00 -0400

This is another tale as published in the Mortons Group of Newspapers in 1999.

There were a series of "Diary" type stories showing some of the "scatty" life as it was at Northcote in the late 1990's.

This story is about a new volunteer helper who only stayed a couple of hours.

That was not the shortest.......read Goliath's story book to hear about the girl helper on work experience brought by her Mum who only stayed 30 seconds!!

MINI TRUCK TO HAMMERSMITH A tale from Its a Rum Life Book Two "Boston 1960 to 1970"

Wed, 27 Apr 2022 11:00:00 -0400

The bad weather began almost as I left Aylesbury; thunder clouds rolled in as black as black could be.
The lightning began followed by thunder and torrential rain.

It was the rain that stopped me, continuous, heavy downpours that drummed on the road and even louder on the roof of the pick-up truck.

As the rain fell so hard the roads quickly became flooded and then the dips in the road became deep lakes and the truck stopped at every one.

One of the main design faults of the Mk1 mini, car, truck, van, or what have you was that the distributor that sends the spark to each spark plug, in turn, was positioned on the front face of the engine just under the bonnet catch and immediately behind the smart designed serrated grill in the front of the vehicle.

MADGE THE MOTORING LEGEND A tale from Its a Rum Life Book Two " Boston 1960 to 1970"

Wed, 27 Apr 2022 11:00:00 -0400

What possible better recommendation could one get, the LD150 had never let her down. Through thick and thin, forest, dykes, and up and down the UK that remarkable machine had put up with everything my 20-stone Aunt could throw at it for eight years or more.

The only thing that had stopped it, in the end, was being driven head-on into a Daimler Limousine.

Madge did get on the road again but insisted on something smaller; once back at work she bought a Honda 90 which did stalwart service for a few more years.

Perhaps it was its lack of sheer power that prevented Aunt Madge from appearing in any further traffic courts.

RON MORLEY A tribute.

Tue, 26 Apr 2022 10:00:00 -0400

Ron was one of those truly wonderful people that you come across only a few times in your life.

He was a volunteer helper at the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre near Spilsby in Lincolnshire for many years and regularly came to the centre two or three times every week.

Ron was retired and lived in Boston, about 20 miles south of Great Steeping where the Horse Sanctuary is located.

Ron never talked about his early life, so I suppose you could say he was a private person.

THE HOOPS WE JUMPED THROUGH A story from Northcote in 1989

Tue, 26 Apr 2022 10:00:00 -0400

Once we had decided to actually go ahead with the project to create a visitor centre based around horses we began to find who our “friends “ really were!

Firstly, a planning application had to be submitted for change of use at Northcote.

I had been a local Parish Councillor for about five years by this time. My colleagues were not convinced it was a good idea. All kinds of stupid objections were raised locally and at the District Council.

Of course, nobody actually confronted us with their suggestions, objections, questions or queries. They just assumed this and assumed that and consequently created a huge problem that took us ages to sort.

MELDREW A tale from the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre in 1999.

Sat, 23 Apr 2022 10:00:00 -0400

"Meldrew" is one of a series of stories written for the Mortons Group of Newspapers.

Mortons were my last employers back in 1988 when I was "The" photojournalist, ad salesman and designer and circulation manager for the new "Spilsby News".

The newspapers are now owned by the Johnson Press Group who kindly gave their permission for the reproduction of these stories.

The artist is Janet Allinson.

BILLINGSGATE FISH MARKET Its a Rum Life, New Bolingbroke, Lincs. 1975

Sat, 23 Apr 2022 09:00:00 -0400

This is a story from Its a Rum Life Book Three. The action is mainly in Boston UK.

"As soon as 5 o' clock arrived the area suddenly teemed with white smocked Porters wearing their classic flat leather hats. The main impression I remember was the smell and ice in all the gullies and drains.
The noise level increased rapidly as instant auctions took place for the countless varieties of fish and shellfish. Auctions on the back of lorries, auctions in the isles between the stalls, and auctions in the open air.

As goods were sold, the porters loaded kits of fish on their heads or boxes on their quaint long low barrows. Off they went at top speed, singly or in pairs to another part of the yard where eager buyers waited patiently to load their precious purchases. Fish from all parts of the UK was destined to travel yet again to “pastures new”!

INCIDENT WITH RMS QUEEN MARY Its a Rum Life Boston, UK in 1958

Sat, 23 Apr 2022 09:00:00 -0400

the scene is the Solent just outside Southampton Water and not far from the Isle of Wight.
The year 1958.....
"I was hauled off the wheel rapidly with a lot of strong language and sent back down to the forecastle to continue being quizzed….especially on buoys!

The lesson I learned was once at the helm, do not take your eyes of the course or “road” no matter how interesting other things are around you!!

I was not allowed on the helm again on that trip!

But it was a lesson well learned and put into practice in all our future family sailing and power craft to come……….well all but one, and that will have to another tale.

ARE THERE ANY SHARKS IN THE NORFOLK BROADS A story from Boston, Lincolnshire, UK1967

Tue, 19 Apr 2022 11:00:00 -0400

The subtitle could be "How Brian our Motor Coach owner /driver had to sit all day in lemonade-soaked trousers!"
The story of course involves the 1st Boston Sea Scout Cubs on another Annual outing.
This time to the beautiful Norfolk Broads.
A small slice from the story goes like this......

"Back to our boat, and by now Philip has taken Geoffrey’s remark so literally that he has begun to cast Geoffrey’s sandwiches to the countless ducks and other mixed waterfowl that have by now realised they are witnessing their lifetime dream. An infinite traveling food bar."

"CUB OUTINGS CAN GIVE YOU PREMATURE GREY HAIR" Taken from Its a Rum Life, Boston 1960 to 1970

Fri, 01 Apr 2022 11:00:00 -0400

This time the Cubs nearly had to walk home, our bus driver would not let them into his coach!

Admittedly, they were a mess. They had only been on a three-hour ramble in the countryside!
It was a good job we had plenty of old newspapers to cover the bus floor and seats.

Yes, some of the boys were a bit wet and some a bit muddy, one or two were covered in mud from head to foot!
How had they possibly got in this awful mess?
We were with them all the time, three adult leaders, supposedly responsible.
...and then there was "sludge"!

Who can remember who this one was, I can, but perhaps it would be embarrassing for him now, after 56 years or so. He might well be grown up and have a family of his own!

THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL CAME TO NEW BOLINGBROKE Ivy House Tales 1980

Sat, 19 Mar 2022 12:00:00 -0400

I announced the couple who were to perform without mentioning that neither of them had ever seen each other before.

Never mind not having the chance to practice the piece together before the performance.

I dare not mention that neither the pianist nor the mezzo soprano singer had any sheet music to follow either.

They were both confident and enthusiastic and with a glance at each other off they went.

David's beautiful playing of that most difficult of piano pieces accompanied by Heather who had a lovely commanding voice was simply magnificent.

David was note-perfect, the piece went on for perhaps four minutes and he finished with that memorable very twiddly complicated beautiful music which is “the Trout”.

I was enthralled as were the rest of the audience.

A TAX INQUISITION A tale from Ivy House, New Bolingbroke in 1975.

Sat, 19 Mar 2022 12:00:00 -0400

In conclusion, I felt confident that the Inspector of Taxes had good acceptable answers to all his questions and could find no reason to take the matter further.

Indeed, I did not hear anything more from that Government Office.

But you can read or listen to other unpleasant incidents where various folk have seen fit to “have a go “ at us in other ways over the years.

The worst and longest-lasting is covered in the story “Litigation”.

It all began in 1982 during the time I was a Parish Councillor at New Bolingbroke and Carrington and continued for over 20 years!

The final one was when Barclays Bank tried to “grab” the Northcote property and close the Animal Sanctuary back in 2012.

You can follow this later incident in two stories, “A Lesson in Faith in the 21st Century” and “Travel Nightmare, I am a Terrorist!”

IN COURT AGAIN A rewrite of longer story from Northcote in 2012

Sat, 19 Mar 2022 12:00:00 -0400

All my efforts had been vindicated;

two years or so of acute stress had been worthwhile.

Teamwork had won in the end but overall, my continued faith in finding a suitable solution had worked out.

During the prolonged interval, while I was seeking a new mortgage, all kinds of weird and wonderful solutions had been on offer.

None of them were good common sense and all of them very expensive.

Arranging the new ‘proper’ mortgage had not been cheap, it had cost us in the region of £6000 but was the right thing to do, and then there was the final hurdle, I had to get home! (See train troubles)

TO THINE OWN SELF BE TRUE...........Thoughts of the tragic events in the Ukraine.

Sat, 19 Mar 2022 12:00:00 -0400

Such is the case of dictators who rely on their power to terrify and bully by force.

“Inside”, they truly know they are wrong but will never, ever, accept the fact.

They become so used to their actions it becomes their way of life.

This is normally their undoing eventually, simply because it is “Wrong”.

But it can take a little time.

Never deviate from the truth, never try to follow their tactics.

SIDESADDLE An It's a Rum Life Story Northcote 1984 to 1998

Mon, 21 Feb 2022 12:00:00 -0500

With the Mayor and Lynn were Dennis McCarthy the local presenter from BBC Radio Nottingham who was giving their support to Lynn's efforts.

Dennis was also a well-respected dog breeder from Nottinghamshire.

We traveled to Butterwick with our ancient BMC lorry with trailer and Victoria Carriage.

In the box, we had Juno and her son Jupiter who was to become an equine “celebrity” of some note up and down the County during his future career as a working Carriage Horse for Horse Drawn Weddings.

He also became “unforgettable” when he was asked to take Ruth and me to numerous “Sunday meets” of the British Driving Society within the County.

There are several audio stories about his “equine escapades”!

TRAVEL NIGHTMARE -- I AM A TERRORIST ? It's a Rum Life 2012

Mon, 21 Feb 2022 12:00:00 -0500

Bags and coats went through a scanner and humans passed through an even larger one. It all seemed fine until it was my turn. I duly took off anything metal and pushed my coat and bag into a box that disappeared. I walked through the scanner and caused an immediate alert.

The noise was deafening and a smart security guard quickly grabbed me and placed me against the nearest wall.

Just like the films, my legs were spread and my arms extended while he passed a handheld scanner over my entire body. I was apparently a terrorist.

I could not imagine what on earth was causing the problem. I had forgotten to take off my watch and showed him that. The problem was far greater than a watch and he was determined to find whatever I had hidden on me!

The whole world seemed to be focused on me. All those long queues of people were goggling in amazement at the scene. Had they really found a terrorist?

The problem was isolated to my left leg, was there something hidden in my pocket or the seam of my trousers, was I going to have to take off all my clothes here and now?

DICK SANDERS "A MAN TRULY AHEAD OF HIS TIME" An It's a Rum Life Story

Thu, 17 Feb 2022 11:00:00 -0500

These silver teaspoons with the crest of the RNLI have prompted this story which takes us back as far as 1950.

We will begin the saga here, this was in fact the year that the chap who I assume is my father took his escape from my mother to seek his “fortune” in pastures new.

BACKGROUND
I should explain to avoid further complications that my father is not my father on my birth certificate. The certificate names another chap who was married to my mother previously. It is just that she did not bother to have any changes made when she became divorced and remarried in 1947.

TRAGIC RELIANT ROBIN EPISODE Ivy House Tales 1970 to 1984

Mon, 14 Feb 2022 03:00:00 -0500

This story has an unfortunate ending for those of you with as they say

“a nervous disposition! “

There was a violent hammering on the side door of our house and we opened it to behold an accident right on our doorstep.

Parked on the road and just a few feet from our driveway entrance was a Reliant Robin three-wheel car.

Some way in front and on the same side of the road was a small normal four-wheel saloon. Who actually hammered on our door I cannot rightly remember now, but it could have been one of the Picker children who lived just across from our garden on the south side of the house.

"COCKLES AND WHELKS ALIVE ALIVE OH!" Ivy House Tales 1970 to 1984

Mon, 14 Feb 2022 03:00:00 -0500

I asked Sid for his help and explained what it was all about.
He very kindly loaned us a proper towable shellfish ‘food sales trailer’.

Permission was granted for us to sell our produce at the rally and then we had to decide what it was we were actually going to try and sell?

It was left entirely in my hands as our Hall committee only amounted to four or five who included Les Langstaff's father, Bert Langstaff, John Rundle's father, “Jack” Rundle, Ivor Bush the owner of B.A. Bush Tyres and Harry Hubbard our retired postman.

None of them were shellfish fans!

THE UNIROYAL YEARS It's a Rum Life, tales from Ivy House 1976 to 2003

Sat, 12 Feb 2022 10:00:00 -0500

THE RISE AND FALL OF A GOOD IDEA!

If I did not mention the fact before, the sole reason Ruth and I were appointed as the very first Uniroyal tyre stocking point in the UK was that Uniroyal wanted Harry Thorne’s business.

Firestone were now totally out of the way and the door was open for a manufacturer of premium tyres to take their place in supplying Fossitt and Thorne with their retail outlets covering the length and breadth of Lincolnshire and into Norfolk and Cambridgeshire.

Fortunately for us, Harry Thorne was asked how he thought the tyres could best be supplied to his depots. He actually said, “If you want my business, then Keith Sanders will handle the distribution.”

We had no idea that anything like this was “in the wings” and the first thing we knew was when the Uniroyal national Distribution Manager made an appointment to come and see us.

Our small operation collecting complaint tyres already covered the whole of eastern UK on a regular basis. Our fleet of second hand vehicles had been adapted to carry tyres but they were not terribly smart!

Read on...........

FOSSITT AND THORNE AND FIRESTONE my impressions, the years 1968 to 1974

Sat, 12 Feb 2022 10:00:00 -0500

The following is my recollections of the situation as I saw it at the time. We can not delve into the more intricate company details of Fossitt and Thorne as I was never prithy to that kind of information. Here we are looking from the outside, the way I saw it!

The high times of ECYB the tyre distribution business set up and run by Ruth and I was when we were appointed the very first “entrepot” for Uniroyal in the UK in 1977 and as it so happened the last, to close in 1983.

These were undoubtedly the best times we ever had commercially. Largely because of our relationship with Fossitt and Thorne.

Quite by coincidence these times corresponded with a similar experience in the history of the Fossitt and Thorne company.

FOSSITT AND THORNE

It would help to explain a little more here in case I did not make myself understood previously, we go back now to the 1950's.

DONKEY (not Monkey) AND THE NUTS Ivy House tales 1970 to 1984

Sat, 12 Feb 2022 10:00:00 -0500

This time I was carrying animal feed in half hundredweight sacks. Feed Nuts we called them. A concentrated product was put through a machine in an animal feed factory, that made it all come out in short dry lengths suitable for animals to chew.
This load was to go to two farms, 5 tons to each which meant that each farm had a delivery of 200 bags of feed. That is 40 half hundredweight bags to a ton and 5 tons.

The first delivery was to the region of Cynwyl Elfed, which seemed ok when planning the journey, except that the farm was on the top of a hill that the lorry would not go up.

Lots of these hills were short and very steep with tight corners.

This particular hill was so bad the lorry began slipping its clutch in bottom gear halfway up. I had no choice but to reverse slowly with one foot on the accelerator keeping the engine revving hard to keep the air up in the brake as I slid backward.

The brakes eventually gave out and I ended up in the roadside bank at one side.

A number of the bags were burst but still contained by the lorry sheet.

I gave up on that one and went on the Newcastle Emlyn where I had better access to the farm.

I BECAME AN EDUCATOR .....but in a good cause! (Firestone 1968)

Sat, 22 Jan 2022 11:00:00 -0500

WE ACTUALLY GAVE TYRES AWAY.............I BECAME AN “EDUCATOR”

All kinds of ideas were floated from head office management to try and combat this resistance to a new product. In the end it all came down to the men at the sharp end like myself who did their best to ‘educate’ the tractor drivers and tractor owners.

Replacement sales of this new design of tyre was also hit hard and in the Lincoln area in conjunction with our main tyre dealers like Fossitt and Thorne, my boss Fred Popham and I had the idea to begin a series of evening film shows to Farmers and Young Farmers to explain the special benefits of this tyre. These were very successful.

We even gave tyres away! Not ‘willy nilly’ but to the Champion Tractor Ploughmen of the County who were qualified to enter the World Ploughing Championships. I had three in my area, all the very best ploughmen in their own categories.

They all agreed to accept the tyres provided we could get them fitted in sufficient time for them to practice before the ploughing competition season began. For two weeks in the late spring this took priority over anything else on my ‘patch’. Dates were confirmed for the actual

I BECAME AN “EDUCATOR”

GOLIATH THE TALLEST HORSE IN THE WHOLE WORLD The Audio Book

Sat, 15 Jan 2022 06:00:00 -0500

The next part of his life is a little sketchy as we came on the scene after he had experienced a bad accident. Goliath was by now just over 12 years old and retired earlier than would have been normal due to his unfortunate upbringing. Remember his muscles were not what they should have been, they were underdeveloped and had a fraction of the strength and endurance they should have had.

Goliath fell down while on this farm but we were told, to complicate matters he was inside a stable at the time. He could not get up and was what is called “cast”. Totally stuck.

By the time he was back on his feet he was in a bad state both physically and mentally. We were never sure what the situation was on this particular farm but we do know that Young and Co. paid the vet's bills for Goliath at this time.

When Kevin Flynn telephoned us early in 1991, he explained that we were Goliath's last hope.

Kevin knew we had developed the Northcote Centre to specialise in the care of big horses, and he asked if we would consider giving Goliath a home. Kevin also knew we did not use stables but that the horses lived in communities in large buildings. They led their own lives to a certain extent and learned to obey voice commands rather than be led around on the “end of a string”.

FUNERAL IN FREEZING FOG Its a Rum Life Book Four Vol two Northcote 1998 to 2008

Sun, 09 Jan 2022 10:00:00 -0500

NOW WE TRULY STOPPED ALL THE TRAFFIC

Cars were parked on both sides of the long straight thoroughfare. The pavements were packed with pedestrians and traffic was passing in both directions, until we arrived on the scene.
As we appeared quite suddenly out of the freezing fog, everything came to a standstill which I suppose is right and proper for a funeral. Buses and lorries, cars and pedestrians all ground to a halt. The only moving vehicle in Lumley Road, Skegness for those few minutes was pulled by Cracker, who was to become before he himself died, the tallest Shire Horse in the World.

Behind him was a simple four wheeled trolley with the coffin and beautiful flowers. The hats worn by Terena and the Undertaker were coated with thick ice across their fronts and my hands seemed to be locked permanently around the reins despite a decent pair of gloves.

After touring the town centre, our journey took us to a housing estate off Lincoln Road, just out of the town; where the whole family of the deceased were waiting to walk behind the dray as we processed to the local church.

HOW WE DESTROYED WYBERTON CHURCH GATEWAY Its a Rum Life Book Four Northcote 1984 to 1998

Sat, 08 Jan 2022 10:00:00 -0500

A noisy, bright yellow forklift truck burst out of a yard immediately to our front and began to roar down the road towards us.

The road was not wide by any imagination and we had nowhere to go and avoid this “monster” which had immediately caught “Hebe’s” attention and set all our hearts to our mouths.

To our right side, behind and ahead of us, we were contained by the churchyard wall which continued in solid stone splendour about four feet high as far as we could see.

On our left were a row of smart houses with large front gardens and boundaried at their front by a long, large, and deep dyke.

The forklift rattled and banged and roared its way forward totally oblivious to the terror it was creating in the mind of the horse never mind the human attendants.

Despite all our efforts to attract his attention, the driver seemed in a world of his own.
Then, in the blink of an eye, it was all over.

MEMORABLE WEDDINGS WITH ROBERT AT SKEGNESS Its a Rum Life Book Four Northcote 1984 to 1998

Sat, 08 Jan 2022 10:00:00 -0500

The First wedding should be called "A FIRE ENGINE CAME TO THIS WEDDING" the
Second could be called an"INCIDENT WITH A MILITARY POLICE SERGEANT AND A MOTOR CYCLE!"
Both very memorable and amusing....after the event!

MILOU'S FIRST BRUSH WITH THE LAW It's a Rum Life in France

Wed, 29 Dec 2021 11:00:00 -0500

I then went on to explain that the car was from the Uk and consequently right-hand drive.

I also mentioned that Ruth was in the back because of the new little dog and the necessity to keep him happy and quiet.

As we talked I noticed he glanced at the “tickets” on our windscreen, one is for the MOT certificate and the other is for current insurance for the vehicle. Both have to be displayed and of course, be up to date.

“You must realise,” he went on,” as you were coming down the road it looked very strange. The car has French registration and yet it had nobody in what is normally the driving seat!”

"STARS IN MY EYES" an It's a Rum Life story from Book Three, New Bolingbroke 1970 to 1984

Mon, 27 Dec 2021 09:00:00 -0500

The phone rang and it was the Estate Manager from the Revesby Estates, he had his home and office at Revesby Bridge and could see the bank at the end of the Medlam Drain out of his front window.

It was on this bank that our three horses were kept at the present. I had been down to see them earlier and thought them settled for the night to come.

Not on your life, something had got into them and they had dismantled the gate I had erected to keep them on the bank and stop them wandering.

The Estate Manager told me with short breaths that they were getting out and if I could, I needed to get down there pronto!

AUGER AND THE BUS It's a Rum Life Book Three "New Bolingbroke" 1970 to 1984

Fri, 24 Dec 2021 10:00:00 -0500

Arriving at the town (Boston) I watched the buildings in all the streets to make sure the auger did not go through any windows or catch any lamp standards.

Just by the Odeon Cinema, I arrived at some traffic lights at the approach to the river bridge. As I was slowing gradually, eyes in all directions at once, someone hooted their horn.

My eyes were diverted for just a second or two and in that instant, a double-decker bus had decided to stop directly in front!

Rapid stamping on my brakes resulted in my truck dipping forwards and the two steel support rods of the auger ending poked through the back of the double-deck bus just below the rotary sign that tells you where it is going!

I did manage to stop before the rods went in too far, that is into the seats!

As the truck rocked back on its suspension, the two rods reappeared and left two “staring eyes” dead centre in the bus body just a short distance below the rotary signboard.

The driver appeared and looked somewhat bewildered.

“Well I never did!” he exclaimed, “nothing like this has ever happened before.”

"FERGIE" GOES TO FRANCE A story from It's a Rum Life 2004 (rewritten).

Fri, 24 Dec 2021 09:00:00 -0500

The time came to load and our queue began to mount the ramp, at the bottom I lagged behind a little to leave space between our car and the line in front, I needed a run at it. I knew that if there was a hold-up and we had to stop partway up the incline we would not restart.

The attendant at the bottom became agitated and jumped up and down in his insistence that we did not hold up the loading process....we had to go and of course partway up the line stopped!!

No way would our little car clutch restart that huge load on a slope. I had to push Ruth out of the door and ask her to bring the deck officer and all the deck crew to push us up the hill. How was that for holding things up........in the meantime I had to hold the whole load on the foot brake on a something like 60% slope.

Ruth eventually returned with the officer and five brawny crewmen and with their help we made it! She was not happy about that!

THE ANGLIA BUMPER HAS A "HIGH POWERED HERNIA" It's a Rum Life Boston 1960 to 1970

Fri, 17 Dec 2021 11:00:00 -0500

For the first few moments, all I could think of was the situation encountered by a colleague on the Firestone Tyre and Rubber Company initial training course with me, who had later used his Company car to assist with a rallycross event. The result had been a dented roof and caved-in doors.

He consequently had to leave the company!

Surely my problem was nothing like that? Could I be accused of abusing company property?

WE GAVE TYRES AWAY IN 1968 It's a Rum Life Boston 1960 to 1970

Fri, 17 Dec 2021 11:00:00 -0500

I BECAME AN “EDUCATOR”

All kinds of ideas were floated from head office management to try and combat this resistance to a new product. In the end, it all came down to the men at the sharp end like myself who did their best to ‘educate’ the tractor drivers and tractor owners.

Replacement sales of this new design of tyre were also hit hard and in the Lincoln area in conjunction with our main tyre dealers like Fossitt and Thorne, my boss Fred Popham and I had the idea to begin a series of evening film shows to Farmers and Young Farmers to explain the special benefits of this tyre. These were very successful.

WE STOPPED THE SALVATION ARMY BAND It's a Rum Life Boston, Lincolnshire 1964

Fri, 17 Dec 2021 09:00:00 -0500

“It was about 5 pm on the Saturday before Christmas in the centre of Boston UK.

The football team from the 1st Boston Sea Scout Cubs managed to stop the local Salvation Army band who had been happily playing Christmas music outside the White Hart Hotel!”

The year was 1964 …... on with he story.............

"BOTTLE BANK PROBLEMS" It's a Rum Life 2006

Tue, 14 Dec 2021 10:00:00 -0500

You can guess the answer, can’t you…….Ruth almost ran back to that bin with a small step ladder… she is not very tall you see.

On arriving, there was no one else around to see her antics, she breathed a sigh of relief.

Lifted the lid she had used and dropped it back, climbed up her steps and into the bin itself.

"WOOLY CHRISTMAS DAY CHAOS" IN BOSTON It's a Rum Life 1993

Tue, 14 Dec 2021 10:00:00 -0500

It so happened then, that towards the end of that year we had a ‘surplus’ number of young soay type sheep and had to move them on. An advert was placed in the local paper and a young lady from Boston came to see them with a view of buying several as a surprise Christmas Gift for her ex-butcher father. She knew her father had a large garden and they could serve a dual purpose of entertainment and mobile ‘lawn mowers’.

She bought four or maybe it was six, the price was very reasonable and she duly collected her surprise gift on Christmas eve.

We heard the last but one episode in this tale from a friend, who was also a neighbour of ‘the’ father who lived just a few gardens away on a very up-market road on the very edge of Boston.

THE SMOKESCREEN A story from It's Rum Life, Book Three New Bolingbroke 1970 to 1984

Fri, 22 Oct 2021 02:00:00 -0400

It was one morning before daylight when I unintentionally created something of an incident, it was very cold and damp, so cold the house needed a boost of heat. I opened the garage doors and grabbed three bales of straw, stuffed them into the boiler and opened all the air intakes. Nothing unusual in that, or so I thought, but the wind was from the east. I watched the thick yellow smoke emerging from the chimney and carrying across the main road that passed directly in front of Ivy House.

I remember thinking that it was a good job Betty and Les across the road would not be up for an hour or so and I hope they slept with their bedroom window closed, as the smoke began to carry over towards the whole village.

AN ACTUAL EARTHQUAKE IN LINCOLNSHIRE A Story from Northcote in 2008

Fri, 22 Oct 2021 02:00:00 -0400

It was that very night after Geoffrey Coleman and his good lady wife had departed. Whether this was significant, stuck in my mind for weeks afterwards.

We went to bed as usual but very soon after midnight I was woken by the whole room shaking.

It is a very strange feeling, to see furniture beginning to move although it is normally well anchored.

Your head begins to spin as the very air is shaking violently. Even the walls and ceiling were shaking. I did not have time to think about the horses in the yard outside, but on reflection they did not seem too disturbed as they were not actually inside a building with four walls.

DO YOU HAVE A "BLACK HOLE" IN YOUR GARDEN? It's a Rum Life in France october 2021

Wed, 06 Oct 2021 10:00:00 -0400

Not one of those interspacial things that gobble up anti-matter and anything else that goes its way but something much more simple.

A place in your garden where all the bad things happen. All the accidents, incidents and calamities, all in one place!

I really did not think such a thing was possible until just the other week.

I was walking a bit too fast to get back to a job, having retrieved a pipe wrench to effect repairs to the garden irrigation water, coming from a deep hole in one corner of the garden.

The next thing, I was picking myself up from the ground with blood pouring from a wound in my left temple. I remembered as I fell totally out of control....”teeth” what happens if you smash your teeth?

A TALE OF TWO EYES It's a Rum Life in France October 2021

Wed, 06 Oct 2021 10:00:00 -0400

I have worn spectacles for long vision and reading for over 14 years now, but a couple of years ago. I found that I no longer needed glasses for long vision. I could see brilliantly into the distance.

At the same time, when driving I could see the instruments in the car and the view ahead equally well.
“My goodness”, I thought, “my eyes have become bionic”,....or something along those lines!

They continued to perform exceptionally well, as good in fact as they had been before ever using spectacles....until the time came for my two-year eye test in September 2020.

"SAM AND THE MILK STOUT" A story from It's a Rum Life Book Four Volume two Northcote 1998 to 2008

Tue, 05 Oct 2021 15:00:00 -0400

Now, vitamin B posed more of a problem in its natural form and lots of it for a horse who weighed around 18 hundredweights. Then of course the penny dropped, beer.

Ruth remembered the times when hospital patients had been prescribed a personal allowance of “milk stout”. Full of vitamin B and the ideal pick me up for those under the weather.
From time to time in the past we had been able to help our local family brewery “Bateman's” with jobs involving heavy horses. We contacted “Mr George” the boss who was only too pleased to help out.

“How much do your think he needs?” was the leading question. Working out his daily water intake, we decided he would require between 1 and 2 gallons of milk stout each day.

DRIVING AMERICAN LADIES A story from It's a Rum Life in France 2013

Fri, 01 Oct 2021 11:00:00 -0400

There were complications on the way to the train today, I had been driving three American Ladies around all week during their holiday here in the Loire Valley and their week finished today when they all had trains to catch from the mainline station in Tours.

"JUPITER AND THE AIRFIELD GHOST" Tales from Northcote from about 1989.

Sat, 18 Sep 2021 11:00:00 -0400

I managed to dismount and calm him while inspecting his saddle. On eventually mounting once again he took charge and broke into an instant gallop. I managed to steer him around the next bend, across a stubble field, down across the Ladywath Beck by a narrow farm bridge across the lane, over a gate, and into our stable yard. He could not get away from that place fast enough!

He did not stop even then and I had to lay flat on his neck as he was determined to enter his own stable without stopping. We must have traveled a good two miles at breakneck speed, which made me very anxious about him taking dray ride visitors along the same route. The vet was called but could find nothing wrong with the horse except anxiety and some distress.

"SOME OF THE THE NOT SO GOOD TIMES" Stories from Northcote 1984 to 1998

Sat, 18 Sep 2021 11:00:00 -0400

There are three stories in this piece. The Fire is already recorded and can be heard on its own.
Also included are the stories of the two burglaries..........

You have to "weather" the downs to appreciate the good times....takes some doing though!

"LITIGATION 1982 TO 2002" Taken from It's a Rum Life Book Three Ivy House Tales.

Sat, 18 Sep 2021 11:00:00 -0400

Most things we remember are the good times................
This story is about the bad times, but in this case they continued for over 20 years!

A story of victimisation, bullying and intimidation. But it did not work!

Listen to find out what it was all about....................

IN TUNE WITH ANOTHER SAILING MAN AND SAILING WOMAN TOO 1970

Wed, 01 Sep 2021 11:00:00 -0400

Another It's a Rum Life story that would be in Book two except I have just written this one.
The version in the book is a little different. I prefer this one!

CHARLES AND LUCY GO TO FRANCE PART 1 BRITTANY 1978

Wed, 01 Sep 2021 11:00:00 -0400

This was actually the first trip they took with Ruth and myself and daughter Helen.
As with most things involving Charles, it was memorable and very funny.

CHARLES AND LUCY GO TO FRANCE PART 2 PREHISTORIC CAVES IN THE DORDOGNE

Sat, 28 Aug 2021 12:00:00 -0400

A family holiday looking at prehistoric cave paintings. There are photographs to go with this story. A story with an amusing incident......

THINKING ABOUT CORONAVIRUS........ a story from 2021 here in France