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Notes from bygone years – Marching on and on
Hint: Click on the thumbnails for larger images.
March 2023 (1 year before publishing this article)
We visited Bristol for the day on 18th March 1973; it’s only 44 miles from our home in Cirencester. For several years I lived in this fine city, and then for many more years just a few miles to the west. I know the place pretty well and I’ve seen it change with the passing decades. This photo contains many of the places I love: the cathedral, the university, the floating harbour created long ago by damming the River Avon with a lock for entry and exit around times of high tide.
We visited the covered St Nicholas Market where we ate a light Indian lunch, and viewed a gallery of award winning wildlife photos at the M shed. After coffee and cake at a local cafe it was time to drive home. A lovely day to remember.
JHM: I wrote two articles about ChatGPT. – World events: – GPT-4 was launched by OpenAI.
March 2022 (2 years before publishing)
Members of the family met to plant a Siddington Russet apple tree on the site of Siddington Nursery.
When I was young this was a working ornamental and fruit tree nursery, part of the family business run by my grandfather with my father, three uncles, and a cousin. It included a shop in Cirencester and later, a garden centre in the town centre and another at Kingsmeadow on the southern outskirts (now a Tesco Extra). There were a number of nurseries, including Siddington; however, it was a declining business and was wound up in the 1980s.
World events: The UN deplored Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and called for the immediate withdrawal of its forces; and Shackleton’s ship Endurance was discovered in the Antarctic;
March 2019 (5 years before)
This old cedar tree was here when I was a child, a feature of Cirencester’s West Market Place. It must have been here when my father was a child too. Usually I just walk past, but on this March day I stopped to take the tree’s portrait.
World events: An uncrewed SpaceX Crew Dragon test flight docked with the International Space Station; and all Boeing 737 Max aircraft were grounded.
March 2014 (10 years)
We were living in St Neots at this time, the photo is of boats in the centre of town, near the River Great Ouse and an easy walk from our home. The short canal in the photo served the industrial part of the town and follows the course of Hen Brook, a small tributary of the Great Ouse.
JHM: I posted an interview with the author of ‘The Black Swan Effect’. – World events: Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared without trace.
March 2009 (15 years)
In March 2009 I visited friends in Yatton, North Somerset, where I had lived for several decades with my first wife, Judy, and our two daughters. I took this photo of our first house; the weeping birch had grown enormously since I last saw it!
JHM: I wrote a short note about a meeting; – World events: NASA’s Kepler mission was launched to search for planets orbiting other stars.
March 2004 (20 years)
Always apply the handbrake when parking your car. This was the scene in the Unilever car park at work one day in March 2004! Somebody left their car with the handbrake off, and the slight slope had been enough to cause a very big problem later. Whoops!
JHM: I explained how trees figured in a meeting. – World events: Seven European nations were admitted to NATO.
March 1999 (25 years)
To celebrate our first wedding anniversary, Donna and I visited Rome in March. What a fascinating place! We explored many historic sites – the Vatican, the remains of the Roman Forum, the Roman senate, the temple to all the gods (the Pantheon), but most amazing for me was the Colosseum. The photo shows people entering the building.
World events: Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic joined NATO.
March 1994 (30 years)
The Gloucestershire Regiment (Glorious Glosters) was disbanded in March 1994, here they are parading through Cirencester in a still frame from a video taken by my Dad. Their final parade was in the city of Gloucester, just three days later.
World events: China made its first connection to the internet; Schindler’s List won seven Oscars; and the Linux kernel v 1.0.0 was released.
March 1989 (35 years)
We visited the SS Great Britain in Bristol with Debbie’s French Exchange student, Anne. Here are Beth, Anne and Debbie on the old ship. The Bristol/Bordeaux exchange has been running a long time. Judy remembered doing the exchange and now one of her daughters was taking part too.
World events: Tim Berners-Lee wrote a proposal for the World Wide Web; and there was a serious rail crash in Purley.
March 1984 (40 years)
This was the month that my friend, Tony Everest, died. It was such a tragedy; Tony felt he was a failure. A carpenter by trade, he had lost his job and was unable to find a new one; in particular he felt he had let down his wife and children. He left a message asking me to take his funeral, and although I did that willingly, I was very glad to have the help of some other mutual friends in the planning and on the day.
World events: A year-long coal miner’s strike began in the UK; and Iran accused Iraq of using chemical weapons.
March 1979 (45 years)
John Jefferies & Son was redeveloping their small Forum Garden Centre in the area between Tower Street and The Avenue. The site is now Minerva Court, an area of 1980s housing. A number of old, brick and timber greenhouses were demolished and replaced by a single, large aluminium glasshouse for the indoor display area. Debbie had her fourth birthday this month.
World events: NASA’s Voyager 1 probe showed that Jupiter has rings; and Philips demonstrated the first CD audio disc (marketed from 1982).
March 1974 (50 years)
I believe this is a photo of Bristol from the top of Dundry Hill, though I can’t be completely sure. We were living in the city and used to enjoy the drive out to Dundry from time to time. We were saving to buy our first house at a time of rapid inflation, a difficult situation.
World events: The Terracotta Army was discovered in China; and Hiroo Onoda, a Japanese WW2 soldier, surrendered in The Philippines.
March 1969 (55 years)
During March I was in my third year at Bath University while Judy was in her second year at Aberystwyth. Exams were only a few months away for both of us, though it’s fair to say Judy was working far harder than I was.
Judy was planning for a biochemistry trip to Cambridge in April and was carefully considering the finances for it (see image). About £15.60 for four days covered accomodation, meals, and travel from Aber to Cambridge and back!
World events: Concorde‘s first test flight took off at Toulouse; and John Lennon and Yoko Ono were married.
March 1964 (60 years)
I was in the 5th year at Cirencester Grammar School, and during the Easter holiday some of us went to Paris on a school trip for a week. I took this photo on the platform at Swindon Station waiting for our train to London. I think we might have caught our first train at Cirencester Town Station to change at Kemble. The Cirencester branch closed the following year.
World events: A huge earthquake struck Anchorage in Alaska; Jerrie Mock started a solo flight around the world, becoming the first woman to do so.
March 1959 (65 years)
The end of the spring term fell in March, I had just one final term and the eleven plus exam to go and that would be the end of my time at junior school. I think that made me feel rather grown up and I began wondering how my new life would be at secondary school.
World events: Archbishop Makarios returned to Cyprus from exile; NASA’s lunar probe Pioneer 4 became the first American object to escape Earth orbit; the Barbie doll was released in the USA; and Hawaii became a US state.
March 1954 (70 years)
My second term at Querns School continued right through March as Easter wasn’t until mid-April. By this time I was probably getting quite good at copying letters and short, simple words as well as counting small pictures of animals and objects and writing down the correct number. We also got to colour in these little pictures so it seemed quite good fun.
World events: The USA announced that a hydrogen bomb had been tested on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific; the Soviet Union recognised the sovereignty of East Germany.
March 1949 (75 years)
I was eight months old at the end of March, perhaps beginning to crawl around and confident at sitting. Mum, Dad and I shared a bedroom upstairs in my grandparents home at 37 Victoria Road in Cirencester. I must have been carried up and down the stairs in that house a number of times every day.
World events: 92 000 Baltic States citizens were deported internally in the USSR; and Newfoundland became part of Canada.
March 1944 (80 years)
Dad registered again for military service (just to be sure) and received his calling up papers three months earlier than expected.
Also in March, as a member of the Air Training Corps (ATC) he was lucky enough to be invited on a cross-country flight in an Airspeed Oxford with two Frenchmen. Taking off from South Cerney, they flew over Chippenham, Thame, Droitwich, Malvern, Monmouth, and Stroud, landing again at South Cerney.
World events: In the UK, a prohibition against teaching by married women was lifted; Mount Vesuvius erupted; and the Tetra Pak was invented in Sweden.
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