Blast from the past… 30
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Feb 2025 (3 months before publishing this article)
It was really nice to have a warm house at last. The heat pump was working well for us, but there were a few little wrinkles that still needed to be ironed out.
Donna and I were shocked at the way Donald Trump was behaving as the new US President. He was making sweeping changes, apparently without care or consideration for the disruption he was causing. And Musk was raising mayhem as well, closing departments and sacking staff to save money. At the end of the month Zelensky was very badly treated by Trump and the Vice President, JD Vance and it seemed almost the entire world was horrified by their behaviour.
We visited Blenheim Palace and Tewkesbury Abbey during the month. The main image at the top of this post shows the sumptuous dining room at Blenheim, and the paper birds were hanging from the nave ceiling in Tewkesbury Abbey. There were, probably literally, thousands of them.
I had my laptop cleaned internally, and got the 2 TB hard drive replaced with a 2 TB solid state drive (SSD); as a result it runs cooler, has better battery life, and is also a good deal faster. It’s five years old now, but this should extend its useful life for quite some time.
JHM: I wrote about holes in a wall; and discussed truth and facts. World events: A tariff trade war developed between China and the USA; and there was a shocking meeting between the US and Ukrainian Presidents in the Oval Office.
November 2024 (6 months before publishing)
The mornings and evenings were drawing in and that makes opportunities for twilight photos while the shops are still open. I finished my tax return and told myself to do it earlier next year (again).
On 6th I wrote in my journal, ‘What a nightmare – it seems that Donald Trump has the US election in the bag. It’s a gloomy prospect for the world, for the USA, for Europe, the UK and Ukraine. It’s a bad outcome for democracy itself, although brought about by the democratic process. It’s bad for freedom of trade. There is some benefit for Putin, for Kim Yong Un, and for misinformation, untruth and bad behaviour.’ Looking back, that seems prophetic.
We had a surveyor visit from Octopus Energy on 11th the first step towards installing a heat pump. The Long Table shop, Monastery, opened in the Market Place recently and we went there for a quick initial look. They’re doing an amazing job. Our chimney developed a leak and dripped through my study ceiling.
And at the end of the month we had a visit from friends in St Neots and the Christmas Market filled the Market Place. It was a busy month but on the whole a good one.
JHM: I wrote about a rose in the rain; and the Spilhaus Projection. World events: Donald Trump was elected for a second term as US President; and Opposition forces seized control of most of Aleppo, Syria.
May 2024 (1 year before)
Donna and I walked along the canal towpath through Chalford, and enjoyed exploring this pretty hillside village. We ate lunch at Felt Cafe and visited the Long Table at Brimscombe.
Little by little I’d been clearing ivy from the dry stone wall along the west side of the Gloucester Road. There was now a section of about 500 m completely clean and looking much better. I only did ten or twenty minutes at a time, usually when I was walking back from town. I like things like that, slow progress over a long period adding up to a large effect.
On 16th I walked another long section of canal, from Chalford all the way to Stonehouse, parts of this are really pretty. An expedition to The Newt with Paul and Vanessa was a great day out, too.
JHM: I asked why I’d follow Jesus; and wrote about the opening of a canal tunnel. World events: Spain, Ireland and Norway recognized the State of Palestine; and Donald Trump became the first US ex-president to be found guilty of a crime.
May 2023 (2 years)
We took Donna’s Mum, Isobel, for a short break at a Warners Hotel at Holme Lacy near Hereford. While staying there we were able to visit Hereford and explore the city centre including a look inside the lovely old cathedral. Donna and I also managed a country walk one morning while Isobel sat in the sunshine at the hotel. We visited the National Trust garden at The Weir overlooking the River Wye. It’s beautiful countryside and an interesting site with a south facing walled garden on a south-facing slope with no southern wall so that cold air can slide downhill to reduce winter frosts.
Our friend Kevin was in the process of moving from Gamlingay to Little Paxton. He also told me about a new friend he’d made, Lariana. They were getting on very well together and now, two years later, they are married and living in St Neots! That’s a story with a very happy ending.
King Charles III was crowned on 6th May, only the second coronation of a British monarch during my lifetime. It was a grand event and we followed the TV coverage with great interest. I particularly noticed that the floor coverings in Westminster Abbey were yellow and blue – the colours of the Ukrainian flag. It’s impossible to know if this was a deliberate statement of royal support for Ukraine, but I like to think it might have been. It seems gold and blue were also used at Queen Elizabeth’s coronation in 1953.
I found a working copy of the old LARS System that I created while working at Long Ashton Research Station in 1994. It was a virtual machine copy on one of my backup drives, I imported the hard disk image and it ran with no issues in Virtual Box. I was delighted to find this. It brought back a lot of memories!
JHM: I wrote about human origins; and about Pompeii. World events: WHO no longer considered COVID an emergency; while Belarus agreed to site nuclear weapons on its territory.
May 2020 (5 years)
For the first time since COVID lockdown we were allowed to meet with a friend, providing it was out-of-doors and we stayed at least 2 m apart.
Donna’s Dad, Tony, deteriorated during the month and died in the evening of 26th, her brother Paul was able to visit twice, once for two nights and then again just nine days before Tony passed away. We had been able to get carers in from a local hospice, Longfield, despite the COVID precautions. This was wonderful as otherwise he would have had to go into care and visiting was not possible during this time. It would have been an awful experience for him and for us, too.
There were daily ministerial broadcasts about the pandemic. It was a strange time, I remember one day a queue of over 100 people was socially distanced all around the Tesco car park with a very long wait to get into the supermarket. People were grateful for the support they were getting and showed it in a variety of ways. Donna and I always looked forward to our one permitted daily walk, but the necessary restrictions were causing serious damage to the economy. I wrote a Haiku of Haikus about it all.
World events: The number of COVID cases worldwide passed 5 million on 21st May; and the first crew flew on a SpaceX Dragon vehicle.
May 2015 (10 years)
We drove to York and visited Thorganby and Fulford to spend time with my daughters and the grandchildren. It’s always good to see everyone; in the photo Aidan and Verity (now Fern) are working on some Lego. Ten years later, Aidan is travelling in South America and Fern is taking GCSEs.
Here’s a shot of our old garden in St Neots. It was fully mature by this time, and big enough for entertaining. We used to do this often and our home became known as ‘the party house’. We had plenty of room indoors, a summerhouse, and garden ‘rooms’ so people could sit and chat or stroll around talking.
World events: The 2015 UK General Election produced the first Conservative majority in 18 years; and ISIS captured the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria.
May 2010 (15 years)
I started seeing flashing lights whenever I turned my head or flicked my eyes from side to side; I was concerned about a detached retina. The walk-in clinic’s GP sent me to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge for a proper check and they decided I had detachment of the vitreous, a normal occurrence involving the retina as we age, and with similar symptoms.
I went to the Starfish Vision Unconference in Helsinki, and was made very welcome by my hosts, who collected me from the Airport and gave me a room in their home. There was an emphasis on rapid, bursting growth and new life. There were 50 or 60 people present from church in mostly Nordic countries, but other parts of Europe too. The photo shows delegates relaxing outside during a break. I felt Finland was a beautiful country, and the people were kind and helpful.
We visited Scotland with Donna’s parents and her brother for a family wedding in Glasgow. But we made a week of it by booking a holiday home in Ballachulish near Oban. The photo shows Paul and Donna with Tony and Isobel in the middle of the group.
JHM: I reported on church news; and wrote on Biology and the economy. World events: The UK general election resulted in a hung parliament; and the Neanderthal genome project suggested Neanderthals and our species may have interbred.
May 2005 (20 years)
I visited Mum and Dad at Churnside in Cirencester and spent most of the day with them, driving down to arrive mid-morning and travelling back in the evening. The house and garden haven’t changed much from one visit to the next, the place was pretty much as they wanted it and they were in no hurry to alter anything.
Dad had not stopped being a nurseryman! His little greenhouse was full of things he’d propagated and he often supplied me and my sisters with pots of this or that for our gardens. Once a plant propagator, always a plant propagator. One of the first books I bought as a student at Bath University was ‘Plant Propagation’ by Hartman and Kester. Dad was so interested in it that I later bought him his own copy.
World events: The UK general election was won by Tony Blair for a third term; and the Eurovision Song Contest was held in Kyiv, Ukraine.
May 2000 (25 years)
Donna and I were both working at Unilever in Sharnbrook, north of Bedford. The Web Team that I worked for were happy that we’d had no Y2K (year 2000) issues, it had involved a lot of work in 1999; the photo shows me at my desk.
I registered scilla.org.uk as an internet domain that Donna and I could use for email, a website, ftp and other functions. We called it scilla as it’s suitably short for an address and is a genus of squill, related to the bluebell. We have bluebells in our front garden in St Neots.
Donna’s parents visited us on 13th and mine came on 27th to stay for a few days. The house was in a state of upheaval because we were decorating the lounge and had squeezed the sofas into the small dining room.
World events: India’s population reached 1 billion; and the Millennium Force roller coaster opened, in Ohio, the world’s tallest and fastest.
May 1995 (30 years)
Beth was working hard on her upcoming A levels and working towards her Biology project, helped along by her Mum who sometimes took her out on field trips at weekends.
Meanwhile Debbie was driving her new car at this time, quite an exciting change for her and increasing her mobility and independence enormously.
World events: The Vaal Reefs mining disaster involved a locomotive falling into a mine shaft; and Russia expanded its Mir space station by adding Spektr.
May 1990 (35 years)
In May we visited Ophrys House, Tim and Deirdre’s home in Siddington, to meet my cousin Jill and her partner Marcia who were on holiday there from the USA (they lived in West Virginia at that time). Tim wanted to demonstrate the dentition of one of his goats, the goat got annoyed and gave his fingers a nip! In the photo are Judy, Marcia, Debbie and Beth.
The same weekend I went to visit Dad while he was working at the Kingsmeadow Garden Centre in Cirencester, now the site of Tesco Extra’s car park. He was busy in the little office, cashing up at the end of the day. These days customers swipe their cards and the daily totals appear automatically.
World events: Latvia declared independence from the USSR; and The WHO removed homosexuality from its list of diseases.
May 1985 (40 years)
The 19th was Beth’s 7th birthday and the weather was kind so she had friends round for a party in the back garden.
It was about this time that we drove down to Rachael and Peter’s home in Eaton Socon, St Neots, for a Clever Clogs’s photographic session for advertising material for the educational software we were helping to develop. I wrote some of the early software for the ZX81 and the Spectrum, and Peter turned it into a profitable business and marketed it. We rose to the giddy heights of selling the games via a range of retail outlets, including WH Smiths.
I was working at Long Ashton Research Station, and was the Computer Rep for the Plant Sciences Division. Judy was teaching Biology GCSE and A Level at Cotham Grammar School in Bristol.
World events: UK scientists announced the discovery of the ozone hole; and the Heysel Stadium disaster killed 39 football spectators in rioting.
May 1980 (45 years)
Beth was two-years-old and she enjoyed her cake and presents. I’m assuming the party would have been just family, either one or both sets of grandparents coming down for the day.
She sat for a long time investigating all the presents thoroughly and was very focused of each one. Judy had baked a circular cake and cleverly cut it into pieces to make up an elephant shape. She then iced it and decorated it with a number two.
Meanwhile Debbie, already five-years-old, was expecting to start school in the autumn, but that was still an entire summer away!
World events: Global eradication of smallpox was certified by the WHO; and Mount St. Helens erupted violently in the USA.
May 1975 (50 years)
Debbie was eight-weeks old around the middle of the month, and we were getting closer to deciding on a house; we’d secured a mortgage in principal and I had life assurance in place too . We’d considerd St Werburgh’s as we could afford the homes there and it would provide easy access to town, but it was not a great area and a nearby village looked better. The Claverham/Yatton area was more to our liking but was also more difficult to afford.
We looked at some properties in Yatton, and found one we liked but couldn’t really afford in Rectory Drive. We put in a low offer that we thought would be too high, but worth a try, only to have it accepted immediately! So the legal process got under way sooner than we’d expected.
We were still living in our flat at 20 Belmont Road in Bristol, but we contacted the landlord to give notice in principal (although we couldn’t yet provide a firm moving date).
World events: Junko Tabei became the first woman to reach the summit of Everest; and there was a serious coach crash near Grassington, North Yorkshire.
May 1970 (55 years)
Judy and I were both in our final year at university. I was at Bath studying Horticulture in year 4, she was at Aberystwyth studying Biochemistry in year 3. We were both approaching our finals and working really hard.
We were looking forward to finishing our studies, graduating (hopefully) and then on October 3rd, getting married – oh, and finding work!
World events: the Red Army Faction was set up in West Germany; and Thor Heyerdahl left Morocco on Ra II to cross the Atlantic.
May 1965 (60 years)
The World Gliding Championships came to South Cerney Airfield, just south of Cirencester, and opened on 29th May. This was a huge event for somewhere the size of Cirencester, let alone South Cerney!
The photo shows a Slingsby Capstan glider with one of the South Cerney wartime hangers in the background. The airfield was very familiar to us as Dad was a keen aeromodeller and we used to visit South Cerney often to fly our models, sometimes on our own but often with other members of the Cirencester club.
World events: Muhammad Ali knocked out Sonny Liston in the first round of their rematch; and Jim Clark won the Indianapolis 500.
May 1960 (65 years)
I was in my final term of the first form at Cirencester Grammar School, though it seems not much maths had lodged in my brain yet! (Click the image.)
It was around this time, perhaps, that we moved from our council house, 17 Queen Anne’s Road, on the Beeches Estate. We moved into my grandparent’s old home ‘Churnside’ at 37 Victoria Road. I was somewhat peeved at not being able to take part in the move, but I was required to go to school instead. It was so exciting to ride my bike the short distance to the new house and find the rest of the family busy sorting everything out, and then joining in.
World events: An American spy plane was shot down over the USSR and its pilot, Gary Powers, captured; and Sputnik 4 was launched into orbit by The USSR.
May 1955 (70 years)
I was close to the end of my second year at Querns School and although I probably wasn’t thinking about the summer holidays yet (and no doubt late June would have seemed an interminable wait) but by the end of May it would have been just a matter of a few weeks.
The photo shows part of the front of the school and the side entrance. The playground and field were further down that way. I remember playing rounders in the little field at the bottom of the school playground. I understand now that both the playground and the ‘field’ would seem shockingly small if I could visit them today! This was, after all, just a largish urban house and back garden pressed into service as a very small junior school; but at the time they seemed big. And I remember Martin Kinch who always seemed able to hit the ball harder than anyone else, run faster than anyone else, and was just physically superior to the rest of us.
A few things have changed, but this side entrance is still very recognisable.
World events: West Germany became a sovereign country and joined NATO; and Austria became a sovereign, neutral country.
May 1950 (75 years)
Dad was working for the family business, John Jefferies & Son Ltd. The photo shows part of the front page of a seed catalogue from a company they may have used from time to time.
I’ll describe something I used to do at this age, in our new house at Queen Anne’s Road. This is not something I remember, as I was still not yet two-years-old in May 1950. But Mum and Dad told me about this much later in my life.
Our new home had a door on the right, just as you stepped through the front door from the garden. Straight ahead was a short corridor, and a second door leading to the kitchen. And on the left, stairs led up to the bathroom and three bedrooms, one of them very tiny. On the ground floor, taking that door on the right brought you into the sitting room (nobody had lounges in those days). Turning left, another door led to the dining-room, and turning left again brought you to the kitchen with the back door. Finally, turning left yet again brought you back into the hall, facing the front door at the far end.
It seems this arrangement fascinated my young brain and I spent a lot of time going round and round and round. It was a novelty for me, because this was not possible at my grandparents home where we had lived previously.
World events: Tollund Man was discovered in Denmark; and Britain formally recognised Israel.
May 1945 (80 years)
(Wikimedia)
On 1st May Dad wrote in his diary ‘Hitler dies!!!‘. Clearly a red-letter day for the Allies. On 2nd he reported that the Germans surrendered in Italy and that Berlin fell. On 4th he heard that German forces in Holland and Denmark had also surrendered.
On 7th Germany surrendered unconditionally to the Allies and the war was over in Europe. On the same day Dad received more good news, his promotion came through to Aircraftman First Class (AC1) from Leading Aircraftman (LAC). And he also had permission to visit Ireland on leave. What an amazing day!
8th May was declared VE Day. The photo shows Field Marshall Keitel signing the document of unconditional surrender.
World events: Wernher von Braun and 120 members of his team surrendered to U.S. forces; and the Schuman Declaration was the spark that resulted later in the forming of the EU.
May 1940 (85 years)
There’s not enough information to write something for every month in the 1940s. Dad’s diaries start in January 1943, so for January 1940 to December 1942 I’ll write about things I know, or draw on dated photos and documents. Sometimes I might use a photo or document with a guessed date.
I remember the family business in the mid 1950s and it would not have changed a great deal since 1940. There were several plant nurseries with an annual rhythm to the seasonal tasks that needed to be followed. By May all of the lifting, packing and despatch of trees and shrubs would have finished and tasks like hoeing and weeding would have come to the fore.
During wartime this pattern was, no doubt, disrupted. Although normal business would have gone on at a reduced level, I imagine much of the land would have been pressed into service to produce as much wheat, barley and oats as possible, as well as potatoes and vegetable crops, apples, pears and plums, as well as strawberries, raspberries, blackcurrants and gooseberries. All these would have been propagated for sale as plants during peacetime, but perhaps some of them would have been allowed to grow larger to provide fruit for market as well.
Dad would have been approaching his 14th birthday in May 1940, and still at school, probably at Rendcomb College, but perhaps still at Cirencester Grammar School. Mum was still eleven-years-old, living and at school in Coagh in Northern Ireland.
World events: German forces invaded the Low Countries and France; and the Dunkirk evacuation took place.
1930-1939 (94 to 86 years ago)
Anything that appears in this section will be material that I believe belongs in this decade. Items will not be in sequence within the decade, but where I can make a good guess of the date I will do so.
Here’s an envelope that tells a tale. E.A. Jefferies was my grandfather, Edward Arthur Jefferies. He lived at ‘Churnside’, 37 Victoria Road in Cirencester, how the postman was supposed to know where to deliver the letter is a bit of a mystery!
Clearly, though, it was delivered successfully. The fact that the stamp is missing is interesting. It seems my grandfather used to like to steam the stamps off letters, and my Mum told me that if a stamp had been missed by a badly aimed franking mark, he would glue it onto another letter to save on postage!
World events (May 1931): the Empire State Building was completed; and Kemal Atatürk was re-elected president of Turkey.
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