What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye.
I’m posting an image every two days (or as often as I can). A photo, an image from the internet, a diagram or a map. Whatever takes my fancy.
Christmas lights
This is Cirencester Market Place on 5th January 2021, still in its decorated-for-Christmas state. In the 17th century this space was full of buildings and narrow streets. Roughly where the red car stands, imagine an old inn with a street either side, and beyond it two rows of buildings, Butter Row and Butcher’s Row, so three streets at that point. Many old buildings were destroyed in town improvement schemes over the years. If they still existed today they would attract preservation orders.
If you could visit the Market Place in 1500 you would struggle to recognise anything other than the Parish Church. All the fine, Cotswold stone buildings were constructed more recently than that, the shops and dwellings at that time would have been timber framed with overhanging upstairs floors. The entire look and feel of the place would be different. At that time the Abbey was thriving with the Abbey Church behind the existing Parish Church. The entirety of what is now the Abbey Grounds would have been busy with monks on errands and at work in the gardens, at the fishing lake (still there today), in the mill and bakery and so much more. It was almost a walled town within a town.
In the year 1000, shortly before the Norman invasion, some of Saxon Cirencester may still have been outside the old Roman walls, but there was a Saxon church in the area of the Abbey Grounds and it’s likely that other parts of the Roman City would have been cleared and put to use.
And in the year 500 the Romans had left only 100 years earlier. The city would have been more or less intact, but derelict. Initially, Saxon settlers lived outside the old city walls. Some of those walls would still have been standing, at least in places, and the larger buildings inside the city would have been identifiable – the Basilica, the Forum, and probably Baths and a Theatre (now lost). The Saxons built timber framed houses and farms initially outside the walls. Piles of rubble and stone, no doubt ridden with extensive and impenetrable growths of brambles and trees, would have seemed far less useful than the arable land outside the old walls.
Go back another five hundred years and the area where the town now stands consisted of a flood plain with low gravel banks and the River Churn meandering through. There would have been yellow iris, water mint, alder and willow in wetter areas with other trees on higher ground. The waterways would have been easily forded and the local Dobunni people likely fished in the area and farmed on higher ground nearby. The Roman army constructed the Fosse Way from Exeter to Lincoln and built a timber fort in the eastern part of modern Cirencester. It’s likely that a trading settlement grew up near the fort and the town was officially recognised in 75 CE. By the later Roman period it had become the second largest city in Britain (London was the largest).
All of this took place in and around the area we know today as Cirencester Market Place.
Cirencester
For convenience, here’s a list of all the Cirencester area images:
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What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye.
I’m posting an image every two days (or as often as I can). A photo, an image from the internet, a diagram or a map. Whatever takes my fancy.
Stone plaque, Cirencester
This intriguing carved, stone plaque is in Cirencester’s West Market Place, close to the Parish Church. The Latin inscription ‘VIRTUTE ET INGENIO’ is interesting; ‘VIRTUTE’ can mean ‘virtue’, ‘courage’, ‘strength’ or ‘power’; ‘ET’ is ‘and’; while the word ‘INGENIO’ means ‘wit’ in the sense of cleverness, not humour. So the best I can offer is ‘strength and cleverness’, the English expression ‘brawn and brains’ sums it up quite well.
The shield above contains a rampant lion with two tails, holding up what looks like a rose. And on either side is a shoot of ivy, each with one ivy flower cluster. Do those two tails refer to the idea of something twofold, perhaps the need to be strong in both action and thought, body and mind?
Maybe someone in Cirencester knows the meaning and history of this interesting artefact. But meanwhile I’ll just take it as very sound advice that we need to think things through properly, and then act on whatever conclusion we might come to. Action without thought is usually a waste of effort, thought without action is ineffective. Thinking it through and then doing it is the way to go!
Cirencester
For convenience, here’s a list of all the Cirencester area images:
If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!
Notes from bygone years – September after September after September. Hint: Click on the thumbnails for larger images.
September 2023 (1 year before publishing this article)
From time to time we visit Donna’s brother Paul and his wife Ness in Weston-super-Mare, and their two Labradors (pictured). They are sisters, but they have different temperaments, just like people. On this visit, Paul and Ness were heading off for a holiday so Donna and I looked after the dogs for the week.
One of our favourite walks is to take the dogs to the beach for exercise and then to Stones Cafe, a seafront place where we like the breakfasts, so we get a treat before walking home. If we just take Maizi, she gets a dog sausage as well, but fatty foods are a problem for Marple.
We finished our family holiday in the Pennines, and drove home on 2nd September. And the very next day we set out again to drive to the village of Llantisilio in Pembrokeshire for a week with Paul, Ness, Isobel and the dogs.
It was during our stay that we heard about the death of the Queen and the accession of Charles III.
One day we drove to Tenby to look around and visit the indoor market, and we unexpectedly bumped into some friends that we’d made a few years ago in Cirencester, who have since moved to Yorkshire. And here they were in Tenby!
World events: The G7 Imposed a price cap on Russian oil exports; and Liz Truss was appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
The fencing around our back garden was finished, and we were very pleased with it.
I was working on some decorating in Tony and Isobel’s new house, next door but one to ours; having them living close would make it far easier for Donna to help her Mum cope as Tony deteriorated (he had Parkinson’s). A local builder made some alterations for them, including bricking up an unwanted door.
JHM: I wrote an index for articles on my family’s old business. World events: In the UK, Thomas Cook went bankrupt; and in the USA an impeachment inquiry began against President Donald Trump
Donna started her teacher training at the college in Stewartby; and at a Small Group meeting in St Neots she read out Ezekiel 47 and asked, ‘How deep are we prepared to go?’ This led to some good discussion. She was also helping with the Food Bank at this time.
I was meeting with my friends Matt, Kev, John, and Mo, we’d been reading the Bible together and trying to follow Jesus better. Meanwhile, the BBC reported the grim news that Islamic State had beheaded a British aid worker in Iraq.
We visited York to see Debbie, Beth and their families, Sara was six this month.
I flew to the USA for the House2House Conference in Dallas over the weekend of 2nd-6th. From there I flew to West Palm Beach to stay with Steph and Earl, then on to Boston on 14th to join up with Donna for a holiday, returning home via Gatwick on 26th.
We drove down to the RHS Garden at Wisley and spent a good part of the day there exploring. There’s a lot to see! Donna managed to get this picture of me while we were there.
We’d been invited to a party in St Neots in the evening, but we still had enough time to look around quite thoroughly before driving home and getting ready for the evening event.
JHM:I posted meeting notes on Touch and seasons. World events:Chechen rebels took 1,128 people hostage; and West Sulawesi became the 33rd province of Indonesia.
We had a house-warming barbecue on 12th at our new home in St Neots, with a mix of guests from Unilever, Open Door Church and some neighbours.
On 17th we set off for a holiday in Sorrento. The photo shows the remains of a bakery in Pompeii, the grey devices are flour mills and you can see a brick-built oven in the background. Pompeii and Herculaneum were both amazing to see.
During surgery to remove Judy’s colon tumour, metastases were found in her liver. She was offered a course of chemotherapy (5-fluorouracil) but although this was likely to give her a few more years, it would not be a cure.
This was a shock to the whole family, I have few photos, documents, or notes for the year following Judy’s surgery.
World events: Britain lifted the Northern Irish broadcasting ban on Sinn Féin and paramilitaries; and the Taliban movement was founded in Kandahar, Afghanistan..
Due to lack of rainfall and a hot summer, the water levels in Chew Valley Lake fell to the lowest we could remember. The photo shows a road crossing the River Chew over a stone-built bridge, all of which would normally be under water.
World events: An IRA bomb exploded at the Royal Marine School of Music in Deal, killing 11 people; and Hurricane Hugo devastated the Caribbean and the southeastern USA.
It’s always fun to do something unusual. Here are Debbie and Beth eating outside in the sunshine, it was lunchtime judging by the direction of the shadows.
There are fully grown apples on the tree beyond the table, but unpicked so presumably not quite ripe at the time of the photo.
At this time we were busy with faith meetings of various kinds. Our band, Fountain, played and Judy spoke at Pill Baptist Church around 16th, and on 21st Colin Urquhart spoke at Portishead URC where I recorded his address in support of the coming Good News Crusade.
We visited Blenheim Palace, possibly with Judy’s Mum and Dad. It was a fine, early autumn day with a blue sky and strong sunshine.
Judy was pregnant at the time, we had no way of knowing whether to expect a boy or a girl (no ultrasound scans in those days), but in the event it would turn out to be Debbie. A highly satisfactory outcome!
Judy’s 21st birthday was 10th September and we were all invited to Cheltenham for her party. I think this was at 18 Hales Close, and Judy’s brother Frank must have taken the photo. We were both about to head back to University for our final year, me to Bath and Judy to Aberystwyth.
Our Irish holiday continued into the beginning of September. This is the River Bann at Toome Bridge just north of Lough Neagh. Granda was a water bailiff on the Lough, protecting the eel fishery from poaching. The boat he took us out in is the one in the bottom-right corner.
World events: The Forth Road Bridge opened in Scotland; and the Beatles refused to play to a segregated audience in Florida.
After my Grandpa’s death and the funeral, Granny (Nor) went to Kent for a holiday in the area where she grew up, and visited places she remembered and was fond of. Perhaps she had friends or family to visit as well, I don’t know. What I do know is that this card had a long strip of conceretina-folded photos with other views that you could pull out. However, this has not survived.
World events:Luna 2 became the first human-made object to crash on the Moon; and the Xerox 914, the first plain paper copier was introduced.
We were on holiday at Muddiford, near Christchurch 0n the south coast of Hampshire. I was six at this time and Cindy was three, and Dad decided to send a postcard to Ireland on our behalf. His message on the back seems a bit cheeky, though, recommending Muddiford over Portrush! I wonder what Granny-in-Ireland thought about that? (view the card)
It was Mum and Dad’s second wedding anniversary at the end of September, and I was 14 months old. I was likely becoming more confident at both walking and talking. Possibly I’d have been doing unhelpful things as well, like trying to climb the stairs! Keeping a young child safe gets harder as they try new things.
Dad’s Uncle Herbert died (he’d been ill for some time). Dad continued working with radar at the Ballinderry RAF site, and visiting Coagh to spend time with his new friend Lilias. And on 6th September Dad reported hearing ‘awe inspiring drumming’ in Coagh.
By the end of the month Lilias was feeling she was falling in love with Dad, but in his diary he wrote that this was ‘a pity’. I’m glad he changed his mind later!
World events: II: In Operation Market Garden airborne landings began in the Netherlands and Germany; and the first V-2 rocket was used to attack London.
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Notes from bygone years – Some of the most august months of August Hint: Click on the thumbnails for larger images.
August 2023 (1 year before publishing this article)
Reindeer on Cairn Gorm
For our family holiday this year we had decided to book a big house in Scotland (there were ten of us, me and Donna, my two daughters and their husbands, and four grandchildren) so we needed a lot of space! We did many interesting trips and walks, and some of us decided to attempt the summit of Cairn Gorm. We saw a herd of reindeer on the way up, and the summit was in the clouds. If it had been clear, we might have gone further south-west for the views, but we really enjoyed our walk, even so.
This year’s family holiday was at Shap in the Pennines. In the photo, part of the family was out for a walk in the lovely countryside around the holiday house.
As usual, there was a lot to see and do, the Lake District is not far from here and the Pennines are full of interest too.
Some of us walked from Keswick to the top of Skiddaw one day. There were good local walks from our house in Shap, too. Donna and I spent a day exploring Haweswater Reservoir and other parts of the Lake District. We usually do a jigsaw while on holiday – this time it was a picture of Cirencester Market Place.
This year’s family holiday was in the Dordogne; in the photo, some of us are crossing the drawbridge of the lovely medieval castle, ‘Château de Beynac‘. Visiting this place was a fairy tale experience, we have nothing of this age and completeness in England apart from Dover Castle, perhaps. The château was just one of many interesting visits, and the holiday home was perfect for us, with a pool for the children and room for us all to spread out.
World events: 11 billion tons of Greenland ice melted in a single day; in Iceland, a funeral was held for the lost Okjökull glacier.
We returned from our family holiday in Lyme Regis on 1st August, and visited Donna’s Mum and Dad in Broadstone on our way home. Two of our friends were ill, one was in hospital after heart surgery and was recovering slowly and getting out of danger, the other had hepatitis and had been in and out of hospital. Both were improving. On the fun side, we watched dragon boat racing on the river in St Neots (photo).
August is certainly the month for holidays in the UK. In 2009 we rented a large house in Aldeburgh and of course, the beach was high on everyone’s list of things to do. The photo shows Sara and her Dad, Steve, on Hunstanton Beach.
I imagine the conversation going something like this… Sara: ‘Come on Daddy, sitting in the water is great!’ Steve: ‘Hmm.. Nah, I’d rather not, thanks.’
We made a day trip to walk on Kinder Scout with Beth and Paz from their home in Disley, and met up with friends from St Neots that we knew through Open Door Church.
It was a great walk on a fine, sunny day, heading up Grinds Brook from Edale, then over the top to Kinder Downfall, back along some of the edges and down Jacob’s Ladder.
World events: NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft was launched to visit Mercury; and the Summer Olympics were held in Athens.
We moved house on 20th August, from Tilbrook to St Neots, from a two-bedroom cottage to a four-bedroom detached house. Our furniture looked very sparse in the new, larger space!
We’d enjoyed living in a village, but looked forward to walking to the shops and only needing the car for longer trips.
World events: There was a total solar eclipse in Europe; and East Timor regained independence from Indonesia.
August was a difficult month. We went to the Bristol Balloon Fiesta on 6th, great fun as always! The photo shows Beth and Judy at the event. Judy was diagnosed with bowel cancer, though it seemed likely surgery would successfully remove it.
Judy, Beth and I had a holiday at Janzé in Normandy and the surgery was to be performed on our return, probably early in September but it might have been late August.
This year’s holiday was on the northern coast of the Lake District at Silloth, we were able to visit Hadrian’s Wall, Wordsworth’s house, Edinburgh, Carlisle and more.
In this photo taken by Judy you can see part of the Roman Wall fortress of Housesteads, with Debbie and me just beyond the building.
World events: The Singing Revolution in the Baltic States demanded independence from the Soviet Union; and NASA’s Voyager 2 captured images and data at Neptune.
Soon after our holiday, we found a toad in our garden, trapped it in a plastic bucket, and took it to a nearby field to release it. In the photo, Beth has the toad moving onto her hand with help from Debbie, and soon afterwards it was free, hopefully in a toad friendly environment.
It wasn’t unusual in Yatton to find wildlife in the house or garden – a field mouse, a bird, a frog or whatever.
There’s remarkably little to say about this month, I’ve failed to locate any photos, cine film, documents or other physical evidence.
We were living at 22 Rectory Drive, in Yatton; Judy was being a full time Mum with Debbie aged four and Beth just one and a quarter. I was working on fruit tree pollination at Long Ashton Research Station.
By this time Judy would have been four months pregnant and we were well aware of it. We were living in an unfurnished flat in Belmont Road, Bristol, and trying to buy a house. Judy was aware of the years ticking by and wanted to start a family, while I was hoping we could sort the house while on two salaries.
The still from Dad’s cine camera shows Cindy’s husband Peter boating on Loch Nell near Oban. Mum and Dad had driven up to visit them, and Pete’s Mum and twin brother were there as well.
The summer of 1969 saw Judy’s friend Big Mary marry her PhD fiance Malcolm. They were both Welsh speakers, as many of the Aberystwyth students were. The photo shows Maggs (Judy’s closest friend at Aber), Judy, Little Mary, Big Mary and Jan (I think) in red. The other two I recognise but can’t put names to.
I took the photo after the Welsh chapel ceremony, but before the reception. It was a valleys wedding, I think in Cwmbran.
We were on holiday in Coagh, Northern Ireland and visited the Black Saturday parade in nearby Cookstown. Here we are at the Assembly Field after the parade.
In the photo you can see Rachael, Lilias, Ruth, Jane (my great-aunt), Selina (my grandmother) and Mike. We always knew our Irish grandmother as ‘Granny-in-Ireland’ to distinguish her from our English grandmother, Nor.
World events: The last executions took place in the UK; Mary Poppins had its world premiere in Los Angeles.
The 11+ exam results came in, I think while we were on holiday at Burnham-on-Sea, I had passed and would start at Cirencester Grammar School in September. During the same holiday, we heard that my Grandpa had died on 22nd and Dad had to drive home for a couple of days leaving Mum, me and Cindy in the holiday caravan.
Also in August, I passed my Leaping Wolf badge before moving from Cubs to Scouts.
World events: NASA’s Explorer 6 satellite returned the first images of Earth from space; and the Mini car went on sale in the UK.
I had just turned six-years-old and I remember playing with my electric train set that I was given, either for my birthday or perhaps the previous Christmas.
It was similar to the set on the left of the photo. I well remember the picture on the box lid.
Now starting my second year of life (my first birthday was in late July), we were still living with my grandparents, I think.
I might have started saying one or two words at this stage, I was probably able to stand with perhaps a wobble or two and a sudden sit-down now and then. And maybe I could walk short distances by this time too. I remember a blue harness with three or four silver bells on the front and this was used when we walked outside on the pavement, but that memory almost certainly comes from the age of two or three.
Dad took his final radar exam on 14th and found out on 15th that he’d passed and was being posted to Inverness. He was also troubled that his girlfriend at the time, Libby, was not as interested in him as he’d assumed.
After leave in Cirencester from 16th he left for Inverness on 22nd via Paddington, Kings Cross, and overnight to Edinburgh, then via Perth to Inverness on 23rd. He was then told he was being posted to Northern Ireland instead! On 25th it was another rail journey via Perth and Glasgow to Dumfries and on 26th to Stranraer for the boat to Larne and then Belfast. With his friends Joe and Tony he caught a ‘funny’ train to Cookstown and then RAF transport to Ballinderry radar station. The photo shows part of a Chain Home radar site, similar to Ballinderry.
On the 31st Dad went to the village shop in Coagh and wrote in his diary ‘talked to girl for long time’. That girl, four years later, became my Mum!
World events: The Warsaw uprising began; and the world’s first undersea oil pipeline was laid between England and France (to supply fuel to the advancing allied forces).
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What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye.
I’m posting an image every day (or as often as I can). A photo, an image from the internet, a diagram or a map. Whatever takes my fancy.
Tank traps
We have some history today. The river is the Churn and it runs in several different channels through the Cotswold town of Cirencester. On the bank you will notice three, large, concrete blocks; there’s also a fourth, partly hidden by the block on the left. The blocks were placed here during the Second World War to slow down German armour in the event that Britain was invaded. German failure to win the Battle of Britain in the air war prevented the invasion, but at the time the blocks were cast and put in place invasion remained a real threat.
The trees in the photo and the wall in the background are more recent than the blocks. The river bank led to an open field with the grounds and gardens of Abbey House beyond at that time, with the centre of the town on the other side of the gardens. The town would have been very vulnerable to attack from this direction.
Similar tank traps have been used along the front lines by both sides in the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. The main difference is that modern, concrete traps are pyramidal (‘Dragon’s Teeth‘, not cubic. The sloping sides use less concrete and are more effective against tanks, but concrete cubes were also commonly used in the 1940s.
It pays to anticipate problems. But wars are rarely anticipated years in advance; political differences can boil over into actual conflict quite suddenly. And once they have started it can be very difficult to bring them to an end.
NOTE: These blocks can be seen from Grove Lane in Cirencester, quite close to the Norman Arch. From inside the Abbey Grounds, walk through the arch and turn right along the footpath for just a few yards. Look across the river, and there they are! A piece of Cirencester history that you can see for free.
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What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye.
I’m posting an image every day (or as often as I can). A photo, an image from the internet, a diagram or a map. Whatever takes my fancy.
The River Churrn in Stratton
This photo shows the River Churn flowing through Stratton Meadow on the northern edge of Cirencester, with the old Stratton Mill in the background. As you can see, the Churn is only a small river, but like the Thames its name is very ancient, going back at least to Iron Age times. In Roman Britain the Thames was Thamesis and Churn is the Corin in Corinium (the Roman name for Cirencester). It’s also the Ciren in Cirencester and the Cerney in several villages north and south of the town.
Rivers are intriguing things, the water contained in them is flowing so the water you see now is different from the water that you saw five minutes ago. Yet the river usually changes its course very little in a human lifetime, so there’s a sense of constancy about it. The water is here for moments only, but the river is here for generations.
In ancient Jewish thinking, flowing water was considered living water, but stationary water in a cup, basin, pond or lake was not living and was therefore of less value and significance. A mikvah was a special bath with water flowing in and water running out at all times, bathing in this living water would make a person ritually clean. Taking a dip in the pond had no such effect!
Cirencester
For convenience, here’s a list of all the Cirencester area images:
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Notes from bygone years – Julys duly described Hint: Click on the thumbnails for larger images.
July 2023 (1 year before publishing this article)
Solar panel installation
We decided to take the plunge and install solar panels on our roof. We had a long wait as demand was high, but the installers arrived in July and after a few days work we were delighted to have the system reducing our electricity bills to almost nothing. Of course, we knew it would be different in the winter months, but with a 10 kWh battery included, we found we could get right through the night on our own stored energy in the summer.
I was also experimenting with a reduced eating window, having breakfast around 11:00. I’ve tried restricted eating before, but this time I’m following evidence-based suggestions from Zoe (see also the Zoe website) .
I was doing Monday walks most weeks with my friend Stephen. We met at one of CBC’s Small Groups here in Stratton, and we got on really well together. Among other interests, Stephen played saxophone in the ‘JJ Band’. We shared similar views on many things and both had backgrounds in computing.
Stephen lived in the town so I’d usually walk down to meet him, we’d enjoy a walk in the park, and often buy coffees from the van or sometimes in town. I always looked forward to my Monday walks.
This was a busy month, I walked several sections of the old Thames and Severn Canal (something I’ve been doing again in 2024), we were regularly arranging the chairs at CBC on Fridays, and two people I knew died, Bob Morris and then Michael Sleggs.
Donna’s Dad was getting weaker and his Parkinson’s symptoms were worsening, so her Mum was needing more help than before and we travelled to Poole to help out more often.
We were living in St Neots, this is a view of the River Great Ouse flowing through the town centre, an easy walk from our house in Eaton Ford. Donna was looking for a school placement for her teaching, I was meeting with a group of friends in coffee shops, hanging out, doing Bible study here and there, hopefully helping people grow and thrive. I was also meeting at home with friends from various local churches.
World events: Israel attacked the Gaza Strip; and a Malaysia Airlines flight was shot down over Ukraine by a missile.
I went to a house church conference and was astonished to bump into my friend Jim Russell there. He’d always thought my views on church were not right, yet here he was! We had some great conversation and he took my photo while I took his. I had no idea that this would be the last time I’d see him.
Donna took part in the Bedford Race for Life organised by Cancer Research UK, along with her friends Gayna and Claire, pictured here wearing their medals. There was a big turn out, along with large numbers of pink-themed balloons and so forth.
We were living in Donna’s cottage near Kimbolton and had decided it was much too small for us both. We’d been looking for somewhere larger and the image shows a survey document for the house in St Neots that we eventually bought.
We visited Mum and Dad in Cirencester on my birthday. As usual we enjoyed spending time with my parents. The photo shows my nephew Tom, my Mum, Beth and Judy chatting together in the back garden. Rachael, Dan, Rosie and Tom were here the same day so it was good to see them too.
Debbie flew to Bordeaux on her French exchange trip (her exchange partner, Anne, had come to stay with us in March). We saw her through check-in and then waited with her on the tarmac, waving goodbye as she walked out to board the plane.
It seemed very strange to drive back home again without her.
We had a summer holiday travelling through Wales from south to north, staying at bed and breakfast places (gwely a brecwast). A few days before we set out, there was a fairly large earthquake, and in Bethesda our landlady was anxious as aftershocks were still continuing. The photo shows Debbie and Beth at the top of Snowdon with a train waiting at the summit station.
This was a short note on a combined staining method for plum reproductive tissues, to aid microscopical studies of the fertilisation process. It wasn’t published as a scientific paper as far as I recall, but was part of a poster presentation at a conference. I hoped other people would try it on different kinds of plant material so that together we could get a much broader view of its usefulness. I don’t think anything came of it in the end, but it’s important to try – that’s part of how science works.
World events: The Sony Walkman first went on sale in Japan; and NASA’s Skylab space station re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere.
Judy must have become pregnant about this time, but we didn’t know that until a little later, of course.
The Severn Bridge was only eight-years-old, and it still seemed amazing that we could drive to Wales instead of queuing for the old Aust Ferry or driving all the way to Gloucester. And there was no thought of a second crossing, of course! I took this photo, but forgot to adjust the focus (no auto-focus in those days).
I was lodging at Archgrove House in Long Ashton along with other students working at the Research Station that summer. Judy sent me the postcard from York (pictured) where she was on holiday with her parents and brother Frank. You won’t believewhat her Dad said about York Minster!
World events:John Fairfax was the first person to row solo across an ocean (the Atlantic); and Neil Armstrong was the first to walk on the Moon (we watched this live at Archgrove House).
Dad drove out to the gravel pits near South Cerney. Some of these were still being used to extract gravel, but some had been worked out and were used by anglers, for swimming, and for water-skiing which we’d never seen before. I took two cameras with me, my old Kodak Starmite loaded with 127 colour transparency film, and my new Kodak Retinette loaded with 35 mm black and white. This photo shows Dad using his camera and my sisters Rachael, Ruth and Cindy.
World events:Malawi became independent of the UK; and NASA’s Ranger 7 send back the first close-up images of the Moon.
I thought you might like to see this birthday letter from my Grandpa. He had emphysema, and died on 22nd August, my 11+ results came in before that and he knew that I had passed. Granny had decided that a sleeping bag would be a useful present as I was off to Cub Camp soon after my birthday and would then move up to the Scouts.
This is a postcard from my Mum to her family back in Northern Ireland. She writes about Cindy and me suffering from chicken pox. I had it before Cindy, so it’s likely I gave it to her (sorry, Cindy). Read the card.
My very first birthday came at the end of the month, a special day, no doubt, with doting parents and grandparents. I must have had other birthday cards, but this one from Watermoor Church is the only survivor. That’s interesting in itself; Mum would have kept them all for a while, but this one seemed more important, perhaps because of Mum and Dad’s strong faith.
On the back of the card is written, ‘Christopher James Jefferies, 37 Victoria Road, baptised October 24th 1948′.
Dad, along with his friend Joe, travelled by lorry, train and bus to Yatesbury where radar training began for them and many others. Dad liked this posting, writing, ‘Radar people seem a good lot’. He was able to hitch home in two or three hours to see the family in Cirencester, sometimes Joe came along too. By the end of the month Dad and others were using radar equipment to plot movements of real aircraft (‘pukka kites’). The photo shows an old aircraft hanger at Yatesbury in 2014.
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The field was a lovely thing to have, we and all our neighbours shared it and it became a place to relax, a sort of unofficial reserve at the end of the garden.
Notes from bygone years – Sing along to some crazy Junes Hint: Click on the thumbnails for larger images.
June 2023 (1 year before publishing this article)
Dunrobin Castle and gardens
Donna and I had a Scottish holiday; we flew to Inverness Airport and took a hire car anticlockwise around the North Coast 500. It was an amazing journey! The photo is of Dunrobin Castle in Sutherland early on the road trip. We saw many interesting features in the towns and villages, the countryside, geology, and coastline. Definitely a holiday to remember.
We walked a section of the Cotswold Way with Donna’s brother Paul and his wife Vanessa.
This view is from a point near the old ‘Air Balloon‘ pub, now demolished to make way for road improvements. The view is north-west towards Gloucester; Crickley Hill is on the right and peeping up beyond it is Churchdown Hill. Coopers Hill rises from the horizon on the left of the image. Hazy in the far distance are the Malverns and Wales beyond.
World events: There was a G7 summit in Germany to discuss events in Ukraine; and a NATO summit was held in Madrid.
Vanessa was running in an event from Sharpness to Gloucester along the old ship canal. Paul, Donna and I made the same trip by car, stopping to watch her pass at several points along the way. After completing her run she joined us in the old docks area, now being redeveloped and including the Gloucester Quays shopping centre.
It was Aidan’s eighth birthday in June and he had an animal themed birthday with everyone able to hold and interact with many different creatures. The photo shows Meredith getting all wound up about a snake! Ten years ago all our grandchildren enjoyed themed birthday parties; and my word, didn’t we have some amazing themes!
We met our newest grandchild for the first time (that’s the one on the right in the photo). Verity was only a few days old, and it was lovely to see her already holding a philosophical conversation with her Dad. But seriously – new life is such a precious and wonderful gift.
I bought my first electronic camera with 640 x 480 resolution, ie 0.3 megapixels! We had a week’s holiday in Scotland with our friends Rob and Jean, staying in a log cabin between Fort William and Loch Ness. The photo (taken on my new camera) shows Rob, Jean and Donna in Leakey’s, an Inverness second-hand bookshop.
Beth had bought a small kite when we went to the Bristol Kite Festival in Ashton Park, and here she’s flying it on a windy day in the field at the bottom of our garden in Stowey Road, Yatton. The field was a lovely thing to have, we and all our neighbours shared it and it became a place to relax, a sort of unofficial reserve at the end of the garden.
World events: The film, ‘The Lion King‘ was released by Disney; the last Russian troops left Germany; and MS-DOS was no longer supported by Microsoft.
Dad sold us his old car, a Volkswagon, and we drove to Cirencester in Jumbo to collect it. Here, Judy is about to travel home in Jumbo, and I followed shortly afterwards in the VW with Debbie and Beth. A little later we sold our old Marina for not very much; it had served us well, but was now near the end of its life.
It was about this time that we waved goodbye to Computer Tutor and the Clever Clogs range of software. I wrote some simple educational games for the Sinclair Spectrum, just for my daughters to use; and brother-in-law, Peter, developed the concept as a viable business and extended the range considerably. By this time Peter had sold the business to Argus Press Software, and none of us remained involved.
I was working on fruit pollination full time by now, having transferred to the Pomology and Plant Breeding Section at Long Ashton Research Station. I had a particular interest in temperature effects on pollen tube growth. By June I would be starting to study the samples I’d collected earlier in the season. The squiggly, yellow lines in the picture are pollen tubes.
Judy’s parents and her brother, Frank, had a chance to visit the Falconry Centre at Newent in Gloucestershire. She took my camera with her and grabbed this lovely portrait during the trip. I needed to be at work that day so couldn’t join them. Work? Day out? No brainer, really, but it just wasn’t going to happen, sadly.
World events: A bomb exploded in Westminster Hall; and Isabel Perón was sworn in as the first female President of Argentina.
I was working on the final sandwich section of my Bath University Horticulture course. I’d been assigned to Long Ashton Research Station (LARS) near Bristol and worked for Eddie Catlow and Martin on the experimental farm team. This placement had the advantage that Judy and I were be able to meet up at weekends.
World events: There was a serious collision between an Australian aircraft carrier and a US destroyer; and Judy Garland died in her London home.
I was taking my O-level exams at Cirencester Grammar School. The photo shows a page from one of my exercise books (not related to an exam). ‘The happiest days of your life’, people told me. But I found exams a real trial, suffering with intense hay fever made far worse by everyone wanting the windows wide open because of hot weather.
World events: Greece rejected direct talks with Turkey over Cyprus; and Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment in South Africa.
This month brought Rachael’s 2nd birthday, Ruth’s 3rd, Dad’s 33rd and Grandpa’s 80th, I was still 10 in June, nearly 11. We were living at Queen Anne’s Road in Cirencester, the photo shows me, Rachael, Cindy and Ruth playing in and around the blow up paddling pool in the back garden. Summers seemed to go on forever in those days!
In June I was enjoying the start of the long summer school holiday. I was still five-years-old (nearly six) so this was my first school summer holiday. I probably felt very grown up to think that when I went back in September I would be in the second year. Meanwhile I had time to play inside or out in the garden.
Dad had his 23rd birthday in June, but of course I was not yet storing long term memories so I don’t remember it. But at nearly eleven months I’m sure I joined in the fun and certainly would have appreciated cake if there was one! It’s likely I was able to stand if I had something to hold on to, and I might have been able to say a few words, but any notes Mum and Dad might have made have been lost.
World events: A rhesus monkey, Albert II, was the first primate in space but died on return due to parachute failure; and the first TV Western, Hopalong Cassidy, aired in the USA.
Dad noted in his diary on his birthday (4th June) that the city of Rome had been taken. And on the 6th he wrote:
‘D. Day!! At last the second front has started. Was transferred to C. shed. Was on guard at 2 Site all night and spent pleasant evening in guard room. Listened to Montgomery and King on radio. Wrote to Phillip and Ronald. Letter from Nor.’
(Nor was his mother, and later my Granny).
At the end of the month he heard unofficially that he was to be posted to Yatesbury (a centre dedicated to radar training).
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Notes from bygone years – May all your Mays be amazing Hint: Click on the thumbnails for larger images.
May 2023 (1 year before publishing this article)
Warners hotel near Hereford
We took Donna’s Mum, Isobel, for a weekend break at a Warners hotel; the one we visited is Holme Lacy, not far from Hereford. Donna thought Isobel would enjoy this place, and she was right. In the evening there were tribute bands singing songs that were popular in the 50s and 60s, so music that is still popular amongst the older generation these days. The outside areas are attractive too as you can see from the photo.
I had a suspected cold but needed to be sure it wasn’t COVID as I was planning to be with a group of friends, but as you can see the result was negative.
I don’t think any of us wants to go through another pandemic! It was very disruptive in so many ways.
Choosing a day with beautiful sunshine, we visited Hidcote Gardens and then Charlcote Park (pictured). The ingenuity, design and construction that went into gardens and houses like these is astounding. But they depended on the work of large numbers of people much less fortunate than the people who lived in them.
New Frontiers were holding their annual gathering at the National Agricultural Centre at Stoneleigh and I felt I should take my friends Kev and John to one of the sessions. They’d shown real interest in Jesus and we’d been reading through parts of the Bible in a local coffee shop in St Neots. The photo shows them listening to news about church planting in Pakistan.
River Church in St Neots had a day out at Grafham Water on 25th May. Here’s Jim’s giant Jenga being put to good use. Everyone had a great time, but Jim’s Jenga tower is nowhere near the largest. Try this one for size!
Ken and Gayna are good friends of ours. Ken and Donna were both working and I was working a four day week at that time, so Gayna and I visited Ely Cathedral which she’d never seen before. The photo shows the lantern, an astonishing design and structure for medieval times.
On 1st May we visited Donna’s parents. Her Dad had a hot air balloon flight for two as a birthday present and this was the day he chose for the ascent, inviting me to join him. In the photo, I’m on the left and Tony’s on the right. It was an amazing experience!
I replied to a mailing list message about SUPER.EXE, an MS-DOS utility for getting temporary admin rights on a Novell Netware server. It saved logging out and in again (twice) or, even worse, going to the locked server room to perform the same task from there.
World events: F1 world champion, Ayrton Senna died in a crash; the Channel Tunnel opened between England and France; and Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as South Africa’s first black president.
We visited Cirencester and my Mum and Dad took us to North Meadow at Cricklade to look at the snake’s head fritillaries growing wild there. After that we drove up the Stow Road to see orchids and pasqueflowers. It was quite the botanical field trip!
My daughter Beth loved hamsters, so when she was six I wrote a Sinclair Spectrum text adventure for her, starring a hamster. If you use a Spectrum emulator you can still load and run this game. I suggest the Fuse emulator (free). Once installed, here’s the Hamster! download.
World events: The Severomorsk Disaster was an enormous explosion at the Soviet Severomorsk Naval Base; and a gas explosion in Lancashire killed 16 people.
We travelled to a Post Green meeting at Lytchett Minster near Poole with our friends Paul and Jenny as we had no car at this time. Tony and Faith also drove down. This was an eye-opening experience for all six of us, we learned so much about community, making music, and the gifts of the Spirit. We camped in a borrowed tent and our one-year-old, Beth, slept in a cardboard box. Beth’s first birthday came in May as well, Debbie was already four, our family was growing up!
World events:Margaret Thatcher became the UK’s first woman prime minister; and Greenland was granted limited autonomy from Denmark.
I was still doing a little work on willow growth rates for Ken Stott, the Willows officer at LARS, but Ken had been providing help to the Pomology Group and I was working more and more on that. I’d had a promotion to Higher Scientific Officer (HSO) and was eager to spend more time on microscopy and pollination.
As Bath University Horticulture students, we visited commercial sites from time to time see horticulture in action and ask questions of the managers and staff. The photo shows one of these visits in May 1969. Peter Thoday, one of our lecturers at the time and later a TV personality, is at the back on the right.
World events: An American teenager died of a baffling medical condition, later identified as HIV/AIDS; Apollo 10‘s lunar module flew two astronauts to within 16 km of the Moon‘s surface.
Here’s my sister, Ruth, busy with coloured chalks and a little slate. The floor covering is linoleum, bought by my grandparents for the house, now relegated to the garden. In the background is my old scooter from the mid 1950s. Ruth is on the loggia, a covered area in the garden with three open sides.
May probably brought school half-term, Spring Bank Holiday was 18th, the Eleven Plus exams loomed, and probably came in June; it was strange to realise that at the end of term, my days at Junior School would be over! Uncertainty lay ahead but I don’t remember feeling anxious, nor indeed excited.
I had a letter from my older cousin, Jill. At this time she was staying in a hostel in Deptford, London. She had watched the Royal Yacht Britannia returning home with the Queen and Prince Philip on board. The ship was brand new at the time and she wanted to describe the event for me. Click the image to read an extract.
Approaching ten months old, I might have started imitating sounds. I’d have been fairly mobile and no doubt making a nuisance of myself by crawling. Perhaps I had a favourite toy by this time too. We were still living with my grandparents, though Mum and Dad were hoping to move to a home of their own soon.
In May, Dad had several firsts during basic training for the RAF. He threw a live hand grenade, went through a gas chamber and removed his mask inside, fired a Sten gun, and suffered a carbuncle on his neck that required a stay in Sick Quarters. On 25th May Dad was moved, with 12 others, to an RAF station at Wilmslow in Cheshire.
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The museum hosts meetings with visiting speakers on a wide range of topics and runs town walks focusing on specific time periods.
If you are even slightly interested in the history (and prehistory) of Cirencester, here are some resources you might like to know about. Some are really obvious, others a bit more obscure, but they are all useful. There will be more that I’m not aware of.
The Civic Society has erected blue and purple plaques around the town. The blue plaques provide details of well-known people and events. The purple plaques mark places of significance in Roman times, the city gates for example. The website offers a map of the plaque positions and a walking route to view them all.
The most obvious and outstanding of these resources is, of course, the Corinium Museum. In its original form, on Tetbury Road, it was mostly a collection of Roman artefacts. But today, in its current home on Park Street, it covers an enormous time span, from prehistoric times, practically up to the present day. This museum punches way above its weight for a town the size of Cirencester.
The museum hosts meetings with visiting speakers on a wide range of topics and runs town walks focusing on specific time periods. There’s plenty to see and do, and if this was the only resource in existence you could still learn a great deal about Cirencester’s past.
Holds a large collection of relevant documents. Viewing them will involve making an appointment and a trip to Gloucester where they are held in the Gloucestershire Archives by the county council.
Institute of Historical Research
The institute’s material on Cirencester includes drafts of publications covering several periods of the town’s history. These drafts go into considerable detail and are written by qualified experts. They’re well worth a read, you certainly wouldn’t be wasting your time if you want more background on the town.
National Library of Scotland
Despite the name, this organisation holds many historical maps covering the whole of the UK. The website provides very useful access to the maps, you may find this search for material on Cirencester helpful. The map at the top of this article shows details even inside the Parish Church, and buildings in the West Market Place that were demolished many years ago.
Wikipedia
Wikipedia has short articles on Cirencester and Corinium. Both form good introductions to the history of the town and provide useful references.
And finally…
Leave a comment with details of anything you think I should add, I’ll check out suggestions and update this article accordingly. Thanks!
I’ll just mention in passing that I’ve been posting monthly notes on my own, personal history. My friends and family enjoy reading it, but it’s not private. If you feel inclined, take a look at the index. Cirencester gets a mention here and there as I lived in the town as a child and came back in retirement.
Useful? Interesting?
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Journeys of Heart and Mind 
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