Rose breeders … grow thousands of seeds and select those few with outstanding colour, fragrance, [or] disease resistance
It’s springtime, mid-April. and this hedge looks mostly dead. Just one of the beech trees making up the hedge is producing fresh, green leaves. All the rest are covered with dried-up, brown leaves left over from last year. What’s going on?
This hedge consists of seedling beech, they are all different in many ways. They grow at different speeds, some slower, some faster. Their leaves will vary from one plant to the next, some will be paler, some darker. Some will be hairy, others may be smooth and glossy. The bark will vary in roughness and colour.
When you grow seedlings, whether beech or any other plant, every individual will be unique, for uniformity you must use cuttings or grafts so that each plant is genetically the same.
What you are seeing in this hedge is variation in timing; the beech closest to the camera comes into leaf earlier than the others, but in a few weeks from now they will all have green leaves. Garden and commercial plants are often identical to one another and are given names to distinguish them. Rose breeders, for example, grow thousands of seeds and select those few with outstanding colour, fragrance, disease resistance or any other desirable characteristic. The best of the best are bulked up by grafting, given a name like ‘Yorkshire Prince’ or ‘Summer Festival’, and then sold on to garden centres. Grow roses from seed to plant in your garden and you are likely to be badly disappointed (though you might get lucky and produce a winner).
The term ‘plant breeding’ includes breeding for seed production, for example to produce wheat or bean or squash seeds of a named type. This is a different (though allied) process from breeding for vegetative propagation as with roses.
Notes from bygone years – Marching on and on Hint: Click on the thumbnails for larger images.
March 2023 (1 year before publishing this article)
The heart of Bristol
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.
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;
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.
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.
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!
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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Notes from bygone years – Many bygone Februaries Hint: Click on the thumbnails for larger images.
February 2023 (1 year before publishing this article)
The town hall, Marlborough
My shingles rash cleared up. On 16th, three of our grandchildren took part in a school production of the ‘Beauty and the Beast’ musical; they all did extremely well and the whole family was proud of them. I had a discussion with a friend about Gumstool Brook issues and then we chatted about possible changes to British parliamentary processes. Encouraged by the conversation, I wrote an article about my my ideas for change.
We explored (and enjoyed) the centre of Marlborough on 19th. It’s a lovely little town, full of interesting shops, cafes and restaurants. We walked into small courtyards off the long, wide Market Place in beautiful sunshine, quite unusual at this time of year.
JHM: I wrote about groundbreaking. – World events: – There was a huge earthquake causing damage and loss of life in parts of Turkey and Syria.
Our friend Kevin and his daughters visited us from Gamlingay in Cambridgeshire. We had a great weekend together, perhaps the highlight was visiting Bourton-on-the-Water and its model village. We also showed them round Cirencester and spent time at home chatting.
Debbie, Aidan and Sara came to stay for a weekend and we did a day trip to London on the train (an easy journey from St Neots). We packed a lot in, and one of the highlights was a boat trip on the Thames with a visit to Hamley’s toy shop and an open-top bus over Tower Bridge.
A few day’s later Donna and I flew to Madeira for a week’s holiday in a much warmer climate than the one in London!
I went to a meeting in Chepstow to share experiences and discuss house church. It was a friendly and enjoyable session with a small group, mostly from places around South Wales. I was the only person who’d travelled from the East of England and I was made very welcome.
We visited Anglesey Abbey with some friends. The new winter walk planted by the National Trust was quite new in 2004, but it’s nicely matured by now and is spectacular in February. The old house is interesting too, but the walled garden is one of our favourite places. It was an easy trip from St Neots but a long journey from Cirencester!
World events: Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook for Harvard students, and there was a coup in Haiti.
This web page (click the image to enlarge it) was downloaded in February 1999 on my Unilever PC. It was part of Long Ashton Research Station’s website. I set up the web server and created the website in 1996 or thereabouts – very trendy in those days! The ‘Last changed’ date on the page shows it had not been edited since May ’97.
This is a little piece of advice I offered on a mailing list for Novell Netware managers. It’s about a utility I’d found useful while setting up and running Long Ashton‘s Netware 3.11 server. (The server allowed users to login to access file space over the local network from their PCs.)
Here’s our daughter Beth feeding a Macaw during a family visit to the Rode Bird Gardens in Somerset, an easy day trip from Yatton where we lived at the time.
We were living at 22 Rectory Drive in Yatton, between Bristol and Weston-super-Mare. Debbie was almost nine at the time, and Beth was four. Judy might already have been teaching biology at Cotham Grammar School by this time and would have started a new term. I was working at Long Ashton Research Station.
Our daughters were growing – Debbie was almost four, and Beth turned nine months. At Long Ashton Research Station I was working on oil palm pollination, training and supporting a biologist before he left for Papua New Guinea, as well as continuing research into pollination of temperate fruit crops.
This was a time when Judy and I were living in our flat at 20 Belmont Road, Bristol, collecting together whatever bits of furniture we could find. My grandmother had given us £60 and told us to buy a really good bed (in those days that was perfectly feasible). Judy’s parents gave us their old 3-piece suite, we bought a second hand dining table and chairs, and two new bar stools to use in the kitchen. It was a big step-up from our previous, furnished bed-sit!
World events: The crew of Skylab 4 returned to Earth after 84 days; the UK General Election ended in a hung parliament.
I had a letter from Judy, back at university in Aberystwyth while I was at Bath. We were newly engaged, and in the early stages of trying to fix a possible wedding date; from our point of view the sooner the date the better. But practical considerations introduced a lot of delays; at the very least we needed to be able to live in the same town!
This time, the letter was on the craziest paper I’ve ever seen. It must have been difficult to write on, and it was certainly difficult to read!
World events: The Boeing 747 ‘Jumbo Jet’ flew for the first time; and the Mariner 6 Mars probe was launched by NASA.
This is not strictly about my life, it’s about Judy, later my first wife. She and a friend were in the Guides in February 1964, and were planning a trip to Cardiff, this is the first page of Judy’s report on the trip.
She lived in Filton, north of Bristol, at the time. Most of their friends chose Bath as an easy option, but Judy and Val decided on the more adventurous journey to Cardiff.
I was given a Premium Bond on 24th, here’s a picture of it. I still have it somewhere (not sure where it is, though). As far as I know it hasn’t won me a prize yet, but perhaps I should check! I don’t plan to sell it back, it’s worth far more to me as a memento than the £1 face value. In 1959 £1 would have had the purchasing power of nearly £30 today.
World events: There were two plane crashes in the USA on 3rd, Buddy Holly died in one of them. The first weather satellite, Vanguard 2, was launched from Cape Canaveral.
My second term at junior school continued uneventfully as far as I remember it. The daily pattern began with taking off hats, scarves and coats and putting them away on hooks before making our way to the classroom to begin the day. Then our teacher, Mrs Hourihane, would call out our names and we each had to raise an arm when our name was called. The upstairs classroom had a large window overlooking the back garden and play area.
We were still living with my grandparents while Mum and Dad waited for a council house on the Beeches Estate. It was stormy, wet and cold, with snow around the 20th February. I was 7 months old at the end of February.
World events:President Truman announced that he would only meet Stalin if he visited Washington as a personal guest. The Soviet Union offered Norway a non-aggression pact and warned them not to join NATO.
Dad was busy in February and had many interests. There was the Boogie Woogie music world (he bought several more records this month), driving for his parents, the birth of a niece (Susan), the Air Training Corps (ATC), playing football, watching films at the cinema, working on the nurseries (the family business) and card games with friends and family, often Newmarket and usually for small amounts of money.
Notes from bygone years – Some more Januarys Hint: Click on the thumbnails for larger images.
January 2023 (1 year before publishing this article)
Flooding from the Churn
The River Churn burst its banks, most of the inundation was restricted to the flood plain, but some properties suffered a bit of damage. We were OK as we live on a hill, but anywhere down in the flood plain and most of central Cirencester is quite low lying.
Towards the end of the month I developed shingles. Although I had a rash on my left shoulder and upper chest, I had no discomfort with it other than a very slight itch. Eventually it faded away gradually and with no drama, and I’ve now been vaccinated.
In January 2022 I looked around the Abbey Nursery where there still remains some evidence of John Jefferies & Son, the old family business. It’s now a small park and wildlife reserve – City Bank Park. The concrete surface and the block built bins for sand, gravel and other materials can still be seen in the photo. Tidy up and sweep away the leaves and it would look much as it did when I was a child and the site was still in use producing the town’s supply of Christmas trees.
JHM: I wrote about three objects in the evening sky, not all of them easy to see. – World events: The number of COVID cases worldwide passed 300 million and more than 10 billion doses of vaccine had been given.
In January 2019 it was the end of the road for Bennett’s Garage in Victoria Road, Cirencester. Dad always filled his car at Bennett’s as John Jefferies & Son had an account here. I once borrowed a ladder from Brian Bennett when I locked myself out of Churnside. The business continues at another site, but Victoria Road will never seem quite the same.
JHM: I posted a video of the Earth rising over the Moon. – World events: The Orthodox Church of Ukraine was granted independence from the Russian Orthodox Church.
In January 2014 Paul and Vanessa visited us and we drove over to Cambridge and spent part of the day there, enjoying the sights and the bustle of the crowds. Cambridge has such a great atmosphere and energy! However, we got caught in a torrential downpour waiting for the Park and Ride bus to get home.
JHM: I posted about meeting Gerald who was in his wheelchair all alone in the middle of Huntingdon. – World events:Latvia adopted the Euro, the 18th member of the Eurozone.
In January 2009 Meredith took delivery of a new cooker. We drove up to York for New Year so the Christmas presents arrived a week late; it’s almost like having Christmas twice! We always look forward to our winter trip to York.
JHM: I wrote about the journey and how we know the way. – World events: The cryptocurrency Bitcoin was created.
We visited my Mum and Dad in Cirencester for New Year; this was about two years before Mum died, though of course we didn’t know that. Treasure people while you can! Mum always laid a fine spread on the table and you can see some of it in the photo.
I made some progress with WebForum, an information website for Unilever‘s research labs around the globe; there were two of these in the UK, one in the Netherlands, and another in the USA. I think by this time the software had been rolled out to all sites except for the Netherlands where they decided to create their own version. Attention was turning instead to Y2K testing.
World events: The new Euro currency was introduced on 1st January.
Dan visited us and we looked at some of the sights in Bristol, including the Observatory up at Clifton near the famous Suspension Bridge, and later the Industrial Museum down in the docks area. The photo shows Dan, Beth and Judy in the museum.
World events: The Northridge Earthquake struck the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles on 17th. Parts of a raised freeway collapsed and 60 or 70 people died.
We had a quieter New Year’s Day after a fairly full-on Christmas the previous month. Debbie and Beth played draughts while half-watching ‘Neighbours’ on TV.
World events: The European Single Market was created; and Czechoslovakia divided itself into independent nations, the Czech Republic (later Czechia) and Slovakia.
We were living at 22 Rectory Drive in Yatton, between Bristol and Weston-super-Mare. Debbie was nine at the time, and Beth was six. Judy might already have been teaching biology at Cotham Grammar School by this time and would have started a new term. I was working at Long Ashton Research Station.
World events: The Apple Macintosh went on sale in the USA, and President Reagan announced that a space station would be developed.
My Mum sent this postcard 0n 17th January to her mother (my Granny-in-Ireland) in the village of Coagh. She wrote, ‘We went to the theatre with Ruth and Martin, her boyfriend, and his parents. It was fun walking round Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square with all the lights on. Ruth sends her love to you both.
World events: The USA severed diplomatic relations with Taiwan and established diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China.
Judy and I were living in our flat at 20 Belmont Road in St Andrews, Bristol. She was newly trained as a teacher, I was completing research towards my MSc thesis. The photo shows a view of Berkeley Square and the Wills Memorial Building (part of Bristol University) beyond it, taken from the top of nearby Brandon Hill. Comet Kohoutek was visible in the evening skies and we managed to spot it from the bay window in our flat.
World events: The F-16 fighter flew for the first time, and sextuplets were born in Cape Town with all surviving.
I began the second term of my third year at Bath University, Judy returned to Aberystwyth to continue her second year there. This was, as always, an unwelcome time of separation; but as compensation our engagement was announced in the Gloucestershire Echo. (It’s very tiny, click the image to enlarge it and you still might not see it at first.)
World events:The Beatles played live for the last time, and Richard Nixon was sworn in as President of the USA.
I was living at Churnside (37 Victoria Road) in Cirencester, with my Mum and Dad and three sisters. I was in the Fifth Form (now Year 11) at Cirencester Grammar School and just starting the second term in January.
World events: The US Government reported that smoking might be a health risk, and plans to build the World Trade Center in New York were announced.
I was 10½ years old at the end of January, and in my final year of Junior School. This was the year in which we would take our eleven-plus exams; the results decided which of us would go to the Grammar School, and which to the Secondary Modern; so the emphasis in this final year was partly to familiarise us with the style of questions typical of the eleven-plus. (Today these schools are combined.)
World events: The Soviet spacecreft, Luna 1, was the first to break free of Earth orbit, and Alaska was admitted as the 49th American state.
This was my second term at Querns School in Cirencester. It was a far happier experience for me than starting my first term: I knew my way around, I’d made some friends, and I had a good idea what to expect from my teacher, Mrs Hourihane; also I was more confident of spending time without Mum and Dad. I was 5½-years-old and I probably felt quite grown up! My teacher was a budding author as well!
I was 6 months old at the end of the month and we were living at Granny and Grandpa’s house (Churnside, 37 Victoria Road). I think Grandpa liked having a baby in the house again, apparently Mum found it difficult to get me back sometimes! Dad was by far their youngest child (his youngest brother, Bob, was 15 years older). Mum and Dad were on the list for a council house at the Beeches Estate, but those houses were still being built.
World events: Communist forces entered Beijing, in the USA Harry Truman was sworn in as President.
Dad was now driving my grandfather’s Wolseley on errands to the nurseries and managed to reach the amazing speed of 50 mph on 5th January. His ATC uniform arrived and he had opportunities to use the Link Trainer at South Cerney Airfield as well as examine some aircraft. He passed his Morse test at the end of January.
World events: The Allies landed at Anzio in Italy and a British vessel was sunk there by an early German guided missile.
We enjoyed every aspect of the house … and we plan to return in the summer to view the garden as well.
We visited Chastleton House recently, it’s a Jacobean country house in the Cotswolds, between Stow-on-the-Wold and Chipping Norton. Amongst other features it has the wonderful Long Gallery with a curved, plasterwork ceiling and panelled walls. Amazing!
The Long Gallery on the top floor
The house is in the care of the National Trust and was open to the public for the period leading up to Christmas. They’d decked it out with Christmas decorations as they might have been in the 1960’s – wrapped gifts, paper chain decorations, Christmas tree lights of the period, everything.
1960s decorations
But the real gem, and what I especially wanted to see, was the Long Gallery. It was certainly not a disappointment!
We enjoyed every aspect of the house, of course, and we plan to return in the summer to view the garden as well. Living, as we do, in Cirencester it’s not a long journey so we can also visit in spring and autumn too if we wish.
I can recommend a visit to Chastleton. It’s a gem of a place.
