History – Page 2 – Journeys of Heart and Mind

Blast from the past… 1

In September 2002 I wrote one of my earliest blog posts. I mentioned scanning my Dad’s old photos and meeting with other Jesus followers in informal ways.

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I thought it would be fun to take a look back at older posts from Journeys of Heart and Mind. So here we go with a blast from the past. I started blogging on 5th February 2002 so it’s time to do some historical trawling! I’ll probably post another of these every now and then.

Five years ago

Here’s my Christmas message from 2017, it was one of the most popular Christmas posts I’ve made. Everyone liked the photo, many of you may remember it.

Read the old post – Season’s Greetings 2017

Ten years ago

In December 2012 I was impressed by a TED video I came across. In the video, Ronnie Edry explained how he had inadvertently started a viral peace movement! It’s an amazing tale and very heart-warming.

Read the old post (and watch the video) – Israel and Iran love one another

Twenty years ago

In September 2002 I wrote one of my earliest blog posts. I mentioned scanning my Dad’s old photos and meeting with other Jesus followers in informal ways: I’m still doing those two things twenty years later!

Read the old post – Where does the time go?

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John Jefferies & Son Ltd – Index

The family business prospered for many years

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This was the family business, founded in 1795. It prospered for many years, growing and selling nursery stock to other businesses, the government, and to the general public. It ceased trading in 1984 and the garden centre business was sold to Country Gardens PLC, although the company was not officially dissolved until 1994.

The old florist’s shop – the shop had a wonderful cellar

I plan to write a series of articles about John Jefferies & Son and will list them on this index page.

The old florist’s shop

The shop had a wonderful cellar, always full of mysterious packages of garden chemicals and other shop stock…

Part 1 of a series – John Jefferies & Son

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The centre of Cirencester has buildings of a variety of ages, from the Roman City Wall (a small part of which is visible in the Abbey Park) to Victorian and more recent constructions. Walking in the town with my camera today, I took some shots of a 19th century development.

These are the upper floors of a three-storey terrace, a planned development that replaced older properties. The section at the right hand end was used as a florist’s shop for many decades (now Vodafone). I remember it as a child because my father was one of four brothers who owned and ran the shop as part of a larger business with several plant nurseries in the country areas around the town.

The shop had a wonderful cellar, always full of mysterious packages of garden chemicals and other shop stock, and before Christmas there were sometimes hyacinth bulbs being forced for early flowering. There was a marvellous fusty, moist, florist’s aroma in the cellar, but the most exciting thing was the knowledge that the cellar was bigger than the shop floor above. Castle Street was widened when the new development was built, but the cellars of the old buildings were retained. There are stone pillars in the cellar that support the heavy masonry above.

Here’s another view of the same shop from a different angle, the photo was taken by my father in the 1960s. I love the fact that this image includes the shop window displays as these always fascinated me as a young child. I also remember that my grandfather’s office window was above the main door on the corner, and the landscape design office was on the top floor with the small bay window.

And finally, for comparison, here’s another view of the same shop today.

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