Outing To Wrest Park

Yet again we had decent weather. It was far too good to sit around indoors. The thought of daytime television was enough to make you want to get out and with endless stupid football on every channel, even remotely connected with the World Cup, we spent some time deciding where to go. As we have membership of three organisations which allow free entry to places such as houses, castles and gardens, we were somewhat spoilt for choice, for example, the National Trust, English Heritage and H.H.A. (Historic Houses Association). Neither did we want to have to drive too far. You are supposed to be no more than 20 minutes from a National Trust property. Probably right if you include Stowe Landscape Garden (probably pushing it a bit. Probably 35-40 minutes), Ascott (maybe just over 20 minutes.). In the end we chose Wrest Park, which is off the A6 between Bedford and Luton. We have visited a couple of times in the past. it's around a 45 minute drive from Milton Keynes. They've had a large Heritage Lottery grant to restore the garden and they have a fairly new visitor centre with shop, restaurant and toilets as well as an up-graded carpark made out of, presumably, one of the walled gardens.

When we drove in (having found it quite difficult to find the road in at the centre of Silsoe. I think they've changed the signage somewhat off the A6.) there were coaches arriving. A similar situation to when we drove in at Waterperry on Wednesday morning.

We went into the restaurant, which was filling up with those people who had just arrived by coach. There was quite a long queue at the counter but Carol was determined to get us something to eat and drink after our journey. We had scones and jam and lattes and she bought some sandwiches and crisps which we took so we had something to eat once we began our walk around the grounds. Then we went into the gift shop (what National Trust or English Heritage property doesn't have a shop? Your visit always begins or ends in a gift shop. Even at Whipsnade the shop seems to loom large. Supposedly a good sauce of income for these places which are charities.) As we got to the ticket desk we were told that, as we were within the first 300 visitors that day, we would each receive a pot-plant. Quite a surprise. So we decided to take these plants back to put in the car as we didn't fancy carrying them around with us all morning. Besides which, it's unlikely they would have survived being carted around in a bag of some sort.

We went into the house. We have been inside before. The rooms are amazing, but there's no furniture. It used to be offices. something to do with agriculture. The National Agricultural Research Institute or something. There used to be an agricultural college in Silsoe at one time, part of Bedford College, but it would appear that it has gone and is now a housing estate.

There's no furniture in any of the rooms, which is a pity. The rooms are vast. Lots of carving, gold leaf and some of the ceilings are painted. Quit spectacular, as they are in a lot of these large country houses. It would be great if they could return as much as possible to make sure the place at least looks lived-in. But no doubt it was all sold off at some point in the house's long history, due to such things as debt or having to pay Death Duties. If it comes to that, it makes you wonder how close these houses came to being demolished, due to the cost of maintenance or the land being sold off for housing or other uses.

Statue and planting in garden at 

Wrest Park

The house from the garden at Wrest Park

We went outside and down towards the lake or Long Water. There were several marquees and tented structures all along the side of the grassed area. One where you could join a guided tour around the gardens with a driver who talked about how the gardens were developed and built. We had to wait around half-an-hour before the next tour began, but we were glad that we did as it was a really interesting tour around, stopping at various points where he explained how certain things were as they were, their history and so on. Considering the size of the gardens at Wrest, this seems a good way to get around. Many of these properties have some sort of transport to get visitors around, but usually they're for people who have some sort of mobility problem. At Stowe they have a sort of train that goes from the visitor's centre, where you park your car and buy your tickets, and there's a restaurant and shop. It's quite a long walk to the entrance of the garden, so a ride on some sort of motorised train is ideal. At Waddesdon Manor you park your car some way from the Manor and then get on a bus up to the Manor. We managed to get round Wrest Park instead of walking. It's a long way from the house up as far as the Archer Pavilion which you can see from the terrace and at the end of the Long Water.

View from terrace towards the

Archer Pavilion at Wrest Park.

When we were delivered back to the point where we began the guided tour, we left to discover an area we'd never been in before when we've been to Wrest on previous visits. There's a vast expanse of more naturalised garden, with a lake, bridge and a sort of Chinese pagoda which we've never seen before.

We eventually found a bench where we could sit and eat our sandwiches. I think we were in need of refreshment by this point. From there we gradually walked back towards the house and had a browse in the shop and then walked back to the carpark to drive home.

Outing To Bicester and Over-Night Snow

On Friday afternoon, once Carol and Kendra had finished work, we drove into the centre of Milton Keynes as Kendra wanted to go to the main Post Office. We managed to park immediately outside which made things considerably easier. We found that we could park there for 30 minutes without having to pay, which was great as we didn't have to look for another parking space. Once inside the Post Office, we found the place really busy. We were somewhat surprised to discover that Kendra was putting a Cadbury's selection box into a large padded envelope. We were expecting her to be sending something really important home to Canada, to her family or boyfriend, not a load of chocolate! I expect the cost of postage, together with the cost of the padded envelope, would have been far more than the value of the chocolate! I think it's because they don't have Cadbury's chocolate in Canada or something. 

From the centre of Milton Keynes we drove over to Westcroft as Kendra needed some shopping, so we went to Aldi and she did her shopping and we decided to do ours, which was convenient as it meant we didn't need to go when we usually go on Saturday. We then went to the Brother's fish and chip shop in Eaglestone on the return journey to buy fish and chips as we usually do on a Friday.

We have now learnt that one of the other three girls who were going to share a house with Kendra, hence the viewing of the house last weekend and another in Oldbrook the other day, has decided not to join them, so it's going to be even harder for her to find somewhere to live because the monthly rent would be far too much for just two of them. So she can stay living with us for as long as it takes to find something else.

Saturday morning started bright and sunny so we went for a drive out in the car to Bicester. There was a definite need to get out of the house, due mainly to the rain we've had recently. We've been to either Bicester Village or Bicester Avenue, both shopping centres. Bicester Village is an 'outlet' shopping centre which we've been to on a few occasions whilst Bicester Village is similar but based around a Wyevale garden centre. But we decided to visit the centre of Bicester itself. We have been in to go to the market and once, a few years ago, when I used to do care work, I had to go to a training day there. A bit of a waste of time, thinking back, because the agency who was supposed to give me work, didn't provide me with enough work to make it worth my while, so it was quite a long way to drive without much of a result.

We parked the car in a multi-storey car park in a  relatively new development called Pioneer Square which has a large branch of Sainsbury's and other shops, including a Vue  multi-screen cinema complex. We walked down into the street and were looking for somewhere to have a coffee as Carol, who is diabetic, was in need of something to eat and drink. We found a branch of Costa, but once inside it was far too crowded and we couldn't find a vacant table to we left in search of somewhere else. We then came across a camera shop, called Imagex, an independently owned establishment, and ventured inside and looked at lenses for the Canon camera I bought recently. The staff were very helpful and we've looked at a telephoto lens which we might yet buy as we want one to be able to take more inventive shots, particularly of the animals at Whipsnade.  As I had the Canon digital camera with me I was able to try the lens out and it seemed just what we had been looking for. We also saw a camera which Camera likes which I may buy for her as she has a birthday coming up in March and it would replace the little Olympus camera we had which got damaged when we went for a walk with the dogs and Alfie made Carol drop when he jumped up excitedly. 

We left the camera shop and walked back along the streets of Bicester.  The main street has been pedestrianized which makes it far safer. We eventually came to a cafe/coffee shop called Baguette Box and had coffee, cake, and a cookie which was just what we needed. Having seen all we wanted to we walked back to Pioneer Square and the car and left. Fortunately, we discovered when we entered that you could park there for two hours without paying, but I'm not sure how you would know when to start paying. How would they know in the carpark to start charging? I expect something to do with number-plate reading technology or something. So we returned home, happy in the knowledge that we'd used our timeout well, with the sun still shining.

This morning, however, we woke to find a blanket of snow had fallen and covered the garden and the car outside in the drive. Both dogs are somewhat shocked. Poppy loves the snow and usually gambols around in it like a spring lamb. Alfie, on the other hand, is not so sure. He has seen snow before, but as he suffers from cold as he has a thin coat of fur, I don't think he likes it very much. I think he doesn't like the feel of the cold on his feet.

New Year 2016

Well, here we are, the first week of January 2016. It's has been a relatively stress-free Christmas and New Year. We were on our own, so nobody else to bother us. Carol had a hospital appointment on the Sunday after Christmas Day, so that was on her mind for most of the holiday period. It might seem odd to have appointments on a Weekend day, but it makes sense in some ways, when they are endeavouring to cut waiting times for appointments. We walked through from Eaglestone, but even then it was incredibly difficult to find the place where the appointment was. Nobody told us that you couldn't enter the hospital via the main, front' entrance, as it is closed off for building work. Where you would enter if you had parked your car in the carpark. So we had to walk back round to the side and go in through another entrance and then walk along a very long corridor until we found were we were supposed to be for the appointment. Not very well sign-posted anywhere, unfortunately. Up a few stairs to another floor. 

Today Carol had to go to Ashfield Medical Centre for a blood test. It was a little after 8 o'clock and we got there far too early. No queue at the door as you now have to ring to get a doctor to ring you back and then decide if you really need a proper appointment. (See my earlier post on this matter.)  The self-checkin system wasn't working. Now there's a surprise. It hasn't been working the last couple of times I've been to the surgery. A member of staff put a notice on the screen saying 'out of order.' No sooner had she put it there than it fell off. So she came back out and re-affixed it, but it fell off again. There was one other person waiting. Unusual, as the place is usually heaving with people waiting and attempting to get appointments. We were in and out relatively  quickly and easily but then we had to get back to the Academy and there was quite a queue of cars at the Standing Way roundabout. 

We have a house guest staying at present. She is from Canada and has begun as an English teacher at Milton Keynes Academy and is staying with us until she can find permanent accomodation. She flew in to Gatwick Airport of Saturday and was driven up to Milton Keynes by someone who is also a teacher at the academy. She is very self-sufficient and we have made her very welcome. Hopefully she will have sorted out a flat or somewhere to share within 4-6 weeks.

The weather has been exceptionally unseasonal over the last month or so. Certainly not cold and icy as it usually is at this time of the year. We went to Whipsnade on Boxing Day, which was great as it was a good excuse to get out of the house. The Fellowship membership of Z.S.L. makes it well worth visiting as we don't have to pay entrance to get in and we drove the car round which saves all the walking.

I mentioned that we'd set up a subscription to a magazine called PhotoPlus. I was surprised to get a delivery yesterday morning, the camera bag which is a gift for becoming a subscriber. A really fantastic Lowepro Urban Reporter, which is worth at least £80. It certainly makes being a subscriber worth while if it means you get this bag. We were looking for a camera bag when we bought the Canon digital camera before Christmas, so this makes a sort of late Christmas present. It also means I can keep not just the camera in it and carry around when we go out and about, but also if necessary, the Apple Macbook laptop (which, incidentally, I'm writing this blog on at the moment.) plus lenses and any additional equipment that goes with the camera. I was expecting the bag to arrive in a month or two, not so quickly as it did.

I haven't done any further serious writing over the holiday period, but I have been making notes for a piece of writing I have been working on recently and as a result I have since been doing more work on the actual writing  over the past couple of days and which is going surprisingly well,  so it's a really good start to 2016.

Car Newly Repaired and Roadworthy Again

Mick and his son came at around 10.15 this morning and spent most of the morning finishing off the work on the car and giving it a service. By 1.50 they told me that it was finished. One of them drove the car round the estate just to check that all was in order. It was great to have the car back on the road after over eight weeks. Once they had left Carol said she needed to drive the car but when she give the ignition key a turn the car refused to start. I had been washing up at the kitchen sink and could see that the car hadn't started and so went outside. I could smell a strong smell of petrol. One of our neighbours had been out working on his car and said it most probably be the petrol line had not been connected properly, It turns out he's a motor mechanic but on large lorries and engines. He had a look under the bonnet and managed to re-connect the petrol line and wiped some petrol which must have come out. It was that which gave the strong petrol smell which I smelt when I came out of the house. He said we should leave the car for an hour or so otherwise the petrol might cause a fire. After an hour Carol was determined to go out for a drive just to try the car out so we drove up the A5 towards Towcester so we could shop in the branch of Tesco there for items for her lunches she takes to work each day. The car seemed to run perfectly. I think we were pleased to be able to get out and about again and we're planning outings for half-term which is in two weeks. One to Whipsnade and one no doubt to a National Trust property such as Waddesdon Manor or Stowe Landscape Garden which are within a half-hour's drive from Milton Keynes, or maybe a return visit to Woburn Abbey, which is always worth a visit.

A Country Childhood

I think it's quite easy to take for granted my childhood, growing up on a farm in Bedfordshire. Compared with what children have now, we were really lucky. There was plenty of space to run around, wide open meadows to roam in and the farmyard itself, although by today's standards of Health and Safety, I suppose a farm would be considered a dangerous place for children to play. I suppose it was then, but we seem to have created a generation which is really over-protected . We built hideouts in amongst the bales of straw and treehouses in many of the trees in the garden and around the farmyard. There was always something or other to explore and to generally get into some sort of trouble. Life was an adventure and we really knew how to enjoy it.

Malting Farm is still there, in Cardington, Bedfordshire, about four miles to the east of Bedford town, but I know that things have changed drastically since I left in the mid 1970's. For a start no Murdoch lives in the house, which is sad when I think that some three generations of Murdochs had lived there, although I know my eldest brother James still farms the land there. My grandfather Ferriman managed Mill Farm, which was a few miles from Cardington village, and his son, my uncle Michael took over from him and ran that farm up until only a few years ago. That farm is no more. It was completely bulldozed to make way for a business park. Beford Southern By-Pass crosses what was Malting Farm land and borders the Priory Business Park, which was Mill Farm. My grandmother created a really beautiful garden at Mill Farm, and the house itself was really homely. It seems a real waste that such a lovely house had to be sacrificed to a business park. They would say that it's progress, but I really don't see it that way.

Malting Farm house is a Georgian building dating from 1764. It was built of red brick and was immediately opposite St Mary's church in Cardington village. It has a curved bay at one end which over-looks the garden lawn, and the windows of the house are of a highly distinctive diamond design. The lawn at one time had a double-trunked sycamore tree growing in the centre of it, which you could walk between the trunks, but it had to be cut down because it had become dangerous. In the attic there were a couple of rooms which we used to play in. One room had held a really large model trainset, and we slept there sometimes, particularly if our bedroom was being re-decorated. You had to get into these rooms up a narrow, steep staircase. It was great to have somewhere that was away from adults, a place where you could 'do your own thing' without being spied on. The rest of the house was the ideal place to play such games as 'Hide and Seek' as there were no end of places to hide, lots of corridors, cupboards and odd secret haunts. A game such as that could last most of the day, particularly if you were to hide somewhere and kept quiet for long enough!

In the winter the house could be incredibly cold, as it didn't have the benefit of central heating. I remember waking up in the morning in my bedroom and finding ice on the inside of the windows and you could see your breath when you breathed out. You'd have to run along the passageway to the bathroom to keep warm and get dressed in there as there was an electric heater. In the kitchen was an Aga which was used by my mother to do most of the cooking and was fuelled with coke which was store in an outhouse. The dining room was heated by a wood-burning stove and had to be kept alight most of the time.

I have four brothers, James, Robert, Sandy (Alexander) and Andrew. I am the third, born between Robert and Sandy. James and Robert took over the farm when my father retired in the mid 1970's, and the rest of us went off to 'do our own things' in other areas of work. I believe, if my memory serves, that Sandy did spend some time on the farm after he left school, but didn't remain long.

Miss Fuller was someone who featured quite a lot in our lives. She had originally come to us from working at the Porter's, the next door family, where she mended and sewed. She then came to us on a Wednesday afternoon to do a similar job. Then, when Andrew was born, my mum needed someone to look after him, as it would have been quite difficult to bring up four boys together with a baby, on her own. We went on holiday each year to Frinton-On-Sea in Essex, where we stayed in a rented house. Jean Freemantle, the daughter of the ploughman on Malting Farm, and who lived in the cottage at the back of the farmhouse, came with us for several years, and was employed to look after Andrew. I believe she came with us for a couple of years.Then it came out that Miss Fuller (I don't know, even to this day, what her Christian name was.)had been a nanny in the past, and she began to take Andrew out for walks in the village in his large pram. After a while she became more and more involved in his care, and she eventually came with us on holiday to Frinton.

I remember one particular incident which happened when we were at Frinton. My grandmother came to stay, and there was some sort of animosity between her and Miss Fuller, particularly over who should look after Andrew. My grandmother said that, as his grandmother she had a natural right to his care and also taking him for walks. There was a stand-up argument in front of our beach-hut, with them going hammer-and-tongues. I don't actually remember how it ended, but it was somewhat embarrassing for us children to have your grandmother shouting and arguing in front of them and in such a public place.

We had horses and ponies although I wasn't really horse-minded. Three of my four brothers, Robert, Sandy and Andrew, rode horses and kept them at the farm. I rode occasionally, but certainly never to a particularly high standard. Robert used to go to showjumping events around the area and was involved in showjumping at Bedfordshire Agricultural show (which is no more, but merged with the East Of England Show some 35-40 years ago.) and Sandy and Andrew went to the occasional gymkhana around the county. I used to like to go for what you might call more leisurely rides on the horses, but not galloping around the countryside, jumping hedges and ditches. I was put off by all the tack-cleaning and mucking-out that was involved in keeping horses. Also, I was bitten by a horse we had, one day when I was minding my own business, sitting on a fence in the farmyard, near the stables. A cow in a nearby field had the nerve to moo, and this horse decided that it didn't like being mooed at so it attempted to take a chunk out of the fleshy part of my arm. On another occasion I was riding a black-and-white pony we had called Whisky. I remember galloping across a meadow and not being able to stop this particular pony, and very nearly landing up jumping over a five-bar gate which was rapidly approaching, or at least crashing through said five-bar gate! It was really quite frightening and was what must have put me off horses of any particular variety.

My father owned a boat which he sailed on the River Ouse and Grafham water. We had a place down by the river near Cardington Mill where we used to go every weekend during the summer. There was a hut there where all the equipemnt for the boat was stored, together with deckchairs, table and Calor gas ring so we could make tea. Mum would pack up a really substantial picnic and we'd decamp there for tea, particularly on a Sunday afternoon. It seemed to work like a magnet for all-and-sundry who would turn up to sail the boat and then take afternoon tea, sandwiches and delicious home-made cake. I think there were several boats. A large clinker-built yacht called "Amaranda," a small sailing boat which my mum sailed frequently called "Nimbus" and a motor boat which had an Evinrude out-board engine, and was called "Nimbus." This motor boat was used to ferry people from the centre of Bedford town to the riverside hut and he had devised some sort of ski board which was used to tow behind and people could sort of water ski. Looking back, this must have been incredibly dangerous, as it went quite fast along the river and there was always the danger or running into other boats, over-hanging branches of trees and one hundered and one other things, but he still did it, as he had a greeat sense of adventure. I remember that dad eventually sold "Amaranda" to a family friend and he eventually bought a fibre-glass yacht which he sailed at Grafham Water and it came with us when we used to go on holiday to Frinton-On-Sea in Essex. "Amaranda" was built in a boatyard at Brightlingsea, further down the coast and in the Colne estuary near Colchester. That seemed to be the best place for sailing. Dad eventually bought a very much larger boad called "Flashpoint" which had a cabin and galley on it so it was possible to sleep overnight on it and cook very basic meals. The small clinker-built boat became the 'tender' vessel, and was used to get to and from "Flashpoint" as she was moored out in the estuary. We had gone to Frinton for annual summer holidays for years and years through the late '50 and into the '60's, but then Mum and Dad went to Brightlingsea on their own and stayed at a rather nice pub near the seafront called the Old Swan and on some occasions some of us children would go with them, but later we used to actually live on board "Flashpoint"for the time we were there.

Every summer there was a village fete, held in order to raise funds for the church, St Mary's. This was always held in the gardens of Howard House, owned and occupied by Humphrey Whitbread. It was never opened to the public at any other time of the year, so it was a treat to be able to look around such a beautiful garden. No doubt it is now open, rather in the fashion of a property owned by either the National Trust or English Heritage. I imagine that the money raised went towards keeping the building maintained. Everyone in the village seemed to got involved in some capacity, either running a stall, making cakes for the cake stall, or putting on some money-making activity. My mother always ran the fruit and vegetable stall, but there were many stalls on offer, including a tombola, White Elephant (I still, to this day, have no idea why it is called a White Elephant stall . From my visits to Whipsnade, elephants are grey, or at least, a darkish colour, but certainly not white, and there was certainly no sign of any elephants on that particular stall, white or otherwise. It was always stuffed full of the old junk that nobody really wanted to own any more, such as really unattractive vases, pots and pans, candlesticks or ornaments, that was cluttering up their garage, attic or sideboard.)The other stalls usually consisted of a flower stall, cake stall, books, and hoop-la, bran tub and a tea tent. There seems to me to be something forever fixed in my mind that the smell of hot canvas brings that suggests a warm summer afternoon when we ate curly-crusted, slightly stale sandwiches, sticky cakes and tepid tea which comes from that period of my life. All in aid of keeping St Mary's standing.

Another event which came round annually was the Bedfordshire Agricultural Show, held in meadows on one of the main roads leading into the centre of Bedford. These meadows were actually within what is the Ouse River flood plain, and was sold by the local authority for building and where Tesco and the Oasis Beach Pool was built several years ago. This show ceased to be around thirty-five or forty years ago and merged with several other county shows and became the East of England Show at Peterborough.Local firms connected with the agricultural industry had elaborate stands which showed off their products, such as tractors, combine harvesters or other machinery, or the corn merchants, such as Banks and Jordans, had displays of corn, barley and so on. The best part was that my father, being a customers of these companys, would take us to these tents and he would discuss the latest agricultural business with the company representatives over tea, cake and (for the adults!) alcholic beverages. We knew these ‘reps’ really well, as they were constantly turning up at Malting Farm, and usually at teatime, so there was always an excuse for a cup of tea and to sample a slice of one of my mum's delicious cakes.

There were also displays of animals, pigs, cows, sheep and horses. It would take a great deal of time and effort to get show-animals prepared for the show, with a great deal of shampoo used to wash them, their coats brushed and groomed, their tails plaited.

Teatime was an important meal in our household. As I have said, my mum made a real spread, usually including some lavish cake, a sponge-cake usually, filled with jam and cream, as well as shortbread, scones, fruit buns and the usual bread-and-butter. ‘You can’t eat any cake until you’ve eaten your bread and jam’ we were told. This meal was eaten in the kitchen, which was the centre of operations of the house and, in some respects, the farm. We rarely ate in the dining room, but when we used that room it was for special occasions, such as Christmas lunch. As regards teatime, a lot of people would suddenly turn up when the kettle was put on, the tea made in the teapot and the table laid. I have said somewhere here that we had a lot of ‘reps’ who were connected with agricultural firms who always came to the house at coffee time in the morning and teatime. Also, my granddad Ferriman and Uncle Michael, and another honorary ‘Uncle’ Percy Brocklehurst, affectionately known as ‘Per’ by my mother and father. He was a friend of my father’s, and was a sort of odd-job man. He never married, but would turn up when we had our tea. For some unfathomable reason he had a boiled egg made specially made for him, and his excuse was that ‘he’d come a long way,’ but to this day I’m not sure whether it was one of his little jokes, or whether there was a tradition where he came from that you gave people a boiled egg when they’d travelled a long distance. Perhaps it was a sort of in joke he had with my mother, but I have no idea.

Percy was really good at odd jobs, he could wire a house, mend furniture, hang cupboards, repair leaks, fix lights and generally do any job that was required around the house. Percy drove an ancient grey Morris Minor car, and in it’s boot there was all manner of items which could be put to practical use, such as fuses, lengths of cable and wire, nuts and bolts, along with the usual toolbox, all of which he carried so that when a job required it he could use it to repair whatever item it was.

There are two particular stories concerning Percy which I want to record here, as they are worth mentioning. When my father retired in the 1970s, my parents moved to a house in a village just outside Huntingdon, around 25 miles north of Bedford. In the early 90’s, or thereabouts, this village, Great Stukeley, became the home of the then Prime Minister, John Major, as he was also the Member of Parliament for Huntingdon. Anyway, they didn’t stay living in Great Stukeley for that long, and in 1977 my mum persuaded my father to move back to a house she had found in Cople, the next village to Cardington. Percy was drafted in to do some work in the house, and one of the jobs was to move some kitchen cupboards which were on the wall of the kitchen in the house in Stukeley. They were to be used in the kitchen at the house in Cople. My dad had helped, or, more likely, supervised this bit of work, and when the cupboards where eventually fixed in place in Cople, my mum noticed that there was something odd about them. Percy and dad had only managed to put them upside down on the wall, and hadn’t obviously noticed! They were never moved the right way up, because, in all honesty, there wasn’t a lot of difference, as the handles worked just as well the wrong way round as the right way.

The other story was about sherry. My mum used to make the most amazing sherry trifles, and they were the talk of the county. They used lavish amounts of whipped cream, confectioner’s custard and a small amount of sherry. This ingredient was purchased from the village shop, specially for the purpose of being used in these famous trifles, and was stored in a Bristol Cream sherry bottle. It was just very ordinary, cheap, cooking sherry. One afternoon Percy came to visit and dad sat at the table chatting and my mum was in the other room, reading or something, and could hear them talking in the kitchen. My dad asked Percy if he’d like a glass of sherry, and Percy said, yes please, he would, so my father got the Bristol Cream bottle out of the drinks cupboard and poured them a glass each. They sat and chatted, taking occasional sips of the sherry, and my father was saying ‘Oh, it’s Bristol Cream. It’s the best sherry you can buy!’ and all sorts of stuff, and my mother, who was overhearing the conversation in the next room, laughed to her self that it WASN’T actually Bristol Cream (although the bottle was a Bristol Cream bottle) and they were really drinking cheap cooking sherry. I have an idea that my father couldn’t tell the difference between the more expensive Bristol Cream and the cheap cooking sherry, but the incident caused a good deal of hilarity in the family thereafter.