cary hill

Caught him earlier today deeper in Brent Woods helping to raise the level of the River Avon after the recent dry spell. Parental warning: this image is not suitable for Sierd's daughter.

An excellent base for "touring" East Devon. We stayed there a couple of years ago. You should feel welcome there as they are a bit of a rebellious bunch too......... http://www.colytonhistory.co.uk/colyton-history-rebel.html .......quite bizarre and tragic for a small town.

Ssshh don't spoil it - mind you that's in the original edition on page 125 so no damage done to me, but I can't speak for 4909.

Blimey just looked at my 1988 edition and noticed it's only a measly 218pp long and not particularly profusely illustrated. According to the Oakwood blurb the new edition has 352pp and 300 illustrations, and it looks and sounds quite exciting for an Oakwood book. I usually find them little dour and but very worthy.Perhaps I should upgrade as £20 sounds reasonable compared with £15 paid 20 or more years ago

Good to see those photographs aren't from a poor quailty Bradford Barton reprint - some more quailty images would be a real treat.

I hope 72xxs worked on the Torquay Gas Works traffic from Kingswear. I'm sure they would have been handier on the stiff gradients than some of the locos listed in Potts' chapter on Gasworks traffic in the book you've just received e.g 2251 Class - 11 loaded wagons only.

A leading campaigner of behalf of maintaining "standards" on RM Web gives a surprisingly succinct opinion of recent ANTB content.

Well they very nearly got a 2-2 draw.........

Do all Manors come with a tender-top beach area these days?

Being towed in disgrace backwards towards Swindon........probably for a final decision because of it's persistent unreliablity and spiralling repair bills ????

A couple of shots of the Bantham area in the South Hams: Looking across the Avon Estuary and Bantham Beach towards Burgh Island. Looking the other way a few hours later towards the thatched Harbourmaster's Office. Apparently this area was sold for £11M. in early July, but not to RIchard Branson or some Russian oligarch, so hopefully it may still retain the present balance between man and nature, which seems about right at the moment.

Yes, that'll be it - or it could be me. I really should steer clear of acronyms as I seem to be prone to re-arranging the letters. I think I've even got ANTB wrong before now.

She's carrying out a visual inspection of the new works on the Seawall section in her role as Vice Chair Person of the ANTB Beach and Seawall Amenities Improvement Scheme (1947) Sub Committee. She is increasingly worried that Mr Bazalgette has exceeded his remit and that his new over engineered Seawall sewerage outfall will not be in keeping with ANTB'S AONB status. Edit: AONB was originally ANOB - so that Rob's jest still makes sense

That's a great shame, but surely 7200 would be a more than able deputy, and I don't think we've seen 7200 interacting with the new backscene yet?

Hurray! Our Leicester City Premiership Season Tickets this afternoon. No idea what the postie was up to, but I suppose a few more hours "delay" after a 10 year wait is neither here nor there. In celebration I thought I'd list a few "memories" of the managers and players of the "twilight decade" of Leicester City, lest their contributions be forgotten (in no particular order): Danny (Yellow Card) Tiatto (73 apps, 3 goals) - mostly a dangerous looney when on the pitch Patrick (Red Card*) Kisnorbo (126 apps 10 goals) *occasionally rescinded on review after poor refereeing decisions. Holloway's Hungarian "Dream Duo" - Zsolt Laczko (9 apps) and Gabor Bori (6 apps) - how could we forget them - quite easily as it turned out. Ian Holloway telling us to "chill out and have a sarnie" as he worked his miracle of relegating the club to the Third Tier for the first time ever. "The Golden Age of Gary Megson" - thankfully it only lasted 41 days. Elvis Hammond (58 apps, 8 goals) - a fraud as a "striker" at Leicester and more recently a jailed money launderer. Hossein Kaebi (and his translator) (3 apps) - apparently a famous Iranian International with 89 full caps. Milan Mandaric promising "I'll get you out of this division (Championship) (within 3 years) and keeping his promise by getting us relegated. Stephen "Treatment Table" Clemence and Lee Morris also known as Lee Morris-Injured to give him his full name. Prolific strikers such as Barry Hales, Geoff Horsefield, and Mark ("Big Dave") De Vries - almost 100 appearances between them and only 12 goals. Rubbish team kits by Jako and Joma and their cousin Burqa Burrda Martin "Mad Dog" Allen - a big clue in the name might indicate why his managerial tenure was brief. Full backs Alan Maybury and Robbie Neilson - both fondly remembered for having no recovery pace whatsoever when caught upfield. Great goalkeepers like Rab "The Brickie" Douglas, Kevin "Watch the Bounce" Pressman and Chris "Watch the Back Pass" Weale, not forgetting Mark Bunn. Astrit Ajdarevic and his headband no, it was actually a "headstring" - that's all I can remember about him. Ricky Sappleton (1 app) - his almost complete lack of first team action gave him time to win the "Tour de France" twice using only a stationary exercise bike at the club's Belvoir Drive training ground. Wayne Brown and his divisive political views - a bit right-wing for Leicester. Ryan Smith throwing his City shirt to the ground - subsequently he threw his football career away as well. Other players (mostly past their "sell-by" dates), whose contributions should not be forgotten include Scot Gemill (son of Archie), Patrik Gerrbrand, Jason Jarrett, Kelvin Etuhu, Andrew Johnson (the famous Welsh International not the English serial diving one), Darren Kenton, Jamie Clapham, Carl Cort, Radostin Kishishev, Josh Low, David Martin (son of Alvin and decent goalkeeper) ,Chris Makin, Nathan Blake, Miguel Vitor,Momo Sylla, Lee Hendrie...... Thank goodness that's all over... well at least for a season....

I'm voting for a coalition, as the loco and backscene seem to be working together in perfect harmony and especially so in the first two shots of that last batch.

Donning my anorak - 13th September 1975 - scorers for Leicester City - Frank Worthington, Jon Sammels 2 - scorers for West Ham United - Billy Bonds, Pat Holland and FrankLampard(Senior). Alas Jeff Blockley cannot be blamed for letting the three goal lead slip, as he didn't play for Leicester until 18th October 1975, so it's likely to have been partly down to this Leicester legend: Alan Woollett a.k.a "Woollett the Bullet" by Leicester fans due to his lack of pace. Perversely, despite his and Blockley's lack of pace, Leicester climbed from 20th place (when Blockley signed) to 7th place in the League that season.

I suppose it must be. Perhaps a light engine move for a photoshoot using the new backscene might do for "Lode Star", surely it must need a turn to keep it free running?

Unfortunately I'm old enough to remember him playing later in his career for Leicester and he was a leg-end by then. Not one of Jimmy Bloomfield's finest London Mafia signings for Leicester, when compared to the likes of Weller, Sammels, Rofe, Kember, Birchenall, etc., who were all still decent enough footballers, but Blockley was already a traffic island when he was signed.

Have either "City of Truro" or "Lode Star" shown off their fine pedigrees against the new backscene yet, or have I missed them?

I didn't realise Big Sam was a Coventry legend but I sat next to another Coventry legend at a wedding celebration meal last month: Pictured on the left with two other decent footballers, unfortunately their skill levels didn't rub off on him. He has been listed by one newspaper as the 48th worst player since 1970 to represent England at Full International level.

After their appearance at the Ricoh, the next red letter in the Finchings' diary is their annual attendance at the: Held as usual at this popular venue.

Well I've no idea what it is...... Allardyce said, when leaving Bolton , "I have had praise for what I've done, but there's nothing at the end of it. I want silverware. I'm determined to get it before my days are over." Career managerial honours: Limerick League of Ireland First Division (1): 1991–92 Notts County Football League Third Division (1): 1997–98 Bolton Wanderers Football League First Division play-offs (1): 2001 West Ham United Football League Championship play-offs (1): 2012 Time must be beginning to run out for him re winning silverware, but he still just needs that lucky break, because "if he was manager of Inter, Real Madrid, Chelsea or Manchester United, clubs he claimed to be "better suited" to managing, that he would win multiple trophies every season." (Allardyce 2010). Dream on Sam....

87,627* were consumed on average per car in 1938 according to Table 28b of the LNER Restaurant and Buffet Car Statistical Digest for that year. * Figures exclude sausage consumption on the 1928 Triple Restaurant Sets to Diagrams D13, D12A and D14A, as the staff were too busy to count sausages. The Digest concluded that sausages sales were 5% down from 1937 due to the activities of "Fruit Girls" with their healthier alternative: And getting back to Brent - a couple of Summer 1947 shots taken on the board the 5 p.m. Paddington-Plymouth service, on which the Finching sisters were returning to the South Hams after a West End theatre trip weekend: First Class toffs passengers attempting to drink the bar dry before Reading.......and a little later...... In 3rd Class, GWR restaurant staff struggle to summon up the courage to inform the Finchings that "Gin's Off" the menu this evening.

I think it might have been the Winter of 1946/47 on reflection, but never mind this picture of the milk being delivered to homes in South Brent is still relevant: It shows Albert Cheeseborough, the local milkman, improvising his deliveries in the Winter of '47. Albert had recently moved down to the South Hams to escape the dark satanic mills and harsh climate of Burnley for health reasons and is already regretting his decision.