You don't have to go far in the UK before coming across these towns. They are all over the place and a real throw back to a gentler age. This coffee shop was full of local people chewing the cud. Actually they were bad mouthing the prime minister which has suddenly become a national pastime. I suspect even dyed in the wool Tories are struggling to support this man. This was a coffee shop and second hand LP and book sale. Just down the road was the poetic pharmacy - another cafe and shop selling little other than books of poetry and decked out like an old fashioned chemist shop. Yes this was previously a hippy hangout. Apparently Ronnie Lane of the Small Faces lived there and used to hold impromptu concerts in local pubs with the likes of Eric Clapton and other top popsters.
There is virtually nothing left of the Castle. The Castle Hotel now stands where it used to be and apparently was built with stone from the castle. Perhaps it should be called Bishop's Non Castle. A few miles on at Clun there are considerable castle ruins. Not to mention a cafe that served Pheasant broth. I gave that a miss. I'm not a vegetarian but cannot eat anything that flies including pheasant, duck, pigeon and much more. I could easily become vegetarian without thinking twice about it. It wouldn't worry me going Teetotal either, although I would miss my occasional pint of real ale.
Came across a queue of traffic to get petrol at Griffiths Garage in Leintwardine in Herefordshire on the way towards Ludlow. They claimed to be fiercely independent and wow I have to say they were. They were selling petrol for 130.9p a litre. Most of the petrol around Shropshire is about 145.9p a litre and of course in Norfolk it's over 150p in many places. So what is Griffiths' secret. I guess they just want to give motorists good value and recognise that the cheaper their petrol, the more they sell. 15p a litre cheaper is some going though.
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"We need your support in our fight against over-development and bad design." Those are the words of the Ludlow Civic Society from the latest edition of Ludlow Heritage News and they make an important point for our "throw up as many houses in as little time as possible and make as much money for the developers" times that we are living in.
One thing I forgot to mention yesterday from our lunch in Ludlow is that my meal included chuckleberries. To be fear that's probably why I chose the dish rather than the steak. So what are chuckleberries? They are a cross between redcurrants and gooseberries and were quite tart. But of course it was the name that had me smiling. I couldn't help getting a mental image of the Chuckle Brothers.
Back in May I helped my youngest son to move house. Part of that day saw me lumping furniture around with my daughter-in-law's uncle. We were referred to as the Chuckle Brothers in a "To Me To You" kind of way.
The Ludlow Heritage News included an article on Sir William Jukes Steward MP who was born in Reading, raised in Ludlow and became speaker of the New Zealand Parliament. So far I haven't been able to find any connection between myself and Sir William but I will continue to try!!
I did do some research on the whole Steward surname which obviously started life as Stewart in Scotland. I did find out quite a bit about a certain Knight who may have adopted the Steward name and I will tell you about that in a future blog.
Also found another interesting fact in Ludlow at Dinham Mills by the river (the place I had the chuckleberries). It was the home of Cyril Lello. He might not be a household name but he played football for Everton and a plaque told us that he lived in the Mill and honed his skills by kicking a football against the mill wall.
He set a record 155 consecutive appearances for the club and played for a number of other clubs in the 1950s.
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Was watching comedian David Baddiel on Breakfast TV yesterday talking about his obsession with Social Media and the problems many people have with it. There was a new social media site - a relatively new one whose title escapes my mind at the moment - that is causing concern.
An influencer/journalist was interviewed and said there was a group of about 30 women who pick apart every part of her life including her looks, her beliefs, her family, her marriage etc. These trolls apparently spend up to 10 hours a day doing this. The phrase Get a Life comes to mind. Surely this is a form of unacceptable cyber bullying.
I do get withdrawal symptoms if I haven't checked e-mails or Facebook messages for a few hours. It gets worse when I have checked both and feel I need to check them again within a few minutes. That's quite obsessional.
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Hope you enjoy a few of my latest batch of photos from Shropshire. We actually dipped into Herefordshire and also just over the border into Wales - but still survived.