When Compo Came to our Village

This is how our wonderful friend, John, the beekeeper, got into the celebratory spirit for the Queen's Golden Jubilee, ten years ago.    He played the part of Compo, ( 'The Last of the Summer Wine')  in a show which was held at the Village Hall ....and yes, that is Norah Batty next to him, the wrinkled stockings are a bit of a giveaway!     Our village really knew how to have fun in those days.

The village still knows how to have fun, but a certain something has been lost, which is a shame...not that I am offering to dress up as Norah Batty, or anything!

John is 95 now, which means that he was 85 when he played the part of Compo.    Ten years on, he is still going strong and putting people many years his junior, to shame.  He called in to the Byre recently and I asked his permission to take a photograph to share with you..

Doesn't he look wonderful?  John still gets out and about, visits friends, does his own shopping, looks after Arnold, keeps bees - and collects swarms when the call goes out - keeping busy and keeping active.

Conversations with him are far-ranging and always interesting.  He talks about the old days, modern farming methods,  wildlife, nature, beekeeping... anything and everything, he has a fund of great stories and information.  I love talking with him, he's an interesting man, who just happens to be 95 years old.

This handsome man was John's father - I think there is quite a resemblance around the eyes.









The photograph below shows John's mother and her two sisters.  I think it is a wonderfully evocative photograph, taken well over a hundred years ago.   Elegant young ladies.

His mother lived to be over a hundred and this one  shows the celebration of her century.  Good strong genes obviously run in his family.

He grew up on a country estate in Yorkshire, immersed in country life from the outset - he began keeping bees when he was aged 10 and went on to become a leading light in the field; he is still very highly regarded as a bee keeper extraordinaire, many a bee keeper would love to have the benefit of his knowledge.

Here he is presenting Princess Anne with a jar of honey.  It was in the Bee Keeping Tent,  at the Lincolnshire Show ...on a very hot day, if that poor man in the background is anything to go by!

I may well have already mentioned in a previous post that at one time John's 30 or so bee hives were producing over a thousand jars of honey.

I admit that I am not very good when it comes to understanding and adapting to new technology, especially if I have been comfortable with the old way...

John is passionate about wildlife and the birds which he feeds.  He likes to photograph them, but can't sit there all day to do it, he is a busy man.  So, he has an outdoor wildlife camera focused on his bird feeders, it has a PIR sensor and takes a photograph whenever it senses movement.  So, he has been happily learning how to adjust the settings to get close-ups of the birds and has learned how to stick the SD card into his television, so that he can view the photographs he has taken.  He takes it all in his stride and isn't fazed at all.

George goes along once a week to delete those which he doesn't want, then store the others, to ensure that the disc doesn't get too full.   Ninety-five, and still capable of learning and accepting modern technology...  that has to be amazing in anyone's book.

John, you are a marvellous man and I am so proud to be your neighbour.

I am about to head on up the road to visit Arnold - I'll take two carrots, one apple, two polo mints and he will be a happy horse.

Footnote: We have just returned from seeing John, and Arnold.  Both are in fine fettle, John was keeping busy and is well.  Arnold has been groomed, his feet have been trimmed - he was looking very handsome indeed - sleek and shiny, well groomed.

This photograph is the real Arnold - the horse who loves to roll in the mud and stand out in the pouring rain.

Sad to say, the young woodpecker which John had been photographing has been taken by a sparrow-hawk, while at one of his feeders.

Swimming Lessons on the Fish Pond

I managed to grab this very quick shot of two families taking a 6am swim on the fish pond.  Six younglings in the larger family and the other family have two,  one is tucked in close to mama, or possibly on her back.

Friday's Fences at Meggies

My Friday's Fences offering: this balustrade wall.  

The house is Edwardian in age and holds many happy memories which are inextricably linked with my second offering.

Cleethorpes Seafront on a spring day can be wonderful, I happened to be there on a more typical, very cold and blustery day.  This photograph shows the promenade and the pier.  In the distance you can see 'Wonderland' and the big wheel.

The strong black metal fencing runs all the way along the promenade from 'Wonderland', up to the pier and on to the leisure centre.  It stands on a strong wall, which attempts to keep the beach in place.



When I was a child it was a real treat to be brought here, by train, for a day out on the 'sands'.  If we behaved ourselves we were allowed a very short visit to the slot machines in 'Wonderland', as we made our way back to the railway station.

A trip to Cleethorpes

click to enlarge

This is the view in the other direction - the sky was low on the day I visited, so I am sorry you can't see a great deal.  The large, low building in the distance is the Leisure Centre and swimming pool, it replaced the original outdoor, sea water bathing pool, which is still affectionately remembered by many from their childhood days.

Image by jollygreenp.co.uk  Aerial Photo (RAF) 1931

I have been fortunate to find this brilliant photograph of how the bathing pool looked, from the air, in 1931.  It was vast, greatly loved and much used.  It opened in 1928 and was finally closed in 1981.

Thanks to jollygreenp.co.uk  The Pier, 1931

It held 2 million gallons of sea water and measured 400 feet x 200 feet.

I remember being taken there as a young child, it was very cold and my hand-knitted swimming costume became very water-logged and soggy.  My friend had a nice new blue ruched one, which I eyed covetously.

This old aerial photograph (1931) shows a much longer pier than the present one.  It was built at a cost of £8,000 and spanned 1,200 feet.   There is a large difference between low and high tide limits, hence the unusual length.

A section was removed during the Second World War, to help prevent it being used for an invasion attempt.

In 1956 there was a UFO sighting over Cleethorpes.  It appeared to be a glass, spherical object which stayed in the area for an hour.  It was also picked up on the radar of nearby RAF Manby.

My son Jonathan, for whom I began this blog, was born in Cleethorpes.   This makes him a 'Meggie', the colloquial name for people born there.  Cleethorpes, particularly the old part, is often referred to as 'Meggies'.  The true reason for this isn't clear, some people think there may have been a small island called Meg's Island, others think it referred to the cost of a tram ride out there, which was a 'meggie', apparently.  Please don't ask me why!

The name Cleethorpes is derived from Clee - meaning clay and Thorpes which is an Old English/Norse word for villages.

Originally a tiny fishing village,  by the 1820's it was becoming known as a health and holiday resort.  A place known for fresh air and sea-bathing.  Very bracing, being on the east coast of England.    By 1830 it had about 480 inhabitants.  Today there are more than 30,000.

Image borrowed from: portcities.org.uk

The Greenwich meridian line runs through Cleethorpes, markers indicate that the distance to:
North Pole is 2,517 miles 
South Pole is 9,919 miles
New York is 3,481 miles
London is 143 miles  


Cleethorpes is the place where my children grew up.   Jonathan was five or six when we went back there to live,  Timothy was nine, and Davina was ten.  We ended up staying there for sixteen years; the longest time I have ever spent in one place.

We have made countless sandcastles, taken donkey rides, bought cockles and whelks from the vendors and eaten pink fluffy candyfloss while playing on the beach, and possibly ate the odd ice-cream, or three!  We also know where to buy the best fish and chips in town.

The dogs were walked for miles along the promenade or taken down onto the sands,  we watched the summer carnival parades and enjoyed the Bonfire Night firework displays which are held on the beach.

Our home was the Edwardian house, shown in my first photo; it was less than two minutes walk from the beach.    It was fun, but children grow up, life moves on, and so did we.

They were happy days!

I am delighted to be joining in with Jan and Jer for Friday's Fences.  

Lots more wonderful fences can be found here.