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May 30th 2018
Street Party
The road we live on, being a cul-de-sac, provides a perfect location for a street party. Indeed, those who have lived here for many years recount fond memories of frequent gettogethers, some involving eightsome reels, although these were sadly discontinued some years ago. Harry and Meghan’s nuptials provided the perfect excuse to reinstitute this tradition and thus we all gathered in the early evening of 19th May to celebrate. Whilst being a wonderful opportunity to meet and talk with those who had been until then only nodding acquaintances, there was also a competitive edge to the festivities. News that a prize would be awarded for the ‘best dressed’ house had Mary in her full Blue Peter mode making her own bunting until the early hours of the morning. This was festooned across the front of the house by her and Tom and, with the addition of numerous helium-filled balloons, first place was assured.
Georgie’s baking skills were called upon for the cake competition and her delicious lemon and elderflower gateau did not disappoint; voted overwhelmingly by all who tasted it as being the loveliest of all the wonderful entries, it failed to win first prize as the judges, conscious of the calorific insult that tasting all the cakes would entail, based their decision solely on presentation.
Harry finished the day off in style, however, by winning first prize in the pavement chalk drawing competition with his rendition of Prince Harry (standing next to a hairless Meghan due to the lack of a black stick of chalk!)
Clocks with three hands
Chapter 4 of my great uncle Neville’s childhood memoirs, which I have now put up online, contains the following comment about his grandmother: I remember her using the term "Railway Time", for in her youth she would have altered her watch when travelling across England. I hope that I am not alone in having had no idea that the local times in towns and cities across the UK used to vary by as much as 20 minutes because of the greater reliance on Solar Time, as measured by sundials. This became a major problem with railway schedules and led to the railway companies standardising their timetables to Greenwich Mean Time from 1840.
By 1855, the vast majority of towns and cities were using Greenwich Mean Time but not all were enthusiastic about the change. Certain cities, Nottingham, Bristol and Exeter being examples, continued to show local time on their clocks but added an extra minute hand to show London time – by the looks of the available photographs these were usually of a diminutive size when compared with the original minute hand! It was not until the 2nd of August 1880 that the use of Greenwich Mean Time became law across the whole of Great Britain.. |
