Monday 18 August 2008

A New Leicestershire Landmark

Not far from here is a road junction at the top of a hill that some of us call 'Whistle Top' Just behind the hedge on the north corner of the crossroads is one of the now sadly defunct triangulation pillars, marking the height above sea level here as 518 feet. Well, last week they had to close the road to Uppingham at this spot, and when I went to the town on Saturday to get the papers I found that the road was open again, but the road men had left a stack of traffic cones on the grass verge. I drove by them a couple of times, but then had to succumb to temptation.

17 comments:

Greg Southwell said...

Peter, are you sure it's not the left-overs from a Students high spirited night out?

Fred Fibonacci said...

'Peter Ashley: Vandal' (pub. 2018, Virago, a revisionist retrospective)

Peter Ashley said...

Welcome Gregoire. I'm afraid it was all down to me. I can only excuse it by saying that I did have an idea that the angles of cone and pillar might co-incide (or whatever angles do in The World of Geometry). I was right. But I tell you, those cones are really heavy to lug about, particularly over stiles.

TIW said...

Pointless Fact: Britain is the world's number one exporter of traffic cones. Makes you proud.

Affer said...

Bravo. If everyone placed a cone on a trig point, there might be a whole lot less to blight the M1 and (currently) the A59....and the world would be a far better place for that.

Jon Dudley said...

Did anyone ever try to call the cones hotline? I see they don't advertise it anymore. Probably got put straight through to Willy Walls himself.

Peter Ashley said...

Who's Willy Walls? Is he anything to do with ice cream, or perhaps sausages? Actually, whilst we're on about sausages, does everyone agree that Walls Pork Sausages are the best there is. Forget all about Stilton & Beef, Cucumber & Testicles and Broad Bean & Lambs' Brains bangers, just keep it simple I say.

Philip Wilkinson said...

I was reminded of the cones hotline, too, though I never called it. If I'd lived where I do now, I might have been tempted, in view of the recent rash of cones deposited on the roofs of the cars parked in our street. Mr Ashley: you don't lurk round here in the dead of night, do you?

Re sausages, we've always liked the ones made by Lakins, butchers of Louth, Lincolnshire, much fancied by Yellow-Bellies.

Peter Ashley said...

I do lurk about in the dead of night Mr.Wilkinson, but like to give myself a quick easy getaway back home.

Affer said...

I always felt Walls' bangers proved that we bought the sizzle and not the sausage....horrible things! But for a mass-produced snorker, I go for Porkinson's - they have a lot of pork in them, and were formulated by a photographer!

Ron Combo said...

Afa, I'm with you on that. Not sure at all about Wall's sausages.

Peter Ashley said...

Oh alright then I hate them too.

Jon Dudley said...

Due to a wholly inaccurate memory I have unwittingly sent everyone off down sausage alley. Of course I should have said Tommy Walls... in a desperate attempt at humour by linking the character from The Eagle promoting Walls ice cream (ice cream cones) to your traffic cones. Pathetic. Sorry.

Whist talking sausages (and so far avoiding innuendo) I've been searching for the perfect sausage for years. Walls is Walls and unpretentious but with quite a high rusk content. Porkinson's seems a bit of a triumph of marketing over flavour but there's no denying the style of the jaunty smoking cap of the 'inventor'. Fry's of Lingfield and East Grinstead get my vote. Whatever, almost any plain sausage is preferable to the hideous flavour pairings beloved of the modern butcher.

Peter Ashley said...

Thankyou Jon, I'm so glad we're back on the straight 'n' narrow with this one. But I should have also said that amongst the mainstream best selling bangers of note is the Richmond Thick Pork Irish sausage, of which I have consumed three for breakfast this morning. Anyway, what happened to the Palethorpe's Cambridge?

Affer said...

I seem to remember that the Palethorpe Sausage was a favourite of Norman Scott?

And Tommy Walls....ah, didn't we all make the 'secret' sign in the playground? It had twice the value of Sir Winston's version!

Fred Fibonacci said...

As I may have mentioned before, a good tangy marmalade works very well with sausages. I think we're all in agreement that Mr Tesco should lay off the fancy ingredients; I bought some of his over-specced bangers a while ago that, were I to own one, I'd have fed to the cat.

Peter Ashley said...

For a really good tangy marmalade, may I heartily recommend Wilkin's Tiptree Orange & Tangerine? I'm off to Uppingham this morning to buy a new jar in Baines the Bakers where you fall in down steps onto an alarming sloping floor to where very pretty girls serve you with flour on their aprons. Oh. I'm so sorry.