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Friday 30 October 2009
Frontispiece
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Wednesday 28 October 2009
Lancashire Hotspot
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjchPCzOYLVU_1CBwXRxCaWXuYDdzGUx0iCPOeOrT60n9pOUbG2frnrXJmmrw1esUML98t5qvSDpvHwsxajavAnEErth-s344g9XaLc0yvWXwvSHxYu0y6ANs8dN65j0wwa1DY7KZ_PyL9m/s400/Blog+Tower+Lodge+Wyresdale.jpg)
Tuesday 27 October 2009
Find The Fault No 45
Monday 26 October 2009
The Singing Keyhole
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I still can't quite make my mind up about this keyhole in the door of the little church in my neighbouring village of Blaston in Leicestershire. It isn't as though this escutcheon would go unnoticed, and I really like to think that the church furnishers saw the joke and let it pass. After all, our notions of stiff and starchy Victorians has continually been disabused- their Queen had a laugh from time to time I'm sure. It could have course be that someone drilled those eyes in at a later date, but I doubt it. The great architect Sir Ninian Comper appears to have done something similar with the keyholes at his stunning St.Mary's in Wellingborough, and he never appeared to be a barrel of laughs either. Perhaps they're just happy accidents, because we are always oddly attracted to any inanimate object that makes a face, everything from buildings with windows for eyes to certain views of electrical plugs.
Thursday 22 October 2009
Railway Echo No 12
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLwQS3Kw06sIeH7bG_k-4VtTt6pFz-8xTbyMHVb2iFSg1ZrYLX2q6pP_wOu3uBNI_ATdViW1ExH5BVqH0T9Sz0pDUWJmygy6XiLBJ3aM6AywbKfQubm9wQAJUJtop2n9GVY4f7Mn_5Zdp0/s400/Blog+Viaduct.jpg)
Labels:
Cardboard Tickets,
Milk Churns,
Oil Lamps,
Pigeon Baskets
Wednesday 21 October 2009
Find The Fault No 44
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMYQPPtVvIYRrP96ltebeIASP9CKY4xnyWIiOMHIFzDA5htaiEYFc1fBRktYj5CgkBs2o6PvGgP-Od9Mbjx-RBfSnEiZ8xyp4Iks_KzKti9R975MO5JGRC3M6oUsCDHScddl-sOFECXcS5/s400/Find+The+Fault+No+44.jpg)
Labels:
Car Rugs,
Dents Driving Gloves,
Gearboxes,
Travel Sweets
Monday 19 October 2009
Find The Fault, I Wish Somebody Would
Only Daughter speaking. Intergalactic radio waves failing to get into Father's village. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.
Wednesday 14 October 2009
Chain Saw Reaction
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Elsewhere on this blog I have drawn attention to the remarkable history of Scots Pines in the landscape. The tree here is opposite my home, and is in all probability a truncated Wellingtonia. There is a Scots Pine next to it, positioned at what was once a crossroads, now a T-junction at the centre of the village, but this magnificent specimen is one of the tallest and most magnificent trees in the area. So of course the good folk in whose garden it stands want to chop it down. And why? Because after the removal of a brick arch that allowed for any movement of the tree roots, the replacement wall with foundations is now prone to damage. And of course this might well effect the smooth operation of an electronic gate. Heaven forbid. The wholesale destruction of trees is usually the preserve of over-zealous councils in a deadly pact with contractors to avoid what they perceive is litiguous action. But for a private individual to destroy a tree as old and as important to the local scene and history as this one is thoroughly reprehensible. There might be some point if the roots were interfering with household wainscoting, plumbing, televisions and wi-fi's, but irresponsible destruction of this kind should surely be a very last resort. It just isn't any threat to anything important, and attempts to fell it before have apparently failed because of the good sense of those brought in to do the deed who have driven off shaking their heads. Not so now. I understand a chainsaw is being primed far away in an adjoining county. And yes, I believe there's a Tree Preservation Order on it.
Labels:
Axes,
Chain Saws,
Ladders,
Ropes,
Tree Surgeons,
Unthinking Vandalism
Tuesday 13 October 2009
Find The Fault No 43
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Monday 12 October 2009
Creature Feature No 7
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I promised more from Carters Steam Fair, and these wooden horses do the trick. One of the now rare places where genuine popular art can still be seen, the traditional fairground gives up many treasures in handcrafted decoration. Noel Carrington and Clarke Hutton's King Penguin English Popular Art gives many superb examples from canal boats to gypsy caravans, and I expect the often itinerant artists would be just at ease painting a merry-go-round horse as the odd inn sign. Carrington thinks that fairground horses 'have something too of the medieval knight's charger or lady's palfrey as seen in paintings of the sixteenth century' and mentions that King's Lynn in Norfolk was once a principle centre for circus and fair outfitting. And how often do we say "That horse has got my name on it?". A closer look at this picture revealed that in my case one of them certainly has.
Friday 9 October 2009
Model Vision
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I am reminded of illustrator Tony Meeuwissen, who this month has a restrospective at the Museum in The Park in Stroud, Gloucestershire, where he has made his home for many years. Searching in The Unmitigated Archive this morning this book fell into my hands. Without doubt it's one of my favourite book covers, a witty and beautifully executed illustration that turns images of estate or 'model' village buildings into an intact plastic kit of parts. Meeuwissen always has a penchant for the cottage ornee style, giving as it does decorative bargeboarding and characterful windows and chimney pots so suited to his meticulous style. This is the 1978 paperback cover, sadly not reprinted for the latest version, but I expect there will be copies hidden away in dusty bookshops and dusty internet sites. And I can also thoroughly recommend the contents. Gillian Darley has written what must be the definitive book on villages that instead of growing organically over centuries were artificially introduced by 'aesthetic, philanthropic or political reasons'. But keep looking at that cover. You'll find something new every time you look, and there's more about Model Behaviour on page 64 of More from Unmitigated England.
Labels:
Lattice Windows,
Magpies,
Ornate Porches,
Terracotta
Tuesday 6 October 2009
Find The Fault No 42
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Thursday 1 October 2009
Wellington Shoots
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