Category: Community

I was standing by the old stone wall near the cricket pavilion last Tuesday—the one we spent three weeks patching up after the autumn floods—when I saw a flyer for yet another “comprehensive safety initiative.” It’s the same old story: glossy brochures and jargon that makes a simple idea sound like a government white paper. […]

I remember sitting in the village hall last November, the smell of damp wool coats and lukewarm tea hanging heavy in the air, watching a debate about a new grit bin go on for forty-five minutes. It wasn’t the length of the talk that bothered me, but the fact that half the room looked like […]

I was out walking the bridleway towards the old mill—the one with the flintwork dating back to the mid-1800s—when I spotted a discarded crisp packet wedged deep in a hawthorn hedge. It’s a small thing, but it’s part of a growing nuisance that makes our lanes look neglected. Now, I’ve seen some people approach organising […]

I remember sitting in the village hall last November, listening to a young lad from the council talk about “digital engagement platforms” and “streamlined communication infrastructures.” It was all a bit much, if you ask me. You don’t need a subscription service or a degree in computer science to figure out how to set up […]

If you think joining a local history society means sitting in a draughty village hall listening to a man in a moth-eaten cardigan drone on about nothing but pottery shards and dry dates, you’ve been led astray. I’ve spent thirty years valuing properties from Salisbury to Winchester, and I can tell you that the real […]

I was out checking the boundary stones near the old mill yesterday—a fine piece of masonry from about 1840, if memory serves—when I heard that unmistakable, sickening thud of a front tyre hitting something it shouldn’t have. It was Miller, driving his Volvo, looking thoroughly defeated by a crater on the lane that’s been growing […]

I was standing by the old stone bridge near the mill—the one built in 1842, mind you, though the foundations are much older—waiting for the 10:15 that was supposed to take me into Salisbury. The rain was doing that fine, soaking thing that gets right under your collar, and as I watched the empty road, […]

I sat in the Red Lion last Tuesday—the one with the 17th-century timber framing and that slightly wonky floorboard near the hearth—and listened to a young man from the district council talk about “diversifying revenue streams” and “leveraging digital engagement.” It made my teeth ache. You don’t save a community asset by installing a high-speed […]

I was walking past the old parish hall last Tuesday—the one built in 1894, if memory serves—and noticed the damp is finally starting to creep up the north-facing wall. It’s a bit of a worry, seeing as the roof hasn’t seen a proper slate replacement since the late seventies. It got me thinking about how […]

I’ve seen plenty of people get themselves into a right muddle trying to figure out how to start a book club, usually by treating it like a high-stakes committee meeting. They start talking about formal memberships, complex voting systems for the next month’s reading, and renting out function rooms that cost more than a decent […]