Parking Restrictions

I know who was first to crack. I saw him do it. I was getting changed and looked out of my bedroom window and he drew up in his car, moved the cone, parked up and then unloaded his shopping. Well it would have been a bit of a walk with heavy bags if he hadn't and he is probably very unfit with all the smoking. Thought he might move the car afterwards but he left it there.

The next car sneaked in behind him. Can't tell if that driver knew the space had been made by a resident moving a cone or simply thought that there was a mysterious gap in the middle of the line.

You see these houses were built in 1892. The road finished at the end of the terrace so you could, I guess, leave your buggy outside and stick the horse in the field. Italian prisoners of war dug the road through to Lillington - not their fault exactly but now it's a rat run despite the traffic calming/driver enraging measures.

Some of the houses are now converted into flats and so many of them are occupied by more than one car owner. As the width of a house is fifteen feet (excuse the imperial but they were built in it) there is barely room for one car outside each house.

So the Severn Trent Water Authority's recent return trip to re-open a large hole, pull out some bits of Victorian brickwork and piping and scarper leaving it open was followed up, last Friday evening, by a row of police no-waiting cones outside numbers 80-90. This is presumably so they can park their vans when they return.

No sign yet and, as I say, the chain-smoking shopping carrier was first but, when I woke up this morning I discovered that one-by-one cone moving had now hit the the grand total of 'all'. A neat pile of cones (this is Royal Leamington Spa after all so we are tidy) stands at the end of the row and all the old parking spaces are taken.

My neighbours become very angry if drunken vandals throw the cones around but find it quite acceptable to move them gently, slowly and neatly.

Leicester Street neigbourhood watch; watching everyone except ourselves.

Leamington Changelog

Further to the post the other day about bloggers becoming experts on their small corner of the world, you don't get much smaller than a blog that logs very minor changes in Leamington Spa. Enjoy. Good picture of the pub burning down in Radford Semele but strictly speaking it's outside the town boundary.

We had a leaflet pushed through the door today headlined 'Campion Hills under attack'. Now the Campion Hills are a very small range of hills stretching from just outside my door to a bit up the road beyond that. Still, I rather hope that even in Leamington the early warning of attack will be by other means than leafleting the street.

It transpires a farmer is going to sell a little bit of his farm on the edge of the hills and it may be used for housing (in a town where there is little affordable housing so this is probably a good thing).

The leaflet urged households to 'Join us in the fight' without ever saying who 'us' was. It also attached a copy of the form we will need to register our feelings with the Council. In a true spirit of local democracy the box marked 'I object' had already been ticked for us.

Continuing the local news theme I have given away, through Freecycle a set of Quadro, a trampette, a coat stand and two beanbags. I feel really good now. Further thanks to Dave Walker and his amazing Cartoon Blog (via which I also found two old clergy friends' blogs today) for pointing me in its diection.

Frances Ridley Havergal

After an interesting evening with Andy I promised I'd blog a picture of the woman who features in his address. Here she is. Frances Ridley Havergal. Hymn writer, first organist of St Paul's Church when it was built in 1873 and former Leamingtonian.

A poet and hymnist, she was born at Astley, Worcestershire, in 1836, the youngest daughter of Rev. William Henry Havergal, who composed hymn tunes and other sacred music. The house was a very musical place.

A delicate child, she was initially educated at home by her mother and eldest sister. When she was six years old the family moved to a temporary home at Henwick House, Hallow, outside Worcester. In 1845 they moved into the city of Worcester to St. Nicholas Rectory where her father was to be the minister for the next 15 years. Failing health led him to take a job in 1860 as curate of St Mary and St. Luke, Shareshill, Staffordshire. On retirement in 1867 the family moved to Leamington.

During all these years, Frances lived at home, interspersed with short periods of schooling and extended trips in this country and abroad. On her step-mother's death in 1878 she moved to Caswell Bay, Swansea, South Wales, where she died on 3 June, 1879 after a bout of pneumonia. She was 42.

She was a prolific writer, knowledgeable of at least six languages and whilst in Wales learnt enough Welsh to understand chapel. She sang well.

The hymn 'Take my life and let it be' is perhaps her best known work.

In adulthood she had a series of physical breakdowns and was a periodic sufferer of headaches and depression.

Amazing then that she wrote:

Take my hands and let them move
at the impulse of thy love;
take my feet and let them be
swift and beautiful for thee?

My office is in the Upper Havergal Room.

Pensions Apology

Just a brief glimpse into small town life for you all. In a population of 55,000 it is likely that 5,500 will have no sense of humour. Minimum. This is no reason not to crack jokes or try and be amusing but the following is a genuine apology in this week's Leamington Spa Observer - a free newspaper. Or perhaps a news-free paper, I can never remember.

'We would like to apologise for any offence caused by Michael Butcher's letter last week - Public pensions. Mr Butcher was not seriously suggesting that pensioners should be the subject of a mass cull to deal with the pensions crisis.'

Hope that's cleared that up.

Boris Johnson has a good piece on the pensions crisis. Very funny.