This morning I thought about my evening walk with Jasper last Friday. We had walked past where an old cottage had stood opposite the school in Crossways road - a lovely little cottage with picture postcard windows and a date stone complete with initials of the family who owned it. However I got a bit of a shock because we walked past and found the cottage completely bulldozed except for about 4 foot of wall and a late Georgian rustic stair case poking out of the rubble. I was quite shocked as this was such a picturesque building probably dated between 1795-1820. However a look at the garden and it was clear what the developers had in mind. The cottage stood between the builders and someone making a packet and building some new residential units - maximising their profits and space allocated for new build.
I had mixed feelings - firstly shock. Secondly disgust but maybe also some sympathy for people struggling with an economic downturn which perhaps requires such drastic sacrifices. However it also highlighted the fact that there are many good unlisted buildings which are very much at risk at the moment. Several farmhouses in the area which although of some age are unlisted and it seems the latest grab for development land has seen developers buy old properties primarily to knock down and maximise the unit potential of the land on which it stood. Several 'for Sale' boards are quite blatant about it.
It seems to me that the planning laws our failing to protect those parts of our culture that are most at risk. It is not practical to list everything but surely something must be done to protect buildings of over 150 years old. The mistakes made in Bristol during the 1960's and 1970's appear to be happening again.
This morning I took the car to be cleaned (at last ) and took a walk in the Mundi Fields. I had planned to attend worship at St Pauls Clifton for a change (The music is excellent there!) but didn't leave in enough time.
In the afternoon Dan, Rachel and Alison called round and we drove up the steep Uley Hill to Woodchester noting the gliders on the way who seemed to appear from nowhere. We also noted the longbarrow with views over the river Severn Vale.
A rugged road down to Woodchester and a walk down to the house and to the lakes was lovely and very atmospheric as usual. The lakes were very still there were quite a few people out and about in the valley which made the place seem less isolated and haunted (which it can be at certain times). Work seems to be carrying on with the house and the estate.
I had mixed feelings - firstly shock. Secondly disgust but maybe also some sympathy for people struggling with an economic downturn which perhaps requires such drastic sacrifices. However it also highlighted the fact that there are many good unlisted buildings which are very much at risk at the moment. Several farmhouses in the area which although of some age are unlisted and it seems the latest grab for development land has seen developers buy old properties primarily to knock down and maximise the unit potential of the land on which it stood. Several 'for Sale' boards are quite blatant about it.
It seems to me that the planning laws our failing to protect those parts of our culture that are most at risk. It is not practical to list everything but surely something must be done to protect buildings of over 150 years old. The mistakes made in Bristol during the 1960's and 1970's appear to be happening again.
This morning I took the car to be cleaned (at last ) and took a walk in the Mundi Fields. I had planned to attend worship at St Pauls Clifton for a change (The music is excellent there!) but didn't leave in enough time.
In the afternoon Dan, Rachel and Alison called round and we drove up the steep Uley Hill to Woodchester noting the gliders on the way who seemed to appear from nowhere. We also noted the longbarrow with views over the river Severn Vale.
A rugged road down to Woodchester and a walk down to the house and to the lakes was lovely and very atmospheric as usual. The lakes were very still there were quite a few people out and about in the valley which made the place seem less isolated and haunted (which it can be at certain times). Work seems to be carrying on with the house and the estate.
Apparently the house is supposed to be one of the most haunted in the uk and according to a book I own a balck cowled figure and coffin can be seen hovering above the lakes. I'm certainly a sceptic when it comes to these things - I believe that people often have a psychological response to empty things or places where something used to be which produces a response which people assume to be ghost like. However after recent event at work I am a little more open minded. On a night shift I was reading in a lounge in the modern part of the building when I heard footsteps in the room above at 2am and 4am. Nothing unusual as one of our residents likes to go for a stroll - however when I dashed up to look both rooms were in darkness and the person concerned was in bed!! However it could maybe related to me feeling tired (although they were very audible footsteps!!) and I guess being an old building one does pick up on cues for things which I suppose could trigger a Psychological response. I didn't feel scared but just baffled. Maybe it was an animal on the roof?!
However should there be such things they are far less harmful than living beings. They don't have the ability to blow the planet up or the ability to use all the earths resources in lieu of future generations. However I'm always suspicious of mediums and spiritualists as they have the power to manipulate people when they are at their most vulnerable - and my personal feelings are to leave such things well alone (if they exist!!!) and let them get on with it!
On the way back we stopped at the small village of Frocester in a pub for a drink - and in the famous typical Gloucestershire fashion everybody did the Western thing - and stopped and stared and carried on.
Came back and watched Jeremy Paxmans 'The Victorians' which was fascinating following the inside outs of the Victorian home and the hypocrisy of Victorian morality and crime. Reminded me of my Part 1 History at Lampeter where I studied Victorian society and some of its less well known aspects. Also started reading a book called in the Shadow Of The Work House - an interesting book which I feel people society would do well to remember. The amount of times I hear people complaining about people being on benefits! The workhouse was very cruel as it segregated families, taught people that poverty was evil and their own fault and humilated people and led to some very harsh lives. Dad traced a distant member of the family to a workhouse and her paupers grave in a local Victorian cemetary - an umarked one which really brought home to me the harshness of Victorian society to poverty. Whatever the Prop Up mentality of Bevans welfare state one would never like to see a return to the workhouse and the mentality which drove those institutions.
Came back and watched Jeremy Paxmans 'The Victorians' which was fascinating following the inside outs of the Victorian home and the hypocrisy of Victorian morality and crime. Reminded me of my Part 1 History at Lampeter where I studied Victorian society and some of its less well known aspects. Also started reading a book called in the Shadow Of The Work House - an interesting book which I feel people society would do well to remember. The amount of times I hear people complaining about people being on benefits! The workhouse was very cruel as it segregated families, taught people that poverty was evil and their own fault and humilated people and led to some very harsh lives. Dad traced a distant member of the family to a workhouse and her paupers grave in a local Victorian cemetary - an umarked one which really brought home to me the harshness of Victorian society to poverty. Whatever the Prop Up mentality of Bevans welfare state one would never like to see a return to the workhouse and the mentality which drove those institutions.
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