An Old Codger

The curse of our nation. Two million pieces a day, one billion pound a year to clear; a throw away generation, with a lack of respect.  From fag ends to plastic, dog poo to car tyres. Drink cans to barbeques, burgers to chips. Over countryside, seaside, mountains...

Looking back at my school years, they were influenced by postwar austerity and division. I passed the 11+ selection examination for Grammar School education, all due to rote learning, no teaching aids, only the cane. Taught by elderly spinsters and ex-WW1veterans....

As I write this blog, there are major conflicts causing unspeakable death and injury, not only to members of the armed forces but to civilians trying to exist among the turmoil and carnage of war. Wars that have been started by leaders who want to expand their...

I grew up in a relatively new coal mining village about four miles from the town of Wrexham in North East Wales (now a city). Early road maps identified the village as a ‘model village’. The mine owners developed the village with a series of wide avenues, a central...

I decided to seek my DNA and find out where I come from.  Through family chats and some letters from my mother’s aunt who, at a young age, went to live in Australia on the advice of her doctor, I realise that elements of a true family tree will never be...

I feel it is time to offer a lighter side to my blogs. A brief personal look at fashion over the last eighty years from the war years onwards. These are some reflective thoughts on aspects of fashion over my lifetime. I have touched on the fashion era of the 1960’s in...

As I sit and observe the state of our country and those countries near and far, now marred by the effects of climate change, I am concerned for the future of farming across our land. The supply of fresh food, milk and grain, home grown feed for cattle and hen, pigs...

n the 1980’s, I visited a small factory on the Wirral producing black plastic sacks. Granules in, rolls of sacks out. Just two men managed the whole plant. Automated manufacturing and automated process engineering was, even then, having a devastating effect on working...

When World War 2 ended, Britain had a new problem. One of recovery in so many ways. Food rationing continued into the 1950’s, damaged buildings across many parts of the country needed either clearing or repairing. The austerity taxed the nation in so many ways, but...