Easter Greetings from Bagshot

a drab snow scene of a road going off into the distance with houses onits right hand side, smoke coming from one of the chimnies and alone pedestian walking We certainly had a winter that was at times exceptionally cold - what a delight it is that spring is now here.

I will offer you one last snow picture, contributed by Malcolm, it is of College Ride and I think captures very well the dreariness of winter.

So let's have some rather more pleasant spring images.

crocus plants in a rectagular brick-coloured container purple crocus flowers with gold inner parts

a yellow daffodil The housing development on the former Waterer's nursery site is coming on with a large recreational area to the side of it. Those who travel on the A30 will be greatly relieved when the associated road works are complete. They seem to have taken for ever making a new traffic light controlled junction and caused considerable disruption while they did it. The road-work contractor's parting shot was to reduce the busy A30 to single file traffic controlled by stop-go boards during the rush hour. The work was finished by mid-morning, so why could it not have been done a little later in the day when it would not cause literally miles of traffic congestion?

In contrast the County Coucil are to be congratulated on some real joined-up thinking. They took the opportunity of the A322 being closed for work by a utility company to send in a work party to sort out the verges.

a gold coloured bush surrounded by other vegitation including a mass of blue flowers
Like all councils, Surrey County Council is having to make financial savings and we wait with some trepidation to see what will suffer. It does look as though Bagshot's library will be a casualty. From past events one would be forgiven for thinking that it has been a target for closure for many years - despite the fact that it costs very little to run and with no freehold to be able to sell off only offers minimal savings to the council. Another casualty could be the adequacy of the bus service.

Not only does each season have its characteristic signs of nature, but it seems to me that these signs change from year to year, or perhaps that each new year emphasises something different. Of striking note this year have been the abundance of the little white flowers on hawthorn bushes to the extent that many fields are hedged in white.

white flowers on a small tree

Finally in a selection of spring pictures we have to have some tulips.

red tulip flowers

During the worst of the recession a few years back we saw Estate Agents flee like the proverbial rats from a sinking ship, and petrol stations close and be replaced by "hand car wash" services. Now we have two of the vacated estate agent offices occupied by new businesses and one of the car wash sites move over to selling cars. Hopefully all good signs.

Easter will, or course, be celebrated in all Bagshot's churches.
a long line of walkers on the footpath at the side of a road following a wooden cross
On Good Friday all the churches come together for a Walk of Witness - a procession around the village led by a wooden cross and ending with a prayer and a hymn sung in The Square.

A week later will be the Royal Wedding and, like many places, Bagshot will be having its street party in the High Street. Let us hope that the weather will be kind.

Additions to the website since the last newsletter include:

Don asks what the Duke of Connaught was doing 1894-1900 as he is interested in his A.D.C. John G.H.H.De La Poer BERESFORD
Steve asks if anyone remembers the Hughes family (1930-1960)
Trev's memories on the Brick Hill camp
Colin played for Bagshot FC
Wendy provides some information about the Laurel Cottages near the foot of Church Road.
Miles tells of his time at the RAOSsand sent some more pictures.
Terry asks if anyone knows where Emily Jane Popejoy lived.
Following on from the challenge to identify the people in some old children's photos, Alan has set the challenge to identify the adults in three teams
Roy has added to the list of uses that the shop that was once Nash's has had
Sue asks if anyone knows of a fleet of lorries seen on the A30 that had the names of nursery characters
Might the Duke of Connaught have officiated at the wedding of one of his employees in 1902?
James Legge provides memories of Ron Collins and the Bridge Street cafe
More about Miss Monger from Frances
Sylvia remembers Curley View Cottages
A collection of memories from John Wooders

With best wishes to you and those you hold dear.
Neil
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The opinions expressed here are those of the author, writing on his own behalf and not representing anyone else or any organisation. The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and are not necessariy endorsed by this website..

The previous newsletter was Christmas 2010.

>Each time I do a mailing telling friends like yourself about one of these 'update' pages I get several bounce back as undeliverable because the intended recipient has changed their email address, and I have no way of knowing what it has changed to. So if you change your email please remember to put me on the list of people to tell if you want to keep in touch.

There are two very obvious causes of changed email addresses. The first is when I've been given a business email address and either you change employer, or the employer changes their name and with it their email address. The second is if you use an email address tied to your Internet Service Provider (addresses such as yourname@aol.com and yourname@btinternet.com) and you change your ISP. For both of these situations here is a simple solution to the risk of loosing an email address that you have given to people such as myself who mail only occasionally, and that is to use an email address from one of the many web-based free email service providers. These three seem to be very popular, but there are many others: http://gmail.google.com (Google), http://mail.live.com (Microsoft Windows Live / Hotmail) and http://mail.yahoo.com (Yahoo)