Christmas Greetings from Bagshot
Mexico
has a tradition known as pasada in which children take
the Christmas story from house to house.
St Anne's church has adopted a version of this. They have a knitted set of all the figures in a traditional crib scene which goes from one family to the next. The recipients are invited to provide a photo that can be mounted on the church's social media.
I was a bit irreverent and offered the photo alongside with the caption "The 3 wise men found their path blocked by the scourge of 2022 - fibre optic laying".
More on that below.
A practice that seems to have developed in
the last few years is people creating increasingly ornate crocheted
'tops' to adorn post boxes. Two are shown here. The
first
was for the Jubilee and the second is Christmas
The Queen's jubilee was celebrated in Bagshot, as it was in every other town and village. The High Street was decked with flags. Even the post box outside the post office was given a make-over by the crochet brigade.
Street parties were held in many streets and a carnival was held in the High Street. St Anne's Church held an exhibition of the village's history.
There is a selection of photos here.
It was with deep regret that we found ourselves mourning Her Majesty's passing so soon after.
I have been known to comment that four
churches serving
Bagshot was a ridiculous number, given the size of the population. But
even so it was sad to learn that the Methodist church on the London
Road has closed due to the dwindling numbers attending.
The nearest Methodist churches are Camberley and Bracknell.
A
collapsed sewer caused a 2 week closure of Guildford Road in
February. A deep hole (over 2m according to the workmen) had
to
be dug and shored up.
The closure was near the viaduct so
there
was no easy diversion. The signposted route was out to
School
Lane, Windlesham. The reason for not using the A322 was not
given, but speculation is that the it was realised that congestion at
critical road junctions would tail back on to the main road resulting
in
accidents. Some drivers were seen ignoring the road closure
by
driving on the footpath.
If there is one thing that has dominated village
life this year it is work by utilities, and in particular the several
companies who are laying ducting for fibre optic cable.
The collapse of an old sewer (above) was unavoidable and dealt with as expediently as possible. However there appears to be no coordination of fibre work - no sooner has one company finished digging up paths and roads than another comes along and digs up the same path again.
As seen here, they appear to be quite cavalier about blocking
roads and paths with little regard for the inconvenience caused.
But I guess all my UK readers will recognise the problem from
their own experience (if not then just wait!).
The gas utility did not get away without their own issues. They spent several weeks digging up Station Road. Gas had been leaking into the drains. In dry conditions finding a gas leak is a relatively straightforward process - push a probe into the ground and have a meter 'sniff' the air. But with the ground saturated all they got was water - no air to be able to sniff!
Late autumn must have been a lot wetter than normal for I had a problem that I've not encountered before. We have a bird feeder that is supported by a stake pushed into the ground. This year the ground has become so soft that it does not support the stake and the bird feeder keeps leaning over.
Storm Eunice, the
second of three named storm in the space of five days, hit the
southeast
on Friday 18 Feb.
We are not accustomed to such things. Inevitably power was lost. How long it took to get back on depended upon where you live - the fortunate were back on in about 6 hours, the unfortunate had to wait over 24 hours. It is reported that some places in Surrey had to wait over 4 days. Locally there was some damage, but not too severe.
Within the village a few roof tiles were lost, as were some fence panels, lightweight corrugated plastic roofing and some tree branches.
The fallen trees seen here were on the Crown Estate land north of the village. The estate managers have been carrying out a programme of regeneration for decades. They fell a patch of the old pine trees (and put them into the timber trade which will have been the original reason for their planting), leave the land fallow for a few years, then replant mixed species of native trees. By doing scattered sites and varying times the woodland will end up with diverse species and diverse maturity. The issue these trees suffered was that they were unaccustomed to exposure, so when the area next to them was cleared, those on the edge suffered.
We have all suffered extremes of weather this year.
Spring starts earlier and winter is later. We have
had long spells of both wet and dry weather - though in the south east
we have not had as much rain as some parts of the country.
During the dry spell lawns and grass became parched and
brown, almost dead, but it is remarkable how rapidly grass and weeds
recover when the rain does return. A consequence of the dry
is that my compost heap is quite small due to lack of grass cuttings
put on it. I had managed to keep my tomatoes alive by
judicious watering, only to find that when the rain came the fruit
burst!
Some years back there was correspondence about
families who lived on the heath.
They were broomdashers (who made besom brooms from material collected on the heath). You can find pictures of them and their details on censuses.
I recall being told that the Poors Allotment Charity (who owned the land) charged them rent. But nobody seemed to know just where they lived.
I recently found buildings and features marked on an old map
that seemed to fit the descriptions that I had read so I set out with a
GPS to find the location. This is it. No sign of any building
remains, but then any would by now be well covered, but the location
would be suitable offering shelter and a reasonably level but drained
area.
.
The saga of Kemp's coal yard and Moscow Villa on
Guildford Road has concluded. The building, having been demolished, has
now been replaced by a block of 5 flats.
The White Hart pub, next door, has closed and planning applications
have been made to build housing on that site as well.
Still on the subject of developments - the
conversion of Queen
Anne House into 5 flats and the building of houses in its
grounds is now complete (picture to right).
The building of a new care home on the site of Jack's fish & chips was approved on appeal and the work is currently in hand.
The new estate off Chapel Lane is also nearing completion.
There had for years been talk of a Community Hub for Bagshot using a building behind the library in the old part of the High Street which had, many years ago, been the council chamber of the local authority - not that anyone seemed to have a clear idea of what was meant by a 'community hub'. We were encouraged last year when the borough council (who now own the property) made some proposals. However it has turned out that the 'community hub' is no more than the opportunity to hire space in the Day Centre, and that the former council chamber will inevitably be demolished and replaced by housing. These proposals do not affect the building, Laird House, that fronts onto the High Street and houses the library as this is listed grade II.
Among the contributions and questions since my last
newsletter
are:
- Today we take utilities for granted, even if we do complain about the roads being dug up to service the infrastructure. But as June Green tells us in her description of Bagshot's first water supply this was not always the case.
- Delli5 seeks contact with local descendants of the DelliColli family
- Ruth Miles provides some information about the Higgs family and Higgs Lane. She would be pleased to share information with others.
- Ken Wells has provided photos of the Seltones band.
- Elspeth asks if anyone knows about Jessie Alexander who was for 19 years matron of the nursing home.
- Marina asks "My nanny lived in the cottage that used to be opposite Peel House. Does anybody know the history of it please."
- T Sellers' father was manager at the Lupin Cafe.
- John asks if anyone has any pictures of, or knowledge of, Providence Cottages on Guildford Road.
With best wishes to
you and
those you hold dear.
Neil
My previous newsletter was last Christmas