MARGARET IS NOT FOR RETIRING

Margaret and Jonathan in the new store

  Like Mark Twain who famously quipped a report of his death was greatly exaggerated, our own Margaret Kettle is proving there is a lot of life still to live - even as one of Goostrey's oldest villagers a few months off her 94th birthday! When Margaret's "Aladdin's Cave"  appeared to close several weeks ago, it was feared the doughty shopkeeper had finally  locked up for good. But nothing of the sort as it reopened today (July 4) with Margaret still behind the counter in a refurbished shop. Now renamed Goostrey Village Store, complete with post office, groceries,  bread,  fresh meat and hardware, the wheel has turned full circle to the days when the community was little more than 500 souls and there were many more shops.  Its transformation is due to Jonathan Royle, of Plumley Village Stores, who took over Goostrey sub post office when it was threatened with closure, and has now invested his faith and resources in a return to shopping locally. And Margaret, born and bred in the community at Roadside Farm, Barnshaw, will remain very much a lively fixture - although  she can no longer boast she sells everything from a pin to an elephant - continuing a role that began with her late husband, George, in 1960.  "I am certainly not retiring and I will just disappear one of these days," says Margaret. "I have been modernised, and have been dragged shouting and screaming into the modern age." Those of a certain maturity in Goostrey will remember when the couple ran  not only the post office  but sorted the mail at 5.30 am behind the shop in Main Road and employed a team of posties. It was a real rural service and I doubt a letter was ever  delivered incorrectly. I then lived in Mill Lane and  was always aware when George  delivered the post - the whiff of the smoke from his ever present cigarette wafted up the stairs through the letter box!  In recent times,some 29 years after the post office moved elsewhere in the village, Margaret came to the rescue when it faced the axe and offered a corner of her  shop as a branch of Plumley post office. Now she is looking enthusiastically to her new role as arguably the oldest shop assistant in the country in premises built for £300 in the mid 19th century on land known as the Acreage and her home for more than 50 years. It has served the village as a bakery, a shippon for five cows, stabling for horses and an abattoir before Kettles emporium. Jonathan says the shop will be an addition to other businesses in the village and not in competition. Griselda Garner, wife of author Alan Garner, who lives at Blackden, was among villagers at the official launch." She said:"It is a fantastic addition to the village and I hope it will be well supported."

Margaret cuts the tape to launch the new village store

*Mark Twain, the American writer who died April 21, 1910, in Redding, Connecticut, was in London in 1895, when he was rumoured to be on his deathbed, provoking his famous response.
+This site: www.blogsfromthebongs.blogspot.com

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VOTE LEAVE SHOULD BE THE FINAL SOLUTION?




Winston Churchill is claimed to be the architect of the European Union. But even the great wartime leader would not have foreseen his baby grow into such an overbearing middle-aged bedfellow in  28 nations that we, one of the club, are being asked today (Thursday) to remain or leave. I've hesitated to declare my hand. Now, having looked at the pros and cons, I fear the only alternative is that we must go, sadly Mr Cameron's interview on BBC Today on Wednesday morning being the deciding factor. I just cannot believe that the fine tuning of our relationship with the EU  he claims to have achieved will be rubber-stamped when the proposals come up for approval. And even if they were sanctioned we would still face the prospect of the European steamroller continuing to crush our opposition to any future regulation and legislation we disliked. I know many of the great, good and sometime worthy have declared they will be voting to stay. Let's face it, though, many  have vested interests, notable among them that champion of the consumer, Martin Lewis. He says on the balance of probability, it is more likely we'll have less money in our pockets if we vote to leave. Others, like Richard Branson, say leaving the EU would be very, very damaging to Great Britain. Well, all I can say, I have a lot of time for both, but am reminded that one made a mint from his money saving website, and the other is a billionaire magnet whose lifestyle on Necker Island in the Caribbean is far remote from the daily grind of the majority on our small island! Someone asked the other day: What has the EU done for you? I  really can't say - although I do know until recently it was illegal to be sold goods in pounds, only kilos were allowed, the plan to replace miles with kilometres on our roads was also defied, but, frustratingly, in some authorities over-zealous Europhiles continue to maintain kilometre footpath signs, and I am confused because I still think in inches and fahrenheit  not celsius These are all pretty petty matters. It is what lies ahead should cause our concern if the majority vote to stay at the table, and we fail to regain the right to plot our own destiny. 

GOOSTREY'S PAST CARVED IN STONE

Look closely and see a man in a hat?

Must be a beast with face above?

I've been doing a bit of wall-gazing purely in the interests of tracking Goostrey's long departed graffiti artists. Even the Romans left their mark on monuments as widespread as Hadrian's wall and the Colosseum. So it is a fair bet the village's old-time wall whittlers will have left their mark, too. Not surprisingly, the stonework surrounding the old churchyard of Saxon-founded St Luke's  has provided a fertile hunting ground. Sure, I have to admit, it takes a lot of imagination to see images carved and drawn on the ancient stone, but I swear I can see pictures and words, if only barely visible to the naked eye. I have no evidence to support the theory, but my belief is the stone wall is recycled from the old timber-framed church torn down in the 18th century. It could have formed the base on which the timbers stood, but let's not speculate. Some of the pictures here I'm convinced show long lost images on the stonework. Anyone interested in taking a look might let me know what they think and confirm I am not seeing things! If I am right perhaps they should be recorded for posterity by someone who knows a thing or two about old graffiti.

 Wroxeter, Shropshire, where Romans left their mark!

*Click the pictures to enlarge

 PASSING OF GOOSEBERRY CHAMPION

Peter  Buxton

Peter Buxton, a champion gooseberry grower and doyan of the Marton show, has died at his home in Congleton. One of the leading figures among Mid-Cheshire growers,Peter, who was in his eighties, lived for most of his life at Pump Cottage, Oak Lane, Marton.He moved over a year ago following his wife's death and had been in ill-health for sometime.
A friend said: "Peter was a brilliant grower and won many awards over the years. He was a countryman through and through and you could not have met a nicer person. He was an extremely good grower and  was always prepared to pass on his knowledge to novices and newcomers."
Peter died peacefully in his sleep on Friday.
*His funeral is to be held on Wednesday, June 15,
at Marton church, at 10.30 am.

WOODSIDE COTTAGE  HITS NEW AUCTION RECORD      

Cottage and outbuildings

A near derelict cottage at Blackden, Goostrey, hit a new auction record for the area when it was sold today.  The 116-year-old Woodside Cottage with 5.67 acres went for  £802,000 - almost twice its guide price  of  between £450,000 and £500,000 - at a sale by Meller Braggins in Knutsford.  

Jodrell Bank just across the fields

 The brick-built cottage  and extensive outbuildings close to Jodrell Bank radio telescope was offered with potential for complete modernisation but the name of the purchaser, a developer or individual, is unknown at this time.The property in open countryside is locally said to be the last of its kind to be available for sale in the area.

 In the 1970s similar period cottages and land in need of renovation were  auctioned in Goostrey and surrounding villages for between £20,000  and £30,000, and the sale of Woodside reflects the  unsatisfied demand for property with the potential for renovation or demolition and  rebuilding as so-called mansion-style homes. It is in easy commuter reach of Manchester, the M6 motorway and Manchester International Airport, but its position in open countryside and Jodrell Bank means the surrounding land is unlikely to gain planning consent for house building.

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CALL TO PUT GLADMAN TO FLIGHT

The Gladman Plan

Gladman aboard Vulcan's last flight over Goostrey?

Anyone catching up with the Archers in recent times will find Ambridge’s anger over an ill-conceived by-pass every bit as familiar as Goostrey’s real-life story of country folk.In its battle to repel the developers, fictitious Ambridge has the odious Justin Elliot to fight, bolstered by loads-of-loot as he waits for the tarmac to role out in order to launch schemes to transform green acres into a kind of agri-industrial nightmare. Now we in Goostrey have Gladman developments to face in the jousting field among the many predators casting cash-filled eyes over its pastoral heritage with their plans for more speculative building of little or no benefit to the community. Since the 1960s the village has expanded from what was little more than a hamlet to the size of today. This was achieved as part of a planned expansion over several decades and was, by and large, welcomed by the host community. The village as it stands now has reached in the view of the majority a size in population that is just about sustainable. An additional estate sought by Gladman  of 119 homes to feed a demand that does not exist locally would destroy the existing rural character of the village. And inevitably it would encourage more developers to add to a creeping urbanisation of the worst kind. Many villagers are probably unaware that in planners speak, Goostrey is known as the "dumb-bell" village with east and west divided by the green space between which Gladman is seeking to destroy. If allowed this development would increase the population by some 400 adults and children, add at least a further 200 or more cars on local roads, swamping the primary school and, perhaps more seriously, provide Holmes Chapel Health Centre with an impossible task of coping with another large surge in patients. Local doctors are already under siege with far more patients than they can handle or have a  budget to provide services, including increasing numbers of the elderly, as the result of speculative developments in Holmes Chapel. It is now so cash-strapped that the doctors themselves are digging into their own pockets to maintain services.  It can be argued there is a need for some so-called affordable housing as proposed in the development but evidence shows where such homes have been built locally incomers have been the beneficiaries, not young people from the village who would struggle to buy or rent these properties. The latest figures show that to buy a property for a modest £150,000 an annual income of £50,000 is necessary to support the mortgage. I can’t think of many first-time buyers even in what is regarded as well-heeled Goostrey have such financial resources available. I would suggest there are ample plots of infill land in the village where limited affordable housing could be built if there was a real need without the wholesale destruction of more green acres in what is arguably one of the most attractive areas of open country within the parish. But first of all there needs to be more lateral thinking among planning authorities to solve the so-called housing crisis. How daft is the situation where councils, increasingly whipped up by the hysterical frenzy for house building from politicians of all shades, simply ride roughshod over opposition and allow large-scale developments yet deny an individual approval to convert a garage or build a modest extension to house a son or daughter or elderly relative. There is also the well-founded argument that communities, Goostrey among them, which have more than done their bit in welcoming development in the past, should now be allowed to grow naturally as in previous centuries. A survey should be undertaken of all villagers to identify possible future family housing needs before the floodgates open. I note the multi-million pound Gladman business on its website boasts of success in crushing local opposition as it ranges far and wide nationwide like some reincarnation of Attila the Hun in persuading landowners to sell off areas of land.It has generated so much anger there is a national petition online (see the Love Goostrey website) calling on the Government to step in and impose a suspension order on its developments.  I am encouraged that  on this occasion in Goostrey our planners have not chickened out in the face of yet another public inquiry and are preparing to put  Gladman to flight! We have come a long way since Mrs Hough, a welcoming basket of little goodies in hand, would greet newcomers of the 1960s to the village. The  community response today to such a large-scale invasion will be very muted, I am sure.  October 15  was the last day for objections to the Gladman proposals.

How it was before the developers

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AGE DISQUALIFIES MARIE'S BIGGEST BERRY

Marie with her top gooseberry

 A  schoolgirl has gone to the top of the class and wiped the whiskers off the faces of champions after growing this year's heaviest  recorded gooseberry.  But sadly 12-year-old Marie Wilshaw is too young to win the premier prize for her monster entry in the annual battle among local enthusiasts.  Marie from Mossley, Congleton, tipped the scales with a whopping golf-ball sized Belmarsh berry weighing 34 pennyweights 20 grains (nearly two ounces) She beat her dad, Dave, and world record holder, Kelvin Archer, competing in the same village gooseberry show at Marton as well as exhibitors in seven other events in the area.   If  age had not ruled her out she would have been presented with a large silver trophy by Mid-Cheshire Gooseberry Shows Association as the top grower at a dinner in her honour later this year. Instead, the  official title for the heaviest berry was claimed by Jim Hart, the 74-year-old secretary of the Allostock show. His Edith Cavell berry of 33.06 was the best weight any of the old-timers could  raise this year. Marie has to reach 15  to qualify to compete against veteran growers - some producing gooseberries for more than 50 years - but she

Showing off her biggest berry

was determined to join the ranks of the heavyweights before then.   She started growing gooseberries on an allotment near  home when she was only nine with 12 bushes given to her by her dad.  Marie, a pupil at Eaton Bank Academy, Congleton, said: "My aim  has been to beat my dad and I feel absolutely great now I have done it." Her mother Michelle said: "She is a very determined young lady and has always said her ambition was to beat her dad as well as Kelvin. It is just a pity she is still too young to join the seniors. She doesn't have any particular recipe for growing but just does what her dad tells her." Kelvin, whose record berry of  41 pennyweights 11 grains in the Guinness Book of Records has stood since 2013, said: "It was a remarkable effort for such a young girl in a year when most experienced growers have been struggling a bit."
Jim, who lives in Knutsford, won Allostock last year with a more humble Edith Cavell of 26.18 but went on to claim as this year almost all the show's collection of silver trophies with his other entries.
"I am tickled pink to be top of the association  after all this time.  I have been growing gooseberries since I was ten or twelve and feel I was born under a gooseberry bush!" he said.

 * Over 200 gooseberry shows were held in the 19th century but are now confined to a small area of mid-Cheshire and Egton Bridge in Yorkshire.
++COPYRIGHT PICTURES: (c) John Williams, Goostrey. Click pictures to enlarge