Addressing The Issue

Another selection of oddities encountered at various addresses I've visited recently....


Number One

No. 1, Brookside, Cambridge, is a curious address in itself. Why? Because it's not in the street called Brookside at all. Brookside is nearby but it's over on the other side of Bateman Street. No. 1 stands fair and square in the University Botanic Gardens and used to serve as the main office administering the garden. On the lawn at the back of the building there is a fine-looking apple tree. A sign tells us that it's ....a descendant by vegetative propagation of a tree which grew in the garden of Woolsthorpe Manor, near Grantham and which is reputed to be the tree from which fell the apple that helped Newton formulate the theory of gravitation. Don't you just love the precision of the language; obviously the work of a 
true academic.

As you can see it's a substantial orb and, if it fell on your head, would certainly make you think!


Carved Wood

This splendid piece of woodwork would not look out of place in a grand house or even a church, but it's actually to be found in the bar of the Three Swallows pub in Cley, North Norfolk. Cley (and it's pronounced Cly rather that Clay or Clee) is a fine centre for bird-watching. If you're ever that way look into the Three Swallows for a pint and a good meal.

If you're in Cambridge then you may find this outside the pub....

Holy Pig!

Recently I showed you the splendid "pile of books" bollards that stand outside the Cambridge University Library and which have prompted one or two noted academics to publicly display their lack of humour. Jack (Naples and Hartford in Season) commented that he thought that "Cambridge has enough serious stuff that a bit of whimsy can easily be accommodated". Indeed it can, Jack, indeed it can. And, just to prove it, outside Westacott House, the Anglican Theological College in Jesus Lane Cambridge, is this little piggy, an iron boot-scraper of unusual design.


Address Unknown

These little birds have been turning up in all sorts of odd locations around Cambridge, the work of an anonymous nocturnal artist. Local people refer to them as "the herons" though I'm not really sure exactly which bird is represented.


Angels On Moto Guzzis?

Well, not Hell's Angels, that's for sure, since this rugged-looking machine was parked in a churchyard in Norfolk. It's a 1985 Moto Guzzi 500cc army bike with its original leather panniers as used by the Dutch army and NATO forces. Incidentally I read recently that a hoard of 20 military bikes of this make had been discovered on a military base in Macedonia where they'd been sitting untouched for 30 or 40 years.


Even Odder Addresses

Three signs from my travels. It may not surprise you to learn that I used to live in Nutters Close for many years. In addition to these I've also seen a Cold Hands Lane, Dog Kennel Lane and Major Haddock Close. 


Take care.