Cuttings From The Blogging Room Floor

Another selection of bits and bobs that I've seen on my wanderings...


Wonderful Inventions

When you get off the train at Biggleswade and cross over the footbridge you'll find this mural painted on the parapet. If you notice it at all you might think it's a badly painted representation of an old steam traction engine and there's no sign to tell you otherwise, or to explain its significance here.

It commemorates the achievements of inventor Dan Albone (1860-1906) who lived all his life in the town. The high point of his career was probably the invention of the first light agricultural tractor. The steam traction engines which preceded it were great heavy beasts which ploughed by having two engines placed on opposite sides of the field and pulling a plough back and forth between them by means of steel cables. Some manufacturers had tinkered with the internal combustion engine powering similarly heavy machines using the same system. But it was Albone who came up with the idea of having a tractor which was light enough to pull the plough behind itself like all modern tractors.

Before this ingenious breakthrough Albone had invented a safety bicycle, which was much like the bicycles we ride today, and also manufactured cars and motorbikes. I'm fascinated by the fact that he also invented and patented the little clips which attach a pump to a bike frame. What's more he was the first person to come up with the idea of making a child seat for a bicycle.

Out Of Sight

Recently while walking around Stow Hall Garden I came across these intriguing little steps which lead to some kind of tunnel. A nearby sign explained:

"This tunnel was used by gardeners arriving to and returning from work in the walled garden....This was so they would not be seen from the Hall (which has since been demolished).....Fortunately today the gardeners are allowed to be seen and use the main gates!.....We are not sure when it was built, but it was likely to have been in the early 1800's."

Forgotten Sign

My brother spotted this when we were out on a walk through the village of Elmdon recently. He reminded me that once nearly every village hall in rural England used to have such a sign to announce that it acted as a branch library where you could order any books you wanted to borrow from the main library. They've almost all disappeared now as their role has been taken by mobile library vans.

Black Diamonds

These diamond-shaped, black-bordered coats of arms are sometimes seen in our old churches. They are known as "funerary hatchments" and refer to the deaths of great men or women in the community, usually the Lord and Lady of the Manor.

These hatchments were hung above the door of the deceased's former residence for six to twelve months after their death and were then transferred to the church in which the person had been buried. The practice started in the seventeenth century and recalls an earlier time when a knight's shield would accompany the funeral procession and be left in the church. 

As is always the case with heraldry if you understand the conventions then much can be learned about the dead person, whether it was a man or woman, whether or not they were married, whether their partner pre-deceased them or was still alive and so on. I must admit that I get thoroughly confused by it all, though I can remember that the ribbons depicted around the arms on the left mean that it was a lady who had died.

Signs Of The Times

A year or two ago I showed you some of the "ghost signs" which were being re-painted around Cambridge. I wondered if the one for the old Hot Numbers record shop would be resurrected. As you can see below it's now as good as new..

Extra Apostrophes

As we all get older we get more frustrated by the incorrect use of the apostrophe, whether it's included where it's not needed as in the market-stall holders' "Mushroom's £1", or where it's been unforgivably omitted as in St. Johns Road. But here a graffiti artist has cleverly added one to the road sign to comic effect.

Take care.