"They shut the road through the woods
Seventy years ago.
Weather and rain have undone it again,
And now you would never know
There was once a road through the woods."
- Born not twenty feet from the Poultry entrance to Melton Mowbray Cattle Market on Tuesday (Market Day!) 25th March 1930 it is not surprising that I find that location the centre of my attention. This event occurred at 7.30am on a snowy morning (much to the frequently-voiced chagrin of Dr. H.S. Furness and the midwife who turned out to attend my mother). The first breaths I drew, the first sounds I heard, were those of market air and lowing cattle and the bustle of stockmen and auctioneers preparing for the day's trade.
- After my local education I joined the legal profession less than half a mile from the Market and served one firm from 1946 to retirement in 1995 as well as being Borough Superintendent Registrar of Births, Marriages and Deaths for a good part of that time. My daily encounters with local farmers added to the pleasure I had found in actually working on some of their farms in my tender years during World War II to the extent that hay making, harvesting, horse riding and attending at Payne's the farriers forge in Leicester Street, milking twice a day, potato picking (as a virtually "essential operation" for country children in wartime) and droving cattle and sheep to market were some of the early agricultural skills I learned to appreciate.
These character-forming experiences took place variously at Jim Reeves' Dalby Road, Melton; Bill Kirk's, Leicester Road, Melton; Jack Walwyn's at Eye Kettleby, the Child family's farm, Burton Lazars; John Holmes' Manor Farm, Goadby Marwood and Mr. Hewson's Cross Roads Farm, Eastwell. The subsequently acquired in-depth knowledge of the farmers themselves and their businesses and properties and my dealings with all persons and firms involved in the Market strengthened my affection for rural matters.
- A lifetime of walking the countryside (even now an average of 2000 miles a year) also gave me an appreciation I wish to honour by these Internet pages.
- Perforce in retirement I needed an outlet to exercise the dregs of brain activity remaining in my dotage so I turned to the Internet and website design and hosting.
- This Rural Aspect website is one of a growing portfolio of such owned or designed and maintained web presences on behalf of my one-time military connections or local organisations and individuals. The whole of this activity is gratis to the recipients and those wishing to avail themselves of the opportunity.
- And now, in the face of the Hunting Act 2004, actively engaged with the various Hunt Supporters. The rallying parade - three Hunts and a Beagle Pack - through Melton Mowbray on Saturday 19th February 2005 passed within less than a yard from my birthplace - it was full circle for me as I stood there! And then in 2007 came my membership of and involvement with the Belvoir Hunt Supporters' Club - "standing market" in the big Farmers' Market Shed on Fridays with their merchandise and creating their online shop at: http://www.the-rural-aspect.org.uk/bhsc/enter.htm to continue my happiness in supporting the countryside and our heritage.
| Prepare for action! |
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Mount up! |
| Equestrian corner of my study |
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"- This land of such dear souls, this dear, dear land -"
