Short Story: Funland (Allegedly)
There’s never been any coal seams near Hayling Island, so I wasn’t really expecting to come across a mine. But there is a historical connection of sorts.
Short Story: Rear Window
From my third-floor director's chair,
The sun concludes its evening play.
A lonely figure, walking there,
Casts a shadow twice her way.
It seems to have the better part;
I just stay home and watch the art..
Short Story: The Highland Cattle At Pulborough
The collective noun for a group of Highland cattle is a fold. The name comes from….
Wiggonholt Parish Church
Most people looking at this little church in Wiggonholt notice the ancient walls, but the roof tells the more interesting local story.
Short Story: Renaissance
When the Renaissance opened in 1973, its concrete structure and direct runway views were the epitome of modern.
Short Story: Radisson Blu
It’s easy to become numb to the architecture of airport hotels. They are, by design, transient spaces, built for forgetting. Yet, this particular building on the Bath Road has always struck me as an outlier. Those repeated, almost ecclesiastical arched windows seem…
Short Story: Piggy Back
This caught my eye on my daily walk. The carrier is a DAF, a product of the late nineties now approaching its own retirement. The cargo, however, is a Bedford TK, and for about thirty years it was….
Short Story: Twynersh
Pub names are often a public record of the obvious: The Ship for a port town, The Bricklayer's Arms for a new estate. Occasionally, though, you find a name that makes you stop and think. "Twynersh," a contender….
Short Story: The Royal Oak
The beer garden of The Royal Oak in Midhurst. The name is so widespread it feels less like a title and more like a default setting for a pub. This ubiquity isn't down to a national affection for trees, but rather for…..
Short Story: To The Bowling Green
The game of bowls has been a feature of the English landscape for an inconveniently long time, with the green at Southampton having been flattened by players since 1299. For centuries, its primary sin was….