A BUSY DAY, ONE WAY AND ANOTHER!

When I did my self-imposed Street Challenge for Blip in 2016 - and if you are interested and didn’t see them the first time around,  if you search for #MyStreetChallenge, or alternatively, follow this link, you will find the various entries.  Because of the ethos of Blip, I actually went to the streets on the day, often chauffeured by Mr. HCB, took photographs, then came home and did all the research, which often took me a long time.  

As  many of you know, I chose to record these journal entries as part of my training for my new Roving Reporter career at the local Swindon 105.5 Radio Station.  It has been a very large project, but I’m glad to say that I am getting there - in fact it’s almost finished - and I thought that to help listeners feel the atmosphere of the actual streets, it would be a good idea to go back and do the recordings there, which I have done in the majority of cases.

As I had a free morning, which is very rare for me, I thought it would be a good idea to go down to The Railway Village in Swindon, as I wanted to record two of the streets, Taunton Street, where my Grandfather was born, and Exeter Street, where my Great Aunt Emily lived after she was married.

I caught the bus because car parking isn’t that easy in the Railway Village, because it is mostly Residents Only parking, and then walked down Taunton Street.  I hadn’t realised that my Grandfather was born at number 22 until the other evening, so stopped and took a photograph - and you can see this at the top right of my collage.  This has obviously been made into one house now, but in the days when my Grandfather lived there with his parents and 7 siblings, they would have lived in just half of it - because as you can see, there are two doors.  I have said this before, and still don’t know how 2 adults and 8 children lived in a two-up, two-down house with a lavatory in the garden and no bathroom and I have no doubt they weren’t the only family who lived like this.

I sat on a low wall and did the recording for Taunton Street, but hadn’t realised just how noisy it was, with buses and cars all around.  I then went to Exeter Street and started to record, but decided it was too noisy at that particular end of the street, so went to the other end.  I must admit that I did get some strange looks for passers-by, but I’ve got used to that having taken photographs for many years, so I just carried on.

St. Mark’s Church, where my Grandfather and his siblings would have been baptised is just along the road, so I decided to go and have a look, hoping I would be able to get inside - however, a sign of the times is that the porch doors of the church were firmly closed and locked, so I couldn’t actually get in.

Undeterred, I thought that a walk round the church grounds and burial ground might be a good idea - and was appalled to find several lots of discarded bottles and cans - some of which were right next to one of the graves - so very sad to see.

I came across the old door into the back end of the church, which obviously isn’t used now - as you will see by the weeds growing outside although the rest of the grounds were quite well kept.

The view of the church at the top left of the collage was taken from the road on my way to the bus stop - such a shame I couldn’t get inside as I know it’s a beautiful church.

I went home afterwards and was happy that I managed to get two recordings done and before I went out to meet my friend for coffee this afternoon, I edited them both.  I also did another three recordings later after I parted company with my friend, so just have to edit them and then I have only one more to record - which shouldn’t take too long, making twenty six recordings of the streets, and two of my visits to the library.  Phew - all that needs to be done now is for the Station Manager to “slot them in” at various times.  Then I can rest - or can I?  Knowing me, I will be looking out for another project - and while I can do it, whatever “it” may be, I will carry on!

“People who truly live their lives 
     don't have time to complain 
          or judge others. 
They're too busy 
     enjoying life and love 
          and everything in between!” 
Charlotte Eriksson


P.S.  Thank you to everyone who left kind comments and gave stars and hearts that got "Iris" on to the Popular pages - I appreciate that so much.