Blinkhorns Blip

I had to go to town today to do a couple of things, and happily the sun went with me all the way. The recycling lorry was collecting paper and cardboard waste in the High Street and Kendrick Street, so you nearly got a shot of a bag of rubbish outside Costa Coffee! But that might have included Greggs bakery, which is next door. I am trying to avoid portraying the UK as a town with a chain pastie store/bakers on every corner.

Some time ago I mentioned that an old shop sign had been uncovered beneath the fascia boards of a shop currently trading as a greengrocers and butcher's. I did a bit of research and found that it probably dated back to the 1930s. There was a Blinkhorns general store in many local towns. This rather tatty building replaces a 3-storey building, a sort of prototype department store for glass and china, that stood here before Blinkhorns. That in turn replaced an earlier building that was pulled down. Why the buildings keep getting pulled down I don't know, except that to the left of the shop is the entrance to Fawkes place, which is a lorry parking area for deliveries. The Fawkes family had a flour mill here, behind the Subscription rooms, and their name lives on, though the mill does not. I have blipped the Fawkes family memorial here.

I hadn't noticed before that this shop sells Calor gas as well as vegetables. It gives it a village feel. The owners want to uncover the whole of the Blinkhorns sign, but the building houses several shops. They don't seem to have got any further with that plan than they did when I asked about it in January. At least the light has improved!

Two more blog links here and here. I am taking part in National Poetry Writing Month as well as challenging myself to take street blips. I am finding the poetry business very stressful, and accidentally ate half a family sized chocolate tart today while rewriting one of my poems for the twentieth time. It's as well I am not on the Fast diet. Hello, 500 calories...