Bye-bye Bristle.

Today was a day of saying my goodbyes to both the city, and to old friends at the Lodge; we said a lengthy farewell to Sis and Mr Sis over a cup of coffee and then delivered a bottle of wine to TOL's church elder. She's a lovely lady and it was a long time before we left having shared memories, chatted about religion and families, and generally put the world to rights.


The Wills Memorial Building, part of the University , was commissioned in 1912, building started in 1915 but was not completed until 1919 due to construction having been interrupted by the Great War. It was built in memory of Henry Overton Wills, founder of the tobacco company named after his two sons W.D. and H.O.Wills, as well as being benefactor and the university's first Chancellor.

Bristle's prosperity was founded on the slave trade and, in my youth, the main industries were the manufacture of tobacco and chocolate - both industries originally obtaining their raw materials from slave labour. I was horrified to discover today that a significant proportion chocolate is still derived from the efforts of child slaves. Nestlé's name was implicated by Wikipedia, and that company has long been attributed with exploiting third world peoples over the distribution and sales of baby foods.

My links with the city are now severely diminished, there are a few of TOL’s friends left, there are cycling companions from the days when I kept a bike there (less than a year ago, but it seems like a distant memory) and there are so many un-blipped blips that were on my to-do list. However, there are also some old pictures that I may get round to posting - sometime - possibly - if I remember.