Author Archives: Barrybloke
Some years ago, Susan and I used to go to France for a few days break. On the instance in question we went to Avignon, which was achieved via Eurostar to Paris and TGV to our destination. I have for many years retained a memory of photographing a cruise ship on the river and seeing […]
In February 2025, a huge sinkhole appeared in the main street of a Surrey village. People living close to Godstone High Street were aroused from their beds by police, who told them to grab what necessities they could and to get out of their homes as quickly as possible. They soon discovered that a huge […]
On leaving the army in 1956 I first had a job driving a bakery van, supplying the company’s shops around Sidcup, Welling and Bromley. This lasted a week and a half before I told the manager where he could find his van. After that I worked as a mechanic at a garage in Sidcup. They […]
“Now children,” said the headteacher, “There are one-hundred and twenty-eight children in this school and recently a lot of you have been complaining about being in class and saying that you want spend all your time playing in the playground. So I have decided that we will take a vote on the matter, what some […]
In November of 2016 Susan and I decided that we should renew the glass in our conservatory, due to there being several double-glazed units which were becoming misted on the inside. We therefore asked the company, County, to come along and give us an estimate for renewing all the units. In the intervening period, before […]
I was three years old at the commencement of the Second World War in September 1939. My parents became anxious to move us away from this particularly dangerous area to somewhere slightly less in the line-of-fire. Accordingly we moved, in December 1940 to Wellington, in Shropshire, or, to be more precise to an area known […]
One of the earliest experiences which engendered my subsequent suspicion and lack of respect for authority in all its forms, happened when I was about seven years old. I was in the second class at Chelsfield Primary School, when the teacher drew our attention to a very serious-looking man who had entered the classroom. “This […]
During my time at Chelsfield school, we were required to observe the ritual of Empire Day. Though I had no idea at the time as to what this was all about, I am now in full possession of the facts due to my research for this story. Brewers Dictionary of Phrase and Fable tells it […]
This momentous event occurred when I was about six years old and as innocent as a new-born lamb. We were seated ‘en-famille’ around the kitchen table: Father, Mother, sisters Betty and Gladys, brothers Ted and Ron and of course, little me. At some point in the proceedings I decided to demonstrate my familiarity with the […]