Letters to the Editor - January 2011

Regarding Shaun Spiers’ suggestion for deposits on drinks containers (Nov) — I think it’s an excellent idea.

We have the same problem in New Zealand and, despite living in a rural area, I make a regular trip along our road picking up litter including glass bottles and cans. These items can cause fire with sun glinting on them, they are dangerous to stock if thrown into fields or hedges, and to children. We have a local bottle bank where they are crushed and used in road­making, but not everybody avails him- or herself of this facility.

Whilst living in Botswana we visited Swaziland and found a glass factory which used bottles brought in by locals who collected them on roadsides, fields etc, and earned themselves a small amount of money. We saw children and the elderly with bags and even the odd wheelbarrow full of bottles they had collected up. It is a country where there is no organised rubbish collection or benefits for the un­employed, so it was a good way to earn a little money. The factory produced ornaments, tumblers and wine glasses which it then sold to tourists — our evening whisky is drunk from these.

It was quite an enterprise, which may jolt ideas into some in the UK.

Sue Beardsworth, by email

Once again I am on the same wave­length as Robin Page (Nov). If people want to stay up half the night they must expect it to be dark.

Some of us have work to do in the morning which is better done in daylight.
We are English — why do we have to toe the line with Europeans who couldn’t care less?

Mrs B Lanham, Somerset

In the October issue of Th eCountryman, Henry Harris (Letters) was asking why stooks of wheat were built with eight sheaves but only six for barley and oats. This was normal in Surrey and most likely in many other parts of the country.

These are the reasons why:
To cut corn with a combine means it has to shatter out easily to remove the corn, but with a binder too much grain would be lost if cut at this stage, so it was cut earlier. Wheat was no problem because the straw was already firm and dry, so would stand easily in stooks of eight and could be carted to the stack soon afterwards. Remember that stooks, like tents, run most of the water off if it rained.

Barley took a time to dry out before carting and oats held water in their stem joints.

The old farm saying was that oats should remain in the field for three Sundays or in other words nearly three weeks.

To add to this was the fact that both oats and barley straw had a softer straw than wheat and didn’t stand so well, so stooks of six sheaves were easier to build and dry out more quickly. Damp barley and oat straw would go mouldy in the stack.

In the past, corn was always a lot longer in the straw than it is today, partly to smother out weeds before the weed sprays came on the market and also because straw was wanted for feeding and bedding in the farm­yard. Wheat straw also needed to be long for thatching stacks and covering potato clamps.

John Blake, Banbury, Oxon

The article about honey bees (Nov) reminded me of a special find in our garden in the spring.

It is not an over-large garden, with roses, plants and shrubs, but at the end there is a rather shady area which has a border of compacted earth with fuchsias and wild plants. One day I noticed a hole in the earth. It was about nine inches (23 cm) wide and deep with piles of earth in front.

A fox, of which there are many nearby, would not make such a hole, so I thought perhaps it was a badger.

A torch was needed to find any clues: there were a few bees at the bottom of the hole. Insects are food for badgers and bumble-bee larvae. The earth had been very hard and dry, but perhaps badgers could smell bees?

In the spring and summer on a long verge in a fairly quiet area nearby, little holes everywhere show places for ground-nesting bees. They are quite small and very busy in and out of these.

I’ve not found any reference to such bees but would like to know more.

Barbara Tremaine, West Sussex

M Adams’ letter (December) recalled to mind my copy of the John Gilpin story (now long lost), so I did a quick search on that interweb thingie.
‘The Diverting History of John Gilpin’ is a poem by William Cowper (1731-1800) describing how the eponymous linen draper rode from Cheapside, not to Edmonton as intended, but to Ware. The plot is fairly similar to the music hall song My Old Man — are they related?

The poem was published in one of R Caldecott’s picture books in 1878 which seems to be where the excellent illustrations come from.

The text is now available free under the Project Gutenberg license on
http://infomotions.com/etexts/gutenberg/dirs/1/1/9/7/11979/11979.htm, and I have taken much pleasure in re-reading it.

Jerry Monk, Walton-On-The-Naze

I read the article ‘Christmas Cooking with Mrs Simkins’ (Dec), and the picture of her mince pies encouraged me to try the recipe. 

For years — well, thirty-five at the very least — I have always made my mince pies according to a recipe given to me by my mother, so to try something new when the originals were an acknowledged success was venturing into uncharted territory.

I followed the recipe to the letter and the result was just amazing —
I have never tasted mince pies like them. They were melt-in-the-mouth delicious. 

I immediately embarked on a cooking spree and took some to a family party as an offering, where my two sisters, who run a bookshop/ café in Saltash, tasted the said mince pies. They immediately asked for the recipe, as did my sister-in-law, my two daughters-in-law, my cousins and my aunt. 

One recipe from Mrs Simkins has travelled the length and breadth of the country in record time, and will reach many more people in Saltash.
 
Thank you for featuring Mrs Simkins in your magazine; I shall look forward to my next copy of The Countryman for further recipes.

Caroline Green, Wetherby

I fully endorse the editor’s comments (Nov) on the plans for the construct­ion of the HS2 high-speed railway. 

Here in the Chilterns, people are appalled at the prospect of gouging a cutting the width of a motorway through this Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). 

The feeling is that the £20 billion that the government plan to spend just on the London-Birmingham stretch would be better spent on our existing public transport network.

The protests by individuals and locally formed groups are vigorous, and the local district councils together with Buckinghamshire County Council totally oppose constructing the railway through an AONB. However, protests from people and organisations along the route may be shrugged off by those in power. Protests need to come from people across the country, not just from those along the route.

So if you feel strongly about the desecration of our countryside in this way, then write to your Member of Parliament or to the Secretary of State for Transport without delay. 

The problem that we have in the Chilterns today may be yours tomorrow.

Ernie Wickens, by email

The article on honey bees (Nov) reminded me of the story of the city girl on her first visit to the country.

She was anxious to show that she was not totally ignorant of rural life, and when a dish of honey was set before her on the breakfast table she saw her opportunity.

“Oh,” she observed casually, “I see you keep a bee.”

E Morton, Wymondham, Norfolk

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Countryman, The Water Mill, Broughton Hall,
Skipton, North Yorkshire BD23 3AG
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The editor reserves the right to edit letters for length and clarity.