Alan Shelley

I feel something needs to be said about the apparent gathering discordance developing in the countryside at large. There seem to be a rising number of factors disrupting the settled landscape. This has to some extent, become more apparent when combined with a period of deep depression following the Covid epidemic and an economic turndown in general. Firstly, the countryside has come under the economic pressures of an expanding population. The richer element of society is taking a larger slice…

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An Aide Memoire Recently, there has been a little confusion regarding the suitability of candidates and of their initiation. My following comments will apply singularly to borough (hereditary) freedom. I fully understand the dwindling nature of the uptake of candidates and am sympathetic toward its restoration. Firstly I will eliminate those seeking ‘Honorary’ freedom by alternative means. For example associate freemen of trade gilds/guilds. Such gilds are autonomous and possibly may engage associates of their gild. The Town Mayor’s Office…

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Of schoolboy walks through Dingley-dell on the way to church on Sundays ‘Righteousness’ or rectitude is the quality or state of being morally correct and justifiable. It can be considered synonymous with “rightness” or being “upright” or to-the-light and visible. It can be found in several religions and traditions. “ He does not die that can bequeath, Some influence on the land he knows. Or dares, persistent, interweave. Love permanent with the wild hedgerows”. Of the Norman church, St Mary’s,…

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I recently happened upon an interesting article concerning the origins of the YMCA. In a book about Wealdstone Village, Harrow, it refers to an old corrugated ‘Mission Hall’ that once stood in the High Street which became the local YMCA. This story recounts the background of Mr Jabez Barnes who came to live in Hindes Road Wealdstone, in order to have access to the railway for London and his business in Birmingham. Mr Barnes was a Somerset man, born in…

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St Mary’s, Harrow-on-the-Hill The hill at Harow is prominent over the landscape of London. In ancient times a small ‘Green Hill’ hamlet below the forested hill, developed in stature to become the London retreat of the Archbishops of Canterbury. It is reasonable to assume that, in later times, during the reign of the powerful Archbishop Simon of Sudbury, it would adopt the residential placename of Sudbury. It may also be intriguing to note that this lovely church had previously been…

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