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30 years on the trail – a day off and a pile of memories.
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Posted 8 years ago
Yesterday I had a rare day off and being 40 and a bit nostalgic decided to visit my childhood home and ride the trials where it all started.
In 1984 after my folks divorced my Dad and I loaded the VW split screen, hit the road and moved from Cambridge and the Fens to the Cotswolds via Lake Como(my first sight of TDF and riding down big hills).
After a few cold months sleeping next to his kilns(he is a potter) he finally bought a new place. I say new, it was actually a wooden shack constructed by Gypsies in the ’20s, home to the ‘Gypsie boy’ in Laurie Lee’s Cider with Rosie. Other occupants included Ernest Slype, Gloucester’s last old pawn broker and a man who collected showman wagons.
Not much of it remains now as its largely rotted away due to poor upkeep, Dad painted the yellow boards and red tin roof regularly. Still standing is his workshop that he built which seems inhabited by hippies who do things with wood I am pleased to report.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/vP7MCA]Untitled[/url] by tangwyn, on Flickr
Still full of freaks
Anyway, its here my blue Raleigh Burner found a new lease of life far from the flat parks and river banks of Cambridge. We now lived up a 1km dirt track in the woods with the remains of a hill fort behind mown by a golf club, the Cotswold way and Cranham woods stuffed full of singletrack, gifts to a child in a turbulent family that gave adventure, solace and freedom in abundance.Painswick beacon just behind our old place
[url=https://flic.kr/p/w66wQ9] [/url] by tangwyn, on Flickr
[url=https://flic.kr/p/w6JyTB] [/url] by tangwyn, on Flickr
[url=https://flic.kr/p/w66phd] [/url] by tangwyn, on Flickr
[url=https://flic.kr/p/v9SkQz] [/url] by tangwyn, on Flickr30 years on and having lived in far off places and cities I am back in the Cotswolds with a family of my own and still riding the trail, still finding adventure, solace and a bit of freedom. Thanks Dad.
Posted 8 years agoI found a pic of our old house. The main bit in the middle was gypsy built and the rest added when Dad thought we needed a bit of space. His workshop is off to the left and is almost the same size. Also out of shot is our old showman wagon which family tradition dictated you got to live in it from 16 to 18. If there was a gap then it would be rented out to ‘interesting’ people; artists, writers, astrologers and all sorts of strange people from the fringes.
The address was; Emerald Hollow, Badgers lane, nr Paradise!
[url=https://flic.kr/p/vY1RXM]Emerald Hollow[/url] by tangwyn, on Flickr
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