Swampy

A family gathering at Chris and Frances’s home in Wroughton, a rare event in that all the siblings were present, led to much reminiscing. Many of the stories, such as when Chris broke his leg the first time, have featured before in this blog.
Joseph, however, was enlightened to learn that when a baby he had been taken on numerous outings by Vivien and me, notably to watch cricket at Cottenham Park, seen here in 1962. Later, Jackie and I had done the same thing. In the second picture he stands between her and Michael, fascinated by the budgie cage at Cannizaro Park in October 1967.
Discussion about the various routes we had taken to reach Wroughton led to mention of the Newbury bypass in Berkshire. Elizabeth travels from West End near Southampton via Newbury, a way previously avoided by Jackie because the town had been such a bottleneck. The bypass was free to be built after Swampy came down from his tree. This man, otherwise known as Daniel Hooper is or was an environmental activist who, in 1996 led a group of hundreds of villagers who set themselves up in tree houses in a vain attempt to prevent the construction of the road taking traffic outside the town. Thousands of people from all over the country joined in this protest which, to the delight of the media, and at least one reader of The Times, lasted for three months. Mr Hooper, who now lives in a yurt in Wales, and spends his time running marathons, is a Newbury man.
After Jackie had driven us back home we dined at the Rivaaz in New Milton and both drank Kingfisher.