Awwwwww thanks eltel. We are very fond of the area and spend a lot of time across there walking the moors etc with the dog. Have you been on the trail at Dunford bridge, very nice. The butcher up the road also does some cracking pies etc.
Well.................I'm not much of pie cooking expert, but I can't think of any other reason for them cracking.
I used to live near Minchinhampton, Gloucestershire, just below Tom Long's post. Now a modern road sign, it was formerly the post where the dead body of highwayman Tom Long was hung as a deterrent to others. Further down Brimscombe Hill you get to Brimscombe itself, once the largest inland port in Europe. Famous boat, The Queen of Africa, which gave a sterling performance in The African Queen, was built in Brimscombe by the Abdela & Mitchell works between 1908-1911. Further along the navigation you get to the Sapperton tunnel, built from 1789-1811, at 3,817 yards it was the longest tunnel of any kind. Boatmen would navigate barges full of produce, often weighing many hundreds of tons, through the tunnel by laying on their backs on top of the barge and pushing it along with their feet. And you think you had a tough day at work...
Jane Austins house, Boris Karloff`s house, the home of Sir Athur Conan Doyle, George Bernard Shaw`s house, the Devils Punchbowl which was the only hold up on the A3 now thankfully returned to common land and the Tunnel runs beneath it. The bithplace of Colin Firth was opposite my parents house and The home of Flora Thompson (Larks Rise To Candleford) lived behind Firth`s house. My mate Dave Brent lives up the road (not the real one) and Arthur is close by too
