What Future for the Wheel Now?

Irony – Will The Wheel Go Full Circle ?

Wheels have played a big part in my life. Or more accurately vehicles which run on them. I joined a bus company in 1940 as a 14-year-old parcel boy. Parcel carrying was a substantial part of a bus company income. It was a progression from Stage Coach & horses.

We have a few pubs that retain or recreate the coaching days décor and character with Ye Olde style posters in the bar warning ‘No Brawling Wives’ and ‘No Slap and Tickle o the Wenches’

My job was to meet buses coming from various parts of the county and country, then sort and deliver parcels to addresses in the town, using a bike with a big basket on the front.

I progressed with the same bus company to bus conductor then driver for 8 years interrupted by 2 years army national service.

Later on I also managed the wheels of a fleet of delivery trucks for 11 years

To cap it all I lived in a double decker bus for 2 years. Couldn’t seem to get away from the things !

But are parcel delivery by wheeled transport days numbered, by the rapid progress of delivery by Drone ?

Off To Burma

I left bus work temporarily when I was called up for war time national service in 1944. Did army training and our platoon were assembled being briefed on the timetable for the next day’s departure to Burma, when the officer was handed a note.

He said” Dramatic news. The Atom Bomb has been dropped on Japan, it is likely to bring about the end of the war”.

After an hour or two of wondering if we would still be going and with the comedian in the hut excitedly repeating “For you ze war is over”, we assembled again to be told “You are going”..

We sailed from Liverpool on a troopship. It was a converted passenger liner ‘ Monarch of Bermuda’ There was not much evidence of the luxury of its previous life, other than the cinema, in which I saw Bob Hope,Bing Crosby,and Dorothy Lamour in ‘Road to Morocco’

Crossing India

I arrived in Bombay (Now Mumbai) on my 19th Birthday in 1945. From there to Calcutta involved 2 days on a train crossing India. Marvellous experience, sitting on the step of the carriage (some were on the roof !) viewing the changing patterns of the passing countryside.

Many didn’t like conscription into the services, but for me it was life transforming. A lad from a humble background living in a small country village, limited by means and opportunity, transported in 12 months to seeing a big chunk of the world and growing in stature and confidence with it.

I had only been in Burma a few months when I was flown home on a Flying Boat ( my first flight) on compassionate grounds. My father was ill and his doctors request to the army for my attendance was granted.

Living in a Red Double Decker Bus

My father couldn’t work again, and as our home was tied to the job, we had to move, and quick. A local coach operator was sympathetic and let us live in a double decker bus he was converting to a holiday let.

The kitchen essentials of cooker and sink were installed, but the upper deck’s two bedrooms were still unlined. Consequently, condensation would run down the exposed metal skin and drip from the roof.

Lying in bed was a skill, watching where the next drip was forming and having a bowl at the ready. And if you saw 2 or more drips forming at the same time !

It came with a built in rock you to sleep system, but the flaw was it lacked control. In a strong cross wind it either kept you awake holding on, or woke you if you were asleep.

And we discovered on the first high wind night that the caster wheels on the beds were a big NO NO - Waltzing beds! It was like something from The Keystone Cops.

But we were happy and had many a laugh in that old bus.

The Famous White Faced Hereford Cattle.

Herefordshire is where they originated. This from Wikipedia –

The Hereford cattle export trade began from United Kingdom in 1817, to Kentucky, United States, spreading across the United States and Canada.

Originally from Herefordshire, England, United Kingdom, more than five million pedigree Hereford cattle now exist in over 50 countries.

I took this photograph of the Hereford Bull sculpture in the centre of the town this Thursday morning June 8th. If you were expecting to see the famous brown and white faced Hereford, so did the majority of Herefordshire citizens when it was announced the sculpture had been commissioned.

Imagine the shock at the unveiling, and the letters of protest that followed. The official explanation is that the original Hereford’s were black. Cynics say the local authority couldn’t afford a coloured one.

Hereford also attracted publicity in the late 1500s. I was sent the following cutting and cartoon. The print was so difficult to read from the scan that I re-typed it. I cannot give credit either because we don’t know the origin.

The Embarrassed Bishop.

At the end of the sixteenth century regular processions were organised around Hereford Cathedral to mark holy occasions.

Before one such, the Dean of Hereford Dr Price decided that in view of his own importance he would not, as before, walk on foot with the ruck of lowlier canons.

He would instead ride on horseback so that he might be more easily seen reading from his prayer book

The proud cleric mounted his mare, opened his book and took to the streets.

His reading was at an early stage when a stallion broke loose, saw his mare and mounted her.