DERELICT SUNDAY

After a good service at church, with an inspiring sermon, after our usual coffee, biscuits and chat with various people, Mr. HCB and I went out looking for dereliction.  We decided to go a bit further than our usual place of Liddington Hill and found ourselves on the road to Ogbourne St. George.  We turned towards Ramsbury and sat overlooking the ploughed fields and ate hot cross buns - well it’s not that long until Easter!

The last time we were out this way, as we meandered along, we turned right, but Mr. HCB decided to take a left turn today and that brought us along Stock Lane, near Aldbourne, a pretty little village about ten miles from where we live.

I had taken a few photographs, and today we saw more snowdrops that I could have used, but we were both delighted when we came upon these derelict buildings.  Mr. HCB thought they might have been an egg packing factory and he was right.  

When we got home I looked on the internet at the history of Aldbourne and it appears that after the Second World War, electricity came to the village, then in 1949 an egg packing station was built to the north of Stock Lane for Wiltshire Poultry Farmers and extended in 1960.  However, I could find nothing to say when it ceased business or when it fell into disrepair, not that it’s of major importance, but it would be good to know.  The buildings have certainly not had any TLC for many years, by the looks of them. 

The only thing that spoilt our afternoon was a very rude young lady who, because Mr. HCB was driving at 30 mph through the village, as he should have been - came alongside as she overtook us and began shouting and behaving in a threatening manner and gesticulating in a very rude way.  I think Mr. HCB was far more restrained than I would have been and just said, in the words of the famous song “Let it go!”

“Anybody can become angry - 
     that is easy, 
          but to be angry with the right person 
and to the right degree 
     and at the right time 
          and for the right purpose, 
               and in the right way - 
that is not within everybody's power 
     and is not easy.” 
Aristotle (384–322 B.C.E.)