Boots, Brushes and Beer

I’ve been in Chesham today. First task was to take and upload photos of the six items of furniture the local Sue Ryder shop is collecting on Tuesday. The books and other stuff which were on the three shelving units are now scattered all over the floor!

After lunch I drove to the tip with an old tube-style TV, a satellite box which is kaput, a broken telephone handset and a decrepit pair of headphones. The chap at the entrance doesn’t ask me for ID any more, and just said “you know where the electricals go!” with a grin. I stopped off in the town to donate another car boot load of books to the charity bookshop, and then walked along to the little art gallery to see if I could find a painting or print of Chesham by a local artist. There were a couple of originals I liked, so I might go back next week and treat myself. As I wandered further up the main street towards Sainsbury’s, I took this shot of one of the town’s BT street cabinets (a DSLAM FTTC 128-port Cabinet, if you’re interested) which someone has painted as a little house encapsulating three of the four ‘B’s Chesham is known for - the manufacture of boots, brushes and beer. The fourth ‘B’ is Baptists, as there were once more Baptist churches in the town than any other denomination. I remember when the last boot factory, Giffard Newton & Sons, closed in 2005. There is just one brush-maker left in Chesham now, R Russell Ltd which was established in 1840 and is still run by the Russell family. The brewing of beer in Chesham ceased in 1957, after the Chesham & Brackley Brewery had been sold off to a larger London company which itself was then taken over by Ind Coope Ltd. In the 28 years since I moved to Chesham, many of the pubs in and around the town have sadly closed for good. I must say, everything is looking a little tired, run down and neglected in the town. It has changed so much from when I first came here in 1996, and that makes me sad for what it once was. It simply doesn’t feel like home to me any more, and it really won’t be in just two weeks’ time.