Tommy Norman

Today I went to Longtown to get a circular saw sharpened. Longtown is very near the Scottish border and has something of a frontier town feel to it. Most of the industry there is based on agriculture and forestry and is heavy and not particularly pretty.

This is Tommy Norman, who runs a big timber yard just outside the town. Amongst other things, he told me of how, during the 2001 foot and mouth outbreak, he supplied over £1 million worth of railway sleepers to DEFRA to fuel the pyres of infected (and uninfected) animals; and how many farmers were in tears when he arrived and their dead stock was piled onto them.

He also had some more cheerful tales, but this seemed the most poignant and fitting for the photo.