Leonard to the family:

Dear Alec June Susan and Carol

Many thanks for your letter and enclosures from the girls received this morning usual post. Very sorry to hear Carol is poorly again and hope she will be able to shake it off soon. There is a tremendous lot of sickness about – mostly bronchial flu and it hits everybody for six. Am glad to say that both Mum and I are very much better – the noticeable improvement really started about last Thursday i.e. three weeks after the second dose started with me at 84, but we still have a fit of coughing once or twice a day. We are taking things easy in the garden although mum in her energy last week dug up the front garden when taking out the plants. Looks much better for attention of course but I have not yet done any serious work outdoors. The weather has been grand and it is a pity to waste it but I do not want to run any further risk of picking up another cold. Raining today but I managed to roll up the hosepipe and put same in store for the winter. Have also pulled up all the haricot beans and put pods in greenhouse to ripen off before shelling for eating purposes.

Noted you could not make Ealing last Sunday because of Carol – presumably it is not tonsillitis this time but the common complaint – flu. This stuff seems to choke one up right from the top of head to pit of stomach and you feel like nothing on Earth.

So you are getting some heat in the lean-to. It is surprising how much heat can be trapped with a little glass. My thermometer has shown less than 50º for several nights now but heater not yet used for stock one day I registered over 100º – this was due to closing windows just after midday (it had been a dull morning) after which sun came out and warmed things up.

Yes the cone was most effective in killing off insects and spiders etc. Was a bit dubious of effect on plant life but it was not affected.

I’m glad to hear you have had some adjustments made to steering of car etc. but do not leave the renewal of the rubber seals too long– they are most important and a faulty one could cause trouble.

Can picture the shelving you have put in lean-to and this will help with the stacking of plants in pots. You are going to have a good show there later on. The carnations we brought back from you should grow all right – have them in the frames now still in the pots in which you planted them. If you can get your other cuttings to take in the greenhouse they should give some big blooms but water very sparingly in the winter – just enough to keep them going and only water them when they really require a drink. The same applies to geraniums.

Noted Mrs Baker back from her visit to Westcliff and that she enjoyed herself. Also Peter putting his car to good purpose on the long journey to Cornelly and back.

So the news re: the line offices being made redundant is confirmed and there is a possibility of a new setup from HQ to Divisional. Sure this is a case of the wheel making a full turn once more. R.G. Pole used to say there is nothing new in the railway world – the wheel keeps turning and always gets back to the original position. I take It to the office you are in is regarded as the HQ and that as far as you can see there will be no disturbance there. Quite interesting.

There are several people in Clevedon who advocate disused stations as car parks – very good reason for why here. Clevedon station itself would be an ideal parking place situated as it is in the Triangle where parking difficulties are numerous. Expect you saw that Titball did not come to Clevedon after all to say why the station should be closed. Should think it was a directive from HQ.

You will remember I mentioned that a bungalow was being built next to Tennyson House at (opposite Bill Aston’s place). Well they cannot find the sewer to connect up to. So far they have dug right across the road to a depth of 16 feet without result. A mechanical shovel was used for three days at this  job. (30 shillings [£40] an hour) and another probe has also proved unsuccessful. Now they think the drain terminates opposite Mrs Gardiner’s bungalow and returns to join ours which runs behind our row of houses. The plot of ground in question was sold as being adjacent to all amenities so the purchaser will be after someone to pay*. Apparently the houses in St. Andrews Drive have their own outlet into the sea.

Bushell is making a good job of his lean-to over the French window. He has nearly finished glazing the roof and already they feel that the difference in the living room. The glass however is very thick and more difficult for the light to penetrate than our thin glass.

I went and saw Jack Bishop last Friday re: sale of land but he had very little news for me. Asked if I approved the layout a submitted but unfortunately my copy did not come out clearly and I had to return it for another impression to be taken. He himself had not heard from the prospective purchasers for some time and had been after them for this layout plan. The amended copy was received this morning and I noticed there are now five houses shown on our plot and the garage for the first house on Heels’ plot. This morning however we had a bombshell from the prospective purchasers in which they indicate that with houses on only one side of the road it will not pay them to go on with the scheme. They enclosed a new proposal entirely which so far as we are concerned cuts off the garden from a point a few feet this side of the lawn hedge at bottom of lawn to a point alongside Heels in line with the concrete path which runs parallel with the hedge at bottom of lawn. This of course in order to get houses on either side of proposed new road. They have made a new financial offer altogether on a take it or leave it basis and want a reply by November 5th (appropriate day) at the latest as they have another piece of land in mind for their expansion**.

It is a very strange coincidence that when Don was here last Saturday he said if it was his ground he would get rid of as much as possible – a little gold mine he called it. This latest scheme is somewhat similar to that proposed by the auctioneers who are dealing with Mrs Marshall’s ground and which we turned down at the time because it meant giving up too much land. I should have said the firm are prepared to remove garage to a new site without renovation but they seem to have overlooked the greenhouse and frames. Have not the faintest idea what the others think about it but again strange to say yesterday (before this latest offer arrived) Cornish had the auctioneer on his property going round with a very long tape measure. This we saw from our back bedroom window. it could be that Pearson and Cornish would go in with the Marshall scheme and leave Heel and myself stranded but nobody knows what is going on. The latest offer will bring things to a head once more but late last week Heel mentioned over the fence that he did not think anything would come of the project at all.

Funny thing too this letter from the firm which has been sent to all of us discloses what each householder will receive under the original scheme and under the new scheme – this will annoy both Cornish and Heel who had been keeping this information a close secret.

My problem (if the scheme goes through) will be to find places for the garage, greenhouse, water works, etc etc. My immediate reaction is to go forward with the revised scheme but only after further negotiation regarding removal of buildings and the financial aspect. Cannot accept their offer without argument and counter proposals.

As mentioned above Don and Joan duly arrived here last Saturday about 11 a.m. and departed about 3.15 p.m. Don looking very well and says he is still enjoying his new work. He even brings home work (proofreading) for which he is paid overtime rates. Some people would fall down a drain and come up with a gold watch. Don asked how you were getting on with the radio and I had to tell him that I was too rough to even go into attic to see the apparatus this time. Told him you had contacted a few foreigners. He is now trying his hand at growing African Violets and we told him he has something to get on with. They are most difficult things to grow and we have tried and failed several times. Their poultry are now reduced to about 30 hens and this may be the new limit.

Referring to your letter again dash know there is no trace of any of the broad beans except one which is on the lower crosspiece of one of the double doors of garage and I can only conclude the mice could not get this one under the door to take it to their store. I’ve started to pick in the apples, but there are a lot more to gather. Should have made an inroad into the job today but for the rain.

Mum is going out tonight to a T.W. Guild affair and I have to fetch her from the New Hall at 10 p.m. – drunk I expect. Saw Roy Hewitt last Saturday but he is walking very slowly these days and says each step gives him pain. This sounds very bad as it may lead to being laid up altogether. Bill Aston looked over this morning for an hour which we spent in the greenhouse.

[Letter concludes on Wednesday 30th October, 1963].

*And well they might, except for the principle of ‘caveat emptor‘ which means that the purchaser should have done what is nowadays called ‘due diligence‘ and not relied on anything he was told by another party unless there was documentation to back it up.

**Classic developer tactics and I’m astonished Leonard fell for them. If the landowners had all refused the offer, and been united in it, you can bet your boots that a better offer would have been forthcoming quite soon afterwards. By dividing and conquering and effectively seeding mistrust among the landowners, the developers got the land at the price they wanted to pay and not a penny more.