Leonard to the family:

Dear Alec June Susan and Carol

Once again many thanks for a nice long letter and enclosures from the girls received this morning first post. Glad to hear our last letter reached you on time. Next time we go to the shops we will get some newspaper wrappers and try sending ‘Mercury’ separately and revert to ordinary-size envelopes for the letters. Don’t like the idea of keeping the papers and sending them on in bunches – they are apt to get lost before dispatch and the news is somewhat stale by the time they reach you. I do not think it is going to cost any more to send separately but we shall find out in due course. Between now and Christmas we must expect a little delay at both ends because of the heavy postings but that is exceptional.

We are glad to note you are all keeping fairly well today but it is a time of illness everywhere and this continuous rain is not going to help matters. Our neighbour opposite (in Miss Weekes’ house) had more damage than we told you about. Practically all the ridge tiles on one side of house were ripped off in the freak storm and you will see in ‘Mercury’ that Norman Baker had a narrow squeak and that damage on his farm amounts to £700 [£18,000 in 2023 money]. The builders are having a busy time doing emergency repairs all over the place. I think we were extremely fortunate here.

Yes both panes of glass came from Bushell’s side but the next door neighbour again (Drewett’s old house) lost very much more glass from their verandah. Your greenhouse stood up to it well but as soon as you can you must put the bottom part right and make it secure from penetration by wet. You will also find the greenhouse will keep warmer then.

Your drainage from the lawns seems to be very satisfactory now but I expect the Robinsons found a drop lying about.

However does June manage to get the girls to and from school under such conditions? Could do with the car.

Sounds as if your Christmas cactus has sufficient water but I will leave Mum to comment further on this. Geraniums do not need water this time of year and mine are very dry indeed but they seem to keep nice and green.

I’m glad you have run Jackson to ground and that it is possible the work will be done sometime today. You will feel much relieved when the job is completed. Wonder how the girls got on with the prize giving at Sunday school – did you attend for this ceremony? Your comments noted re: Carol may want to join same lot of Brownies as Susan but she will be a lot older by then and may not mind. If Susan is still going to Ruislip then Carol I suppose will go too*.

The Work Study section then seems to be moving towards a bit of a climax and you should be hearing what’s what soon Falls stop as we have said before – good luck if anything should come your way.

Re: our trip out with the Richings I doubt very much if I could take you over the same route again but to start with we passed your old school [now Broadoak Academy] and then turned left onto the Hutton road and after that up over Bleadon somewhere and on towards Bath**.

Mum and I popped into Weston yesterday morning to have a look around. It was fine and sunny but very cold but within half an hour of our getting home at 12:30 pm it started to rain and this became torrential in the afternoon so we think we were lucky for once. Nobody in attendance at the car parks so saved a couple of bob. Weston as you know is a very different place in the winter to the summer months when so many visitors are about.

Since writing last week have managed to do a little work outdoors – picking apples from the Jersey Beauty tree from the ladder and picking up others from the ground. Also I have taken up the sleeper edging at bottom of garden and dragged the same to a new storage position on the wide path alongside Heels’. The sleepers are half rotten and our only fit for cutting up for firewood now. In fact I had to cut the big ones on site with the cross cut saw before could move them. Have also taken down the galvanised sheets around plot beyond hedge and pulled up the stakes. It’s beginning to look like a wilderness again but I want to recover everything that might come in useful elsewhere even if only for the fire. Have also taken down the posts Norman Baker put in for the barbed wire and have even rolled this up ready for him to take away. Incidentally he sent down the other day a big lorry-load of stable manure and this will eventually have to be put on ground just the other side of golden privet hedge.

Most of the plants have now been taken out of the flower plot adjacent to pond ready for the rockery stones to go in. These latter are at present on ground which will be sold hence the need to move them soon. It is unfortunate all these things have to be done in the worst time of year.

Have not seen Cornish since taking him up to the solicitors but he has been seen talking to various neighbours in the Avenue no doubt keeping them well primed as to how he has negotiated the sale. Mrs Marshall’s land comes under the hammer today but I shall not go to the sale which is taking place at the Council House.

Have received catalogues from two firms advertising precast concrete garages but they are much too costly – in the region of £145 [about £3,700 in 2023 money] for one the size I require. This would not include enough room for a shed either. It seems as if the best proposition will be to have one erected of concrete blocks and rough-cast over to be in keeping with surrounding buildings and such building can be made sufficiently long to enable a partition to be put in to shut off a workshop. My measurements indicate that if this building is 28 ft long (18 ft garage and 10 ft workshop) there will still be about 56 ft left of the drive for the greenhouse to be re-erected thereon.

Yes I shall have to communicate with Council in this case as the building will come up to the recognised building line but they will simply be told a new garage is being put up and the existing one dismantled. A plan will of course have to be sent in. I carefully measured the land during last week and it appears I shall have to cut pond into about half its present length to be able to get a path on the far side of it. This will be a job for next season.

Have heard no more from Plumley and Weston or solicitor but do not expect to for several months now. We hear that Plumley and Weston have formed another company to raise the money for the project – this I thought they would do to keep it separate from their existing company.

Noted you favour the coast if and when you make a move from number 84. The parts you mentioned are however a long way from London and would involve many hours of traveling daily. No help for it because the coast is so far away. It is nice being in open country and we never liked being shut in by houses etc. and this makes us a bit dubious about our situation here when buildings are going up all around us. However there will be plenty of time to think further about this.

Now to June’s letter. Yes we shall be very pleased to see Alec on the 14th December if he can make it that day. Let us know train travelling so that I can meet you. I have not a timetable so look out return service please (from Yatton of course).

So Susan and Carol now getting some idea of the dancing – good, they will have something to show us later on. Sorry to hear your mum June is still paying out income tax – when will it end. Good idea to have a concrete path for the washing line to run along. We shall have some concrete paths to break up soon which is a great pity. Alec will remember the work put in on the many years ago.

Was picking apples from tree at the bottom of field last Saturday (from ladder) when Hoile called out from over the fence. Said it was his birthday that day and would I come over. That finished apple picking for the day although it was only about 11:30 a.m.. They are going back to London in the spring and very much regret the move. They are Londoners and have been here about three years and thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

Heard that Martindale (house at very bottom) had a rough time with the whirlwind – two holes made in roof and water poured into house. The wife of the occupant was there on her own (husband and son both working at Cheltenham) and she had to put baths and buckets down to catch the water. Builders have since put the matter right.

Have caught a total of four mice so far and think this is the lot for the time being. They will eat anything and I saw signs of them eating some of the apples which gave me the clue that they were still there after the ‘Beanfeast’. We have apples in all the drawers of the two chests of drawers in the garage and also have them stored in boxes around the place. Had a customer this morning for 34lbs pounds – mostly Bramleys. Our potatoes (bought from local farmer) are in sacks in porch near house where we think they may be warmer but in any case will be nearer to hand if it is necessary to take emergency measures in the coldest part of the winter.

The only thing the firm of Plumley and Weston can do before the 15th February is to bring the electric booster from the field beyond the river through the garden of Martindale into our land and erect same ready for serving the new houses. The people in Martindale have agreed to this so far as they are concerned but want it done quickly so that they can proceed with their own improvements on their property.

If your runner beans were green when you picked them I’m afraid they will not now ripen and will be no good for seed. I have had this trouble before. Will see if can supply enough for your purpose.

[Letter continues Wednesday 27th November, 1963]

*Look this is just bad research and poor planning, absolutely typical. And what’s more, when joining the brownies at Ruislip Manor, nobody there said “But there’s a pack nearer to you!”. It was just a question of getting on the coat-tails of the Williams sisters who went to Ruislip Manor – goodness knows why, but clearly it was more convenient for them to do so.

**Suspect this involved either turning off in Bleadon and running along the bottom of the hill through Loxton and Compton Bishop, or going south as far as East Brent and picking up the A38 there. Either way the outcome would be the same: A38 to Sidcot and left onto the A371 to re-enter Weston via Banwell and Locking. The roads approaching Weston from the east have changed out of all recognition in the years since – not least because the M5 now runs right through the middle – but it makes a comprehensible and worthwhile tour around. The only astonishment is that neither Leonard nor Alec seems to have ventured into this area before.