Lesley Bartholomew wrote:Great stuff Ecca, hope we get to see Jet's input one day.....
Culver Down has one abiding memory for me, of an incident that took place on another sunny day many years ago !
My parents, brother & me had been for a nice walk on the Down & were returning to the car. Father was in front with brother on his shoulders, little me in the middle, with mother bringing up the rear.....
There I was, a slip of a girl, knee high to a milkbottle, probably around 11 years old, enjoying the fresh air & view, not a care in the world, & not looking where I was going.....when all of a sudden I stepped on an inspection plate cover (or man hole cover, as mother was wont to call them) which promptly gave way, tipped & fell into the hole closely followed by me !!!
Visions of disappearing into the bowels of the earth, never to be seen again, flashed before my eyes,but luckily for me it wasnt too deep!
Mother found the whole scene hysterically funny & was so helpless with laughter she couldnt lift me out of the hole !
Father turned around wondering what the commotion was all about, & hastily grabbed me up onto terra firmer once more, grumbling about what a dopy daughter he had !!!
Thankfully I had no more than a broken watch strap & grazed legs!! Lesson to be learnt from this, according to father? Look where I'm bloody well going wherever I'm walking instead of 'daydreaming' !!
Culver Down, I remember Culver Down. Four of us went over there with our old Springers Barney and Jack. ( Barney is the Springer sharing my "kip in the sun
on the lawn" in my picture )
Four of us arrived and started to walk by the big memorial. The memorial was surrounded by about fifty kids under the supervision of, I assume, teachers.
As Barney ran amongst the kids they fussed him and said what a handsome lad he was, what a lovely doggie. Barney loved it.
We finished up about a hundred yards from the kids and turned to walk back. At this point Barney found a young, recently deceased rabbit.
He did what Springers do. He retrieved it.
He then proceeded to make his way through the middle of the kids complete with recently deceased rabbit.
The kids parted like the Red Sea. Several of them probably still have nightmares.
One young teacher said as I passed him, "Oh my goodness" ( or words to that effect ). I can't remember if I replied or not. I do remember standing alone
whilst my Wife, her Sister and Brother in Law hid behind the memorial.
Following a loud whistle, Barney dropped the corpse at my feet and sat waiting to be congratulated.
I did the walk of shame, corpse in hand, Springer at heel and family calling to me to hurry back to the car.
Oh yes, I remember Culver Down.
