Total Pageviews

About Me

My photo
I am an Architectural Model Maker based in Furness Vale, Derbyshire. Established since 1989, I have been model making since my school days.

Church Street Scale Model

Church Street Scale Model
Click on this image to view my model making blog where examples of my commercial work are showcased.

Followers

Entertainment

Fun & Fashion

International

Latest Updates

Two Wheels

20:36
Amsterdam is a city where two wheeled transport reigns supreme.  Even the dogs participate.



Kes

06:53


I watched a bird from a distance as it hovered over the fields above Broadhey farm. As I climbed higher, it landed in a tree above me, a beautiful kestrel

Roger and Raymond

09:45


I have been photographing some of my paintings and one of my favourites is this watercolour. These commercial narrowboats are at Uxbridge on the Grand Union Canal. Arthur and Rose Bray lived on board from the time of building in 1958 until 1970. It was said that Mrs Bray never, ever went ashore ! They were usually engaged in transporting coal to a jam factory in Southall and I would meet them frequently when I had a canal boat.

Promises

21:54
This piece of verse was written by my grandmother, probably when she was in her 70's. It appears to refer to the loss of her first husband who was killed in an accident and to her subsequent re-marriage.

You promised me devotion,
Promised love for only me;
You promised me the ocean,
Then you left upon the sea.

You sailed away and left me,
Waiting tearful on the shore,
All your promises were empty,
And my heart wept all the more.

God was kind; I met another,
He was gentle, kind and true,
We learned to love each other
And he kept promises made by you.

Mobile Phone

10:27


Many years ago I needed a telephone box for a model that I was constructing. Those that I could buy from the model shop were clumsily cast in solid metal and I needed something much better. The first task was to find a drawing to work from. There was a phone box down the road so I took a tape measure and note pad. BT were cleaning the box when I got there so I had to wait, then a woman made one of those endless calls but finally it was free. I took very detailed measurements. Making the model was quite tricky as the parts were so delicate. The finished result was, I thought, worth the time and trouble. This is is a tiny model which I am still proud of.

Bradthorne

10:20


I started to build models as a hobby and that story began in my early teens. In the early 1970's a building in Shropshire, a very small but very traditionally styled brewery caught my eye. I had to build a model. Several weeks later, after some considerable frustration it was complete. And then I saw another building, then another. I built a village in 1 : 72 scale, all in a period setting.
The photograph above is a corner of Bradthorne

A Gentlemen's Hairdresser

22:07



My Grandfather was William Schink, an immigrant from Hamburg and a master hairdresser. Like him, my father followed that trade, first as a lather boy, apprenticed to a South London barber. His role was to prepare customers for their daily shave.
He was later to find employment at Harrod's where he was to stay until the late 1950's. The gentlemen's salon was a vast and gleaming underground chamber with 40 chairs. My father had many regular clients who would call perhaps for a morning shave or often for a weekly trim. Being Harrod's these included company directors, politicians, television personalities and even a spy!.
For some years my father and some colleagues ran a small business visiting boarding schools providing haircuts for the pupils. The photograph above, at Harrow school shows my father in the centre. The dark suited man is the housemaster.

Hockerley Sunset

10:03


An open field, heathlike, strewn with stones and gorse. Used as a common by dog walkers and horse riders and grazed by aggressive sheep. The sun sets over "Lower Piece"

The quietest place under the sun

09:55



The little town of Clun lies in deepest Shropshire, close to the Welsh Border. In the mid 60's when I first stayed at the Boar's Head it was as quiet and remote as it always had been and will ever be. Clun had the rustic charm of communities which we only read of in pre war novels but seldom find in reality. The town had more fascinating "characters" than even the most imaginative writer could dream up.

Walter lived in a wooden hut with his chickens and was permanently dirty. His coat tied with a rope, his dog with a string. The Home Guard on their 1964 outing to Blackpool washed him in the river before allowing him on the coach. They lost him in the resort and it was 3 days before he returned home.

The deaf mute, who was constantly begging matches for his clay pipe was still going strong in the 90's. He could be heard roaring, his only voice, as he tottered home late at night.

For the annual show, the sheep were cleared from the castle and marquees erected. The small tent housed the marrows and leeks; the larger served beer to the entire population, packed in and happy.

The museum seldom opened its doors. The curator, the retired constable would open up for you if you called at his home.

The cafe had shelves stacked with beans and spaghetti and a counter for sweets. Children always asked for something from the back and rifled the display while the proprietor was away.

I woke each morning to the sound of a shot and a squeal as yet another pig was butchered at the shop opposite.

Honey was made next door to the inn and the hotel opposite served only sour beer to the rare customer in its dank and dusty bar.

The road to Newtown climbed steep and narrow and at its peak was a pub which served beer to the dry Welsh on Sundays. Mostly though, patrons were kept away by the landlord and his shotgun.

Across the river stood the church at it's commanding position. Picture hatted of course, the vicar's wife with committees to chair.

The bus came once a fortnight for shoppers and Shrewsbury fans. It was a long walk the rest of the time.

David Easton

" Clunton and Clunbury, Clungunford and Clun are the quietest places under the sun"

A.E.Housman

 
Copyright © Ramblings. Designed by OddThemes | Distributed By Gooyaabi Templates