Friday 5 June 2015

Dutch Courage in the Quarry


Dad again as Chief Officer in 1957.


He'd decided to go all Salvador Dali with that moustache. Mum hated it and made him shave it off. He's sat with the purser drinking a traditional and potent Dutch mix - a beer with a Genever (Dutch gin) chaser, probably before lunch. It also looks like he's got a packet of Luck Strikes on the table, rather than the roll-ups I remember him smoking. That object to his right on the seat that looks like a car radio must be a box of cigars, another of his vices.


Went to look at a new housing development last weekend. It's sited on the old Barnhill Quarry on the Wickwar road.


If you enlarge the photo you'll just be able to see a road snaking through the development that exits in the far distance. The quarry has been disused for decades and had filled with water, making it rather dangerous. The ironic thing is that in order to fill the quarry site to make it viable as a housing development it had to be filled with - yes, your guessed it - ballast from a quarry.


2 comments:

Alan Burnett said...

The road to Wickwar - now there is a delightful prospect.

Chairman Bill said...

Alan - would you be referring to a particular brewery in the town of that name?