The Aldgate Pump

 On the way home from War of the Worlds, we came across the Aldgate Pump at the end of Leadenhall Street:

I got terribly excited, because I mistook it for another famous pump.

This one had been in use as a water source since at least the time of King John, and was the source of what came to be known as the Aldgate Pump Epidemic - the water supply passed through several cemeteries in Victorian times, and picked up all manner of nasty things to poison the water.

I was mixing it up with the Broad Street pump in Soho, source of the cholera outbreak there in 1854, when local Doctor John Snow removed the pump handle to stop people from drinking the water and proved that cholera was spread through the water rather than by miasma, or bad air.

Next time I'm in Soho, I'll have to visit that pump.

Rodmarton

I've been looking up some details about the village of Rodmarton - and there's lots of interesting stuff. I'll have to make sure my friend invites me to stay again!

Evidence of a Roman settlement has been found, and several major Roman roads pass close by. Cirencester (a Roman town) is only 6 miles away. There's also a nearby long barrow which looks very interesting. It's called Windmill Tump, and seems to be Neolithic, and is part of the Severn-Cotswold group of long barrows.
While the village was historically inhabited by agricultural workers, the present population of 333 people are mainly in managerial or professional jobs, according to Wikipedia. It's part of the Kemble Estate, and Kemble railway station is nearby. There's even a vaguely local link, as Michael Biddulph, who inherited the Estate in 1884, came from Ledbury in Herefordshire.

There are also strong links to the Arts and Crafts Movement in the area. The nearby hamlet of Tarlton was the site of a pottery which did design work for Wedgewood, and the manor house - well, the manor house is a gem, though it's also very hard to photograph from the road, being very long, and well screened by hedges and walled gardens and orchards.
The present building was built between 1909 and 1929, in the Arts and Crafts style, with Arts and Crafts furniture. Everything was done by hand with local materials and local craftsmen. The stone for the building was quarried locally and brought to the site by a private railway line.
The present owners are the fourth generation of the Biddulph family to live there. Michael Biddulph's son Claud (there's a plaque to his memory in St Peter's Church) provided the money, and the house was built by architect Ernest Barnsley, one of the leading lights of the Cotswold Arts and Crafts Movement, his brother Sidney and his son-in-law. The Biddulphs also wanted to use the house as a place to teach traditional crafts. There are 74 rooms, including one of the last private chapels to be built in England.
Ernest also laid out the 8 acres of gardens, and they are advertising opening times in February to see the snowdrops (I love snowdrops). They also host opera (which I can take or leave) and a rare plant fair.

Local History I Never Knew

Occasionally, I read the blog Beamish Buildings, because one of the staff at Beamish is the daughter of a woman I went to school with. Just recently, Shannon has been researching Georgian hearse houses, which were built in churchyards, as they are building one at Beamish at the moment.
She's been looking at examples of surviving hearse houses across the North of England - and one of the best sources mentioned in the blog is at St Mary's, Prestwich.

What?

I used to go to this church as a child - I went to the C of E Primary School, and we occasionally used the church for services. I remember a carol concert when I was in the choir - we were doing it by candlelight and torch in case (or possibly because) of a power cut. Graham Ward, from my class, sang the solo first verse of Once in Royal David's City from the back of the church, and it was so beautiful....
I also remember a service where I had been chosen to do a reading from the pulpit (I could only just see over the top). It hadn't occured to me to mention this honour to the rest of my family - my gran found out by accident, and came to stand in the back of the church to listen to me. I was so focussed on what I was doing, I never noticed her.
It's also the church usually used for filming when they need a church in Coronation Street!

So I remember the church, but I don't remember a hearse house!

It seems the local history of the area where I grew up was more interesting than I had imagined.