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Friday 3 April 2020

Our Retreat





For the last 2 weeks we've been on "lock down" and restricted to brief trips into the outside world. The fence around our cottage is the perimeter of our word at the moment.

Claire is busy turning a planned patio into a "Dig for Victory" vegetable plot and I'm looking after food supplies and the provision of meals.


We've been living here at 1 Meols Cop for something like 13 years now.

It's a small, whitewashed, shrimpers cottage that was once situated on the edge of the sand dunes close to the sea. There's a path at the side where the entrance to our cottage is, called Manx Jane's Lane. We presume that one of the cottages on the lane once belonged to Jane but we don't know which one.

As we haven't had sight of the deeds to the cottage we don't know anything about it's history. Old maps tell us that it is Georgian and we can presume that it was originally one room that later had 2 small extensions; leaving us with it's present footprint.

The cottage(and No2 Sea Cop next door) are now situated on Fylde Rd; but up until some time after WW2 the 2 cottages sat in isolation. Older neighbours can remember these times and we are told that there was a track where Fylde Rd now sits called Dock Rd.

When I can get around to it(ie in the next couple of week) I'm going to do whatever needs doing to get a copy of the deeds; which I will peruse and report back on.

In the 13 years we have lived here we have carried out a few improvements including: new garage roof, new kitchen, installed a wood burner, new windows and front door(we don't have a back door - yet) and converted part of the garage into a Garden Room where I am now sat.

It's hard to believe at the moment, but we have had many  fund raising garden parties and barbecues in the past and we are always amazed at how many friends we can cram into the small spaces we have.

I've included a few photos by way of an introduction to where we live.

I'll finish this post with an explanation for the photograph below:




Yes it is a bus stop, but what is it doing in our garden?

Simple answer .....I nicked it!

I was born and brought up in Blackley, Manchester: where I lived until I went to college in 1984.

When I was about 18 my mate John and I went to a  friends party. This was a memorable party for reasons that I'll not go into for fear of embarrassing the friend concerned.

However, on the way home, with several pints of Watney's Red Barrel inside us; it seemed like a good idea to nick the 147 bus stop from Blackley New Rd...so that's what we did. It was a 2 man job as the bus stop was securely fastened high up on a lamp-post.

On a similar night, fuelled by Wison's best bitter this time, we added to my collection by nicking a litter bin from a different bus stop.

Sadly the litter bin went missing during my years as a teacher. It's probably still in a store room in Warrington.

So there you have it. In 1975(approx) I stole 2 items belonging to Manchester City Transport.

The company no longer exists.

I'm not proud of my short life as a criminal....but it has helped to decorate our garden.










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