Photo-a-Day  (Friday, 31st May, 2024)

Is this someone's house now ??

What tales that cottage could tell if walls could speak. I’ve seen pictures of it before and I love it.

Interesting photo Colin. The building looks very well maintained. Shame the licence was lost, and coincidentally at the time of Lloyd George's beer. Must have been terrible arriving back from the trenches of WW1 to find your local pub shut, and the rest serving weak brew!

The postal address for the properties on Market Place is now Market Street but it has been The Market Place for over 500 years and the road sign on the wall of The Black Bull bares clear witness to this.
As we all know the Post Office is always right!

Alan P. Yes it is a private house now, many people will remember that it was a butchers shop for a long time before being converted to a private house. In recent times a large plot of land at the rear was sold off to build three houses fronting onto Cross Street.
I had doubts on this but must confess they look well built and the style is in keeping with the area.

As a hostelry it used to be one of the overnight stops for the long and probably tedious horse and carriage journey from London to Scotland, Ostlers were employed to care for the horses overnight.
At some point it was also the local courthouse with the stocks being very handy 20 yards away.
Colin excuse me, but just as an aside my 2nd gt grandfather Thomas Hathaway ran a similar overnight hostelry called The Unicorn in Banbury, Oxfordshire which ironically was addressed 20 Market Place which i have seen, unfortunately converted into shops now, but it still retains the Ostlers gate through which the horses entered and left. My maternal grandmother married a Hathaway from that part of the world and before you ask, YES i am related to William Shakespeare's wife Ann, my 9th gt grandfather Thomas was her brother, here endeth the lesson !!!

That's lovely, and has such character. Lucky people who live there!

Looking at Google Earth, it appears that the three new houses have solar panels built into their front elevation roofs. That prompted me to look around to see how many other houses in the district had them fitted - not many. Given the apparent affluence in some parts of Standish, I found that rather surprising. Since the Feed-in Tariff went, it's not as lucrative as it was, and the pay-off period is far longer, but, for anyone with money in the bank earning almost zero interest, it seems a no-brainer to have had them fitted. Perhaps folk value having a new car every couple of years, which loses them money as soon as it's bought, to investing in cutting their long-term electricity bills - and their carbon footprint.

T.D., can you imagine, arriving back from the trenches of WW1 to find that all the breweries have shut down and the only one left is Greenall's ?

Rev David Long, the affluence in some parts of Standish is, as you suggest, "apparent" as opposed to "real". You cannot see the amount owed against those assets which are classed as "losses" in the apparent to real equation.
Of course, considerable income will have it all covered. Hopefully. But that's what the economy demands. You are born with nothing and so you should die with nothing. With regard to investing in cutting long-term electricity bills, what's the point if you have a good income and can, therefore, easily cover the cost?

Very, very interesting Roy not only more historical background regarding the Eagle & Child but a local connection with The Bard.
You know what they say:
The quality of mercy is not strained, it dropeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath.
In this context strained is an old English meaning for forced.

Rev Long, yes Solar Panels are a good addition to new build properties.
When I used to visit my son in Germany all new build houses had Solar Panels on the roof.
It would be good if these were compulsory in UK house building but I suppose the price of any house these days is beyond the reach of mere mortals.

70% of new builds in Scotland have solar panels built in. We're supposed to be following suit from 2025 - but I don't know whether the process has got lost because of the election.
New builds can incorporate panels into the roof - saving on roofing materials - and builders will bulk-buy units, so it shouldn't add too much to the cost of a house - and builders put their prices up to follow the market anyway, rather than the actual cost of building the house.
I've read that having solar panels adds an average of over £30k to the value of a house.
We should also be having Air Source Heat Pumps supplied for all new builds as well.
The point of having solar panels - and heat pumps - is to cut down on emissions harmful to the world our children are going to inherit from us. Folk get worked up about Inheritance Tax (even though the vast majority don't pay any) because they want to pass their money onto their children... but seem to have less interest in passing on a decent environment for them to live in.
"We brought nothing into the world, and we can carry nothing out" - but many folk seem determined to live as if they can.

Interesting story Roy and how lovely to be linked to Ann Hathaway. No doubt you’ve been to the cottage. I have an oldish photo of a group of us girls in front of it. ( I might post it!)
“ What’s in a name? That which we call a Rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
Something to be proud of.

More connections to the Bard: The Eagle and Child hostelry was so-named because it lay within the area of influence of the Stanley family, Earls of Derby - and the Eagle and Child are part of the family's Arms. From 1586 to 1639 the Rector of Standish was William Leigh, and he was also chaplain to Henry Stanley, 4th Earl of Derby, and often preached before his patron. The Earl was a patron of Shakespeare, who visited the Earl at Knowsley with his players (which is why there is a new Shakespeare North Playhouse in nearby Prescot). It is, I think, reasonable to suppose that the Rector was invited to join the Earl when Shakespeare and his players were performing at Knowsley.
The beautiful carved oak pulpit in the church, dated 1616 - the year of Shakespeare's death, was given by Rector Leigh.

Bruce Almighty it was shocking and many chose not to talk about it post jar, but for the benefit of all fortunate not to have experienced the jar to end all jars. After suffering the first I couldn't imagine ever wanting to volunteer for a second.

Reverend Long, "over £30k to the value of a house"?
I find that hard to believe. A solar system should cost no more than £5000 to £6000 plus installation.

Thank God for people like Ozy ! Who tell their voice from themselves, not from the history we are told to be !

Just as a coincidence, the family that moved out of the house recently, their surname is Leigh

Yes I agree Ozy has a way with words that imply a sardonic cynicism in his sense of humour as opposed to being sarcastic. His view of the world is totally his own. Mind you a bottle of plonk might be of help as well.