Hungerford Arcade “St. Patrick’s Day”

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Hungerford Arcade owners, managers, staff and stallholders wish all our Irish friends a very happy St. Patrick’s Day.

 

 

Saint Patrick was a fifth-century Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland. Known as the “Apostle of Ireland”, he is the primary patron saint of Ireland, along with saints Brigit of Kildare and Columba.

 

May the Irish hills caress you. May her lakes and rivers bless you. May the luck of the Irish enfold you.  May the blessings of Saint Patrick behold you.

 

St. Patrick’s Day is an enchanted time – a day to begin transforming winter’s dreams into summer’s magic.

 

Oh! St. Patrick was a gentleman Who came of decent people; He built a church in Dublin town, And on it put a steeple.

 

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Hungerford Arcade Supports Mary Hare School

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Mary Hare School for the Deaf is our chosen charity and we do whatever we can to support them.  The school is currently fundraising for a new school building for primary aged, profoundly deaf and severely deaf children.  The current building is old and inadequate for the very specific needs of the children. 

So as part of the fundraising drive for this much needed new building, the school has put together a video to showcase some of the things they do and some of the things they have already done to raise money for the appeal.  The appeal video has been shortlisted for the Charity Film Awards.  The school has been invited to the awards ceremony in May when they will hear if the judges have given them an award in their category. 

In the meantime, there is a public vote for all the finalists and an additional award will be given to the film that attracts the most public votes.  Please vote for them on their page.  Thank you for your support!

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Arts For Hungerford Local Arts Events

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Arts For Hungerford is a volunteer-run community project which brings films, music, comedy, literature and a lot more to Hungerford and surrounding areas.  This month two films will be showing at the Croft Hall.

On Friday it’s the 2017 Oscar-winning Iranian film, The Salesman. The future looks bright for amateur actors preparing for Death of a Salesman, until a case of mistaken identity sees a shocking and violent incident throw their lives into turmoil. It has a Rotten Tomatoes Score of 96% and Critics Consensus of ‘The Salesman takes an ambitiously complex look at thought-provoking themes, and the well-acted results prove another consistently absorbing entry in writer-director Asghar Farhadi’s distinguished filmography.’

 

Then on Saturday, if you enjoy drama you won’t want to miss ‘The Time Machine’ – a new and radical interpretation of the HG Wells classic, with 5-star reviews at the Edinburgh Festival and beyond. ★★★★★ ‘Outstanding… Amazing… Magic’ (Edinburgh Southside Advertiser). Brought to us by Dyad Productions, they’ve been no strangers to the Croft Hall in recent years – Jane Eyre and The Unremarkable Death of Marilyn were both absolutely wonderful. Free tickets for under-18’s accompanied by an adult.

 

There is so much more to discover in the coming months thanks to Arts For Hungerford.  Check out their website for more details on all upcoming events.

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Hungerford Arcade and The Tea Cosy

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The Prosecco Tea Set!

We love making friends in other local, family run businesses – especially when those local businesses make scrumptious cakes! 

This lovely couple came to visit us to find interesting things to use in their cafe, The Tea Cosy in nearby Hurstbourne Tarrant. 

They bought all sorts of things, from garden ornaments, to china tea sets. 

It’s not unusual to find a teapot and tea cups in a cafe – but this particular set is to be used for serving prosecco! I know, it sounds strange, but I would definitely give it a go!  

They also serve more traditional tea and cakes at the Cafe with an emphasis on indulgence! I have seen some of their Facebook posts and the cakes really do look amazing!  I hope we see them again soon as they were a pleasure to serve – and I might get a free cake if I’m really nice to them! Find them on Facebook here!

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Hungerford Arcade “Work Behind The Counter – Snowed In”

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Picture courtesy of “NEODAAS/University of Dundee”
By Michael MacLeod

Hungerford Arcade is a very welcoming place no matter what the weather might be.  During these bitter cold days and deep snow, we have stayed open for the brave customers who either want to enjoy the snow or, want to break out from their homes.  There have been horrendous stories on the news from all over the country, but amidst all of this there has been a lot of heroics.  People helping those in need whether they are the housebound elderly, the homeless or people trapped in their vehicles and the brave NHS staff struggling in to hospitals.  Everyone pulled together and all-in-all, we survived ‘The Beast from the East’.

 

 

My wonderful stepson, Scott and his partner, Mandy took their dog, Dudley out today.  Scott took this video while Mandy was driving.  Luckily she has got a 4X4 which is the only way you could travel.

 

 

Missy chillaxing with her eye on us!

I should have been behind the counter this weekend, but unfortunately, due to the weather and feeling poorly I am not to venture out.  I live in a beautiful little village on Salisbury Plain which, as you can imagine, took quite a hit.  Although the scenery is stunning and my four gorgeous Springer Spaniels, (Arnie, Bebe, Bonnie and Missy) are loving every minute of it, jumping and running through snow drifts and coming home covered in thick lumps of frozen snow and ice on their coats and between their toes, it’s freezing.  After thawing out, Jeff, me and our babies huddled round our wood burner (whom we nicknamed ‘Fatboy’). 

 

Bebe chillaxing on top of Arnie (as is normal)

I really felt for Jeff going out in freezing blizzards so our babies could have their walks twice a day.  They wouldn’t sleep at night if they didn’t go for their fun and frollicks on the Plain every day.  It’s just like taking kids out!  They will be ten in July but you wouldn’t know it watching them.  What treasures they are!

 

Bonnie is out for the count!

 

Arnie is bored now – wants to get back out there!

 

 

I will be back on duty at the Arcade on Monday.  Stay warm!

 

Rita

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Hungerford Arcade “Going to Auction”

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(L-R) David Borrett and Arcade Co-owner, Adrian Gilmour

Hungerford Arcade customers and readers really enjoy a good news story.  Well here is one that will hopefully turn out to be very profitable.

 

David Borrett who manages the Cirencester Antiques Market, told us about a mystery buyer who saw quite an ordinary looking teapot that was for sale for £25 at the fair.  After haggling with the stallholder, he managed to purchase it for £15.

 

The purchaser saw that there was something quite special about this teapot so took it to his local auction who agreed with him.

 

Unfortunately, I do not have a photograph of the teapot but will let you know when it comes under the hammer and the price it makes at auction.

 

 

David Borrett, Cirencester Antiques Market is every Friday between 6.00 am to 3.00 pm. af the Circencester  Corn Hall, Cirencester.

 

 

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Hungerford Arcade “The Zanzibar Book Club”

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Hungerford Arcade Blog 2018

In the January of 1902 a man whose name was R Whyte (I do not have any more details about his name and please, no more lemonade jokes) purchased a copy of Rudyard Kipling’s From Sea to Sea  from a bookseller on the island  of Zanzibar.  How do I know about this obscure purchase you may ask?  

 

Later on the 8th of July 1905 The Zanzibar Book Club lent this book to the mysterious R.W.Lynn.  One of the few rules of this book club was the caveat that if a book was badly damaged or lost then the borrower would have to replace the book (Zanzibar in 1905 was a harsh place to borrow books).  However, this book was never returned and the mysterious R.W.Lynn disappeared (with his book) into the swirling mists of history.  How do I know about this secondary loan you may ask?  Because I purchased this book at the Arcade some weeks ago and apart from looking a little worse for wear, Kipling’s book was very much as had been in 1905.  Both the signature of the original owner (1902) and the later addition of the light blue label of the Zanzibar Book Club (1905) were still bright and had only been disturbed by the addition (in pencil) of the new price requested for the book in 2017 (£1.00).   It was the first entry into Kipling’s book for one hundred and twelve years (I doubt if there will be many more).  The next time that I am in Zanzibar I will return this book to the book club and apologise for its late return.  I trust they will not fine me.

 

Before finding this book I only knew three things about Zanzibar.  Firstly, that the archipelago is situated in the Indian Ocean and is between twenty-five and fifty kilometres distant from the mainland of Africa.  Also, that Freddy Mercury was born in Zanzibar in 1946 and more obscurely, a Miss Annie Allen who was a noted Nineteenth Century missionary spent many productive years there in God’s name.  That was all I knew apart from a few vague geographical references, but now I know a little more thanks to my random find.  You never know what you are going find in the Arcade or where these finds will take you.

 

Happy Hunting

 

Stuart-Miller-Osborne

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Hungerford Arcade Gift for The Corporal’s Mess

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The 1st Lancashire Fusiliers in Communication Trench near The Somme 1916 Source

This year marks one hundred years since the end of the conflict that is most commonly known as World War 1.  The area known as The Western Front was the main theatre of war during the years 1914-1918 and stretched from the western tip of Belgium, down through France and into Germany.  It was the line of defence that kept the German army from reaching the rest of France and the English Channel.  It is also the area most famous for use of “trench warfare” as a tactic by both sides. 

Trench warfare came about due to advances in firepower which were not matched by advances in mobility.  The entrenched defenders of an attack generally had the advantage and could inflict severe casualties on the attackers who could not properly defend as they advanced.  The result of trench warfare is generally a stalemate situation where nobody advances at all.

The thing that amazes me is the complexity and scale of the network of trenches on the Western Front.  I saw this in great detail when a stallholder showed me a map of the trenches around Ypres in Belgium.  This was the location of one of the most infamous and costly battles of the war, the Battle of Passchendaele.  The stallholder, Gordon, told me that rather than sell it he wanted to donate it to a local military base.  The Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) are based just a few miles away at MoD Lyneham and Gordon managed to contact somebody there and offered the map as a gift to the corps.

 

We were visited by Lance Corporal Marshall-Saunders of the 6th Battalion REME who informed me that the map would be framed and placed on the wall in the Corporal’s mess for everybody to see.  We are really glad it’s gone to such a good home.

 

Hopefully my picture has enough detail for you to zoom in and follow the trenches through the area and get an idea of the scale of the operation.  It is really quite amazing.

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