THE HONKEYMOON CAFE

More Dawson catastrophes, this time in respect of the Dawson’s historic connection to steeplechasing, and Davinia Dawson’s interest in animal rights and her loss of several snakes. It was while I was compiling some notes on ‘Our Best friends’, a compilation of stories regarding the village pets, that Rachael, our village historian mentioned what progress she was making with the Dawson’s history, a book she is writing with Gill Dawson, a local family steeped in academia that have had a long and illustrious past. For a century or more their interests have been to do with publishing and it is that arm of the family which resides locally. Besides their academic prowess, another area in which they excel is being accident prone. I have suggested that their family motto be ‘An accident waiting to happen’. Whether this mis-happish tendency is due to carelessness, bad luck, or just a lack of common sense, is difficult to tell, though Rachael has examples of them all. The Dawsons appear to have ...

The village’s first singles dining club attracts attention when an alliance between one of the pub’s helpers and a complete stranger who is not to be trusted. When proof is found, it’s time for friends to act, and save a lovely but naive, vulnerable lady from being taken advantage of. Penny Marshal, you may remember, after the Bridge club failed, Dave at the pub said she was starting a singles dining club. It wasn’t given much credence but word got out that it was happening and the founding members were those of the bridge club that were single. Liz Wintern, and Donald Spears were the first, though strictly speaking Donald was not single being married and still living with his wife. Donald assured Penny that a divorce was imminent and, other than sharing the same address, his wife and he were ‘estranged’. Penny being desperate for men, was prepared to bend the rules until more men were forthcoming. Roger Cleverly turned up out of the blue apparently having maintained some contact with ...

Animals can be our best friends, they can also create chaos,  and destroy relationships. As you know the Old Mill was the home of Lucy and Mark Musgrave. After they met with their accidents it was some time before the mill was sold due to the bizarre nature of their deaths and the reputation that the mill had that it was haunted. Several couples pulled out and it is presumed because of the mill’s history. It was eventually bought by Taylor and Barbara Bradford who I met when the mill developed a series of on-going calamities, now fortunately in the past. Taylor was someone important in the music industry and although I had met them, most of the villager’s introduction to the Bradfords came by way of their two Cockers, Joe and Jarvis, presumably named after the singers. Animals had not been kept at the mill for some time. Previous to the Musgraves the Morrisons had no pets and they had been at the mill for as long as anyone could remember. The sprawling garden and orchard that ran a...

A local becomes concerned over what he has, and what he’ll leave behind. Things can come to dominate our lives and there’s a concern that we spend all our later years just looking after everything we’ve got. Harold Pointer doesn’t want to spend the rest of his life just being a ‘caretaker’. Constance, my gardening next door neighbour, called in one morning asking for some advice. You may remember she and Bernard Jeffries became close friends after he failed to win the longest carrot prize in our annual produce show. They are both very keen gardeners and I presumed what she had in a cardboard box was something to do with that but it turned out to be an old black Bakelite telephone, a coiled flex attaching the body of the phone to the handset, or what used to be called the ‘receiver’, resting on a cradle. Constance wanted to know if it was valuable as she and Bernard had joined the modern age and had bought mobile phones. She had kept the phone in the loft ever since it was replaced by a...

The Old Mill’s history once again causes concern. Some places ‘amplify’ what things possess from those that have lived before. A series of unrelated events may be what it seem so to the casual observer, but we know that there is no such thing as coincidence.  A previously dormant energy has awoken! The Old mill at the bottom of our high street, has long had the reputation of being haunted. This isn’t the Hammer Film type of haunting where scantily clad female guests are pursued screaming through dark corridors by Elizabethan ghosts with outstretched arms and rattling of chains. This is the ‘presence’ type of haunting where rooms for no reason can be plunged into a chilling cold, and not the fault of the freezer door being left open. Objects are thought to have moved, but so far that hasn’t been actually witnessed. Doors sometimes open of their own accord, and shut firmly as if by a draught, but not one that is noticeable.   Prior to the Bradfords moving in, Dorothy Palmer, a ‘...