I was having breakfast yesterday with the door open, so Islay could see down the street, when Jean from Open Door came up. "Do you know who these 'Residents of Broad Street' are?" she asked.
I told her that nobody had come to me about the signs at the junction.
Jean had just been fastening her Open Door sign to the lamp post, as she does every Friday. Last week, when she came back for it, she found it stuffed down the back of the horse trough with one of the notes on it that had been put on the other signs (all gone now).
"You know, I spent that day helping a girl who'd been sleeping under the bridge for three days," Jean said. "If they came and talked to us and found out what we do, I'm sure they wouldn't want us to move the sign."
She'd gone to the police, who told her that the 'Residents of Broad Street' had no right to move the signs or even to demand that they be moved, and said they would keep an eye on Jean's sign for her.
None of us can work out who has been putting these notes on the signs. We don't think it's Di Blunt, because her sign to sell her house was moved too. John Harris has just left town in a fleet of removal vans*, so he's not involved any more, and the person I saw stacking the signs one day told me it wasn't anything to do with him - he was just putting them tidy after they'd fallen over.
It seems to me that a far better way of going about it, if these mystery people really are so upset, would be to take the signs back to their owners and talk to them about the problem - not just leave snotty notes about destroying the signs.
*John Harris and his family have moved down to Frome in Somerset, to be nearer the rail network and the TV studios for his work. We all hope they'll be very happy there. They got a good send off from Hay, anyway, and Mary is looking forward to using the champagne for the 'topping off' ceremony when her new house is built.
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7 comments:
We love it! "Sign boards wars"! And you didn't even mention the Kilverts sign which had been dumped in the river, hauled out and "rested" under the bridge for ages before someone collected it (or has it disappeared too?) even though I phoned Kilverts to tell them where it was!
And then there are the signs attached to lamp posts that stay there long after the event......rant rant rant!
I'd forgotten about the Kilvert's sign!
This stretch of Broad Street could do with a tidying up and it could do far worse than for someone to cut the grass and weeds that grow in front of the design group and adjacent shops. It really does look a mess. Those trees behind the horse trough could do with a bit of a prune too.
C'mon "Residents of Broad Street". Enough of those secretive hand-written notes. Get gardening!
Residents of broad St. HOHO - RESIDENT of broad street you mean!
This note applying is seemingly the act of an individual without the gumption to confront the local businesses, which i believe need all the support they can get at the moment, bring back the signs.
Hurrah, the grass has been cut in front of the design group – leaving some jolly nice artichokey-thingummies standing like Broad Street sentinels. Perhaps they have hidden CCTV cameras in their flowerheads to catch the Secret Sign Sticker of Olde Broad Street.
Some gardener you are!
Those "artichokey-thingummies" are teasels!
Ha ha! Teasels they are. Just like Tom Dudgeon's boat in Ransome's 'Coot Club'. Good job I didn't cut them off, boil 'em up and dip 'em in a vinaigraitte then.
I bought a brace of artichokes from Jason in the market yesterday. "Can I have these maracas?" I asked.
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