thesheeprug

The best jam in the world!

The above title is, of course, simply clickbait, since everyone knows the best jam in the world is actually produced in Megan Markle’s kitchen over in Montecito in California, and marketed under the, “American Riviera Orchard” label. How do we know this? Well partly because she’s told us so, but mostly from empirical evidence: demand appears to be so high it’s simply impossible to buy a jar anywhere!

At the other end of the spectrum, there is probably a lot of competition for the worst jam in the world. A strong contender might be Ticklers “Plum and Apple” jam which was produced in large quantities for the British Army during WW1 and allegedly didn’t contain any of either fruit. However, we won that particular conflict, so it can’t have been that bad, and anyway it’s not available now. So this leaves the really budget jams from the supermarkets, the cheapest of which, from Aldi, retails at about 39p a jar and seem to be basically thickened cheap fruit juice. It’s probably briefly worth considering if you’re running the household on a tight budget, but ideally you’d want something better for your kids. What you might call ‘basic’ supermarket jam (Tesco) retails for 89p a jar, which is better, but at that price must be a loss-leader.

This rather raises the question of what a jar of jam should cost. Those of us who have tried making our own using fresh fruit know that it can taste so wonderful that the big question becomes, what do the commercial manufacturers do with all the flavour after they’ve taken it all out? We also know it turns out to be somewhat expensive with PYO fruit prices being something north of £11/kg. Thus a jar will usually work out at a little over £3.00.

So this got me thinking: Can we make a high quality low cost jam?

Well, the answer is, Yes, you can!

The solution is frozen fruit from the supermarket. Frozen raspberries retail at about £7.50/kg, so add 1kg of sugar and for £8.60 you can make excellent Raspberry Jam for about £2.15 a jar (allowing for evaporation). Ok, that’s still expensive. But there are several lower cost alternatives, all of which work well – mixed summer fruits, or Black Forrest mix.

But I recently discovered Tesco sell 1kg bags of so called, “Imperfect fruit”, a mix of blackcurrants, redcurrants, blackberries and strawberries, for the princely sum of £2.99. Yup, under £3 per kg… and it makes a beautiful mixed fruit jam! It’s also full of pectin, so there’s no need to add any – any sugar will do. Honestly, I couldn’t believe how good it was. This is the recipe:

1kg bags imperfect frozen fruit (£2.99)
1kg granulated sugar (£1.09)
1 lemon (use zest and juice) (35p).

Method: defrost fruit in microwave oven, add sugar, lemon juice and zest. Boil until it reaches setting point (104c), breaking up the fruit a bit using the potato masher if necessary. Cool and put into sterilised jars.

Makes 4x 380g jars. Cost per jar, £4.43/4 = £1.11. A bargain!

The only question remaining is where do you get empty jam jars from? Well obviously you can save them, or buy them from Hobbycraft for about £10/doz. That’s quite an overhead, but it’s much cheaper to buy the 39p a jar of jam from Aldi and dispose of the contents – lets face it, at that price they can’t have much food value anyway!

Live music.

We took a trip to Bury St Edmunds on Friday, and happened upon this little band busking outside Marks and Spencer. Nothing too fancy – just 4 clearly competent musicians doing their thing in the winter sunshine. We only had time to stop for a few minutes while they played their opening number, Johnny Cash’s “Fulsome Prison Blues”. No vocalist on this occasion, but it was live and joyous and everybody was happy. They were called “The High Points” – click for their website. I suspect they’d put on a good evenings entertainment.

But here’s the important thing: It was LIVE! No backing tapes, no tricks, just music. Unlike an awful lot of modern performances.

Now I’ve long suspected the concert going public are being fooled with technology. We have singers who appear to sing well whilst dancing, but are then obviously out of breath when introducing the next song (Madonna), bands with members obviously absent (Sheniah Twain performing at Glastonbury without a bass player on stage), remarkably perfect renditions of well known songs (Dua Lipa, also at Glastonbury this year). Not to mention hip-hop, rap and techno performers who obviously have no band at all.

I’m not alone in this view, of course, and there’s increasing concern about this by industry insiders. A good example is the “Wings of Pegasus” channel on YouTube, run by ‘Fil’, who is not only a very talented guitarist and singer but also a whiz at musical and recording analysis. Significantly, he doesn’t necessarily set out to unmask the culprits – he simply analyzes videos people request him to take a look at, and reports what he finds. Over the last few months, he’s demonstrated convincingly that overproduction and excessive reliance on technology are absolutely rife.

In live performances there are a number of ‘tricks’ employed:

Miming to backing tracks. This has been going on for years of course – Top of the Pops on TV, for example, though that was always an open secret. But you don’t expect it in a so-called ‘live’ performance you’ve paid money to watch. Today they get a bit more sophisticated, maybe adding a little live vocals into the mix in order to give the impression that it’s all live.
Partial use of backing tracks which are mixed-in to ‘perform’ the tricky parts of a song
Singer really singing, but to a backing track, with the band on view simply miming.
Band really playing, but the singer is miming.
Singers making extensive use of technology such as ‘auto-tune’, which automatically adjusts the pitch of individual notes if the singer sings a bum note.

So who are the culprits? Well list the included some big names. Here are just four

Taylor Swift – lots of backing tracks in the ‘Eras’ tour and extensive use of auto-tune.
Maria Carey – partial use of backing tracks
The Eagles – singing clearly not live in recent tours
Celine Dion – appears to be using partial backing tracks.

The silly thing is, these people CAN sing – they’ve proved that in their careers. But when doing it live they feel the need, possibly under pressure from managers, promoters, record companies, to enhance the performance using technology.It’s not good.

If you can’t do it live, don’t call it live!

But here are a few performers who definitely are performing live:

U2
Rolling Stones
Pink
The High Points

So to summarise, if you want to see a girl dancing around the stage in a sparkly swimming costume, go to a Taylor Swift gig. On the other hand, if you want to see some live music, go shopping in Bury St. Edmunds.

Farm prices – a novice steps in….

There’s a lot of debate at the moment about the impact of the new imposition of inheritance tax on farms. The new budget proposals from HMG include imposing inheritance tax of 20% on any farm valued above £1m. The Government say it will only effect 500 farms, the NFU says it will be 70,000. That’s quite a big difference.

But nobody seems to be sharing their calculations. Especially Rachel from Accounts.

This is where I can help. Since I know nothing about farming, I’m terrible at growing vegetables and my training in estate taxation economics hasn’t begun yet, I’m clearly the ideal person for the job. I do have a Diploma in Music, though I’m doubtful if that will be much help.

Here goes…..

A quick Google online says UK farms range from the small (20 acres) up to large (over 1000 acres). The average (mean) size of a UK farm is 88 hectares – or 217 acres. (The median might be more representative for the following estimate, but since I can’t find a figure for it, the mean will have to do for now). Another look online says the current agricultural land prices range from a little over £10,000/acre for good arable land, down to about £7000/acre for less good pasture land. So for these calculations I’ll take a rough average of £9000/acre.

So an average farm includes land to the value of £9000 x 217 = £1.95M.

Of course, there’s more to a farm than that – farmhouse, buildings, barns, equipment etc. So lets assume that’s another £1M at least, and more for prize livestock.

How that translates into a number of farms is not clear, but it’s probably safe to assume a very large number of farms will be affected and the lower figure looks unlikely. For example, based on the above figures, small farm may have buildings worth £500,000 and will be subject to inheritance tax if it has more than 56 acres of land.

But we should note the budget is bound to reduce land values, so that might reduce the number.

But here’s the thing: farming profits are low – a few % at best, so most farmers have been having a tough time of it recently. (See episodes of “Clarksons Farm” on Amazon Prime for details). They tend to be asset rich, but cash poor. This means that on a farmers death, the average farming family will have to find £400,000 to cover tax, and the only way of raising it is to sell some of their land.

Now, Rachel from accounts may have lied about her experience as an economist, but she’s probably not stupid either. She, and her team, can do these calculations too and will appreciate their impact. So, what is their real motive in the budget? Redistribution of land, freeing up land for solar farms or housing, or … err, what? We should be told, and if it is part of a strategic plan to change the makeup of rural Britain, it really should have been in the Labour Manifesto prior to the election.

Whatever. These figures are probably wildly inaccurate, but at least they’re something to discuss.

Any other views out there?

The Right Music….

… or in this case the completely wrong music. To explain:

I was tired last night, and so spent the evening gawping at the TV. There wasn’t much on, but I did take a look on BBC4 at “Rome: A History of the Eternal City”. (Another repeat from many years ago). It was, as the name suggests, a history of Rome and inevitably the Vatican state and the Roman Catholic Church featured quite strongly. It was pretty standard TV history fare.

But just as the presenter was discussing St. Peter’s Basilica I heard the faint strains of familiar music in the background. After a few moments I identified it as part of Scheherazade, a symphonic suite written by Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in 1888, and one that I took quite a shine to when I was a boy. It’s based on the medieval story, ‘The 1001 Nights’ (or The Arabian Nights), in which the heroine – Scheherazade – tells her new husband stories to keep him interested in her, so he doesn’t have her executed the following morning. (The husband in question was Shahryar, a fictional Persian king whose 1st wife had been unfaithful to him and he had decided to execute each of his subsequent brides after their wedding night so they didn’t get the chance to do the same).

So why is this the wrong music? Well firstly, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov was a member of the Russian Orthodox church, and relations between the Orthodox church and the Roman Catholic church have often not been particularly, err, ‘Christian’ in nature. Secondly, the music is far from Italian or even European, having a very middle eastern flavour, and thirdly, medieval Persia was an Islamic state, and so Shahryar and Scheherazade would both have been Muslims anyway.

OK, I’m being a bit nerdy here, but it does matter – music has always reflected its historical setting and getting it right can wonderfully enhance the experience. It’s a shame they get it wrong so often. For example, I recall the Kate Blanchett film, ‘Elizabeth’, concludes with Mozart’s Requiem, written 188 years after her death! I’m sure there must be some Italian or European music that would have been more appropriate!

Tough Decisions

So, the chancellor lady has said several times now that she won’t shy away from making tough decisions. She’s also warned that more tough decisions are ahead. So she’s going to be tough, and make some decisions – tough ones!

I wish her well.

The thing is though, what exactly is a ‘tough decision’? Is it one that…

You need to be mentally or physically tough to make,
Is just a bit too challenging for your own mental capabilities,
Will be tough on some other people who suffer because of the fallout from the decision,
You haven’t received any ‘guidance’ on in the form of gifts of clothes or concert tickets,
You know you will upset somebody however you call it, and you simply can’t decide who you dislike the most (or indeed are the most scared of),
You know you’ve written about on social media some time ago, you’ve forgotten what you said, and are worried about something coming to light that makes you look hypocritical,
You know the best choice goes against the dogma you and your ‘right on’ friends have been espousing whilst in opposition,
You’ve ‘bigged’ it up, in order to make yourself sound more important or powerful than you really are.
You simply you know you’re going to get wrong, and you’re trying to manage expectations or limit damage at a future date.

I guess we’ll find out soon enough, but it is noticeable that the one ‘tough’ decision she has made so far only has a negative impact on people who really can’t fight back!

Update, Sat, 12th October 2025.

The Prime Minister, Mr. Starmer, is now getting in on the act as well. After 100 days in office he says it’s ‘tougher than anything he’s done before’.

In an interview with BBC’s Newscast to mark 100 days in office, he said so far his new job had been “much tougher than anything I’ve done before, but much better”.

So it’s really good the two major figures in the government are able to handle ‘tough’ situations with, it appears, ease.

That day may never come…..

In the opening scene of The Godfather, the local undertaker, whose daughter has been dishonoured by some local thugs and the courts haven’t punished them appropriately, makes a deal with Don Corleone (“The Godfather”) in order to get his revenge. Essentially, he offers his ‘friendship’ and an implicit agreement to help The Godfather at a later date. As the Big Man says,

“Someday, and that day may never come, I will call upon you to do a service for me. But until that day, accept this justice as a gift on my daughter’s wedding day”.

Over the next few days the thugs do get their (very severe) justice, and later in the film the undertaker is asked to prepare Don Corleone’s own son for burial.

It’s a nasty story, but one with a serious moral: with the exception of good friends and family, people don’t generally do things for you without expecting something in return.

Which brings me on to Keir Starmer…. Now I know they’ve all done it over the years – accepting gifts and presents from supporters, that is – and in moderation there’s no harm in it, but ultimately people don’t give presents to other people without expecting something in return. This isn’t necessarily a dig at the current government since it’s an established practice, and there’s a register so Members can declare donations and gifts they receive. So technically, nobody has done anything wrong. In fact, he said as much in an answer yesterday,

“The important thing in all of this is that we follow the rules.”

Well, yes Kier, but that’s the barristers answer – the one you might give when defending a client at the bar. But the court of public opinion will think differently. What we expect is that our leaders demonstrate good judgment and set an example, rather than indulging themselves at every opportunity. The prime minister has declared over £150,000 of gifts in recent years – that’s concert tickets, football tickets, clothes, holidays etc – and it does start to look a little excessive. Especially against a backdrop of removing the Winter Fuel Allowance from some of the poorest pensioners in the country, and being a millionaire many times over already.

It’s simply the look of the thing – it’s really not good. How can he now talk with any authority about ‘Tory sleaze’, or claim that Labour is the party that represents the poor. It’s a shame, I was hoping for better.

Update 22 Sept 2022 afternoon.

Not surprizingly, Mr. Starmer isn’t the only one. Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, has confirmed she recieved a £7,500 gift for clothes, and the education secretary, Briget Phillipson, has confirmed £14,000 for some birthday party costs and some Taylor Swift tickets.

Asked about the donations from Lord Alli, Ms Phillipson told Sky’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips:

“So I received that money from Waheed Alli, who’s a long-standing Labour peer. “It was used to fund two events, all of which was declared properly and thoroughly – that’s why that information’s in the public domain. The first event was ahead of my birthday, so I was turning 40.

“I thought it was a good opportunity to get people together in a professional context – so it was journalists, trade unionists, education people, MPs and shadow Cabinet. The second event was an event that I held also, again, for Lobby journalists, for people in the education world, as part of a reception. It was in a work context.”

Yup – good one Bridget! Just curious though – did you invite any, you know, err, teachers to your ~~party~~, meeting?

Update 27th September 2024 Evening.

It’s just been announced that ‘Free Gear Kier’ (to give hime his real name) also recieved £16,000 from Labour Lord Alli: £10,000 in October 2023 and £6000 in Febuary 2024. He declared it as ‘money for his private office’.

Oh dear!

10,000 views!

I’ve just been notified by WordPress that this little website I began way back in in 2019, co-incidentally just at the beginning of the COVID, has just topped 10,000 views. So since that almost certainly includes you, MANY THANKS.

Of course, in the overall scheme of things 10,000 views is not really very many – I suspect amazon.co.uk gets that every few minutes. But apart from some interesting local information, I have very little that people actually want, and still less of what they really need, so maybe that’s an unequal comparison.

But what are you all actually looking at? Well, WordPress do provide the statistics, and so here are the top 20 pages:

It does occur to me though, that it’s been several months since I added anything significant to the site. I’ve a number of pages in the pipeline, including one covering Hasketon during the period 1850 to 1920 (essentially the period leading up to WW1). But that’s a job for the winter – watch this space!

Bring on the WAGS!

So it’s 30 minutes into the England – Slovakia game. England are now 0:1 down and playing like a bunch of <expletive deleted>. Why? They’re all top players, capable of holding their place in top European sides, but when together they play terribly.

What do we do – blame the manager? No, I don’t think so. Whatever system he plays, the players, who are some of the best, should be able to make it work. The obvious answer is the players simply don’t want to win. Why? Search me, but I’ve had enough. Wast of time watching them play like a 3rd division tesm, so I’m off to do something more useful.

My suggestion for the second half is to bring on the wives and girlfriends to form a scratch team. I’m sure they’d do better!

Update at end of normal time:

England equalise in the 95th minute. Good goal by Bellingham (overhead kick). So maybe the WAGS won’t be needed.

I did, in fact, put this question to my son Alfie: “What do you call a team whose wives and girlfriends could make a better scratch team?

His answer was, “OK, I’ll do it then! F.C.”, which I thought was quite witty!

Update 2nd minute of extra time:

England score! Harry Kane finally turns up and scores!

Good, but TBH, they’re not actually playing very well. Germany or other top side would eat them for breakfassemi-finalt!

Full Time;

England win, but on this performance Switzerland will roll them over in the next round, no problem!

Update – quarter-final.

Well funnily enough, Switzerland didn’t and England won on penalties. But really, they’re not looking all that impressive.

Further update: semi-final with the Netherlands.

Well, we scraped through again! This time 2:1. Maybe……. nah, not possible!

Final vs. Spain.

Nope – we met a good side and it all fell apart.

Oh well, at least I can still remember the 1966 world cup!

Global warming, my a***e …. I’ve just lit the fire!

Yup – I have. It’s June 9th 2024 and we’ve suddenly realised we’re cold. Obviously not the full winter cold, but that sort of dull summer evening cold, when the hoped for warmth hasn’t arrived and you reach for a pullover.

So since I have plenty of wood to burn, all very dry and easy to light, I’ve actually lit the fire. Yay – nice and toasty now. And the great news is it’s all carbon neutral! Yup – the wood was all cut from the garden, and was only 20-30 years old. Any carbon in it was in the apnosphere at that time. It’s well seasoned – so by burning it there’s very few other by-products and I’m simply restoring the situation. Yes- the environment is safe… phew.

I love having a stove!

When the vampires come…

It’s an old folklore claim that garlic is an excellent vampire repellant. I think the rationale is that allicin, a chemical compound found in garlic, is a powerful antibiotic, and since throughout Europe vampires are considered to be a disease of the blood, garlic might be worth trying as a vampireicide. Of course, it’s been well established in a wide range of Hammer Horror films that certain religious symbols – crucifixes, holy water, simple crosses (sometimes even a shadow made up with whatever came to hand) are more than sufficient to send Dracula back to where he belongs. And you do have to be really careful – sometimes he’s hidden in plain sight as a character called Dr. Alucard, or even named after a computer printed circuit board containing the algebraic logic unit.

So whilst there are these other weapons available, having a good supply of garlic around as a back-up is no bad thing.

With this in mind, last October, after I’d cut down all the tomato plants in the polytunnel, I planted about 70 garlic cloves which I’d saved from last year’s crop. Then I basically just left them to it. They grew very well in autumn and spring, and this week began to show they were ready to harvest by gradually all falling over. This afternoon I lifted them, and this is the result.

Being optimistic, I’m hoping for about 12 – 14 cloves per bulb, or approaching 1000 cloves. I’m quite pleased actually, some of the largest I’ve ever grown.

That ought to sort them!

Can a computer improve Wordsworth?

Artificial Intelligence seems to be all the rage these days. I had a brief play with Chat GPT a little while ago, but, having more interesting things to do, didn’t go very far down the rabbit hole, However, I’ve just noticed that the Wordcraft editor, which I use to write this stuff, has just added a set of AI features that allow it to creatively edit existing text into different styles, summarise it, or even expand it.

So just for fun I converted a famous poem into prose and ran it through some features. I started with this:

I wandered lonely as a cloud that floats on high o’er vales and hills, when all at once I saw a crowd, a host, of golden daffodils; beside the lake, beneath the trees, fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

So let’s try a few AI generated variations…..

Humorous style

I strolled like a lost balloon drifting through valleys and hills, when suddenly I spotted a gang, a whole bunch, of cheerful daffodils; by the lake, under the trees, swaying and grooving in the wind.

Passionate style

I wandered, solitary as a drifting cloud soaring above valleys and hills, when suddenly, a sight unfolded before me – a multitude, a throng of golden daffodils; by the lake, under the trees, quivering and cavorting in the gentle breeze.

Informal style

I was just strolling around, you know, like a cloud lazily gliding over the valleys and hills, when suddenly bam! I spotted a bunch of golden daffodils, just chillin’ by the lake, groovin’ under the trees and swaying with the breeze.

Simplified version

I saw a lot of golden daffodils near the lake and trees, fluttering in the wind.

Expanded version

I wandered lonely as a cloud that floats on high o’er vales and hills, when all at once I saw a crowd, a host, of golden daffodils; beside the lake, beneath the trees, fluttering and dancing in the breeze. This picturesque scene filled my heart with a sense of serene beauty, as the daffodils swayed gracefully in the gentle wind, their vibrant hue painting a breathtaking tapestry against the backdrop of the tranquil landscape. The feeling of solitude melted away, replaced by an overwhelming sense of connection to the natural world, each delicate flower seemingly whispering secrets of the earth’s wonders. It was a moment of pure enchantment, a fleeting yet eternal memory etched in the depths of my soul.

Expand twice.

This is the expansion of the expansion:

The picturesque scene of the daffodils alongside the tranquil lake etched a timeless image in my mind, as if nature itself had painted a masterpiece for me to behold. The gentle sway of the flowers, harmonizing with the whispering breeze, seemed to orchestrate a symphony of serenity that resonated deep within my being. It was in that profound moment of tranquility that I found myself immersed in the language of nature, where every petal, every blade of grass, and every ripple on the water spoke to me in a silent yet profound dialogue.

As the golden daffodils radiated their timeless charm, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of oneness with the earth, as if I had been granted permission to partake in a private performance of nature’s dance. The sunlight, filtering through the swaying leaves, painted the ground with a mosaic of shadows and light, a mesmerizing tapestry woven by the hand of the natural world. It was a gentle reminder that even in the midst of life’s chaos, there exists a tranquil sanctuary where one can find solace and inspiration, a place where the symphony of nature beckons us to listen and reflect.

In the quiet presence of the daffodils, I discovered that nature speaks to us not only through grand landscapes and majestic vistas, but also in the subtle whispers of a flower’s bloom and the delicate rustle of leaves. Each element of the natural world weaves a narrative of resilience, grace, and enduring beauty, inviting us to slow down and appreciate the intricate details that often escape our hurried gaze. As I took in the serene beauty that enveloped me, I realized that nature’s poetry is not confined to the pages of books or the strokes of an artist’s brush; it is a living, breathing entity that surrounds us, offering glimpses of transcendent beauty and timeless wisdom at every turn.

Simplify and summarise the double expanded version.

So, having completely wrecked Wordsworth, can we recover him by summarising and simplifying the double expanded version? This is what I was left with after repeated simplifications to get it back to a comparable size:

“The daffodils near the quiet lake remind us of a beautiful, peaceful place. Even amid life’s chaos, they bring comfort and inspiration. Nature speaks through the flowers and leaves, showing us stunning beauty and timeless wisdom”.

Now I don’t know how it came up with this drivel, but Wordsworth it ain’t!

Conclusions.

So has any of the above actually improved Wordsworth? I think the answer has to be, “NO”, but I must add that I quite liked the informal style, and the simplified version at least has the merit of brevity. Other than that, I think I’ll wait for version 2 of the software!

Pubs in crisis.

As I understand it the Turks Head, Hasketons currently shut pub, has recently been sold for a figure slightly north of £600,000. I’ve got no idea who has bought it, but the now infameous Red Cat pub company (the current owners) have failed to make it work as a business and have decided to bug out. Prior to the whole COVID business it was a very successful gastro-pub, but Red Cat seem to have pulled off the impressive feat of running it into the ground in a very short time.

So far, so bad, but the problem seems to be nationwide. In todays paper I read that ‘Stonegate’, Britians largest pub chain, are struggling to service a £2.2bn debt. Given that they run about 4500 outlets (i.e. pubs, bars etc) that means that the average debt of each outlet is about £490,000. Now it’s possible the average value of each outlet is also about this figure, so the company might just be worth…. oh I don’t know, maybe, err – nothing. To me that seems completely bonkers – the business model must be completely broken and the owners asleep at the wheel for this situation to have arisen.

But if this reflects the current state of the so called, “hospitality industry”, we can expect a lot more disasters are going to fall upon Britians pubs. This is a great shame – I like pubs. They’re relaxing, pleasant, social places and I tend to feel good in them.

But the problem is quite obvious really – they’re just too damn expensive. I mean, over £5 for a pint of beer!!!!!! For goodness sake, that’s over 10x the cost of the ingredients. Over £7 for a modest glass of wine: they’re out of their minds if they expeact us to pay that – it’s more than I usually pay for a bottle! See my analysis of the price of a pint for a better insight. And then there’s the food – I’m sorry, but I’m not paying £15 per person for a meal I could cook myself. Not happening!

But in reality, the pub owner needs to make a profit, and the venue has to pay the wages of the staff. That’s probably 3 people. And there’s the problem in a nutshell.

Cast your mind back 150 years. (OK, that’s impossible – how would you know?) But take Samuel Moss as an example – he ran the Turks Head for about 50 years from 1859. By profession he was a thatcher. OK, it’s not really clear how much thatching he did during that period and the economics of the day were very different, but the point is, he didn’t have to rely on pub takings for an income.

So let’s go back to basics (as John Major said – ha ha, no , don’t laugh!). The British village pub started in an organic way – people, mostly women, brewed beer at home and sold it from or in their houses to all-commers. The whole business grew from that. No licencing laws, business rates or insurance in those days. Just do it! There were also ‘Inns’, which were stopping places for travellers: a different market, but the principle is similar – a simple supply and demand situation.

And maybe that’s the model for the future. We all become more sociable in our own homes. I, for example, enjoy brewing my own beer. Maybe I should make modest changes to my domestic arrangements and ‘entertain’ friends with my own brews on a more regular basis. Convert my workshop into a ‘man den’ where we can all relax – by invitation only of course. No need for anything formal (for obvious reasons), but payment in kind, bartering, favours, etc become the order of the day. Under the radar sort of stuff – not that I’d anything actually illegal, but maybe just see how far the current rules can be pushed.

Of course, the new owners of the Turks Head might play a blinder and we end up with a nice village pub again. Then the problem goes away. But it’s good to start thinking about alternatives….. Cheers everybody!