Last summer, I met a German couple on the ancient byway that runs westwards from the village. This inspirational pair had walked all the way from Rome, following old pilgrimage routes, and our little byway, they explained, was part of the route to St Swithun’s remains in Winchester Cathedral.
The beauty of the surrounding countryside entranced them, and I felt proud of our little bit of Hampshire for putting on a worthwhile show for these travellers. I am glad they didn’t come last weekend. Now, they’d have to pass a fridge and, further along, a pair of neatly stacked sofas. I’m as sad as I am furious.
The effort these fly-tipping criminals must have gone to get down the muddy lane to dump these objects when there’s a perfectly good council tip four miles away is bewildering.
The selfishness of fly tippers deserves far higher penalties than are currently imposed, and although others will now clear up the mess they left (at no little cost to themselves), I can’t begin to understand why people do it. Anyone caught doing it should be locked in a rubbish tip for a week that way, they might learn what they’re doing to others.
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A rare chance to own a Royston Summers house on Lakeside Drive in EsherThe development won the RIBA Architecture Award in 1976, and is a defining example of the Summers's work.
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Great Comp: The blissful garden flooded with rhododendrons and azaleas that's just beyond the M25Each spring, Great Comp Garden — just outside the M25, near Sevenoaks — erupts into bloom, with swathes of magnolias, azaleas and rhododendrons. Charles Quest-Ritson looks at what has become one of the finest gardens to visit in Kent.
