Poem by Samuel Laycock _________________________ ITS HARD TO CEAWER I' TH' CHIMNEY NOOK. IT'S hard to ceawer i' th' chimney nook, Fro' weary day to day; An' no kind word, nor lovin' look To drive one's care away! Mi clooas are welly o worn eawt, An' neaw aw'm sich a seet, Aw dunno loike to walk abeawt, Unless it's dark at neet. To get us bread, mi mother sowd Eawr mattrasses an' sheets; An' oh, it is so bitter cowd, These frosty, winter neets! Two ladies kindly co'd one day, An' put us deawn some shoon; They said they'd sheets to give away, An' we must ha' some soon. Eawr Mary Jane's a bonny lass, Wi' two such rosy cheeks; Hoo goes to th' Refuge Sewin' Class, An' has done neaw for weeks. Poor thing! hoo's badly starved, aw know, Hoo's scarcely owt to wear; Aw do so wish 'at somed'y'd co, 'At's getten owt to spare. Her petticoats are o worn eawt; Her Sunday frock's i' holes; An' then her boots—hoo's welly beawt— They want booath heels an' soles. Aw wish mi feyther had a job, He looks so strange an' wild; He'll sit for heawers at th' side o'th' hob, An' cry just like a child. No wonder he should pine an' fret, An' look soa discontent; For th' gas bill isn't settled yet, An' th' lon'lord wants his rent. Mi mother's bin to th' shop to-neet, To fetch a bit o' tay; Hoo says they hardly looken reet, Becose hoo conno pay. An' who can blame 'em? Nob'dy can; They're wur nor us, bi th' mass! Iv they're to pay for what they han, They're loike to ha' some brass; We'n lived as careful as we con Aw'm sure, but after o A great big shop score's runnin' on, For tothry peawnd or so. Aw've etten bacon till aw'm sick; Eawr Jimmy has an' o; An' iv yo'll ax mi uncle Dick, He'll tell yo th' same, aw know. An' porritch aw've had quite anoo, For they dunno suit, aw find; Aw conno do wi' soup an' stew, They fill one full o' wind. Aw'm glad o' every bit aw get, An' rare an' thankful feel; Aw've allis getten summat yet, To mak' misel' a meal. Thank God, we'n never ax'd i' vain, For folk are kind, aw'm sure; God bless 'em o for what they've gan; One conno say no moor.

Detached house in Sutton Road Shrewsbury. Below the painting are studies of swans seen on the River Severn

Porthill Bridge, also often referred to as Port Hill Footbridge, is a suspension bridge for pedestrians crossing the River Severn in Shrewsbury. It connects Porthill with The Quarry and the town centre. Next to it on the Porthill side is the Boat House public house and Becks Field is also. Both that and The Quarry are large areas of greenery. The bridge experiences significant vibration, even when few people are crossing it. A ferry operated here until the bridge was built in 1922 by David Rowell & Co... The bridge was opened on 18 January 1923.

An Edwardian chiffonier with drawers over a double cupboard which has a central shelf and Jones sewing machine

Chicks should initially be kept in a warm brooder box, which should be kept inside and away from draughts. Young chicks, as with babies, are not able to maintain their own body heat so an artificial heat source is needed. You should seriously consider purchasing an infra-red brooder globe which provides an excellent source of heat. Use of an ordinary light bulb is not recommended as this provides insufficient warmth. The brooder box should be set up and ready for the arrival of the chicks. You should aim for a brooder box temperature of 35ºC at first, and gradually decrease this to 30ºC over the first seven days. Reduce this temperature over the next four weeks to around 20ºC. To monitor the brooder box temperature, place a thermometer on the floor of the box, but not directly under the heat source. As an indication, if the chicks are too cold they will huddle together for warmth. The box should be large enough to allow the chicks to move away from the heat source if they feel too warm. The box in my study housed 500 day-old chicks

The Gay Meadow is the former home ground of Shrewsbury Town FC, a football club in England. It was situated near where I lived for 17 years just outside the town centre of Shrewsbury, on the banks of the River Severn and it opened in August 1910. The ground closed in June 2007, at the end of the 2006/7 Football League season, as the club moved to a new stadium, provisionally titled 'The New Meadow', on the outskirts of the town.

This church, dedicated to St George, has a fine squat Norman tower typical of border churches. The existence of a Saxon church on the site of the present church has been proved. Internally, the church is large and airy with both north and south aisles. The church, apart from the tower was largely rebuilt in 1877 (being in a dangerous condition) by the famous Victorian architect, G E Street. The Norman columns in the nave were carefully restored, and one can see the new matching stones alongside worn original ones. In the north aisle a plaster ceiling was removed to reveal the splendid 14th century roof timbers and, where necessary, the lovely carved angels had their wings renewed. The south aisle had been as wide as the present north aisle (one can see the boundary markers in the churchyard). It was taken away and a new smaller aisle built on earlier foundations. This reduced the height of the roof and allowed ancient clerestory windows to be reopened. A vestry at the east end of the north aisle was removed to make way for the present Lady Chapel, panelled with carved portions of the old box pews. (The panelling was nearly but not quite finished; near the door from the Lady Chapel the carving falters and only the craftsman's pencil design is to be seen.) On the east wall is a brass commemorating Sir Robert Howard, Lord of the Manor of Clun, who died in 1653 at Hall of the Forest. Above the old vestry, covered in whitewash, was a beautiful 15th century wooden canopy which now stands over the main altar in the chancel. A new chancel was built to Mr Street's design. The reredos (a screen behind the altar in a church, depicting religious iconography) and the east window are a memorial to Charles Warner, the vicar under whose guidance and inspiration the restoration was undertaken. The pulpit has some fine Jacobean carving. The font is ancient, standing on a more recent base and having interesting carving on its west face. The tower, the lower part of which may have been built for defence before the Normans built the castle on the other side of the river, has housed a set of bells since the 16th century. On the outside of the church the west door of the tower has incised on it "Isaac Morgan Thomas Powis Churchwardens Anno 1666" and dates from the restoration of the church after extensive damage during the Civil War. Similarly the small door on the north side of the church has carved in the stonework "HB RB 1658". Next to this is a fine 14th century tomb recess, but who it was intended to commemorate is not known. Playwright and author John Osborne buried in this grave yard 24 December 1994

Waiting to be milked by hand

Occupying part of Tanners' old and attractive Dickensian cellars, this Cellars Shop is one of the most up-to-date and efficient wine shops in the country. Over 1300 wines are on display together with many national brands of spirits, beers and soft drinks.

The illustrious Morgan Plus 8 sports car owned by a gentleman farmer’s son. The Morris Minor which was a British economy car and is now a collectible vintage motor and the Triumph Herald which was a small two-door car owned by my father

Poppies, unlike most flowers for dried arrangements, aren't preserved for their petals. The flower petals of the poppies drop off the plant naturally as the plant dries, so preserving the whole blossom isn't usually possible. Instead, they are prized for their distinctive seed pods. The pods swell and become larger and orb-like as the pod reaches the end of seed production. These swollen pods dry well, providing an ornamental touch to arrangements and floral crafts.

William Blake was born on 28 November 1757 at 28 Broad Street (now Broadwick St) in the Soho district of London. He was the third of seven children, two of whom died in infancy. Blake's father, James, was a hosier. William attended school only long enough to learn reading and writing, leaving at the age of ten, and was otherwise educated at home by his mother Catherine Wright Armitage Blake the Blakes were Dissenters, and are believed to have belonged to the Moravian Church. The Bible was an early and profound influence on Blake, and would remain a source of inspiration throughout his life. Blake started engraving copies of drawings of Greek antiquities purchased for him by his father, a practice that was then preferred to actual drawing. Within these drawings Blake found his first exposure to classical forms through the work of Raphael, Michelangelo, Marten Heemskerk and Albrecht Dürer. His parents knew enough of his headstrong temperament that he was not sent to school but was instead enrolled in drawing classes. He read avidly on subjects of his own choosing. During this period, Blake was also making explorations into poetry; his early work displays knowledge of Ben Jonson and Edmund Spenser.

I used these studies in compositions which I will exhibit later

The Old Market Hall, Shrewsbury - Built in 1596, the property is now in the ownership of, Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council. In 2004 the building underwent a £1.7 million restoration, having been previously restored in 1904. The OMH is a Grade 1 Listed building. The hall had two storeys: the large upper room was originally used by the Shrewsbury drapers or dealers in cloth to sell Welsh wool and the lower floor was used by farmers to sell their corn. The Old Market Hall was one of the earliest forms of prefabricated buildings; it was erected in less than four months. It bears the Royal Coat of Arms of Queen Elizabeth I, with the date of 1596, and the supporters are the English Lion and the Welsh dragon. On the North side of the Old Market Hall there is a statue of the Duke of York; it is the only one in the whole country. It is thought the OMH was designed by Walter Haycock.

Hay making Share Hay making is the longest established method of conserving grass for feeding cattle and sheep through the winter and has been an important function of the farming calendar in the UK for the last six thousand years. Successful haymaking relies on the crop of grass being thoroughly dried before it is baled or stored. My father had a graveyard of archaic farm equipment of which this was one. The first step in hay making is the mowing of the grass grop. This usually starts in late June just before flowering however, many crops are cut during flowering itself when lots of pollen is being produced (hence hay fever). Cutting must be done when the weather is fine and several continuous dry days are expected. Hay that has been rained on is of poorer quality and may be unpalatable.

Studies sketched for later use in composition

Used later for composition

Sleepy or sleeping?

This is a butler sink (ie made to go in the butler’s pantry), whilst those sinks made in Belfast have a Weir overflow, those made in London like this one don’t. This is because, when butler sinks were first made in the late 17th century, each major city had a sanitation officer autonomously responsible for the ordering of pipes, basins, sinks, and decreeing sizes, styles etc. Different patterns were evolved and gave rise to specific types. Hence the Belfast butler sink was different from, say, the London butler sink.

This was my first move from water colours. Gouache generally dries to a different value than it appears when wet (lighter tones generally dry darker, while darker tones tend to dry lighter), which can make it difficult to match colors over multiple painting sessions. This, combined with its quick coverage and total hiding power, mean that gouache lends itself to more immediate techniques than watercolour. Also unlike water colour I was able to use black and white

Older stations like this one I sketched in 1960s tend to use a separate pipe for every kind of available fuel and for every dispenser. Newer stations may employ a single pipe for every dispenser. This pipe houses a number of smaller pipes for the individual fuel types. Fuel tanks, dispenser and nozzles used to fill car tanks employ vapor recovery systems, which prevents releases of vapor into the atmosphere with a system of pipes. The exhausts are placed as high as possible. A vapor recovery system may be employed at the exhaust pipe. This system collects the vapors, liquifies them and releases them back into the lowest grade fuel tank available.

Should "The Shed" in the garden stay below the trees with swaying boughs, and with the bird's songs convey a message to all who pass by that way;

dark side of home

pot containing black ink a breakfast cup and saucer and one of my mother's conch shells

A self-portrait is a representation of an artist, drawn or painted, by the artist. Although self-portraits have been made by artists since the earliest times, it is not until the Early Renaissance in the mid 15th century that artists can be frequently identified depicting themselves as either the main subject, or as important characters in their work. With better and cheaper mirrors, and the advent of the panel portrait, many painters, sculptors and printmakers tried some form of self-portraiture. Self-portraits of the artist at work were, as mentioned above, the commonest form of medieval self-portrait, and these have continued to be popular, with an especially large number from the 18th century on.

The Gay Meadow is the former home ground of Shrewsbury Town FC, a football club in England. It was situated just outside the town centre of Shrewsbury, on the banks of the River Severn and it opened in August 1910. The ground closed in June 2007, at the end of the 2006/7 Football League season, as the club moved to a new stadium, provisionally titled 'The New Meadow', on the outskirts of the town.

Raising hens from baby chicks requires you to check on them often during the first few weeks. It's really fun to watch them turn from downy, fluffy little balls into feathered-out, gawky adolescent pullets. With basic know-how, you can raise happy, healthy laying hens and, if you choose, roosters.

Grandpa’s Galvanised Cattle Drinking Troughs

When you've got the munchies if you're really high you'll just eat your cereal dry

I came across this in Shrewsbury by accident a partially constructed house; incompletely built structures and debris sitting out open to the elements.

I like my feet best this way, rough worn out and chipped away at the edges. These are signs of use and accomplishment. I wish I could add up all the miles they’ve journeyed throughout my life. I wonder what length they would stretch and how far my feet have taken me. I started walking late and during my life I have three times had to learn to walk from scratch again. In Malawi after a car accident in 1973 and again in 2006 in a Shropshire psychiatric hospital when I emerged from a 9-day coma after being infected by encephalitis I awoke with severe mobility problems. During 2011 the severe allergic reactions caused by an antipsychotic prescribed for my brain impairment caused loss of coordination and such trouble walking that I had to use a frame. This year it has taken hours of Pilates, Yoga and Tai Chi for the over 60s for these feet to walk again with the aid of only a cane My feet’s first notable accomplishment was when aged 14 alongside school friends I climbed Cader Idris situated at the southern end of Snowdonia National Park, in Gwynedd, northwest Wales. This mountain attracts many walkers and climbers. It shows many features of glacial erosion, such as cwms, moraines (a mass of earth and rock debris carried by an advancing glacier and left at its front and side edges as it retreats), striated rocks and a roche moutonnée (or sheepback) which is a rock formation created by the passing of a glacier. When a glacier erodes down to bedrock, it can form tear-drop shaped hills that taper in the up-ice direction. Sometimes the places I’ve been and things I’ve experienced get intertwined with books I’ve read and films I’ve seen but my feet preserve fact. As a child clad in wellingtons in the winter my feet fought through blizzards in the welsh Border hills or crept me along grassy fields in the Spring with my air gun to hunt predator crows to prevent them pecking out the eyes of new born lambs on my father’s hill farm. As an emerging teenager attending village dances my jiving feet were clad in winkle picker 3” high stiletto heeled footwear quickly followed at Shrewsbury Art School with a showy 60’s beatnik bare feet where after dancing to hippie tunes I trod up and down Abbey Foregate, Fish Street and Grope Lane, where with the overhanging buildings it’s not hard to imagine how dark this alleyway would have been in medieval times. People will tell you that its name originated from the fact that folk had to ‘grope’ their way along it. Or of course the more popular version of the story is that the lane was once a ‘Red Light’ district, and its name is a description of the antics that took place after dark. Then my bare feet have padded on to the top of the lane to look around for a while and admire the medieval buildings and cobbled road known as Fish Street, one of the most photographed streets in Shrewsbury. Finally a short walk up the short flight of steps opposite Grope Lane is a short ‘shut’, and known as, Bear Steps. It is supposedly named after a pub called ‘The Bear’, which no longer exists. These feet lived in Africa for 10 years holidayed in Europe and Scandinavia. They have run and jumped skipped and danced. They still grow tough in Summer and silky in Winter. They have rebelled against high heeled boots and frequently worn nothing but flat thronged sandals. Their nails have been painted they been cut bruised and blistered but they have also been gently soaked, pedicured by a beautician and massaged by a reflexologist. They have been cursed for their pain but chiefly loved for their purpose. Please let my feet always be able to walk for me.

Aloe Vera isn’t known as the ‘First Aid Plant’ for nothing! This prickly cactus-like plant has been used for centuries as a natural soothing and revitalising emollient.