Drains

In the course of replacing the 50 year old concrete of our front path and drive a few years ago, we replaced one of the drain covers, which was cracked, with one that did not match - it not having proved as easy to find a replacement as had at first been suggested. In the snap above, wrong pattern right and right pattern left. They might be nominally the same size, but they are certainly a different shape and the dimensions might vary by a millimetre or so - which is quite a lot in this context.

But I have been prompted by a visit to Brunswick House in Vauxhall, which provides architectural ironmongery, wedding and restaurant services, to think once again about doing something about this. So far, eBay offered the wrong one for around £100 - including frame which I do not want - and a correspondent turned up a new one, also wrong, for about the same money.

Given that we have occasion to visit Exminster from time to time, maybe the chap at reference 3 is the answer - although the website does not look too promising in the drains department. We shall see. Must remember to take measurements.

PS 1: later: inside the wrong hole is 26 × 20¼ inches, say 660 × 513mm. While the right lid is 25⅜ × 19⅝ inches, say 644 × 497mm. Oddly different considering that they were, one supposes, all put in about the same time. And not very Imperial either. But I suppose none of this mattered much if you were just building an inspection chamber and then concreting around it.

PS 2: while moving off ironmongery onto bronzemongery, we have a rather different sort of problem with our heritage candelabra. I would never have thought that the heat of the sun, even through glass, would have been enough to do this. Price's candles are quite hard at normal room temperatures.

PS 3: having once made a small donation to the Debt Management Office to help with the national debt, I was interested to read this afternoon of the very modest level of such donations nationally at reference 4. Modest, not to say trifling, compared with what we give to charity: I dare say the save-the-donkey people do better than government. Which is not a good result really, given all the mainly good stuff that government get up to. What the article does not mention is the difficulty of making such donations. And 'you are not the first to suggest some sort of online contribution facility, but in the past I have been frustrated by cyber security concerns. I will, however, raise the issue again' does not appear to have come to anything. If everyone else has so little trouble relieving us of our money, what is their particular problem?  I would settle for a black hole into which you just chuck money, preferably by flashing the plastic. No need for them to keep any more records than are necessary for making sure that the money arrives at the intended destination. Grunt work for an accountant.

References

Reference 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brunswick_House.

Reference 2: https://brunswickhouse.london/.

Reference 3: https://tobysreclamation.com/.

Reference 4: Patriotic gifts at a 10-year high - from just six UK donors: Gifts to reduce national debt rose to £700,000 in 2023-24 - Emma Agyemang, Financial Times - 2024.

Reference 5: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2018/12/charity-landed.html.