Kites

A spectacular sky to the north east this morning reminded us of talk of winds for today, which led on to the possibility of kites. BH thought that we had one in a cupboard somewhere.

From where I associated to our time in Norwich where I had a fad for making large kites out of dustbin bags and bamboo canes, using a couple of hundred metres of orange mackerel line to fly them with. They flew very well, one just needed to tune the length of the tail of each new kite. We still have some of the mackerel line left, still on its wooden holder, most often used for hanging pictures on the walls.

Sometimes we went to the seaside to fly them, but on one occasion, possibly a terminal occasion, we went to a field near where we lived. Something went wrong, and the kite and a long length of mackerel line went flying off over some neighbouring houses, presumably to end up draped across some of them. So the question was, where is this field? Can I pick it off gmaps?

This turned out to be inconclusive, in that I was only reasonably confident that the playing field below and to the right of the orange spot where we lived was the field in question. The one above Eaton Golf Club, a reasonably swanky club with which we had no connection, other than using it for tobogganing when it snowed heavily, which it did at least one year. Perhaps the year when we built a ten foot snow pinnacle on our front drive - the cold of which did odd things to the joints of the fingers of my hands.

The field visible brown and top right is the right shape, but the wrong place.

We then wondered about the school that we used at the time, deciding that Eaton Primary School was probably the right place - but BH was sure that it was the wrong name. A few clicks later and I am at reference 1, where I learn that it was indeed called Fairway School in our time, for the golf course adjacent. The Direct Dance company on the snap above, to the left of the large patch of sand belonging to the golf club. A connection we had not made either at the time or subsequently. Not until today that is.

An example of our common failure to make connections with names - connections which seem obvious after you have made them.

PS 1: our house there still looks terribly new, near forty years later. Although the front seems to have changed. Was there some kind of brick buttress adjacent to the front porch? And a bit more front garden?

PS 2: as it turns out, Ordnance Survey would probably have been a better place to start than gmaps. Much better labelling, not dependent on the whims of paying customers. And I am reminded that we used, quite often, to walk by the substantial river left.

References

Reference 1: https://eatonvillage.co.uk/eaton-history/fairway-school-now-eaton-primary/.

Reference 2: https://www.evolutionacademytrust.org.uk/. The current owner of the school. I wonder this morning if we will ever see fit to unwind this scattered network of trusts and go back to local education authorities? Seems a bit unlikely, it would be just too much stuff to unravel.