Not Thames Water again

There was a fine hole in the middle of East Street yesterday afternoon, complete with traffic lights; for a change, nothing to do with Thames Water.

I thought electricity and/or data cabling for the new self-storage block going up on the old Majestic site, last noticed at reference 1.

I then paused at the supposed tree of heaven outside the old telephone exchange - to take an interest in the brickwork rather than the botany. Which looked as if it had been cleaned up and possibly repointed at some point. But when was it built in the first place?

I read at reference 2:

'... By now the automatic exchange could no longer be expanded. As demand was certain to continue to increase a new exchange building was needed, and as Epsom was about 14 miles from central London this had to be manually operated. The new exchange was in East Street, Epsom, and was equipped with the then-standard CB No. 1 switchboard. The cut-over from the automatic exchange took place on 20 July 1932 and the Station Road exchange was closed. Local newspapers have been checked but, surprisingly, no reference has been found to subscribers’ reactions to being converted back to dial-less telephones and slower connexion times....'.

So if the brickwork, near a hundred years old, has not been repointed, it has done pretty well. Maybe the corner of the building was damaged by a bomb?

Reference 3 tells me that Epsom did suffer bomb damage during the war and Gemini provides some more background. If he is right, records probably are available - although they would probably take time and trouble to track down and inspect. Maybe tomorrow.

Incidentally, Gemini is quite full of the high standard of Post Office buildings of that era.

The Screwfix whitebeam, nearly clear of its leaves now.

First Line Recovery (FLR) with its custom registration plates, still very much in evidence outside the Ford Centre. Memory says that I used FLR for No.24, but I cannot presently trace that record.

I forgot to check on the trolley that was in the stream at the junction of Hook Road and Longmead Road.

And while I went on to win at Scrabble, helped along by a couple of flukily big scores early in the game, totalling to some 150 points, we did not make it to the all-important threshold of 600 points combined score. Missed by about twenty points. Another fluke would have done it!

Should you care to check, bear in mind that we are using the relatively new dictionary from Longmans, rather than the century old OED. Its coverage is significantly different.

PS: after breakfast: I have now run No.24 down at FLR, so memory was right about that. And as it says at reference 4, I was not using the proper post naming system at that time, which may have confused my earlier search. I also find that I took No.30 from the same place - but they have not been good for the still missing No.39.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/10/a-quiet-sunday.html.

Reference 2: https://www.britishtelephones.com/epsom.htm.

Reference 3: https://eehe.org.uk/33439/tucker1/.

Reference 4: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/10/a-good-afternoon.html.

Trolleys 998, 999 and 1,000

The first trolley of the day, a large M&S trolley was captured coming into town off West Hill.

The second was a medium small, again from M&S, captured outside T K Maxx.

My third, and the long sought after No.1000, was captured underneath Hudson House, another medium small from M&S. Appropriate given how M&S have dominated the run to the finish line.

From March of this year, so not very old at all.

With a news flash concerning the delivery of No.1000 to be found at reference 2.

The fish van was not present in the market, as expected, but I was able to buy some fish as noticed at that same reference 2 and I was able to make progress on the odd pinnate front, kicked off at reference 3. The wannabee tree of heaven outside the old telephone exchange on East Street. I dare say the new one still occupies a corner of the building, which I suppose is now much too large.

Doesn't look very odd in this first snap, with the pairs just keeping on coming until they run out of puff.

But then, this one does. Plus the small terminal leaflet is more strongly serrated than the others. A function of leaflet size?

With the leaflets clearly being alternate rather than opposite in this zoom of another snap.

While at the tip of another leaf, viewed from underneath, the rachis continues as a fragile lead. I think one would need to dissect it, under a microscope, to be able to say whether there was a pair of leaves on the way, or just the one.

Then more odd pinnate. 

So all grist to the mill, but I did not regard this as finished business. It still seems odd for a fast growing rachis pushing out pairs of leaflets suddenly stopping with a single leaflet.

Out again in the afternoon, to notice my first trolley of the new era on Station Approach, near the entrance to the station. A medium small from the M&S food hall. Zoom onto the maker's plate does not quite reveal the date, but a forced guess would be this very September - so more or less brand new - this despite the scratches on the legs.

With a friend hard by, by the letter box. Both left in-situ for some other trolley collector to deal with.

On round Court Recreation Ground, to find serious demolition underway at the town end of the Waterloo Road parade, at the top of the passage. With the fencing around the demolition having been rather sloppily erected and occupying a good part of the passage.

But I was able to resume matters odd-pinnate with the sumac like tree at the start of the recreation ground, noticed at the end of reference 3. The first couple of groups, including the one above, looked odd-pinnate.

Then the next groups were more mixed, both odd-pinnate and even-pinnate. I am now not at all clear that this distinction is a very good one. Perhaps a bit of digging on the botanical front - as opposed to the plant spotting one - is called for.

But none of the delicate, feathery growth of the shoots in East Street that I started the day with. Is that enough to make them different species. The first the tree of heaven, the second some kind of sumac?

Regarding the former, on the snap of the underside a bit above, Google Images now offers the above, along with lots of very similar young shoots labelled tree of heaven, a lot of them from the USA. But maybe we have a consensus building here.

PS 1: there was something of a muddle on the No.1000 front. A couple of days ago, I thought that I had miscounted, but this turns out to have been result of clerical error during transfer of the relevant snaps from telephone to laptop. A slightly more reliable business in the days when I had a Microsoft telephone and it all plugged into OneDrive. Not perfect, with Microsoft dropping the odd ball, but better.

PS 2: with this post being honoured, after a fashion, by the visit of POTUS to the posh housing estate a little to the west of our own, possibly visible from the top of our downs on a clear day. Our king has several beefeaters on hand to guard his life, one of whom is visible top left. But where are the troopers from the Life Guards proper? Or from the First Battalion of one of the regiments of Foot Guards, housed down in Windsor town? Then who is the serious looking chap standing right behind him? And where is the US Secret Service? Does Melania insist on her taster being allowed into the royal kitchens?

I hope it all turns out to have been worth it. But read all about it at reference 4.

PS 3: I wonder today if you still need a private income to manage as an officer in said First Battalion. Mess bills and all that.

PS 4: a stray: on a number of occasions recently I have done something unimportant, without knowing why, without there being any conscious reason, only to realise later that there was a perfectly good reason, but one which had not been in my (conscious) mind at the time. Not the sort of of dodgy reason that Freud believed the id was hiding from the ego (if I had got the jargon right), just a perfectly ordinary reason that might have appeared on one's whiteboard if one had whiteboarded the activity in question.

In any event, an example of how conscious and unconscious processing are sometimes intertwined. I associate to a slightly different example which sometimes crops up in connection with my sequential collection of car registration plates. I catch myself looking at one without knowing why, then suddenly realise that the number on the plate is, or is near to, the one that I am looking for. Presently No.39, on which I have been stuck for some time now. Getting on for two years to be precise: maybe the chap at FLR (the owner of FLR being another chap who is keen on registration plates) was right and I am never going to spot one. See reference 5 for No.38.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/09/trolleys-996-and-997.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/09/more-breaking-news.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/09/trolleys-988-and-989.html.

Reference 4: Donald Trump soaks up the glory of his second UK state visit: But after spending time with the King, the US president may face a tricky final day as he holds talks with Sir Keir Starmer - James Politi, David Sheppard, George Parker, Financial Times - 2025.

Reference 5: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/01/no38.html.

Group search keys: trolleysk, 20250913.

Trolleys 882 and 883

This day's circuit started with a visit to the hospital on Dorking Road. But before that, a smart car carrying an FLR registration, which I thought had been more or less monopolised by the First Line Recovery people at reference 2, very much into such plates, some of which have been noticed in these pages, for example No.24. Carcheck says this one is a 2022 420D M Sport MHEV Auto, maybe £20,000 second hand, but gives no clue as to the owner, perhaps a younger son of the FLR family. Only given enough pocket money for '0007', rather than going the whole hog and getting '007'.

At the hospital, pleased to find that while the waiting room had been enabled so to do, both screens were off, and I was not treated to some daytime television about antiques, hotel inspection or some such. I could just quietly doze and await my turn.

Part of the time was occupied puzzling about this floor. I eventually decided that it was some kind of lino, printed up to look like the fake wooden floor boards you can buy flatpack in places like B&Q and Wickes. With there being several models of floor board, as it were, with regular repeats. The occasional grain matching across colour break was, I think, coincidence. A fake of a fake - but it looked well enough for all that. I suppose the next step would be to include debris like fag ends and matches in the cracks between the boards.

Out to capture a couple of trolleys from the M&S food hall outside TK Maxx. One medium small and one small, thus proving that these last really do exist, even if they are not very common. I treated myself to some cherries, the first of the season, for us anyway.

Then a trolley from B&M. Return of which to a cluttered front-of-store, occasioned a bit of muttered rudeness from a lady behind me, pushing another lady in a wheelchair, whom I had not noticed behind me. I suppose it was hot and she was tired.

Round Middle Lane, taking it slowly in the growing heat, and back through the Screwfix passage for the whitebeam.

English cherries, presumably grown on very small bushes under plastic.

Large and ripe in good condition with no duds. With both M&S and Waitrose being more reliable than the fruit man in the market as far as that goes. But perhaps a little too sweet and a little bland. Not many left by the following morning.

Angus Davidson is to be found at reference 6 - but I don't see the sea of polytunnels I was expecting in the snap from gmaps above. Perhaps the Google aeroplane (or drone these days?) went over at the wrong time of year. 

He also appears at reference 3, a fruit wholesale operation, but not in their growers lineup at reference 4. Perhaps his connection is more ad-hoc. Plus his cherries are a little early - at least according to the Landridge calendar, part of which is snapped above.

I suppose Landridge is comparable to the French distribution and marketing operations you get for wine, sitting between the small growers and the big buyers. And the online market.

PS 1: regarding registration plates, I am still stuck on No.39, which a chap at FLR told me was non-existent, despite having found No.38 and No.40 (not yet scored) being quite common, although not as common as No.44. I live in hope.

PS  2: Mexico has gone in for direct election of judges, prompting the piece at reference 7, the only country so to do, although in the US up north they do go in for direct election of some of the people in the justice system. See, for example, reference 8. While the lawyers - including barristers in this country - claim that they are not tainted by working for career criminals. Maybe even making a career out of career criminals. Hmmm.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/06/trolley-881.html.

Reference 2: https://www.firstline-recovery.co.uk/.

Reference 3: https://langridgeorganic.com/. '... Our operational base is at new developed premises in Feltham. West London and comprises 17000 sq ft of warehouse space with two thirds of this refrigerated, from where we distribute nationally. From our beginnings marketing produce grown on our own farm, we now offer a wide range of local organic vegetables, fruit, dairy and other selected organic products from all over the world...'.

Reference 4: https://langridgeorganic.com/our-growers/uk/.

Reference 5: https://langridgeorganic.com/mandarin-or-clementine-whats-the-difference/. Read all about easy peelers. Supply of which from Sainsbury's is very mixed, with good ones and not so good ones.

Reference 6: https://www.haygrove.com/. '... Angus Davison, our founder and now ‘Eccentric Chairman’ begins growing strawberries as a degree thesis project on one hectare of rented land in Herefordshire, UK. Sleeping in the field....'.

Reference 7: El Chapo’s former lawyer to become Mexican penal judge after controversial election: Drug lord’s former attorney won vote after the government introduced elections for all the country’s judges - Christine Murray, Financial Times - 2025.

Reference 8: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_attorney.

Group search key: trolleysk, 20250617.

Thames Water

I have been puzzled for some weeks by a continual low hissing in our cold water intake, hissing which did not seem to be accounted for by dripping taps or cisterns - and which I had been meaning to do something about. Then a few days ago a letter turned up from Thames Water telling us that we were getting through 302 litres of water an hour, equivalent to around £5,500 a year water charges. They suggested that there was probably a leak and that maybe we should do something about it.

First stop the home serve people at British Gas, with whom we have been for quite some years now. A cheerful plumber (Dyno-Rod division) turned up the next day and in short order pronounced it to be a leak at the stopcock/meter down a hole in the pavement outside the house. A stopcock which has been causing trouble off and on for maybe twenty years. Trouble which I believe all kicked off when the cable television people drove their moles along said pavement. While the plumber alleged that it was all down to Thames Water using cheap materials.

Second stop Thames Water, where there was a good tool for reporting trouble of this sort. With the result that the day after British Gas had come, we had our hole painted blue. And the day after that, a stopcock team appeared to do something two or three houses along. They assured BH that her turn would come next week. We shall see, but so far I am quite impressed with it all. Leak bad, but response to leak once reported good.

In the margins, I had the opportunity to inspect this fine double decker, heavy recovery combo from First Line, blocking the view from the Ford showroom in Blenheim Road. The lower lorry had been parked there for weeks, but a few days ago it made a move, to return in combo format. I dare say the Ford people are a bit fed up with it.

I think V50 FLR and V1 FLR - but still no No.39.

I was impressed by the control panel on the lower lorry, snapped above. Two day training course in somewhere nice? Or more likely on some industrial estate in the provinces.

A courtyard in the Farriers development near the Kiln Lane Sainsbury's looking well in the late afternoon sun. Sadly, the trees in some of the courtyards adjacent were not looking too well at all.

Also sadly, some of the paint on the new artwork in the Screwfix passage has already started to flake. I guess they did not wait for the concrete to dry out properly after all the rain before spraying.

On the up-side, the cranesbill previously noticed at reference 3 was looking well, again in the late afternoon sun.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/10/bricks-off.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/10/titbits.html.

Registration plates

Following the No.38 noticed at reference 1, there has been a scattering of No.40s, a No.33, a No.44 and a No.55. Force not quite with me.

But today there was a consolation prize in the form of a lorry at the Ewell end of East Street, with a paint job and what looked like a custom registration plate, after the fashion of First Line Recovery (FLR). For who, see, for example, reference 2. Maybe getting hold of these special registration plates is not as difficult or expensive as you might think. Visit to the FLR office in Blenheim Road indicated.

The paint job was confined to the cab, but perhaps that will change as time goes on. See reference 3 for a sighting of the other paint job.

Rounded off the proceedings with a snap of one of the two young Wellingtonia in Longmead Road. Too young to score yet, but both seem to be coming on well.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/01/no38.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/09/trolley-534.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/02/new-bag.html.

Reference 4: https://www.djgrabservices.co.uk/. Plenty more snaps of lorries to be found here.

Trolley 616

This trolley, from the M&S food hall, was captured at the TB end of the passage up to Manor Green Road from Court Rec. On the way home, so it was stabled overnight by our dustbins. It was surprising how big it looked there. I associated to how big office furniture has looked indoors on the various occasions we have bought a piece of same second hand. Functional maybe, but tends to look very big in a domestic setting.

Returned to M&S the following day, after which I continued on the Kiln Lane circuit, passing up the opportunity of a small M&S trolley near the Spread Eagle crossroads. First stop was the Water Treatment Works, a site where there have been water operations for a long time. But this rather residential building is not particularly old, possibly post second world war. Was it built to house the manager and his deputy? When did they lose their front railings in favour of the fairly modern ones there now? Why do they see the need for this green screening fabric, half down for ages now, when the front garden is in quite decent condition? Do they need to hide their outdoor consumption of marijuana on their meal breaks?

On through the Sainsbury's car park and down the passage where I was impressed by the size of the ivy leaves. Some of these being of the order of six inches, point to point, whereas those in our garden are much more like two inches.

I have read somewhere that ivy leaves can come in surprisingly various shapes, depending on context, but why are these particular ones so big? After all, they are in the shade most of the time, most of the year.

And we had the matter of the mystery mast, noticed at reference 2 and never seen again. On this occasion I remembered about it. But first up, the tree with twittering starlings, not quite as many as the last occasion I noticed them. Plus what looks like a ball of mistletoe.

Then around to the right, there was the mast again, above the white roof. But this time, I worked out that the white roof was the gas depot and the mast was only just beyond it. Only a hundred yards or so, not a mile or so - despite appearances in this snap. Facing Epsom Station, perhaps as much as a mile away, a little to the right of the stretch of track visible.

So I tracked it as I came down and away from the footbridge, and there it was, hiding in plain sight at the entrance to the tip, looked after by one of the fleet from First Line Recovery (FLR), the people who do interesting registration plates. I suppose the brain, on the last occasion, having decided that the pole was some hundred of yards to the south, just was not looking here.

Plus an impressive array of white boxes, which one might have thought rather vulnerable to the attentions of passing drunks, parasites and other anti-social elements. Not that I imagine that there is a lot of footfall on this particular bit of sidewalk - an observation which cuts both ways. I also have it on good authority that while the equipment in the boxes might cost a bit, it has very little value stolen. So it would be vandalism pure and simple, rather than theft for gain.

The condition of the ground at the foot of these boxes suggested that they had not been there very long at all, perhaps just a few days or weeks.

And from there onto the entrance of what had, until recently, been the Tchibo coffee sundries warehouse. Now tidied up, ready for a new tenant, and protected by state of the art, layered security. A camera on a pole inside, then wire fence, then concrete blocks, then serious gate and lastly the van with the dog unit. All very fine, but I suspect that the gates, without proper support at their loose ends, will be sagging before long.

Hurried on home to attend to the fish, first noticed at reference 3. An outing for the fish kettle.

Served with chou pointu, rice and parsley sauce, slightly flavoured with cheese as well as the parsley (dried). Perhaps a little greedy for two, but the 750g of fish all went.

At ten minutes, the fish was, to my mind, a little overcooked and the parsley sauce, just about visible back left, was a little too thick and might, in any case, have better been honest cheese sauce. But I carp. It was all pretty good really. Big stewed plums for dessert.

PS 1: the marks on our pavement, noticed just about a month ago at reference 4, have now been attended to by a couple of chaps with a van marked 'Community Cable' or some such, quite possibly the people at reference 5, turned up by Google on the key 'community cable contractors epsom'. Bing did not do so well. A hole in our bit of pavement, plus a couple more holes a little way off. The clay in our hole, much disturbed with a fair bit of stone and rubble in it, was surprisingly wet. Perhaps just as well they were not trying to dig in the summer when it would probably have been rock hard. Hole all made good now.

PS 2: attention to detail. As I left the house this morning, a chap from a van was carefully washing down the patch in the pavement. Loose cement, silt and sand down the plug hole. I might say that all the (cheerful) workmen involved sounded as if they were from eastern or central Europe: who says we don't need migrants?

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/01/trolley-615.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/01/trolley-610.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/01/trolley-614.html.

Reference 4: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/12/rain.html.

Reference 5: https://communityfibre.co.uk/. Presumably the inheritors of the cables under our pavements installed many years ago now, I believe one result of an initiative by one Michael Heseltine. Special enabling legislation.

Group search key: trolleysk.

Trolley 615

Only just outside the perimeter of the Kiln Lane car park, but scorable given that they were outside. Other side of the road even. Small trolley line empty, but about to be replenished, as I arrived.

Lots of Glyn boys and girls in the passage by the side of the store. Presumably returning after nipping out to Sainsbury's during their morning break, the snap above being time stamped at 11:15 or so. Don't suppose it would have been allowed in my day, not that there were any shops in the immediate vicinity, never mind a Tier One Sainsbury's.

Completely forgot to check on the mystery tower on crossing the footbridge, noticed in the margins of Trolley No.610 at reference 2. A tower which I have failed to pick up from Waterloo bound trains, despite seeming to have a clear view of the relevant part of Epsom. Maybe later today.

Still no No.38 to be seen in the FLR fleet parked in Blenheim Road. Maybe I will call in their office one day.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/01/trolley-614.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/01/trolley-610.html.

Group search key: trolleysk.