Noisy and wet

Jan awoke around 3am to the sound of noisy yobs crossing the bridge on their way home.  A pity it hadn’t started raining earlier as that might have dampened their enthusiasm.  This morning the weather was passing showers with me deciding (or not) whether to do more painting.  In the end it was delayed whilst we listened to the ‘domestic’ in one of the flats opposite.  He was yelling and she was shrieking with every second word starting with ”F”.  It was uglier than lipstick on a pig!  Eventually they exhausted themselves and things were quiet for an hour before one of the young female residents came out on her balcony to loudly share her boyfriend problems on the phone with her girlfriend.  Eventually she realised she was shouting and we were listening (ready to applaud).

The weather looked better after lunch so I rubbed down and painted the area around the two stern diesel inlet points.  The sky then clouded over so I cut up a Tesco bag and covered over the wet paint.

Hopefully everything will look OK tomorrow.

Jan has been doing more genealogy research and discovered I have an ancestor on my mother’s side who lived, and died here in Bishop’s Stortford.  Another lesser known person was born here.  Someone called Cecil Rhodes, who apparently had a country named after him, along with some scholarships.

I’ve been attempting to work out whether we are in Bishop’s Stortford or Bishops Stortford.  I’ve seen it spelt both ways!  Wikipedia states in 1060 William Bishop bought the Stortford manor and estate for eight pounds leading to the town’s modern name.  My rudimentary knowledge of english suggests the spelling should therefore be Bishop’s Stortford.  Interestingly the River Stort is named after the town rather than the reverse.  The town Corn Exchange was established in 1821.

The proliferation of corn exchanges in England appears to have been a consequence of the Napoleonic Wars during which the importation of grains almost ceased.  As a result England significantly increased the national production of wheat.  After the wars the farmers didn’t want to compete with cheap imported grains and managed to have parliament pass laws to restrict the importation of wheat.  It wasn’t too had to achieve this as most members of parliament were major land owners.  However the high price of wheat also resulted in high bread prices for the average citizen and adversely affected national productivity.  My vague recollection of english history suggests eventually there were corn riots and deaths when soldiers fired on the crowds.

Another walk around the area this evening had me looking for a suitable Sunday lunch venue.  Unfortunately it was unsuccessful so we may be dining at “The Spoons” tomorrow.