April 2017
Following the success of last year’s Summer Garden Party at 117, Piccotts End, it will take place at the same venue again on Saturday July 1st. Mrs Miriam Wiedman Smith, whose son Toby played in the quartet who entertained everyone so marvellously last year, said she was delighted to make her home available again. Further details will appear here shortly.
February 2017
Enough is enough! After more than 40 years as a Daily Mail reader, 11 of them working at the paper, I have finally cancelled it. It has
been some years in the planning but the Mail’s appallingly biased Brexit campaign finally did it. As a staunch Remainer, and now Remoaner, I found the paper’s hate-mongering anti-European stance a disgrace to journalism. Now I’m a Times reader.
February 2017
PERA secretary Michael Nidd has delivered some depressing news about the proposed development of Marchmont Fields. Michael presented PERA’s objections at last year’s public consultation. But following publication of the inspector’s findings he says she has all but rubber-stamped its go-ahead
January 2017
It’s all change at the Attic cafe, one of our favourite haunts in Berkhamsted. It’s had a few incarnations in its time, once briefly under the ownership of James Hannaway, of The Rex. James was a regular face at the Attic until something fairly cataclysmic must have occurred and he was never seen again. The old Attic had a certain charm with its period
November 2016
Sunday afternoons in late November are often damp, and dark by 4. Today is no exception, with a light drizzle to add to the general gloom. Gardening jobs need to be done in the morning, so I’ve been out planting up the Picccotts End village signs for some spring colour. Daffodils and pansies are the staple plantings for this time of the year and I’m
November 2016
Sunday afternoons in late November are often damp, and dark by 4. Today is no exception, with a light drizzle to add to the general gloom. Gardening jobs need to be done in the morning, so I’ve been out planting up the Picccotts End village signs for some spring colour.
August 2016
Piccotts End’s literary chapter has turned a new page with the debut novel of Emma Sweeney. Emma, who is a lecturer in creative writing, has just published Owl Song at Dawn, a moving story inspired by her sister Louise., who was born with cerebral palsy. The plot focuses on an eccentric spinster who spends a lifetime in Morecambe Bay, trying to unlock the secrets of her exuberant yet inexplicable twin.
A summer music festival at the Marchmont Arms has upset residents on the receiving end. PERA secretary Michael Nidd, who lives a quarter of a mile downwind of the outdoor event, said ‘I was infuriated. So-called “music” at threshold-of-pain levels, from around 14.30 until 22.30, may be fine for its enthusiasts but I don’t think it should…
July 2016
Dinner party talk used to be all about house prices. Not any more. If the chatter at the village garden party is anything to go by today we are more exercised by broadband speeds. At my end of the village we’re the first house to get the signal from BT Infinity via the big green box at the bottom of Fletcher Way. We have download speeds of more than 30
The annual Piccotts End summer garden party hit all the right notes despite the showers which threatened to put a damper on the day. Families, friends and neighbours who gathered in the picturesque setting of Miriam’s Smith’s garden were treated to a musical interlude provided by four of our talented residents. ‘It was a fantastic…