DEVONSHIRE HOME But here’s the thing... Sing cuckoo for a Devon tradition ONE OF THE OBSCURE TRADITIONS of the denizens of The Weary Badger (somewhere in Devon) is that at a given time on Friday, 14th <strong>April</strong>, the saloon bar will empty briefly and carry its drinks out to the car park, to face either Dartmoor or Exmoor (much depends on wind direction) ears cocked, listening for the first cuckoo of 20<strong>17</strong>*. Squids in DON’T PULL A FACE: if ocean warming continues at its current rate, Devon’s 279- odd fish and chip shops may soon be serving Squid & Chips. Species on the increase hereabouts include red mullet, anchovies, sardines - and of course Squid. But how would any of those go down with customers at Devon’s chippies?. Recently published Government figures show that Squid are now caught at 60 per cent of North Sea survey stations compared to 20 per cent in the 1980s, whilst Cod have moved further north, in shoals. Dr John Pinnegar, of the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, believes the nation’s tastes may have to change. He said: “In the long-term we will need to adapt our diets”. Devon sausage fryer re-born THE OLD SAUSAGE FRYER locomotives of the GWR were so-called because, legend has it, the driver and his mate used to fry their breakfasts on the engine’s coal shovel. There aren’t many left nowadays - the old 4575 Class locomotives that is - there were only 100 built back in 1926 when they were once the pride and joy of Devon and Cornwall’s <strong>Devonshire</strong> magazine’s Research Department probed the queue at our local fish and chip shop and enquired about the Squid and Chips option. Results of the survey show 12.3% thought that Squid eaten round the Med’ somewhere was “alright” and 22.7% didn’t mind it “in a posh restaurant”, 61% countered with, “You’re kidding, right?” and 4% simply pulled a face, including the owner, who asked us to leave single-track branch lines, where pull-and-push was often the order of the day In the Flanders & Swan song ‘The Slow Train’ which laments the passing of some of the old stations, GWR gets no fewer than eight mentions: Audlem, Littleton Badsey. Chittering Platform, Trouble House Halt, St. Erth, and St Ives, and finally, Windmill End. You couldn’t make them up. But wipe that tear and sigh no more, for the GOOD news in the midst of this lament is that the indefatigable South Devon Railway engineering workshops at Buckfastleigh have been hard at work restoring one of these lovely old sausage fryers to its former glory. The 90-year old GWR 2-6-2 Prairie Tank No 5526 (to give it its full, Sunday name) will be reintroduced into service shortly after Easter - and for the first time, in the striking For as all good <strong>Devonshire</strong> folk will know, 14th <strong>April</strong> is St. Tiburtius’s Day (although this is in dispute) and the day when Devon’s cuckoos are supposed to make themselves heard - Devon’s high heathlands being the most likely places to hear these welcome harbingers of Spring. But whether or nay the bird is heard, after ten minutes or so ‘tis the custom of the congregation to return to the bar to drink to Spring, last one in then stands on a chair and recites Rudyard Kipling’s Cuckoo Song: March has searched and <strong>April</strong> tried -- 'Tisn't long to <strong>May</strong> now. Not so far to Whitsuntide And Cuckoo's come to stay now! *It matters not that the first cuckoo this year was heard in Nottinghamshire or somewhere, in February. green livery of the Great Western. And that ‘legendary’ breakfast on a shovel? It’s all true. We found a retired shovel-wielder who recalled: “When I was a young fireman we were shunting the ‘up’ yard and my driver asked me to move the engine on the shunter’s instruction while he cooked his breakfast. Unfortunately, as he was cooking his eggs, the engine slipped and the blast from the chimney sucked his eggs into the fire. He made a very rude comment about my parentage and didn’t speak to me for the rest of the shift’. JOHN FISHER 70
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