Humpass
Advent Calendar
Young Annie inherited her mother's smile and her concerns about matrimony. The birth rate in both Nether and Upper Placket had plummeted in the years following the Great War and it wasn't until a local bus service was introduced in 1937 to link the Plackets with the outside world that twenty three year old Annie's resolve never to marry was put seriously to the test.
A bus trip to Huggington on the Water almost ended her life when she stepped into the path of a young cyclist who was speeding along with a brand new briar pipe clamped between his teeth. He was on his way to a lunchtime rendezvous with Glenda Bottomley who worked in lingerie at Grimett's in the High Street when Alice stepped off the kerb and into his heart.
The cyclist, forgetting that his back brake didn't work, sailed over the handlebars and landed right at Annie's feet on top of the two halves of his new briar and a pile of twisted tubing. His prompt action not only saved Annie from injury but also broke her resolve never to marry.
"It was just like something out of the Arthurian legend. I think it was his broken briar that attracted me to him," she later admitted. "There's always something so terribly vulnerable about a man with a broken briar and he was so sweet about his bent front forks."
Widow Bracegirdle noticed that Annie's eyes became misty whenever she mentioned the broken briar and the bent front forks but put it down to the political uncertainty caused by the recent events in Germany.
Little Annie borrowed a bicycle so that she and Ivor could ride out together and in the late summer of 1938 another wedding took place at the small church in Nether Placket.
There was some confusion about whether Annie's name should appear in the banns as Annie Bedworthy or Annie Bracegirdle but in the end the problem was resolved by the young curate who arranged for Bedworthy to appear on the notice pinned to the church door and for Bracegirdle to be read out by the parson during morning service. The wedding went without incident and Annie Bedworthy or Bracegirdle duly became Annie Humpass.
Nor did this event go unnoticed down at the local inn where many a man in his cups on a Saturday night was heard to declare, "Her was a good looking lass when her was Bracegirdle and her's always been Bedworthy just like her mother but her's definitely the best bit of Humpass around here by a very long chalk.".
Young Annie inherited her mother's smile and her concerns about matrimony. The birth rate in both Nether and Upper Placket had plummeted in the years following the Great War and it wasn't until a local bus service was introduced in 1937 to link the Plackets with the outside world that twenty three year old Annie's resolve never to marry was put seriously to the test.A bus trip to Huggington on the Water almost ended her life when she stepped into the path of a young cyclist who was speeding along with a brand new briar pipe clamped between his teeth. He was on his way to a lunchtime rendezvous with Glenda Bottomley who worked in lingerie at Grimett's in the High Street when Alice stepped off the kerb and into his heart.
The cyclist, forgetting that his back brake didn't work, sailed over the handlebars and landed right at Annie's feet on top of the two halves of his new briar and a pile of twisted tubing. His prompt action not only saved Annie from injury but also broke her resolve never to marry.
"It was just like something out of the Arthurian legend. I think it was his broken briar that attracted me to him," she later admitted. "There's always something so terribly vulnerable about a man with a broken briar and he was so sweet about his bent front forks."
Widow Bracegirdle noticed that Annie's eyes became misty whenever she mentioned the broken briar and the bent front forks but put it down to the political uncertainty caused by the recent events in Germany.
Little Annie borrowed a bicycle so that she and Ivor could ride out together and in the late summer of 1938 another wedding took place at the small church in Nether Placket.
There was some confusion about whether Annie's name should appear in the banns as Annie Bedworthy or Annie Bracegirdle but in the end the problem was resolved by the young curate who arranged for Bedworthy to appear on the notice pinned to the church door and for Bracegirdle to be read out by the parson during morning service. The wedding went without incident and Annie Bedworthy or Bracegirdle duly became Annie Humpass.
Nor did this event go unnoticed down at the local inn where many a man in his cups on a Saturday night was heard to declare, "Her was a good looking lass when her was Bracegirdle and her's always been Bedworthy just like her mother but her's definitely the best bit of Humpass around here by a very long chalk.".
Posted by Milt at 12:29:00 am
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