Tag: exterior

Half-Penny from 1966

Brixham: Coins in the Wall! (2.4.2026)

Administrative matters aside – I notice the above “interior” wall looks as if it used to be an “external” wall – as it looks weather-beaten and worn. Furthermore, in the UK, builders often leave a coin featuring the year any renovations were carried-out as a form of “good luck”. Usually, we find these coins under floor-boards, carpets, and lino, etc. Sometimes they are lodged between wooden joints or under various structures. In this wall, the coins seem cemented on the outside of the wall. There is a 1966 half-penny, and a 1960 three-penny. When I was first at school in the early 1970s – these coins were still in use. The old half-penny would today possess the buying power of £5 – whilst the three-penny bit could buy about £30s worth of goods. This was before the UK joined the EEC (1.1.1973). Prior to this, a British pound was comprised of 240 pence – afterwards it was deliberately devalued to just “100” pence. What a disgrace all this was!

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Market Overton - 17th Century Window!

Market Overton: 17th Century Window! (6.11.2025)

What is now the dining area – where I set-up my study space – was probably once part of the garden. Therefore, the window itself was once considered the height of building technology. In those days, draughts from blowing winds were a major issue. The frame of this window is firmly embedded in the wall-structure so that no wind can penetrate. The cement and plaster hold it robustly in place – whilst its relatively small surface area allows for strength and stability. As glass was not as strong then as it is now – the panes of glass used were far-smaller – with each held in-place by its own frame. Furthermore, and a feature I like, is the central pane that possesses a stout hinging and opening and shutting mechanism. Even today – this design still retains much of its original strength – whilst being now inside the house means it is now better preserved.

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Lovely Ketton - Perhaps We We Were an Episode of the "Prisoner"!

UK: Dialectically Walking Through the Quaint Village of Ketton (Northants)! (5.8.2025)

Recently, I spent a week in the Northants countryside. Fresh air, good food, wide open spaces, a garden, things to do, and everybody saying “hello” – and “good morning” – and meaning it! Coming from a London suburb, the general rule of thumb is “silence” – when meeting people you do not know just in case they want to rob or rape you. There is also the ever-present threat of someone you don’t know asking for “money” or “food”, etc, all things that are not allowed within cities. My children are taught to remain well-behaved by the school when meeting others – to be “quiet” so as not to attract the unwanted attention of others. Walking through the picturesque village of Ketton last Saturday (1.8.2025) was interesting, as well-meaning groups of old ladies loudly greeted us like they knew us – all ready to help at a moment’s notice – we were even invited to a Church Service within ten minutes of arriving! 

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Down House: A Curious Stone Wall… (9.7.2022)

The middle-classes possessed an idyllic physical space within which their bodies existed – a situation (and set of material conditions) that often generated a corresponding sense of a ‘spacious’ interior (or expansive mind-set) that could, providing the right education and motivation was present, lead to ground-breaking theorising and progressive scientific endeavour!

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The Capitalist Fragmentation of the Human Mind and the Revolutionary Nature of Disability! (19.10.2019)

Whereas many people check the external, fragmentation process at the point of contact, and are able to develop corresponding inner strictures of mediating greed and indifference to suffering, other, more gentle souls are not able to interact or react in this manner and the interior of their minds are fully, immediately and totally subsumed by the pure capitalist system. The full power of fragmentation rushes into the interior of their mind and nothing is ever the same again. Capitalist ideology becomes naked psychological and emotional conditioning, generating behavioural patterns that mediate with the external world in an entirely new, narrow, and unfamiliar fashion. This capitalist ideology reflected back upon itself, free of the falsifying ideology that it is ‘natural’, ‘good’ and the ‘only’ economic system through which humanity can interact. Those who suffer from a fragmented personality often express to the rest of us the true ‘horror’ of the capitalist world we inhabit and perpetuate. As a rule, mainstream society ruthlessly punishes these great people for the insight that the capitalist system has enforced upon them. This is like the situation of a homeless person who reminds us that capitalism ‘takes away’ homes… HG Wells asked Ramsey MacDonald – the Labour Leader – if he would help move Louis Wain out of ‘Bedlum’ in London to a more sedate and safer place where he could paint his cats without being assaulted by staff or other inmates. The staff tried to stop him painting by treading on his fingers – but no matter what they did to this great man – he continued to paint his cats (and expose the corruptness of capitalism)… Was he not a Great Revolutionary in his own right?

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