How we came to build a Lighthouse at the Old Country.
How many times in my childhood (a long time ago!) did I trot up the road to the little wooden bungalow and tap on the kitchen window, asking 'Can Angie come out to play?' - never dreaming that one day I would be responsible for the erection of a whole new structure there. Now I continue to trot up the road (just the thing for the waistline!) to ask my long-suffering friends Gerald and Paul 'How's it coming along today? Surely that's the wrong size?shape?material? Where's that going? What are you up to now? How long will that take?' and other such silly questions.
On the tithe map (1840)
there appears to be a building and enclosure there, in the corner of the orchard:
presumably why my father chose that spot to build a Colt-tiled wooden bungalow
in the late 1940's, to attract a skilled farm worker to help him with his
cattle-breeding. That breed, (the Northern Dairy Shorthorns, which acually
have very LONG horns), has since become registered as a rare breed - (I think
I might be going that way myself but my horns aren't long enough) - but the
place is going from strength to strength. The wooden structure lasted over
60 years, sheltering several families of humans and many other species; finally
it became unsafe and in early 2005 was pulled down. Originally I thought to
replace it with a similar chalet, but with ecological and sustainable issues
in mind, eventually chose an architect, Wilf Burton, to design a beautiful
Green-Oak house, whose timbers were selected, engineered, and made to fit
by Westwind, a relatively
local firm near Bristol. As I looked at the wonderful houses Wilf had built,
(full of light), and thought about why I was doing this, - the conscious acceptance
of the legacies of the past and the growth of awareness - ascension even -
the name 'Lighthouse' popped into my mind, and has stayed there! (And after
all, its got lots of 'beams' in it!!) So I'll be broadcasting my messages
from there for many years to come, and I hope travellers of all kinds will
find it a helpful and illuminating presence.
