The Village Bobby

I remember Mr Cherrington, the local bobby, riding his bike through the village and smiling benignly at us kids. I believe his son was in my class at school. I can remember one evening in the summer time having been just put to bed when an official police vehicle arrived at the front door - very much to my mum's consternation. It transpired that Mr Cherrington, along with a police official of some kind, had come to give me the half crown I had handed in some months previously which had gone unclaimed. I remember having to prise it out of a frozen wheel rut by a farm on the way to school during the winter. We had just had a talk by Mr Cherrington about the joys of being a good little citizen and handing in to police anything we found. Mum was in a fug that evening because we had been sliding on hayricks (by the windmill where the fair was always held) and she thought the police were coming to complain as parents had been warned to keep us off them. Of course, being kids we didn't understand the importance of keeping the tops on the ricks. And I recall when the media arrived at the wall surrounding the Baptist Church when it was discovered that hoopoes were nesting there. I think that is what they were called, and I think it was the first time they had been found nesting in the UK. I used to be Jeannette White and lived in Middle Wallop.