The Tatling Arms

A Memory of Tatling End.

The Tatling end is one of four locations that I seldom last three hours without thinking about. Nothing impresses me more than a community that keeps it's aesthetic more or less as it was fifteen years ago. Especially in an age of the increasing population, the increasing epidemic of corporations that are causing the generic aesthetic of the England that our ancestors, kings, queens of old and heritage are associated with, to deteriorate, and not to mention the current political climate that Tatling is lucky not to have yet been impacted by.

My father has been a wine-merchant for not far off two score years, and although it was my Nan from my Mums side who was living close enough to do most of my lifts back from school, my grandmother and grandfather on Dad's side still picked me up without any hassle every week despite the fact they lived a good deal further afield, in Denham since long before I was born, and being picked up once a week from primary school by said nan, and once a week by my Dad who dropped boutique wines to settings a lot more traditional than what you might call the average local today, you'd be right in guessing that I'd be heavily exposed to the Tatling end.
As a lad, I always had a thing about petrol stations and roads that are suddenly all lit up at night. The pleasure was heightened when it wasn't a school night.

It was adrenaline. Most likely a diagnostic thing.

I also remember the Tatling arms. It's changed hands a good three-four times since it had that title.
It's recently been the Blacksmiths' arms and it's currently (2019) known as Indigo. Years ago it was the Penny-Farthing.
I may be one of only a few hundred people who's ''go-to'' way of identifying the venue would automatically be The old Tatling Arms.
Most people between there childhood and thirties are caught up looking up to celebrities as role models in this day and age and don't know what it's like to look up to a hard-working parent or grandparent like we are brought up to do, and I'll be honest I've fallen into the trap of being unnecessarily star-struck myself but to quote a guy I was in a band with briefly last year, ''I'd rather see a ton of great local bands play at a local boozer than pay an arm and a leg to see two or three successful sell-outs at a world-famous stadium''.



I love to have places and interests that only I can understand the value of. It makes me feel like I have a superior way of conceptualizing realism surrealism and the pure unadulterated rejection of cliches. Regards- Tom Goldsmith (Baghead guitar)

---

---