More 90 minute walks in South Cambridgeshire without a pub at the end, but at least Mrs RM had a gorgeous lasagne waiting for me when I got home, which made a change from my usual atrocities.
“Cambourne has been used by government departments and in school geography lessons, as it provides a useful case study of designing and building a settlement from scratch” says Wiki.
More to the point, retiredmartin said “10,000 people, 1 chippy, 1 Indian restaurant, 1 supermarket, 1 large church and 1 “pub”. And no train station to bring people to the giant Council and NHS offices on the business park, so a triumph for planning of whatever type.”
I’d feel less charitably towards it if that lone pub didn’t sell you-know-what.
Underpubbed it my be (what happened to the McMullens bar ?), but I reckon Cambourne has the best walks of any village/town in Cambridgeshire.
There, I’ve said it. To test that, I joined the hordes on the hills leading from the Monkfield to the No.77 in Caxton.
It’s not the High Peak, or the Paisley Perambulations, but you can get lost on the criss-crossing routes while humming “Arthur’s Song“, and I like getting lost.
Cambourne is built on farmland between some of the county’s poshest horsey-riding villagers, and I sense a growing tension as Lockdown brings out the amateur ramblers.
The signs grow more urgent at the honeypot of Bourne windmill (honey £2.50 a pot),
and head down to Caxton, a village built entirely from thatch and financial services bonuses.
Caxton is an anagram of Anna and Graham, the names of 80% of residents.
Be polite here, everyone else will be.
If you’d trudged over from Cambourne for pub tradition, you’re out of luck. In nearby Bourne, the pub is a Chinese restaurant.
Near No.77 the footpath sign wobbles and I make the wrong choice between two short drives leading to Ermine St.
“I’m really sorry” I say, pointing to the owner’s “Private Drive” sign
“It’s not the end of the world” he says, in a way that suggests it probably is.
Realising how close I am to this,
I make a dash for the 21st century.
retiredmartin 
“Thistles”. They’re teasles!
LikeLike
There is one example of my ignorance in every post and you always find it, John 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Am I alone in finding this place a bit creepy?
LikeLiked by 1 person
The gibbet isn’t for show, even though I thought it was giblet as a child 😕
LikeLike
I gave it some time, I really did, but by now it’s clear: I’m never going to like that new Pedigree branding. Not when the old branding looked so very fine.
That “You cannot be trusted” sign clearly has a story behind it. “Look. I gave them a chance. I thought, maybe they’ve got the maturity, and decency, to leave the land as they found it. BUT NO!” 😉
Thanks for the shout out. As it happens, I took a girl to see Spandau Ballet in concert, in Royal Oak, Michigan, back in my early 80s high school days. Unfortunately they were so determined to promote their then-latest album (True), they played some of the songs twice. I’ll say this for Tony Hadley, though: he sounded in concert exactly as he did in the studio. (Still, I never listen to so much as a single song of their music now– can’t bear it!)
LikeLike
I was never a Spandau fan, though “Through the barricades” is a late minor classic. They’re one of many English bands to become a parody of themselves for the nostalgia market. Not sure I’ve ever heard a band play the same some song twice !
If 1984 was Culture Club v Wham v Frankie v Duran Duran were you a Flock of Seagulls ?
LikeLike
I quite like the Pedigree rebrand ;-0
LikeLike
Ha! I did like a fair few Flock of Seagulls songs. But I was, a bit surprisingly, more into Wham and Frankie during their respective heydays. In a funny way I regarded Culture Club as a sort of enemy: the band that turned the tide away from my beloved synth pop toward a more generalized poppy sound.
LikeLiked by 1 person