Stuart Manning has been the library treasurer for many years, managing our financial affairs in a prudent and efficient manager, such that we never need to concern ourselves about our monetary situation at all. He used to be the Tuesday afternoon shift leader, and is now a volunteer on the same shift.


COTSWOLDS

Pittaway, Rainbow and Moss
Laboured hourly in the fields
In below the whispering stones
As their ancestors lived and died

Shipton, Ascott and Milton
Linked by the shining rails
Tied to cities with the land
Pass by the witches old wood 

Lincoln, Cirencester and Bath
Join the Roman ghosts marching
Nearby honey stone churches
Built with riches of the wool 

Honeybone, Prately and Smith
Girls who stood up for their rights
Being jailed with hard labour
Becoming an icon of freedom

                                       
                                       Stuart Manning

PORTLAND BILL 

Pale watery sun shining on a leaden misty sea,
With a harsh landscape down to low grey cliffs.
The scent of the sea lapping at the rocky shore
A sudden bellow like of a Jurassic monster
Warning to vessels nearby the rough race.

 

A yacht sailed driven on by a gentle breeze,
Wrapped in tendrils of fog, on either side.
Crew straining to hear the hoot of a ship.
The ring of a bell buoy at the shallows edge.
Or the warning call from the race ahead.

 

An ancient sleepy village in a grey land.
Workers who lived on the stone quarries
Who had shaped the grand buildings.
Inhabitants disturbed by the muffled sound,
A regular call from the fog horn at the point.

                                  Stuart Manning  


         

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