{"id":3849,"date":"2011-06-19T19:17:20","date_gmt":"2011-06-19T18:17:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/?p=3849"},"modified":"2011-06-19T19:17:20","modified_gmt":"2011-06-19T18:17:20","slug":"down-and-out-in-sutton-courtney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/?p=3849","title":{"rendered":"Down and Out in Sutton Courtney"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag11\/11061901.jpg\" alt=\"Historcal Bike Ride\" \/><br \/>\nWe went on a historical bike ride today as part of Bike Week.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag11\/11061907.jpg\" alt=\"Historcal Bike Ride\" \/><br \/>\nWe visited The Abbey Gateway, St Helen&#8217;s Wharf, remains of the Canal, the new Jubilee Junction, Sutton Courtney, Culham Lock, and Old Culham Bridge (where there was a Civil War battle).<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag11\/11061903.jpg\" alt=\"Historcal Bike Ride\" \/><br \/>\nIn Sutton Courtney we  visited the churchyard where Eric Blair is buried (aka George Orwell &#8211; the author of Down and Out in Paris and London). Somebody had left three Canadian flags, a note that read &#8220;<em>Nothing had changed<\/em>, and a poem by Orwell &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;Sharply the menacing wind sweeps over<br \/>\nThe bending poplars, newly bare,<br \/>\nAnd the dark ribbons of the chimneys<br \/>\nVeer downward; flicked by whips of air,<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Torn posters flutter; coldly sound<br \/>\nThe boom of trains and the rattle of hooves,<br \/>\nAnd the clerks who hurry to the station<br \/>\nLook, shuddering, over the eastern rooves,<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Thinking, each one, \u2018Here comes the winter!<br \/>\nPlease God I keep my job this year!\u2019<br \/>\nAnd bleakly, as the cold strikes through<br \/>\nTheir entrails like an icy spear,<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>They think of rent, rates, season tickets,<br \/>\nInsurance, coal, the skivvy\u2019s wages,<br \/>\nBoots, school-bills, and the next instalment<br \/>\nUpon the two twin beds from Drage\u2019s&#8230;.<\/em><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag11\/11061904.jpg\" alt=\"Historcal Bike Ride\" \/><br \/>\nIt was unusual to find a country church open in this day and age, when nothing was apparently going on inside. I looked inside but didn&#8217;t go too far &#8211; so as not to disturb the man asleep on the pew.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We went on a historical bike ride today as part of Bike Week. We visited The Abbey Gateway, St Helen&#8217;s Wharf, remains of the Canal, the new Jubilee Junction, Sutton Courtney, Culham Lock, and Old Culham Bridge (where there was a Civil War battle). In Sutton Courtney we visited the churchyard where Eric Blair is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,83],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church","category-heritage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3849\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}