Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2006-10-04 04:55:24 - Graham Ellis
A brief evening breath of fresh air around Leek shows me signs of spirit, community and humour. I don't know the history of this pub sign, but there are those out there that will tell you that a Quiet Woman is rare in the extreme. I expect that a very old name indeed, associated with some even centuries ago, is still being commemorated with a degree of modern jest.
We hear a lot of the modern influx of people from Poland, but this sign reminds up that previous waves of folks have come from that country to the UK, and there's a sign and an archway to commemorate it here in Leek. I'll let you read the sign, pictured just above. And I know we have a similar local community in Trowbridge. There's a clear mutual respect and mutual gain from these communities - long may we continue to welcome such groups. And although we talk about them with a collective label are in reallity made up of a whole lot of individuals just like the rest of us.
With the coming of out of town shopping, there was a move away from the town centre. Safeway (now Morrisons) came here in 1989, and there have been others such as Focus who have followed them. And in very recent years, internet shopping has pulled personal visitors away from them all. Charity shops abound; Leek doesn't strike me as being too bad on that front, and it does seem to have a good range of very interesting specialist interest shops too - from antiques to Teddy Bears. But there ARE empty shops and scope for stores of certain types. This sign in a window would indicate that there's scope for a shop that sells attractive lingerie and associated products.
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A brief evening breath of fresh air around Leek shows me signs of spirit, community and humour. I don't know the history of this pub sign, but there are those out there that will tell you that a Quiet Woman is rare in the extreme. I expect that a very old name indeed, associated with some even centuries ago, is still being commemorated with a degree of modern jest.
With the coming of out of town shopping, there was a move away from the town centre. Safeway (now Morrisons) came here in 1989, and there have been others such as Focus who have followed them. And in very recent years, internet shopping has pulled personal visitors away from them all. Charity shops abound; Leek doesn't strike me as being too bad on that front, and it does seem to have a good range of very interesting specialist interest shops too - from antiques to Teddy Bears. But there ARE empty shops and scope for stores of certain types. This sign in a window would indicate that there's scope for a shop that sells attractive lingerie and associated products.