Shortly before the old Victorian Rectory was (largely) demolished, its surrounding gardens contained a number of mature fruit trees. Charley, the son of the then verger at Loughborough’s All Saints Parish Church, was a good friend of mine, and we would spend time exploring the old house and grounds.
One day we noticed that an apple tree had produced a large quantity of
fruit, and so we helped ourselves to a few dozen in a carrier bag. Later,
however, when we came to taste the apples, they proved to be very hard and very
sour.
It happened that Charley had easy access to the church tower, and so
it was no problem for the pair of us to climb up to the top, some hundred feet
above the churchyard. With the bag of apples now to hand, we began looking for
suitable targets to ‘bomb’.
After a few shots at a parked bicycle, we lobbed a couple more at a
poor dog and its owner, giving them quite an unpleasant shock. Deciding that
this action was, probably, quite cruel, we started to look for other
alternatives. The open top of the boiler house chimney was some forty feet
below, and very tempting.
It took quite a lot of shots before Charley scored ‘a hole in one’. This
proved, later, to be our undoing. Be sure that your sins will find you out!
The verger had the responsibility of lighting the then coke-fired
boiler, and he was very puzzled to discover a fresh apple amongst the remains
of the last fire, especially as the boiler house was always firmly locked up. He
was also interested in the large quantity of smashed apple pieces lying about
the churchyard.
Charley was quizzed by his father, resulting in me facing the same
questions the following day. ‘Stupid boys’ and ‘very dangerous behaviour!’ was
the subject of a very sever reprimand for us both!
David Taylor
Photo by Peter Neumann on Unsplash
