From time to time I get told about events which are happening locally, but not always in time to publish the info. So it was great to hear about a concert by the Hampshire Guitar Orchestra (Hago) well in advance.

For thems that don’t know, Hago is a classical guitar orchestra based in, well Hampshire surprisingly. The Orchestra was formed by Derek Hasted in 1999 and will be celebrating its 100^th concert in June of this year. The Orchestra has raised a shedload of cash for both local and national charities and fully intend to continue in that vein.

Hago has performed in venues all over the South of England and play music which is as varied as the sizes of instruments they use; from Baroque to Spanish, The Beatles to Dvorak on four different sizes of guitar. There’s the tiny Alto, the baby of the family (but the most tricky to play!) the Prime (the ‘ordinary’ one we all know well) the Bass (bigger than the Prime and lower in pitch) and finally the Contra (which the Hago Director states is a little like a wardrobe in its size!) this has the lowest pitch of all the four.

So yes, all very interesting you say but so what? Well here’s where you come in. Hago are playing a once-only concert on 26^th May 2012 at All Saints Church, Milford-on-Sea. It’s on behalf of Naomi House and Jack’s Place and tickets are £8 in advance or £10 on the door. These can be purchased by calling 01962 672457 or email Nicole.denison@naomihouse.org.uk  Or send an SAE & cheques payable to The Wessex Children’s Hospice Trust to Nicole Denison, Naomi House fundraising office, Unit 3, Sun Valley Business Park, Winnall Close, Winchester, SO23 OLB.

If you haven’t heard about them, Naomi House and Jack’s Place are two children’s hospices based at Sutton Scotney in Hampshire. They provide support to children and young people with life-limiting conditions from all over the South of England. The two units mean that the hospices can provide care structured to the needs of both younger and older children as well as now also helping young adults (over 18’s) at the recently opened Jack’s Place.

The hospices provide a range of service from end of life care to respite care, bereavement services and family support. They also provide a hospice at home service. It costs £5 million to keep the hospices running each year; only 10% of these costs are paid using money given by the department of health which means a staggering £4.5million must be found through charitable work and donations.

So there you have it, a worthy cause and a good time. Unbeatable. If you need further convincing some of the music being played is as follows;

Plink Plank Plunk

Bransle de la Torche  (See Below)

Penny Lane

Elizabethan Serenade

Danza Cubana

plus more which you’ll only find out about if you go!

There’s been an awful lot of discussion about Lymington’s historical heritage in recent times what with the building boom an’ all. So having read about the unique Georgian market town I live in, blah, blah, blah, I decided to see if there was any basis to the views of groups such as the Lymington Society. Or whether  we really are guilty of being too snobbish about what is done with the place we live.

So first place to start I thought was Lymington’s very own modern carbuncle, the town library. In passing I really must commend our library to all. OK the building itself might seem more Boy Georgian than Georgian and no doubt is not too everyone’s taste. But in a town with many limitations to disabled access, it is a shining light of what should be aimed at by all. Admittedly it does suffer from the perennial Lymington parking issue, ie not enough unless you choose your time carefully, but it does have two disabled spaces right next to the door. More to the point they are not just a nod in the yellow paint direction and actually have enough room hashed out either side to allow for the car doors to be fully opened. Full marks for that. To gain access you just have to walk or wheel with fully automated doors on a level surface to a reasonably low-level counter. Did I mention that you can register online and get an email when your books are due and can renew up to four times without leaving your computer? I didn’t? Well you can and most efficient it is too.

Anyway I digress. Once in and having taken my pick of crime novels, my personally preferred genre, I took a look at the local history section. I’m not sure exactly why, but there were a number of editors at some point who concluded that it would be a wizard wheeze to take a varied collection of black and white postcards and bind them into books. What I’m even less sure of is why said images were considered to be suitable for postcards. However I am very glad they did. Despite the denizens of and visitors to Lymington doing the old-fashioned version of ‘Hello Mum’ and freezing whilst staring into the camera, it is possible to see how little certain parts of Lymington have changed. As exhibit 1 I give you a view of the High Street from c.1955 showing St Thomas’ church and surroundings.

Very easy to see what has been retained compared to this recently taken shot.

I then looked a little further back and found another High Street view this time from 1860.

I don’t have a modern day version of this view as it’s pouring down outside and I’m frankly not disposed to go out to take it. However you will see from this photograph from a similar date that Boots Opticians seem to have taken over the ground floor of the Londesborough Hotel.

There are a great many similar examples of buildings that have been mostly unchanged for a century, some considerably more, but does it matter? Well you have to make up your own mind on that, but to my mind removing buildings with history to replace them with buildings of convenience has to be very carefully considered. We are an Island which prides itself on our history but once gone historical postcard collections may be all we are left with. I think that would be sad.

Last week, or the week before, or…. well recently anyway, I was in Barclays in Lymington High Street  and couldn’t help but notice they had either suffered from the least subtle bank robbery since Butch and Sundance or they’d had the builders in. Since by and large bank robbers don’t tend to put in a disabled access ramp after blowing a hole in the wall, I felt safe in assuming the latter.

Since Wife has some trouble with stairs and such, we had often commented on the fact that it was nice of Barclays to put in a big pushy buttony type thing which meant you didn’t have to open the door yourself. Call us picky if you will, but we had also concluded that having to mount two stairs to get at it did tend to take the shine of their largesse.

So having noted Barclays welcome if a tad tardy move into a more enlightened age, I fell to wondering how easy access was in all the other banks and building societies on the High Street. So in descending order of altitude, ie starting at St Thomas’ end, here is the brief survey. Probably worth noting this is what one might call a kerbside view and consisted entirely of me wandering along the High Street with pen and paper pausing at all the banks and building societies and making notes. On reflection that may possibly have looked a tad suspicious, but I seem to have got away with it.

Nationwide – 4 steps to front door with electric door release next to door. Ring for assistance bell push at pavement level. Didn’t ring for assistance so no idea how they would have got you up the steps.

Post Office – OK stricly not a bank but does have banking facilities. Flat, wide entrance, open door, didn’t look like access was a problem.

Cheltenham & Gloucester – 3 steps to front door, something called a ‘Service Call’ facility via a window-mounted box. It would appear to need a gadget to get it to work see http://www.service-call.net/

Halifax – auto opening door with low ramp.

Santander – 2 steps up to entrance, no call facility visible. Door auto opens though was propped open when I saw it.

Lloyds TSB – Auto opening door, entrance level with street.

NatWest - Auto opening door, entrance level with street.

HSBC - Auto opening door, entrance level with street, slight internal ramp.

Barclays – 2 steps to front door with electronic door push. Signs to auto open door with electronic entry push in alley by side of bank.

All the above establishments can be considered to be above the vertiginous part of the High Street although you might feel a little on the edge venturing as far down as Barclays if you were in a wheelchair or not too steady on your feet.

So it’s a bit of a mixed picture really. Almost all at least nod in the direction of disabled access, but it’s not clear what would happen should you call for help. I do have a Pythonesque image of them carrying out a desk and chair and transacting on the pavement.  Actually in absence of fact, perhaps it would be better not to joke about that. You never know….