I was initially amused to see that there was a thread running through BBC Breakfast TV this morning concerning whether Lymington was snobby and elitist. And why? Because the planning application for a J D Wetherspoon pub had been rejected.

I say ‘initially’ amused as I have been astonished at the volume and tone of comment and debate generated by the item. Regrettably a lot has been ill-informed with people making good use of their pre-formed prejudices to come to their conclusions. So without further ado I will add my ill-informed prejudices to them.

I’m not sure the interview I saw with a member of the Lymington Society arguing that the character of the town would be ruined was possibly the best choice of argument against the pub. In a town with a number of national high street shops, restaurants and coffee shops

As I write with the rain pounding down outside, my glass being currently half full thinks that at least I don’t have to water the garden. But summer it would seem has passed and been traded in for autumn. I even have the BBC weather man’s say-so on that one.

Thing about summer is that if it’s any kind of a summer at all you tend to be out and ‘doing things’ rather than sitting at a computer writing about doing things. So you may be under the impression that not a lot happens in Lymington during the summer based on the extreme paucity of updates to this site. Dear reader, nothing could be further from the truth. Rather than give you a long list of the many attractions, I thought I might go for some of the perhaps less obvious.

The last run of the slam-door trains from Brock to Lymington Town occurred on 22 May. I have to confess I am not a great train freak, I like trains, when necessary I use trains, but when it comes to nostalgia if there is a dry eye in the house, it may well be mine. Unless we are talking steam loco’s. My predominant memory of slam-door trains was going to school and then work from Peckham Rye Station in the days when slam-door was all there was. It often wasn’t an entirely pleasant experience as I’m not sure the then publicly owned British Rail had cleanliness high on it’s list off priorities. So one was careful where one sat and often times couldn’t see out of the grime caked windows.

Off course that wasn’t the case with the ‘Heritage’ line trains, but it’s hard to simply dismiss that many years experience! However it is good to know that there are people who do get misty-eyed about such things and if you want to read about it, go to the second half of