The Community ~Where is it Today?

Looking back over the photos of yesteryear Its hard to understand how you come to the place you are today. Many things happen within everyone’s families that either bring them closer together or drives them apart. And the same goes for whole communities but we call this progression as we embrace a more modern way of living.

In my post Horsing Around My Village  which took me back down memory lane as I recalled my early childhood and gave a glimpse into Village life  in the Derbyshire Peak District. It got me thinking how when I was in junior school probably age 9 or 10 We made a model of the whole village using matchbox’s stuck together all shapes and sizes.. Each of us had to make our own home out of a matchbox  and paint etc. While our teacher who was also the headmaster of our school Mr Paddley created a huge Map of Stoney Middleton  out of Plywood in which we could stick our homes next the roads, fields etc. which he had painted.

We carefully placed our homes upon the map alongside our famous fish and chip shop which at the time was run by a lovely lady called Eleanor.. Who would give you the scraps for nothing to us kids that would hang around on the nights it was open.Somehow I cant see that happening today…. Hummm,  I can smell that chippy now .. Its still there and is still a chip shop in the Toll Gate house.. Which was built in 1840 as a Toll House to collect dues from travellers on the old Turnpike road .

Anyhow my point is that this Matchstick Village we created we were able to name everyone who lived in our village and we did what I suppose you would call our own school Census that term as we were able to count how many people lived in our Village..Today I think there are around 750 people who live there today , but in my day I remember I could name every household member.. 

There were 3 Pubs back then the Grouse Inn, The Royal Oak and the Moon Inn…Today only the Moon Inn has survived.. There were 3 shops, Arnolds, Dysons, and Nettleships..Two Butchers both named Hancocks  one at the top of the village hill which adjoined his farmhouse and one at the bottom of the village, these shops were named after their owners surnames.. There was also a Post Office and local Barber who had a wooden shed at the bottom of his Garden..The ladies of the Village had to travel to the next Village Calver Sough to get their hair done in another wooden hut..

Today there are now No shops in the village and No post office the only remaining shop in the village today is the FarmShop which used to be Hancock’s Butchers and the chip shop .

Stoney Middleton Well-Dressings I see my Grandmother and Aunts and Uncles in this photo,but I don’t know which year it was taken.

It brings home to me how our Communities have changed. I had to move away from my own village when I got married as there were no new homes that were being built and the ones that were for sale the younger generation couldn’t and still can’t  afford to buy in the Derbyshire Peak, so City Business people came in and bought up the homes as old Villages passed away..some using as homes with others using as Holiday cottages. And now neighbours are strangers today and we lock the doors behind us when we come home.  We no longer communicate to each other as we scurry around our daily lives trying to earn a living so we can buy the next gadget advertised on the TV and give our Kids what we never had..All in the name of progress..

Jobs are scarce for the younger generation.. Gone are the days you could turn up at a place of work and be set on the next day as an apprentice and learn your skill from the bottom up. Manufacturing Industries have taken the bulk of their work overseas leaving us with less employment, and ALL of it for Profit and Greed. The youth of today are bored and Jobless and so turn to other means to entertain themselves.. And many elderly people are fearful of passing youngsters who now congregate together on street corners, and who dare to challenge the authorities and their elders knowing they can’t be touched if under age so grow up with no discipline or respect.

We have become a society ruled by debt in order to obtain Material goods we cant afford to pay for.. We have become societies of Greed.. as we put possessions before people.

We all of us have come to experience the Material World on the Earth Plane, but along the way of gathering those possessions we have lost the community spirit. In fact we have lost Our Spirit and our connection to each other and nature as we take everything for granted.     

Last winter we had the coldest winter with heavy snow for at least 50 yrs here in the UK… On our street many neighbours joined together and spoke for the first time to each other in years as they rallied around and helped each other dig out our road of snow. But it took a crisis to bring about that Unity of pulling together to help one another.

This is why Changes are in the air, we all feel it, Sense it, as weather patterns alter, as Nations rebel against their tyrant leaders, as the Monetary issues cannot possible carry on the way they are…As we see the Crisis with the Euro coming to a head. 

Our World needs to change…We are the Communities so we are the ones who need to look, really look at ourselves and realise the Change starts with Self..  This is why many are now saying enough is enough and starting to speak out.

WE have got to change .. And that is why we cannot sustain living within this Zone of  Material Greed putting Possessions First..

We have to start and put People First… and bring back a Caring Community who works together in unity and harmony….For if we don’t the Chaos we will generate is unthinkable. 

 

© Sue Dreamwalker – 2011 All rights reserved.