Out & About Magazine Autumn 2020

GERALDINE GARDNER

EDITOR

W elcome back! Out&About has been on hold during lockdown as there wasn’t much ‘out and abouting’ going on, but we’re back now and celebrating the great outdoors. Lockdown provided an opportunity for many of us to stop and look around and be grateful for the landscape around us. I don’t know about you, but I’ve noticed more birdsong, watched an array of butterflies visit the garden and, when going out for walks, have simply enjoyed the views, the sunrises and sunsets and all that nature has to offer. I’m pleased to welcome a new regular contributor to the magazine Eleanor Gilbert. Eleanor grew up on Rookery Farm, Newbury, and she enjoys nothing more than getting up in the wee small hours and going out on her tractor to start the days harvesting or sowing or whatever the weather and season requires. You can find out more about the Berkshire Farm Girl and read the first of Eleanor’s seasonal diaries on p80. Sticking with the great outdoors our photographer Phil Cannings was lucky enough to be able to spend time photographing the hidden secrets of the beautiful River Kennet. I talked to Anna Forbes from conservation charity Action for the River Kennet, as well as two of its river keepers, who admit they think they have the best job in the world, certainly when

the sun is shining anyway (p21). If you still haven’t ventured forth on a holiday, there are so many wonderful places to visit in this country, many of them closer than you might think. Check out some of the camping and glamping sites in Hampshire’s South Downs (p66). Hilary Scott went for her first post-lockdown food review at the Royal Oak in Yattendon (p32) and we ‘popped inn’ to the Old Boot in Stanford Dingley (p29). There’s lots to be grateful for from local food suppliers too (pp30, 38 and 42). Normal service has been resumed across the magazine with a bit of fashion, lifestyle and leisure news and even a what’s on section – yes things are going on. And if lockdown has made you hanker for the old days when life seemed simpler, read the feature on the Reliance Motor Services by the founder’s grandson and former Newbury Weekly News journalist Barrie Hedges, who has co-written a book about the popular service (p46). Nobody could have predicted how much and how rapidly our lives were going to change during 2020 and we are not out of the woods yet, but if it has helped us to re-evaluate and maybe appreciate what we do have, then that can only be for the good. Happy reading.

Editor’s picks

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Harvest time

Tales from the river bank

Always reliable

80 BERKSHIRE FARM GIRL Eleanor Gilbert’s insight into 21st-century farming

21 LIFE ON THE KENNET The importance of preserving this significant chalk stream

46 RELIANCE BUSES

A new book chronicles the history of a much-loved local company

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O&A AUTUMN 2020