Welcome to the Sprackets Orchard website 

Rain gauge broken. Normal service will be resumed ASAP.

WARNING: Although I strive to achieve accurate reporting it is important that you do NOT depend on the data provided here for any purpose involving safety of life.

My name is Peter Crosland and  I am an early retired computer systems consultant having returned to my Somerset roots. Amongst my interests are amateur radio, computing, family history research, motor racing, reading, early rock music in general and particularly heavy metal, and W.R.C. rallying.  You can read some more about my interests further down the page. This website is still under development so if you spot any errors please let me know. You can email me by clicking on the computer operator at the bottom of the screen; that is a very poor likeness I hasten to add! The data displayed below is uploaded to my ISP's web server every few seconds, but remember that the data is a snapshot at the displayed time. There will be slight delay before it is displayed on your screen due to congestion on  the internet and time taken to update my ISP's web server. Also remember that the data is only output by the weather station every four seconds so this introduces a further slight delay. Rainfall is measured in hundredths  of an inch and converted to millimetres so a very light shower will not register immediately.  Click on the horizontal named bars at the bottom of the display panel to select your choice of measurement units, or view some historic data. To view other historic data click on the anemometer and then page down until you find what you require. If you cannot see the dials above then you will need to install the free Macromedia Flash Player. The site is optimised for 1280*1024 resolution.

Weather station

The Spracket

Several people have asked where the name of the bungalow came from. It is simply the name of the adjoining orchard as shown on the tithe map, but the origin may be much earlier. I am indebted to my old friend Professor Martin Barton of  Letterfourie University for the following brief extract from his research paper on the subject.

This is the name given to a rare creature,  indigenous to Somerset, which was first identified by a Doctor Rivel. Doctor Rivel, who is now sadly only celebrated in the name of his birthplace, made his discovery, like so many previous and subsequent scientists, entirely by accident. His accident, it is said, was due, in particularly large measure quip the locals, to his fondness for the excellent local cider. How exactly his discovery came about is very poorly documented: again this is also thought to be something to do with the cider. A mutation of the cricket, the spracket is about a tenth the size of its cousin, but is otherwise very similar, apart from the shape of the scrapers and files on the fore wings that produce the distinctive call. Like the cricket, this is onomatopoeic, but of course, very much fainter. Modern high powered microphones have now come to the rescue of naturalists wishing to study the spracket; many of their predecessors earned ill-deserved reputations as they slowly and carefully crawled, ear to the ground, through the orchards and meadows of South Somerset. The most curious discovery to date is that the spracket occurs only in two narrow bands, between Cheddar and Ilminster, and between Muchelney and Milverton. Many amateur investigators are convinced of a link with ley lines, but the scientists are not convinced, and say that money for research along these lines (sic) is unlikely to be forthcoming. © 1991 M.C. Barton

Speed

For more years than I can remember I have been a follower of motor sport in various forms. I might as well own up to being a petrol head, or more accurately a speed fiend! It started at the age of three when I rode my tricycle down a flight of stone steps to the detriment of my front teeth. Having wrecked various bicycles I was fortunate to avoid the motorcycle craze that in my case would have undoubtedly resulted in me occupying an early grave.  During what might be described as my youth I joined the Taunton Motoring Club and took part in various competitions. I soon found out that competitions driving was not my forte and turned to navigation instead. I enjoyed a certain amount of co-driving on special stages rallies around the South-West, but my main interest was watching and marshalling on events like the RAC Rally. When I moved to Worcestershire during the mid seventies my enthusiasm was rekindled and I continued co-driving in a number of vehicles including the Mk1 and Mk2 Ford Escorts, Sunbeam Talbot, Triumph Dolomite, Leyland Mini and Ford Fiesta. In 1980 I co-drove on the Welsh, Scottish and RAC rallies as well as in a number of club events. I can't say that I had much success, but gained an enormous amount of enjoyment from my modest efforts. The only foreign International event I contested was the 5th Nouveau Ronde de Namur in Belgium and despite what appeared to be a hopelessly uncompetitive Group 1 Triumph Dolomite Sprint driven by Ian Dunham, it gave me my highest placing in any class of event. Heavy snow followed by temperatures as low as -21C made conditions treacherous, but a cautious approach was rewarded by 10th position overall and a class win when many of the other competitors flew off the road never to return. Now that I am largely confined to home by MS I still retain a keen interest in W.R.C Rallying and Formula 1 racing. The British Touring Car Championship (B.T.C.C.) also gets my attention, particularly with the prospect of some live coverage this year. The other speed sport I love to watch is Alpine Downhill Skiing along with some ski jumping such as the Four Hills Championship.

Amateur Radio

I first got interested in radio at the age of eight when a neighbour gave me the parts to construct a crystal set. From then on I became quite a keen short wave listener. When I went to the Ilminster Grammar School I joined the amateur radio club. This was run by the physics master, the late Rex Sawyer, who was gifted academically, but quite hopeless at teaching and keeping discipline. He despaired at my inability to learn Morse code not to mention my general clumsiness that wrecked several pieces of delicate scientific apparatus notably the thermometer in the Callendar's Rotating Drum. I digress! It was nearly twenty years later when I discovered that there was now an amateur radio licence that did not require one to learn Morse code. Having passed the exam in 1980 I was issued with the call sign G6JNS in 1981. This has provided me with all sorts of contacts and led to travels particularly in the USA. As a result I went to the largest gathering of radio amateurs in the western hemisphere at Dayton, Ohio on five occasions. This event called Hamvention®  is held each spring in a complex of buildings called the Hara Arena on the outskirts of the city of Dayton that is better known as the birthplace of the Wright Brothers. Visitors to Dayton can do worse than spend a day at the Wright-Patterson Museum that has an astonishing selection of aeroplanes and space flight items on display. Amongst the outdoor displays is a Nissen hut with an interior like those used in USAF bases in the UK during World War 2 complete with a British telephone box outside. To find out more about amateur radio take a look at the Radio Society of Great Britain site or for an American viewpoint the American Radio Relay League is a mine of information.

Family History

A couple of years ago I realised that I knew relatively little about my ancestors. Initially I started out with the limited objective of tracing my paternal grandfather's family but this soon turned into a much more wide ranging and complex task than I had expected. Apart from the mass of previously unknown information that my researches have uncovered it has also connected me with several relatives who have been most helpful. I was particularly fortunate to make contact with my distant cousin Shelagh Hughes who is a mine of information and has become a firm friend. Apart from her genealogical skills she and her husband Brian are keen bridge players whose successes are documented on their website. If you are researching ancestors in the Colne Valley then Steve Whitwam's site is a colossal resource that has provided many leads. When I started researching my mother's family the task became much more difficult but a couple of breakthroughs came when I managed to contact a distant cousin of hers. He kindly sent me a mass of information that filled in a lot of gaps but left plenty to be filled. Due to the efforts made by the people behind the Froyle Archive I have been able to trace a lot of my mother's more distant ancestors. If you are just starting out to research your family history then I strongly recommend you start here. So when is he going to tell us about his family I hear you ask! Well it is still very much an ongoing project and a lot of the information is really of little interest to those outside my family. However, I was astounded to recently discover that one of my great, great grandfathers was Henry Dûbs, a well known steam engine manufacturer who founded the firm of Henry Dûbs and Co. based in Glasgow. I am still researching him but you can see below an engine made by the company he founded.

This site is dedicated to the memory of my good friend Stuart Gough, G0SLG who died unexpectedly on 24th February 2006. Without his help and encouragement this site would not have happened. My thanks also go to Michael Baker for the installation of the weather station that he did to a very professional standard. He subsequently rewired my phone system to improve the broadband performance. No sentient beings were harmed during the production of this site except the author who is slowly, but surely, being driven even more mad than usual by the intricacies of HTML. Thank you for visiting my site which I hope you enjoyed.

Copyright © 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 Peter Crosland