Lying In The Gutter, Staring At The Stars.

During the second world war, whilst on leave from active service in Italy, my late father was walking up Fore Street in the blackout when a Liftwaffe pilot, presumably on his way home after a raid on Exeter or Plymouth, decided to lighten his load by dropping a bomb on yjr hill brhind Livingshayes Ruad where the remains of the crater could still be seen when I was young. My father, having had long experience under enemy attack, dived for the ground and ended up in what the more polite Silvertonians refer to as ' The Leat', but what we older villagers know  as 'The Gutter'.

It reminds us of the perils that may await should the energy saving device of turning off the street lights at midnight ever comes to the village  The danger now, with late pub closing times,  would not be from falling German bombs but more likely from one too many Jaegerbombs.