Strange number plate one

Our Next door neighbours have a Jack Russell Puppy,

but I think it's a rat wearing bad Mickey Mouse Mask.

Photographer Mary Weeks caught Sam today trying to get unusual pictures of a sponsored canoe trip.

Come on Granddad, if I hold it you can jump through.

HST passes under a temporary bridge erected to protect

the track while the transmission towers and cable are worked

on in Wiltshire.

Just to show how important it is to carry a camera, Sam was enjoying a day off at the Royal Bath and West Show a few years ago.
When this trooper from the musical drive of The King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery left his horse unexpectedly.

Wasp

This is a snap to show that you don't need complicated

equipment for extreme close-ups.
I used a 200mm lens with a standard 50mm reversed

in front to make a close up lens.

No Comment

One of the more unusual things Sam has photographed,
Wellitaire a version of solitaire with Wellington boots,
played by students of Cannington College
on the pile cap of Hinkley Point B Nuclear
Power Station near Bridgwater.

A free lunch if only I can stretch another inch.

Comfy Cat

Wet Dog

80,000 suspects

In 1962 producer Van Guest made 80,000 suspects the story of a smallpox outbreak in Bath. This is the Christmas Dance scene filmed in the Abbey Churchyard and Pumproom.

In the mid 70s I was working as a freelance around Bath, and needed a cheap to run easy to park car, and a Fiat 500 seemed to meet the bill.
When I went to Southdown school to photograph the Green Cross Code Man I thought it would be fun to put this giant of a man in my tiny car surrounded with children.
The Green Cross man, Dave Prowse M.B.E. went on to play Darth Vader

in Star Wars soon after.

We have a regular visit from up to six hungry pheasants, when you get this close it almost looks that its feathers have been painted on, altogether a pleasant pheasant.

Sunday with Tabitha

Carrot for Onyx

Click picture to enlarge

First snowdrop

Don’t forget to visit www.combehay.net

and www.themattocks.com

Smile Please

Another old Picture from Sam,

The Abbey Churchyard with snow in 1965.

Bacon Sandwich

By popular request, this old picture of Sam eating a bacon sandwich.
The Farr family would like to make it clear that no bread was injured in making this picture.

The dangers of rugby photography, here's a snap of Sam trying

to run backwards to get far enough away from the action

while carrying an extra camera with a 400mm 2.8 lens.

Almost 20 years ago I was working for The Central Electricity Generating Board and they sent me to Fawley near Southampton, to meet one of the scientists working for the marine research department based at the power station.
As I recall he had been up the Amazon and had discovered the smallest fish known to man.
He was horrified when I wanted to photograph them on a plate of chips, but it was the most graphic way to show the scale.

What sort of a father puts his daughter in a bin mans trolley just to make a funny picture.
Nicky is still speaking to me after nearly 30 years.
But when I'm old and in a wheelchair I think I should expect revenge!

My Father, also called Sam Farr was a keen gardener, this is a picture of him on his allotment on Bathwick Hill, it's now a housing estate.
We still have some of the fruit trees in our garden now, as when he bought our land at Combe Hay 50 years ago he hired a lorry and dug the trees up.
And despite advice that it would kill them, most survived.

Savage Messiah

In 1970 Ken Russell shot The Music Lovers in Bath and a couple of years later came back for Savage Messiah.
We were living above our shop in Abbey Churchyard as they turned Shores Shoe Shop (now Binks) into an art gallery for Savage Messiah.
It was interesting to watch him directing the Dorothy Tutin scene, he let the actors do it as they felt, just making a few quiet suggestions at the end of each take.
I guess that he always used the same actors in many of his films and they knew what he wanted. A few weeks ago he came down for the Bath Film Festival and I had the pleasure of meeting and photographing this prolific genius of over 80 films.

I spotted this hairdo one day last year near the railway station.
It turned out the woman had come to Bath shopping for the day,

and was just waiting for the train home.
Her daughter did her hair, so there's a lesson for you.

The family has two dogs, we have had Storm a Labrador since she was a puppy.
She was born at woodland farm just up behind the pub.
The terrier Paddy is a rescue dog from the RSPCA at Claverton, we don't think that paddy had ever played in his former life, but is now learning.

Soon after we married in the early 70s and were living over our shop in Abbey Churchyard.

We had a public services strike and everybody had to drive the family rubbish up Wellsway, where we chucked the rubbish over the wall on to land that now houses Entry Hill golf course

Dustmans Strike

Sam Adds his Rubbish.

The Wellsway Rubbish Mountain

All sorts of things to photograph

Now it’s time to think about a winter weekend break, buy the Daily Mail on Saturdays (not just because I work for Northcliff) it has all the cheap offers of weekend hotels, £20 to £25.00 for a room for four is not unusual.
Last year we had a break in Plymouth, the towns great for shopping and I visited Top Secret Magic http://www.topsecretmagic.co.uk/ it can be found in Jack Cohen’s Magic & Joke Shop in the lower half of the town.
The present owner Malcolm Norton has been a professional magician for 20 years and is happy to show any of the hundreds of tricks he stocks.
If you happen to be a burglar I can recommend his lock-picking section.
But the main point of our visit was The National Marine Aquarium Plymouth http://www.national-aquarium.co.uk/.
It was the first aquarium in the United Kingdom to be set up solely for education, conservation and research, we were going for the second time.
Visitors can walk under the deepest tank in Europe. A dizzying 10.5 metres deep, and watch sharks only inches from the glass.

The National Marine Aquarium

Sharks at close range

The Giant curved window on the deep tank

Young Visitors at the deep tank

Monday 3rd January walk in the garden

Dan Dare

In 1954 I met Dan Dare, it was so long ago I don't remember where it was, but as I don't even remember what happened yesterday that's no surprise.
It was obviously in those days long gone, when parents didn't mind a tall good-looking man putting hands on your shoulders and talking of Greek love?

Jane Seymour

I found Jane Seymour watching her twins zipping around the ice rink in Queen Square Last Week

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Prints from the Jane Seymour pictures can be ordered from pics@bathchron.co.uk

First Picture of Sam enjoying the New Year
Picture Matt Cardy