Open weekdays about 9.00 or 10.00, occasionally as early as 7.00 but sometimes as late as 12.00 or 1.00. Closed about 5.30 or 6.00, occasionally at 5.00 but sometimes as late as 11.00 or 12.00. Some days in the afternoons we are not here at all and lately I’m here all the time except when I’m somewhere else.

Notice in the window of an upholsterers in Bere Regis.

The Diagram Prize for the oddest book title awarded annually by the Booksellers Review was won by ‘Re-using Old Graves’ by D. Davies and A. Shaw. Other contenders considered for the prize were:
‘Group 4 Escort Services - A Survey of Customer Satisfaction’.
‘Exploring the Bra’.
‘The Baby Jesus Touch and Feel Book’.
‘The History of the Concrete Roofing Tile’.
‘Big and Very Big Hole Drilling’.

Westbourne Street, Bewdley, Worcestershire is only 170 yards long and has less then 40 houses. Four of them are numbered one and another four are numbered two. One of those numbered one stands next to No. 28. One row is numbered 234 to 240. Nos. 6, 11. 15 and 17 have never neen used at all. Residents unanimously voted not to rationalise the numbering.

A sex line caller complained to Trading Standards Officers after dialling an 0891 number from an advertisement called ‘Hear Me Moan’. The caller was played a tape of a housewife nagging her husband for failing to do jobs around the house. Consumer watchdogs in Dorset refused to look into the matter saying he got what he deserved.

Gloucester Citizen

A Japanese holidaymaker was sent to a rabbit breeding farm after asking Tourist Information Centre staff for the way to the nearest toilet. Confused staff at the Cirencester centre couldn’t understand him when he asked for the nearest ‘rabbitory’. So instead of giving him directions to the lavatory he was given a booklet on Chalderton Rare Breeds Farm Park near Salisbury, nearly 50 miles away.

Gloucester Echo, Cotswold Edition