Wawne Village, links to church, Village Hall, Parish Council, and history    St James Churchyard - a full list of graves and memorials   MAPS & GUIDES . . press F11 to toggle Full Screen    THE HOME PAGE ...    War Memorials   dozens of links to military history, both local, national and military, including both World Wars, all armed services, and more ...   General Links, many local to Hull and the East Riding ; includes many Family History links, with an emphasis on links to the Armed Forces and their associations.



Sutton & Wawne Museum inside the Old School in Sutton village, Sutton in Holderness
BOTTOM MUSEUM EVENTS & NEW ITEMS
  plus snippets of This & That and lots  of memories further below
  crown       crown      crown

Six images from 2024 Remembrance Sunday on Nov 11th
photos by Gary Higham  ... all are clickable to enlarge

Remembrance Sunday 2024 - click to enlarge!  Remembrance Sunday 2024 - click to enlarge!  Remembrance Sunday 2024 - click to enlarge!

Remembrance Sunday 2024 - click to enlarge!  Remembrance Sunday 2024 - click to enlarge!  Remembrance Sunday 2024 - click to enlarge!

1. First is Peter Blyth, a senior volunteer, himself an army veteran and also wearing his own father's decorations for WW2 and Normandy.

2. A table set up by our ladies inside the museum hall, our own commemorative display.

3. Our ladies serving refreshments to visitors in our tea room.

4. Our outside display of knitted poppies and the Sutton station seat.

5. Peter, Simon and Liz, three of our volunteers, before the service.

6. Our main hall inside the museum afterwards, busy with visitors taking refreshments.


OLD SCHOOL RE-UNION
- a 25th Anniversary of the First One

was held on Saturday afternoon, 5th OCTOBER, at 1.pm.
It certainly was a superb day, and the weather stayed fine for us.

Sutton CoE School, late 1940s ... to ...    one of the last colour photos we have of our school, dated 1973

The pics above are enlargable, by the way.

Two images from our Re-Union Day on Oct 5th
chatty cafe tearoom - click to enlarge!
Former pupils gathered in our tearoom on Re-Union Day,
to view a superb selection of 50yr-old ciné film of Sutton children
 at this school, along with parents and teachers, in the 1950s-60s.
Edited and presented by Tony Prosser, it features Sports Days,
Harvest Festivals, Fancy Dress Parades, and much more.
Click Here to load the second photo, full screen.

Colin has posted some more excellent memories of the day
over on the Museum's FACEBOOK PAGE
So you don't lose this page, it loads in a new browser window.
THE CINÉ/VIDEO CLIPS
Tony has now edited for us all the videos he displayed on that day,
now available for us to show in the Museum on Fridays.
As an experiment, here is a short clip of one of them.
We can't post all of them, not enough webspace,
so we'll change this link to a fresh one from time to time.
Even then, some at over 100Mb are way to large for here.
Harvest Festival 1964 ... about 45 secs.

It may well be that some of you might recognise yourselves,
siblings and classmates amongst these short clips,
edited to be as bright and clear as they can be.

These images should bring back a few memories for you
younger ones, perhaps whet some appetites. 
These Eric Johnson photos are dated roughly late 1960's, and some of these children may well have been amongst those that moved to Dorchester Road when the Old School closed in 1976.  We have the registers only up to 1973, as sadly, the last three years were lost in a bad flood they had down Leads Road.  These little guys and gals will be somewhere in their 60s now, with grandkids of their own.


         

        

Don't know who told us, but there is a rumour about that the faded Four Circles may be restored.
Those who were there will know what we mean. They can be seen on the aerial photo below.

DOMINOES READING  BOOKS

How many recall the ‘Dominoes’ series of reading books for early years pupils?

These wDominoes Reading booksere published nationwide, but the photos were by Sutton St James’ headmaster, Mr Eric Johnson, under contract from the Department of Education at the time.  These were published around 1970-72.   Dominoes Reading books     

We have quite a little collection of these in the museum, courtesy of former pupil Diane E Sharp, who gave us her whole collection of the blue and pink covered titles. We’re still missing a couple, which we would readily scan on the spot and return to owners if they’d loaned them to us.  

The children in these books are surely the parents and grandparents of some local Sutton and Hull children today.

It may interest folks to know that the whole photo collection we hold of former headmaster, Eric Johnson, is now quite considerable.  There are some 110 individual photos from these ‘Dominoes’ books, around 46 older b&w studies from the late ‘40s and the ‘50s, of class and team photos.  Then there are the original slides we copied some years back, glorious full colour photographic studies, many of which would easily have been prize winners in competitions of their day. We have 62 of those. 

So in total, well over 200 photos of Sutton children over the years, albeit most of them of the later years, late ‘60s and into the 1970s.   All saved digitally, and all can be viewed on the museum computer on request on Fridays.  By any standards, that is some village collection.

Folks will appreciate that we can’t put the whole collection online, only a few of them occasionally at a time … webspace has to be paid for, and we have a considerable amount up here already.


Sutton on Hull mug             ** NEW **
 
       SUTTON on HULL

                MUGS
    


It did all go as planned.  Andrew and Judy Suddaby dropped by, and not for the first time, bringing gifts.  As was Len, his father, long-time museum supporter Andrew was a keen photographer, taking photos of his Sutton birthplace since his boyhood days in the village.

The gift he brought, a dozen Fine Bone China mugs, featuring one of his own photos of Church Street in 1969, just before the village lost the 'white cottages'.  Designed by Andrew himself, and produced by a Staffordshire pottery, these are now on sale in the Museum at £12 each, with all proceeds to our funds.


Click the first to enlarge, the other 'mouseover'.

UPDATE : 9th Oct ... ....  just 8 left .. at £10.


Sutton on Hull Mug Church St 1969 view   Andrew Suddaby;  pic: Colin Hill   Sutton on Hull Mug Church St 1969 view

First-come-first-served, these are now available to pick up at the museum on Fridays.
Sorry, we can't supply postal orders, though we did have a second delivery as planned, later in the summer, when this first 12 had ran out.

Postal charges today make p&p now totally uneconomic, plus all the ever-growing issues with an incompetent - and increasingly - dishonest mail delivery system, whether RM or private carriers - let alone issues of breakages.
 
We'd need to buy in very strong boxes, so do please note, these mugs do not come in their own presentation boxes if you're thinking of sending them by post yourself.
We get them in a large box, six at a time, but simply wrapped in individual plastic bags.


The photo Andrew used is based on this 1969 view he used in his short video on the DVD.
Sutton on Hull Mug Church St 1969 view

Here, Andrew & Judy partaking of our highly unusual sunshine and rare warmth. 
Thank you, both of you, for your valued support.

Andrew & Judy Suddaby .. Andrew & Judy Suddaby

THE HEWSON FAMILY VISIT

A long-planned visit, by David Barrett of the  Denver, Colorado branch of the late Melville Hewson's family went very well indeed on Tuesday, 21 May. And for once, we were very lucky the weather stayed fair.

Melville's sister is David's mother, Hazel Hewson Barrett, very elderly now and still living in the USA. Many older Sutton residents will recall the family living just around the corner inside the top of Leeds Road, and even further back in time in Albert Terrace. 

Peter King, churchwarden, hosted them for their visit to St James', and some family graves in the churchyard.  Then the party of 8 came to us in the museum, for much needed cups of tea, and to view our photo collection and the school registers. 

In the end, we had most of the 19 or so albums down off the shelves as Hewson family members appear here and there over the decades in most of them. 

Melville's daughter, Jane, who hosted her American relatives, was delighted to find herself and other relatives in our preserved and scanned School Registers.  Jane herself attended the school right up to its closure in 1976.

Cousin Gill (neé Feeney) was especially delighted to find her own father, who attended our school from 1909 to 1919.  She has previous seen her own entry before, but had never been able to find her own father. Must admit, given the very scrolling handwriting, and very faded too, he wasn't easy to find.

It was a very enjoyable visit, all our volunteers very much enjoyed meeting them. Volunteer Peter Blyth, actually knew and 'knocked around with' Melville and other family members.  David is taking one of our new Sutton on Hull china mugs back to Denver for his mother. Just the sort of special occasion for the more distant and oveseas Sutton families to arrange, and we're more than happy to host.

----- * * * -----
   
THE BUTCHER'S CORNER
the butcher's corner the butcher's corner The pics above are about 6 years ago, of the first bend on Lowgate.  Not so many years back, 1970s, it was the site of Arthur Holmes' butcher's shop. The actual shop is just seen on the far left of the first pic, the 'JKT' office, and the building round the bend was his rear abbatoir where the beast were, let's say, 'being prepared', and could be seen through those 'Carpet Shop' big doors.
Arthur Holmes, c.1932.. the butcher's sign from Arthur Holmes' shop Mr Holmes, seen here circa 1932 with his van, and dog. The artwork was saved from the business when it closed, and a huge mural of a very similar design was on the curved wall on the bend between the upper and lower windows. Or was this the pic.
We'd love a pic of it if anyone has one. 

OUR 'GOOGLE PRESENCE' ... on maps

We used to get totally free advertising on Google, via their maps.  We were able to 'post' updates, week-to-week, on events, a sort of mini-replication of what we show on our website.

We were recently 'invited' by Google to fill in a form to get more visitors from their maps.  I was suspicious, but went through the motions and forms, filling in keywords and advertising phrases explaining what, who and where we are.

Wonderful, I thought.
Until I got to the last bit, after wasting so much time filling in pointless forms, to find that this is all for their new Business Page for our 'business'.  To whit their charge would be £4.70 PER DAY!  Yee Gods!

So, I now get repeated email adverts from Google, almost pestering, to take up their wonderful offer.  £30 a week they want.  We haven't quite disappeared from the maps yet, but I expect it.

Naturally, we've declined their generous invite to expand our business and get thousands of more online visitors all around the world. So, can we soon expect our entry in Sutton village, on Google Maps, to disappear?  As if we've closed or gone out of business. We sure would at that extortionate rate of charge!  Well, it is business, and it is American.  The place to have shares in, that's fer' sure.
THE OLD CINÉ FILMS:

Further developments re the old John Riley ciné film of our old school and village events mean we now have more to tell.  Progress in organising and identify individual clips and scenes meant that were able to do a ‘Presentation’ to former pupils on the day of our Re-union on 5th October.

There is a short clip of Sutton village ladies below, just one short extract, a tiny bit of a show that took almost an hour in total. Even then, there is more than could possibly show in one go.

Tony Prosser, former pupil and retired teacher himself, has taken individual clips and organised them for us to help better  identification of individual pupils and adults.

His presentation was truly a revelation, as we viewed Sports Days, Harvest Festivals, a trip to Cleethorpes and Thornton Abbey with a ride on the Humber Ferry, Fancy Dress parades, and others.


SUTTON SCOUTS, GUIDES & CUBS
A recent contact with Adam, the leader of Sutton Methodist Cubs, highlighted the fact that we (thought) we  know very little about the history of Scouts, Cubs and Guides in Sutton village. I was wrong, see right!.

We have a few photos, and a couple of our volunteers and former pupils in the Old School have supplied many photos. When did scouting start in Sutton?  Was it soon after Baden-Powell started the movement in 1907, or later perhaps after the Great War? 

Who were the first scout and cub leaders?  At first, your webmanager unknowingly told a fib here. We do
in fact have quite a bit of history of early scouting in Sutton. But we always welcome more info, photos etc. We do now have a "Scouting and Guiding" folder in our collection, to which a large number of new items from the 1950s is about to be added. 

A BUILDERS GUARD OF HONOUR
This photo has been awaiting over a year for showing; my apols to folks that had been looking for it.  Sent by Rob Kirby, formerly on Sutton now in Liverpool, this is his family's own photo of the St James Church Hall builders, the Beckett brothers, who all worked for Sewells, the main contractor.
Amongst them are George, Arthur, Ted and Jim.
Others are a Hakeney - Frank or Moss, and Cyril Ducker.  Exactly which are which, who was who, we've no idea.  Over to you folks! 


this photo has been left deliberately large, to enable relatives and friends to be able to save it full size .. CLICK TO ENLARGE
prior to opening of St James Church Hall in 1933


AMAZING WHAT TECH CAN DO
Class 1958 - with Mrs Johnson .. CLICK TO ENLARGE
CLASS of 1958
One of several class photos new to us, from former pupil, and later a teacher himself at Ald Cogan, Tony Prosser.
As you can see, the photo was rather well-worn, as we might say, as are many class photos after 50yrs.
This took about an hour or so with a digital pen.
Not perfect, not by any means, but I rather think Mr Johnson, who took this image of his wife's class of boys, would have been rather pleased with the result.

HISTORIC ENGLAND
AERIAL PHOTOS  ... for free!

I wonder if this will catch someone's eye.

The
link below is to this 1942
aerial RAF recce photo.
RAF 1942 recce photo - click link below to see full photo
We see the village, the gunsite, and just
a tip of RAF Sutton at the bottom.
Sharp eyes will spot inflated balloons,
and even anti-glider landing obstacles.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW
in new window . . .
... this one of Sept 1946 shows aircraft!
and this of Aug 1931 shows Stoneferry
Magic or what!!
if impressed . . . .
you can get me a cup of coffee on Fridays!

(they've had problems with some aerial images at the site recently; seems to be fixed now : worth trying again)

WHAT 3 WORDS
Do you know what your own home's 'What 3 Words' are?  The 3 words that could be your lifesaver in a serious  emergency?  Just three little words, if you already know them, shouted into a phone will bring the emergency services to your front door pronto .. real quick! The Museum's 3 words are 'tune.amount.orchestra.'
Every address in the country has them, more accurate than a postcode.
As us in the museum to help you to find yours ... and teach your kids. Seriously.

There's more details below, with a link on how to find yours.
Or Ask us to Help.

UPDATED CHURCHYARD LISTS

The Churchyard Lists for both churches, at Sutton and at Wawne, have had a 'new' update. No extra graves, the lists are exactly the same, but a new format has been added, in that a new list for both shows all the graves in date order, by year.  The link is on the existing lists.

For the past few years, both lists have been first shown by surname alphabetically, and then also in numerical order, according to their numbered listing in the Monumental Inscription booklets, listing every grave and what could be read on the headstone the last time it was readable in the 1970s.
The new lists just show the earliest graves, from the mid-1700s, to modern times, so roughly up to the new millenium, c.2000-2010.


 
TWO SUTTON VIEWS
Here's another view most of you would not have seen from this angle, but I'd bet many of you former school-aerialview-1970s pupils will see many things to recognise in this cracking quality photo. I've scanned it good quality and left it big enough to fill the screen.  Click to open in a new browser window, and see it enlarged. It will show full screen if you know how; pressing F11 helps, or sometimes Fn+F11, depends on your keyboard setup. See what you can pick out, what features take you back years and years .... something tells me this was a school day, and this was in the morning before break time.

One feature, almost unnoticeable, is a real joy, being Eric Johnson's greenhouse. Former headmaster Mr Johnson was keen on gardening, and just as keen on introducing children to this valuable hobby. So the pupils had a thriving little garden at the back of the school. This is the only known image we have of it. Many thanks to Pam (neé Suddaby) and Rob for bringing this in for us. A lovely quality pic.  Update: though we do have some short clips from John Riley's cine film of the boys helping to build and assemble it.  Hope to show some of that soon in a 'presentation.' Castle Hill Lane

Another quality photo from Pam here on the left that may bring back distant memories for Sutton folk. In a way, although a mile or two distant from the village itself, this scene almost epitomises what Sutton felt like back then, rural, a bit out of the way, peaceful and with definite overtones of the old world of England long ago.  Castle Hill Road was a very popular venue for a Sunday afternoon walk, and many boys and girls will remember playing amongst those trees on the old mound, just near Castle Hill Farm, now sadly no more. 

Several local farms of fond memory have long since ceased to exist. Old Sutton folk that revisit often ask us exactly where it was, as they are confused by the newer Noddle Hill Way cutting right across it, actually not far from where this drain bridge was and behind the camera. If you can find it on your map, and take a straight line across Noddle Hill, the old lane cuts right through where Biggin Hill  School is now, and would exit onto Wawne Road roughly opposite Barnstaple Road today.

Victory Charter WWII Another of Pam's precious keepsakes that she has donated to our museum is this Victory Charter, signed by the King, a copy of which was given to every schoolchild in Hull - maybe nationwide too, I don't know.  Click the image to enlarge and read.  The reverse side has a sort of 'war diary' of notable wartime events, of defeats and victories and is a sort of memory jogger to children who grew up during those times. 

The bottom of the other side of the page leaves a space for families to enter details of their own particular family's contribution to the war, intended to be marked to honour those who served on the Home Front as firemen, air raid wardens, Civil Defence volunteers, and of course, any who served in the military, in whatever capacity.  Pam didn't fill this in, but we know that her father Len Suddaby served in the RAF as a photo recconnaisance interpreter. He was one of many in the large teams of 'back-room boys' making sense of the valuable intelligence gathered by those brave pilots who flew very high in unarmed Spitfires and Hurricanes over enemy territory to gather those very highly detailed photos. These are what enabled such detailed plans to be made for the eventual invasions in Italy, and later, on the Normandy coast of France on D-Day.  Click HERE to read the back and see how much of that history you know .. and spot those events left out.

Some More Vague Sutton Memories

Let's start with a memory of an old Sutton farm, Woldview Farm on Leads Rd. This is the corner Midmere Avenue and was taken around 30 years ago, when it was still very like building that we see here in this 1960s view.
WoldViewFarm, c.1990The memory is prompted by recent visits by ex-Sutton residents to the museum and pouring over our huge photo collections, and also some of the scanned pen & ink drawings by the late Ken Cook.  There are several featuring scenes on Leads Rd, including the old garage once owned by Ken's parents who lived at Springfield Cottage.  Quite a lot of local young folk, now in their late teens and early twenties, will remember this house as being their 'Cherub Nursery' up until quite recently in memory terms, only some five years ago or so, albeit with a huge extension on the side nearest this corner.  Time moves on, scenes change, and memories are made to be filed away in the back of our minds, only to be brought back to life by an unexpected image such as this. There are many more on these pages ... explore, enjoy!

_____________________________________________

THE ADVENT OF STEAM ... for those with an interest in steam engines and such ...
Talking of farming, of years ago, brings me to this fascinating discovery. An entry in a massive newspaper sheet for a paper called "The Pilot", dated 12 June, 1837, just eight days before Queen Victoria's accession to the throne. This little extract details a fascinating farming experiment; see what you think. For I think they started something big here. Print quality was quite poor, so tidied up a fair a bit to make it all more readable.
It's saved as a photo, jpg, and loads MUCH bigger if you click it ... 

NOTES:  Horwich is over on the Lancashire Moors, roughly between Wigan and Bolton. Red Moss is now a noted nature reserve. This agricultural-industrial history is well known to the "LANCASHIRE PAST"  website, which details a lot more, includes a drawing sketch of this phenomenal machine.Take a look ....
click to load in a new window.
I have a feeling this experiment led to major changes in farming that very quickly even affected our area.  The common census entry, "ploughman", would soon become more and more rare. 


A fine bit of English journalism for it's time, that explains it very clearly, without undue drama, so it is almost visual in the imagination -- I couldn't have put it better myself. 
Having said that, do click the link above to view it ... amazing!

__________________________________________________________________

FROM THE TOWER
Another set of memories here, for those who were lucky enough to get up there and see these views. Looks like there may have been a late fall of snow, and it's springtime. These might have been taken on St George's Day.
getting a flag raising ready view east, towards Salthouse Rd Lowgate-Church St corner view south, over Chamberlain St and towards the city, seen in distance view to west, over old cottages, school and railway station. towards Wawne Rd The very observant will note that, in the view of the school, the playground is still fully concreted, and we can just see the tip of Mr Johnson's greenhouse peeping out in from the other side of the dividing fence behind the new vicarage, in front of the white hut, the senior pupil's classroom by that time. Memories!!

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  OUR CHATTY CAFE

Chatty Cafe in our tearoom   Chatty Cafe in our tearoom   Chatty Cafe in our tearoom

On arriving at the Old School to unlock, shortly before 10am, I was struck by the cheerful sunlight streaming through into our 'Chatty-Cafe', seen here in these three snapshots.  After some of the weekends we've had, we consider ourselves most fortunate to get several decent ones on the trot for our Heritage Weekends.  After the extensive hard work the volunteer team have put in to their displays, they deserve some reward for their efforts. By the way, look at the right-hand pic showing the serving hatch. Directly above, mounted on a strip of varnished wood, is our original Sutton Station sign, relocated from our preserved seat, just outside our main door. The one on the seat is a copy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
KEN COOKE'S DRAWINGS

Progress on archiving the late Ken Cooke's pen and ink drawing collection is now complete. We have now scanned and catalogued 107 in total, unless anyone knows of any more.  A good 60 or so are of other villages out and about around East Yorkshire.

A lady met me at the gate as I unlocked a week or so ago. Beverley had come all the way from Australia tracing her family history.  She had a good list of graves to search for, by the name of 'Ashton', in both Sutton and at Wawne, and several other villages round and about.  But, sad to say, we could not find one single record or grave photo.  All we could say was that, for graves of the era she was searching for, 1700s-early 1800s, they would be fairly close to the church itself.  But, if there had been headstones, they had gone by the time the Monumental Inscription booklet was compiled and published in the early 1970s, so no photo or record of any headstone either as that archive is the Bernard Sharpe Collection, which he started in 2008.  So apart from a cup of coffee and our best wishes for the rest of her holiday, it was a fruitless search.  Her info was from reliable sources, Ancestry, FindMyPast and FamilySearch, which also gave her baptisms back to the 1700s, so we know her folks are in there.  Just no stone left to see, and no record either, other than what is in the old record books now held at The Treasure House in Beverley.  A great shame.  It's not often that happens, drawing a total blank.

Former pupil John Wall brought us photos of his late parents' shop.  Many will remember the former WALL'S store near "The Wall's grocery store, Church StShip Inn".  He also brought us some photos of horses and ponies they used Wall's grocery store, Mr Mrs Wall to own, soon to be posted on "The Pinfold" page.  John went to Cavendish Rd School, and remembers many of his contemporaries that were friends that came to this school.  I'm guessing many pupils here bought their crisps and sweets in his mum and dad's shop.

Just for fun, click the first vase of flowers on the Home Page for a musical puzzle. The puzzle was a charming love message, from a soldier based in Sutton in WW1, Cpl Barlow of the RGA, to his longed-for sweetheart.  Men were romantic, and charming, and real gentlemen in those days. 
Most old pupils will get it, though I doubt many today will. I'm not 'musical', can't play a note, but I got it. Always remember 'the scales'. 

Another visitor was former pupil here Alex Watson. Whom we now know was the donor of a small collection of school class photos from the late 1950s to 1963, taken by Eric Johnson.  I only posted one of them on this site last night, taken from a part of Merrill's photo collection, but unamed.  I had no idea where they had come from; now we know they were Alex's, left to us by him anonymously one day on a CD he had prepared.  It's quite a little set. Go to the Home Page, find the graphic of the school, and click one of the white circles on the school wall.  Old girls will remember playing ball to those circles, and the boys cricket at the painted white stumps below.














Wawne, c1893

click to enlarge
































T H E   E N D

??


but not quite ....this GOOGLE info re-aligned from the top of the page .....


GOOGLE and our website
It is with much sadness, and a great amount of 'miff',
that we have to announce the closure of our previously free Google Website,
the one you used to be able to see when you click on our Old School on Google Maps.
For those who have never seen it, this link takes you, for now .....
GOOGLE US.

From March 1st, the website we have there will no longer show, but just the main profile of your main website manager, that's me!  
I created and maintain it under my own name.
Then, from June 10th, it will not show you anything at all,
just a bland notice saying it has all closed.


Really thrilling news.  Yes, very miffed indeed.  We will of course, still have this main website, the one we pay for privately, and incidentally, is paid for by your generous donations.  On the Google site as it shows now, there is of course a link that takes you directly to this site, but that ultimately will be withdrawn. 

Perhaps we should not be complaining. After all, the Google site has always been free, the only input required was the extra amount of learning this tired old brain needed to master in order to make sense and best use of it, to place photos, announcements, etc.  It hasn't cost us a penny, so far, offered by the goodness and largesse of one of the world's largest and richest technology companies.

But I strongly sense here that there will be soon a requirement, a 'request', for us to shell out some of our funds to keep our placement on Google Maps too.  Like with most tech companies today, here now comes the rub off, just as many of you are finding currently with internet companies and their marvellously 'cheap' subscription deals to undermine KC. Like fish, we are all on very sharp hooks.

So, if any of you run a small business, and trade is enhanced by your placement on Google Maps, beware .... times are a'changing.  No doubt the tech companies will make a fortune building you a new site to replace your Google one.  But not here, they shouldn't even ask us. I have enough trouble remembering all the tricks to maintain this one you're reading now.  But, for the most part, you'll have no choice but agree and pay up.  Government calls all this 'trade' and 'economics' .. I suspect most of us have another old English word for it - I'm still allowed to use English, I think - .... Corruption.

And if you don't subscribe to keep your place on their maps, your business will surely suffer. 
Oh, you can be well assured, they'll make very sure of that.  

Just like with the Post Office and our own Government,
you can't fight them.
You will not win!  Never.

10 January 2024