Imagine Gallery

A strange thing happened this morning, I arrived at the gallery and for the first time that I can remember there were no cars parked outside. This doesn't mean that there are always customers outside waiting for me it's just that Long Melford has no parking restrictions so and cars are often left for hours while tourists visit the different sites of interest, as a result it is often hard to find a parking space especially on a nice day and unheard of to be able see the gallery clearly.

I decided that I would take advantage of this event and took some pictures of the gallery from outside, then having started and with the morning being so nice I wandered around the village to get take photographs, something I have often intended to do but never find the time for.

As is often the case I would imagine that the average day-tripper has more pictures of the area

than I will ever get around to taking.

So, I decided that I would give you a glimpse of the scenes that I see and take for granted everyday, there are many places of interest that I haven't included, such as the Alpaca Farm that I stop at each day to collect eggs [where the chickens wander around amongst the herd of Alpaca's who protect them from predators], the famous Bull Inn, the Church [the size of a cathedral], the incredible Elizabethan 'Kentwell Hall', and of course the six 'pubs', perhaps on another nice day I may photograph some of these [not just the pubs].

As the photographs show the village is very long [in fact a mile] hence the name Long Melford and it was once very famous for its antique shops, there used to be 30 of them, in fact many years ago it was the setting for the famous TV series 'Lovejoy', now most of the antique shops have turned into galleries [including ours] but the man who many claim to be the inspiration for the Lovejoy character is still here, running one of the remaining shops.

In fact he once suggested to me that we should merge, and show our art displayed on and amongst his antiques, we never followed through with the idea but who knows "maybe one day".

The pictures show [apart from the gallery] the National Trust owned Melford Hall, a view of the famous green as you approach the village and the start of the street as you enter the village proper.

I say "famous green" because it was made famous by John Lennon who danced with Yoko upon it [and made a video of the event] just after the Beatles had split up.

They stayed in the Bull Inn which is about 50 metres from us, and who knows maybe even came into the gallery to look at antiques [I'm the only antique here now].

I didn't know any of this until one winter evening about 2 years ago.

I was here late with the lights on working on the computer when a couple banged on the window and waived to me. I opened the door to see what they wanted.

They "had to see inside" they said because of the 'John Lennon' connection. I didn't know what they were talking about and asked them to explain.

They were travelling through but had stopped to call in at The Bull to see if they could look at the guest book. They new of and had seen the Lennon video and wanted to find out if he had

"signed in" like any normal guest.

He had, they were really excited and photographed the book, then on leaving they spotted the gallery which at that time just had IMAGINE above the door [I added gallery at a later date].

They "just knew" that there must be a connection and wanted to know if we had named it in honour of the man, I was sorry to disappoint them but was pleased to here about the dancing on the green.

I have never looked at it in the same way ever since, however I don't suppose they danced on such a cold day or as early as the scene in my photograph.

Can you Imagine.