Ted Targett

Opinion & Etiquette

Left Behind, Still Loved: A Winter Audit of the Village Green's Lost-Property Tree

Every cold snap leaves something behind on the village green: a lone glove, a hat with no head, one very committed shoe. I spent a winter auditing the unofficial lost-property tree and found a quiet lesson in thrift, neighbourliness and knowing when not to tidy up.

Nov 13, 2026

Opinion & Etiquette

Forty Minutes Before the Lorry: A Pavement Study of Bin Day Etiquette

Bin day looks like a chore and behaves like a social contract. A dry field guide to handle direction, the night-before people, and the quiet diplomacy of chasing a neighbour's runaway lid down the lane.

Nov 13, 2026

Projects & DIY

Ward Four, You're On: A Month of Dedications, Dead Air and Dolly Parton

Four Saturday evenings behind the microphone at a volunteer-run hospital radio station taught me that the request line is less a jukebox than a noticeboard with a backing track. Also that finding 'the one that goes da-da-da' is a genuine public service.

Nov 12, 2026

Opinion & Etiquette

Marked in Green Biro: Thursdays, Rivers and the Back-Room Arithmetic

A winter of Thursday nights at The Barley Mow, where the quiz starts late, the geography round is a contact sport and the landlord's green biro has its own sense of justice. Less a story about winning, more a report on the small rituals that hold a back room together.

Nov 12, 2026

Opinion & Etiquette

Tape, Tickets and the Village Switchboard: A Year at the Post Office Counter

For twelve months I stood in the same queue, notebook in pocket, and watched a small room do the work of a village square. What I found was less about stamps and more about the unspoken rules that still hold us together in 2026.

Nov 11, 2026

Opinion & Etiquette

The Postcode Is a Suggestion: A Year of Knocking on the Wrong Doors

For twelve months I have written down every letter, parcel and stray takeaway menu that landed at the wrong address on my street. The notebook began as a grumble and turned into a map of who knows whom, who is always in, and whose dog is called Dennis.

Nov 10, 2026

Projects & DIY

The Toaster Has Rights: A Saturday Among Soldering Irons and Second Chances

There is a particular sort of silence that falls when a stranger admits their kettle has given up the ghost. At the village repair café, that silence is soon followed by a screwdriver, a biscuit and a quiet lesson in why we keep things longer than we think.

Nov 10, 2026

Opinion & Etiquette

Brick on the Lid, Faith in the Tin: Notes From a Summer of Roadside Honesty Boxes

I spent the summer of 2026 keeping a notebook of roadside honesty boxes — the courgettes, the jam, the coppers and the bricks holding everything down. What began as a small ledger of prices turned into a quiet lesson in trust, small change and the unwritten rules of where we live.

Nov 10, 2026

Opinion & Etiquette

A Slight Smudge on September: What the 2026 Village Calendar Says About Us

The 2026 village charity calendar has arrived, complete with a blurred harvest supper, a thumb in March and an entire car park in July. I bought two copies, ranked every month and tracked down the woman with the laminator.

Nov 9, 2026

Opinion & Etiquette

Odd Numbers and Good Soap: A Saturday Behind the Tombola Table

Spending a Saturday behind the prize table teaches you more about a village than any parish newsletter. Ted Targett on tins of soup, fiercely contested decorative soap, and the delicate business of winning twice.

Nov 9, 2026

Opinion & Etiquette

The Dame Reads First: An Evening Among Clipboards at the 2026 Village Panto Auditions

A damp Tuesday, a tea urn, and a clipboard I did not ask for. What the 2026 village panto auditions reveal about local ambition, inherited costumes and the quiet tyranny of the rota.

Nov 9, 2026

Opinion & Etiquette

Page Four, Paragraph Two: A Life Spent Reading Between the Parish Lines

The parish newsletter is Britain’s most underrated crime scene: six photocopied pages of rota changes, lost property and deeply courteous accusation. This is a field guide to the characters, corrections and tiny scandals that make community print so compelling.

Nov 8, 2026

Projects & DIY

Five Pounds, Three Fields, One Notebook: A Car Boot Index for 2026

Armed with a single fiver, a thermos and a notebook, I spent the first Sunday of November working three car boot sales within eight miles of home. What things cost, what nobody wants any more, and what a muddy field in 2026 says about how we live now.

Nov 8, 2026

Opinion & Etiquette

Thumbs-Up, Susan: A Field Guide to the Neighbourhood WhatsApp Group

Every street has one: eighty-four members, a name with an ampersand in it, and a notification habit that could wake a hibernating hedgehog. Here's a calm, affectionate taxonomy of the village WhatsApp group — and what it tells us about looking after each other.

Nov 8, 2026

Projects & DIY

The Star Is Wonky and That's the Point: A Field Guide to the 2026 Village Lights Switch-On

Every year we gather in a cold car park to watch a star go up slightly crooked and a school choir mangle a Slade song. Here is my entirely unofficial handbook for doing it properly, from arrival times to the mulled drink queue to why the wonkiness matters.

Nov 8, 2026

Opinion & Etiquette

Fourteen Bottle Caps and a Pram Wheel: What One Bin Bag Taught Me About Where I Live

I spent forty minutes on a Saturday morning picking up other people's rubbish and writing all of it down like a man compiling evidence for a trial nobody asked for. What I found was less about litter and more about the peculiar, biscuit-fuelled machinery of belonging.

Nov 8, 2026

Opinion & Etiquette

Fifty Pence on the Shelf: Confessions of a Charity Shop Book Gambler

Every charity shop has a shelf of books priced somewhere between a Wispa and a thank you. I have spent years treating it as a slot machine, and I think the randomness is the best thing about it. Here is what your £1.50 actually buys you, archetype by archetype.

Nov 8, 2026

Projects & DIY

Number Fourteen on the List: Life in the Allotment Waiting Room

I joined the allotment waiting list in a fit of optimism and was promptly told the wait would be up to four years. What followed was a strange, weed-filled education in community, patience and the careful business of growing cucumbers you never asked for. Here is what I learned before I was even allowed to dig.

Nov 8, 2026

Opinion & Etiquette

The Wonky Label Principle: In Praise of the Museum With the Shivering Radiator

Two pounds, a clanking radiator, a drawer marked Miscellaneous and a mummified cat labelled Probably. Ted Targett makes the affectionate case for the volunteer-run local museum, and offers seven rules for visiting it properly.

Nov 8, 2026

Projects & DIY

Blu Tack and Belonging: A Year Spent Reading Other People's Small Ads

Two hundred and fourteen noticeboards, three towns, and a year of walking about with a camera and a flask. Ted Targett on lost cats, sheds with some damp, and why the pinboard may be the last honest local newspaper we have left.

Nov 8, 2026