A wonderful old photograph showing the Talbot Hotel with its old porch entrance but better still the old AA box. I would love to think that perhaps the man with the bike (standing by the AA Man) was one of my relations in the Grubham family. I always remember the AA man he used to ride a motorbike with side car all in yellow and black, he had a cap in the same style as the army and navy with the AA badge just above the peek and wore heavy gauntlets and goggles when riding. His trousers were of a style similar to a person riding a horse, baggy at the top and thin at the bottom in a khaki colour. Inside the AA box was a telephone and only a member of the AA was allowed to use it. I can't see the telephone box by Alan Morris' garden just beyond the road sign but I don't think that came till later. Today it has now been removed and a post box is where it used to stand. I can't remember it for sure but I think that the AA man also had his own fuel and so I think that the article behind the car (Ford Model T maybe) could have been a petrol pump. Eventually the AA box was removed and for a while Alan Morris used to use the land behind it as a second garden for all his vegetables. Then Walkers had a new semi-detached house built there and this was used by workers on the farm. The AA was formed in on 29th June 1905 and I guess this photo was circa 1920's.

 

 ©peh