There is no reason to suppose that Grange Farm does not have mains sewerage, and every reason to think that even if it didn’t when the Grundys leased it from the estate, Oliver would have got that sorted out before he moved in. Ambridge is not in the middle of Dartmoor, and it has a water treatment works. (That’s a sewage farm to us old-fashioned folks.)
A standard BT phone/broadband/TV combination package is a tenner a month, twice that if you want the HD channels. The broadband is rubbish compared with what you can get from a real ISP, but I don’t suppose they care.
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Surely not…
…shop-bought mayonnaise?
What is the world coming to? It’ll be cartons of custid next…
(Only joking - though I do make both. Only because we tend to have a surfeit of eggs, though! Spaghetti carbonara is another good way to use up a few)
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I had a Carbonara in Rome. In a “real” Roman trattoria. I fancied seeing how it was done authentically.
It was horrible.
They pan fried lardons till they were effectively pork scratchings. Then used Rigattoni which, for me, is a bit too bulky. No cream or egg yolk, just the fat from the lardons with a bit of olive oil & some parmesan shavings & oregano.
I think I prefer the non-authentic stuff.
As you were.
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That wasn’t ‘authentic’, darling, just ‘local’.
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Not “local” - just bad. Without the egg it’s not a carbonara! And there ought to be a bit of pecorino in there, too (half & half with the Parmigiano, IIRC)
The Silver Spoon has a wonderfully simple and authentic carbonara. I’ll see if I can dig it out and stick it on the non-Archers page.
And done: Recipes
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They do have satellite tv, but so as not to draw it to the attention of the TV licence people, Eddie bought it 2nd hand and installed the dish indoors in the attic. It seems to be faulty though as he can’t get any picture.
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I don’t live on Dartmoor, and we don’t have mains drainage. Most villages round these them parts don’t either.
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It is the presence of the water treatment works which makes mains drainage more probable. In the village my parents lived in, fairly close to Inkberrow, there was mains drainage ok, though being old it was a little sensitive, and there was doubt in the village that it would manage the load if 200 new houses were built as infill in the river valley.
I see no reason to assume that Ambridge does not have mains drainage, really.
A quick search through Lowfield shows two mentions of septic tanks: Ambridge Hall, after the Great Flood of 2015
The cellar in The Bull is still a disaster zone; everything down there is a write-off. In the bar they are doing what they can but the kitchen needs a complete refit. They won’t be open any time soon though Fallon is keen restore some sort of service; the pub is the heart of the village. Lynda puts up a poster in the pub about Scruff; Lilian, who is helping with the clear-up, asks about the state of Ambridge Hall: the downstairs is ruined. The septic tank is not working properly. Linda suggests putting Scruff’s bed in the toolshed and move out; Lynda has an empty house, The Dower House; her offer is gratefully accepted.
and Rickyard Cottage in 2001.
At Rickyard Cottage the Munro family have reported yet another problem. George has brought his rods to clear a blocked drain and he thinks the septic tank is backing up. The place seems to be falling apart, so there will be no more tenants until it is sorted. The people in the bungalow have had a lovely time.
There are 20 mentions of drains, which I won’t copy out here; none of them seems to be unambiguously a mains drain rather than (a) letting water out of a field or ditch or whatever, or (b) something domestic that might lead to a septic tank rather than a sewer. No mention of sewers at all.
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Yes. Even in a modern and mostly civilised country like Italy, it can still be a bit iffy to drink the water.
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But that’s Dartmoor. AIUI windows are a novelty in Dartmoor homes.
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What goes around, comes around…
Pip has a Scruff living at Rickyard Cottage, these days too.
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I doubt if Oliver would have installed a connection to the main sewer on the road because it is uphill, whereas the septic tank would have an excellent soakaway running downhill towards the Am, making it very effective. No-one can make shit run uphill, and believe me I know a few people who’ve tried - townies who’ve thought they could buy the reversal of gravity.
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Funny you should say that, Marjorie, but I was just looking at a house in Westport, Ontario, with a ‘For Sale’ sign, beautiful location, right on the Upper Rideau Lake but, guess what! The sewer actually does get pumped uphill to the main sewer on the road above! Apparently there are several valves involved. Anyhow, people said, ‘Don’t buy it, something’s bound to go wrong sooner or later’.
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Well there, I sit corrected. But I find it hard to believe that if Grange Farm had a septic tank the Grundys would not have managed to make it into a disaster area at some point, given there have been Grundys living there for probably the whole of last century and a couple of years of this.
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Ewww! You wouldn’t want to be downhill of broken valve in that house😨
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There’s a huge incentive to keep your septic tank working effectively, even the Grundys would have risen to it. They are very simple to manage - a set of drain rods, emptying when necessary and that’s it.
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Like they kept their fences mended and looked after the health of their animals, without which the farm would go under and they’d be evicted? They had a pretty good incentive there which they didn’t attend to, and that is why I see no real reason to think they would be competent to deal with a septic tank without forgetting it, assuming that someone else was doing it, not having the money to pay for someone to empty it, or finding it too much labour when they were busy with some scam or other. Or were you thinking that it would be one more task for Clarrie?
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But Clarrie has form for not being reliable at keeping her hands clean.
God help the midlands if she’s ever let loose cleaning a septic tank.
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