Fun Monday # 54 Nothing to laugh about!

Sayre has kindly set this week's assignment she says..................

"Every day as I go to work, I see things around me that make me laugh. Usually these are in the forms of signs. So take your camera with you as you go about your business and take a picture of the things that make you laugh along the way (but it doesn't necessarily HAVE to be a sign)".

I took my camera everywhere last week but do you think I saw anything remotely entertaining... zilch!! So come Sunday I was getting desperate and because I couldn't find anything really amusing.....I decided to go with an unusual street name! Embee got roped into driving me to photograph this..... the original sign used to like this....... It is a quiet lane and we walked down to see the rear of some quite large houses that back onto the lane............. no nothing funny!

So let me tell you the reason for this name...............Pitch and Pay Lane might sound a cheerful name reminiscent of children’s games, and fun. . . but it's true story would not have been funny to the people who lived in the area back then!!

The lane was once a little country road centuries before this part of Bristol was developed by rich Victorians.

The odd name recalls dark days when the old city of Bristol was often struck by plagues and epidemics. The City Docks were notoriously filthy and contagious diseases were rife for those living beside what was nothing less than an open sewer.

Bristol’s reputation for disease was so bad that country folk living around the town were always worried about dangers to their health. Whenever a new outbreak occurred, Gloucestershire farmers and smallholders refused to come near the place. They were only prepared to sell their produce at a safe distance from the unhealthy Bristol folk.

So, at this pre-arranged spot, they developed the practice of pitching their produce at the waiting, hungry Bristolians. . . while the citizens paid by throwing back the necessary cash. It was an early example of the quarantine principle - pitching, paying and preventing the spread of disease. Ha , I guess they didn't realise that germs would very likely be passed across on the money!!

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One thing I did see when I was out was this notice, written in Polish.......... the literal translation, according to my google search is 'rooms until hire' which I found mildly amusing as we would say 'rooms to let'~ maybe that's why the place looked empty!!!

Sorry I couldn't follow the rules on this one, I bet tomorrow I will see something that would be a lot more entertaining!


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