We were in the same ‘group’ on the graphic design course at Manchester School of Art, which is what it was called back then before ‘people’ got hold of it, changed it to a polytechnic and then morphed it into part of Manchester Metropolitan University. Peter Green was one of eight of us. Two groups of four in the illustration department. Peter, Ed, Roy and Terry, then me, Julia, Jenny and Diane, and there was another girl who popped in now and again seemingly just to put her feet up, gossip and smoke. As I recall she wore knee high leather boots and the miniest mini skirt under a coat she never took off. She wasn’t stopping.

Ed was probably the most talented draughtsman, Terry became a professor of illustration so he wasn’t half bad either, Roy went on to work in training for one huge company in the North for his entire working life, Julia is a printmaker and top reportage illustrator. Jenny became a successful children’s book illustrator. I have no idea what happened to Diane, and the smoking girl seemed to evaporate.

And Peter ended up in a high flying sort of PR job dealing with very technical stuff that I still don’t quite understand. He lives in Swindon and we’ve met a couple of times of late for a walk and gossip. ‘What happened to that girl in the boots and mini skirt do you think? ‘ ……’No idea! ‘

He’s also a bit of a historian so when he suggested a trip to Oddas Chapel on the banks of the Severn, and the nearby Deerhurst church, I was all for it. Weather set fair apart from a bit of wind, we pootled down there. Viewing the 6th century font in the Church . ‘Blimey’ said Peter ‘ they’d only just invented religion back then’. An apt description. What I like about the area is the complete absence of any road noise and a view from the River bank that has not changed for hundreds of years.

We had a brisk walk along the banks of the Severn, huge trees that I later found out were poplars, whistling in the wind. Then off to Tewkesbury for a most pleasant lunch at a small Italian place. A mooch about Tewkesbury Abbey and then I delivered him back to the station, both of us sated with history., ours and others.

Altogether a grand day out, and here are the pictures to prove it.