Ian Bailey (2)

We never told any of our visitors about the murder. Nor did we tell them that the only person arrested for it, and the only person who confessed to it lived up the road. Ian Bailey sued several papers claiming they said he murdered Sophie du Plaintier.. He lost. It was around this time that Mr Bailey's behaviour towards me changed alarmingly. 

 For several years I had walked across the fields bordering Mr Bailey's property (actually it belongs to Jules Thomas, his partner, but never mind). More recently I'd used the fields for walking our dog. The fields belonged to my good friend Richard Connell. Then one day I was crossing the fields and Bailey appeared at his boundary shouting and screaming. I don't know exactly what as it was windy and i could hear.. I thought I'd give the police this information as he was rather an odd character. Too late, I was informed by the Schull team. "He's made a complaint about you". 

 And so came to pass numerious episodes of Ian Bailey complaining about me walking the fields where I live and had permission to walk. More upsettingly the country police/Garda manning the 'barracks', as Irish police stations are known', were out of their depth and had no experience of this type of offence - or of handling such high profile publicists as Ian Bailey.. 

 On one occasion I had one of them, an unpleasant overweight man,  Guarda Kellihier, come to our house to interview me under caution as Bailey had accused me of making, "Obscene pig noises outside Ian Bailey's house on the public road". 

  I asked this representative of the Irish Guarda what an 'obscene pig noise' sounds like. He couldn't tell me. "So I can't really comment, can I", I replied. 

"Will ye sign this?", he asked me, after having written out his statement of our meeting.   I refused to sign it.  Not wanting to leave empty handed he asked me to sign it again.  I refused. And he realised that he'd spent the last 5 minutes of writing out his account of his interview for me to sign was wasted.   He then wrote on another official form words to the effect that Mr Perry refused to say anything.  He then asked me to sign that.  I refused to sign this too.

He then told me I was being unreasonable. I told him that if you come to someones house, tell them they have been making obscene pig like noises, they can hardly be called unreasonable if the person making the complaint cannot tell me what they sound like in the first place. 

 I also reminded him that I'd called the the Guarda in the first place, not to complain about Bailey but I thought they may want to know his behaviour was rather odd - I was trying to be helpful.   Guarda Khellihier left our house.  The next phase now involved threatening letters from Ian Bailey's defence lawyers and more visits from the Guarda as Ian Bailey started to make numerous complaints about me walking over fields near his house &, spying on him and various other 'complaints' about me.

Living next to a suspected Killer

On December 23rd 1996 French film maker Sophie du Plantier was brutally murdered at her West Cork home in Ireland. The killer was never convicted and there was only one suspect, Ian Bailey who lived with Jules Thomas. (You can google "Ian Bailey+Schull and you'll get dozens of links!)

Ian Bailey lived with his partner Jules Thomas about 150 meters up the road from us. He beat here up a number of times, sometimes enough to hospitalise her.

I have been asked many times what it was like living next to these two. And many times I've been asked, did I think he was the murderer? I'll answer the first question only, although it is public knowledge he beat Jules up a number of times, once so badly she had to be rushed to hospital in Cork City some 65 miles away. You can make up your own mind whether he you think he murdered Sophie.

Although my relationship with Ian Bailey was initially cordial he soon showed an unpleasant streak and was prone to angry outbursts.

Although later we bought the house from them, initially Jules let me rent the place until the contracts were signed. My first brush with them occurred after the water supply broke down. Ian Bailey brought a litre bottle of water round. "we are getting someone to fix it" he said, as he bid me a jolly goodbye. No one came, that day. Or the next. So I got someone to fix it myself. A couple of weeks later Jules came round demanding the rent. I told her I had no money at hand but perhaps she'd like to settle this, and i handed her the bill for the water repairman. "You just can't win' she said as she threw the bill on the floor, and that was the last time I spoke to her.

Some weeks later just prior to the contract being signed I put outside one of the rusty old fridges that were rotting and rusting in the corner of what was left of the kitchen and stood it outside. I couldn't believe anyone would have wanted it anyway it was so rusty and dirty. Ian and Jules saw it and came immediately knocking at the door. Ian was tense and obviously angry. Jules sat quietly in the background. "You being here is costing me money" he frowned at me. I asked why and in reply he said that this was his studio where he wrote his material!! - I felt like telling him that he needed to ask Jules why she was selling the house to me then!. But he was angry and it was obvious there was no reasoning with him. Beads of sweat formed on his brow. He was clearly angry.

There were one or two unpleasant exchanges but nothing untoward until some time after we bought the house he approached me angrily swearing and shouting about me spying on him. Obviously he didn't like me birdwatching in the vicinity of his house.

Other than that we never spoke much as he was always rather sullen. But it all got worse once he'd taken the many newspapers to court for liable, claiming they had wrongly accused him of the murder.

Upset and angry that he'd lost his legal challenge and not liking the fall into obscurity he took some of his anger out on me.

His behaviour towards me changed dramatically. I'll post future posts about his outbursts, complaining to the police, my neighbour and of the numerous solicitors letters I received. Slightly more worrying he was collecting pictures of me whilst I was out walking!.

NATO Naval Communications Competition

At the invitation of the Italian Navy, the first NATO Naval Communication Competition was held in Rome from 2-6 July, 1963, and the following nations were represented: Belgium; Canada; Germany' Italy; Netherlands; Norway; United Kingdom' USA.  Apart from improving efficiency the aim was to give an opportunity for personnel of different NATO countries to meet and discuss the various communications systems and training methods  in their particular countries.  It was also a reward for  outstanding operators.  The competition ran each year until  1974 when it was discontinued.

However Canada continued with a more varied  national competition until 1993, when morse code was finally dropped from their training needs.

(ref;  "morse in the 1980s (Royal Canadian Navy) 

1) David Blazenko 
2) Bob Canning 

Each nation was invited to send three  operators  each with less than six years service to enter the competition of their choice.  The UK sent LRO(G)  J A Burgoine, LRO(G) I M Crozier and LRO(G)  J C Robertson.  The competition was divided up into four categories.  Morse Transmission, using only a straight key (MTX)    morse reception, (MRX)  teletypewriter transmission (TTX)and Flashing light reception. (FRX)

There was normally a team quiz on communications; A team communications relay with a signal/message sent from one team member to the other - teleprinter then sending morse to another operator, then transmission by   flashing light.  I also remember there was also a military/naval  skill such as shooting and also swimming in the 1970 and this was probably similar for the years the competition ran for.!! 

To give some idea of the standard achieved in that first competition the operators competing in  morse reception (MRX) had to take  a 30 minute test of receiving random groups of 5 letters plus groups of numbers and groups of  special signs at over 30  wpm and at over 98.5% accuracy.

The Dutch winner  in that first competition read his exercise at 32 wpm and was capable of transmitting (by straight key) at 30wpm which roughly corresponds to sending 3750 characters!!  

The winner of the teleprinter transmission averaged  60 wpm.   The operator who competed in the flashing light competition had to read 75 groups of letters including groups of figures and a special signs such as,  . : - / ( )  : at 12wpm and the winner of that competition, from Belgium made only 3 errors in  375 characters received!  

(Ref, Communicator Magazine Xmas 1963)

The rules and format changed slightly over the coming years.

The competition venues were:-

1963 - Rome

1964 - HMS Mercury (RN Signal school) Hampshire, England

1965 - Amsterdam, Holland

1966 - Flensburg, Germany

1967 - Halifax, Canada

1968 - Bergen Norway
1969- Amsterdam, Holand
1970 - Brugge Belgium
1971 -  Taranto, Italy
1972 -  Flensburg, Germany
1973  - HMS Mercury (Royal Naval Signal School) in Hampshire, England
1974 -  Bergen, Norway  = the final competition.

The following are some accounts from the various competitions.  Others will be added over time:-

1963  Rome - Italy

The United Kingdom team was composed of LRO(G) M. J. Bee, LRO(G) M. C. Duane, RO2(w) R. W. Southall and RO2(T) R. Palmer.

The UK  came fourth in teletypewriting, third in morse reception, sixth in morse transmission and eighth in flashing light reception respectively, resulting in an overall fifth placing for the Good Communications trophy. LRO Duane put up a most creditable performance. Throughout the five days of the competition he scored one lst place, two 2nd places and two 3rd places, his average score producing the final third overall placing. His greatest opponents was CTI Young of the USA team who, for a little mental exercise, read morse at 46 wpm.

RO2 Southall's sixth position in morse transmitting does not reflect the credit it deserves. He put up a very good performance against some exceedingly strong competition. To win this event a competitor has to make morse like a GNT1 15 auto transmitter at 24/25 wpm.  AB Brooks of Canada, who incidentally made his last and best exercise on an AP580-8558 morse key borrowed from RO2 Southall, made almost perfect morse. After evaluating the Canadian competitor's last exercise, CPO Toth of the USA was overheard to remark, "Not a single mistake. He only scratched a U".  One scratch in twenty minutes high speed morse transmitting is no mean feat.

Another feat was performed by Radioman 2nd class Olson of the United States Navy. He took second place in the teletypewriting event. A very good effort particularly as he has only seven fingers!!

 1964 HMS Mercury signal school

A report can be read in the summer edition of the communicator p70

'The Communicator' magazine can be found here:- https://www.commsmuseum.co.uk/communicator.htm

HERE:- The Communicator

1965 Holland  

A Report can be read in the summer edition of the communicator 1965 p 268

1966 Flensburg Germany

A report can be read in the Xmas edition of the Communicator 1966 p122 

1967 Halifax  Nova Scotia Canada

A Report can be read in the Summer edition of the Communicator  Summer 1968 p 231

1969 - Amsterdam in Holland

Article contribution by Steve Morris*:-

In the 7th annual NATO Communications Training Competition, I was team captain of the 3rd place U.S. NAVY NATO Communications Team at Amsterdam in April 1969, finishing 4th individually (straight key sending) in the "CW" portion of the (then) 10 country NATO competition. The competition tests that year was for 5 consecutive days with a 30 minute 'test' each day. The test consisted of 5 letter/number mixed groups. On three of the 5 test days I managed to average just over 30 wpm for 30 consecutive minutes with the "straight key" (I ended-up with a 27wpm 5 day average)

I was stationed in Turkey (TA2ZZ) at the time & went to Rota, Spain for preliminary competition against other U.S. Navy CW operators. Upon winning the preliminaries, I was selected as Team Captain of the U.S. Navy team.

The team was comprised of 4 communications operators as follows; (all doing five 30 minute tests)
CW reception: RMSN M.W. ALLEN - NAVCOMSTA SPAIN - (finished 4th)
CW sending: CTR1 S.A. MORRIS - TUSLOG Det-28 - Karamursel, Turkey - (Team Captain) - (finished 4th)
Flashing Light reception: SM2 E.A. GRUBB - USS O'HARE - (finished 3rd)
RTTY sending: CYN3 D.R. FARRINGTON - NAVCOMSTA GREECE - (finished 4th)

U.S. Evaluation Group: (from NAVCOMSTA SPAIN)
LT. W.F. WHITEMORE - USN
RMC J.L. TOTH - USN

The competition was held in Amsterdam that year (1969).
"We were all young swabbies (I was the oldest at 22 years old) & more interested in the nite-life that Amsterdam provided than the competition. We managed to salvage a third place overall finish out of the 10 countries. I was in 1st or 2nd place (individually) for the first 3 days & then the nights we all spent "WINDOW SHOPPING" in Amsterdam, caught up with me !

I can still pound out 'round 25wpm or so for a few minutes on a Straight Key & then have to jump over to the BUG. 
I'm comfortable for extended periods right around 18-20 wpm with the Straight Key.  

*(Contribution by Steve Morris, W5BIB - now SK)

BTW; The finishing order of the competition was...
1) Italy
2) Netherlands
3) U.S.A. :)
4) Canada
5) Germany
6) Norway
7) Denmark
8) Belgium
9) U.K.
10) France

What a great experience."

 The RN team was Lt Brogan, team manager, CRS Jordon, Team Trainer  & the team Ro2s, Ham,McBain, Ingram & Thelps.   

And on the evening :-  Also by Steve Morris a story about our signalman and his American opponent :-   

"I don't remember his name, but he & our Signalman (SM2 Grubbs - USS O'Hare) had a helluva night to remember! 

Your Signalman & ours struck-up a friendship.  They had put the U.S. team & the Canadians in the same dormitory. They berthed the U.K. & German team together !!  (imagine that !!).  

One night, our guy wanted to switch uniforms with your guy for a night out on-the-town.  We all thought it was funny, & the switch was made.  Somehow, your guy & my guy got separated ! (Oh HELL !)  

Our guy caught-up with us in a bar (still dressed as a Limey) where were chatting with a U.S. Merchant Seaman on a "Bulk Coal Hauler".  The merchant guy was the chief cook on his ship & invited us back to his ship for a "Steak & Eggs" breakfast. 

It was really funny... the merchant guy couldn't understand how a "Limey Sailor" could have such a "Southern accent" (SM2 Grubbs was from North Carolina).  Grubbs laughed & told the Merchant guy that he was from "SOUTHERN ENGLAND"  (we just laughed & played along)

We had our chow & went back to the base to hit the rack.

I was awakened early the next morning by our Chief & the Officer-in-Charge of the U.S. team, wanting to know where SM2 Grubb was ???  I looked over at his bunk, & he was sacked-out still wearing your Signalman's British  uniform !! 

To cut a LONG story short,...  It seems that your bloke (wearing a U.S. Navy uniform) had gotten plastered in a bar & had stood-up on the bar & was pissing on anyone nearby.  When they tried to get him down, he lunged for a light fixture over the bar & swung on it until it came crashing down !!! 

He was arrested & taken into custody.

Luckily,... the Dutch Police had a sense-of-humor & there were NO charges filed.  BUT, there was sure some explaining to be done. (and I was the U.S."Team Captain") eek.

Our "Chief" & "Lt" (from U.S.NavComSta Spain) were both olde salts from WW-II Submarine service & had both been POW's in the Pacific towards the end of the war & they just rolled their eyes & shook their head! (boys will be boys)"

Steve,  believes this was the RN operator who did the clothes swap:--

RO2 Ham, McBain, Ingham or Thelps??

Steve Morris certificate :-   

Below - Steve Morris, now  W5BIB

The American team

1970 - Brugge, Belgium

Contribution written by David Perry who took part in this competition.

 Here I am receiving a little prize (An engraved propelling pencil), from the CinC NAVHOME, Sir Horace Law  for taking part in the Nato Naval Communications Competition at the Naval Station of St. Kruis, in Brugge, Belgium 1970. 

This competition consisted of four operators from each of the NATO countries' navies, competing in morse transmission, reception, tele typing ing, & reading flashing lights. 

Morse reception  tests by 1970 was carried out  at 36wpm which was the competition standard by then. The test consisted of 20 minutes  receiving 5 letter random groups.   The winner in Brugge was the Italian whose best score had only two or three errors.  There was, at least the year I took part, a team relay - which was passing a coded message via, light, teleprinter and morse, the winning team being the one with the least mistakes and there was also a target pistol competition. 

To have any chance of winning in the morse transmission you needed to send on a straight key more than 25wpm with 99% accuracy and points were deducted if your morse code was not sent perfectly.

Eight of us were recruited volunteers from across the navy and we spent six weeks improving our skills in HMS Mercury before four of us were selected to go to Brugge, one of many venues used throughout the competition's history. I ended up doing morse transmission (MTX) for the competition which was scored by measuring a combination of speed and accuracy.

Our Chief was CRS Mick Puttick (G3LIK) a keen radio amateur - Now a SK (silent key)

Here we are at the Belgian naval base, St.Kruis.

Left to Right:-

LRO 'Happy' Sadd - Zawada... MRX (Morse Reception)

RO2(G) 'Buster' Brown (FRX) (Flashing Light)

Sub Lt. COLLINS ( i/c)

CRS, Mick Puttick our team trainer and a long time amateur radio operator (G3LIK)  Now deceased 2022.

Me! (MTX = Morse Transmission)

Belgian senior rate i/c the Belgian team and was also a  radio ham too. (Now deceased).

Front, RO2 'Taff'  Welstead (TTX) (Teleprinter)

And here is where we practiced in the belgium training school.  (from left to right) One of the Italians, Myself at the front,  the German operator immediately behind me at the rear.  An American and the Dutch operator far right (or was he Danish?).  The competition was run over 5 days.  The key I'm using is a standard issue key made by P Edwards Ltd and Marconi Ltd - more info here:-
http://www.morsemad.com/nato.htm.  .


I didn't do too well - I guess I suffered from nerves during the competition and perhaps a bit too much of the Belgian beers on an evening.  But I did come  3rd in the pistol shooting competition which was included, as it was a 'military' skill.

Here's the certificate I got following the competition..  We also got an engraved propelling pencil each.  We were told the RN budget didn't run to engraved pens!

The competition was reported in The Communicator' summer 1970 https://www.commsmuseum.co.uk/communicator.htm

And on the evening run ashore  Off Duty:-:=  

"We obviously all got into ‘high spirits’, whilst we were not competing.  With great shame we went into Brugge with a some of the American and  Canadian team members.  The others (not me - I was easily scared!!), decided to take down a Belgian flag from outside some department shore.  Unfortunately it got accidentally torn off the flag pole.   Like a bunch of idiots we went into the first  bar holding our newly acquired trophy  between us.  Alas, in the bar was our Chief (G3LIK), the Dutch team trainer who was also a ham and one or two other of the chiefs/instructors.  Oh, dear!!  I clearly remember one of them asking us how we would have felt if someone had done this in our own country.  We took it back and that was the end of the matter."

1971  Taranto Italy 

More in The Communicator Summer 1971 p224

1972 Flensburg Germany

 Reports  can be found in winter edition 1972  of The Communicator p 292 

Reports can also be found in the Spring 1972 edition p 13

Report & Results can be found in the Winter 1972 edition of the Communicator p105

1973  HMS Mercury Signal School.  

Report can be found in the Summer  1973 edition of the Communicator p213 & 215.

I believe this was the first year WRNS could enter.

1974 Bergen Norway - the final competition

This took place at the Norwegian signal training school at Mathopen Bergen.  Representing the RN were   RO2(G) Kenny from HMS Hardy.  Teletype Transmission.

RO2 (T) Laurie from HMS Ark Royal. Flashing light Reception.

RO2(G) Coke. from  HMS Ark Royal. Morse Reception &Transmission 

The Norwegians put a great deal of effort in the organisation of this event and social events included an official reception and a trip on a 35-knot fast patrol boat of the Norwegian Navy, probin deep into the Norwegian fjouyrds., Daily saunas followed ice cold showers were also taken.

The RN team came in third and also came first in two events; teletype transmission and flashing light reception.

Chris Kenny made the following comments:- 

"I  joined in 73, but was a Post Office Telegraphist prior to joining I also learnt to touch type at school, as I chose typing instead of tech drawing. It has served me well. I joined HMS Mercury the RN signal school, already doing 60WPM with 99 to 100% accuracy. So was chosen to represent the RN at the NATO Naval Communications Competition in 1974 in Norway at KNM TORDENSCOLD. I won the competition in TPX, and my oppo also won in flashing light. Sadly we did not do so well in morse. Needless to say having typed all my life, my handwriting is terrible.".  

The official report can be found in the winter edition of the Communicator p 116/117

Much more about the NATO  Naval Communications Competition (NAVCOMCOMP), can be found in communicator.htmwhich is the Royal Naval Communications Museum's website which has copies of the  the  Communicator magazine.   You can scroll through  the magazine until you find more details of the team for that year.  Plus lots of information regarding Royal Naval communications.

I'm now an amateur radio operator myself  =  M6GYU

If you have any memories of this competition you wish to share please add them to the comments.

Saltergate Gallows fell race

Lovely clear Sunday morning and decided to take part in a 8.5mile route with just about 1000ft of ascent at Saltersgate on the North Yorkshire Moors.

Only just made the start as I forgot my trainers and had to turn around to pick them up. Car park at the Hole of Horcum was jam packed full of runners, many of whom were warming up when I arrived. I only just managed to pin my number on before I got to the start!.

The route can be seen here.

I managed to run 99% of the course apart from a couple of up-hill sections. Not bad for a 59 year old!! I came 60th out of 120 runners and was 2nd out of 12 in may age group . Finishing time was 80 minutes. I may even partake in a few more!

Autumn visitors to Robin Hood's Bay

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From our home at the top of the bank I could see skeins of geese flying south, high in the clear blue skies un-noticed by the remaining visitors admiring the views from the top of the bank. And more came by that night calling in the moonlight in their thousands, unheard by customer sitting outside the Grosvenor Hotel.

The following day saw the first autumn gale and I noticed a pair of House Martins were still flying around houses along Mount Pleasant. Not all our avian visitors had left either. But these birds will make their massive migration south across the Sahara to southern Africa to join the swifts which left the village much earlier, a journey of several thousand miles without stopping!. But it’s nothing for a swift. One adult feeding young was ringed bird in the UK at it’s nest in a school belfry, was caught later the same day in Germany. Released a second time it was back feeding it’s young later the same day. A round journey of five hundred miles to feed it’s young.

When many of our human visitors go home for winter they are replaced by many thousands of other visitors, mostly unseen and ignored as they fly at night. Yet these birds have made some of the most dangerous journeys to get here. Even before they start some will have survived encounters with Wolves, foxes or Grizzlies in the great arctic tundra maybe only a week or two ago!

Brent geese, make the dangerous journey flying from Northern Canada over the Greenland icecap, across the ocean to Iceland and ending up in Ireland and the UK. A distance of over 4000 miles covering around 800 miles per day. It is a dangerous journey indeed. I wondered whether the geese overhead were the very ones we’ve heard Cree Indians in Northern Canada imitating to lure them within range of their guns whilst canoeing on a remote northern tundra river a couple of years back.

One radio tagged goose named Kerry was observed to have stopped flying near Resolute bay in the far north of Canada. Anxious to learn what had happened the trackers traced the signal to the home of an Inuit hunter. It was laid frozen in the freezer, food for winter, the tracking device still attached.

Geese have also been observed flying thousands of feet higher than Everest in air so rarefied and cold that would render us humans dead, and frozen in minutes.

Walking along the cliff path at Bay Ness I could see another visitor. Far below the walkers enjoying the late summer sun, a Red Throated Diver fished in the sea below. These too are visitors from the far north and one species even makes it to the shores around Ireland from it’s summer home in Canada. You’ve probably all heard these birds on TV as their eerie, evocative and haunting calls are often heard on programmes about Canada’s wilderness.

Walking on the beach today I saw some other visitors, Dunlins, Redshanks, Turnstones & Godwits, waders from also from the far north, busy feeding on the waters edge, most refuelling before continuing south to winter on the Humber estuary. A visitor walking too close scared them into flight not knowing or caring that these birds were tired and very hungry, having lost a large proportion of their body weight to make it this far. High above the cliffs of Bay Ness a pair of Peregrine falcons searched for likely prey. Some of these waders won’t make it through the winter and many will never make it back to their northern breeding grounds. Many will be blown off course and perish unseen at sea.

Soon our hedgerows, fields and trees will throng with Fieldfares and Redwings, visitors from Siberia and northern Europe gorging on hawthorn, mountain ash and other berries, hungry after their long journey. I have no doubt that one clear night soon I’ll hear these calling above our house as they cross the North Sea to safety in our fields. Some of the Redwings may have flown from Iceland, which will have required a night time flight over the sea of 800 miles. Many other winter visitors cross the North Sea to avoid the harsh central European winters including Robins Chaffinches, Bramblings, and Starlings.

So next time you think all our visitors have gone just spare a thought for those visitors passing overhead unseen in the dark or resting on the beach or in the fields. And the next time you look outside remember that the Robin or Chaffinch you see may have just flown in from Siberia!!

Busy Week

Well, we've been busy getting the house done up. Almost everythings done. We have a functional bathroom, dining room one bedroom and a sort of office cum library.

Out with the Hawk and Owl Trust on Fylingdales moor on Friday and we saw a Merlin. As we returned through Maybecks a Goshawk appeared over the trees. In the car park I noticed that the Piri Piri which featured in several papers which reported on the park's efforts to eradicate this invasive New Zealand weed was unsuccessful. In the very area where several people had been pulling out, I found several more plants and seed heads. This was an area the size of a bed!!

Saturday I was out as voluntary ranger with my partner Trish. Our first outing in 'uniform' Very self conscious but a few people asked us questions, something which they normally do not unless you obviously look like a local. A small drama occurred when I noticed my magnetic badge dropped off un-noticed. Half an hours hunt for it and I discovered it where I'd lent over a fence!!

John Boddy - The Rake in the Trunk

A recent visit to John Boddy timber merchants of Boroughbridge reunited me with this treasure.
It is a trunk of a tree approximately three feet in width. Embedded in the trunk is a rake, part of which you can see. It was discovered around 25 years ago whilst it was being cut up. I believe it was an oak..

OK not too exciting perhaps but consider this. Perhaps 150 years ago, someone was out using the rake. Taking a break, they hung the rake from a small branch of a nearby tree. The rake forgotten was left in the tree. The tree continued to grow for another 50 or more years around it, until it could no longer be seen. Until it was cut down. The tree is much more decayed than I remember from former visits and it is a shame it will continue to rot until this interesting relic is no more. How many more secrets do the inside of trees still hold?