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In the microscopic microcosm of Ambridge, it seems that any travel is frowned on, like it is a fate worse than death.
A fortnight in New Zealand is viewed with nothing short of horror, as is trying to forward your career by moving to Scotland or Brazil. Moving your herd to Prudhoe is tantamount to treason.
When Mike & Vicky moved to Birmingham, the opinion was voiced that they might never be seen again. The thought of the Grundy’s taking a flat outside of the village is the end of the world.
Even moving the Village Fête to Lower Loxley was viewed by some characters as being dangerously radical.
However, Fallon & Harrison did manage to move from “The Bull” to Auntie Cardboard’s house NEXT DOOR without too many eyebrows being raised.
So… in the travel-averse world of “The Archers”, how far do you think you could go without incurring the ire of your fellow villagers?
The “clan” are attached by unbroken umbilical chords to Ambridge. They can move no further than Penny Hasset, or in special circumstances, they can be allowed to have dispensation to live for short periods in a flat in Borchester, (Shula and Mark when newly wed, the Grundys at Meadow Rise, Kenton over Jaxx).
If they ever do travel overseas, it has to be the Colonies, Africa, Canada and New Zealand are popular, but should any of them do this, they run a serious risk of vocal displacement on their return…
Renegade clan members occasionally do take European holidays, well ok, usually just Pat and Tony, but Jenny and Brian did manage a weekend in Prague last year.
The Sterlings apparently love Italy, but they are not clan members, and now it appears that they are so far away they can’t get back to grab another suitcase of clothes or to check on their property, horses or business before settling in to their life in exile….I’ve moved around quite a bit in my adult life so no one would give a monkeys where I live on the planet!
Quite so, Roifield – I’ve worked in North & South Wales and at various points along the M4 corridor – you go where the work is. That’s why the attitude of Ambridge’s finest seems so weirdly out of sync with modern life. Two miles up the road to them might as well be a foreign country, with passport control and everything!
I’ve spent my life travelling, only settling for longer than 10 years, in the past 10 years. So, I know that I’m not a good judge on how other folk must view moving about. When I lived in Somerset, in a small village, there were many villagers who regarded a trip to Bristol (18 miles away) as a wild adventure! And LIVING elsewhere, as in “beyond Somerset” as an impossibility. They nearly had a blinking heart attack when I decided to move to America. Many of those friends still live within 10 miles of where they were born. Some of them still regard a trip beyond the confines of north Somerset as daring! When I tell them that I’ll be visiting family in S. Wales before driving to Somerset to see them, they sometimes wonder at my ability to gad about so.
Then , a few years ago, I interviewed the oldest resident of a small village in Pennsylvania, the village is called Nescopeck; situated on the banks of the Susquehanna river; it is opposite the town of Berwick, (Which locals pronounce “Berrick” although folk in other parts of PA mis-pronounce “Ber WICK” …in fact, that’s how you can pick out a native of Berwick, Pa…..)
Berwick is a mile from Nescopeck, over the bridge. This elderly lady was 101 years old when I interviewed her in 1999. So she had been born in 1898. Born and raised in Nescopeck, she commented that her husband once moved them to Berwick , as he’d found a job there. But she begged him to move them back to Nescopeck, as Berwick was so far away ; and so big. (Berwick is one mile away, and a very small town).
Rural folk take longer to catch up, and it’s all relative. Living now in America, I think nothing of zipping 100 miles away; the roads, indeed encourage me to do so. As a young girl in rural Somerset, 20 miles seemed a very long distance.
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