
An occasional blog about Boot Sales and other odds and ends. Sorry there will be no new music. I can be contacted on lordofthebootsale@btinternet.com
Monday, May 26, 2025
Bank Holiday Boot Sale

Sunday, May 25, 2025
Herman Emmink - Tulpen Uit Amsterdam
I found this record released in the Netherlands in June 1957 in a local Charity Shop, Max Bygraves i recorded the track in English and was released as the 'B' side of You Need Hands in April 1958, this reached #3 in the UK Charts.
At one Boot Sale many years ago I stopped at a stall who had a number of records, it turned out that they were all foreign pressings, on enquiring the price of the records I was told £3 each as they are foreign, I thought that's way too much and I'm about the only person here that buys foreign records, and I then to get them at for below 50p. I looked again at the records on the way out, none had been sold.
Monday's Boot Sale
I am playing it by ear for tomorrows Boot Sale, I will go if there is no more rain today, where I live is on the Bourn Line where the London Clay meets the Chalk of the South Downs, Hook Road Arena is on the clay and readily floods, until 1950 there was a railway across the site that went into a cutting to pass under Horton Lane this was filled in I don't know what or where the infill came from but it has worse drainage than the clay in summer you can tell the course of the railway cutting by different vegetation growing on the infill, the area is now used for the Boot Sale car parking.
Sunday, May 18, 2025
Sharron Tandy - World
A Quiet Week
Last week I set the alarm on my phone to 03.30 to get up early for the fishing trip guess who forgot to cancel the alarm, it went off at 0.3.30 today, on the route to the A3 I go past Hook Road Arena, I was passing it at just past 05.00 and sellers were queuing up to get in, as I went past the site of the A3 Boot Sale the sellers were setting up
At last weeks Boot Sale another unusual item you would not expect to see at a Boot Sale was a 'Resussy Annie' doll used to teach mouth to mouth resuscitation, why I didn't recognise it at first it was a male one these are much rarer then the female ones, also it was just the upper torso, when I did first aid we had one similar but as a female and was known as Arthur, it was also a high end model as it had a tray of electronics open, some of the more sophisticated models gave print outs of the performance etc.
Monday, May 12, 2025
Fishing Sunday May 11th
05.00 Car loaded and ready to go, extra time added due to contra flow at Wisley and the A3/M25 slip roads being closed, I always join the A3 at Cobham so no problems for me, at 05.15 on a Sunday the A3 is not generally busy, there being only 2 other cars going in my direction, the estimated arrival time remained constant, eventually arriving at the marina at 06.34.
The fishing trip was booked as a Black Bream/Smoothound trip, however the Bass turned up so it became a Bass, Black Bram & Smoothound trip, on conformation of the trip the night before the wind speed had increased this would make it rough on the Bass grounds, the trio was changed to Tope, Black Bram & Smoothound, on the day the wind did was quieter than predicted.
Sunday, May 11, 2025
Strawbs - The Man Who Called Himself Jesus
I first came across this record on the now long gone Red Lion pub in Hampton Public Bar Juke Box, someone saw the record on the Juke Box in the early 1970's and was trying to buy the record, he was offering £7 (more than a weeks wages for me at that time), the offer was refused as the record was not owned by the pub or the Juke Box company, I don't know who owned the record, I do know who it was given to when the landlord left and all the privately owned records were removed, the price the person was prepared to pay for the record made me think it was a rare record as there was at that time no books giving the value of records, later I acquired a copy for £1 and given a second copy later.
On the CD of the Strawbs greatest hits this has a spoken introduction that goes over the start of the track, the single does not have the spoken introduction, the Strawbs were a local group to Hampton where I was living at the time, they were known as the Strawberry Hill Boys, just a couple of miles away.