by Steve Tanham
If time proves to be not just malleable, but revisitable, we can close our eyes and be back in a tiny Lancashire hamlet called Tockholes; graced by a pub, a few stone cottages and a car park/bus turnaround of the farthest route from Bolton’s bus station, on Moor Lane, in the town centre.
Had my share of nightmares, didn’t think there could be much more
Then in walked Rodrick Usher with the Lady Eleanor…
The car park’s sole occupant is a Ducati 250cc single-cylinder motorbike. It’s not new, but it’s a lovely, metallic mid-blue and silver, and this is the first outing of its new life with a sixteen-year old who has just passed his bike test.
The boy and bike are on an inaugural celebration run to mark their pairing – provided by the lad’s father to mark success at the GCE exams, at which he’s just done quite well.
She tied my eyes with ribbon of a silken ghostly thread
I gazed with trouble vision on an old four poster bed
He’s not with the bike, though it brought him here and sits in the pub car park, polished and gleaming as much as a six-year old machine can.
He’s here – in Tockholes – because, on a previous occasion, it was on the way here in the family car that he first heard a piece of music so powerful that he feels it changed his young life … and he had dreamed that, if he passed his exams and his bike test, he would come here and celebrate with a flask of hot tea and a Turkish Delight chocolate bar … at his favourite ‘me-spot’ by the lakeside, below.
The place where he first sang to The Lady Eleanor.
It’s a ten-minute descent from the pub’s car park to the lake. He’s been singing to himself the whole way. The volume of his singing increases as the water comes into view – calm and beautiful… and receptive; as though the lake is listening.
And the Lady of this lake is Lady Eleanor … and she listens to the boy singing and accepts his tribute. The valley resonates with the exchange.
Life is good. Very, very good.
Last Saturday, the creators of the Lady Eleanor song – the still-performing group Lindisfarne – came to The Platform concert venue in Morecambe.
The sixteen year old young man was there …
and so was his Lady Eleanor …
Here’s a YouTube video if you’d like to warm those memories…
©️Stephen Tanham, 2025.
Sun in Gemini 
That is such a lovely song from a memorable time in your life. Like you music can take me time travelling 💜💜💜
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Thank you, Willow ♥️
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A pleasure … Happy Christmas to you and the family 💜💜💜
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And to you and all your loved ones ♥️
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Thank you 🙏
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Great memories spurred by a song. Hubby has been riding motorcycles since he was 15 and his dream was to one day own a Ducati. He had to wait until he was almost 60 but he did it. He moved it to Spain ten years ago. Sadly he had to sell it due to back issues a couple of years ago.
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Thank you, Darlene! Send hubby my sympathies… I still have one but it’s rarely used.
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Hubby still goes out for a ride every week, and does a couple of long distance rides a year. He misses his Ducati but is OK with his Kawasaki. (He’s also had, over the years, numerous Honda Gold Wings, and a BMW)
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That’s a very familiar journey! I also had a Gold Wing. Huge but wonderful – and it had a reverse gear!
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Many thanks, Stephen for this presentation of the Lady Eleanor!
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Thank you, Martina!
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Ah, wonderful, Steve. A favourite spot of mine too, as you know. Lindisfarne and a Ducati, 1976. Heady days. By coincidence I’m writing about a music festival in Rivington. In 1976. Must have been something in the air back then
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Yes, I think something was ‘in the air’ then, Michael. Is this part of a new novel? Look forward to it!
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Just a little something for the blog. 🙂
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Great idea! There was a song, wasn’t there, with that title! 😄
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Phil Collins, 1981?
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