Their former farm is being sold *as is*, so it’s a modernisation opportunity.. *desirable country residence with land, fantastic potential for improvement* reads the brochure. It takes a while to find the right buyer. Debbie Aldridge and her future husband view it, but reject it as the work required is too much for them. Her father Brian disapproves of her relationship with the older man, whom she met at college (he was her lecturer!) and its eventual result is another long running Ambridge tale that is outside the scope of this blog. Debbie is rarely heard these days, Tamsin Greig is busy doing other things...
Affordable rent problems.. nothing new there
The Grundies can’t afford to rent in Ambridge - a problem that the scriptwriters have returned to recently – so Eddie’s solution is to buy a cheap caravan, but where to put it? Well, Eddie’s not too respectful of land belonging to the *landed gentry*, and in particular he doesn’t hesitate to cock a snoot at his former landlord, Borchester Land (BL). So the caravan’s placed in a quiet clearing on Estate land, where Eddie’s son, Will, is in training as an assistant gamekeeper. Debbie’s stepfather Brian Aldridge, a local landowner and large scale farmer, is the owner of the shoot that employs Will, and is also on the Board of BL. He’s a great supporter of the Grundies, believing in an old-fashioned approach to charity - it begins at home, by looking after locals less well off than you are – and he turns a blind eye.
Eventually though, BL finds out, and the Grundies are evicted again, twice by the same landlord! This time, their old friends Betty and Mike Tucker come to the rescue by allowing them to park the caravan in their yard. Mike Tucker is the local milkman, and in a later episode we’ll see how this enables Oliver Sterling to help Ed again, as they go into business selling local high quality milk from Ed’s small herd, kept on the Grange Farm land. But this is in the future, and Ed still has his teenage problems to work through before it can happen.
Oliver Sterling comes to the village
Oliver joins us late in 2000, being introduced as the mystery buyer of Grange Farm around November. His renovation work is remarkably speedy and by January 2001, he’s having a housewarming. Eddie in particular finds it difficult to be fair to the man who now occupies their old home, but comes to like and respect him, as he learns in time that Oliver is a good man, who gives Ed a lot of help to get through the difficult times he faces as he grows up.
Meanwhile, back at Meadow Rise
Left largely alone in Borchester, it seems Ed’s falling into bad company. Whilst in Ambridge he’s been involved in minor vandalism at the Bull, and when at the flat he spends time with newly introduced character Jazzer, a classmate who’s lived in the town for some time with his single parent mum. Living there without Clarrie’s supervision, there are some wild parties and complaints from the neighbours! Clarrie stays the night with him when she can, but as now, she is always rushing from one of her jobs to the next so finds it difficult to be there as often as she'd like. Really, she deserves to retire. She's 63, you know.
We often find Ed taking the school bus to Ambridge rather than going back to Meadow Rise; in the village, Emma and Ed are very good friends, and enjoy spending time together listening to music. Ed is 16 and taking exams in this year of major upheaval, and it’s no surprise when he fails his GCSEs. If I remember correctly, Emma works hard at her lessons yet she still fails the exams. She’s so upset by the unfairness of this that she turns her back on formal education.
Ed’s other female friend is Fallon, daughter of Sid’s newly installed girlfriend, country singer, and star of the shower scene Jolene, but with Fallon it’s a more platonic interest in music and good times. Their band, Dross, forms around this time, with Ed, Fallon, Jazzer and his brother as members. They are into grunge music, if I remember correctly, not the country music that Eddie and Jolene would prefer!
Finally, Ed joins the rest of the family in Ambridge, but this doesn’t mean he moves into the caravan, oh no. Instead, he spends the summer in a tent camped nearby. Not just a normal tent but a traditional “Bender” made of natural bendy wood branches covered in tarpaulin, and much loved by the female youth of Ambridge, at least for the rest of the summer months.
As life in the caravan becomes cold and wet, Eddie persuades Jack Woolley (Peggy’s 2nd husband to carry that name) he can rely on the Grundies as tenants for his vacant house, Keeper’s Cottage, one of a pair built in 1960. They move in late Autumn, and can finally give notice on the flat at Meadow Rise. Unfortunately for Ed, who is going to miss using it as a party pad for his townie mates.
Soon we’ll be reading about the growing youngsters, enjoying their grunge music and starting to fall in love, in our next episode of this Grundy / Grange Farm Blog.
Meanwhile, here's a clip from Gorillaz. Enjoy it, Ed and Emma would.