From an email to Paul - September 2019

Aldbourne ACGH GROUP are going to have a talk about Fires in Aldbourne. So I sent this little story to Jo.

John Veitch's (Your great grandad) barometer was thrown out of the Boar when there was a fire at the stables next door. It must have been roughly 1920?

Apparently in those days there was no shortage of "volunteers" willing to rush in and "salvage" anything of value. The problem was that some folk took stuff home for "safe keeping".

My mother (Granny) lost jewelry and clothing, some of which she remembers seeing being worn years later.

The barometer was badly damaged, so was not worth "salvaging", but was kept by my mother to remind her of her dad who used to tap it every day to check the weather prospects.

The ceramic face and glass front were broken into many pieces, and the pointer snapped in two. I was tempted to throw it away when I inherited it,

I then decided to try to restore it. I stuck together the pieces of the original face, had a new front glass made and fitted. I took the whole thing apart and restored the woodwork.

Just as grandad did, I now tap it daily. It is still surprisingly accurate, and as you can see it is recording today's high pressure of 30.45ins, indicating fair weather.

I recently checked the reading with the local BBC weekly reading and it was spot on.