Barry and Fi discovered the canals, hiring a narrow boat for their annual holiday. They even made a trip to the Canal du Midi in the south of France. On Midsummer Day 2017, we met Barry to walk along the canal towpath and over Harecastle Tunnel at Kidsgrove.

Barry was waiting for us, looking very smart in his shorts and hat. All went smoothly as we climbed the path up Harecastle Hill, until it became overgrown with waist-high nettles. Freda was wearing shorts too. “Is there another way?” asked Barry. There wasn’t. I had to go ahead and trample the nettles down, while Freda and Barry gingerly followed behind. Once over the hill, we continued along the Macclesfield Canal for lunch at the Bleeding Wolf, an attractive, thatched country pub. And we enjoyed an excellent pint of Robinson's bitter - real ale was another of Barry’s enthusiasms.

After our walk, Barry set off to rehearse the Thurnscoe Harmonic Male Voice Choir in his arrangement of “Trench Raid”, a new song written by Sean Cooney of The Young 'Uns. That was for Radio 2’s Ballad of the Great War 1917 on 11th November. He returned by train through the railway tunnel, not over the top of Harecastle Hill again. Strangely, I came across the origin of the song just last night in Forgotten Voices of the Great War. Corporal Sidney Amatt 7th Battalion, Essex Regiment; They never asked for volunteers, they'd say, "You, you, you and you," and you suddenly found yourself in a raiding party.