Neil Gits To Walk With Cows

I got my walking boots on last week, enticed away from “Old Gits HQ” by one of the “Billericay Soul Girls” Lorraine with the promise of a delicious bacon butty ! We didn’t go too far from home and yet it was somewhere that I’d never been before which takes some doing at 61 years old and having lived in Essex all my life – hard as it might be to believe our destination was … Hadleigh Castle !

I thought I HAD been there, years ago, but clearly not as when we parked and started our walk, I recognized the big overgrown grassy mound which I had previously assumed WAS the remains of the castle, rather like the one in Pleshey near Chelmsford, where at least the brick bridge over the old moat can be seen. However, we ventured a fair bit further than I had bothered in my younger days and eventually the grand stone remains of three of the four old towers appeared before us. Standing there you get an amazing view looking down onto Canvey Island and can see Southend Pier protruding out over a mile into the Thames Estuary, as well as a large section of the Kent coast line the other side of the famous old river.

That was just the start though ! We headed west and on into Hadleigh Park which I had been blissfully unaware of, where the old Olympic Mountain Bike tracks create a kind of maze but without the tall hedges so you can’t get lost (although we tried our best !) and hiking up and down the hills, at one point you get another seriously great view, like before, but this time taking in the huge cranes at Coryton and even the London skyline at Greenwich & Canary Wharf ! After a good meander, we soon found ourselves accompanied by a large herd of beautiful brown cows, munching away enthusiastically at the new grass that ad appeared after the recent rain. They were everywhere ! You couldn’t really avoid them and we got really close up at times as we walked along the official footpaths – which they weren’t interested in as there was no grass for them there …

Other points of interest popped up along the way too, but before much longer our prime focus was on reaching the cafe and enjoying a well-earned lunch. Having somehow avoided treading in any of the hundreds of cow pats en route, we made ourselves at home and ordered our bacon butties … but they’d run out of bacon !! Once recovered from the distress, we chose large sausage baps instead which were rpretty good and I consoled myself by adding a generous portion of tasty chips Well done, Lorraine – an unexpectedly stimulating wander, although I am going to have to go back for that highly recommneded butty one day !!

The tunes I play on my show are equally tasty (but in a very different way!) and Monday’s show was full to the brim with wonderful soul, jazz-funk & disco gems which you can hear repeated as usual this Saturday at 5pm on Gateway – or head for “Listen Again” right now !

The Tunes – Monday 7th August 2023

Staple Singers – Slippery People
Will Downing – A Love Supreme
Dawn Joseph – Imitation Love
Marilyn McCoo/Billy Davis Jr – You Don’t Have To Be A Star
The 5th Dimension – Love Hangover
Marc Staggers – With Me
Shirley Brown – I’m Up To No Good
Keni Burke – One Minute More
China Burton – You Don’t Care (About Our Love)
Sly & Family Stone – Dance To The Music
Norma Jean – Saturday
Bob Marley & The Wailers – So Much Trouble In The World
Ciyo Brown – Borderline
Dennis Edwards – Coolin’Out
David Ruffin – Walk Away From Love
Eddie Kendricks – It’s Not What You Got
Say She She – C’est Si Bon
Acantha Lang – Come Back Home
Jackie Wilson – To Be Loved
Tristan – You Will Never Know
David Joseph – You Can’t Hide Your Love
Chuck Brown & Soul Searchers – Game Seven

Feel free to get in touch with your soulful request or just for a mention on the show – put a post on “The Old Gits Soul Show” page on Facebook, text (01268)833978 or message me via e-mail : [email protected].

The Old Gits Soul Show is broadcast LIVE from 7pm–9pm every Monday, repeated on Saturday evening from 5pm–7pm, on Gateway 97.8FM in Basildon & East Thurrock and available nationally via the Radio Player at Sky TV as well as online via www.gateway978.com You can listen on your smart speaker or your phone too … plus you can hear it again anytime you like via the “Listen Again” button on the Gateway website – just search “Cool Soul” !