Barbara has almost completed a painting of Derbyhaven. She tells me it will be finished today, so I will attach the picture of it to one of next week's blogs. Derbyhaven has always been a very special place to me, unfortunately though, today the village has lost its character and charm. It is almost as if someone came along and selected the right kind of people, built the right type of houses and just super imposed the new Derbyhaven over the top of the old one. When I was a child, Derbyhaven had a church, a hotel, and a shop. Before then there was a school and if we go back far enough, the village was a thriving port which even had its own custom house. Ships discharged cargo on the breakwater. Of course nothing remains the same forever and there is a touch of nostalgia in all of us. None-the-less, why is it that just a mile down the road, Castletown remains more or less the same? It still has its schools, churches, shops, and is basically unspoiled. The only public amenity left now in Derbyhaven is the phone box, and I am not even sure if that is still there. I recall as a child travelling out there in my Uncle Joe's jeep to deliver milk when he worked at Rigalls farm. I also remember the minibus driving round Janet's Corner collecting staff to wait-on at the hotel functions. There was also Renaldo from the Golflinks hotel who used to ride around in his minibus, trying to entice our Janet's Corner women to come and work in his hotel out at the Golflinks for maybe a penny or two more per hour. In my youth I fished lobsters out of Derbyhaven on the Siesta with my old pal Micky Quine. In those days we sold all the lobsters to the hotel. So the village of Derbyhaven back in those days was not just a nice scenic village to paint. It was a thriving little community, providing work for our women, and beer money for me. I believe there is a residents association now at Derbyhaven, although I can't think why they would need one. Maybe they have found their Heaven and now want to pull up the ladder to prevent anyone else from entering. Well if that is their aim, they have had great success, even God eventually moved out of his house to make way for a private resident. But perhaps I am being a tad harsh on the Derbyhaven residents. After all, they did not close the school, the church, and the hotel. However, they didn't exactly put up any welcome to Derbyhaven signs and they haven't made any effort to create a vibrant village. I am told a bus goes out there twice a day, but no one has ever been seen getting on or off it. Someone once spotted a taxi out there, but that was about 4 years ago. I don't think even Father Christmas bothers calling there these days. Mind you when I stop and think about it, Derbyhaven must be the smallest town or village in the world to have its own airport, an 18 hole golf links and a harbour.

Okay, so the fishing boats and cargo ships will never return to Derbyhaven. The hotel, school and shop are gone forever. Its still a beautiful village and nostalgia will always get up to its old tricks. I will continue to relive my childhood memories. Whatever happens now or in the future we must not pine too much. Derbyhaven is still part of Louis Armstrong’s Wonderful World.

Tom Glassey on the banks of the Silverburn River.