Being a Tuesday it was time to be joined by Frances Clamp who popped by with an update on the story of Countess Helen Tasker that we first aired in March 2011. We are indebted indeed to have received some more information from interested listeners which has enabled us to fill in some blank spaces and add to the information to the records from which our original episode was based.

Listen again to what Frances was able to say on this subject right here: – [audio:https://www.phoenixfm.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Bygones-23rd-April.mp3|titles=Bygones 23rd April]

Now as is well documented Countess Tasker was a very generous lady indeed who donated a considerable sum of money to one of her God Children, one of whom, Ellen Willmott was a renowned horticulturist.

Quite what Ellen Willmott would have made of the story we reported in the first hour of today’s show concerning  the results of playing music to plants in greenhouses is anyones guess. Of course such an experiment would have been impossible in her day. The experiment was conducted involving plants in three greenhouses. The plants in one greenhouse were regaled by continuous songs by Sir Cliff Richard, one greenhouse was left in silence whilst Black Sabbath belted out thumping sounds to the plants in the third greenhouse.

It seems that the plants subjected to the continuous outpourings from Black Sabbath not only produced the best flowers and exhibited the best resistance to pest and disease whilst those in the greenhouse serenaded by Sir Cliff all died! The results of the greenhouse left in peace and quiet was not reported. Whilst confirming the results, one of the gardeners in charge of the project said he suspected “foul play” but could offer no explanation as to how this might have been pulled off.

Right I’m off for a week so all being well, I’ll see you in a fortnight’s time.

Enjoy the sun if you can!

Scott