Hooray For Low Tech

If you are an old fashioned technophone like me, you are going to love this snippet.

Rack Hill in the English village of Chalford, is a small community, whose residents are reasonably well off. They can afford many of the creature comforts and own good cars. The only thing different about the homes on Rack Hill is that they have no need for garages. You see, they have a great view, but the hill is too steep for cars to climb.

Some would argue that walking up the hill is great exercise. Maybe so, but as Rack Hill residents will inform you, it’s not that great when you have to carry a heavy load of groceries and other shopping.

Now if this was America, some enterprising businessman would probably set up a cable car to the top of the hill; and charge what he wanted. He would have no competition, after all. However, the genteel Rack Hillians have no time for new fangled nonsense. They have a more relaxed and eco-friendly solution. Archive pictures of the village, dating to the 30s, show donkeys delivering bread as well as coal from a nearby canal. If donkeys can carry coal, they sure as heck can haul up groceries. The residents think it’s a concept worth reviving.

According to Rack Hill resident Dave Andrews, "The entire village is backing the campaign to bring back the Chalford donkey — it’s a brilliant idea". The only hitch is that, in this inflationary age, a sturdy donkey can cost as much as $1200 – which sticks in the craw of the thrifty villagers. And so, they have organized a spirited campaign to pressure the parish council to buy the donkeys for them. Hey, Britain is a welfare state, isn’t it?

Much as I applaud this back-to-nature, low tech solution, I wonder if the good people of Rack Hill have thought this true. The animals would still have to be stabled, fed and watered – and there would be the delicate matter of picking up and disposing of donkey poop. Plus, a braying donkey would be quite a nuisance while they were watching Coronation Street.