This turned out to be an unexpected Hop as I only went

into town to do some shopping but one thing led to another

and before I knew it I was Hopping again, it must be in my blood,

sorry! I was on my way to Milton Keynes when I stopped off in

Towcester, a pretty town quite near to Silverstone

(home of the British GP) on the A5 Watling Street. It’s in desperate

need of a bypass as it has a lot of heavy traffic rumbling past its old

buildings, it does however have a few charity shops which I naturally

gravitated towards.









First stop was Age UK formally Age Concern,

I have had some good finds here on previous visits.





Despite a fine selection of common discs I was taken by

the book on top which was basically arty pictures of things

that folk have collected, now who would have thought anyone

would be interested in that kind of thing?!













Next door to that shop is my favourite sweet shop, I have

been a regular customer of their homemade goodies for years.

Despite the tempting display of confectionary I am

still waiting for him to get his delivery of my favourite treats

as the old bloke who makes them is in his 80’s and is getting

a bit behind with the demand for his delicious sweets,

c'mon old fella, pull yer finger out!













Round the corner and onto the main road is the Willen Hospice shop

















Nothing but grubby old Wham on offer today, I did once

pick up an unplayed copy of #9 Bread Street in here,

about 5 years ago…









A better selection of DVD’s were available including Sonic Youth

and Pixies best of’s - reasonably priced at £2.50 a go.

















My last stop in Towcester was at an RSPCA shop tucked

away in a blink-and-you’d-miss-it side alley. They refuse to put

records on the shop floor as “they look untidy" so I put in a polite

request to see the vinyl out the back.

A box is duly pulled from behind the door but they all turn

out to be classical, I suppose even this Japanese album of

Mozart is quite rare but I am ignorant to the genre so jump

back in my car and head to MK.













Stony Stratford is a lovely old town I lived in for several years

and is where I started my first Hop a few years ago. It has been

in the news lately as a local Councillor has been trying to ban

smoking in the town centre, it has been enforced in New York

so you never know, it may happen in Stony too!

I saw plenty of folk who had no intention of stubbing it out





just yet, like this brave chap who was really enjoying his lovely fag.





















I only stopped by a couple of shops in the High Street,

there are 3 others but they were very poorly stocked with vinyl.







This old Folk compilation on Topic was a nice find, it features

tracks like Poor Paddy Works On The Railway rather than Down Under

phew





Out of all the shops I visit on my travels it is this RSPCA in which

I always seem to find something, and I was not to be disappointed today.









Nothing really rare but such a great haul of childrens EPs and

even some Ska comps and soundtracks - a bargain £2.60 for the lot!

















I spotted another blatant smoker on my way back to the car,

puff it up love as your time is running out if Councillor Bartlett

gets his way.













Out of town and up to the industrial estate at the top of

the road are two furniture warehouses, both offer plenty

of stuff to root around in.

















There is no shortage of boxes here…





This album by Canadian singer/songwriter R. Dean Taylor

on Tamla was the pick of the bunch, it doesn’t have his big

hit There’s A Ghost In My House on it though, but still a nice find.









Literally around the corner is yet another second-hand warehouse

Amongst the sleeveless singles I found this one with it’s

original cover, I had not seen it before and it will make a

fine addition to my collection of space related records.













Despite what the sign says this shop does sell vinyl

















However their stock has been reduced to only a couple of boxes

ah well, onto my last stop of the Hop





























The Community Shop near our old studio in Crownhill

provided the best yield of my afternoon out and about.













The manager did me a good deal on this selection of railways EPs

and a lovely motorbike GP single I had never seen before, a fine

afternoon hopping and I was still yet to do my shopping.