Richard Williamson's column
I must be debauched.I go nutting in the woods at this time of year and even a month earlier than this. The unhappy owner of Hatfield Forest complained about people like me as long ago as 1826.
"As soon as they begin to get ripe, the orderly and disorderly men and women of bad characters come in large parties to gather the nuts, to loiter about in crowds, to take beer and spirits in the forest which affords them the opportunity for all sorts of debauchery."
I am depraved enough, it seems, to actually eat some of the aforementioned hazel nuts instead of keeping them safe until National Nutcracker Night on November 15.
For full feature see West Sussex Gazette. November 1