Denby Where

My grandmother had a crockery set made by Denby Pottery. When she died, it went to the relatives who had bought her it, and quite properly. So highly she had esteemed it that no occasion was deemed suitably grand to produce it from the sideboard. Even the annual celebrations of the birth of our Lord had to make do with cheaper cups ("in case any get broken").

Last month in Burnley, enroute to visit some members, I chanced upon a charity shop which was selling a Denby tea set in a rather fetching green, and it could be mine for only twenty pounds sterling. I had come on the omnibus, so the shopgirls assisted in wrapping it in copies of The Times and putting it in a cardboard box. New sets online (and without the teapot and milk jug) are costing over two hundred pounds, so I reckoned this a bargain. Although one of my cups has sustained a small chip to its handle, I was still pleased to part with my coin. Any readers who frequent my home may now be served tea in these cups (but they shall not, under any circumstance, be employed for the purposes of coffee consumption). 

From a second-hand shop in a built-up area of an industrial town I found something special. Sometimes, the best value is found off the beaten track; treasure troves are typically discovered in quiet fields and deserted islands. In Great Britain, the treasures of the gospel are only rarely shared in our loftiest cathedrals and most attractive parish churches; from remote country chapels and modest prefabs, however, one may still hear of the riches of grace and glories of the Christ.  

Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it. Matthew 13:46