Ah yes! I remember Huge Trunk-Hidden. One of the Norfolk Trunk-Hiddens, as I recall.....

Thanks! Top facts. Room still for my alternative narrative where Pershore is 'hottest recorded' because it owns the recording device. I like to imagine e.g. Evesham in a right old huff because it thinks it may be hotter but can't prove it because it hasn't got custody of the county thermometer.

I keep seeing hot temperatures reported from Pershore. Is this ACTUALLY not about Pershore being hot but Pershore being the site of the only thermometer in Worcestershire?

with a pine cone.

Allegedly the word 'Hello' - other iterations are available - was invented to help set off into a conversation in an organised fashion. Phone conversation is odd because the person who has to speak first has no idea what's afoot and is not, initially, the person with something to communicate.

Not really. You might mean 'Whatever happened to Baby Jane?' which is a film, not a book and has neither of the boys, nor the sportiness, but does have paralysis. Or maybe 'What Katy Did' which you have severely misremembered after losing the Biggles book you meant to read.