Malcolm Castle: Fire Fighting in Shropshire

Photograph © Malcolm Castle

This month, we were entertained by fire fighter and author, Malcolm Castle, who talked mainly about the humorous side of fire fighting. He joined the Shropshire Fire & Rescue Service when he was 18 years of age in 1980 and served for 32 years on Red Watch, based at Shrewsbury Fire Station. 

Malcolm told us that when a call is received, the crew can get dressed and ready to travel within 35 seconds in the daytime and within 53 seconds at night. New recruits are given the title the jockey, and to keep the rest of the team entertained (in quiet moments, of course) they're sent by senior members on foolish errands, which are said to be character building!

Like many others employed in the emergency services, he has a great sense of humour is able to see a funny side to the job, which might help him come to terms with the more harrowing situations he has had to deal with. He talked amusingly about some of the calls (or shouts) they received, such as being sent to rescue animals in odd situations. One case was of a cat that was supposedly stuck in a chimney but after some time was found to be shut in a log box by the fireside. 

Another incident involving a horse trapped in a slurry pit was described in such a way as make us all laugh due to the sticky situation they found themselves in, but also feel sorry for both the horse and the rescuers.  Of course, there were also many serious shouts such as rescuing people trapped in road accidents, as well as fires, which he described as both exciting and challenging.

Malcolm has written several books about his long and varied career, including All Fired Up and Great Bales of Fire, showing the lighter side of a fire fighter's job. He also likes to act and produce plays which was evident in his delivery and description of his past work, and has also helped the BBC as a fire adviser for various programmes, one of which is Casualty.

Whilst Malcolm had entertained and amused us for nearly an hour, we were conscious of the skill and bravery exhibited by fire fighters who are willing to risk their lives to save others. This was recognised in the vote of thanks to Malcolm for his talk.

Dickie Arbiter: Press Secretary to HM The Queen

Photograph © Dickie Arbiter

My first impression of Dickie Arbiter was that he had a good sense of humour, as he immediately referred to his brightly coloured and eye dazzling hand-made silk tie - this was apparently one of a large collection of flamboyant ties for which he is well known.

Dickie retired in the year 2000, after nearly 50 years as a journalist, royal commentator and as press secretary to HM The Queen. He has a vast knowledge of the Royal Family and now gives talks about his experience of working for the family. After giving us a brief history of the monarchy, he told us how much he respects Her Majesty for her continuing hard work and her devotion to her duties.

The Queen is now of an age when most members of the public would have long since retired, yet she still attends many events and rarely shows signs of fatigue. Dickie told us that she is a very down to earth person who loves her corgies, being in the countryside, driving her land-rover and riding her horse whenever time permits. When she stays at Balmoral, she and the family get together and have informal barbecue lunches in a log cabin. There was one occasion when Dickie was invited - after the meal, he was about to wash the dirty dishes; he then sensed somebody was behind him and thinking that it was one of the family, said “You wash and I will dry.” He was embarrassed when the Queen replied, “No, you wash and I will dry.”

Both the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were really upset when the Royal Yacht Britannia was decommissioned: it showed on The Queen's face, as tears welled up in her eyes. They had spent so many happy and private times with their family when they were on board with no prying cameras or journalists spoiling their special occasions. Britannia sailed worldwide and was not only used by the Royal Family, but also by business people and ambassadors with many important and valuable contracts being signed on board.

Disaster struck the Family in 1992, when three of the Queen's children got divorced within a short time of each other and there was much scandal reported in the press. Then this was followed by the fire at Windsor Castle, causing much damage to valuable assets and the building. The Queen kept her feelings hidden and rose above all of these problems but could not avoid referring to the annus horribilis in a speech at the London Guildhall marking the 40th Anniversary of her accession to the throne. She later had to cope with the death of Princess Diana and the resulting frenzy of media coverage.

The Queen is patron of numerous charities but she is now reducing the number with help from the younger members of her family. She has shaken hands with numerous people over the years, smiling most of the time and often standing outside in all weathers. Dickie said that she is driven by duty and will not step aside, as she made her vow to the country as a young woman and declared her whole life would be devoted to her people. 

Dickie ended by telling us how much he had enjoyed working with the Royal Family and sharing his numerous royal tales, without stepping out of line.

Ken Knowles: Lichfield's Town Crier

Photograph © Ken Knowles

Oyez! Oyez! Oyez! With a resounding voice and ringing his bell Ken Knowles, the Lichfield Town Crier, made a dramatic entrance and announced himself as our guest speaker.

Ken was a teacher for 37 years and, after retirement in 2009, he applied for the post and was appointed town crier. He looked resplendent in his uniform with his black tricorn hat, red embroidered jacket and black leggings with silver buttons each side from knee to ankle. His wife, Marilyn, who accompanied him, helped to design and make his costume.

Repeatedly ringing his bell, he made us want to listen to his proclamation...

We learnt that town criers seem to have originated in around 1066, when people would gather in town squares to hear news and proclamations. The word Oyez dates back to Norman times and means listen to this. Ken also told us of the history of Lichfield, which is regarded as a city of philosophers and has the motto Hail Great Mother. Lichfieldians are proud of their most famous resident Dr Samuel Johnson (born in 1709) and the magnificent St Chad's cathedral and the city's many other listed buildings.

Ken acts as sword bearer and Master of Ceremonies at official events and has travelled the world entering, and sometimes winning, town crier competitions. He usually has to compose verses for these events and he concluded his talk with one of his winning entries...it is obviously something he enjoys.

Amongst other stories, he made us laugh when he related the time he posed in full regalia for a local art group. We couldn’t imagine him sitting still for hours without telling stories and entertaining his audience. He is such a character, dedicated to his duties but full of fun, and we much enjoyed his informative, yet light hearted, talk.

Christine Robinson: The Housekeeper's Tale

Photograph © Christine Robinson

Christine Robinson is a very good storyteller. From the start, she had us listening to every word about her forty years as the housekeeper at Chatsworth House, home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. While she was a student, she lived locally and had a Saturday job helping in the estate shop and became intrigued by the house and its occupants. This lead to a permanent post, learning from Dorothy Dean the housekeeper at that time.

Christine told us that Chatsworth House has been the Devonshire family home for 500 years and the archives hold details of many historical events. The 11^th Duke and Duchess loved to entertain and there is a warm atmosphere in this very grand house with the staff working as a team to ensure it is so. She described how everything is vacuumed and dusted every day with half a mile of corridors to be kept tidy. Books, of which there are more than 17,500, ceramics, sculptures, ornaments and carpets are all deep cleaned regularly. The chandeliers are taken down piece by piece and then carefully reassembled after cleaning with one containing a staggering 2763 pieces!

Sometime after the death of the Dowager Duchess (the former 11^th Duchess), Christine was surprised to be bequeathed a beautiful Delft pot and which contained a small box. On opening this, she found a ring with the initials “DD” which she recognised as one worn by her predecessor Dorothy Dean. Apparently this had been left to the Duchess because her initials were the same. In turn, the Duchess had thought that Christine might like it by which to remember her.

After the talk, Val McMinn proposed a vote of thanks to Christine and her dutiful husband, so called by Christine, who works quietly behind the scenes as all good husbands should! This was followed by a prize draw. There was a small jar of preserve from Chatsworth on each table and under it was a raffle ticket. Each guest had been allotted a ticket under their individual cup and saucer and there was therefore a winner on each table.

Lars Tharp: The Antiques Road Show

Photograph © Lars Tharp

This month, we welcomed one of the most popular and long-serving members of the Antiques Roadshow, Lars Tharp, as our speaker. With his unusual, Danish name it's no surprise that people are confused about how to spell it. His favourite misspelling appeared on a letter addressed to Mr Large Carp, which made us all laugh.

The ceramics and oriental specialist explained about his love of antiques, how he is enthralled by the shapes, designs and colours of the items brought to his attention by members of the public and that having physical contact with the objects helps him to generate an empathy with the makers. The action of handling the antiques, in order to closely examine possible identification markings, introduces and element of excitement for both the owner and Lars himself.

Queues at the Roadshow are often very long and Lars is amazed at the length of time that many people are prepared to wait before their objects are seen and valued. As there are so many fakes on the market, this can often lead to disappointment but occasionally, a treasure is found and many of these end up in museums for safe keeping.

Lars told us that he is an admirer of William Hogarth, the English painter and engraver, and has studied many of his prints and pictures in detail as a hobby. We learned that Hogarth was effectively a reporter in his day with his pictures and cartoons showing images of everyday household events. Lars is also particularly interested in designs by Picasso, one of which is shown in the above photograph.

Lars was thanked for not only entertaining us but also showing slides of interesting and decorative items and for explaining how it all began with ancient man discovering patterns and shapes before discovering uses for what he found or made. After his fascinating talk, we all left intending to look more closely at items in our own homes, with the hope that we can find something to take to the next local Roadshow!

Keith Cattell: 1000 years of Stained Glass:

 Chartres cathedral

On one of the coldest days of winter with a temperature of -2°C, 63 hardy members braved the weather to attend our February lunch. Unfortunately, our scheduled speaker was prevented from attending due to the adverse travelling conditions and local architect and historian, Keith Cattell, stepped in at short notice, to save the day.

In his illustrated talk entitled 1000 years of stained glass, he explained that there is evidence of stained glass in Britain dating from 675AD. This was installed in churches and monasteries and came mainly from France because the glass was of a superior quality. The windows were mainly paid for by rich benefactors who were often depicted in the art work as were picture narratives from the Bible, of historic events and from literature.

It took great skill to produce the required colours of glass and the pigments were very expensive. This was achieved by adding metallic salts to the glass and then heating in it kilns to fuse the colour. After cooling, the coloured glass was cut into shaped pieces which were then held in place by strips of lead and secured by a rigid frame.

One unusual window was of Saint Apollonia who is regarded as the patron saint of dentistry and is shown holding a pair of pincers in her hand; this window can be seen in the parish church of Kingskerswell in Devon. Most of us had no idea that there was such a saint and the mere thought of tooth extraction made us shudder!

We learnt that Chartres cathedral has magnificent windows including some of the earliest examples of cobalt blue and Coventry Cathedral houses fine examples of modern stained glass artwork. One modern artist Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) was prolific in producing stained glass and a fine example was installed in a chapel St Blaise des Simples at Milly la Foret near to Fontainebleau in France where he lived and is interred. It is a very modern, mainly blue, design named Seen and not seen which when viewed upside down, reveals a hidden face.

Keith was thanked for attending at such short notice and for his very interesting talk.

The AGM

It was a bright and sunny winter's day for our Annual General Meeting, which marked the 86th year of the club's existence. The WWLC was founded on 27th January 1932 by Mrs Orme and, no doubt, she would have been delighted to know that it's still flourishing.

The first official part of the meeting was quickly dealt with and then it was time for lunch. As this was our first meeting after the Christmas break, we all seemed to have a lot to say to each other and there was a friendly atmosphere throughout the meal.

Following lunch, we were entertained with a medley of songs from the Compton Hospice Choir. Then, to our surprise, the conductor, Mrs. Whiting, head of music at Newbridge Preparatory School, ushered in a choir of prep. school girls who sang beautifully. First, they sang on their own and then joined in with the hospice choir. It was a particular delight, not only to hear their clear, young voices, but also to see the members' smiling faces; the children were loudly applauded as they left the hall.

I then thanked the hospice choir and presented them with a cheque for £400 as Compton Hospice was my chosen charity for my year of office and we had raised funds for them during the year. In turn, I was thanked by the conductor (for our donation) who mentioned that the choir had raised an amazing £2,500 for the hospice over the Christmas period.

It was then time to return to official business and I stepped down after 2 years in office and was presented with chocolates and flowers before installing Val Billings as chairman for 2018. Scilla Hudson also retired from her long held position as treasurer and was thanked for her services and also presented with chocolates and flowers. Jenifer Handley was elected as the new treasurer; all remaining members of the committee were re-elected.

With the end of formalities we are now looking forward to the coming year meeting and greeting both old and new friends.

If you'd like to join us (or know anyone else who might), do take a look at our What's On page for details of forthcoming talks and meetings.

Jonathan Briggs: Mistletoe Matters

Photograph © Jonathan Briggs

There was a feeling of warmth and friendship as 89 members and guests arrived at Linden House for our Christmas lunch. We were welcomed by seasonal music, played on the piano by Simon Bott, the Linden House manager. The hall was seasonally decorated in red and green and there were fresh, evergreen arrangements on the tables, made by committee members. Candles were lit, crackers were pulled and everyone was served a delicious Christmas meal.

 

Feeling replete and mellow after a glass of wine, the audience sat back to listen to the guest speaker, Jonathan Briggs, talking about mistletoe. He was an enthusiastic and knowledgeable expert on the subject and told us about the mysteries of mistletoe, illustrated by a presentation showing its cultivation and harvest. It is found growing widespread in the Midlands, as there are still many apple orchards here.The simplistic shape of the leaves and the white berries have sometimes inspired Art Nouveau artists; Lalique is a good example.

In the past, druids and pagans believed mistletoe to have magical properties involving life and fertility as well as healing powers, hence the tradition of kissing under the mistletoe!Although many viewed it suspiciously, perhaps because the plant grows parasitically upon apple and oak trees, the tradition of bringing mistletoe into the house at Christmas has continued.

Jonathan was thanked for his informative talk as were the Linden House staff for an excellent lunch which was enjoyed by all.

I hope you all had a good Christmas and I wish you a Happy New Year!