2021 - 22 Gordon’s year

23rd June 2022 Lace Market Walk - Blue Badge guide will be Felicity Whittle from Gold Star Guides

Our walking tour of the Lace Market with Felicity started at the top of Pelham Street, where Felicity explained a brief history of how "Snottngham " or Nottingham as is now known got its name from an Anglo-Saxon term,: home of the wise man's people, and how The Lace Market being the oldest area of Nottingham became the centre of the worlds lace industry during the British Empire. It started in 1808 when a man called John Heathcote developed a hand operated machine that marked the beginning of a lace industry. Later the Industrial Revolution changed things.

Felicity quoted a famous poem from Lord Byron and also mentioned the Luddites (named after Ned Ludd a mythical person believed to live in Sherwood Forest, and who led the movement). Lord Byron spoke out in defence of them in the House of Lords in early 1812 over the new work practices and new technology that they thought would threaten their jobs. They were known as Luddite "Frame breakers" and they rocked the wool and cotton industries. The peak of industry here was in the 1890's but by 1970s many of the factories became derelict and the area fell into rapid decline. By 1978 a huge clean up and grants offered meant that the buildings could be refurbished and renovated and new uses were found such as luxury apartments and offices.

 We then moved on to The Lace Market square with its impressive historic buildings and 19th century architecture. Here sculptures represent the lace industry. It was never a market in the sense of having stalls but there were salesrooms and warehouses for displaying and selling the lace. All the buildings within this quarter of a mile are typical Victorian, red brick with large windows giving a sense of going back in time. The Adams Building here, now home to New College Nottingham was designed by Thomas Chambers and was built for Thomas Adams who was a notable Quaker who did much to improve the awful working conditions in his factories.

Felicity talked about how pre dating the arrival of the Normans, the Lace Market was the Saxon area of Nottingham, hence the place names: for example 'Gate' came from the Danish word Gata meaning street. Pilcher Gate, Fisher Gate, Fletcher Gate and many more.

On to The Contemporary Art Gallery next, a tourist attraction on High Pavement (one of the earliest streets in the city) which when looking closely has a lace patterned precast facade, again depicting the Lace trade.

It was built on the sloping site of Victorian railway cutting by well-known London based architects Caruso St John.

Moving on quickly now as we were starting to feel famished, we hit on the National Justice Museum. (The County Hall and the Edwardian Police Station). This is the largest museum in the UK dedicated to crime and punishment and has quite a few famous highlights including investigations into The Great Train Robbery. Felicity pointed out the misspelling of the word GAOL on the door of the building. A mistake made by the stonemason!! He would have been punished for this. The architect of this wonderful building was James Gamden and it was built in the 10^th year of the reign of His Majesty George 3rd. There was a plaque to commemorate the life of Britain's first Black Magistrate

(Eric Irons). Born in Jamaica and then settled in Nottingham. He campaigned for social justice and equality and was made an OBE.

Along High Pavement we walked passed many interesting buildings with fascinating plaques. One with Queen Victoria.

We then came across the ancient St Marys church believed to be over 500 years old. Whilst pondering and looking at the names of the soldiers killed in the Great wars, we became intrigued by a Post Box. Felicity mentioned that on the front of every post box there is the name of the reigning Monarch so we will all be looking out for these in the future.

By this time all present felt a little fatigued so we briskly made our way back through the lace market and our last sighting was of a wall of legends. Pictures of famous people and objects that had come from Nottingham. Sue Pollard, Brian Clough, Wolfy (Robert Lindsay) and many more.                  

We thanked Felicity in the normal manner for a most informative tour and were upset to hear that she was retiring with no-one to replace her. What a shame as her knowledge was amazing.                         JH/MF

16th June 2022 Club Assembly

Before making his welcome to our Club Assembly, Rob announced that Gerry Short had volunteered to become President Nominee, great news. He then continued explaining that this meeting is where we lay out our programme and plans for the coming Rotary Year 2022-23. Due to the Covid Pandemic the past two years have been anything but "normal" for many organisations and Rotary has been no exception. Many new Community organisations have emerged as a response to the difficult circumstances prevailing in Society created not only by the pandemic but, more recently, by the war in Ukraine. As a Club we have done our best to support these organisations when our help has been sought as well as developing our own initiatives within the Community. ln the coming year we hope to expand the support we give locally, particularly by facilitating the Community forum bringing many of these fledging organisations together.

The various Committee reports followed with Stella Herbert commenting from an area perspective.  She was made to feel very welcome and said the meeting was well attended (22, 3F) and all parties seemed well prepared. She was heartened to hear of the clubs involvement with the local Community Forum, and our “friends” of Rotary aims. They also have plans in place for work with schools and youth organisations – especially with their Dictionary donations and Art and Photo competitions. It was also very clear that this club are looking to be a modern and forward thinking club, one that would welcome new members from all parts of the communities they cover.      AR

26th May 2022 Nottingham Industrial Museum, outside visit

The Nottingham Industrial Museum is a volunteer-run museum situated in part of the 17th-century stables block of Wollaton Hall, located in a suburb of the city of Nottingham. The museum won the Nottinghamshire Heritage Site of the Year Award 2012, a local accolade issued by Experience Nottinghamshire. The Museum collection closed in 2009 after Nottingham City Council withdrew funding, but has since reopened at weekends and bank holidays, helped by a £91,000 government grant, and run by volunteers.  The museum contains a display of local textiles machinery, transport, telecommunications, mining and engineering technology. There is a display of cycles, motorcycles, and motor cars. There are examples of significant lace-making machinery. It also houses an operational beam engine, from the Basford, Nottingham pumping station.

Our 17 members were reminded of the history of famous names, for example, Raleigh, Brough, Players, Boots, Humber, and Reader. Also we saw the collection of working steam, diesel engines, Victorian kitchen, blacksmith’s forge and woodworking shop.  Christopher Lilliman – Director and our Guide manages the museum, and with the help of volunteers sets up events, and made our visit special.

All in all a most enjoyable evening with  another outside visit to Nottingham Lace Market to follow in a few weeks, just like buses, waiting for ever, then two come at once!!                    AR

19th May2022 Ropsley Heath Light Railway, outside visit

We had a wonderful warm sunny evening for our first for a long time outside visit.  On this occasion to RHLR at Glebe Farm Ropsley, following Robert Holland’s talk at our Club on the 28^th April. We managed an all-male turnout of 15 members, who were briefed by Robert on Health and safety issues for the site, covering the fact that when being towed by the Nimrod steam engine there could be soot and embers as well as the smoke.  We were also delighted to find that the Lord Lieutenant of Lincolnshire is coming to officially open the site next Friday 27^th, although still not open to the general public, just Robert’s hobby, but available to Rotary Clubs and any Charity organisations trying to raise funds. Naturally we were all very impressed by the immaculate presentation of the whole site and were able to observe from both directions with the Belvoir Castle Diesel engine pulling its carriages counter clockwise, but with safety always at the forefront with the ‘Token’ system they operate.  The all electric tram was also shown as well as the garden miniature circuit with ‘Shepherds Hut adjacent.

President Gordon formally thanked Robert for his generous invitation and we then retired to the Green Man Pub in the village for our evening meal, for which some of us were overawed by the size of the Yorkshire pudding which the Lincolnshire Sausage and mash were presented in.

All in all a most enjoyable evening with  another outside visit to Nottingham Industrial Museum to follow next week, just like buses, waiting for ever, then two come at once!!                     AR

12th May 2022 McMillan Quiz night?  David Eldridge

Unfortunately our local speaker was not available and the alternative speaker would have had to travel from Cambridge, so the decision was made to postpone and David E would prepare a quiz.

Another low turnout of 15 Rotarians, for various reasons, David was also in charge of the meeting as President Gordon was on holiday in Norfolk.  He informed those present that with the current price increases in everything our meal cost would be going to £15, understandably. Adrian reminded everyone that a response to the Charity Relay Walk along the Grantham canal on July 15^th would be appreciated.  Alan F asked the meeting for approval of a £500 grant to ‘Maggie’s Cancer Support Group’ from the Community fund and also asked for approval for the distribution of the remaining £1500 in Community budget to be spent amongst the local self-help groups

The banter had already started by this time with Maggie starting to feel she was being ‘got at’, but in general just suffering another bout of ‘brain fog’. So began the Quiz with David E distributing the 3 sheets to the 3 tables pronouncing that all events occurred in living memory, which Jane objected to, having only just past her 30^th Birthday! Sheet 1 was somewhat complicated with 4 parts to the first date, typified by the date that Germaine Greer was born. This was followed by 10 questions such as “of which European Country did General Jaruzelski become leader in 1981.  Having given out the sheets David E caused further confusion by reading out the questions, to which some knowledgeable members starting shouting out the answers. More good hearted uproar then followed as sheet 2 posed a further 13 questions and finally sheet 3 with 15 questions.
Fortunately laughter is supposed to be good for you, although most of us were suffering stomach aches by the “St. Trinnian’s atmosphere” that ensued

Eventually Top table was declared the winners with 32 out of 41, only to be expected with their ‘Brains of Britain’ team consisting of Alan F, Adrian, Stan the Scribe & Ian Torr ensuring it was all done within the law. The Ladies squad, ably assisted by ‘yours truly’ managed affine 2^nd position with 29 points often astounding ourselves with the memorable knowledge we demonstrated.

All in all a most enjoyable evening with everyone acting like mischievous school children, but “all in the best possible taste”!!          AR

5th May 2022 Our 32^nd Charter

It was nice to be back in the ‘face to face’ situation following our Zoom experiences throughout the Covid pandemic, even with a limited audience.

Maggie had dressed the tables to set the scene and everyone settled down to enjoy themselves in this celebration Anniversary.

Rob and Gordon made their speeches with excellent content delivered with enthusiasm.

This was followed by our Guest speaker Andrew Smart, a former Evening Post journalist entertaining us with many amusing anecdotes from his years of experience starting on the sporting front at Mansfield Town (The Stags) and progressing to the dizzy heights of Theatre critic. Dropping a few names on the way, John Neville, Judi Dench, Michael Crawford, Ken Dodd, , as well as the locals like Robert Lindsey, Sue Pollard, Richard Beckinsale, very interesting and delivered with some punch and pace.

Overall a very successful event.                         AR

28th April 2022 “Miniature Railway” – Robert Holland

Robert confessed that by Trade he was an undertaker, but in 2017 they moved to Glebe Farm, giving him the opportunity to ‘realise his dream’ of creating his very own miniature railway: Ropsley Heath Light Railway. So with the help of about 30 in his team and suppliers in Anglesey, the development began on the 10 ¼ inch gauge track, but as with any railway project health and safety is an important issue, so training had to be done (1^st aid training), plus various regulations on speed limit and use of a token system to ensure safety at points.  A ½ Ton Nimrod steam loco was originally from a Welsh Slate quarry, but purchased from Station Road Steam at Metheringham and Robert, with the aid of various bits of kit he had brought with him talked about ‘scale’. Obviously light railway implies smaller and in their case ½ size, so using his ½ size lamps he demonstrated that  the engine is in fact 8 times the difference by volume. However, it can pull 7 coaches with 35 to 40 people, depending on size! They also have a 2 seater electric train (Stuart).  They also have a 107foot long tunnel, a turntable and an engine shed, a second railway in the garden this time fuelled by butane gas.

Robert confirmed that is “just a hobby”, no intention of making it a business, but our club will be visiting the set up on the 19^th May.

David E. thanked Robert for his very informative, well illustrated and interesting presentation confirming the point that it is a very special thing to be able to “realise a dream” and asked the audience to show their appreciation in the normal manner.           AR

21st April 2022 “Nottingham’s Industrial History” – John Whitfield

John began his talk with the Framework Knitting industry from 1700 to 1840 but almost ten years on from the 1812 ‘Declaration of the Framework knitters’, conditions for the framework knitters of the counties of Nottingham, Derby and Leicester had not seen any sign of improving. The pay for these workers, of whom there were estimated to be about 15,000 in these three counties, was insufficient to keep them in daily bread.

The Lace Market is believed to be the oldest part of the city of Nottingham, dating back to the fifth century. It got its name from the invention of the knitting frame by William Lee of Calverton, Nottinghamshire.

Pre-dating the arrival of the Normans, the Lace Market was the Saxon area of Nottingham. This is apparent from existing place names as the word ‘Gate’ arose from the Danish ‘gata’ meaning street. A Norman area of the town - centred around the castle - emerged following the Norman Conquest, and it was then that the city became merged. The invention of the knitting frame by William Lee radically changed the area and eventually gave the Lace Market its name. Richard Arkwright established a small cotton mill in Hockley in 1768 and this led to the development of back to back housing for mill workers. Lace was manufactured on a frame adapted from that of William Lee and was further improved by John Heathcote and John Levers in the early 19 century. By the 1840s lace making was changing from a domestic industry into an international export.

It was during the 19th century that Nottingham’s reputation as a textile town was formed. Lace-making was already popular in the area but the introduction of a lace making machine in 1809 ensured that lace would make not only a reputation for the town, but also make it a fortune.

Nottingham's population doubled between 1750 and 1800, and the major reason was the migration of workers and their families into the city looking for work in the textiles industry, which was dominated by hosiery. From the early 19th century, hosiery manufacture began to decline, in part because men's stockings fell out of fashion in favour of trousers. 

Coal gas was introduced in Nottinghamshire by the Nottingham Gas Light and Coke Company in 1821. Nottingham was the first place in Britain to install high pressure constant supply mains water in 1831. This system was deployed by engineer Thomas Hawksley and the Trent Waterworks Company.

Coal has been mined in Nottinghamshire for many centuries, but for a long time this was simply surface mining. Coal was probably mined around Cossall and Selston in the 1270s.  Certainly mining was taking place on a significant scale at Selston in the reign of Edward I. Mining at Cossall is again documented in the mid-14th Century. By the 17th century coal mining was one of the most important industries in Nottinghamshire with new mines opened in the Hucknall area. Most coal was sold locally to domestic consumers, but efforts were made from the 1700’s to use coal to drive industry.

The idea of mining deeper, sinking shafts, making drains, and using timber for props, gradually gained acceptance, including the use of the sough – a method of gravity draining.  In part, this was encouraged in the Selston area by a ready demand for coal from Nottingham by the 15th century.

Other major industries include Boots who opened their first shop on Goosegate in 1840, with a manufacturing base developing alongside with employment of 14500.

Raleigh was founded in 1888 when Sir Frank Bowden bought an interest in a small bicycle shop on Raleigh Street and by 1892 Raleigh led the World Bicycle racing field.

Then, of course there was John Players tobacco and cigarette manufacturers based in Nottingham that merged with others to form The Imperial Tobacco Company

Clive thanked John for his very informative and interesting presentation and asked the audience to show their appreciation in the normal manner.           AR

24th March 2022 “Talking Rubbish” – Lesley Taylor

Lesley began by explaining that she is so pleased to get paid to “Talk Rubbish”. She informed us that she works for Veolia, the environmental company which operates in: waste; energy; transport and water, starting in France in the late 1800s. Veolia handles all the waste for Nottinghamshire County Council (Nottingham City Council look after themselves). They process all the household recycling at Forest Town with their Materials Recovery Facility (MRF), handling 85000 tons per annum, using a mixed recycling system. They started their contract with NCC in 2009 and one of the greatest challenges is contamination (the wrong items or materials being put in household recycling bins). The current contamination level is between 10 and 20% of the input. The waste arrives and is placed in big piles, which no recycler would be interested in but they have some high tech machines as well as amazing staff that sort it all out. The separated materials are then sent on to recyclers all over the country to be turned into new goods. She gave a few examples of ‘contamination’, like a rolled up carpet, but getting the right materials to your recycle bin (note no mention of colour as every District Council has its own) is not easy and in general they come under the headings of: metal, plastic, paper and cardboard. So as an exercise in audience participation Lesley had prepared a quiz for us with 40 items listed that individually we had to decide Recycle or General waste. This really was an interesting exercise, as most of our members (like Lesley’s husband)believed they were doing a sterling recycling job…but the answers proved differently. Plastic is the most confusing material, so objects like fruit punnets which can be made from good or low grade plastic together with carrier bags, bin liners, crisp packets, bubble wrap and similar items which are all made of low grade plastic are not accepted for recycling. The government is currently working for consistency of recycling across the whole country which hopefully will be implemented within the next few years. She suggested a simple 3 part guide to recyclable plastic in Nottinghamshire: 1. All household plastic bottles (shampoo to Domestos) 2. Butter or margarine tubs 3. Yoghurt pots. However, some Supermarkets offer specific ‘collection points’ for various items: bottles, tetra packs, clothes and Lesley encouraged us all to use such centres. Lesley then showed a short video of their MRF operation, showing the staff at work, the trommel ( like a giant sieve) weighing 70 ton at the beginning of the operation, and on to magnetic separators, eddy current separators for aluminium cans, all very impressive. The quiz and the video prompted many questions, which Lesley comprehensively managed and Jane thanked her for her very informative and enlightening presentation, she had delivered in a fascinating but factual manner that enthralled our members and asked the audience to show their appreciation in the normal manner. AR

17th March 2022 Managing the Covid Pandemic – Sarah Webb

Sarah began her talk with a little of her own working background, since she has now retired. Public Health England, NHS and local Government were mentioned, latterly as a Health Emergency Planning Manager. Setting the scene she suggested that two years ago the term ‘pandemic’ was not something that sprang to mind in common use, but then used in the media many times per day. It means: outbreak of infectious disease spread over a number of countries, often where there was little or no immunity known.

Viral diseases are important in the history of pandemics as viruses have the ability to mutate and change and this occasionally results in a disease crossing the species barrier and a new infection for mankind.  Examples from the recent past include SARS, MERS, HIV and Ebola. Other changes or variants can result in greater transmissibility. The original Wuhan Covid virus having an ‘R’ of 2.4, compared with Omicron variant at 8.4

Pandemics have been around for as long as humans and have probably played a role in wiping out ancient civilisations, small pox or typhoid likely to have been responsible. More recent pandemics. Include Spanish Flu in 1918 thought to originate in chickens; Russian Flu in 1890 from cattle & more recently in 2009, Swine Flu, derived from pigs in Central America.

She then moved on to the planning regimes for public health emergencies, which bring together the usual organisations of police, fire, ambulances, environment agency and local government who come together as local resilience partnerships meeting regularly to identify risks & plan how to mitigate against such risks. There exists an overarching National Risk Agency, produced by the Cabinet Office.

Public Health England had prepared for a flu pandemic and their first response came on the 8^th of January 2020, followed by media frenzy and PM’s daily briefings. The response was supported by various teams: epidemiology, communications, and guidance both clinical & non clinical advising hospitals and prisons. Public H England had 8 of their own labs that quickly became overwhelmed with the demands for testing.  The whole operation being led by 4 Incident Directors on rota and a logistics management team.

 It was never anticipated that it would last this long, but in the beginning very little was known about this virus, which was quite scary and China were slow in providing much information. No one had ever developed a vaccine against this type of virus and death rates and levels of serious disease presented a major challenge.

Today we are in a very different position, with a great deal of learning achieved and moving into the ‘endemic’ stage, where it is an accepted part of normal, like flu. In the UK work is continuing to try and develop a vaccine against ALL coronaviruses.

Many questions followed, which Sarah comprehensively managed and Adrian thanked Sarah for her very informative and absorbing presentation, she had come highly recommended and had delivered in a fascinating but factual manner that enthralled our members and guests and asked the audience to show their appreciation in the normal manner.                                               AR

10th March 2022 The District Governor – Martyn Bye

DG Martyn began his talk with his own background, putting the concept that any ‘normal’ person could become a DG, however, when you heard his story, it put a different picture.

He was born in Cambridge and had to move about quite a lot as his father progressed in his Insurance career, so Ipswich next, then Norwich, eventually becoming an apprentice electrician following his schooling. He worked for Mercury Signs who made neon signs for various organisations.  Eventually meeting his now wife and they decided to live in Nottingham, from where she originated.  There he joined LV Pannells (Pannell Signs) in a similar business, showing the ‘Home of the best Ales ‘that he was responsible for in Daybrook. The company wanted to expand their operation & the cost of a laser machine proved prohibitive.  So with the help of Nottingham Trent University, they made their own machine (Pacer).  It was so successful that they formed a company to manufacture these machines, which eventually was taken over by a Canadian company AXYZ, but that required him to go to Burlington every 6 weeks to their Head Office.  Not good for family life, so Martyn, with his software knowledge formed a company doing ‘people counting' , which gained an International reputation such that one project was at Sydney University, but controlled from Kimberley! He also had a spell as Chairman of Mansfield RB Housing Association….so one can see, not an ordinary man, but quite the entrepreneur.

He then moved on to the normal “message from the ‘top man’”. Shekar Mehta, The RI President, who’s theme is “Serve to change Lives” and despite the issues associated with Covid he suggested the DG’s would be “Change maker Governors”!    Most of Martyn’s activity being confined to Zoom meetings, including a 12 day training course outlining the encouragement of “Diversity; Equity and Inclusion” and the strategy that we need to grow more to do more. Although our worldwide numbers are now down to 1.1 million. We still have 67 Clubs in District 1220, although with 5 fewer members, currently.

He went on to elaborate on various programmes: Walk on Water, World Earth Day 22^nd April, Empowering Girls (Sewing machine Courses in India), Youth is the future (RYLA was mentioned, how impressed he was when attending, but not surprised at the youth’s impressions of Rotarians: “Old; grey and eating”).  He has devised a competition to raise money for “End Polio now”, with a £5 entry fee to guess his carbon footprint (miles driven, hours on Zoom..) Some discussion took place on Ukraine and what Rotary can do to help which is under review, having had conversations with Taylors Transport at Huthwaite who are sending 7 truckloads of clothing and other essential to Poland at a cost of £35k fuel costs.

He mentioned that the future involves regional clusters, of which we are in the Midlands Cluster with Districts 1050, 1070 & 1210.  President Gordon thanked Martyn for his informative and absorbing presentation, which he was particularly interested in Martyn’s background and asked members to show their appreciation in the normal manner.                                               AR

3rd March 2022 The Friary – Ben Talbot

Ben started his presentation with a short video from Phil, one of the many people had benefited from the service that the Friary offer.  Phil was a school caretaker who got promoted to become the area caretaker, unfortunately he became ill and the rapid downhill spiral began.  He lost his job, the debts mounted, he was evicted and found himself living on the streets!  Fortunately he was told about the Friary, met Ann and the road to recovery began. They managed to get him a Hostel place, but it was the emotional support that started to “build him back up”.  He progressed to a warden aided property, got to know some people, new friends who supported him to feel secure, able to relax in comfort and regain his self-esteem.

Founded in 1988, the Friary was created to meet the needs of the homeless in Nottingham. Originally a drop-in café here in leafy West Bridgford to help the hidden homeless and vulnerable in our own neighbourhood. Open in those days just once a week and run by volunteers with our founder Ann Bremner MBE, the Friary is now a UK registered charity maintaining its distinctly Christian ethos to serve the poor and opens its doors on the Musters Road 6 days a week. They get about 1000 people a year through the door and their policy is to turn no one away. Obviously the pandemic has had an impact, but they hope to re-open their doors in April and get back to as normal as possible.  They have 12 members of staff with 150 volunteers, who drive, label food or work in their coffee bar. They provide breakfasts, access to showers, clothing and laundry.

They try to be non-judgemental, show and develop mutual respect to the various attendees, whether caused by job loss, family breakdown, addiction or mental health issues.  They provide: 1. Practical support (basic needs of food, showers and clothing) 2. Advice (general debt and budgeting) 3. Health support with Dr’s and nurses.  They have many links with other agencies, often making appointments at the Friary, where the clients are more comfortable. From Ben’s perspective it’s providing a platform to progress to their futures, whether that be moving into work or a property.

Funding is a major issue, but they have tremendous support from the local people in West Bridgford, but also churches, corporates and Local Authorities. He spoke about a meeting he had earlier this week with Michael Gove and Andy Burnham, looking for solutions that they will pilot in various locations to try and fix the homeless care system, which is currently broken. Ben fielded various questions from the members and received a warm round of applause following Mike T’s sincere vote of thanks highlighting their devotion to their work and the ‘kindness’ generously donated.                      AR

24th February 2022 Tropical Rain Forest – Dave Chapman

The grace given by Alan F. made reference to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and what devastating news it was in this day and age.  Our support and sympathies with the Ukrainian people.

Dave’s introduction outlined the fact that his presentation had been set up to deliver to 7 to 9 year old children, so most likely to be suitable to our members and partners!

The talk was in two parts: Amazonia, Brazil and Borneo/Malaysia and he confessed that the opportunities to explore these rain forests were derived              from his role as ‘student recruiter’ for the three universities he “worked” for (Bangor, Nottingham and Loughborough)

In Brazil he was based in Manaus, which allowed some stunning pictures of the confluence of the Amazon and Rio Negro rivers, with their contrasting colours. His excursion into the rain forest was with a local guide who was a caboclo (a person of mixed indigenous Brazilian and Portuguese). They first journeyed along the river bank by a small boat for which Jose had supplied him with an empty tin…yes, to bail the boat out! They made their trip in the evening and Dave spotted a number of pairs of pink dots, which turned out to be the eyes of Cayman (small South American crocodiles).  Jose and Dave slept overnight in hammocks, covered by mosquito nets, with a fascinating array of noises overnight and to be awakened at dawn by the roaring cries of howler monkeys. The following day Jose spotted a tree with an opening at its base and managed to pull out a Vampire bat. Dave was impressed by the many colourful plants and wide range of animals: monkeys, anteaters, sloth, toucans, parrots and ocelots.

On to Borneo where Dave and his companions were warned to ‘beware of Tigers’, but Dave felt they should have added ‘beware of leeches’! Again there was a great variety of plant life, including ‘pitcher plants’,  ‘army ants’ , vipers and of course Orangutans, which he got close to in a sanctuary in Sarawak. He had made a couple of drawings for the children showing the animals and plants for each country and including pictures of the locals in their traditional dress and headgear. He also shared with us the searching questions that the children had raised with him.

Rob thanked Dave for his informative and well illustrated, with ‘props’ presentation and asked members to join him in the normal manner                                          AR

17th February 2022 Maggie’s Centre Support – Annie Walton

We were very privileged to hear a talk from a passionate professional carer, who clearly loves her job. Annie has a background of nursing for over 33 years in the oncology environment.  However, as she progressed to a senior level, she felt that she was losing touch with patients. This created a scary situation for herself in leaving          the secure NHS environment, a life changing move. Suddenly she found herself in the situation of having to find a way to introduce people to the Maggie’s Centre.  A task she managed very well, increasing new members by 40% in 6 months…but then the pandemic arrived, causing the operation to close for 5 weeks, and with GP’s doing ‘telephone consultations’ with the loss of potential new members.

She remembered clearly how she and two colleagues made 65 telephone calls to people who had been bereaved through cancer. They then turned to Zoom, which was a big learning process, regarding ‘muted’, camera control and they recognised they need to get back to face to face support.  This impacted noticeably with children’s involvement and they started two support groups, one from baby to 17 years old and 17 and above.

She invited us to drop in to have a look at the centre at any time, they don’t operate an appointment system, there’s plenty of space, rooms and their ethos is: “just come in”.  They are able to give clarification on treatment plans as they are all qualified cancer nurses and additionally have a clinical psychologist to help with difficult cases. In traumatic situations it is doubtful that more than 12% of diagnosis and chemotherapy plans are understood and retained, we are all unique individuals with different experiences. They have “lone parent” support groups, “vibrant men’s group”, and an “expressive art group”.

There are 24 similar centres around the country, with 5 more planned and 3 or 4 international centres in Hong Kong, Japan and Barcelona.  All the centres are designed by famous architects with “architecture of Hope” as their underlying theme, to provide a light, large, open environment away from the clinical hospital type.

They are all funded by their local community, but need serious major donors for the initial set up and Maggie’s Centre needs around £600k per annum to maintain.

They run a number of workshops: living with stress; sleeplessness; chronic fatigue; anxiety, bereavement.  It’s all about talking and sharing experiences

Adrian gave the vote of thanks having experienced Maggie’s centre when his Mum was suffering about 5 years ago.  He said it one of those places you don’t know about, until you need it.  Despite Annie confessing that she knew Doug, Adrian asked the members to congratulate her in the normal manner with resounding applause. Matters concluded with President Gordon making a cheque presentation to Annie for the Maggie’s Centre and the magnificent work they do.                                                           AR

10th February 2022 The Dogs Trust – Ella Tonge and Jess Pengelly

Ella began her presentation by confessing that she was from Yorkshire and tended to talk too much, but she gave a clear informative, well illustrated talk.

She explained that the Dogs Trust is a very old charity, founded in 1891, originally as the National Canine Defence League developing a strong strap line of: “We will never put a healthy dog down”.  In 1978 a well-known phrase of “A dog is for life not just for Christmas” was quoted by Clarissa Balder.  They now have 21 rehoming centres throughout the UK & Ireland, averaging 14000 dogs per year, of all breeds, depending on dog fashions, which change from time to time.

56% of the dogs are handed over by their owners; 41% are strays, mostly provided by Local Authorities.

All dogs are vet checked, vaccinated, neutered and micro chipped. They get 4 weeks free insurance, guarantee to take a dog back should problems arise; pre-adoption talk.

Their site at Loughborough was originally a pig farm, but has been dramatically improved to be opened in 2012, where they can care for up to 100 dogs per day.  It has a light and airy reception area backed with glass fronted kennels (more hygienic and with ‘sniff’ holes to allow for ‘communication’), a vet suite, a grooming room           

Outside areas include sand areas, grassed runs, Astroturf runs, woodland walks and field walks, but off site visits to parks and woods are possible.

Behaviour assessment and training is completed in the training barn and the whole site has been given a “Carbon paw-print” with a recycled water system, green roofs, solar panels. underfloor heating, best use of natural light and a biomass boiler.

There are 2 dedicated training centres for more challenging dogs and a special sanctuary for ‘long term’ residents. There are hydrotherapy and physiotherapy suites.

The Trust has an ‘Old Dogs Home at Shrewsbury.

Ella then showed us a case history of a Labrador that came to the Trust very overweight (9.5 stone!), but after 2 years of hydrotherapy and careful diet control a picture was shown of a lively 5 year old weighing 35 Kg

Home from home foster care was also covered and the Canine Care Card scheme (free)

They also cover education and community work, with about 30 education officers who do talks in schools and they do a wide range of campaigns: dog fouling. Breeding & puppy smuggling (particularly from Eastern European Countries)

Covid 19 has obviously had some impact on them with 40 000 dogs needing help, what with behavioural issues and financial hardship.

Their income generally comes from legacies (1/3^rd), ‘sponsor a dog’ and volunteers and Ella supplemented her talk with a couple of short videos.

David E gave a vote of thanks, thanking her for her comprehensive presentation, emphasising that he and Judy supported the Dogs Trust, having brought two rescue dogs back into the UK from Spain.                                              AR

27th January 2022 Renewable Energy – Phil Nicholson

Phil’s second talk to the Club and was as fascinating, informative and interesting as the last one! He works for the Department of International Trade as an Electrical Networks and renewable energy specialist so he thought he would give us some insights into their activity split over the following headings.

* Net Zero Carbon   * UK Government Policy   * Innovation and Investment  *UK Generation Mix  *Renewable Energy generation (Offshore)  *Energy Storage

3500 people work at the DIT & they are housed in the magnificent Old Admiralty Building, they work alongside BEIS (business energy and Industrial Strategy) and FCDO (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) to secure UK and Global prosperity by promoting and financing international trade and investment, and championing free trade.

Within in DIT is DGET (Director General for Exports & UK Trade, with 12 sectors, one being Energy, where Phil works and involving him in much travel all over the World dealing with Embassies, NGO’s and High Commissions.

Net Zero Carbon by 2050 – no small undertaking that the UK Government being the first major Nation to back this pledge.  Carbon emissions are created by burning fossil fuels to heat homes, businesses and offices, transport as well as such energy intensive industries as Steel, Glass and Cement. It is unlikely we will ever get rid of carbon emissions totally, but there are methods such as solar and wind power generation, electric vehicles to limit them and systems to offset them.

He then posed the question as to how many of us use gas boilers to heat our homes. Hands up all round and in the UK, 85% or 23 million of residential buildings are currently connected to the gas grid, using a boiler and a wet-based central heating system.   Quite a Challenge & the Government has a 10 point plan for a green industrial revolution (see picture 3), this requires changes in Regulation: the 3 D’s: Decentralisation, Decarbonisation and Digitalisation are the ‘drivers’, which have impact on the Energy System & in turn impact on Regulation. The UK has an Independent Regulator - Ofgem (Office of Gas & Electricity Markets), but it is important to share any learning we achieve.

He then moved on to talk about Innovation and Catapults, we used to call it R & D, working with academia to develop innovative concepts through to commercial solutions. Catapults are not-for-profit, independent technology & innovation centres that connect businesses with the UK’s research and academic communities.  There is an Industrial Strategy Document available that gives more information on this. We need to remove coal from our energy mix by 2025, it’s currently down to 3%, but we still need it bin our cold winter spells.

Our Government do not support ‘on-shore’ Wind generation, but according to Market intelligence we have the World’s largest Offshore Wind (OSW) market, soon to be surpassed by China! In the last decade the UK has deployed 10GW of OSW, but need to get to 40GW by 2030.  To put things in context the Total max winter electricity demand for the UK is of the order of 55GW, so what do we do when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine? … Because of the massive investments required for OSW a system of ‘curtailment’ is operated by the National Grid with payments made to the wind farm owners when they cannot generate.  £200m of these payments were made in 2021. An alternative solution is to co-locate Energy Storage (ESS) facilities close to renewable generation sources. Typical ESS categories are: * Batteries * Thermal * Mechanical * Hydrogen & * Pumped Hydro.  To fully embrace these technologies, they need to be incorporated into flexible electricity systems. The UK Electricity System is part of a much larger, integrated network across not only Europe, but Scandinavia, Russia, Turkey and N. Africa. To do some of this Interconnectors are required (cables) that enable electricity to flow between countries, with High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) being the most efficient way. However, Phil outlined some of the challenges that need to be overcome to improve multiple cable entries or a shared transmission system for multiple generators.

Many questions flowed regarding Tidal generation, Nuclear, the impact of electric vehicles on the local electricity networks charging points, all well fielded, but time was called by the president.  This was followed by a very complimentary Vote of Thanks from Trevor that started with the question to Phil ”As you are very involved with the Government in your work, do you ever get invited to their ‘Cheese and Wine Parties’”?

Members joined Trevor with an enthusiastic round of applause.                                               AR

20th January 2022 Quiz – David Eldridge

Although we were reduced to 17 people in attendance due to an outbreak of Omicron, the ones who did attend were treated to the induction of 3 new members: Gail Parkinson (introduced by Mary), Mike Wiseman (introduced by Stan, who was unable to attend) and Gerry Short (a free transfer from Melton Mowbray R C…no fee involved and introduced for this event by Rob)

Gail is a Counsellor, Mike: Compliance and Gerry: Further Education.

Unfortunately we then had to suffer a wait for the food, which was fine, but the service was slow.

This created a situation to rush the David E quiz: Where in the World? But he coped admirably, splitting it into two parts, the first being 21 International Vehicle identity Codes, which challenged us with a few ‘wobblers’ like Croatia, Jordan, Alderney, North Korea and Taiwan.  However, the second part was to identify places that drive on the Left Hand side, which David identified from his research as 34% of countries in the World, a staggering 76! It was a tight contest with Alan F, Doug, Mary & Jane coming out the winners with a total of 49. Second place was awarded to Gerry T., Gail, Rob and Allen R with 44; Peter, Duncan, Mike W. & Gerry S accumulating 40, which left Gordon, Derek & Steve C. bringing up the rear!

As the time fast approached 9pm, President Gordon congratulated David on his “quickly run Quiz”, for which we all showed our appreciation, in the usual manner, after the chocolate prize had been shared amongst all competitors.                                AR

6th January 2022 Bletchley Park –ULTRA (the ultimate secret) – Bruce Frame

Despite the fact that he confessed to playing golf with a few of our members, Bruce was obviously an experienced presenter and very knowledgeable on this subject. He said that he expected most of us present know the story of Alan Turing and Gordon Welshman and their tremendous work, with many others in breaking the Enigma code, either through the film or book. So he thought it better to talk about the machine itself.

The Enigma machine was developed in the 1920’s as a financial device…but it was a failure; however, the German military took it on to develop it to encode all their messages.

The original machine had 3 rotors, a keyboard and a lamp board, providing 26x26x26 settings or 17576, not a large number in the scheme of things. So they made the rotors interchangeable and then added two more, increasing the number of settings to over 1 million, but by adding a ‘plug board’ it was increased to 158 million million million! Enigma was reciprocal; no letter could appear as itself; the keyboard had no numbers (they had to be spelt out), but of course ‘operator error is always a possibility! However, the Germans believed that Enigma was unbreakable, despite the fact that some Polish engineers had worked it out before the war and sent their results to the English & French intelligence.

Alan Turing’s logic suggested that a machine could be developed to de-code Enigma & he built one, naming it the ‘Bombe’.  The 1^st one he built cost £100k, but a further 150 were built.  These machines could break the daily code within 30 minutes and Bruce talked about how the users identified themselves: fiancée’s name; swear word; numbers; common phrases. He mentioned the sinking of The Bismarck & how names were given to the different military organisations e.g. U-boat codes were “Shark”.  Although the Germans had worked out our British Naval codes for “convoys”, he outlined that the life expectancy on U Boats was about 2 weeks!

He then moved on to the Lorenz Tele printers, a binary system with 12 rotors giving them 16 billion billion settings!  The Heath Robinson machine, which used valves, was unreliable, and they needed the expertise of a Post Office chap called Tommy Flowers, who helped them develop ‘The Colossus’ machine, which could operate at 5000 characters/second due to its optical operation.  About 50 ‘Bombes’ and 2 ‘Colossus’ machines went to GCHQ after the war.

The 10 000 staff that were involved at Bletchley Park contributed to reducing the war by about 2 years!

An interesting suggestion he threw in at his conclusion that an apple with a bite out of it was on a bedside cabinet when Turing committed suicide, which has a remarkable possible link to the Apple Corporation’s logo?

Adrian gave Bruce a glowing Vote of thanks at which he acknowledged that all our members had been captivated by Bruce’s fascinating presentation, to which we all showed our appreciation                           AR

16th December 2021 Christmas Dinner at Ashmores

A good response considering the current circumstances with 6 tables of 6. As normal Mark and Jo, with all the ‘front of house’ staff, served up some excellent food.