2020 Speakers
List of meetings for 2020:
Tuesday 14th January:
Ron Hutchinson - Through The Rear View Mirror
Tuesday 11th February: Brian Cullen - When Pirates Ruled The Waves
Friday 21st February
- Jumble Sale
Tuesday 10th March:
Peter Bloor - Film Night
Tuesday 14th April:
Vanessa Nuttall - Sounds of the Archers
Tuesday 12th May: Nikki Parmenter - Experimental Textiles
Thursday 14th May
~ Dane Valley Group Meeting:
The History Wardrobe, 1970s Fashion 'What were we thinking!'
Tuesday 9th June:
Kathy Lewis - High C's on the High Seas
Tuesday 14th July:
No Meeting Group Outing
Tuesday 11th August:
1920's Evening
Tuesday 8th September:
Gift Wrapping with Elaine Cuzner
Tuesday 13th October: Members Night
Tuesday 10th November:
AGM
Tuesday 8th December:
Christmas Dinner
Tuesday 14th January 2020:
Ron Hutchinson - Through The Rear View Mirror
Ron for a large part of his working life was chauffeur for Lord Leverhulme ( 3rd Viscount Leverhulme) also Lord Lieutenant of Cheshire. He gave us insight into some of the many roles he was required to do whilst working for Lord Leverhulme both humorous and serious. Ron met many of the Royal Family during this time and Lord Leverhulme always addressed and introduced Ron as ‘Boy’, by which he became known to many ! We all laughed when he told the story of introducing Lord Leverhulme to Marks and Spencer’s where he proceeded to buy many clothes and extolled the virtue of them to his peers including the chairman ( although he didn’t know him ) of M&S at the time! Lord Leverhulme passed away in 2000 and Ron described how he had not only been his boss but also his very good friend. He left a large some of money to Ron, to be donated to a charity of his choice. Ron’s choice was Claire House Children’s Hospital and Ron has continued to work for this Charity raising money ever since.
As usual we enjoyed a good chat over a cup of tea and piece of cake where many members
enjoyed talking to Ron asking many questions and reminiscing.
The competition for members was to bring in any any car related memorabilia - there were some
interesting items. Ron picked the winner which was The Contour Road Book of England 1906.A
enjoyable evening was had by all.
Report by: Gill Monk
Tuesday 11th February 2020:
Brian Cullen - When Pirates Ruled The Waves
Our speaker for the night was Brian Cullen - When Pirates Rule the Waves.
I’m not sure what any of us expected but the talk and slide show was about Radio Caroline - Brian started with the jingle I Love Caroline on 199. Immediately you could see many expressions of sudden recollections of what was a great pirate radio station of the 60’s.
Brian has been a professional radio presenter since 1974. He ‘got the bug’ by listening to Radio Caroline in the 1960’s. He had a wealth of knowledge and slides about the world’s most famous off shore radio station and how it first started and changed the UK radio. He talked about the original ship MV Fredericia which was a originally a Danish Passenger Ferry that was transformed into the radio station. The ship broadcast for 4 years as Radio Caroline North off the coast of The Isle Of Man. Many now famous DJ /broadcasters started their careers with Radio Caroline such as Simon Dee, Tony Blackburn and Jonny Walker and many groups made there fame with the help of Pirate Radio. The first record played was Not Fade Away by the Rolling Stones. Unfortunately because of the Marine Broadcasting Offences Act 1967 the radio station came to end on 2nd March 1968. All is not lost though as you can now listen to Radio Caroline Flashback on the Sounds of Offshore Radio via the internet, playing music from the 50’s and 60’s. Brian Cullen now hosts his own show on Sounds of Offshore Radio so his dream of being a DJ on Radio Caroline has come true! Thank you Brian Cullen for a most interesting talk and for bringing back many memories to so many of our group.
Brian judged our competition of which there were many 1960’s memorabilia:
1st place
went to a receipt showing the bill (£4.00) for a honeymoon at the Imperial Hotel North Shore Blackpool.
2nd place
was a 1st Class Ticket to London showing the cost of return £5.00.
3rd place
was an original Album - Great songs of the Sixties.
Report by: Gill Monk
Tuesday 10th March 2020:
Peter Bloor - Film Night
Our speakers were Peter Bloor and Mike Hassel - they introduced themselves as film makers and had been part of of a cinema club for 12 years. They have won national awards for their films and they also raise funds for charities.
We were shown 7 films that were all very different. They were all quite short and really interesting.
Film 1 was about The Royal Yacht Britannia - it was decommissioned in December 1997. It had chalked up 1 million nautical miles for the Royal Family. It is now docked in Leith, Edinburgh and enjoys 30 thousand visitors each year.
Film 3
Mr Hulmes School was a film over 70 years old. It depicted school life during war time in a local school in Elworth although a new school now stands. Children were filmed practising putting their gas masks on and walking in a very calm manner to the air raid shelter. It brought back many childhood memories for some of the ladies. The children were digging and growing vegetables, knitting and boys were building with real bricks. All learning practical skills that would be necessary in life at that time. They were all given milk twice a day and there were no uniforms to be seen. We noted that all the girls had their hair cut in a short bob ( very practical). It all looked a very simple way of school life even though there was a war on! When did schooling change ? Probably in the late 80,s when they brought in SATs ( ooooh that word ! ) and sewing, knitting, cookery and growing veg went out of the window! Although I know many schools are trying to fit some of these things back into school life. Maybe after this period of children at home for we don’t know how long, we may able to introduce some of the skills taught many years ago. Although it would be good if the Grandparents could be involved and not all in isolation! Thank goodness for the ‘modernness’ of the internet ! We are able to FaceTime and interact with our families in this virtual reality world !
We also had a nature film about the life of a blackbird - excellent film showing the cycle of life and how precarious it is for wild life. As it is for us too - certainly in the present climate.
We all enjoyed the films by the sound of applause and we appreciated the work that had gone into making them.
Report by: Gill Monk
