David began his lively and interesting talk with a short history
lesson. Magistrates in the judicial system of England and
Wales can be traced to the year 1195. Richard I in that year
commissioned certain knights to preserve the peace in unruly areas.
They were responsible to the King for ensuring that the law was
upheld. They preserved the "King's Peace", and were known as Keepers
of the Peace. The title Justices of the Peace derives from 1361, in
the reign of Edward III. An Act of 1327 had referred to "good and
lawful men" to be appointed in every county in the land to "guard
the Peace. For the following 600 years, and continuing today,
Justices of the Peace have undertaken the greater part of the
judicial work carried out in England and Wales on behalf of the
Sovereign. For more information on the vital role that JPs played in
maintaining the “King’s Peace” over the years, see
http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/aboutus/history/magistrates.htm
David was appointed as a Magistrate over 30 years ago when the
training the type of work undertaken was very different to
today. During this time, he has judged cases from petty theft
to murder but in recent years, had concentrated on work in the
Family Division of justice. His work has not been without its
lighter side of observing the eccentricity of the general
public. On one occasion, an elderly lady sat at the back of
the courtroom apparently listening to the various cases being
brought before the Court. The Bench became puzzled as to why she was
there and enquired whether she was finding the proceedings
interesting. She replied that she was actually waiting “to
have my feet done”, having mistaken the proceedings of the courtroom
to be the waiting-room for the chiropodist!
At the end of his talk, David gave the outline of a case of theft
which had been brought before the Bench – with names suitably
changed! – and asked all present what sentence was considered
appropriate. Replies from the audience were
interesting! “Hang him!”, “Suspended sentence”, “3
months’ in jail!”. Given the wide variety of opinions, it is
probably just as well that the important work of being a magistrate
is left to the wisdom of David than his audience!
Duo - "Amusing by Definition" David Wilson and
Richard Oberman, talk on "Amusing by Definition"
The English language is one of the richest in the world, but when
“enhanced” by the Duo of David Wilson and Richard Oberman, it also
becomes one of the most amusing. Taking the alphabet in turn,
the Duo gave interesting alternative definitions, viz: “Announce” –
one-sixteenth of a pound, “Flabbergasted” – appalled to discover
just how much weight you have put on, “Impeccable” - bird proof
through to “Zebra” – extremely large foundation garment.
Interspersed with these alternative definitions, were actual
quotations from the radio or television by well-known broadcasters,
such as Frank Bough’s observation on the demonstration by TV cook
Fanny Craddock that he hoped that all the viewers’ doughnuts “came
out like Fanny’s”, a variety of newspaper headlines such as “General
MacArthur flew back to front” and a sermon in “rhyming slang”.
All present were greatly amused at the Duo’s presentation which was
in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support .
Michael Peachey "My Life and an Artist" Website
http://mikeart.org.uk/
Under expert guidance by Michael, 4 members of the U3A reached
painting skills that they did not know they had! This is how
Michael likes to undertake a demonstration by working with his
audience on a painting, whilst giving amusing anecdotes of his life
as an artist. At the end of his demonstration, there was an
excellent picture in oils of a highland scene,complete with ripples
on the loch – a special request from Monica Corbett.
Michael is entirely self-taught and started painting when he was
8. He sold his first painting of a landscape at 11 for
£3 and has continued painting all his life. His work
include portraits, animal paintings, landscapes and murals plus
anything else which takes his fancy or is commissioned to do.
Sometimes individuals who want their portrait painted ask for
certain “improvements” – airbrushing of models’ pictures is not new
by any means.
Michael works with a number of organisations whose members have
special needs, such as Headway, residential homes etc as all find
art very therapeutic.
Peter Butler "St Pancras Station"
Who was St Pancras? Well, we have to confess that not many in
the audience could answer this question. But Peter gave us all
a brief history lesson. He was the patron saint of children
born in 290 AD and beheaded at age 14 in 304 AD as a Christian
martyr. Old St Pancras Church which is where the current St
Pancras International Railway station stands, is believed to be one
of the oldest sites of Christian worship inEngland. The church
became derelict by 1847 but has recently been restored and is well
worth a visit.
You may have wondered why there are 3 mainline railways within a
short distance of each other along the Euston Road (Euston, St
Pancras and King’s Cross). The reason for this is that the
City of London would not allow any railway line to cross the London
(now Euston) Road when the railways were being built. Why were
so many railways built in such a short distance? The answer is
coal – they were needed to supply the growing number of people in
London. The Midland Main Line was built in stages between the
1830s and 1870s to and was extended St Pancras in 1868 as the two
other lines into London were becoming congested.
In order to build the St Pancras
railway sheds, thousands of people were evicted from the slum
dwellings in the area and not until over 30 years later, was
alternative housing built. When building the line, a
decision was taken to go above the canal and so the station building
was built over 721 cast iron columns linked by steel girders.
These columns were spaced out to accommodate the beer being
transported from Burton on Trent and the columns of the “undercroft”
has been retained for the shops.
The current St Pancras International Station is now the departure
point for the Eurostar and many of the lovely features of the
original station have been retained. This would not have
happened without the intervention of St John Betjeman who prevented
the buildings being demolished in the 1960s. For more images
of the current station and its buildings, click here.
Wednesday, 16 February: David Bone "My life as a Mounted Prison
Officer on Dartmoor"
David Bone was a prison officer at Dartmoor during 1970-77 when it
was a Category B+ prison. Dartmoor prison is very different
today (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dartmoor_(HM_Prison) for a
brief history and outline of its current governance and educational
activities) but the bleak and forbidding moors still leave tourists
unsettled at the prospect of being incarcerated in this
establishment. Whilst David was there, prisoners worked making
televisions for Rank, Bush & Murphy soldering the electronics
board or making the wooden cabinets for the TV. Some prisoners
made items in wrought iron and prison officers had to be very
careful to hide their keys in their pockets as some of the inmates
were quite capable of copying the keys just “by sight”! Other
prisoners crushed stones for Plymouth Council road but not in “chain
gangs”! There was also a farm which milked over 200 cows, had
500 pigs and grew salad vegetables in poly-tunnels.
David began supervising the farm workers but moved from there to be
one of 4 mounted officers who rode around the outside of the prison
ensuring that tourists and prisoners on outside working parties were
kept strictly apart. On one occasion, he found a car complete
with luggage and keys in the dashboard. The two young women
owners were sunbathing nearby “au naturel” with a prison working
party in the next field.
Unfortunately, financial cuts led to the demise of the mounted
prison officer and he returned to more traditional duties which
included being in charge of visitors to the prisoners.
Dartmoor is of course very remote and this made family visiting very
difficult but at his instigation, accommodation was developed for
families in a disused Methodist Church. David has several sad
stories about prisoners who regarded Dartmoor as “home” because they
had no family and on discharge, immediately committed a crime to be
returned to the prison as this was the only life they knew and they
felt safe.
Wednesday, 16 March 2011: Kenton White "Virtual
Heritage"
Kenton is director of Redhead Designs in Newport Pagnell whose
company has worked with a number of local history and heritage
groups as well as regional museums and television production
companies. He gave a fascinating illustrated talk on how computer
technology can re-create long vanished buildings, scenes, landscapes
and even events enabling us to see things the way our ancestors saw
them.
Kenton explained how these animations were created and the care
taken to make 3-D images look realistic, even down to doing
algorithmic calculations on the reflections of light through “glass”
windows. Sometimes the company is fortunate enough to be
presented with drawings of a “lost” building or artefact but where
these are not available, then hours of research are necessary to
produce the desired outcome. One commission was to produce an
animation of Ayrton Senna's fateful crash at Imola for a safety
video from only a 30 second TV clip.
Of interest to the U3A audience was work undertaken on behalf of the
Heritage Lottery Fund to recreate two Northamptonshire towns.
The first was Burton Latimer High Street the 1918 which involved
animating 170 individual houses plus all the street furniture.
Kenton was also commissioned to work with the Rushden History
Society’s which produced a DVD under the History of Rushden –
“Hearts & Soles” project and showed a reconstruction of the
Jaques & Clark Shoe Factory. This show video took 12
months to model and 6 weeks to develop each frame of 25 frames per
second.
Wednesday, 20 April: Nick Hammond "The Great Fen: Conservation
on a Landscape Scale"
Nick Hammond "The Great Fen: Conservation on a Landscape Scale" Nick
Hammond gave a unique insight to The Great Fen project, the largest
in lowland England, which covers an area of 3,700 hectare wetland
between Huntingdon and Peterborough. The aim of the project is
to link up two existing National Nature Reserves, Holme Fen and
Woodwalton Fen.
Nick explained that initially, nature conservation in medieval
England was to ensure that hunting habitats were preserved, which
was the origin of Rockingham Forest. Modern conservation
thinking is that small nature reserves must be interconnected so
that species on these reserves can migrate to adjoining areas which
will increase the likelihood of survival of rare flora and fauna
should anything unfortunate happen to the original conservation
area.
All nature conservation societies now adopt the “three R’s”:
Restore, Recreate and Reconnect, and many local examples can be
found along the Nene Valley through the work of The Wildlife Trusts
in partnership with Natural England and other organisations such as
the RSPB.
Wednesday, 18 May Anne Widdup “Demystifying Hypnosis and
Hypnotherapy.”
Anne is clinically trained in mental health and stress management,
and teaches yoga and gives relaxing massages. Her talk was given in
a gentle manner interspersed with humour.
People have a perceived idea of hypnotherapy through seeing it on
stage or films where people who are open to suggestion are chosen
for comedy or sensation but Anne cited the times when everyone
experienced “hypnosis”, for example, just before drifting off to
sleep, or being rocked as a baby.
Hypnosis and hypnotherapy has a long history in many cultures.
The Greeks had sleep temples to allow people to be nurtured and rest
and some tribes use music and dance to help control people.
Surgeons used mesmeric sleep when operating in the American Civil
War and in WW1 before anesthetics became readily available for pain
relief. The British Medical Association approved the use
of hypnotherapy in 1892. Today, hypnotherapy is used to help
with numerous conditions, such as Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.
Anne gave a detailed clinical insight into the effects of stress on
our bodies as well as our minds. Today’s role for the
hypnotherapist is as a facilitator and a guide during treatment,
often teaching coping strategies. These include the premise
that we can help ourselves if we have Belief, Imagination,
Conviction and Expectation.
Wednesday, 20 July: Zena Skinner "Facing the Camera"
The path to fame and success for Zena Skinner started in Kenya and
being pictured with Maasai warriors – somehow the BBC thought that
this experience would stand her in good stead to become a TV
cook! At her interview with the BBC, she offered to make
Brandy Snaps live on TV and in black-and-white. Cooks reading
this article will appreciate what a challenge this would be today
with colour and the ability to pre-record! She practised on
her neighbours who ultimately lost their appetite for this dish, and
then turned up at the TV studio to rehearse ready for the live
programme. Zena’s tale of how this went had everyone laughing
until they cried and it would not be appropriate to “steal her
thunder” by relating some of the tales – indeed, nobody could tell
them but her. In her mid 80s, Zena is a wonderful role model
of how to enjoy life with good food and a sense of humour. She
was still asked her opinion on the modern chefs and tactfully
replied she believed that the best recipes contained no more than
6-7 ingredients! She was also asked for her recipe for a
cheese cake! For further information on Zena, click here
In order to build the St Pancras
railway sheds, thousands of people were evicted from the slum
dwellings in the area and not until over 30 years later, was
alternative housing built. When building the line, a
decision was taken to go above the canal and so the station building
was built over 721 cast iron columns linked by steel girders.
These columns were spaced out to accommodate the beer being
transported from Burton on Trent and the columns of the “undercroft”
has been retained for the shops.