.5 lead mechanical pencil

Milan, Italy

Spring 25

Munich (GER), 11 August 2022: Thompson-Smith Molly of Great Britain competes in the Lead qualification during the 2022 European Championships in Munich (GER).

 

© Jan Virt / IFSC. This photo is for editorial use only. For any additional use please contact marco.vettoretti@ifsc-climbing.org

Thursday morning, and all I had to do was get back to Kent. Hopefully before five so I could hand the hire car back, but getting back safe and sound would do, really.

 

I woke at six so I could be dressed for breakfast at half six when it started, and as usual when in a hotel, I had fruit followed by sausage and bacon sarnies. And lots of coffee.

 

Outside it had snowed. OK, it might only be an inch of the stuff, but that's more than an inch needed to cause chaos on the roads.

 

Back to the room to pack, one last look round and back to reception to check out, then out into the dawn to find that about a quarter of the cars were having snow and ice cleared off them before being able to be driven.

 

I joined them, scraping the soft snow then the ice. Bracing stuff at seven in the morning.

 

Now able to see out, I inched out of the car park and out to the exit and onto the untreated roads.

 

It was a picturesque scene, but not one I wanted to stop to snap. My first road south had only been gritted on one side, thankfully the side I was travelling down, but was still just compacted snow.

 

After negotiating two roundabouts, I was on the on ramp to the M6, and a 60 mile or so drive south. The motorway was clear of snow, but huge amounts of spray was thrown up, and the traffic was only doing 45mph, or the inside lane was, and that was quite fast and safe enough for me.

 

More snow fell as I neared Stoke, just to add to the danger of the journey, and then the rising sun glinted off the road, something which I had most of the drive home.

 

I went down the toll road, it costs eight quid, but is quick and easy. And safe too with so little traffic on it. I think for the first time, I didn't stop at the services, as it was only about half nine, and only three hours since breakfast.

 

And by the time I was on the old M6, there was just about no snow on the ground, and the road was beginning to dry out.

 

My phone played the tunes from my apple music store. Loudly. So the miles slipped by.

 

After posting some shots from Fotheringhay online, a friend, Simon, suggested others nearby that were worth a visit, and I also realised that I hadn't taken wide angle shots looking east and west, so I could drop in there, then go to the others suggested.

 

And stopping here was about the half way point in the journey so was a good break in the drive, and by then the clouds had thinned and a weak sin shone down.

 

Fotheringhay is as wonderful as always, it really is a fine church, easy to stop there first, where I had it to myself, and this time even climbed into the richly decorated pulpit to snap the details.

 

A short drive away was Apethorpe, where there was no monkey business. The village was built of all the same buttery yellow sandstone, looking fine in the weak sunshine.

 

Churches in this part of Northamptonshire are always open, Simon said.

 

Not at Apethorpe. So I made do with snapping the church and the village stocks and whipping post opposite.

 

A short drive up the hill was King's Cliffe. Another buttery yellow village and a fine church, which I guessed would be open.

 

Though it took some finding, as driving up the narrow high street I failed to find the church. I checked the sat nav and I had driven right past it, but being down a short lane it was partially hidden behind a row of houses.

 

The church was open, and was surrounded by hundreds of fine stone gravestones, some of designs I have not seen before, but it was the huge numbers of them that was impressive.

 

Inside the church was fine, if cold. I record what I could, but my compact camera's batter had died the day before, and I had no charger, so just with the nifty fifty and the wide angle, still did a good job of recording it.

 

There was time for one more church. Just.

 

For those of us who remember the seventies, Warmington means Dad's Army, or rather Warmington on Sea did. THat there is a real Warmington was a surprise to me, and it lay just a couple of miles the other side of Fotheringhay.

 

The church is large, mostly Victorian after it fell out of use and became derelict, if the leaflet I read inside was accurate. But the renovation was excellent, none more so than the wooden vaulted roof with bosses dating to either the 15th or 16th centuries.

 

Another stunning item was the pulpit, which looks as though it is decorated with panels taken from the Rood Screen. Very effective.

 

Back to the car, I program the sat nav for home, and set off back to Fotheringhay and the A14 beyond.

 

No messing around now, just press on trying to make good time so to be home before dark, and time to go home, drop my bags, feed the cats before returning the car.

 

No real pleasure, but I made good time, despite encountering several bad drivers, who were clearly out only to ruin my mood.

 

Even the M25 was clear, I raced to the bridge, over the river and into Kent.

 

Nearly home.

 

I drive back down the A2, stopping at Medway services for a sandwich and a huge coffee on the company's credit card.

 

And that was that, just a blast down to Faversham, round onto the A2 and past Canterbury and to home, getting back at just after three, time to fill up the bird feeders, feed the cats, unpack and have a brew before going out at just gone four to return the car.

 

Jools would rescue me from the White Horse on her way home, so after being told the car was fine, walked to the pub and ordered two pints of Harvey's Best.

 

There was a guy from Essex and his American girlfriend, who were asking about all sorts of questions about Dover's history, and I was the right person to answer them.

 

I was told by a guide from the Castle I did a good job.

 

Yay me.

 

Jools arrived, so I went out and she took me home. Where the cats insisted they had not been fed.

 

Lies, all lies.

 

Dinner was teriyaki coated salmon, roasted sprouts and back, defrosted from before Christmas, and noodles.

 

Yummy.

 

Not much else to tell, just lighting the fire, so Scully and I would be toast warm watch the exciting Citeh v Spurs game, where Spurs were very Spursy indeed.

 

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I was exploring the churches of north-east Northamptonshire, and on my way back to Peterborough station how could I resist a visit to lovely Warmington church? The village is rather a suburban one but, the solid little entirely Early English church sits at its heart. Entirely a Huntingdonshire church in style, with a stubby spire and big dormer-style lucarnes.

   

I had previously visited almost exactly a year ago, and as before I left my bike in the Early English porch, which is vaulted in blocks of stone, handsome yet familiar. I remembered in 2015 stepping into what turned out to be then the most interesting interior of the day, although rather overshadowed by Apethorpe and Blatherwycke on my current trip. The most striking feature, and rather a surprising one, is that the roof of the nave is vaulted in wood. This was done in the 13th Century, and the bosses survive from that time - even more surprising, they all depict green men, nine of them. Why was this not done elsewhere?

   

The rood screen is one of the best in the area, and the medieval pulpit appears to be constructed of rood screen panels (can that be right? Did they come from the rood loft? Surely it is pre-Reformation, in which case perhaps they came from somewhere else). Lots to think about. A good church, it would be considered so in any county.

   

So I got back on my bike and headed on towards Peterborough, but not without a memory of the last time I had done the same thing, because in 2015, as I was about to leave the church, three young women came in. They were walking the Nene Way, and were attired as you might expect attractive young women to be on such a sunny day. I didn't want them to be made nervous by the presence of a middle-aged man with a camera, so I nodded a greeting as I left, but in the event they engaged me in conversation, asking me where I'd come from, telling me what they were doing, where they were going, and so on.

   

In the end I had to make my apologies and leave as they didn't seem to want to let me go, not an experience I have very often these days, I can tell you. It rather put me in mind of the Sirens episode in the Odyssey.

   

And so I headed on, wary now of any wandering rocks and one-eyed giants.

 

www.flickr.com/photos/norfolkodyssey/27033140016/in/photo...

 

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St Michael’s Parish Church, Warmington

 

Warmington was already an established farming community when its assets were recorded in Domesday Book. Shortly afterwards, its Norman owner, the Earl of Warwick, gave the manor of Warmington to the Benedictine Abbey which his father had endowed in Normandy, St.Peter’s at Preaux. Warmington was to remain in monastic hands, with one short break, for about 450 years. Monks were sent over from Preaux who built a small Priory. Its foundations were discovered when houses were built in Court Close in the 1950s. The Priory has disappeared, but the splendid church built under the monks’ supervision, mainly in the early medieval period, remains.

 

The church stands high above the village, close to the summit of Warmington Hill. Tradition tells us that the stone for building it was dug close by, in the area known as Catpits, or Churchpits. The stone for the tower was brought from a field known as Turpits, or Towerpits, a quarter of a mile away along the Hornton road. The churchyard is entered either by the lych-gate from the main road, or from the village by two long flights of steps. A diagonal line of pine trees marks the former boundary of the churchyard which was extended in the 1850s. In the older part, and especially near the south porch, are gravestones of exceptionally fine workmanship dating from the 17th and 18th centuries. About eighty of these are ‘listed’ by the Department of the Environment. All the inscribed memorials were recorded in 1981.

 

An admirable and detailed architectural description of the church is available in the Victoria County History. These notes are intended rather as a ‘layman’s conducted tour’. The church was purpose-built and used for the first half of its long life for forms of worship very different from our own. It was also the village meeting place for many secular purposes The church comprises north and south porches, nave with north and south aisles, a west tower and chancel with two-storey vestry adjoining.

 

As you enter the church by the south porch you walk forward into the nave. This area, with the first three pillars on each side, is where Warmington people have met and worshipped since the twelfth century. The area was extended by the addition of the aisles a century later. Today the overwhelming impression is a sense of simplicity, of space and of strength. Imagine the scene in the medieval period: no pews but white-washed walls covered with paintings, images of the saints in stone, on wood and painted cloths, the whole lit by the sunlight through stained glass and by candles and lamps burning before every image. On Sundays before Mass, at special festivals and for some fifty saints’ days in the year, a procession would form, with banners and hand bells, winding its way around the church and churchyard, and stopping at various points for particular acts of worship. The north and west doors, so rarely used today, had significance in these processions.

 

Before leaving this area of the church, notice the variety of windows, almost all of early date, but now mostly with clear glass. The ones at the east ends of the aisles, where the stone plate is pierced with roundels and a five-pointed star, are unusual. Considerable work has been undertaken in recent years in renewing the stone mullions, worn by the weather over time. The early Norman tub font of simple design is large enough for infant immersion. The aisles both taper by a foot, one to the east, and one to the west. The nave and chancel are slightly out of alignment, perhaps symbolic of Christ’s drooping head on the cross.

 

Before stepping down into the chancel, run your hand along the wooden screen under the chancel arch. This is all that remains of the great rood-screen which would have dominated the medieval church. The screen was hacked through quite roughly when the church was stripped of its ‘idolatrous’ treasures at the Reformation. Just to the right of the chancel arch is the doorway and stair which used to lead to the rood-screen loft.

 

The stained glass and memorial tablets in the chancel all commemorate the family of the Victorian rector during whose incumbency the church was restored. On the south wall are a richly decorated triple sedilia and piscina, dating from the fifteenth century when Warmington manor had newly passed to the Carthusian monks of Wytham in Somerset.

 

A door from the chancel leads into the vestry, built about 1340. The lower room was a chapel, dedicated to St Thomas. The stone altar shows four of its five original crosses cut in the top. An altar would have a piscina nearby for washing the vessels used at Mass. The piscina here has a trefoiled ogee-head and quartrefoil basin. On the opposite wall is a blocked fireplace.

 

The oak doors and stairway are delightful and a testament to the skills of local carpenters, smiths and masons. The upper room was the priest’s home complete with windows, commanding extensive views, fireplace, lavatory and a shuttered opening for keeping watch over the main alter. The exterior walls of the vestry are extraordinarily thick. One Warmington tradition was that it was used as a prison for recalcitrant monks!

 

A more credible and interesting suggestion is that the walls were so constructed to carry the weight of a tower. If this was indeed the plan, it was quickly abandoned, for soon after the vestry was built work started on the tower in the usual Warwickshire position at the west end of the nave.

 

The slightly different stonework on the exterior indicates the stages of its building. The tower is recessed slightly into the nave, presumably to accommodate it in the very limited land there was available for extending the church at the west end. A stair within the thickness of the wall gives access to the bell chamber and the roof. The flight is steep and the treads are worn down to the bottom of the risers. The present bells are dated 1602, 1613 and 1811.

 

There are many interesting gravestones in the churchyard, which were recorded by members of Warmington WI in a 1981 survey.

 

VICTORIA COUNTY HISTORY

 

WARMINGTON

 

This extract from the Victoria County History gives a very detailed description of the parish church.

 

The church stands directly on the east side of the main road from Banbury to Warwick at the top of a steep gradient and the village lies mostly to the northeast of it at a lower level. The parish church of ST. MICHAEL, or ST. NICHOLAS, consists of a chancel, north chapel with a priest’s chamber above it, nave, north and south aisles and porches and a west tower.

 

The nave dates from the 12th century; no detail is left to indicate its original date but it was of the proportion of two squares, common in the early 12th century. A north aisle was added first, about the middle of the 12th century, with an arcade of three bays; a south aisle followed, near the end of the 12th century, also with a three-bay arcade. After about a century a considerable enlargement was begun and continued over a period of half a century or more; the nave was lengthened eastwards about 10 ft. and a new chancel built. The extra length of the side walls added to the nave perhaps remained unpierced at first.

 

Although there is a general sameness in the Hornton stone ashlar walling throughout, all the various parts—chancel, chapel, aisles, and tower—have different plinths, &c., and there is a great variation in the elevations and details of the windows, showing constant changes from the 14th century, when there was much activity, onwards, probably because of decay and need for repair caused by the church’s exposed position on the brow of a hill.

 

The south aisle was widened to its present limits about 1290, on the evidence of the wide splays and other details of its windows; but an early-13th-century doorway was re-used. It is possible that the east part of the north aisle followed soon afterwards, c. 1300, as a kind of transeptal chapel, on the evidence of its east window, which differs from the other aisle windows. From c. 1330–40 much was done. The chancel arch was widened, new bays to match were inserted in the east lengths of the nave walls, making both arcades now of four bays, the widening of the whole of the north aisle was completed with the addition of the north porch. The 12th-century north arcade, which seems to have lost its inner order, was probably rebuilt. There is a curious distortion about both aisles, perhaps only explained by the widenings being made in more than one period; the north aisle tapers from west to east and the south aisle tapers from east to west, about a foot each, as compared with the lines of the arcades. The south porch was probably added about 1330.

 

About 1340 came also the addition of the chapel with the priest’s chamber above it. The north wall of the chancel, probably of the 13th century and thinner than any of the other walls, was kept to form the south wall of the chapel, but the other walls were made unusually thick, as though it was at first intended to raise a higher superstructure than was actually carried out, perhaps even a tower. If such was the intention it was quickly abandoned and the west tower was begun about 1340–5 and carried up to some two-thirds of its present height. There was not much room above the road-side and it had to encroach 2 or 3 ft. into the west end of the nave. The top stage was added or completed in the 15th century.

 

With the addition of the chapel, alterations were made to the chancel windows, but its south wall had to be rebuilt in the 15th century, when new and larger windows were inserted and the piscina and sedilia constructed.

 

There have been many repairs and renovations, notably in 1867 to the chancel and 1871 for the rest of the church, and others since then. The roofs have been entirely renewed, though probably more or less of the original forms of the 14th or 15th centuries.

 

The chancel (about 30½ft. by 16½ft.) has an east window of four trefoiled pointed lights and modern tracery of 14th-century character in a two-centred head with an external hood-mould having head-stops. The jambs and arch, of two moulded orders, and the hood-mould are early-14th-century. In the north wall is a 14th-century doorway into the chapel with jambs and ogee head of three moulded orders and a hoodmould with head-stops, the eastern a cowled man’s, the western a woman’s. It contains an ancient oak door, with stout diagonal framing at the back and hung with plain strap-hinges. At the west end of the wall are two windows close together; the eastern, of c. 1340, of two trefoiled ogee-headed lights and cusped piercings in a square head with an external label having decayed head-stops. It has a shouldered internal lintel which is carved with grotesque faces. The western is a narrower and earlier 14th-century window of two trefoiled ogee-headed lights and a quatrefoil, &c., in a square head with an external label.

 

The window at the west end of the south wall is similar. The other two are 15th-century insertions, each of two wide cinquefoiled three-centred lights under a square head with head-stops, one a cowled human head, the other beast-heads. The jambs and lintel of two sunk-chamfered orders are old, the rest restored. The rear lintel is also sunk-chamfered and is supported in the middle by a shaped stone bracket from the mullion.

 

The 14th-century priest’s doorway has jambs and two-centred ogee head of two ovolo-moulded orders and a cambered internal lintel; it has no hood-mould.

 

Below the south-east window is a 15th-century piscina with small side pilasters that have embattled heads, and a trefoiled ogee head enriched with crockets. The sill, which projects partly as a moulded corbel, has a round basin. West of it are three sedilia of the same character with cinquefoiled ogee heads also crocketed and with finials. At the springing level are carved human-head corbels: the cusp-points are variously carved, an acorn, a snake’s head, a skull, and foliage. The two outer are surmounted by crocketed and finialled gables and all are flanked and divided by pilasters with embattled heads and crocketed pinnacles.

 

The east wall is built of yellow-grey ashlar with a projecting splayed plinth; the gable-head has been rebuilt. At the south-east angle is a pair of square buttresses of two stages, probably later additions, as the plinth is not carried round them. Another at the former north-east angle has been restored. The south wall is of yellow ashlar but has a moulded plinth of the 15th century. The eaves have a hollow-moulded course with which the uprights of the 15th-century window-labels are mitred.

 

The 14th-century chancel arch has responds and pointed head of two ovolo-moulded orders interrupted at the springing line by the abacus.

 

The roof with arched trusses is modern and is covered with tiles.

 

The north chapel (about 12 ft. east to west by 17 ft. deep) is now used as the vestry, and dates from c. 1340. In its south wall, the thin north wall of the chancel, is a straight joint 3¼ft. from the east wall probably marking the east jamb of a former 13th-century window, and below it is the remnant of an early stringcourse that is chamfered on its upper edge. The east wall is 3 ft. 10 in. thick and the north wall 4 ft. 6 in. In the middle of each is a rectangular one-light window with moulded jambs and head of two orders and an external label; the internal reveals are half splayed and part squared at the inner edges and have a flat stone lintel. The lights were probably cusped originally. In the west wall is a filled-in square-headed fire-place, perhaps original. Partly in the recess of the east window and partly projecting is an ancient thick stone altarslab showing four of the original five crosses cut in the top. It has a hollow-chamfered lower edge and is supported by moulded stone corbels. South of it in the east wall is a piscina with a trefoiled ogee-head and hood-mould and a quatrefoil basin.

 

The stair-vice that leads up to the story above is in the south-west angle, its doorway being splayed westwards to avoid the doorway to the chancel. In it is an ancient oak door with one-way diagonal framing on the back. The turret projects externally to the west in the angle with the chancel wall; it is square in the lower part but higher is broadened northwards with a splay that is corbelled out below in three courses, the lowest corbel having a trefoiled ogee or blind arch cut in it. The top is tabled back up to the eaves of the chapel west wall. A moulded string-course passes round the projection and there is another half-way up the tabling. The doorway at the top of the spiral stair leading into the upper chamber has an ancient oak door hung with three strap-hinges.

 

The upper priest’s chamber has an east window of two plain square-headed lights, probably altered. In the north wall is a rectangular window that was of two lights but has lost its mullion. Outside it has a false pointed head of two trefoiled ogee-headed lights and leaf tracery, all of it blank, and a hood-mould with human-head stops, one cowled. Apparently this treatment was purely for decorative purposes, like the square-headed windows at Shotteswell and elsewhere. The south wall is pierced by a watching-hole into the chancel, which is fitted with an iron grill and oak shutter: it has been reduced from a larger opening that had an ogee head and hood-mould. There is a square-headed fire-place in the west wall and in the splayed north-west angle is the entrance to a garderobe or latrine, which is lighted by a north loop.

 

The walls are of yellow ashlar and have a plinth of two courses, the upper moulded, a moulded stringcourse at first-floor level, and moulded eaves-courses at the sides. The north wall is gabled and has a parapet with string-course and coping. At the angles are diagonal buttresses of two stages; the lower stage is 2½ft. broad up to the first-floor level, above this the upper stage is reduced to about half the breadth. They support square diagonal pinnacles with restored crocketed finials. The west wall is unpierced but above it is a plain square chimney-shaft with an open-side hood on top. Internally the walls are faced with whitish-brown ashlar. The gabled roof is modern and of two bays.

 

The nave (about 41½ft. by 16½ft.) has north and south arcades of four bays. The easternmost bay on each side, with the first pillar, is of the same detail and date as the chancel arch. They vary in span, the north being about 9 ft. and the south about 10 ft., and in both cases the span is less than those of the older bays. Those on the north side are of 11–12 ft. span and date from the middle of the 12th century. The pillars are circular, the west respond a half-circle, with scalloped capitals, 6 in. high and square in the deep-browed upper part and with a 4½in. grooved and hollowchamfered abacus. The bases are chamfered and stand on square sub-bases. The arches are pointed and of one square order with a plain square hood-mould, The voussoirs are small. The middle parts of the soffits are plastered between the flush inner ends of the voussoirs, suggesting a former inner order, abolished perhaps in a rebuilding of the heads.

 

The same three bays of the south side are of 11 ft. span and of late-12th-century date. The round pillars are rather more slender than the northern, and the capitals are taller, 12 in. high, with long and shallow scallops, and have 4 in. abaci like the northern. The bases are taller and moulded in forms approaching those of the 13th century, on chamfered square sub-bases.

 

The pointed arches are of one chamfered order and their hood-moulds are now flush with the plastered wall-faces above.

 

The half-round west responds of both arcades have been overlapped on the nave side by the east wall of the tower.

 

High above the 14th-century south-east respond is a 15th-century four-centred doorway to the former rood-loft. The stair-vice leading up to it is entered by a four-centred doorway in the east wall of the south aisle.

 

The north aisle (11½ft. wide at the east end and 12½ft. at the west) has an uncommon east window of c. 1300. It is of three plain-pointed rather narrow lights; above the middle light, which has a shorter pointed head than the others, is a circle enclosing a pierced five-pointed star, all in a two-centred head with an external hood-mould having defaced head-stops, and with a chamfered rear-arch.

 

Set fairly close together at the east end of the north wall are two tall windows of c. 1340, each of two trefoiled round-headed lights and foiled leaf-tracery below a segmental-pointed head with an ogee apex, the tracery coming well below the arch. The jambs are of two orders, the outer sunk-chamfered. The lights are wider and the splays of ashlar are more acute than those of the east window.

 

The third window near the west end is narrower and shorter and of two plain-pointed lights and an uncusped spandrel in a two-centred head: it is of much the same date as the east window. The jambs and head are of two hollow-chamfered orders and the fairly obtuse plastered splays have old angle-dressings. The segmental-pointed rear-arch is chamfered.

 

The north doorway, also of c. 1340, has jambs and two-centred head without a hood-mould; the segmental rear-arch is of square section. In it is an 18th-century oak door.

 

The three-light window in the west wall has jambs and splays like those of the north-west but its head has been altered; it is now of three trefoiled ogee-headed lights below a four-centred arch. The chamfered reararch is elliptical.

 

The walls are yellow ashlar with a chamfered plinth and parapets with moulded string-courses and copings that are continued over the east and west gables. Below the sills of the two north-east windows is a plain stringcourse. At the east angle is a pair of shallow square buttresses and a diagonal buttress at the west, all ancient. White ashlar facing is exposed inside between the two north-east windows only, the remainder being plastered. The gabled roof of trussed-rafter type is modern and covered with tiles.

 

The south aisle (13 ft. wide at the east end and 12 ft. at the west) has an east window of three plain-pointed lights, and three plain circles in plate tracery form, in a two-centred head with an external hood-mould having mask stops. The yellow stone jambs and head of two chamfered orders and the wide ashlar splays are probably of the late 13th century; the grey stone mullions and tracery are apparently old restorations but are probably reproductions of the original forms.

 

There are two south windows: the eastern is of two wide cinquefoiled elliptical-headed lights under a square main head with an external label with return stops. The jambs are of two moulded orders, the inner (and the mullion) with small roll-moulds, probably of the 13th century re-used when the window was refashioned in the 15th century. The wide splays are of rubble-work and there is a chamfered segmental reararch. The western is a narrower opening of two trefoiled-pointed lights, with the early form of soffit cusping, and early-14th-century tracery in a twocentred head: the jambs are of two chamfered orders and the wide splays are plastered, with ashlar dressings: the chamfered rear-arch is segmental pointed.

 

The reset south doorway has jambs and pointed head of two moulded orders with filleted rolls and undercut hollows of the early 13th century, divided by a three-quarter hollow more typical of a later period, and all are stopped on a single splayed base. The hoodmould has defaced shield-shaped head-stops. There are four steps down into the church through this doorway.

 

The window in the west wall is like that in the east but the three lights are trefoiled and the three circles in the two-centred head are quatrefoiled: the head is all restored work. The jambs are ancient and precisely like those of the square-headed south window, and the wide splays are of rubble-work.

 

The walls are of yellow fine-jointed ashlar and have plinths of two splayed courses, the upper projecting like that of the east chancel-wall, and plain parapets with restored copings. At the angles are old and rather shallow diagonal buttresses. There are three scratched sundials on the south wall, one, a complete circle, being on a west jambstone of the south-east window.

 

The gabled roof is modern like that of the north aisle.

 

The south porch is built of ashlar like that of the aisle but the courses do not tally and it has a different plinth, a plain hollow-chamfer. The gabled south wall has a parapet with a restored coping. The pointed entrance is of two orders, the inner ovolo-moulded, the outer hollow-chamfered, and has a hood-mould of 13thcentury form. There are side benches. The roof is modern but on the wall of the aisle are cemented lines marking the position of an earlier high-pitched roof at a lower level than the present one.

 

The north porch is of shallower projection. It has a gabled front with diagonal buttresses and coped parapet and a pointed entrance with jambs and head of two chamfered orders, the inner hollow, and a hood-mould with head-stops.

 

The west tower (about 9½ft. square) is of three stages divided by projecting splayed string-courses: it has a high plinth, with a moulded upper member and chamfered lower course, and a plain parapet. The walls are of yellow ashlar, that of the two upper stages being of rather rougher facing and in smaller courses than the lowest stage. At the west angles are diagonal buttresses reaching to the top of the second stage. There are no east buttresses but in the angle of the north wall with the end of the nave is a shallow buttress against the nave-wall. In the south-west angle, but not projecting, is a stair-vice with a pointed doorway in a splay, and lighted by a west loop. The archway to the nave has a two-centred head of two chamfered orders, the inner dying on the reveals, the outer mitring with the single chamfered order of the responds. It has large voussoirs. The wall on either side of the archway is of squared rough-tooled ashlar.

 

The 14th-century west doorway has jambs and pointed head of two wave-moulded orders divided by a three-quarter hollow, and a hood-mould with return stops. The head of the tall and narrow 14th-century west window is carried up into the second stage, its hood-mould springing from the string-course. It is of two trefoiled ogee-headed lights and a quatrefoil in a two-centred head: the jambs are of two chamfered orders.

 

There are no piercings in the second stage, but on the north side is a modern clock face.

 

The bell-chamber has 15th-century windows, each of two lights with depressed trefoiled ogee heads and uncusped tracery in which the mullion line is continued up to the apex of the two-centred head. The jambs are of two chamfered orders and there is no hood-mould.

 

The font is circular and dates probably from the 13th century. It has a plain tapering bowl, a short stem with a comparatively large 13th-century moulding at the top: a short base is also moulded.

 

In the vestry is an ancient iron-bound chest.

 

There are three bells, the first of 1811, the second of 1616, and the tenor of 1602 by Edward Newcombe.

 

The registers begin in 1636.

 

Advowson

 

The church was valued at £8 6s. 8d. in 1291, and at £16 3s. 10d., in addition to a pension of 13s. 4d. payable to Witham Priory, in 1535. The advowson passed with the manor until 1602, when the patron was Richard Cooper. In 1628 William Hall and Edward Wotton, by concession of — Hill, the patron, presented Richard Wotton, who at the time of his wife’s death in 1637 was ‘rector and patron, of the church’. In 1681 and 1694 presentations were made by Thomas Farrer, and from 1726 till his death in 1764 the patronage was held by his son Thomas Farrer. His widow Alice held it in 1766, but by 1773 it had been divided between their two daughters, Mary wife of John Adams, and Elizabeth Farrer (1782) who afterwards married Hamlyn Harris. In 1802 Henry Bagshaw Harrison was patron and rector. He died in 1830, and by 1850 the advowson had been acquired by Hulme’s Trustees, in whose hands it has continued, so that they now present on two out of three turns to the combined living of Warmington and Shotteswell, which was annexed to it in 1927.

 

For a list of rectors and clergy of Warmington see the ‘trades and occupations’ section of the site.

 

www.warmingtonheritage.com/village-history/significant-bu....

Sometimes we need to be different to lead. :)

Impressions from Stansted Airport, London.

 

Slow walk + slow shutter speed x looking through the viewfinder = disorientated traveller.

 

Thanks in advance for any comments or favourites you may wish to make.

Lead also got some Kira-Kira chips ^_^

Now he looks even MORE like a Ware Wolf (Thats his race)

btw, Lead doesn't really have those weird lines under his eyes... There just to show he hasn't eaten in a while.

www.gameofthronestours.com/

East Bay, CA

ESA astronaut Timothy Peake during training inside the full-scale mockup of the Soyuz capsule, at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre, in Russia, on 15 October 2014.

 

Tim is currently training for his long-duration mission to the International Space Station, to be launched at the end of November 2015. He will be the first British ESA astronaut to visit the Space Station. Until his assignment was announced in 2013, Tim was Lead Eurocom for Luca Parmitano’s six-month Volare mission that started in May of that year.

 

Credit: ESA–S. Corvaja, 2014

On Wednesday, 27th June the European Parliament received quite an unusual visitor - not a politician or dignitary, but Notting Hill star Hugh Grant who was at the European Parliament to discuss media pluralism.

 

As expected his visit did not go unnoticed as many photographers, fans, employees gathered round the film star.

 

This photo is copyright free, but must be credited: "© European Union 2012 - European Parliament". (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Creative Commons license). For HR files please contact: webcom-flickr(AT)europarl.europa.eu

Olympus digital camera

Belgium

1 of 5 for my #wcw out of a little series we shot in LA. We were driving around looking for a place for a shoot my wife was doing, and it just so happen that this 70s Ford was parked across from where we stopped. Once I saw it I knew that it had to be used

Lead Singer of Whitesnake ,David Coverdale performs at Manchester AO Arena on 18/05/2022

Anna Pavlova (1881-1931) was one of the most celebrated and influential ballet dancers of her time. After graduating in 1899 as a coryphée from St. Petersburg’s Imperial Dance School, she skipped over the corps de ballet and debuted at the Marinsky Theatre dancing in a group of three in the comic ballet “La Fille Mal Gardee” (The Wayward Daughter). She gained increasing critical acclaim and her breakthrough performance came in 1905, when she danced the lead solo in Michel Fokine’s “The Dying Swan” with music by Camille Saint-Saens. It became her signature role.

 

Pavlova joined Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in 1909. While touring with Diaghilev, she often visited Australia where she had an enormous influence on Australian dance. She toured the United Kingdom and the United States and formed her own ballet company in 1911. She toured with her company all over the world during the final two decades of her career. Children watched in awe and many were inspired to become dancers.

 

“In 1930, when Anna was 50 years old, her 30-year dance career had come to physically wear on her. She decided to take a Christmas vacation after wrapping up a particularly arduous tour in England. At the end of her vacation, she boarded a train back to The Hague, where she planned to resume dancing. On its way from Cannes to Paris, the train was in an accident. Anna was unharmed in the accident, but she was left waiting out the delay for 12 hours on the platform.

 

“It was a snowy evening, and Anna was wearing only a thin jacket and flimsy silk pajamas. Once in Holland, within days of the accident, she developed double pneumonia. Her illness quickly worsened. On her deathbed, Anna, passionate about dance until her final breath, asked to see her swan costume one last time. She died in The Hague, Netherlands, in the wee hours of the morning, on January 23, 1931. Her ashes were interred at Golders Green Cemetery, near the Ivy House where she had lived with her manager and husband, Victor Dandré, in London.” [Anna Pavlova’s biography at Bio.True Story]

 

Loosely based on a 12950's Mercury..

Saint Bartholomew church in London

Sitter: unknown

 

Studio: J. Davis & Sons, Preston & Lancaster.

 

Plain back CDV.

 

J. Davis occupied studios at the following Preston addresses:

 

12, Fylde Road, Preston 1882

130, Church Street, Preston 1889-1890

 

I love it. Upstate.

Become Part of the Solution (POS)... make new friends at www.WeChat3.com

 

Earth Hour at the 3 Finger Club LOHHAS Lifestyle Lounge

 

Lights were out between 8:30 and 9:30 while we told stories and discussed our Lifestyle Of Health, Happiness And Sustainability (LOHHAS) using the 3 Finger "Peace Plus One" Sustainability Salute to remind us about Peace, Harmony and Balance between Society, Environment and Economy

  

People were the best jugglers of "Society, Environment, Economy" balls won "EARTH HOUR 60" T-Shirts WOW \!/O\!/

  

Photo Courtesy of the McMaster Institute for Sustainable Development in Commerce

 

www.SustainabilitySymbol.com

www.PeacePlusOne.com

www.Dragonpreneur.com

 

all participants in the Earth Hour Discussion got a copy of "Letter to Maddie" featured below:

 

We Screwed Up

A Letter of Apology to My Granddaughter

By Chip Ward

 

[Note: I became politically active and committed on the day 20 years ago when I realized I could stand on the front porch of my house and point to three homes where children were in wheelchairs, to a home where a child had just died of leukemia, to another where a child was born missing a kidney, and yet another where a child suffered from spina bifida. All my parental alarms went off at once and I asked the obvious question: What’s going on here? Did I inadvertently move my three children into harm’s way when we settled in this high desert valley in Utah? A quest to find answers in Utah’s nuclear history and then seek solutions followed. Politics for me was never motivated by ideology. It was always about parenting.

 

Today my three kids are, thankfully, healthy adults. But now that grandchildren are being added to our family, my blood runs cold whenever I project out 50 years and imagine what their world will be like at middle age -- assuming they get that far and that there is still a recognizable “world” to be part of. I wrote the following letter to my granddaughter, Madeline, who is almost four years old. Although she cannot read it today, I hope she will read it in a future that proves so much better than the one that is probable, and so terribly unfair. I’m sharing this letter with other parents and grandparents in the hope that it may move them to embrace their roles as citizens and commit to the hard work of making the planet viable, the economy equitable, and our culture democratic for the many Madelines to come.]

 

March 20, 2012

 

Dear Maddie,

 

I address this letter to you, but please share it with Jack, Tasiah, and other grandchildren who are yet unborn. Also, with your children and theirs. My unconditional love for my children and grandchildren convinces me that, if I could live long enough to embrace my great-grandchildren, I would love them as deeply as I love you.

 

On behalf of my generation of grandparents to all of you, I want to apologize.

 

I am sorry we used up all the oil. It took a million years for those layers of carbon goo to form under the Earth’s crust and we used up most of it in a geological instant. No doubt there will be some left and perhaps you can get around the fact that what remains is already distant, dirty, and dangerous, but the low-hanging fruit will be long-gone by the time you are my age. We took it all.

 

There’s no excuse, really. We are gas-hogs, plain and simple. We got hooked on faster-bigger-more and charged right over the carrying capacity of the planet. Oil made it possible.

 

Machines are our slaves and coal, oil, and gas are their food. They helped us grow so much of our own food that we could overpopulate the Earth. We could ship stuff and travel all over the globe, and still have enough fuel left to drive home alone in trucks in time to watch Monday Night Football.

 

Rocket fuel, fertilizer, baby bottles, lawn chairs: we made everything and anything out of oil and could never get enough of it. We could have conserved more for you to use in your lifetime. Instead, we demonstrated the self-restraint of crack addicts. It’s been great having all that oil to play with and we built our entire world around that. Living without it will be tough. Sorry.

 

I hope we develop clean, renewable energy sources soon, or that you and your generation figure out how to do that quickly. In the meantime, sorry about the climate. We just didn’t realize our addiction to carbon would come with monster storms, epic droughts, Biblical floods, wildfire infernos, rising seas, migration, starvation, pestilence, civil war, failed states, police states, and resource wars.

 

I’m sure Henry Ford didn’t see that coming when he figured out how to mass-produce automobiles and sell them to Everyman. I know my parents didn’t see the downside of using so much gas and coal. The all-electric house and a car in the driveway was their American Dream. For my generation, owning a car became a birthright. Today, it would be hard for most of us to live without a car. I have no idea what you’ll do to get around or how you will heat your home. Oops!

 

We also pigged out on most of the fertile soil, the forests and their timber, and the oceans that teemed with fish before we scraped the seabed raw, dumped our poisonous wastes in the water, and turned it acid and barren. Hey, that ocean was an awesome place and it’s too bad you can’t know it like we did. There were bright coral reefs, vibrant runs of red salmon, ribbons of birds embroidering the shores, graceful shells, the solace and majesty of the wild sea…

 

…But then I never saw the vast herds of bison that roamed the American heartland, so I know it is hard to miss something you only saw in pictures. We took lots of photos.

 

We thought we were pretty smart because we walked a man on the moon. Our technology is indeed amazing. I was raised without computers, smart phones, and the World Wide Web, so I appreciate how our engineering prowess has enhanced our lives, but I also know it has a downside.

 

When I was a kid we worried that the Cold War would go nuclear. And it wasn’t until a river caught fire near Cleveland that we realized fouling your own nest isn’t so smart after all. Well, you know about the rest -- the coal-fired power plants, acid rain, the hole in the ozone...

 

www.tomdispatch.com/images/managed/fear2.gifThere were plenty of signs we took a wrong turn but we kept on going. Dumb, stubborn, blind: Who knows why we couldn’t stop? Greed maybe -- powerful corporations we couldn’t overcome. It won’t matter much to you who is to blame. You’ll be too busy coping in the diminished world we bequeath you.

 

One set of problems we pass on to you is not altogether our fault. It was handed down to us by our parents’ generation so hammered by cataclysmic world wars and economic hardship that they armed themselves to the teeth and saw enemies everywhere. Their paranoia was understandable, but they passed their fears on to us and we should have seen through them. I have lived through four major American wars in my 62 years, and by now defense and homeland security are powerful industries with a stranglehold on Congress and the economy. We knew that was a lousy deal, but trauma and terror darkened our imaginations and distorted our priorities. And, like you, we needed jobs.

 

Sorry we spent your inheritance on all that cheap bling and, especially, all those weapons of mass destruction. That was crazy and wasteful. I can’t explain it. I guess we’ve been confused for a long time now.

 

Oh, and sorry about the confusion. We called it advertising and it seemed like it would be easy enough to control. When I was a kid, commercials merely interrupted entertainment. Don’t know when the lines all blurred and the buy, buy, buy message became so ubiquitous and all-consuming. It just got outta hand and we couldn’t stop it, even when we realized we hated it and that it was taking us over. We turned away from one another, tuned in, and got lost.

 

I’m betting you can still download this note, copy it, share it, bust it up and remake it, and that you do so while plugged into some sort of electrical device you can’t live without -- so maybe you don’t think that an apology for technology is needed and, if that’s the case, an apology is especially relevant. The tools we gave you are fine, but the apps are mostly bogus. We made an industry of silly distraction. When our spirits hungered, we fed them clay that filled but did not nourish them. If you still don’t know the difference, blame us because we started it.

 

And sorry about the chemicals. I mean the ones you were born with in your blood and bones that stay there -- even though we don’t know what they’ll do to you). Who thought that the fire retardant that kept smokers from igniting their pillows and children’s clothes from bursting into flames would end up in umbilical cords and infants?

 

It just seemed like better living through chemistry at the time. Same with all the other chemicals you carry. We learned to accept cancer and I guess you will, too. I’m sure there will be better treatments for that in your lifetime than we have today. If you can afford them, that is. Turning healthcare over to predatory corporations was another bad move.

 

All in all, our chemical obsession was pretty reckless and we got into that same old pattern: just couldn’t give up all the neat stuff. Oh, we tried. We took the lead out of gasoline and banned DDT, but mostly we did too little, too late. I hope you’ve done better. Maybe it will help your generation to run out of oil, since so many of the toxic chemicals came from that. Anyway, we didn’t see it coming and we could have, should have. Our bad.

 

There are so many other things I wish I could change for you. We leave behind a noisy world. Silence is rare today, and unless some future catastrophe has left your numbers greatly diminished, your machines stilled, and your streets ghostly empty, it is likely that the last remnants of tranquility will be gone by the time you are my age.

 

And how about all those species, the abundant and wondrous creatures that are fading away forever as I write these words? I never saw a polar bear and I guess you can live without that, too, but when I think of the peep and chirp of frogs at night, the hum of bees busy on a flower bed, the trill of birds at dawn, and so many other splendorous pleasures that you may no longer have, I ache with regret. We should have done more to keep the planet whole and well, but we couldn’t get clear of the old ways of seeing, the ingrained habits, the way we hobble one another’s choices so that the best intentions never get realized.

 

Mostly I’m sorry about taking all the good water. When I was a child I could kneel down and drink from a brook or spring wherever we camped and played. We could still hike up to glaciers and ski down snow-capped mountains.

 

Clean, crisp, cold, fresh water is life’s most precious taste. A life-giving gift, all water is holy. I repeat: holy. We treated it, instead, as if it were merely useful. We wasted and tainted it and, again in a geological moment, sucked up aquifers that had taken 10,000 years to gather below ground. In my lifetime, glaciers are melting away, wells are running dry, dust storms are blowing, and rivers like the mighty Colorado are running dry before they reach the sea. I hate to think of what will be left for you. Sorry. So very, very sorry.

 

I’m sure there’s a boatload of other trouble we’re leaving you that I haven’t covered here. My purpose is not to offer a complete catalog of our follies and atrocities, but to do what we taught your parents to do when they were as little as you are today.

 

When you make a mistake, we told them, admit it, and then do better. If you do something wrong, own up and say you are sorry. After that, you can work on making amends.

 

I am trying to see a way out of the hardship and turmoil we are making for you. As I work to stop the madness, I will be mindful of how much harder your struggles will be as you deal with the challenges we leave you to face.

 

The best I can do to help you through the overheated future we are making is to love you now. I cannot change the past and my struggle to make a healthier future for you is uncertain, but today I can teach you, encourage you, and help you be as strong and smart and confident as you can be, so that whatever the future holds, whatever crises you face, you are as ready as possible. We will learn to laugh together, too, because love and laughter can pull you through the toughest times.

 

I know a better world is possible. We create that better world by reaching out to one another, listening, learning, and speaking from our hearts, face to face, neighbor to neighbor, one community after another, openly, inclusively, bravely. Democracy is not a gift to be practiced only when permitted. We empower ourselves. Our salvation is found in each other, together.

 

Across America this morning and all around the world, our better angels call to us, imploring us to rise up and be as resilient as our beloved, beautiful children and grandchildren, whose future we make today. We can do better. I promise.

 

Your grandfather,

 

Chip Ward

comin up short

19.9.10: Cofton Park, Birmingham

 

Lead, kindly light, amid the encircling gloom, lead thou me on!

The night is dark, and I am far from home; lead thou me on!

Keep thou my feet; I do not ask to see the distant scene,

One step enough for me.

 

I was not ever thus, nor prayed that thou shouldst lead me on;

I loved to choose and see my path; but now lead thou me on!

I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears, pride ruled my will.

Remember not past years!

 

So long thy power hath blest me, sure it still will lead me on.

O’er moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent, till the night is gone,

And with the morn those angel faces smile,

Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile.

 

John Henry Newman, The Pillar of the Cloud, 1833

 

The Beatification of John Henry Newman by Pope Benedict XVI.

 

Clifford Longley, in The Tablet (25.9.10), caught the mood of the Pope's visit to Britain perfectly:

 

There were two fifth columns that nobody had bargained for: ordinary British Catholics who decided spontaneously to stand up and be counted; and ordinary British people with open minds and sense of fair play. The former bought tickets for the set-piece events, some even giving up a night’s sleep to stand for hours in a wet and muddy field on the outskirts of Birmingham. The latter let curiosity and a desire to be touched by history move them to join Catholic crowds on the streets of Edinburgh, Glasgow and London to wait, watch and wave. The Catholic masses and the broader public formed a resonating feedback loop via the media, learning how to behave as bystanders on a papal route from what they saw others doing and feeling on television the night before. It was Diana moment.

 

By then there was nothing the protesters or the media could do to blow the Pope off course. They began to seem deaf to the zeitgeist. What could have been a papal disaster and national disgrace became for Pope Benedict, for the organisers, and above all for the ordinary people of Britain, Catholics included, a significant and memorable victory.

 

First prize goes to those feisty Catholic teenagers who seemed to be everywhere, laughing, having the time of their lives. Catholic, yes. But typical teenagers, very normal. “Pope Benedict, we love you more than beans on toast,” said one of their banners. They were loving it and saying so, with joyous exuberance at being near the Pope and being on the telly simultaneously. Whatever they were on, I wanted some.

 

Completely by chance, the TV cameras cut between these appealingly giddy young people in Hyde Park and the grim and serious business of “protesting the Pope”, as the opposition marchers called what they spent Saturday afternoon doing. It was Cavaliers versus Roundheads, and, televisually, no contest. No doubt the protesters spoke for many more, as the polls had suggested. But if voting was by one’s feet, the Cavalier party seemed to win by a factor of 20 or more. If I were Peter Tatchell, I would be a little bit embarrassed.

 

Their fundamental mistake, in order to correct the earlier error of sounding like bigoted anti-Catholics, was to try to separate Catholics from their Pope. It wasn’t the majority they were against, they said, just this one man and his outrageous opinions – which many Catholics disagreed with. That last bit may be half true, though this Pope’s teachings differ hardly at all from the last one’s. And when it comes to the list of anti-Pope grievances drawn up by Mr Tatchell – though not those of the ludicrous Richard Dawkins – there are bits here and there with which I can sympathise.

 

But the effect on me of their general nastiness was to want to go and join the Swiss Guard. Yet Pope Benedict himself is surely a bit of a Roundhead, a touch Puritan. His addresses were utterly serious, though brilliantly calculated to connect with many of the things the British are worried about. But if his thoughts didn’t appeal directly to the senses, the gorgeous sights and sounds certainly did. It was Charles II’s time again, rumbustious and slightly irreverent. Thank you, God, for teenagers.

 

More here.

 

On 19th September 2010, John Henry Newman was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI at Cofton Park in Birmingham.

 

Let us take things as we find them: let us not attempt to distort them into what they are not... We cannot make facts. All our wishing cannot change them. We must use them.

 

- Blessed John Henry, Cardinal Newman

 

We were at Cofton Park for Newman as much as we were for the Pope. I'm not the biggest fan of Benedict XVI or of the cult of hero worship, but Newman is for me one of the outstanding figures of the 19th Century; along with Darwin and Marx, he is one of the three great thinkers of that century. The three of them changed the way we understand the world, how we got here and where we are going.

 

What Darwin, Marx and Newman all had in common was that they devoted their lives to arguing theories of development. All three had a profound effect on how we lived our lives in the 20th century. Newman's theory was a theory of theological development. His starting point was to say: if we are imperfect, how can we possibly claim to truly know the mind of God?

 

As a young man, Newman had been an evangelical, believing in the literal truth of the Bible. As he matured, and realised this was not a possibility, he asked himself the big question: if we are literally incapable of posessing a knowledge of the mind of God, if we cannot understand exactly what it is that God is asking us to do, but we are still called on to seek perfection, then how does the revelation of that knowledge come about?

 

Newman decided it was the duty of the Church to be open to unfolding revelation, for each generation to continue the journey towards God in its own way. Some traditionalist Catholics are uncomfortable with the uncertainty of this, and ask the question "does this mean that some things we used to think were sinful are no longer sins?" In the words of the great Cardinal Hume, the answer is yes, I am afraid it does, because understanding of how sin may be realised is ultimately in the mind of imperfect man. Rather confusingly, Newman used the word 'Tradition' to explain the way the Church develops in response to this unfolding revelation.

 

Some of Newman's well-known sayings were projected on to the big screens at Cofton Park on Sunday, and one of my favourites went up just as the Pope was getting out of his helicopter: To grow is to change, and to become perfect is to change often. A little ironic perhaps, as one of the charges often levelled against this Pope by his fellow-Catholics is that he is intransigent and dogmatic - was it the spirit of Newman sending him a message, perhaps?

 

I think English Catholics have a love-hate relationship with Benedict XVI. He is a northern European, he's one of us, he thinks like us - but on the other hand he is such a deep intellectual that he doesn't engage in ordinary people's lives in the way that John Paul II did, even though John Paul II was in many ways a much more conservative Pope. JP2 is increasingly seen by history as providing a steady hand on the tiller at a time when the ship was entering uncertain waters, and I expect history's view of Benedict to be similar, that he kept the Conservatives on board at a time when the great outcry for change might have led to fragmentation.

 

I am also glad that there is at last a wider, public debate about the role of Faith in a civilised and secular society, and the relationship between Fides et Ratio, Faith and Reason, although it needs to be conducted without hysteria. While I think the Church and the Pope are certainly patriarchal and authoritarian, I do not believe that either is homophobic. This seems to me a very serious charge, and quite inappropriate when addressing the real issues involved in the Catholic Church's understanding of homosexuality. The Church's teaching in the matter (with which I find much to disagree) is against non-creative sexual acts, and also against sexual acts outside of marriage. Thus, homosexuality is not taught to be sinful, but it is taught to be a disordered state. While I think this teaching is wrong, I also think that to describe it as 'homophobic', that is, the fear of homosexuality or the promotion of a hatred of homosexuality, is just plain wrong. I am not saying that homophobic Catholics do not exist, but I am not aware of ever having met one. Indeed, several of my openly gay friends are Mass-attending Catholics. This obviously isn't enough, but it is a better starting point.

 

Secondly, while I think that condoms have a role to play in fighting AIDS and other diseases in sub-Saharan Africa, the issue is a very complex one. Respect needs to be given to the Church's preference for other methods, and the resources it commits to employing them: education, building up respect for women, fighting to raise the social conditions in which the abuse of women thrives. To describe the Catholic Church's work in Africa as 'genocide', as one banner at the 'Protest the Pope' rally in London on Saturday did, is just plain daft.

 

The Catholic Church is crying out for change. Under John XXIII and Paul VI in the Sixties and Seventies there was a real sense of a pilgrim church on the move and open to the Holy Spirit. But I do not think this is currently the case. Perhaps Newman's beatification will open up the eyes of the Church again to the reality of its journey, who knows? Where there are difficulties with official Church teaching, most Catholics I know follow their prayerful consciences, as Newman said we must, in a spirit of loyal dissent. We think the Church's teaching on contraception and homosexuality is wrong - not because we think we are right, but because we think that ongoing revelation will lead to the teaching being developed and changed - to grow is to change, to become perfect is to change often.

 

It is good to see dissent, and it is good to see a public debate. It is right and proper that those protesting against the visit of the Pope in London on Saturday had the chance to make thier voices heard. Vatican officials are said to be amazed that 80,000 pilgrims and 10,000 protestors were able to go about their business in the same area of central London and there only be one arrest! I'd like to think it is a good example of English tolerance and fair play. But I am afraid that I do not like their leader, Professor Dawkins, at all. I think he is a fundamentalist, and I abhor fundamentalism in all its forms, whether Christian, Moslem, Socialist, Fascist or Atheist. He's an intelligent man, and really ought to know better. His spiteful and angry speech on Saturday - he was literally shaking with anger - was a world away from the spirit of peace, love and reconciliation that I felt around me at Cofton Park yesterday. Ultimately, it's all about Love.

Very neat packed wall along one of the many haulageroads

Castle Howard has an amazing collection of 18th century lead statues commissioned by Carlisle’s son, the 4th Earl. Copies were made in London of great Italian Renaissance masterpieces, and much restoration and re-casting has been carried out in recent years.

VERY nice and perfect condition leaded and bent slag glass shade with fruit motif

 

Providence RI graffiti. Used to say "lead hates toys" until it got buffed but it didnt stay like that for long haha

Peeling Paint, Lead Paint pics by Mike Mozart instagram.com/MikeMozart

"Lead, Kindly Light, amidst th'encircling gloom,

Lead Thou me on!

The night is dark, and I am far from home,

Lead Thou me on!

Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see

The distant scene; one step enough for me."

- J.H. Newman

  

Shot on the iPhone

BRAINTREE -- Cardinal Seán P. O'Malley presented 116 Cheverus Award Medals to laypersons, deacons and religious during a 3 p.m. Vespers service yesterday on the Feast of Christ the King, at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston's South End.

 

First presented in 2008 at the celebration to mark the conclusion of the archdiocese's bicentennial year, the annual award recognizes Catholics for their dedicated service to the Church. The medal is named for the archdiocese's first bishop, Jean-Louis Lefebvre de Cheverus, who led the diocese from 1808 until his return to France in 1824. Bishop Cheverus died in 1836 as the Archbishop of Bordeaux.

 

The oval-shaped medal is made of sterling silver and bears a likeness of Bishop Cheverus based on the Gilbert Stuart portrait. On the reverse side is Bishop Cheverus' coat of arms.

 

The medal recipients are chosen for their service to the Church and God's people. Most recipients are nominated by their pastor, forwarded by their area vicar and approved by their regional bishop and Cardinal O'Malley. Some recipients are personally selected by Cardinal O'Malley.

 

Each year, one-third of the parishes of the archdiocese are asked to nominate a parishioner. The criteria given to pastors is that the nominee should be a lay person who has served the parish well over an extended period of time and has done so in a quiet, unassuming and, perhaps, unrecognized fashion.

  

Also, each of the regional bishops is asked to nominate a religious and a deacon from his region with similar qualifications. The Central Ministries of the archdiocese also make nominations from among religious, deacons and lay persons who serve on archdiocesan committees or lead important ministries.

 

With this year's group of recipients the total number of individuals and couples who have been named Cheverus medalists stands at 726. There were 93 recipients in 2013, 121 in 2012, 97 in 2011, 98 in 2010 and 133 in 2009. There were 68 awardees in 2008.

 

Friends and family members of the honorees are welcome to attend the service at the cathedral. The presence of the pastor and a delegation of parishioners is also encouraged to help underscore the parish's appreciation for the service of the honoree.

 

Cheverus Award recipients 2014

 

Ms. Tete Adeleke, Sacred Hearts, Malden

 

Ms. Ana Gladys Amaya, Hispanic Community/Sacred Heart, Roslindale

 

Ms. Rosemary Angeramo, St. Adelaide, Peabody

 

Mrs. Dona Bacco, St. Rose of Lima, Topsfield

 

Mr. Alfred Belanger, St. Mary, Plymouth

 

Mr. Robert Berlo, St. Mary, Quincy

 

Mrs. Mary Blasi, St. Kateri Tekakwitha, Plymouth

 

Mrs. Jolyne Boyle St. Mary Star of the Sea, Beverly

 

Sister Patricia Boyle, CSJ, Pastoral Center Ministries

 

Mrs. Patricia Buckjune, Our Lady of Grace, Pepperell

 

Mr. Joseph Burke, St. Bernadette, Randolph

 

Mrs. Mary Caruso, St. Benedict Parish, Somerville

 

Mrs. Patricia Chevalier, St. John the Evangelist, N. Chelmsford

 

Mr. David (Dung) Chi Ngo, Vietnamese Community/Sacred Hearts, Malden

 

Sister Elizabeth Clarke, SHCJ, North Region

 

Brother David K. Coakley, OSB, South Region

 

Sister Mary Pedro Conway, SMSM, Archdiocese of Boston

 

Mrs. Florence Cranshaw, St. Theresa of Lisieux, Sherborn

 

Mr. Paul Francis Creegan Sr., St. Margaret of Scotland, Lowell

 

Ms. Helen Cross, Patronage of St. Joseph, Somerville

 

Ms. Kathleen E. Crozier, Our Lady of Victories, Boston

 

Sister Ellen Dabrieo, Brazilian Community/St. John the Baptist, Peabody

 

Mrs. Kelly Damon, St. Thecla, Pembroke

 

Mrs. Audanette David, Haitian Community/St. Matthew, Dorchester

 

Mr. James Davidson, Holy Ghost Parish, Whitman

 

Mr. Victor DeLeon, St. Mary of the Assumption, Lawrence

 

Mrs. Maria Della Porta, St. Leonard of Port Maurice, (Sacred Heart Church)

 

Ms. Claire Detora, Archdiocese of Boston

 

Mr. Nellio DiTullio, St. Joseph, Quincy

 

Ms. Doris DiTullio, St. Anthony of Padua, Everett

 

Mrs. Joan Donnelly, St. Marguerite D'Youville, Dracut

 

Mr. Timothy Donovan, St. Jerome, Weymouth

 

Mrs. Concetta Donovan, Our Lady Star of the Sea, Marblehead

 

Ms. Marie Aurore Dorcely, Haitian Community/St. Anne, Somerville

 

Mr. Daniel Falvey, Blessed Sacrament, Walpole

 

Ms. Janet A. Farrell, St. Cecilia, Ashland

 

Mr. and Mrs. Kevin and Lynne Feeney, St. Raphael, Medford

 

Ms. Donna Felzani, St. Anthony Padua, Revere

 

Ms. Joan Ferguson, St. Bridget, Maynard

 

Mr. Fernando Fernandez-Arellano, Our Lady of the Assumption, East Boston

 

Deacon Marcio O. Fonseca, Central Region/St. Mark, Dorchester

 

Mr. James Fowkes, St. Bridgid, South Boston

 

Dr. David Gabriel, St. Thomas the Apostle, Salem/Peabody (Posthumous)

 

Mr. Edio Galvez, Hispanic Community/St. Columbkille, Brighton

 

Mr. and Mrs. David and Kathleen Gannon, St. Richard of Chichester, Danvers

 

Ms. Phyllis Giordano, Society of St. James/St. Stephen, Boston

 

Mrs. Francis H. Girard, St. Theresa of Lisieux, Sherborn

 

Mr. Mel Gouthro, St. Mary, Wrentham

 

Ms. Ann Grady, St. Mary of the Angels, Roxbury

 

Brother Robert Green, CFX, North Region

 

Deacon James Greer, Pastoral Center Ministries

 

Ms. Doreen Gulledge, St. Peter, Cambridge

 

Mr. Richard Howard, St. Agnes, Reading

 

Ms. Jean Hunt, St. Ann, Dorchester (Neponset)

 

Brother John R. Jaskowiak, OFM , Central Region

 

Mr. Robert D. Keefe, St. Anthony Shrine, Boston

 

Ms. Ann J. Kleponis, St. Peter (Lithuanian Parish), South Boston

 

Mr. William L. Lajuenesse, St. Matthias, Marlborough

 

Mr. Richard LaPorte, Archdiocese of Boston

 

Ms. Margaret LaRoche, Our Lady Help of Christians, Newton

 

Ms. Pilar Latorre, Archdiocese of Boston

 

Mr. Robert J. Lavoie, St. John the Evangelist, Hopkington

 

Mr. William Lawless, St. John the Baptist, Quincy

 

Mr. Derryl Lawrence, St. Peter, Plymouth

 

Sister Mary Joan Lofgren, CSJ, South Region

 

Dr. Francis Lombardo, St. Eulalia, Winchester

 

Ms. Anne M. Lynch, Our Lady of Lourdes, Jamaica Plain

 

Mr. William MacDonald, St. Mary, Georgetown

 

Ms. Mary Magner, St. Thomas Aquinas, Nahant

 

Mrs. Ellie Martin, St. Dorothy, Wilmington

 

Ms. Mary Mc Ginn, St. John the Evangelist, Swampscott

 

Mr. John McClellan, St. James, Stoughton

 

Sister Maureen McDonough, OCarm/F, West Region

 

Mr. William "Skip" Miller, St. Vincent de Paul, South Boston

 

Sister Virginia Mulhern, SDNdeN, Central Region

 

Mr. Hung Nguyen, St. Mary, Randolph

 

Ms. Mary O'Rourke, St. Brendan, Dorchester

 

Mrs. Maribelle Ortiz, Hispanic Community/St. Patrick, Brockton

 

Mr. Remo Palomba, St. Thomas Aquinas, Jamaica Plain

 

Mrs. Anne Paradis, St. Augustine, Andover

 

Deacon John W. Pepi, St. Bridget, Maynard

 

Mrs. Jane B. Piacentini, St. George, Framingham

 

Mr. Wayne Pickles, Corpus Christi, Lawrence

 

Mr. Lee Pimentel, St. Francis of Assisi, Dracut

 

Mr. Joseph Puleo, St. Florence, Wakefield

 

Deacon Luis Rivera, North Region

 

Ms. Suzanne Robotham, St. Joseph, Belmont

 

Mr. Paul Roche, St. Bonaventure, Manomet

 

Ms. Susan Rudolph, St. John the Evangelist, Cambridge

 

Mrs. Carolyn N. Ryan, Sacred Heart, Weymouth

 

Deacon Kenneth N. Ryan, South Region

 

Mrs. Rose Shea, Cheverus Centennial School, Malden

 

Mr. Joseph Shubster, Holy Name, West Roxbury

 

Mrs. Katia Silva, Immaculate Conception, Stoughton

 

Ms. Angela Siraco, Our Lady of the Assumption

 

Mr. Don Soule, St. Martha, Plainville

 

Mrs. Patricia Souza, Brazilian Community/St. Anthony, Somerville

 

Ms. Patricia Strumm, Gate of Heaven, South Boston

 

Mr. John K. Sullivan, St. Gregory, Dorchester

 

Sister Margaret L. Sullivan, CSJ, Pastoral Center Ministries

 

Mr. Kam Sylvestre, Our Lady of Grace, Chelsea/Everett

 

Mr. Walter Symolon, St. Francis Xavier, Weymouth

 

Ms. Ida Toro, St. Patrick, Watertown

 

Mr. Paul Tousignant, St. Rita, Lowell

 

Ms. Mary Ellen Valeri, St. Pius V, Lynn

 

Ms. Mercedes Vazquez, St. Christopher, Dorchester

 

Mrs. Josephine Vendetti, Sacred Heart of Jesus, Cambridge

 

Dr. Miriam Vincent, St. Leonard of Port Maurice, Boston

 

Ms. Rachel Voiland, St. Lucy, Methuen

 

Mr. Lloyd Wajda, Archdiocese of Boston

 

Sister Agnes Wan, St. Joseph, Boston

 

Mr. Donald Wark, St. Anne, Salem

 

Mr. Arthur Whittemore, Department of Youth Services

 

Mr. John Wilhelm, St. Paul, Hamilton/Wenham

 

Mr. Benjamin A. Williams, St. Ann, West Bridgewater

 

Mr. Stephen Zrike Sr., St. Jude, Norfolk

 

Photos by George Martell - BCDS, Archdiocese of Boston 2014

Hard to believe it's 33% elemental lead, right?

 

I marked, cut and beveled this bauble myself. It's a difficult thing to do for two reasons, one, you have to look through the bauble to the surface being cut, and two, after you make a cut, the cut surface it turns opaque! That's not a problem until you've cut halfway around the bauble, then suddenly you can't see what you're trying to cut anymore!

Take your shoes or boots off at home to avoid tracking in lead or other pollutants.

Remembrance Sunday, 8 November 2015

 

In the United Kingdom, Remembrance Sunday is held on the second Sunday in November, which is the Sunday nearest to 11 November, Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of hostilities in the First World War at 11 a.m. on 11 November 1918. Remembrance Sunday is held to commemorate the contribution of British and Commonwealth military and civilian servicemen and women in the two World Wars and later conflicts.

 

Remembrance Sunday is marked by ceremonies at local war memorials in most cities, towns and villages, attended by civic dignitaries, ex-servicemen and -women, members of local armed forces regular and reserve units, military cadet forces and uniformed youth organisations. Two minutes’ silence is observed at 11 a.m. and wreaths of remembrance poppies are then laid on the memorials.

 

The United Kingdom national ceremony is held in London at the Cenotaph in Whitehall. Wreaths are laid by Queen Elizabeth II, principal members of the Royal Family normally including the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cambridge, the Duke of York, the Princess Royal, the Earl of Wessex and the Duke of Kent, the Prime Minister, leaders of the other major political parties, the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Commonwealth High Commissioners and representatives from the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force, the Merchant Navy and Fishing Fleets and the civilian services, and veterans’ groups. Two minutes' silence is held at 11 a.m., before the laying of the wreaths. This silence is marked by the firing of a field gun on Horse Guards Parade to begin and end the silence, followed by Royal Marines buglers sounding Last Post.

 

The parade consists mainly of an extensive march past by veterans, with military bands playing music following the list of the Traditional Music of Remembrance.

 

Other members of the British Royal Family watch from the balcony of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

 

After the ceremony, a parade of veterans and other related groups, organised by the Royal British Legion, marches past the Cenotaph, each section of which lays a wreath as it passes. Only ticketed participants can take part in the march past.

 

From 1919 until the Second World War remembrance observance was always marked on 11 November itself. It was then moved to Remembrance Sunday, but since the 50th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in 1995, it has become usual to hold ceremonies on both Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday.

 

Each year, the music at the National Ceremony of Remembrance remains the same, following a programme finalised in 1930:

 

Rule, Britannia! by Thomas Arne

Heart of Oak by William Boyce

The Minstrel Boy by Thomas Moore

Men of Harlech

The Skye Boat Song

Isle of Beauty by Thomas Haynes Bayly

David of the White Rock

Oft in the Stilly Night by John Stevenson

Flowers of the Forest

Nimrod from the Enigma Variations by Edward Elgar

Dido's lament by Henry Purcell

O Valiant Hearts by Charles Harris

Solemn Melody by Walford Davies

Last Post – a bugle call

Beethoven's Funeral March No. 1, by Johann Heinrich Walch

O God, Our Help in Ages Past – words by Isaac Watts, music by William Croft

Reveille – a bugle call

God Save The Queen

 

Other pieces of music are then played during the march past and wreath laying by veterans, starting with Trumpet Voluntary and followed by It's A Long Way To Tipperary, the marching song of the Connaught Rangers, a famous British Army Irish Regiment of long ago.

 

The following is complied from press reports on 8 November 2015:

 

"The nation paid silent respect to the country's war dead today in a Remembrance Sunday service. Leading the nation in remembrance, as ever, was the Queen, who first laid a wreath at the Cenotaph in 1945 and has done so every year since, except on the four occasions when she was overseas.

 

Dressed in her customary all-black ensemble with a clutch of scarlet poppies pinned against her left shoulder, she stepped forward following the end of the two-minute silence marked by the sounding of Last Post by 10 Royal Marine buglers.

 

The Queen laid her wreath at the foot of the Sir Edwin Lutyens Portland stone monument to the Glorious Dead, then stood with her head momentarily bowed.

 

She was joined by King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, who was invited to the Cenotaph for the first time to lay a wreath marking the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands by British troops.

 

Watched by his wife Queen Maxima, who stood next to the Duchess of Cambridge in the Royal Box, the King laid a wreath marked with the simple message, 'In remembrance of the British men and women who gave their lives for our future.'

 

Wreaths were then laid by members of the Royal Family, all wearing military uniform: Prince Philip; then Prince Andrew, Prince Harry and Prince William at the same time ; then Prince Edward, Princess Anne and the Duke of Kent at the same time.

 

Three members of the Royal Family laying wreaths at the same time was an innovation in 2015 designed to slightly reduce the amount of time of the ceremony and thereby reduce the time that the Queen had to be standing.

 

Prince Charles attended a remembrance service in New Zealand.

 

The Prime Minister then laid a wreath. The Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, appeared at the Cenotaph for the first time. He wore both a suit and a red poppy for the occasion.

 

His bow as he laid a wreath marked with the words 'let us resolve to create a world of peace' was imperceptible – and not enough for some critics. Yet unlike the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Battle service earlier this year, Mr Corbyn did join in with the singing of the national anthem.

 

Following the end of the official service at the Cenotaph, a mammoth column more than 10,000-strong (some 9,000 of whom were veterans) began marching along Whitehall, saluting the Cenotaph as they passed, Parliament Street, Great George Street, Horse Guards Road and back to Horse Guard Parade. The Duke of Cambridge took the salute from the column on Horse Guards Parade.

 

Time takes its inevitable toll on even the most stoic among us, and this year only a dozen World War Two veterans marched with the Spirit of Normandy Trust, a year after the Normandy Veterans' Association disbanded.

 

Within their ranks was 95-year-old former Sapper Don Sheppard of the Royal Engineers. Sheppard was of the eldest on parade and was pushed in his wheelchair by his 19-year-old grandson, Sam who, in between studying at Queen Mary University, volunteers with the Normandy veterans.

 

'It is because of my admiration for them,' he says. 'I see them as role models and just have the utmost respect for what they did.'

 

While some had blankets covering their legs against the grey November day, other veterans of more recent wars had only stumps to show for their service to this country during 13 long years of war in Afghanistan.

 

As well as that terrible toll of personal sacrifice, the collective losses – and triumphs - of some of the country’s most historic regiments were also honoured yesterday.

 

The Gurkha Brigade Association - marking 200 years of service in the British Army – marched to warm ripples of applause. The King’s Royal Hussars, represented yesterday by 126 veterans, this year also celebrate 300 years since the regiment was raised.

 

They were led by General Sir Richard Shirreff, former Deputy Supreme Allied Commander of Nato and Colonel of the regiment who himself was marching for the first time.

 

'We are joined by a golden thread to all those generations who have gone before us,” he said. “We are who we are, because of those that have gone before us.' "

 

Cenotaph Ceremony & March Past - 8 November 2015

Summary of Contingents

 

Column Number of marchers

B (Lead) 1,754

C 1,298

D 1,312

E 1,497

F 1,325

A 1,551

Ex-Service Total 8,737

M (Non ex-Service) 1,621

Total 10,358

 

Column B

Marker Detachment Number

1 Reconnaissance Corps 18 Anniversary

2 43rd Reconnaissance Regiment Old Comrades Assoc 10

3 3rd Regiment Royal Horse Artillery Association 60

4 Royal Artillery Association 18

5 Royal Engineers Association 37

6 Royal Engineers Bomb Disposal Association 65 Anniversary

7 Airborne Engineers Association 24

8 Royal Signals Association 48

9 Army Air Corps Association 42

10 Royal Army Service Corps & Royal Corps Transport Assoc 54

11 RAOC Association 18

12 Army Catering Corps Association 48

13 Royal Pioneer Corps Association 54 Anniversary

14 Royal Army Medical Corps Association 36

15 Royal Electrical & Mechanical Engineers Association 48

16 Royal Military Police Association 100

17 The RAEC and ETS Branch Association 12

18 Royal Army Pay Corps Regimental Association 36

19 Royal Army Veterinary Corps & Royal Army Dental Corps 18

20 Royal Army Physical Training Corps 24

21 Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps Assoc 48

22 Royal Scots Dragoon Guards 30

23 Royal Dragoon Guards 78

24 Queen's Royal Hussars (The Queen's Own & Royal Irish) 12

25 Kings Royal Hussars Regimental Association 126

26 16/5th Queen's Royal Lancers 36

27 17/21 Lancers 30

28 The Royal Lancers 24 New for 2015

29 JLR RAC Old Boys' Association 30

30 Association of Ammunition Technicians 24

31 Beachley Old Boys Association 36

32 Arborfield Old Boys Association 25

33 Gallipoli & Dardenelles International 24

34 Special Observers Association 24

35 The Parachute Squadron Royal Armoured Corps 24 New

36 Intelligence Corps Association 48

37 Women's Royal Army Corps Association 120

38 656 Squadron Association 24

39 Home Guard Association 9

40 British Resistance Movement (Coleshill Research Team) 12

41 British Limbless Ex-Service Men's Association 48

42 British Ex-Services Wheelchair Sports Association 24

43 Royal Hospital Chelsea 30

44 Queen Alexandra's Hospital Home for Disabled Ex-Servicemen & Women 30

45 The Royal Star & Garter Homes 20

46 Combat Stress 48

Total 1,754

 

Column C

Marker Detachment Number

1 Royal Air Force Association 150

2 Royal Air Force Regiment Association 300

3 Royal Air Forces Ex-Prisoner's of War Association 20

4 Royal Observer Corps Association 75 Anniversary

5 National Service (Royal Air Force) Association 42

6 RAFLING Association 24

7 6 Squadron (Royal Air Force) Association 18

8 7 Squadron Association 25

9 8 Squadron Association 24

10 RAF Habbaniya Association 25

11 Royal Air Force & Defence Fire Services Association 30

12 Royal Air Force Mountain Rescue Association 30

13 Units of the Far East Air Force 28 New

14 Royal Air Force Yatesbury Association 16

15 Royal Air Force Airfield Construction Branch Association 12

16 RAFSE(s) Assoc 45 New

17 Royal Air Force Movements and Mobile Air Movements Squadron Association (RAF MAMS) 24

18 Royal Air Force Masirah & Salalah Veterans Assoc 24 New

19 WAAF/WRAF/RAF(W) 25

19 Blenheim Society 18

20 Coastal Command & Maritime Air Association 24

21 Air Sea Rescue & Marine Craft Sections Club 15

22 Federation of RAF Apprentice & Boy Entrant Assocs 150

23 Royal Air Force Air Loadmasters Association 24

24 Royal Air Force Police Association 90

25 Princess Mary's Royal Air Force Nursing Service Association 40

Total 1,298

 

Column D

Marker Detachment Number

1 Not Forgotten Association 54

2 Stoll 18

3 Ulster Defence Regiment 72

4 Army Dog Unit Northern Ireland Association 48

5 North Irish Horse & Irish Regiments Old Comrades Association 78

6 Northern Ireland Veterans' Association 40

7 Irish United Nations Veterans Association 12

8 ONET UK 10

9 St Helena Government UK 24

10 South Atlantic Medal Association 196

11 SSAFA 37

12 First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (Princess Royal's Volunteers Corps) 12

13 Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen & Women 48

14 British Nuclear Test Veterans Association 48

15 War Widows Association 132

16 Gurkha Brigade Association 160 Anniversary

17 British Gurkha Welfare Society 100 Anniversary

18 West Indian Association of Service Personnel 18

19 Trucial Oman Scouts Association 18

20 Bond Van Wapenbroeders 35

21 Polish Ex-Combatants Association in Great Britain 25

22 Stowarzyszenie Polskich Kombatantów Limited 18 New

23 Royal Hong Kong Regiment Association 12

24 Canadian Veterans Association 10

25 Hong Kong Ex-Servicemen's Association (UK Branch) 24

26 Hong Kong Military Service Corps 28

27 Foreign Legion Association 24

28 Undivided Indian Army Ex Servicemen Association 11 New

Total 1,312

 

Column E

Marker Detachment Number

1 Royal Marines Association 198

2 Royal Naval Association 150

3 Merchant Navy Association 130

4 Sea Harrier Association 24

5 Flower Class Corvette Association 18

6 HMS Andromeda Association 18

7 HMS Argonaut Association 30

8 HMS Bulwark, Albion & Centaur Association 25

9 HMS Cumberland Association 18

10 HMS Ganges Association 48

11 HMS Glasgow Association 30

12 HMS St Vincent Association 26

13 HMS Tiger Association 25

14 Algerines Association 20

15 Ton Class Association 24

16 Type 42 Association 48

17 Queen Alexandra's Royal Naval Nursing Service 36

18 Association of WRENS 90

19 Royal Fleet Auxiliary Association 10

20 Royal Naval Communications Association 30

21 Royal Naval Medical Branch Ratings & Sick Berth Staff Association 24

22 Royal Naval Benevolent Trust 18

23 Yangtze Incident Association 24

24 Special Boat Service Association 6

25 Submariners Association 30

26 Association of Royal Yachtsmen 30

27 Broadsword Association 36

28 Aircraft Handlers Association 36

29 Aircrewmans Association 40 Anniversary

30 Cloud Observers Association 10

31 The Fisgard Association 40

32 Fleet Air Arm Armourers Association 36

33 Fleet Air Arm Association 25

34 Fleet Air Arm Bucaneer Association 24

35 Fleet Air Arm Field Gun Association 24

36 Fleet Air Arm Junglie Association 18

37 Fleet Air Arm Officers Association 30

38 Fleet Air Arm Safety Equipment & Survival Association 24

39 Royal Navy School of Physical Training 24

Total 1,497

 

Column F

Marker Detachment Number

1 Blind Veterans UK 198

2 Far East Prisoners of War 18

3 Burma Star Association 40

4 Monte Cassino Society20

5 Queen's Bodyguard of The Yeoman of The Guard 18

6 Pen and Sword Club 15

7 TRBL Ex-Service Members 301

8 The Royal British Legion Poppy Factory 4

9 The Royal British Legion Scotland 24

10 Officers Association 5

11 Black and White Club 18

12 National Pigeon War Service 30

13 National Service Veterans Alliance 50

14 Gallantry Medallists League 46

15 National Malaya & Borneo Veterans Association 98

16 National Gulf Veterans & Families Association 30

17 Fellowship of the Services 100

18 Memorable Order of Tin Hats 24

19 Suez Veterans Association 50

20 Aden Veterans Association 72

21 1st Army Association 36

22 Showmens' Guild of Great Britain 40

23 Special Forces Club 12

24 The Spirit of Normandy Trust 28

25 Italy Star Association, 1943-1945, 48

Total 1,325

 

Column A

Marker Detachment Number

1 1LI Association 36

2 Royal Green Jackets Association 198

3 Parachute Regimental Association 174

4 King's Own Scottish Borderers 60

5 Black Watch Association 45

6 Gordon Highlanders Association 60

7 Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders Regimental Association 12

8 Queen's Own Highlanders Regimental Association 48

9 London Scottish Regimental Association 30

10 Grenadier Guards Association 48

11 Coldstream Guards Association 48

12 Scots Guards Association 48

13 Guards Parachute Association 36

14 4 Company Association (Parachute Regiment) 24

15 Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment 72

16 Royal East Kent Regiment (The Buffs) Past & Present Association 30

17 Prince of Wales' Leinster Regiment (Royal Canadians) Regimental Association 24

18 Royal Hampshire Regiment Comrades Association 14

19 The Royal Hampshire Regimental Club 24 New for 2015

20 Royal Northumberland Fusiliers 48 New

21 Royal Sussex Regimental Association 12

22 Green Howards Association 24

23 Cheshire Regiment Association 24

24 Sherwood Foresters & Worcestershire Regiment 36

25 Mercian Regiment Association 30

26 Special Air Service Regimental Association 4

27 The King's Own Royal Border Regiment 100

28 The Staffordshire Regiment 48

29 Rifles Regimental Association 40

30 The Rifles & Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire & Wiltshire Regimental Association 30

31 Durham Light Infantry Association 60

32 King's Royal Rifle Corps Association 50

33 King's African Rifles 14 New for 2015

Total 1,551

 

Column M

Marker Detachment Number

1 Transport For London 48

2 Children of the Far East Prisoners of War 60

3 First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (Princess Royal's Volunteers Corps) 24

4 Munitions Workers Association18

5 Evacuees Reunion Association48

6 TOC H 20

7 Salvation Army 36

8 Naval Canteen Service & Expeditionary Force Institutes Association 12 Previously NAAFI

9 Royal Voluntary Service 24

10 Civil Defence Association 8

11 National Association of Retired Police Officers 36

12 Metropolitan Special Constabulary 36

13 London Ambulance Service NHS Trust 36

14 London Ambulance Service Retirement Association 18

15 St John Ambulance 36

16 British Red Cross 12

17 St Andrew's Ambulance Association 6

18 The Firefighters Memorial Trust 24

19 Royal Ulster Constabulary (GC) Association 36

20 Ulster Special Constabulary Association 30

21 Commonwealth War Graves Commission 12

22 Daniel's Trust 36

23 Civilians Representing Families 180

24 Royal Mail Group Ltd 24

25 Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals 24

26 The Blue Cross 24

27 PDSA 24

28 HM Ships Glorious Ardent & ACASTA Association 24 Anniversary

29 Old Cryptians' Club 12

30 Fighting G Club 18 Anniversary

31 Malayan Volunteers Group 12

32 Gallipoli Association 18

33 Ministry of Defence 20

34 TRBL Non Ex-Service Members 117

35 TRBL Women's Section 20

36 Union Jack Club 12

37 Western Front Association 8

38 Shot at Dawn Pardons Campaign 18

39 Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes 24

40 National Association of Round Tables 24

41 Lions Club International 24

42 Rotary International 24

43 41 Club 6

44 Equity 12

45 Romany & Traveller Society 18

46 Sea Cadet Corps 30

47 Combined Cadet Force 30

48 Army Cadet Force 30

49 Air Training Corps 30

50 Scout Association 30

51 Girlguiding London & South East England 30

52 Boys Brigade 30

53 Girls Brigade England & Wales 30

54 Church Lads & Church Girls Brigade 30

55 Metropolitan Police Volunteer Police Cadets 18

56 St John Ambulance Cadets 18

57 YMCA 12

Total 1,621

After knocking up a very quick spinner for steel wool and having a little fun last weekend, I decided to make a better version. $5.00 dog lead and a coat hanger.

I think the swivel will make a world of difference, you can see the twist in the earth wire on the old one and that was just after 5 or 6 spins.

 

Camera phone (sorry about the quality... lol)