Category: Tuesday Group

May Meetings

 

For our last meeting of the session we were delighted to welcome one of our members, Ginny Golding, as a speaker. Ginny’s talk was about her time in the police force during the 1960’s and 70’s. It had not been her intention to go into the police and she actually applied as a dare ! When she applied to Cardiff City police at the age of 20 there were 10 applicants who were whittled down to two – and she got the job. The other applicant who failed at that time subsequently became the Chief Constable of Gwent.

She described her initial training in an old army barracks in Ryton on Dunnmore as just being like in the army complete with lots of marching.

Ginny returned to Cardiff as WPC19 complete in a uniform in which she as a dead ringer for Joyce Grenfell .For the next 18 months there were parades and inspections at 6.45 each morning. She spoke of being on point duty at Kingsway in Cardiff and as there were no radios at that time a flashing light on a pillar would indicate that they were needed back at the station. Her one claim to fame at this time was that she was the first officer to drive to drive the new Panda Car in Cardiff in May 1968 and her photograph was published in the Western Mail.

She was fortunate to have a varied career and after a spell with the traffic department went to Preston to the detective training school and then spent an enjoyable three years in Canton putting her training into practise.

The next training was in the use of firearms which led to a period in protection of well known people including James Callaghan, Margaret Thatcher and Princess Margaret. The downside of this period included interviewing people wanting British Citizenship. This took hours and was extremely boring.

Finally Ginny described her period in Special Branch which involved long periods away from home where she was not allowed to even tell her husband of her whereabouts. This obviously put a great strain on her relationship with her husband so after much soul searching she gave up her career in the police which had spanned 16 years.

Her talk was interspersed with anecdotes, the odd case history and one thing was clear that the “ political correctness” of today did not exist then !. She agreed that it’s a different world nowadays and she is not sure she would enjoy a life in todays police force.

I hope all our members have enjoyed this session and our thanks go to Irene for once again sorting out such a varied programme.

Our next meeting will be on September 19th – this will be the AGM followed by nibbles etc and everyone can catch up on what we all hope will be a wonderful summer.

Opera and Gardens

 

 

Our next speaker was Lynne Plummer who introduced herself as Sybil’s friend who blathers on about music. The talk that followed was anything but blather and gave us an idea of “Behind the Scenes at the Opera”. Lynne had worked at Covent Garden as a researcher producing “Talking Notes” for people whose sight was impaired. This involved meeting the folk behind the scenes and so as the talk unfolded we were able to see what an extraordinary job these people did.

The format of the talk was to hear a clip of an interview, followed by part of an operatic aria and then Lynne would elaborate on the interview.

We heard from Conductors, Wig Makers, Costume department, Production managers amongst others. We learnt how scale models are built of the sets so that any problems can be ironed out before the full scale set is built and how sloping stages can present problems for opera singers who often have difficulty as special shoes have to be worn to prevent them from slipping.

The Costume department must have been a fascinating place to visit and to see how the various distressed effects are created. The starting material has to be of the best quality to ensure that the costume will stand up to the rigours of many performances but it also has to flow correctly so that it looks good on stage. Also fabrics have to be dyed and this is a department in itself. The wigs that performers wear are made from Eastern European hair and each strand of hair is put on separately.

While all this work is going on behind the scenes the Chorus are busy rehearsing often for three hours in the morning and afternoon and the rehearsal schedule can include 2 or 3 different works at the same time. Another very important consideration is the set lighting which can produce very dramatic effects but has to be perfect as performers don’t want to be blinded by extraneous lighting

A feature that all the operas have in common is a book in which the music is written on one side of the page and the movements are written in pencil on the other side. This book is kept forever.

Thank you Lynne for a very different talk and showing us opera in a new light.

 

It was a great pleasure to see Anthea Guthrie in Tuesday Group once again. Anthea is one of the highest awarded garden designers in the UK having won six gold medals from the RHS and exhibited at Chelsea and Hampton Court Flower Shows. She is also a very experienced cruise ship speaker and botanical guide.

Her talk took us to many places around the world from the Caribbean to the Falklands and from Spain to Brazil.

Accompanied by beautiful photographs on the big screen the talk began with a whacky statue in Lisbon followed by Menorca and Amsterdam where small gardens were enhanced by pots of plants spilling out onto the streets for all to enjoy.

In Spain we saw the largest palm tree as well as badly managed water features that were green whereas in contrast Villa Carlotta in Italy demonstrated how to get a water feature right.

The famous fountains in the Peterhof Palace in St Petersburg showed continually running water which was piped in from 15 kilometres away.

Whilst in Russia we saw “dachas” that are seasonal or second homes for city dwellers. These could be a shack or a cottage but were in colonies with garden plots around your neighborhood as recreational getaways for the purpose of growing food in the small gardens. These were not unlike our allotments.

We also saw formal gardens in Sweden as well as Summer Houses with grass roofs, papyrus in Egypt and cacti in Lanzarote. Busy Lizzies grew in profusion in the shade in Brazil whilst the only proper garden to be seen in the Falklands was in the Governor’s House.

During the whistle stop tour Anthea dropped in a couple of tips for our gardens such as ‘make friends with foliage when you choose your plants’ and if undecided about what will grow well in your garden – take a stroll around your neighborhood to get some ideas.

She also suggested planting bulbs under rose bushes that will flower when the roses are just twigs.

Our thanks once again to Anthea for taking us on this floral tour of the world in about 45 minutes

 

 

 

 

 

Year end “Wrap Up”

 

 

Our final meeting of 2016 was a demonstration by Alison Westwood from Eclipse Gift Wrapping. This family firm is based in Porthcawl and aims to provide a professional gift wrapping service for both businesses and individuals.


Alison assisted by Sam showed how to wrap bottles, CD’s and a variety of different shaped boxes so that they looked too good to unwrap. With Christmas around the corner I hope some of the audience tried some of the techniques rather than taking the shortcut and putting present in Christmas gift bags.


Anyone wanting ideas can look on the website where you can view clips of demonstrations of bow tying and other useful tips.


A Christmas meal at the Beech Tree Inn rounded off our calendar for 2016. As in previous years everyone was very pleased with the venue.


Our first meeting of the next session was a social evening with a Bring and Buy, light refreshments and a quiz. All our members were very generous and the evening raised £120.00.


At our next meeting we welcomed back Sara Jane, a fashion consultant from John Lewis to hopefully get an insight into some of the Spring trends for 2017. Sara explained how one can take advantage of the free service offered in-store to help create an outfit or accessorize an existing ensemble. We were then shown a selection of Spring wear emphasising how by carefully choosing accessories such as handbags, scarves and jewellery one can make a very simple jacket and trousers turn into something that is special. A big thank you to our members Jill and Chris for acting as models for the evening – they both looked good in all the clothes that were chosen for them.

 

 

 

 

 

Autumn Programme Talks

 

This Month's Talks

 

Paul Gregory on Community and Post

Our autumn programme continued with a presentation by Paul Gregory on Community and Post. Paul’s talk was about how his life had revolved around public service and as a child much of this service was in the church starting off as a choir boy and then later a server and Eucharist minister.

When he left school in 1971 he passed the Post Office’s aptitude test and became a telegram delivery boy. It was interesting to learn that India was the last country to have telegrams and that service only finished last year. It was a standing joke in the P.O. that there were only two sizes of uniform – too big or too small. In the 70’s it was a strict regime and fines of one shilling were imposed if you were caught smoking or not wearing a cap.

During his time with the Post Office having worked his way through the various duties including delivering mail to the docks area of Cardiff ,Paul saw many changes within the Royal Mail service. One of the roles he particularly enjoyed was visiting schools to tell them about the postal service all done with the aid of Postman Pat.

In retirement Paul is still helping the community by working for the Rotary Club and he was a scout assistant until 3 years ago.

 

 

Cathy Farr – Author

Our next talk was by author, Cathy Farr who became a writer almost by accident. As a child she had loved writing and making up stories about her imaginary Post Officefriends.

One of the main characters of her novels came from seeing an Irish wolfhound whilst doing a management course at the Turnberry Golf Hotel. Cathy fell in love with the breed and decided that at some point she would own one but until that time came she started to write stories about “Fellhounds” an imaginary dog muchbook-01 bigger than a wolfhound.

Many years later having taken a creative writing course and done a law degree at the Open University Cathy had time to turn her scribblings into her first novel  “ Moon Chase”. This is about how the brave and loyal Fellhounds would protect their masters, the Fellmen of Thesk. Cathy read us the opening sequence of this book and I am sure many of our members bought the book to see what happened next.

This book was self- published as was the sequel “Moon Crossing" and it was fascinating to hear how Cathy found illustrators to bring her characters alive.

Happily Cathy achieved her ambition and owned an Irish wolfhound called Finn and now owns another called Mojo.

Recently Cathy has written an entirely different genre of book under the name of Carolyn Swann – this book “It’s All About Me” tells the story of Madeleine Edwards who meets the very wealthy and recently divorced Haden Elliot and determines to become Mrs Elliot the Third. Whereas Cathy’s other books are suitable for all ages this one is an adult read.

 

Perhaps we should encourage our community library to have a section on local authors.

 

 

Phil Bowen  on "The Mary Rose"

We welcomed back Phil Bowen to talk to us about the Mary Rose, the Tudor ship which sank in 1545. Phil gave us a very graphic account of how the ship sank in under one minute with Henry VIII watching from the shore from where they were they could hear the screams of the sailors as they succumbed to their watery grave.

Because the ship was entombed in mud it was well preserved and it was finally raised from the seabed on Monday October 11th 1982 watched by thousands on television. Since then much work has taken place preserving this historic vessels for future generations.mary-rose03

Using reconstructed photos of various members of the crew Phil took us back to the Tudor era describing the day-to-day lives of the archer, the surgeon and the cook. The thousands of artefacts recovered from the ship meant that by studying these much could be learnt about life on board. What became very obvious by studying the artefacts was that Tudor officers led a very different lifestyle to the sailors.

Today Swansea University are working very closely with the trust so new facts are coming life all the time. Recently DNA was extracted from the remains of a food material and this was identified as being from cod caught off Nova Scotia. There is so much material for researchers to look at that the story of the Mary Rose will continue to unfold for many more years.

Phil had been a teacher before retirement and everyone agreed how much more interesting history would have been with someone who could entertain whilst still educating their audience.

 

 

 

 

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Tuesday Group – Police and Crime Commissioner

There was a change in our programme for our final meeting of the session and instead of the AGM we had a talk from Mike Baker who, at the time, was a candidate for the post of Police and Crime Commissioner for South Wales.

Mike was a serving police officer for nearly 30 years taking early retirement because of a spinal injury.He attended university in his spare time gaining a business degree at UWIC followed by a post graduate diploma in law and then qualified as a barrister at Cardiff University. He later qualified as a solicitor and now practices in Cardiff.

As a police officer he was involved in community groups in both Cardiff and the Rhondda and then as a lawyer dealt directly with representatives of the courts, the Probation Service, Crown Prosecution Service and the Victim Support Agency.

Mike then clarified for us the role of the Police and Crime Commissioner, a topic of which we had very little knowledge. These duties include having responsibility to hold the police to account on behalf of the public. This means holding the Chief Constable to account for the performance of the Force Area’s Officers and staff. He would also provide a link between the police and communities, working to turn the desires and ambitions of the public in terms of policing and crime reduction into action.

The Police and Crime Commissioner receives all the funding relating to policing and reducing crime and in consultation with the Chief Constable is responsible for how it is spent, He must also set strategic direction and aims for the police through the Police and Crime Plan. He can also hire and fire the Chief Constable when necessary as long as the relevant legal requirements are met.

Wider responsibilities include responsibility for reducing crime and a duty to deliver better value for money and improve the effectiveness of the police. A lively question and answer session followed and by the end the group felt that they had a much better understanding of the role of the Police and Crime Commissioner.

At the election two days later, Alun Michael was chosen to be the Police and Crime Commissioner for South Wales.

Visit from The Royal Mint

We use coins everyday and don’t ever think about how they evolved or where they came from. Chris Barker, from the Royal Mint museum, came to talk to us about the history of the Royal Mint and started the story with the Celtic coin that was struck by a Celtic chief. This was not used as currency but as a means of showing off. This changed around 1880 when Alfred the Great struck coins with the name London in the form of a monogram on them.

For many centuries this penny was the only coin in circulation. One coin meant that giving change was difficult and they were literally cut in half or quarters for this purpose. Coinage production remained the same for centuries – simple basic methods were used with the coins being made by hand in many parts of the country.

In 1279 coin production was centralized into the Mint in the Tower of London and the first gold coins were produced which were meant to convey wealth and power. During the reign of Henry the Eighth, in a misguided attempt to raise money, the coinage was debased by adding silver and copper but was subsequently rectified by Elizabeth the first. 

By the Seventeenth Century machinery was introduced and screw presses and horse driven rolling mills were installed at the Royal Mint and the ancient method of striking coins by hand was finally abandoned. This meant that the portraits on coins were clearly defined and edge lettering and mulling were achieved. 1699 saw the appointment of Isaac Newton as Master of the Royal Mint where he remained until his death in 1727.

In order to equip the Royal Mint with up to date steam powered machinery, a purpose built facility was constructed at Tower Hill nearby and was in production by 1810.   In the 1920’s in a development which has shaped much of its subsequent history, the Royal Mint began seeking orders from overseas countries. This followed the establishment of an independent committee to examine new designs for coins, medals and seals.

By 1964 output exceeded 1000 million coins a year. 0n the 1st March 1966 the Government announced the decision to adopt a decimal system of currency. The task of striking hundreds of millions of decimal coins in readiness for decimalization in 1971, while at the same time not neglecting overseas customers, made the construction of a new mint essential. James Callahan was Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time and the decision was made to relocate the Mint to Llantrisant and in 1968 the first coins were officially struck by the Queen.

In 1975, the last coin, a gold sovereign, was struck at Tower Hill and by 1980 the Tower Hill buildings were finally relinquished. The Royal Mint at Llantrisant is about to establish a visitors centre which should be open in May of this year and we are looking forward to a visit where we will be able to see some of the early coins that Chris showed us on the screen in his excellent power point presentation.   

Tuesday Group

TUESDAY GROUP

AUTUMN PROGRAMME

15th September – Helen Joy – Porky Tails.

29th September – Lynn Oliver – My family in the Great War.

6th October – Lorna Pearson – Humorous Slant with a Welsh Flavour.

20th October – Linda Burnell – Dowsing.

3rd November – John Lewis – Sarah Jane – Accessories.

17th November – Roy Gee- Tales – It shouldn’t happen to a Tour Guide.

1st December – Rosemary Scadden – The History of Insole Court.

15th December – Christmas Dinner.

As everyone can see Irene has once again sorted out a very interesting and varied programme. We would welcome any new members – why not come along to our first meeting for a taster of our meetings.

 

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