What a Day !

Bill Bond MBE checking the guests list

with the Biggin Hill Bell

Saturday 27th August will remain the most memorable day of the year and probably that for a number of years I may still have left.

I was taking part in the 70th Anniversary Event of The Battle of Britain organised by The Battle of Britain Historical Society and acting as one of the Event Organisers.

On Friday afternoon I left Halifax on the new direct train service to London King Cross now operated by Grand Central Railways. It starts in Bradford, collects at Halifax and Brighouse and then with stops at Wakefield and Pontefract the last stop being Doncaster before going non stop to London. This saves changing in Leeds or Wakefield. New rolling stock and comfortable clean seating and normal type buffet.

From King Cross I took the Underground to Heathrows new Terminal 5 and then a shuttle bus to my Hotel, the Ibis, which is situated some distance away from the airport.

Saturday morning woke up to clear blue skys and a good breakfast before taking the shuttle bus back to Terminal 5 where the event was to start with a reception in the adjoining luxury hotel.

I found the Organiser and Society founder Bill Bond there with his wife and another helper and we put up 4 large posters showing the details of the day with pictures from the 1940's of the Battle of Britain Veterans who were to join us.

We were then joined by representatives of two companies who sponsored the event - 'Find My Past' a major UK Internet Genealogy company whoa re also sponsoring out society School Memorial Plaques and The John Lewis Partnership who operate major stores throughout the UK.

We then started to welcome the first arrivals into the reception area where the Hotel had arranged soft drinks to be available.

Soon the Veterans and their own family members and friends came into be greeted by Bill Bond, proudly wearing the Decorations awarded for their valiant war time service, including the Battle of Britain Clasp on the 1939-46 War Medal.

I had taken copies of a folder listing the 106 Men of the Battle included on the 50 School Memorial Plaques so far presented in England, Scotland and Canada, and these were distributed around the tables and during the morning I was able to show some of the Veterans the names of other members of their Squadrons who had been recognised by our Society, many of course had been sadly killed in action.

One of the Society Patrons is the well known Actor Edward Fox and he was present to meet and greet everyone and give a rousing address of welcome.

A welcome glass of Champagne was served followed by a Buffet lunch during which we were joined by the Pilots and Cabin Crew of the British Airways ' Airbus ' which was the take us on the Memorial Flight in the afternoon.

The Veterans waiting to Board and facing the Media !

On Board - I was allocated a nice window seat just behind the wing of the aircraft so along with many other we indulged ourselves taking pictures of the Hurricane and Spitfire escorts for most of this amazing flight from the Isle of Wight to the Thames and back.

WHAT A MEMORABLE DAY

St Augustine's Church from Market Hill

AUGUST 1 st 2010

YORKSHIRE DAY

HEDON IN HOLDERNESS

The proud flag of the 3 RIDINGS of YORKSHIRE was paraded through the streets of the historic town of Hedon which received its Charter in 1158, led by the present Mayor, Councillor Mrs Brenda Goldspink, the 663rd to hold office.

Supported by the Lord Lieutenant of the East Riding of Yorkshire, the Hon Susan Cunliffe-Lister and the Chairman of the Yorkshire Society Keith Madeley.

We all gathered at the Alexandra Hall where the Lord Mayors of York and Kingston upon Hull, and many other Mayors and Council Chairmen were greeted by the Mayor of Hedon and the Society Chairman. The Civic Heads then ' robed ' and preceded by the Attendant Mace and Sword Bearers, formed the parade led by the Band of The 150th [ Yorkshire ] Transport Regiment - Royal Logistics Corp.

We paraded right round the town, many people were out waving Yorkshire Day Hedon flags and outside Residential Homes for the elderly they were sitting out in Chairs and Wheelchairs enjoying the parade. Many of the Mayors walked over to greet them.

We arrived at St Augustine's Church [ known as The King of Holderness ] and it ws filled to the brim, an excellent service with the Bishop of Hull preaching the sermon.

The Town Crier of the East Riding took part introducing the Mayor of Hedon to read The Yorkshire Day Declaration of Integrity.

" I being a resident of Hedon in the East Riding of Yorkshire declare here in Hedon..

That Yorkshire is three Ridings and the City of York with these boundaries of one thousand one hundred and thirty five years standing.

That the address of all places in these three Ridings is 'YORKSHIRE'.

That all persons both therein or resident and loyal to the Ridings are Yorkshire men and women.

That any person or corporate body which deliberately ignores or denies the aforementioned shall forfeit all claim to Yorkshire status.

These declarations made this Yorkshire Day 2010. "

YORKSHIRE FOREVER !

GOD SAVE THE QUEEN !

The Yorkshire Day Anthem was sung by the Hedon Churches Together Choir followed by Prayers for the Celebration of Yorkshire.

Afterwards on Market Hill a photograph of all those attending was taken

We walked back to the Alexandra Hall for Lunch and the Toast were led by The Lord Lieutenant with The Loyal Toast - 'THE QUEEN - GOD BLESS HER'

The Mayor of Hedon proposed the Toast to Yorkshire and The Society Chairman responded.

The well known Yorkshire Artist Ashley Jackson then spoke on his work and was thanked by Keith Madeley who then reported that I had prepared a list of 101 Yorkshiremen who served in the Royal Air Force during The Battle of Britain and that this being the 70th Anniversary Year we should all remember how they had saved Britain from invasion in 1940.

GREAT YORKSHIRE SHOW

Last week we had a nice time in Harrogate for The Great Yorkshire Show.
The weather was a problem as there was some rain forcast but it stayed fine for the times of our visits.

Monday we dropped the Terriers at Kennels and had tea at Betty's famous Cafe at Harlow Carr, the Yorkshire venue of the Royal Horticultural Society. The drove to our Hotel, the Bjiou where we now always stay for this event.

Welcome to Yorkshire Exhibit " Rhubard "

won a medal at the Chelsea Flower Show

We walked down to the Town centre to meet up with Sara and Daneil at the also famous fish Restaurant the Drum & Monkey as it was Roma's Birthday treat.

On the Tuesday morning we went as early as possible by bus from near the Hotel to harrogate bus station and then on the special free bus to the Show.

We are members so can use the excellent Members Pavilion and Sara joined us there and then we split up until Lunch time where we gathered at The Showmans - a special dining area for those who are members of other Show [ we are at Otley ]


HRH The Princess Royal was the VIP visitor this year and I just missed seeing her visit the Hounds, but I was able to spend some time looking at the Beagles and especially those from our local Hunt - Colne Valley Beagles.

I was lucky in my rounds to meet up with various friends who attend and also meet the man who now runs Welcome to Yorkshire - our Tourism Company.

We did not stay too long towards the end and got back to the Hotel when it started to rain, but managed a nice meal out in Harrogate.

Wednesday was fine again and Roma was able to sit in the stands and watch various events while I made more progress round the site to see the Flower Show.

We had our lunch in the Members area and then Roma managed to walk with me as far as the Hound Show, calling in to talk with the Girl Guides and other contacts.

Then back to the Bus and to collect the car from the Hotel and drive back to Halifax.

The attendance over the 3 days was well over 130.000 which was good for this year.

Quite a Gap

Having a new gt grand nephew born in Hong Kong on July 1st I need to update my Blog

The gap in time since May was due to some ill health ending on Calderdale Royal Hospital in Halifax for a Pacemaker Operation on June 21st.

After the first op they found it had not 'fixed' properly and that night the whole team were brought back and redid the operation around midnight to 1 am.

It is quite amazing as only by local injection and lying on the table you can see the scanning screen and the wires being manipulated into the heart.

On the second operation they also had to insert as temp pacemaker through a vein in my led and this was also seen on the screen.

After a day I was sitting up and everything was checked and working and they took me back into the theatre to remove the temp pacemaker.

Our NHS was wonderful, 2 guys on the ward were interesting fellows, one older than me ex RN on Mine Sweepers the other a local Asian and when he did his praying to Mecca at the end of my bed I asked him to include me ! His family was very nice and friendly and a young child was sent over to me to receive sweets and say hello.

Doctors and Nursing Staff and all those looking after the cleaning and feeding were brilliant.

Having been back home and stitches removed I went for a Scan Check up on Monday and was told my heart was now OK

So back to emails and dealing with my interests in The Battle of Britain 70th Anniversary by helping arrange School Memorial Plaques for the BOB Historical Society.

Four Days

I have not blogged for 4 days

Thursday I had meetings in Sowerby Bridge for the In Bloom Award scheme, firstly at Christ Church School with the new Head and Caretaker. They are great supporters and have interesting grounds for the pupils to take part in gardening and understanding our environmemt.

Then followed a meeting with a new Marketing Company just located in the Town and who have agreed to see how they can support Sowerby Bridge in Bloom

Friday it was such a nice day - not too hot - that I decided to carry out the DIY repair on the concrete drive to the rear of our house.
It had broken up at the point it meets the road and I felt tarmac in bags from the DIY store would be the easy answer. I had one bag but so much was needed when the concrete was removed I had to go and buy 2 more. But it does seem to have worked !

Saturday it rained most of the time, good news for the garden and water tub.

Today Is Sunday and Sara came and took Poppy and Jessie for a walk and Roma and I had lunch at The Moorings, Canal Basin Sowerby Bridge

Stones House

One of our Charity parties at Stones House

On Wednesday evening we were invited by the present owners to visit our former home Stones House, Ripponden.
We purchased it in 1963 when it was very run down and had a lot of dry rot, but with a barn, out buildings, large garden with victorian lake [ no water [ and 10 acres of land it just needed care and attention and was a great place to bring up children and we stayed there for 25 years before we moved to allow another person to finish repairing the roof !

The former family home of the Whiteley's of Stones Mills, Cotton Manufacturers and after they had ' banked ' one of the main victorian parts had been demolished.
The main delights were the victorian interiors, wooded floors and sliding doors, painted glass, painted ceilings and interesting fittings.

Luckily since we moved 2 other owners have completed restoration but not changed anything of the ground floor special interiors.

The sad part is that 4 houses have been built on the gardens and site of the lake, and the barn converted to a house.

But the visit was unexpected and we liked being shown round again and explaining how we had taken it on and the history of the house and its families

Monday after

Just a quick blog today

We had lunch at The Rock Hotel, Holywell Nr Elland, which is the same ownership as The Design House Restaurant at Dean Clough.

An excellent lunch in the new Restaurant called ' Churchills '

Then some quick shopping in Elland and Brighouse before taking the Terriers into Shibden Park.Sadly they have to be kept on a lead as otherwise they would chase the Ducks into the Lake