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Ireland

On the 6th of March the Forum welcomed its guest speaker Tony Burkitt whose chosen subject was Ireland.  

Tony’s interests are archaeology, architecture, history, wild flowers and walking, each of which was covered as we enjoyed a travelogue around southern Ireland starting and finishing in Dublin and visiting tourist hot-spots such as Kerry, Connemara, the Aran Islands and the Cliffs of Moher.  

He illustrated his talk with a series of slides which showed the wild rugged Irish landscape and its wide variety of ancient Celtic and early Christian sites.

Whilst in Ireland Tony attempted to climb each of the 12 peaks which rise above 3,000 feet but he failed due to inclement weather and access problems.

Forum Chairman Mike Earle thanked Tony for an enjoyable talk.  

Forum members look forward to the meeting scheduled for the 13th of March when we welcome Jim Wight, the vet son of TV vet James Heriot, who is to talk about his father. This is an open meeting when members invite guests to share the meeting.

The Yorkshire Dales – a Resident’s View

For the Forum’s meeting on the 27th of February 57 members attended, the largest turn-out for the current season.

The guest speaker was Geoff Queen who had travelled from his home in Kettlewell in Wharfedale. The title of his talk was The Yorkshire Dales – a Resident’s View in which he concentrated on his home village and the immediate neighbourhood.

He listed the advantages and disadvantages in living in such an idyllic setting.

The main advantages are the scenery, the peace and quiet, the community life and care for the elderly; the disadvantages are the weather (twice as much rain falls here as falls on Leeds), the poor transport facilities and the midges.

The village has 150 dwellings although half of these are holiday homes which are empty for long periods resulting in a resident population of only 140.

Geoff then showed a series of slides showing the area in summer and winter conditions and also the two main events of the year, the Scarecrow Festival and the Plastic Duck Race.

Forum Chairman Mike Earle proposed a vote of thanks to Geoff whose speaker’s fee will be donated to the Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital.

Formula 1 British Champions

On the 13th of February the Forum welcomed Graham Read as guest speaker.

Graham is a motoring writer and Formula 1 correspondent who has entertained Forum members a number of times speaking on motoring topics.

This time his subject was Formula 1 British Champions.

There have been nine World Formula 1 champions from Britain but Graham also included a tenth name Stirling Moss who won 16 grand prix races but never the world championship, one year failing by one point. The list began with Mike Hawthorn who won in 1958 and ended with Lewis Hamilton, the current champion. Graham gave us the life and career history of each champion.

One champion John Surtees had also been a motor cycle champion and Graham included in his presentation a video of part of the Isle of Man TT from a bike-mounted camera travelling at full speed around the circuit.

At the end of his talk Graham gave us a list of three young British drivers, any of which could be a future world champion.

Members then questioned Graham about various aspects of the motor racing scene before Chairman Mike Earle proposed a vote of thanks enthusiastically supported by Forum members.

Sammy Cahn

Before the meeting on the 6th of February the Forum’s speaker finder John Spinner discovered that the scheduled speaker would not be available. At short notice he arranged for an old friend of the Forum Stuart Atkins to speak and his chosen subject was the songwriter Sammy Cahn.

Stuart has a special relationship with the work of his subject having, in 1991 written a show called There Goes That Song Again featuring Sammy Cahn’s songs which ran at the Leeds Civic Theatre before going on tour throughout Britain.

Cahn was a lyricist who worked with many partners but mainly Jules Styne and James van Heusen. Frank Sinatra recorded 87 songs written by Cahn and Stuart played a number of these as well as performances by Barbra Streisand, Nat King Cole and other equally talented singers.

With four different partners he wrote 26 songs nominated for Oscars including four which received the award. Stuart had telephone discussions with Sammy Cahn when writing his show and arranged to meet him on his next visit to Britain, but he died before this could happen.

Mike Earle thanked Stuart for a morning of nostalgia.

A Question of Sport

The Forum’s meeting on the 30th of January began with the members standing in silent tribute to the late Fred Bingham, until recently a regular Forum attender.

The guest speaker was John Clithero who was visiting for the fourth time to talk about the television programme A Question of Sport.  John’s presentation required audience participation to test its sporting knowledge by identifying the pictures of the various sportsmen and women shown and Forum members joined in with gusto.

A Question of Sport began in 1968 when its presenter was David Vine and its two team captains were Cliff Morgan the Welsh rugby international and Henry Cooper the heavyweight boxer.

The first guests were footballers George Best and Tom Finney, England cricket captain Raymond Illingworth and international athlete Lilian Board. There have been over 650 programmes but only three presenters, David Vine, David Coleman and Sue Barker.

Team captains were changed regularly until 2008 when Matthew Dawson and Philip Tufnell were introduced and remain captains to this day.

The most frequent guest has been Steve Davis who has made more than 20 appearances.

John finished his presentation with a picture board quiz and his version of What Happened Next?

Forum Chairman Mike Earle proposed a vote of thanks for a splendid morning’s entertainment.

Classic Pop and Humour videos

The Forum’s Deputy Chairman Duncan Verity has assembled a large collection of entertaining videos with which he occasionally entertains the Forum’s members.

For the Forum’s second meeting of 2019 on the16th of January he put together a selection which he titled Classic Pop and Humour.  Starting with the Three Tenors singing O Sole Mio, for the next hour we enjoyed the music of many of our favourite singers and comedy from the Two Ronnies and a rare non-singing duet featuring Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra before the final item, a quirky comedy band featuring two trombones whose slides were operated by the bare feet of a third person.

Chairman Mike Earle complimented Duncan in putting together a presentation with something for everyone which had brightened up a dull day.

The Forum continues to attract an average attendance of around fifty but the size of the venue at the Church Centre means that more members could easily be accommodated and would be made very welcome.

 

 

Wheatfields Hospice

On the 23rd of January the Forum welcomed its guest speaker Charlene Graham, a fundraiser from the Sue Ryder organisation whose particular interest is the Wheatfields Hospice in Headingley.     

Charlene began by relating the history of the building which was established in 1859 as a family home called Wheatfield Lodge. During and after the Second World War it housed various government and military organisations until it became a hospice in 1978 under the wing of the Sue Ryder organisation.  Charlene described the various building projects which have brought the building into its present form although not without some setbacks. In 1996 the building was damaged by a flood caused by a burst water main whose repair cost £100,000 which was raised by a charity appeal. This appeal also enabled a new therapy unit to be constructed.     

Charlene went on to describe the work of the hospice which houses 18 in-patients, and also provides day care, for people over the age of 80 who are referred by their GP or the local hospital.  

Forum members then asked questions about the work of the hospice before Chairman Mike Earle proposed a vote of thanks.

From Trackways to Motorways

On the 5th of December the Forum met for its last meeting of 2018 in the St James Church Centre.

The guest speaker was Tony Morris whose talk was titled From Trackways to Motorways (via a few potholes).

Tony traced the history of the highways and byways of England from prehistoric times to the present day.  After the early animal tracks and ridgeways the Roman invaders then established a network of 600 miles of quality roads which were seriously neglected in medieval times.

In 1663 Turnpike Trusts were established which resulted in new roads being built, although the resulting tolls were unpopular and the roads were not well maintained.  In the early 1900s a new system of roads was started to accommodate the motor car.

Between 1945 and 1958 the number of motor vehicles increased from 2.5 million to 8 million resulting in the modern motorway system being established which now extends to 2,000 miles.

Tony then turned to the controversial subject of potholes and how they should be repaired.  Finally, he dealt with another controversy – speed limits and their enforcement.

Duncan Verity proposed a vote of thanks for an interesting talk.

The Forum’s Christmas lunch is arranged for the 12th of December at the Bridge Inn Walshford when entertainment will be provided by the Daytones vocal group.

Meetings will be resumed on the 9th of January.

Records Banned by the BBC

On the 28th 0f November the Forum’s guest speaker was David Sibbald whose talk had the intriguing title of Records Banned by the BBC.

In earlier days it was the BBC’s practise to ban records for a variety of reasons. The reasons can be classified under the headings of suggestive lyrics, unacceptable religious references, lyrics which may damage morale in wartime and references to commercial products.

Also a less obvious reason was the use of melodies by classical composers which involved the banning of instrumental records by bands such as the Glen Miller Band. This was due to the BBC’s Head of Music in the 1940s being the composer Sir Arthur Bliss who believed that classical music should not be used for profit.

David illustrated his talk with short extracts of the records involved starting with Henry Hall’s Radio Times (a commercial publication).

In the USA there was no such restrictions but eventually it was realised that the BBC’s rules were affecting record sales and there are many instances of English versions of songs being produced with slight changes to the American words.

Some of Cole Porter’s songs were, however, beyond redemption.

Forum Chairman Mike Earle thanked David Sibbald for an entertaining and amusing talk.

Travels with the United Nations

On the 21st of November the Forum welcomed Brian Taylor to speak about Travels with the United Nations.

After a career with West Yorkshire Police where he was Head of the Drugs Squad he joined the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime as Chief of the Anti-Trafficking Section.  He summarised the history of the United Nations from its foundation in 1945 with 50 member states to the present day with 193 members employing 44,000 people.

The section in which he was employed is based in Vienna and investigates drug and human trafficking as well as money laundering and terrorism.   His role involved travelling all around the world and he described a selection of the exotic and disturbed places which he had visited.

The two most disturbed places were Iraq and Afghanistan, at the latter he visited a UN facility which was bombed shortly afterwards with considerable loss of life to its staff.

He also visited Bosnia and witnessed the extensive damage to Sarajevo and the dreadful poverty of its inhabitants.  He visited the “Stan” states in Central Asia where the UN set up an organisation similar to Europol to enable exchange of police information.

A lively question and answer session followed which Chairman Mike Earle had to curtail to allow members to go home.  Mike thanked Brian Taylor for a fascinating talk about his very interesting life.