A Lifetime in Gardening

On 12th November,  Duncan Verity introduced our speaker Martin Walker, who described a lifetime in gardening.

On leaving school Martin joined Leeds City Council parks department as an apprentice gardener.  In a long and distinguished career he worked at all the civic parks and gardens in and around Leeds before retiring as a senior manager.  He is still involved in the horticultural world including acting as a judge in the Yorkshire in Bloom competition.

He presented a slide show featuring a variety of the gardens he had worked in or designed including Golden Acre Park (where he started his career), Temple Newsam House and Lotherton Hall and mentioned the sponsored roundabout scheme which was initiated in Leeds.

Towards the end of his time with Leeds City Council he became involved in presenting displays for the Chelsea Flower Show and he explained the reasoning used by the judges in assessing the exhibits before awarding medals.  We saw Leeds’ efforts over the years which culminated in the award of two gold medals.

After a short Gardeners Question Time Paddy Tyler proposed a vote of thanks complimenting Martin on the delightful gardens around Leeds which his work has provided for everyone.

My Life & Work as Chaplain at Harrogate District Hospital

On 29th October the Forum welcomed the Rev. Jim Grebby as our speaker.  Jim has for some time been the lead chaplain at Harrogate District Hospital and he described his career, first in the engineering industry and then as a jeweller, before stress in his private life led to a crisis which lead him to find solace in the Methodist Church.

He became a Christian and felt called to be a preacher before becoming a minister at the age of 48.  His first post was as a minister in Newcastle but he wanted to become a chaplain and in 2006 obtained a post as a hospital chaplain in Leeds before moving on to Harrogate.

Jim described the role of the hospital chaplain which involves much more than providing religious support and outlined a number of personal experiences to illustrate the provision of spiritual care to patients, relatives and staff before inviting questions from the Forum’s members.

After a lively question and answer session Jim Fussey thanked Mr. Grebby for a most interesting talk which all the members had enjoyed.

Operating and Marketing Public Transport

The Forum’s guest speaker on the 15th of October was Scott Hellewell from Wakefield, a civil engineer  who worked in the public transport industry involved in both rail and bus services.

He gave a short summary of the history of public transport from stage coaches to the present day.  He then gave us an insight into the problems encountered when devising a transport system including the different ways of establishing transport routes and timetables which are easy to understand and operate to give a safe, frequent and comprehensive service at reasonable cost. 

Scott then talked about modern developments in the rail and bus industries and the way that politics has intruded, not always to the benefit of the travelling public.  The principle of competition in the transport industry fails to recognise that the real competition comes from the private car and for this reason we do not benefit from an integrated system where the different forms of transport complement each other. 

During a lively a lively question and answer session the subjects of the HS2 link, park and ride schemes and driverless buses and trains were raised.  Gordon Wilson proposed a vote of thanks for a most interesting talk.  

The Secret Life of Charles Dickens

On the 8th of October the Forum welcomed Pat Osborne as guest speaker for the fourth time in the last five years.  Pat researches into the lives of literary and historical figures as a basis for her talks and the subject for this talk was The Secret Life of Charles Dickens.

Dickens was born in 1812 as the second of eight children.  The family enjoyed periods of relative prosperity interspersed with times of hardship including spells in a debtor’s prison and, although he did receive some education,

Charles began his working life in a blacking warehouse.  Many of the darker incidents in his books are derived from the experiences of his childhood.  He became a court reporter before entering journalism and began writing stories in serial form.  He married Catherine, the daughter of his employer, although he also developed an affection for her two sisters.  He became involved in the theatre both reciting from his own books and producing the works of others and. after twenty years of marriage and nine children he fell in love with a young actress called Ellen Ternan which resulted in the breakdown of his marriage.  He was also rumoured to be involved in a relationship with one of his sisters-in-law.  The stress of his working and private lives caused Dickens to suffer a stroke in 1870 and he died without regaining consciousness.

Howard Upton thanked Pat for an entertaining talk and the fifty members present responded with warm applause.

Comet Air Crashes in the 1950s

On top of his excellent work as the Forum’s Speaker Finder Duncan Verity occasionally entertains us with one of his own presentations. Aeronautics is one of his interests and on the 1st of October he introduced a video entitled Comet Air Crashes.

This described the introduction of the then-revolutionary Comet airliner in 1952 by BOAC.  The plane threatened to change air travel for ever but in 1953-4 suffered a number of disasters culminating in the loss of a flight from Rome to London into the sea off the island of Elba and the loss of 35 lives.  We learnt of the difficulties encountered in investigating the crash and how commercial pressures resulted in the resumption of Comet flights.  Unfortunately within weeks another Comet crashed in the sea on a flight from Rome to Cairo with the loss of a further 21 lives.  We learnt of the technical investigation into the crashes which eventually concluded that metal fatigue in the fuselage skin caused by faulty design and manufacturing methods was to blame.  A further investigation using modern methods has confirmed this conclusion.  Peter Osborne proposed a vote of thanks commenting that Duncan never fails to entertain.  He also thanked him for his continuing efforts  in arranging a succession of first class speakers to address the Forum.

Ethiopia – The Historic Route

On the 17th of September we welcomed our speaker Pat Alkern from Denby Dale.  Her talk was titled ‘Ethiopia – The Historic Route’ and described two trips to the country taken by Pat, one as a member of a group from the Huddersfield Geographic Society and one accompanied only by her husband Philip.

They are members of a charity supporting a school in the town of Dukem 25 miles from the capital Addis Ababa and from Pat’s pictures we saw the difference the support has made.  However the bulk of the talk described the locations on the Historic Route which is a pilgrim’s trail in Tigre province in the north of the country.  Ethiopia is a Christian society, one of the oldest in the world, and Pat described the very different rituals and customs in the churches there.  We also gained an insight into the day-to-day life of the villages of the region such as what constitutes a home and how the population survives.  We learnt of the courting rituals of the young men and girls (who may marry as young as ten years of age).  Robin Jarrett proposed a vote of thanks for an amazing talk about such a different culture.

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