Change of plans

Originally we were going to venture into the Pennines for a day out. 
The inclement weather had other ideas. So our plan was shelved for another day.

We had lunch at the Memphis Bell.

It's the sort of place you eat there, chat for a while, enjoy the food and say to each other, 'Must do this again'.

What's in a name?

Breakfast TV this morning did an intro regarding Derek Jacobi famous thespian.
I wondered why he was appearing on the programme. One short Internet search later and the answer appeared. Obviously he was going to talk about his autobiography published recently.

Cue another search, this time for the book Amazon has it and on Kindle. I read thro' the preview where he talks about his family. Curiousity piqued as he mentioned a family member with the unusual name of Salome Lapland. Next 'move' was to Find My Past and another search.

Result a registered maritime birth

Name: LAPLAND
Date of birth: 17 September 1920
Date reported: December 1920
Father's name: SCHNEIDER, Mendel
Mother's name: SCHNEIDER, Hasia Czasia
Mother's maiden name: Cyasia
Ship's name: Lapland


Series:     
BT334 - Registers and Indexes of Births, Marriages and Deaths of Passengers and Seamen at Sea

Census details




1901 census transcription details for:  Goodmans Fields. 55, Leman Street, Whitechapel

SCHNEIDER, Israel Head Married M 28 1873 Tailor Russia
SCHNEIDER, Eida Wife Married F 28 1873 Russia
SCHNEIDER, Bessie Daughter Single F 4 1897  London
SCHNEIDER, Louis Son Single M 3 1898 London
SCHNEIDER, Jetta Daughter Single F 2 1899 London
SCHNEIDER, Mandel Son Single M 0 (6 MOS) 1901  London

Mendel's parents came from Russia.

Now for the Jacobi family
Derek's parents:
Daisy G Masters married Alfred G Jacobi
Name: MASTERS,  Daisy Gertrude
Registration district: Essex South Western
County: Essex
Year of registration: 1936
Quarter of registration: Jul-Aug-Sep
Spouse's last name: Jacobi

1911 census transcription details for:  21 Poplars Road Leyton

                                                                       Age     Born     Occupation  Where Born
JACOBI, Henry William Head Married M 28 1883 Boot Maker London Mare St Hackney
JACOBI, Elizabeth Rebecca Wife Married 5 years F 25 1886 London Haggerston
JACOBI, Henry William Son M 4 1907 London Hackney
JACOBI, Alfred George Son Married M 0 (7 MONTHS) 1911 London Bethnal Green

As broad as it is long

Waking early, switched on the radio knowing sleep had fled I found myself listening to diverse channels.

Radio 5 live dumbing down for the masses engaging in lads chat. Puerile to say the least; with the 'presenter' in adoration of the sound of his own voice. [cringe-worthy]

Radio 4 extra ah, now there at last is hope of something to listen to. The last part of 'The Charm Factory' set in London 1953; apparently based on the Rank Charm School.
Before the next programme aired I hastened to change stations.

Later...
Morning Reports on 5 live and a story about a name:

Ms Keihanaikukauakahihuliheekahaunaele

 It made a great piece of reporting and can be found here.

Later...
Being Sunday it's fine to allow oneself a lie-in. Especially when the weathermen have been issuing dire warnings ahead of today's weather.

Back to radio 4 and Broadcasting House. Not a patch on its earlier incarnation with Eddie Mair (1998-2003).

Now for the Hawaiian name connection. Radio 5 live had found an interview with the owner of the long name. So, no need to attempt pronunciation, just play her pronouncement. Problem solved. No such journalistic nous for radio 4. Broadcasting House took delight in airing a news reader making a valiant attempt and when compared with the original most commendable. Kudos to the Radio 5 live news team.

Two a penny

Another day and yet another storm in a teacup. With Auntie Beeb twisting her undergarments into knots.

Why all the fuss and bother? Apparently, the other part of the present coalition (am tempted to say Rump*) needed to hit the headlines. Late September, early October is the political pantomime season here in good old Blighty. Note not 'UK' that would make another blog post.

Last week the Unions held their conference (TUC). This week the focus is on Glasgow where Nick and his lot are hoping for a share in the limelight. They have been talking about plastic bags beloved of supermarket checkouts, despaired by environmentalists! And, wait for it...the idea is proposed for 2015? Nick talking as though his party will still have a say-so after the election? Dream on, dear boy.

According to the Yorkshire Post, an Ipsos Mori poll shows 45% of his party is unhappy. 

So one of out Celtic nations led the way, did they? 
Wales - the Welsh Assembly 2011 introduced a levy on plastic bags. So what? That's just a tad late in the day as Ireland led the way in 2003!

Now Nick is blethering on about introducing a similar idea in 2015...what a joke! His idea is half-hearted, only applicable to larger stores and supermarkets. Take a look across the Irish Sea, Nick they beat you to it 10 years ago and did it more thoroughly.

Storm in a tea-cup?

Suddenly the media is alive with stories for and against privatisation. The Today programme on Radio 4 interviewed representatives from both sides. Then they broadcast a dystopian and a utopian view of the self-off.
Now, social media is full of posts urging against the sell-off.

To me it's history repeating. The biggest sell-offs were in the 1980s under a former Tory leadership. Okay so in theory there's a coalition, but who wears the trousers? Tories of course! 

Many folk may have a child-like view of our mail services as shown in the children's series about Postman Pat and his black and white cat.

John Cunliffe wrote the books and scripts which were animated and directed by Ivor Wood. The first episode, was broadcast on 16 September 1981. He painted in words idyllic scenes of rural life with a lovable postman and Jess, his ever-faithful cat.

One of my uncles was a postman in the 1950s and this was probably when the mail service had a good reputation. Unfortunately this image soon became tarnished. Today's incarnation bearing no resemblance to the good old days. 

Now, when you post something you hope it will arrive at its destination, but there's no guarantee. Some folk are duped into paying for an assortment of over-priced services in the hope of guaranteed delivery. One of them being registered post. Money for old rope as the saying goes.

My uncle had a fixed route and like Pat got to know folk on his route.Those were the times of two deliveries  a day.

There was none of the mass-marketing of junk mail so prevalent today. Now we need the Mail Preference Service to opt out of some of the mailings. 
In the sixties regional newspapers got together to investigate the mail service. It was quite simple. Mail was sent from the towns by the local newspapers to given addresses and a record kept and published of the results. Some places fared worse than others. 

1512 - Sir Brian Tuke appointed Minister of the Posts (Henry VIII)
1635 - Charles I postal service
1660 - Charles II public post office
1783 - Postmen had a uniform
1840 - Penny black postage stamp
1852 - Green post box (Jersey)
1881 - Postal Order
1968 - 2nd class stamps
1990 - Parcelforce
2001 - £2 million (wasted) spent on re-branding, mail service now called 'Consignia'
2002 - Renamed 'Royal Mail Group'. 
2006 - PostComm became regulator and mail lost its monopoly.
2007 - 2500 branches faced closure.
2009 - Labour gov proposed privatisation and were defeated by CWU union (Commercial Workers Union)
2010 - Coalition wanted to sell off the delivery side of the business.
2012 - Historic assets and liabilities of the Royal Mail pension scheme taken on by gov.
2013 - Second attempt by a gov Coalition to privatise. Opposition from CWU who propose strike action.

Full details can be read in the Telegraph (aka Torygraph)

From a personal standpoint, I have suffered from the vagaries of the postal system time and again. 

• 1980s strikes by postal workers led to tonnes of mail being destroyed rather than delivered. I lost photographs. Then there have been various other irregularities:
• Exam papers found thrown away instead of delivery.
• Postal workers charged/imprisoned for siphoning off some mail and failing to delivery quantities of mail.
• The predilection of delivery drivers to arrive with card saying 'sorry you were out' instead of waiting for the door to be answered and in some cases not even attempting to knock or ring the bell.

The sorting office most prone to strike action and failure to make deliveries has since been closed.

Now, although the postal delivery folk I've met at the door have been pleasant, our usual guy doesn't come very often. Guessing he's suffering from stress, sometimes he remains in the local sorting office. This means his round is tacked on to another person's and if we are 'lucky' delivery is late afternoon.

Today was the giddy limit! Two letters (badly written) both dated mid-July flopped onto the mat.

Tonic sol-fa

Reading a blog post from a lovely click of the mouse friend, I find she's been learning to sing. Almost instantly the memory banks brought up a scene from junior school days. Must have been when I was 9 or 10. We were drilled in the tonic sol-fa and although it seemed a tough ask at first became easier with more practice. The teacher turned it into a challenge as she told/showed us to go thro' leaping Doh-Soh and many other combinations. She gave us all a good grounding.

It made music lessons at grammar school with the music master more enjoyable as those from local junior schools were already ahead of some from other schools. It was a sad day when our music teacher left us to teach in the other local school. But it's so long ago that although I can picture her and her lessons I no longer know her name.

As for the berries? After the prolonged fine weather this year the rowan is making a lovely display.

The pear and apple trees did not like the hot weather. This is the only decent looking pear.

Early September garden

As Simon & Garfunkel sang...

"I get all the news I need from the Weather Report".

In a. n. other place someone posted a link to a newspaper about sales of the components for chemical weapons. 
One thing the OU has taught me is not to take news reports at first site or first reading. Hence I went to look thro' Hansard. This led in turn to published Written answers on that topic.

According to the newspaper an M.P. (15 mins of fame perhaps?) will be asking questions. So, he'll have his spot in the limelight yet it would seem to be a storm in a teacup.

Yes certain chemicals were given export licenses, the reason given being that there are acceptable uses such as fluoridation and toothpaste manufacture. That was in January 2012. 

"The licences were granted because at the time there were no grounds for refusal."

The written reply goes on to say that later in the same year (July) the licenses were revoked. It's all too easy to be wise after the event. 

Political jiggery-pokery is 'alive and well'.

Yesterday...

August glut of zucchini

...and more to come

A miscellany

Rising late after a lie-in is a luxury much to be enjoyed especially when Morpheus allows sleep.
Finding 7 nearly 8 month old 'puppy' has destroyed one of a pair of someone's newish shoes is not a nice discovery.

Pleasantly off-set by feeding the birds and noticing that the wisteria is coming into flower. Hayfever 'be damned' the perfume from wisteria is a joy to the senses.

Feeding the goldfish in their recently 'seen to' pond is another morning task. Spent ages the other day taking apart and cleaning pumps, hoses and filters in the on-going Summer battle against pond weed. I rarely watch the fish, suppose I ought to, but I do enjoy the plashing of the waterfall. According to Feng Shui water should flow towards the home, and ours does.

Yesterday, I did some online shopping for cinnamon tabs, feverfew, Devil's claw to name but three. Why? you might ask. Guessing it's because most people have 'baggage' left to them by their parents. If you had a mother that had been brought up to use herbal remedies, and as a child had been taken to see a herbalist, fed various herbal tonics 'to do you good' it might go some way to accounting for using herbal 'medicines'. 

When you are brought up on local tales such as Peg O' Nell and Dule upo' Dun and the area for miles around is alive with tales of boggarts and suchlike, a child imbibes myths and legends from an early age. Being read tales at bed-time about 'Why the sea is salt', what happened to poor Peg embeds a desire to read and to learn more. Later, that child learns that some of the tales have roots in history of the area.  

That most famous historie being of the
Witches of Pendle

For another take of the story, I recommend the 'Spooks' books by Joseph Delaney. Not only are they well written, authoritative the author is a retires teacher of English. Needless to say, I have a collection of his Wardstone Chronicles on my e-reader. 

Blowsy July

July, She will fly...

Targets of opportunity

The ConDems have targeted disabled people and there's been a massive campaign to portray anyone with a disability as 'scroungers'. Now the focus is shifting, this time the targets are 'baby boomers' the so-called rich pensioners. 

The whispering campaign is similar to the way disabled people were targeted. Press reports claiming those of the 'baby boom' generation are too wealthy and do not 'deserve' any public funding such as the Winter fuel allowance. 

But who are the 'baby boomers'? those born between 1946 and 1964.
Thinking about those dates...
1946 end of WWII and rationing still in place.
No television in the majority of households, just the wireless.
Many houses had outside toilets.
No hot water or central heating.
Cold water supply only, all water had to be heated as required. Bathing? Tin bath in front of the kitchen fire, oldest first, youngest last (same water) only difference being some more hot water added because the bath had gone cold.
Street lighting? Gas lamp-posts and folk employed as lamp-lighters. Not all homes had electricity, some were gas only. 
Cinema? Saturday mornings only if you were lucky. 
Motor vehicles? Few people owned cars of motorbikes. If you wanted to go anywhere the normal method of transport was 'Shanks pony'. Walking on foot everywhere, with trains (steam) and buses for longer journeys.

Television was a rarity in the 1950s, black and white and early TVs had a magnifying lens on two webbing straps to hold it in front of the small screen. Reception was at best intermittent and no such thing as a 24 hour service. 

Holidays? In the North there were the wakes weeks (fortnight) when the local area shut down. Some headed for resorts, Blackpool, Morecambe and Southport. Many stayed home. Holiday 'entitlement' was a new idea...3 weeks per year to be negotiated. One winter week and two in the rest of the year, but only the 'lucky few' had a fortnight. In the 1970s that idea of three weeks holiday was standard.

NHS yes and it functioned well, but once you reached 50 you were getting 'worn out'. Doctors admonished patients to 'grin and bear it' because you were 'getting on in years'.

As the saying goes, you cannot have it and spend it. Baby boomers saved for their old age. Debt was shameful, if you needed something you saved up for it. You were expected to live within your means. Sayings from WWII were perpetuated 'Waste not, want not.' 

It's the baby boomers whose pension funds have been raided by businessmen and politicians alike.

Pennies for heaven?

A local newspaper ran a story this week about fund-raising.

Clitheroe’s Civic Society raised their banner outside Boots on Castle Street last week to promote their “Mile of Pennies” event in aid of St Mary’s Church spire rebuild

Someone seemingly had the idea and chose to use the 'brew' below the church. 
The church of St. Mary Magdalene is situated on the top of a limestone knoll in the valley of the River Ribble.
I turned to geograph to find a pic of the church.

© Copyright  John S Turner and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

.

The church is full of memories some happy and some sad. Going back in time to happy memories of school-days and a remarkable music teacher Charles Myers and his favourite phrase 'more mouth move-ment'. In other words one must sing clearly with enunciation. He was a genius at getting the best out of his students. 
The school got a new headmistress and it soon became clear that she did not see eye-to-eye with our beloved music master. But Charlie Myers RSM (Fellow of the Royal schools of Music) was a force to be reckoned with. The choir played an important part in prize-giving and other events. On one occasion we rose to sing...nothing unusual in that, but Charlie had taught us the library rules and we sang them in plainsong. Strike-out Charlie won his battle.
Then there was the time when the BBC came and the choir arranged by Charlie in the Chancel took the lead in a radio broadcast. [Happy times].
There was a little-used way thro' the churchyard, a cut-through which saved time, but was rather precarious. Stone steps dating back hundreds of years giving access to the knoll from the North side, yet a joy to use in good weather.

The 'mile of pennies' was a long-standing tradition in the town in the days of pennies not pence. It was formed regularly, but in the street leading to the old market. Kerbstone edges are usually single, but because of the steepness of the street leading down the hill {the town is like others in the area built on a series of hill slopes), the uphill side was a double kerb. You'll have to use your imagination as the re-developers have been at work and the double kerb removed. Both kerbs used to be covered in lines of pennies in the days when pennies were valuable. Someone would set it going on market day and throughout the day more and more coins would be added.

Few of the older buildings survive...

 © Copyright Alexander P Kapp and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

Memories

The sort of scales found in shops 

 Chef Phillip Harbern - I still have his cookery book and very well-used it is too.

 Poppers individual beads to pull apart and re-join.

I loved having one of these.

 

 What fun, a simple game played for hours.

Remember having one of these and going on it on Sunday family visits.

 

 Typing by turning the dial to select characters. Used to type 'thank you' notes.

 Saving stamps

Last, but not least using a phone in a phone-box. 

There was a question about it in 11+ English. 

'How to make a telephone call'.

Apres nous le deluge

is what happened on the 1980s...
Politicians discovered a new toy to play with - the lives of children and teachers aka social engineering. 

Our acting Head was replaced by a new broom who arrived convinced he needed to stamp his authority on the place.
Unfortunately, it soon became a chalk-face rumour that was a 'wooden top'. 
Who or what were Wooden tops? A children's puppet series on TV. 


Another unfortunate coincidence was that he wore a mack, and on TV at the time there was the Colombo series also a cartoon about a character known as 'inch-high private eye'.
So to children and staff alike he became as 'Colombo'.
On of the most likable members of the English staff managed to escape to another post. His leaving do was held in the staff room. Prior to the arrival of the new head, it had been used for staff junketing after hours. Each year they held a 'Meet the new teachers' evening to welcome newbies and help them to settle in. Now Mr. P was leaving and he'd composed a leaving song the the tune of the Eaton boating song. It's many years ago, but I remember everyone ending up 'in bulk' with tears of laughter. The refrain was 'It seems to me; it's true to say' and the verses were peppered with other phrases typical of the new head. 
One Department voted 11 to 1 against something the head suggested; so the department forced to implement the new idea was that one.

Throughout the 80s various edicts came down from government. Social engineering carried on a-pace and continues to this day.

mf

I took a break after Tuesday to put up pics for Wordless Wednesday as I've been taking garden photos without editing/publishing.

Now to return to the Monday topic.

Anyone who taught in comps from 1970s onwards saw changes, but most just added to workload, brought in classroom problems and made the job harder.

Did I 'live for work' or 'work for a living'? The former was true enough in the 70s the latter became the norm from the 80s onwards. I became trapped in a job that had been satisfying and occasionally rewarding. By the time I was granted early retirement it had become debilitating mental and physical drudgery.

1970s transition from secondary school to comprehensive...leavening the lump. We had streaming HUY top, TON middle and SL those with learning difficulties.
S classes were ESN educationally sub-normal whilst L were SSN severely sub-normal. Political correctness had yet to arrive. At least for S and L classes you knew there would be smaller classes with the smallest numbers in L. No teaching assistants, no special training 'get in there and get on with it'. Those kids had Uncle Norm (Norman) who was 'caretaker' for all S and L pupils. Their liking and respect for him was apparent. If he had 'free' time he'd look in on SL classes if young female staff had them. He became Uncle Norm to younger teachers too.

No such thing as 'no smoking' and Uncle Norm smoked his pipe in the staffroom. At break and lunchtime there was wall-to-wall smoke from ready-mades, roll-ups and our pipe smoker. A few brought packed lunch, a few opted for dinner duty, others headed for the VIth form canteen. When the school inspector turned up he too went to that canteen, the only difference being he had 'waitress' service. If only we'd kept guys like him, he did a superb job. I've never forgot him saying to us that there ought never to be any meetings after school. As he said 'anyone who teaches properly has nothing left by the time pupils go home'.

During the first couple of years the Deputy Head (Miss C) stood in for the Head; (Mr. W) was dying of cancer.

There were 1200 pupils on roll and the corridors were safe to walk down. We had a teacher return after a back operation, she walked to and from her room without risk of being jostled. She'd been time-tabled to work in her own room. The younger and newer you were, the more peripatetic one became. You could be at one end of the school for a lesson and the next at the opposite end of the building. 

Take a look at Plater's Beiderbecke Trilogy. 
Better still, read the books.


Of course there was no proper idea of 'equality' in the 70s and some practices would be frowned upon today.
We had two Deputy Heads, one in charge of curriculum and the other looked after time-tabling. The latter was what today would be called 'sexist'. He was in charge of the relief time-tabling as in sending people to cover other classes when the need arose.
Younger female teachers were his 'prey'; he'd stride up and say, 'Ah. my dear, you would appear to be free.' Then send you to cover a waiting class. Young male teachers lost less preparation time because they were rarely asked to cover.
Another practice that would be frowned on and quite rightly so was the Friday lunchtime visit to the pub. P.E. staff and younger staff went in several cars to a pub for a pint and toasties. One young languages teacher tended to drink pints of larger, fortunately her classroom was near a set of staff 'facilities'. She became the talk of the staff-room, not because of imbibing, but because she went with students and staff on a French trip and failed to return, deciding to stay in France!

Wordless Wednesday

Education? Not really, more social engineering.

The news media has been awash with education stories ad nauseam. It set me thinking about folk I know, know of or  knew and their experiences of education in the 19th, 20th and 21st century.
Researching family history, the word 'scholar' is used for children as young as 4 years of age (1881). 
The (Forster) education act of 1870 set up school districts and elementary schools along with school boards to run them.
Time for a brief digression to mention a book dramatised and aired on radio 4 extra. It's taken all day to find it! 'South Riding' by Winfred Holtby and well worth reading if I say so myself. Showing life in a Yorkshire elementary school; in particular the redoubtable Mrs. Beddows of the School Board.
Another novel, 'Lark Rise to Candleford', the book, not the apology that was the made for TV adaptation paints a true story of village school life years ago,

In the early 20th century, some of my family went to the local village school. At lunchtime it was customary to walk home, collect lunch for family workers, take it to them at the mill before having own lunch. People thought little about walking everywhere as that was the main form of transport. 

Returning to education history...

1880 compulsory schooling from 5-10 or up to 14 unless needed for work (little enforcement)
1891 elementary education was made free 
1918 raised the school leaving age to 14

Although the Hadow reports recommended secondary schooling, it took until the act of 1944 for a structure to be put in place.

In the 1960s parents of grammar school pupils signed to allow their children to remain at school to 16.

Secondary school pupils left at 15.

Now to talk about my friend who went to the local secondary school. He spent a lot of his time on practical subjects and left without much in the way of formal qualifications. On leaving school, he became an apprentice welder and when qualified...they 'let him go'. As a qualified welder he 'cost too much' to keep on. Not being one to remain idle, he went to Israel and carried on with welding work.  
Moving on a few years and he decided on a career change...the curate's wife encouraged him and he became a nurse in a mental hospital. There his creativity was encouraged and he gained qualifications. Over the next few years he bought and restored an old cottage. Then moved across the road and took over a large derelict building and restored a four-storey 19th century former warehouse. 

1973 ROSLA  raising of the school leaving age to 16. Introduction of 'comprehensive' education.
The place I worked in had 1200 on roll and a teaching staff of 75; class sizes were usually 30-36 pupils. 

mf