Saturday 29th May – One of my busiest days! Off at 9.45 a.m. for Hyndburn’s Armed Forces Day Parade, held this year in Rishton. A large group of people assembled on the car park at the back of Rishton Library ready to march – Accrington Pipe Band, Member of Parliament, Councillors, British Legion, Army, Sea & Air Cadets, Uniformed Organisations, Rotarians, members of the public. The Mayoress and I walked alongside Colonel David Sanderson, one of the Deputy Lord Lieutenants for the County. The Commemoration at the Cenotaph was led by the Vicar of St. Peter and St. Paul’s, Rishton. Many people, including children, gathered round. One of the serving soldiers present handed me the Armed Forces Day Commemoration Flag which I then presented to another serving soldier on behalf of the people of Hyndburn. He hoisted it up the flagpole after which I read one of my favourite passages from the Bible, “The Whole Armour of God” from Ephesians. This passage reminds us that in life we are fighting a battle against evil forces and that we need to stand firm. It’s a reading I get a lot of inspiration from. The Vicar gave a short talk, a wreath was laid by a veteran and then we processed back through Rishton. The strength of community spirit in the town was evident. I’m looking forward to going back in a week’ time for their annual Festival. Back at the Conservative Club for refreshments we were welcomed by our Rishton Councillors – Harry Grayson, Ken Moss and Clare Cleary. A lot of people were in the big room, including many Cadets and members of the Uniformed Organisations. A Sea Cadet leader from Blackburn came up and spoke to us and I asked him about the training the Cadets receive and whether some go on to join the Navy. He replied that they did and cited the example of a 16-year-old girl who has acquired a range of skills and experience and is now in a leadership role. I think all these Uniformed Organisations, whether they be Cadets or Scouts, Guides, etc. provide young people with a structure and purpose in life. They teach them skills and teamwork and that’s it important to work for the service of others. I feel that in our society the wrong values are often promoted – “celebrity status” – that success in life depends on being famous, having a lot of money and having perfect looks. Young people are under pressure to conform and so it’s good to know that there are so many youth organisations promoting the true priorities in life. After the refreshments I made a short speech, thanking everyone for taking part in the Armed Forces Day Commemoration. Straight on to the next, contrasting engagement at the Vine Mill, Oswaldtwistle. A very dynamic and enterprising young woman, Juanita Margerison, has opened a business “Silver Spoons Kitchens”, specialising in exclusive fitted kitchens. She has a family background in this type of work and her father was in business in Hyndburn for 40 years. Juanita and her colleagues made us very welcome and showed us round the kitchens. She had prepared lovely refreshments for us, taking particular pride in pouring tea from her great-grandmother’s tea pot, a family heirloom. We enjoyed sandwiches and cupcakes and found out more about Juanita’s business. We felt we would like to promote her and suggested that she contact Tracy Simmonds, producer of the local “Acorn” magazine and involved in the Oswaldtwistle Town Team, who might be able to help her with some publicity. The Mayoress had to return home as her daughter Sarah had come up from London for the weekend to celebrate her 40th birthday with her parents. Sarah has a very high-powered job at the Foreign Office and her Mum & Dad are very proud of her, as they are also of their two sons, and their two little grandsons who live in New York. They contact their family in New York via Skype every Sunday. I then moved on to Stanhill Fete, held on the playing fields of West End Primary School in Aspen Lane. I hadn’t visited the Fete for many years and hadn’t seen it in its new location. It used to be hosted by Mr. & Mrs. Garnett the dentists, who lived at “Stanhill Hall”. The Garnetts, who were very prominent workers at St. Paul’s Church, left our area on retirement quite a number of years ago and are enjoying life over in the Slaidburn area. Mr. Garnett was a Licensed Lay Reader at St. Paul’s for many years and now carries on that ministry at St. Andrew’s, Slaidburn and the various village churches in that Parish. I arrived slightly late from my previous engagement and just missed the official opening of the Fete by the new Head Teacher, who I think took up post last September. I didn’t have chance to meet him but I’m sure I’ll get the opportunity on another occasion. I bumped into so many people I knew from All Saints, Immanuel and St. Paul’s Churches. A number of the children from St. Paul’s go to West End School which has an excellent reputation. The weather kept fine and families were able to enjoy games and activities. I spoke to a lady from Stanhill Methodist Church about their plans for the future, also to Richard Hooper who is leading on the Heritage Centre project. I’d responded to an e-mail from Mr. Hooper to Oswaldtwistle Councillors earlier in the year and expressed my support for the project. Arriving home at 3.45 p.m. I remembered the resident/friend who wanted to see me urgently so I rang him and asked whether he wanted to call round. He mainly wanted to talk about the Jackhouse Nature Reserve and update me about the recent meeting of the new action group, which I’d had to miss on account of a mayoral engagement. A lot of us in Ossy are very keen to see the Nature Reserve redeveloped to its former glory and better, but as always it’s a question of accessing funding. There are a lot of very keen volunteers, and 18 of them had a clearance session in the Nature Reserve last Saturday. A resident of Hoyle Bottom who couldn’t make the official session went round on her own afterwards and collected ten bags of rubbish. We would like people to show respect for the Nature Reserve and are sorry that so much anti-social behaviour goes on there at present. Hopefully we can change this in the future! I had hoped that my 4th excursion of the day could have been a mayoral engagement but despite the efforts of one of the Band members this was not possible. So I had bought my own ticket and went over in a taxi to the Blackburn Empire Theatre (my first visit there) where our own East Lancs. Concert Band was giving an Armed Forces Day Concert and had invited a large number of Cadets as their guests of honour. The Band has existed under various names since 1872 – I think it was originally the Accrington Military Band. Their new rehearsal venue is the Oswaldtwistle Civic Arts Centre where they practise every Sunday morning. Under their Conductor Dale Grindrod they gave an outstanding programme of famous marches, focusing in the first half on the Accrington Pals. The 97th Anniversary of the Battle of the Somme is this coming Monday 1st July, when I shall be attending a short Commemoration as Mayor at the memorial on Church Street, Accrington. A young man, Oliver Pickup, performed solo trombone in Rimsky Korsakov’s “Trombone Concerto”. Oliver is hoping to go to University in the autumn to study music. Other performers welcomed were the members of the 70 Squadron ATC and Chorley Pipe Bands. It was also wonderful to hear Ephram Clarke and Dave Brown perform Ephy’s own compositions on guitar and electric fiddle. Ephy, an Irishman who has lived in Lancashire for a long time, composed a song “Accrington Pals” in 2007. He donated 500 copies to St. John’s Church, Accrington, home of the Pals’ Chapel, where vital repairs to the building are still needed. Ephy and Dave also performed a song Ephy had written more recently, “Afghanistan”. At the interval in the theatre bar I introduced myself as Mayor of Hyndburn “incognito” to various people connected with the Cadets and the Band. I said I would have been pleased to have been invited officially to the Concert but nevertheless had been pleased to attend “under my own steam”! The second half of the Concert was mostly film music featuring the Army, Navy and Air Force. It ended with the “Evening Hymn” – “The day thou gavest, Lord, is ended”, followed by the National Anthem and then a lively rendition of “Land of Hope and Glory” with audience participation, “Last Night of the Proms”-style. I got a lift back to Ossy with a friend from the Band. When I got home, Franco had pushed a DVD through my door of his photos from the Armed Forces Day Parade in Rishton in the morning. I had a look at all the photos, saved them on my computer and picked out one to post on this “Mayor of Hyndburn” Facebook page. I also had a quick look at Accyweb, to find that someone had posted that they’d seen me and the Mayoress at “Silver Spoons Kitchen” at the Vine Mill, performing the official opening. They thought it was good that we’d attended. A friend had posted underneath, drawing attention to my daily blog on Facebook. I added a post, informing people how they could invite the Mayor and Mayoress to events. We are always pleased to be invited to anything in the Borough and to meet people from across our Hyndburn Community. And so to bed rather late – preaching at Church tomorrow morning!
Posted on: Sun, 30 Jun 2013 06:24:43 +0000
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