NEWBURY WEEKLY NEWS LAUNCH OF BUSINESS WEBSITE

I was invited to attend Newbury Weekly News launch of their new local business website at 8 a.m. on Monday 28 April in their News Hall. I arrived a few minutes after 8 a.m. to find that I was not the first to arrive. A very cheerful group of their lady staff were there to greet me and give me a name tag and one took me through into the News Hall where I met the Managing Director, Adrian Martin. He in turn introduced me to Clive Young and the deputy news editor Simon Lyle. Amongst the other guests was the Member of Parliament, Richard Benyon who seemed to be invited to every event I go to so I have to admire his stamina as he spends most of his time in the House of Commons and is a regular user of First Great Western Railway.
Adrian Martin and subsequently the Group Chairman, Jeremy Willis gave a speech on the purpose of the new website which was to feature local business news and to give information on new business ventures locally. No doubt large companies such as Bayer and Vodafone will be included but also smaller businesses will also feature.
As a matter of interest, when I returned home, I did use my newly acquired computer skills and was able to log onto the website without difficulty and I found it very interesting. I am sure it will be a great success.

ROTARY CLUB OF NEWBURY STROKE AWARENESS DAY

I was invited to take part in the Newbury Rotary Club’s Stroke Awareness Day and not knowing too much of what the event was involved with, I arrived with my suit and chain and was promptly asked if I would like to have my blood pressure checked. I readily agreed and sat down on the couch. Mary Gibb was the nurse taking the blood pressure checks and I have known her for a number of years as she is a regular attendee of the Greenacres Monday fitness class for the over 50s. She was not happy with my wearing my coat so I had to take my chain off and then rolled my sleeve up. The first test showed my blood pressure was high, which did surprise me, as I am reasonably fit. She did take it again and we were both relieved. I was amazed to see a queue of people forming and it stretched outside onto the pavement.
I understood that the event was organised by the West Berkshire Primary Care Trust with the Stroke Association. It was certainly very successful and there were some people referred to their GPs which may well benefit the people in the longer term. I am sure that another event such as this will be equally successful and may well save lives in the future. Well done Rotary for organising it.

MAYOR OF THATCHAM’S CIVIC RECEPTION

Friday 25th April was the Mayor of Thatcham, Phil Dray’s civic reception to which Edwina Cooper and I were invited. Unfortunately, Edwina had fallen heavily that day and was not feeling or looking too good so I had to go unaccompanied. I arrived just after 7 p.m. with my attendant, Carol Currey and joined the line to be greeted by Phil and his wife. During the reception I met other guests, including the Mayor of Hungerford, Peter Harries and his wife, John Miller, the former High Sheriff of Berkshire and his wife and the Chairman of West Berkshire Council, Andrew Rowles and his lady. I also met Mike Harris, who was at one time the Director of Legal Services at Newbury District Council, then helped out at Newbury Town Hall when the Town Council was formed and is doing something similar at Thatcham Town Council. After dinner, we were treated to a performance of dance given by West Berkshire Ballet School, under their Principal, Jane Scholl. I am not an expert on dance but nevertheless, I thought it was a very polished performance and beautifully choreographed.
Phil then presented civic awards to members of the local community who had given outstanding service in mainly charity work and also presented a cheque to the West Berkshire Community Hospital to purchase a special bicycle for patients undergoing physiotherapy treatment.
After the presentations, Phil invited John Miller, a former High Sheriff of Berkshire to speak on his experiences during his year.
He gave an explanation on how he was recruited, what his duties were and some of the engagements he attended. I did not know that the High Sheriff was originally the Monarch’s representative until relatively recently when the duties were split between the Lord Lieutenant andf the High Sheriff. He is an excellent raconteur and his speech was well received.
Phil then thanked everyone for their support during the year and it was time to say farewell. Phil has been a great ambassador for Thatcham and I wished him well for the future.

FRENCH EXCHANGE STUDENTS FROM BAGNOLS

I am always pleased to see visitors to Newbury and in particularly from abroad and I was delighted to welcome a group of exchange students from one of our twin towns, Bagnols located in the south of France to the Town Hall on Tuesday 22 April 2008. The organisers and sponsors for the Exchange Visit was Park House School and in particular Ms Amelie Trousset, one of the French teachers there. She had been very kind in helping me with my speech in French for my visit to Bagnols as part of the Twin Towns reunion last year.
I was asked to give a talk to the students about the history of Newbury and of the Mayor so I wrote my talk and asked if Amelie would translate it so that I could give the talk in French. When I did receive it, I did have serious reservations as to whether I could deliver it adequately, even with Amelie’s assistance in the short time available. I decided in the end to give the speech in English and have copies of the speech available to each of the students in both languages. I would prefer to give it slowly in good English rather than in poor French.
And so on the Tuesday morning the group arrived in the Council Chamber; there were 33 altogether, Brenda Jones from Park House School, 3 teachers from Bagnols and 29 students, the majority being girls. After welcoming them to the Town Hall, I gave them a potted history of the town. I said that a small settlement was mentioned in the Domesday Book with a river running through it. As the settlement grew, so a church was built in 1086 on the site of the current St Nicolas church. In medieval times, sheep were herded along the Ridgeway and they were shorn in the outlying villages and the wool taken into Newbury for it to be made into cloth which was then sent downriver to Reading and London and across the sea to the continent and in particular to Antwerp. The town was also in an agricultural area and the Town’s market was a centre for local produce although some was sent down to Reading by boat. In the 17th century, during the Civil War between the King, Charles 1 and Parliament, there were two inconclusive battles at Newbury in 1643 and 1644. I said that the location of the town halfway between London and Bristol and Winchester and Oxford was also significant in its prosperity. Hundreds of stage coaches between these cities with an overnight stop in the town helped to increase its prosperity as did when the canal between Reading and Bristol allowed freight to be transported along its stretch. These compensated for when the cloth trade declined. With the introduction of the railways in the 19th century, the canal usage for freight almost dried up. I stated that the 20th century saw the introduction of manufacturing and the 1950s saw the creation of the nuclear industry at nearby Harwell and Aldermaston. I concluded the hstory by stating that many hi-tech industries grew up in the town, such as Vodafone, Bayer and a number of computer companies which is where we are now.
I went on to mention the background on the Town Council and the Mayor, including the important charter given to the town by Queen Elizabeth 1st in 1596 which allowed a Mayor, a High Steward, a Recorder, 6 Aldermen, and 12 Burgesses to govern the town. I mentioned the chain and pendant and chain which were created in 1884; it also had two maces which were made in 1708 and 1758 respectively. I said that the Mayor is elected each year at Mayor Making and is the non-executive Chairman of the Council. The Town council itself has responsibilities for some of the functions locally and has a budget of around £1m.
I then opened it up for questions and after that, they wanted many photographs which I was happy to help with. They all then left the Town Hall to see more of the Town. I wish them well in the future.

VICTORIA PARK BOWLS CLUB

I always enjoy going to the Victoria Park Bowls Club. They are a very kind and hospitable people but on the rink (and I think I have that word right), they are fiercely competitive and last year’s drubbing of the Mayor’s team for the Saunders-Rose cup was a good example of that. The invitation for me to attend on Saturday 19 April was however not to challenge me at a game but to carry out the age old tradition of rolling the first wood to start the 2008 season.
That Saturday, the rain had fallen early on and the water was still on the surface when I set out for the Town Hall to meet my attendant, Carol Currey, who would escort the , which I was to wear, and myself,. We walked from the Town Hall to the Bowls Club, and fortunately it was not raining but even then I thought it was too wet to play. We arrived at the Club and were greeted by, and John Orme, the Club Secretary and the Club President, Tony Bender. There were about a dozen members present, the ladies outnumbering the gentlemen by 2 to 1. They were obviously keen to start the season off on the right foot. We looked at the grass and although wet, it was not under water nor were there any puddles. So it was playable.
The President found a set of woods and invited me to firstly roll the jack, and for those not conversant with the sport, it is a small white ball, smaller than either a cricket or hockey ball and smooth, without a seam. I rolled it fairly hard but it only got about over halfway to the other end, the damp grass quickly reducing its speed and distance. So I took the first wood and gave it some energy and while it was near to the jack, it veered away from it; I had put the bias on the wrong side. I thought I corrected it for the next wood and alas, I got it wrong again. So I tried again with the last wood and this time it reached the correct distance but was a foot from the jack. Everyone kindly applauded but I did feel an idiot! The President took pity on me and bought me a pint of 6X which went down very well. I noted that no-one offered me a game so I guess I would need to practice before being allowed onto the green again. I left soon afterwards, thanking my hosts for their kind hospitality and vowed to do better next time. In letter from John Orme a few days later, he said that once I had hung up my cricket boots, perhaps I would consider taking up bowls. Hmm!

LORD LIEUTENANT OF BERKSHIRE’S RECEPTION

The Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire, Sir Philip Wroughton, invited myself and the Mayoress, Edwina Cooper, to his farewell reception at Woolley Park on Friday 18 April. As he was reaching the age of 75, he has to retire from this appointment and another Lord Lieutenant would be appointed. We arrived promptly at 6 p.m. to see that a large marquee had been erected in the grounds of the house. Metal tracking had been laid at the entrance and this led to the temporary car park. We walked to a covered way which led into the marquee and we were greeted by Asian drummers and what a wonderful noise they made. Queuing to meet our hosts, I noted behind me Chief Inspector Graham Smith who is the deputy to the superintendent of Newbury Police. He was involved with a presentation evening on Neighbourhood Policing at the Newbury Race Course some weeks ago, so it was good to see him again. After being greeted by Sir Philip and Lady Wroughton, we circulated and met many of the people we had contact with over the last eleven months as Mayor. It is always a pleasure to meet up with Major John Cole who has been associated with many activities and organisations in Newbury over the years; Fairclose Day Centre, Newbury Operatic Society and the Coldstream Gurads Association to name a few. We had a fleeting glimpse of Richards Benyon, our Newbury MP before he had to dash away to somewhere else and had a few words with his father, Sir William who was looking remarkably well. We also briefly met Colonel John Kedar from the school of Military Survey at Hermitage and his wife who were at the reception in the Town Hall for the soldiers returning from active service in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo. Our movements were stopped when the Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police Mrs Sara Thornton gave a speech to honour his outstanding contribution to the County and stated that it probably was the highest profile appointment in the country because of the Royal Residence at Windsor Castle. Her speech was warmly applauded and in response, Sir Philip responded by thanking her for her kind words and for the great support which Thames Valley Police and the Close Escort Police had given to him and the Royal Family over the years. He also paid tribute to his staff who had also given him such support and advice on a range of activities and functions he had to attend, or in support of the Queen or other members of the Royal Family. He thanked his wife for keeping him firmly focussed on what he had to do and for all her support. I was surprised to hear that his appointment is unpaid as such. He announced that his successor was Mrs Ann Bayliss who gave a short speech in which she said that although delighted and honoured at her appointment, said Sir Philip would be a hard act to follow. A surprise speaker was Bishop John Pritchard who praised Sir Philip for his support for the Church and said that he would be honoured by an award from the church in Oxford in the foreseeable future. I was unsure what this was but I gather it was to be a member of an ecclesiastic order. I am sure this will be well reported on.
It was soon time to say farewell and I was somewhat sad to say goodbye to him and his wife, even though our paths had not crossed many times over the last eleven months. He is one of those gentle and kind people you can never forget.

WEST BERKSHIRE COUNCIL CHAIRMAN’S RECEPTION

The Chairman of West Berkshire Council, Andrew Royles, held his final civic reception by a dinner at the Newbury Hilton on the evening of Saturday 12 April to which I and Edwina Cooper were invited. And so we, together with the Mayor’s attendant Carol Currey, arrived at the hotel and were greeted by Andrew Royles and his lady, Wendy Carpenter, and by Irene Neill, the deputy chai rman and her husband. Apart from seeing many West Berkshire councillors of both political parties, we met up with the Mayor of Thatcham, Phil Dray and his wife and Peter Harries, the Mayor of Hungerford and his wife whom we see quite regularly at functions locally. We also met the Chairman of the Berkshire Fire Authority, Paul Bryant who is the Councillor for Speen and the Chief Fire Officer, Iain Cox. We were delighted to meet the Lord Lieutenant, Philip Wroughton who had been recently honoured by a knighthood, and his wife. There was a fair sprinkling of other Mayors and Chairmen of the other Unitary Authorities in Berkshire. After the reception, we all moved into one of the large dining rooms in the hotel where all 120 of us sat down to dinner. Andrew Royles announced that there would be some of the Council staff who would be coming round to sell us raffle tickets, the proceeds which would be going to the Newbury Branch of the Multiple Sclerosis Society
At dinner, I was seated next to the newly appointed High Sheriff of Berkshire, Dr Carolyn Boulter who had taken over from Harry Henderson. She lives at Theale and is looking forward to carrying out her duties. I mentioned to her that we had been to the local heats of the schools mock trials held at Newbury Magistrates Court. She said that she would be involved with them during her year of office.
After an excellent meal, the raffle was drawn. There were some excellent prizes but regrettably, none came our way. The dinner concluded and we thanked Andrew for his kind hospitality and left well fed and watered.

THE PYJAMA GAME PRODUCTION BY NEWBURY OPERATIC SOCIETY

The Newbury Operatic Society always put on highly entertaining productions and I was very pleased to have been invited with Edwina Cooper to attend the Pyjama Game on the evening of Friday the 11th April. On arrival, we met John Cole who is the President and he was pleased that we could come to the production.
We took our seats in the balcony from which we had a great view of the stage and orchestra. The conductor was Michael Evans with an orchestra of 17 musicians. They got the show off to a good start with the Overture and soon had our feet tapping. The first Act was divided into 10 scenes and when the curtain rose, the stage was set in the sewing room of the Sleep Tite pyjama factory, a very colourful scene with the cast and chorus in their 1950s clothes. The first ten scenes were full of great acting and songs, some of which we had heard before, such as I’m not at all in Her is and There once was a man. After the interval, we looked forward to Act 2 which had 9 scenes. The first was set in the Eagle Hall, where three ladies performed Steam Heat, a song and dance routine. It was well sung with precision choreography and it brought the house down! Other scenes followed until we found the cast in Hernando’s Hideaway and that fabulous song which went with it. All too soon, the show came to a close and we admired the high class performances of the three principals, Neil Harvey, Zoe Wells and Utku Er, who played Sid, Babe and Prez respectively. The chorus was excellent and sang with great feeling and at times passion! It was splendid to see seven of their youth group, Newbury Young Stars who seemed to enjoy being in the production.
We thoroughly enjoyed the performance and we will be going to their next production in the autumn which will be Jack the Ripper. We noted that the Young Stars will be performing Tin Pan Alli in August at the Arlington Arts Centre , which should be a good evening’s entertainment.

"A VIEW FROM THE PALACE" TALK BY SIMON LEWIS

Simon Lewis is currently Vodafone’s Group Corporate Affairs Director and when it was discovered that he spent two years as the Queen’s Communications Director, we wrote to him asking whether he would give a talk on his experiences at Buckingham Palace, as part of a charity evening with a glass of wine and a buffet supper. He readily agreed and the evening of 10th April was set for his talk.

I met Simon prior to the talk and thanked him for giving up his evening to address us. We had around 50 in the audience and I then introduced him. I said that he had a distinguished career in the public relations arena, being the Group Director of Communications and Public Policy for Centrica plc, Director of Corporate Affairs at NatWest Group and the Head of Public Relations at SG Warburg plc. He was President of the Institute of Public Relations in 1997 and is the visiting Professor at the Cardiff School of Journalism. He joined Vodafone as Group Corporate Affairs Director in November 2004 and is also a Trustee of the Vodafone Group Foundation. It was when he was at Centrica that he undertook a two year attachment as the first Communications Secretary to the Queen. I then invited Simon to talk on his experiences in that role.

Simon began by talking briefly about Vodafone and his role there and then he gave an account on how he was recruited for the Buckingham Palace appointment. He described how discrete were the initial approaches were and eventually he was invited to meet with the Queen’s Private Secretary. He was given no idea whether or not he was the sole candidate and it was not until he was invited back a little while later to meet the Queen and Prince Phillip that he realised that he was going to be appointed. Before he met them, he was given instruction on how to make a courtly bow! Simon said that he was understandably nervous but he was put at his ease by the friendly and down to earth meeting he had. It was evident that following the death of Princess Diana, there was the need to improve the image and publicity surrounding the Royal Family and their relations with the general public, as well as with the press. During his two year appointment, he was able to put into place a number of initiatives, which had the desired effect. He admitted that the time went very quickly but he thoroughly enjoyed the experience. In answer to a question, he considered that the security measures which protected the Royal Family did not interfere with his work. In answer to another, he had accompanied the queen’s party on several occasions and that he had been invited back to the Palace after his appointment had concluded.

I thanked Simon for his excellent talk and the audience was very appreciative at the content and the relaxed and often frank recollection of his appointment. During the buffet, I noted that he was almost besieged by the members of the audience with further questions. It was a splendid evening and through his talk, we raised over £350 for my charities, the amount which would increase if matched funding was received from Vodafone.

OPENING OF NEW SCIENCE LABORATORY, CLERE SCHOOL

I have been invited before to the Clere School for presentation evenings as a number of their students come from Newbury and I was pleased to accept an invitation to attend the school for the opening of a new science laboratory. So I duly arrived at the Reception where one of the students was there to meet me and take me to the new science laboratory. There I met the Headteacher Sarah Rogers and the Deputy Head Rosemary Black. I asked Rosemary how they had managed to get the finance to build the laboratory, whether they managed to get sponsorship or from the Local Education Authority. She told me that it had been funded solely from the school’s budget. The Laboratory itself seemed to be very well equipped with sinks, gas taps, a glove box (I am sure there is a proper name for it) and all contained in a bright and well lit building. I also met up with Dr Peter Waggett, who was to formally open the Laboratory. Peter currently works for the IT company IBM on the Emerging Technologies programme at Hursley. As part of his PhD studies, Peter worked at NASA completing research into the sun. During the 1990s, he worked for the British National Space Centre and European Space Agency developing remote sensing satellites. It was possibly because of the latter work that the Head of Science at the school invited the guests (including myself) to construct a rocket with the science students. To assist us in this short project, she had various materials laid out which included balloons, string, sellotape, the cardboard insert of a toilet roll and some coloured sheets of thin card. From this we needed to build a rocket which would travel along a 30 foot cable and the team with the rocket which would travel the furthest along the cable would win.
I have to admit that not being a design engineer, I was at a loss to know how to build one which would move along on balloon power. However, we did make a nose cone and fixed that onto the front and attached three inflated balloons to the side of the cardboard cylinder and away she went. Unfortunately, it only travelled a few inches but the concept was sound. I had to congratulated the group of students who did the work and it was a useful way of testing our ingenuity.
After this, we all went to the Library for refreshments and then Peter formally opened the Science Laboratory with an encouraging speech on the vital place science takes in our current world. It was a great afternoon and I enjoyed going back to school, even if it was only for a couple of hours.

OFFICIAL OPENING OF GALLERY 1753

The Craftsman shop in Bartholomew Street has been in existence for many years and it was bought by new owners in 2001 when the previous owners, two brothers Peter and Alan Pope, retired. When invited to carryout the official opening of their Gallery 1753, I did wonder if they had reorganised the shop.
When I arrived with my attendant, Carol Currey at Craftsman, I was met by Betony Tait, one of the joint owners. She took me through the shop to the back room which had been refurbished into a gallery in which were displayed some of the pictures painted by a former Newbury artist, Claire Warner. She had exhibited previously at Mike Rodger’s gallery in the Wharf, Desmoulin. Soon the gallery was almost full and I was asked to carry out the opening ceremony. In my short speech, I admitted that I had no artistic talents but I did appreciate art and pictures in particular. I praised the new owners for their initiative in creating a gallery which could be hired by artists to show and sell their pictures. I admitted that I did admire Claire Warner’s paintings and was pleased that the opening coincided with an exhibition of her works. Having cut the ribbon, I was invited to look at the rest of the building which was utilised for making frames and the storage of painting and prints. The building itself is a Grade 2 listed building and dates back to 1753, which explained the name of the new gallery. It has been in its lifetime Witherington and Sexton bakery until about 1880, then Yalden’s Coffee House, another bakery run by two ladies Kerr and Cowie, then Vince’s Bakery with the famous Newbury biscuit, the recipe with a closely guarded secret, then as hairdressers and then Peter Holt’s Motorbike shop. What a history!
I subsequently met Claire and her husband and they currently live in Northampton but have family in Newbury which explains her use of the gallery. I also met David Cole who lives in Fifth Road and has a building business
which specialises in refurbishing Listed Buildings. He actually carried out the work to create the gallery, but having to conform with the Conservation Officer’s requirements to ensure the new fabric such as the wood accord with the original construction.
I have to admit to buying one of Claire’s paintings which I left to be framed. I would recommend anyone who wants to browse amongst a wide and varied collection of paintings and prints, Craftsman is a possible venue.