Clone Town v Real Town

This is a story of two towns. One I left at the age of 10 and the other that has been my home for the last 16 years. I have a memory of being about 6 and looking across the road at Campbell Pace at thinking how modern and busy Campbell Place in the centre of Stoke seemed to be. I stood at the same spot last Thursday. It was an appalling vista. Woolworth’s was closed, as was Ethel Austin. A shoe shop was empty, as was a Subway sandwich bar. There was an area of dereliction and decay about the place.
Yet my memories of Stoke in the 1960s were of a bustling town writing some 30 years before the writer JB Priestley in his "English Journey remarked on work and industry to the existence of the 6 towns for without either the place had no reason to exist. He wrote of "a fantastic collection of narrow-necked jars or bottles peeping above the housetops on every side, looking as if giant biblical characters, after a search for wine or oil, had popped them there, among the dwarf streets."

Certainly if I could draw a picture of the Stoke of my childhood it would be an industrial landscape and particularly a soundscape. The sound of factory hooters, the grinding sound of flint being crushed in a local mill, the shrill sound of a saw from the coopers across the road, steam trains, the clatter of goods wagons in the siding and the chugging of barge engines. The canal in the 60s was still a working place with barges filled with bones, clay flint and pottery.

As a child one of favourite places was the old Stoke Market especially in winter. The place always seemed a magnet for the good humour of crowds. And if Proust had his madelines to evoke his childhood I had Brown’s sausage rolls- delicious and warm.

Years later I went out with Beth Brown. I now realise that if I had played my cards right I could ended up heir to a sausage roll empire.

That was in the 80s and contrary to the myth even in the early 80s with Thatcher Stoke still survived. My brother moved to Oakhill in 81 and there was still an excellent range of small shops, greengrocers, butchers, a bakery, a model shop and the Legendary Lonnie’s record shop along London Road. That was beginning to change by the 90s and in the following decade

I worked for SRB 4 about ten years ago whose aim was to regenerate Stoke for a community mediation service and one of the decisions which proved fatal to Stoke along with moving the football ground was the building of Sainsburys.

You might know that metal box which sits uncomfortably over the road from the 19^th century Library the glorious creation of Charles Lynam. Why is it that Stoke Council always seems to allow really shoddy architecture and design?

Perhaps I am not being fair to lay the blame for the squalor and despair that I witnessed in Campbell Place solely at the door of Sainsbury. But if ever there was an example sometimes used in supporters of supermarket’s that such developments enhance town centres Stoke serves as a grim warning.

I now move to Leek, which is about to under go its own battle against two supermarket developments. Applications from Sainsbury and Tesco are both before the council. Leek is a throw back to the 50s. It has a good range of independent shops it even has a well-stocked independent book shop. Despite the recession it still has excellent pubs. A friend of mine who visited me from Wolverhampton last week was envious of the choice of great drinking places in the town. It has an ironmongers, good value butchers and the rather eccentric Home and Colonial Store which is something of a treasure throve and a busy market in a Sugden designed building of 1896.

There was a public meeting on the proposed development in Leek also on Thursday. It started off promptly enough with about 80 people present, although only 3 of them were Councillors. There was a panel of 5 speakers one of them was an architect who gave a good overview of the planning laws and appeal procedure. A couple of shopkeepers followed who feared the impact of their business of a successful supermarket application.

The UKIP Councillor, Steve Povey gave a typical speech, bombastic and black and white with the angels on one side- of which he was one- and the villains, most noticeably the planning department and other Councillor’s on the other. This did not the meeting or the campaign very far. Robert Warrilow son of Ernest the photographer and well known in the town for the very old fashioned tea shop that he ran beside the Nicholson Library. He spoke about the importance of planning an alternative strategy for developing the town’s tourism appeal based on the interesting principle of the "open air supermarket" - in other words using local shops.

No one should have any doubt that it will be a long and hard battle.
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The game against the small independent trader’s and their supporters is fixed against them. David may have beaten Goliath, but nowadays David has one hand tied behind his back while the judge is all too often in the pay of the giant. A deadly combination of the power of corporate business abetted by government- of whatever main party- is destroying the independent shop.

Does it matter? Well yes it does because the small independent shop is an integral part of the landscape. From my boy hood I can remember the names of the small shops along City Rd in Stoke- Mr Rennie who sold sweets, Mr Powner the newsagents and Joyce at the corner shop were all part of my urban landscape. Whether a high street is a patchwork of independent business or a bland vista of corporate business does matter. It makes a difference to the character and look of the community, the quality and type of jobs and the diversity and quality of the products. It will decide what sort of Britain that my 6-year-old daughter will end up living in

Cold kills more older people in Moorlands.

The report in the Post and Times that an increase of 23% of vulnerable people dying in cold weather that would be normally expected in the rural areas is truly shocking. It seems that Staffordshire Moorlands has one of the worst records for excess winter deaths in the UK is utterly reprehensible. In the mid 80s I worked on a project called "Elderly at Risk" in the Staffordshire Moorlands which even then flagged the higher than average deaths from hypothermia and other cold related deaths. I would have thought that we had moved on from then. It seems not to be the case. And that this area tops the poll in a country, which has in any case a shockingly bad record when, compared with countries like Norway and Canada. What are other countries are doing right that we are not?

It is inevitable that the death toll will be higher this year as fuel costs have risen and more people are finding it harder to make ends meet. Gas costs have surged by 50 per cent in a year and electricity by a third, adding around several hundred £s to annual bills. This winter swill be a costly one in every sense of the word
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There is so much more energy companies and the Government could be doing: clear marking of electrical goods; pressuring the energy companies to reduce the prohibitive costs of pre payment meters; allowing people to pay bills at post offices again; and helping with winter bills now. Proper energy conservation measures like those in Germany and Sweden where all the housing stock will be adapted to low energy use should have begun years ago. It seems to me not only a means to tackle fuel poverty but also energy saving and job creating as well. Why the delay? It seems a no brainer to me .A more sensitive approach from Government and Energy companies to the needs of the poor and vulnerable would also be a great help. Instead all we have are measures that warm the pockets of the energy companies- an increase of 38% in recent months – while an additional 76 Moorlanders shiver and die.

The King and I

I saw the " King’s Speech" yesterday and it made me wonder about my relationship and contact with royalty over the years. I can recall going down to Wolverhampton in about 1962 to see the Queen present the new standard to the Staffordshire Yeomanry, which my father belonged. I cannot remember much except I was bored and the event seem to drag on a great deal of time.

I was also bored when my primary class in Stoke waited for an age for Princess Margaret to attend to some civic duty in Stoke in the early 60s. A large car pulled up a woman is greeted by a Mayor and then outside. "Is that it" I would probably said " Not even the dummy Princess Margaret"

I did see the Duke of Edinburgh though when he attended a civic luncheon in the mid 80s. He seemed genial enough but more latterly he blew the gaffe when he called the City a "ghastly place". He was given some pottery. I felt at the time given his shooting interest that the figure should have been a surprised grouse rising from a clump of grass. I don’t think the Lord Mayor’s Secretary was game for that.

I have never met Charles although the late Director of the City Museum Arnold Mountford told me that when the Lord Mayor of the City at the time Cllr Les Sillitoe- notoriously prone to gaffes- wanted in his speech to attract people’s attention to the "Muriel". Being a good public servant Arnold corrected him. " The word is mural Lord Mayor". He was thanked and the event came to a head when the New Museum was opened in May 1981 only weeks from the wedding. The crowd was getting excited and chanting Lady Di’s name. It proved too much for the Lord Mayor who ran down the Museum ramp tugging at the Prince’s sleeve. " Have you seen our Muriel".

Faux pas involving Lord Mayors and the Royal Family seem to occur frequently as an incident with the Lord Mayor in the mid 90s demonstrated. At the opening of Bradeley Retirement Village John Birkin introduced the uniped Ted Smith who unfortunately lost a leg to illness with the comment that "When you were last here Your Majesty, he had two legs". I don’t think that John was being sardonic, but it was just an unfortunate slip of the tongue.

On the subject of Diana I missed her twice once when she was in Wigan in 1989 and then again about 6 years later when a scrum of photographers told me that she was in a restaurant in Soho. In the case of her visit to Greater Manchester I stuck to my desk and I could hear the cheers of the crowds nearby. Given what happened to her I have always felt that if everyone were as indifferent to her as I was then perhaps she would be still around now. It is also true to say that the universal grief that encompassed the nation was not shared at Keele where I went to a classical music concert on the Friday evening before the funeral. When the violinist of the trio informed the audience that the piece of music was to be dedicated to the memory of the late Princess of Wales an audible groan went up from the audience.

My brother and I share a distinction that we have both missed events when the Princess Royal was present. I think its two each. I missed her opening Brough Park Leisure Centre in 2002 and he missed her when he was on some sailing ship in Cornwall. Again nothing personal, but my view of Anne and Fergie for that matter can be summoned up in the Peter Cook anecdote of being asked by David Frost to meet Andrew and Fergie on a certain day. Cook goes off to consult with his diary. " Sorry David, I’m watching TV that night".

As for the lesser Royal the same brother received his degree whilst at Lancaster from Princess Alexandria the Chancellor unfortunately for him she choose to have a conversation as he walked past her seated figure.
"Hev yew gort e jorb"? He said her aristocratic tones making it impossible for him to understand her.

" Pardon"

"Hev yew gort a jorb"

As this progressed he had her hand and as the time elapsed the grip became vice like. Panic was displayed in Alexandria’s eyes. My father who was taking film from the back as my brother wearing a cape lowered his head to try to catch what the Princess was saying later told us that it was like Dracula about to bite someone in the neck.

It turned out that she was asking him about his employment prospects.

There you have it. I am a lukewarm republican and I think that the present lot are a bit insipid. I would like to bring back from the dead Charles II or Henry II who were at least interesting. I can not being doing with the deference bit in so far as much I have retained Quaker attitudes it is in this area where they are the most pronounced

How to shun an ossifrage.

What connects the following phrases " a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush", " "baptism of fire", and " by the skin of the teeth". The answer is that all these sayings emanate from the Authorised Version of the Bible the 400^th anniversary of which publication occurs this year. I therefore welcome events that Churches Together in Leek have planned to celebrate the event. One suggestion is readings from the Bible in the Market Place over the summer.

I hope it goes ahead and I would be willing to volunteer to read. The Authorised Version is also called the King James Bible after the monarch who commissioned the work at a conference held at Hampton Court in 1604. The newly crowned King tried to iron out differences between the Church of England and a dissident sect known as the Puritans and used a new translation of the Bible as a potential unifier. The leading academics of the time divided themselves into committees to tackle the various books in the Bible. It took seven years to create the volume. The Committees in their deliberations succeeded in producing a work of luminescent beauty. Their principal concern of the 47 translators was to produce a Bible that would be appropriate, dignified and resonant in public reading. And in that aim they succeeded, as bystanders in Leek Market Place will be able to appreciate later this year. As a child I was taught some of the great stories in the Bible and I think the Book of Daniel has wonderful tales. It is a pity that many students today are ignorant of this tradition. How can you have an understanding of the works of Shakespeare, Rembrandt or Bach without this grounding?

The men who produced the work had little inkling that the their Bible would be one of the great and influential books in the world. It is estimated that over a billion copies of the AV have been printed since the 17^th century. Its language has had also had an impact on the language of the famous. The cadences of the Authorised Version infused the work of many people that followed such as the speeches of Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill and Martin Luther King. The later "I have a dream" speech reaches its highest point with echoes of the prophet Isaiah. Some of the language and imagery, I admit, is difficult to comprehend what for example is an ossifrage in Leviticus which one is forbidden to eat.
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But finally there is something wonderfully comforting in Ecclesiastes. "One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh, but the earth abideth forever" and so does the King James Bible.

　
　

Old Bill's Almanack 2011

I thought that I would stick my neck out and predict 13 events to occur in Leek and looking a little further out national and international events for the New Year. As far as the last prediction as far as first contact with aliens during 2011. I checked and  Paddy Power are offering 100-1 on this eventuality. And if it does come to pass I will be having a pint of Vulcan beer in the "Final Frontier" pub next January 1^st.

1. A comfortable majority will vote against the Sainsbury road proposals on a small turn out in the January referendum.
2. The Conservative led administration at SMDC will lose power in the May District Council elections.
3. The Foxlowe Community Arts venue plans will begin to come into fruition in 2011.
4. Unemployment will increase markedly in Leek during the year.
5. Fear of crime will increase following a major incident in the town during the summer.
6. The Churnet Valley Rail development will continue to gather interest and support throughout the year.
7. Major civil unrest including riots in major cities in the UK will increase as unemployment rises towards 3 million by the autumn.
8. A leading Liberal Democrat member of the coalition will leave the Government and defect to the Labour Party in the autumn.
9. Pakistan will be subject to a military coup.
10. An environmental catastrophe will occur in China.
11. A major earthquake will hit California in June.
12. There will be a major terrorism event in a European City
13. Contact with an extra terrestrial civilisation will occur in September

　
　

Leek and the 1918 flu pandemic

 

 

 

 

The last hundred years has seen 4 major flu pandemics, the 2009 outbreak follows pandemics in 1968, 1957 and 1918.The present swine flu outbreak has dominated the news media with increasingly hysterical reports of the potential impact of the disease. There are dreadful forecasts of the potential death rates from the disease. Local have responded to the crisis as well and are full of information on what to do if you are feeling unwell and where to collect the tamiflu drug should you or your family require it. Conjecture and rumour are flying. I heard a woman on Macclesfield railway station confidently assert when reports of the intial Mexican outbreak began circulating in April that it would not affect her as it was only poor people who were susceptible to the illness. As I walked through Leek yesterday I saw a poster outside a health food store in town advertising an herbal preparation which it assured readers could combat the virus.

 

 

As a consequence of this interest I thought I would carry out a little historical research into the major flu epidemic of 1918 - the Spanish Flu outbreak which proved so devastating to communities all around the world to see if there were any lessons to be learned. The pandemic of 90 years ago was caused by a deadly virus H1N1. Unusually most of its victims were healthy young adults; usually flu affects the very young or the elderly. It lasted from March 1918 to the summer of 1920 although the outbreak in the context of Leek was at its severest between October 1918 to January 1919. It was truly global killing people in remote communities in the Arctic and remote Pacific islands. It is thought anywhere between 50 to 100 million died and that a third of the worlds population- around 500 million- became infected. It was described as the "greatest medical holocaust in history" and may have killed more people than the medieval Black Death. In the UK it killed 300,000 people and in the US 750,000.

 

 

The illness was especially devastating in Africa and India where 17 million died. Entire villages were wiped out in Greenland and Alaska and 1 in 4 of the populations of South Pacific islands perished.

 

 

It was called "Spanish flu" because it was thought to have originated from that country. The disease is actually thought to have started in China, mutated in the US and arrived in Europe via the French ports. The main spreaders were Allied troops who were engaged in the last battles of the First World War. It is within that conflict that the virulence of the pandemic can perhaps be explained. Massive troop movements and close proximity and poor hygiene helped to increase transmission, this coupled with the privations of 4 years of war suffered by soldiers and civilians fatally weakened immune systems. Some historians have argued that the flu helped to tip the balance in favour of the Allied Armies as the illness hit the German and Austrian Armies first and the death rates in Germany were higher than in Britain and France.

 

Another factor that increased the occurrence of the illness was travel. Shipping made it easier for travellers to spread the illness to even the most remote communities and this, of course, is before the advent of global air travel. Those countries that escaped the worst of the pandemic were those such as Japan which put in place the most strict quarantine laws.

 

There are some similarities with the present Swine flu outbreak in that the first outbreak during the spring of 1918 was a mild "herald" form of the disease. The deadly second wave began in August in the United States and France and at this stage the virus mutated and spread helped on by very sick soldiers being sent on crowded trains to field hospitals. The scene was set by the autumn of 1918 for the H1N1 virus to begin its deadly work.

 

The space in the Leek Times for October 1918 are largely taken up with reports of the coming victory in the Great War but what is noticeable is that the reports of soldiers dying in the war increasingly mention influenza and not German bullets or shells.

 

Gunner Brunt of Upper Hulme dies of the illness, the report of his death tells rather tragically that he had served on the Western Front for 4 years and at the end of the war he had hoped to resume life as a farm labourer. Privates Ralph Vernon of 39 Broad St and Percy Osbourne of 10 Fountain St succumbed to the virus as does Sergeant Vigrass.

 

As the autumn progressed the Chief Medical Officer Dr McClew informed a local council meeting that more people had died of flu in the last month than the previous three months combined and that the illness had killed over 20 people in Leek. It is noted that Norton and Brown Edge are particularly badly hit. As a precaution all local schools are closed and remained closed for several weeks.

 

 By November the Leek Times offers its readers helpful advice in a 6 point plan

• Go to bed on first appearance of the symptoms

• Stop in bed until all aches are gone and if attacked don’t be alarmed.

• Keep cheerful and don’t worry

• Take best food you can

• Ventilate room well

• Avoid all excesses.

However by the middle of the month all reports of the progress of the epidemic are swept aside by news of victory as the German Army agrees to a laying down of weapons. The news is ecstatically received in Leek. Churches put on special services to thank God for deliverance and for the final victory. An editorial in the Leek Times opined on the conclusion of the war to end all wars.

 

"Right has vanquished might, civilisation has conquered barbarism and outraged humanity may now hope to see the day dawn when man shall no longer hate his brother man"

 

But there is always room for more prosaic considerations a correspondent from South Portland Street complains that reduced street lighting has lead to gloomy streets in the town.

 

More deaths are later reported in the paper such as Sergeant Oultram of Broad St sometime superintendent of Leek Public Baths.

 

The newspaper also carries adverts for various cures for the disease such as Blades Pine Cure at a shilling a bottle. It advisers purchasers to avoid the flu by inhaling the concoction from a hand kerchief. Those who wish to avoid the illness are advised to take Peps Preventative medicine- it seems to cure everything.

 

The early years of the 20^th century also see a growing appreciation of the role of women and the Leek Times reflects this trend with its own women’s page. It is written by Margaret Osbourne who clearly finds the pandemic trying.

 

 

" It is rather hard luck that the influence epidemic should have broken out just now and that we have a torrent of good advice from doctors on how to avoid influenza and at the same time very little opportunity to take that advice".

 

 

She cites the problems that the modern woman of 1918 has in following such advice

"rationed food, rationed fuel and trains and omnibuses full to bursting, we may as well ask for the moon".

 

 

But still deaths are reported that edition reports that the epidemic has killed a well respected employee of Brough, Hall and Nicholson George Howarth of 75 Shirburn Rd who leaves a wife and family. Mr Howarth was 38.Howarth’s death is typical of the age that many citizens of the town were dying. The ages of the dead were often in the 20s and 30s.

 

 Modern day research carried out on the bodies of the 1918 epidemic preserved in the permafrost of the Arctic have concluded that the H1N1 virus killed as a consequence of an over reaction of the body’s immune system which explains its virulence and the predominance of young adult victims. The strong immune systems of people in their 20s ravage the body, whereas the weaker immune systems of babies and older people cause fewer deaths. Another theory is that older people may have had some immunity developed from surviving an earlier influenza pandemic of 1889- the Russian flu outbreak.

 

December 1918 saw another 24 deaths in the town caused by the virus but at this stage the aggressiveness of the plague seemed to be running its course. One explanation for the reduction in the death rate is that doctors got better at treating the illness while another view is that the virus changed again into a less lethal strain.

 

  Other news in the town was equally grim; a warehouseman named Bratt who lived in Picton Street ran amok and attacked his wife and children with a hammer before cutting his throat with a razor.

 

On a lighter note town magistrates heard a case of disorderly conduct involving 6 youths in Derby Street who were arrested for signing "Auld Lang Syne" and forcing pedestrians into the road. Rev Parker who at on the bench aid that 5 of the youths belonged to the Boy Scouts Movement and he asked his colleagues on the bench to leave punishment to him as their Scoutmaster.

 

What lessons can we draw from the modern outbreak and the one 90 years ago? Well certainly today we have many advantages. In modern Britain we have an NHS, information systems such as the Internet, better diet and up to date drugs to fight the present H1N1 virus.

 

 

In 1918 however Britain had been at war for 4 years, civilians were used to putting up with hardships such as rationing, the experience of being surrounded by death and also to obeying orders. This meant that when doctors said stay at home, patients listened and were not likely to panic. People in 1918, and this is born out by the low key reporting in the Leek Times of the influenza epidemic, displayed a understated stoicism. They gritted their teeth and got on with it. Is this true of today when government help lines are besieged by the "worried well" and websites crash overwhelmed by queries? And when there is a fear of loosing your job how many people will ignore the advice to "isolate" themselves to reduce the risk of spreading the disease if they feel that an absence might result in an individual making themselves a likely candidate for redundancy?

 

 

As happened in 2000 over the petrol shortage panic is as infectious as any virus and how will people react if the pandemic does result in shortages? How will the "I want it now" generation "respond to rationing and restrictions? Perhaps the old fashioned virtues of stoicism and community spirit need to rediscovered, but whether we have time is of course another matter.

 

 

 

We're All In This Together

Having a 6-year-old daughter gives you an insight into childish tastes and fads. Top of the list as far as she is concerned is the films and characters in the "High School Musical" series. One of her favourite songs from High School Musical 1 is sung as the finale "Were all in this together" which coincidentally is the slogan of the Conservative led Government.

By this they mean that the hardships that many people are enduring at the moment are being equally shared between the powerful and the powerless, between the rich and the poor. But are they? 2011 will see the rise in VAT, cuts in services on which people on low incomes are most heavily dependent and job losses, which will swell the numbers of the unemployed of Leek.

I was talking to a couple in a local supermarket before Christmas. The husband was self-employed. His wife had a job with the local council, which was under threat. His business was failing and despite his best efforts he had not earned anything for months. The bad weather had not helped. He had tried leafleting in the affluent parts of Cheshire to try to drum up some business but to no avail.

He and his wife had tried everything and they were running out of possibilities.

I felt very sorry for them, as they both looked tired. He told me that they had little sleep and they discussed little else. They had tried to keep the enormity of the situation away from their children. Their greatest fear was that they would lose their house. They felt very guilty.

I’m pretty sure that this story could be replicated elsewhere in the area.

The notion that the rich are bearing equally all the harshness that the present cutbacks are causing ordinary people is patent nonsense. For example high-rolling bankers many of whom are due to collect multi-million pound payouts, have brought forward pay day to the end of December rather than wait until March as usual in order to avoid new government and European legislation.

And at the other end of the social scale?

Just before Christmas the independent organisation the Institute of Fiscal Studies calculated that the Governments plans to slash spending would push nearly 1 million more people into poverty. It will also lead to an increase for the first time in 15 years to a rise absolute poverty for 200,000 children nationally. Cuts in housing benefit alone will force many people further into hardship. A crude extrapolation of these figures to Leek’s population means that 2012/3 will mean that around 300 Leek residents and their children will find themselves destitute.

All in this together?