Students in 1969, from undergraduate prospectus.

A much-loved piece of the University of Bradford’s history is now available online for free.  The film, “Potential Graduate” was made by the Audio-Visual Unit between 1968 and 1970 to attract potential students.  It focuses on the new campus, and the range of sporting and social activities available to students.  It gives a wonderful insight into the University, the campus, student life, and how Bradford looked then.   Thanks to Heritage Lottery funding, the Yorkshire Film Archive is making this film available online, along with 21 hours of other fantastic footage from all over Yorkshire.

To see the film, search “Potential Graduate” on the YFA online project website.

It’s the end of November but you wouldn’t know it from the unseasonably warm weather we’ve been experiencing.  While this is nice because we haven’t had to break out our winter coats and boots or shovel any snow, it’s also naughty because it really doesn’t feel like Christmas is around the corner.

On Saturday, December 5, 2009 I plan on attending Bradford’s Celebrate Christmas event for a much needed infusion of the holiday spirit. There’s a tree lighting ceremony, story time with Jolly Old Saint Nick himself followed by hot chocolate served up by Bradford’s volunteer firefighters.  And if that’s not enough to have you decking the halls there’s also a public skate and Christmas Carols.

So jingle all the way to the Bradford & District Community Centre Auditorium  (125 Simcoe Road) and greet, drink and be merry!

For more information contact Leisure Services at 905-775-5359 or email recreation@townofbwg.com

P.S.  Scroll down to the bottom of this page (lower right-hand corner) and click on the RSS feed button to subscribe to this blog

I had the opportunity to do a photo session with my sisters new baby. Her name is Bryanna and she is 4 months old. We are all looking forward to her first Christmas.

There are many shops that I dislike going to but yesterday I think I went to the worst shop in the world. There are many reasons why I believe this to be so and will share them with you below but first I am sure you are desperate to know which shop I am referring to. So here goes – the worst shop in the world is officially Next at Forster Square Retail Park in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Why is this? Blimey, where do I start?

It is never going to be a walk in the park shopping for baby clothes while pushing twins around in a double pram but it shouldn’t become a thoroughly unpleasant experience. I have to admit my mood wasn’t lifted by the parking situation at Forster Square either, everyone was driving round trying to find people leaving so that you could park in the spot they had just left. I was sat there with my indicators on waiting for a particular car to reverse out, as soon as they did someone else zoomed along and wedged themselves in that spot! Repeatedly beeping my horn and shouting “f**king w*nker” out of the open car window didn’t seem to prick their conscience either. Once I had calmed down and found another parking spot it was time for Next.

Firstly it was packed with people dawdling round looking at nothing in particular, I know this isn’t the fault of the shop but it is bloody irritating. Through the doors and into the children’s department where they have jammed so many clothes rails into a small space that there is no room to push a pram (even a single pram), there is even nowhere to park up and try and get out of other people’s way. This is a children’s wear department! Do they not expect people to have prams?

Because the clothes rails are so tightly packed everyone knocks clothes off the rails and so the floor is littered with cardigans, hats, clothes hangers etc. So even if there was a bit more room for a pram you would be constantly running over fallen clothing. This problem has a knock on effect – three quarters of the staff are slowly wandering round picking items up, checking that they don’t have footprints on and finding which rail they came from.

The knock on effect of this problem? There is only one person serving on the four tills and so the queue is huge, not that there is room to queue anywhere because the clothes rails are too tightly packed. So after waiting in line for twenty minutes with two increasingly grumpy babies to buy two winter coats which aren’t ideal but are the only items in the whole shop of which they have more than one,  I get near the till. I overhear the very flustered person on the till saying to the customer in front of me “Well I am the manager and even I am serving on the tills, if people can’t wait then they will just have to shop elsewhere”. This is the manager!!! If that is the attitude and customer service you get from someone who has progressed through the ranks what on earth will the attitude of the other staff be like? Maybe if she managed her staff and told them to get a sense of urgency instead of slowly wandering round in a daze replacing one item at a time more of them could come to the tills to get rid of the queue of disgruntled people wanting to give them their hard earned cash?

Grrrrrr!!!!

This week in London David Cameron and the Tories launched an attack on Hizb ut-Tahrir and the Labour council who fund the Schools they are closely associated with.

This week in Yorkshire not only did a Tory MP share a debating platform with Hizb ut-Tahrir but a Tory council continued to fund one of Hizb ut Tahrir’s favorite schools.

Davies speaking at a Hizb ut-Tahrir event

Last Saturday in Bradford Philip Davies shared a platform with Taji Mustafa of Hizb ut-Tahrir. In a debate titled ‘Has freedom gone too far?’ Mr. Davies appeared to share common ground with Taji Mustafa in decrying attempts to bring “freedom and democracy to the Middle East”. According to a Hizb ut-Tahrir press release “Philip Davies made it clear that he is opposed to the liberal interventionist export of democracy and liberal values by the gun, as supported by some in the West including David Cameron who supported the invasion of Iraq.”

After the debate Taji Mustafa, media representative of Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain, said, “David Cameron spreads lies about Hizb ut-Tahrir – hiding behind parliamentary privilege. However, his colleague Philip Davies MP was willing to share a platform with a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir, for the second time, and debate issues.”

Mr. P Davies position seems some what at odds with that of Mr. D Davis and Mr. Cameron’s who have both made it clear that the Conservative Party will not share a platform with Hizb ut-Tahrir, and if in Government would outlaw them. But Mr. P Davies has a majority of only 500 and Hizb ut-Tahrir hold great sway in his constituency of Shipley, so perhaps he’s more forgiving.

Hopkins chair of The Open Madrasah Network

Meanwhile Mr. P Davies’ neighbour and colleague Kris Hopkins, leader of Tory controlled Bradford Council, sits on £550,000 of taxpayers’ money that has been allocated to The Open Madrasah Network.

By funding these Madrassas Mr. Hopkins believes that he is “reaching into the heart of the community and offering more people access to life-changing services.” But what life-changing services? One of these Madrassas, Madrassah Madania Tahfeezul Quran, has had a long and close association with Hizb ut Tahrir and the Hizb ut Tahrir dominated Bradford University Islamic Society and all three organizations have together been campaigning for a number of years for greater Madrasah autonomy and government funding. A campaign that has had little support from national government but recently  found an advocate in Tory Prospective Parliamentary Candidate Kris Hopkins, who was able to secure the £1/2 million funding for the madrassas (one of these madrassas is in Keighley, a Labour marginal Mr. Hopkins is hoping to win at the next election).

When asked about fears that these schools would, in the words of the Express, “groom children for terror” Mr. Hopkins responded “Madrassas are not about indoctrination. What about Anglican and Catholic schools? Talking about religious instruction in that way risks discriminating against a particular faith.”

Talking about religious instruction in that way risks discriminating against a particular faith. A view that is clearly not shared by his party leader down south.

Interesting side note to this bizarre alliance, the majority of money Mr. Hopkins is distributing to these schools comes from Yorkshire Forward, an organization Mr. Hopkins is keen to see dismantled, perhaps he doesn’t want anyone checking on who or what he is spending money on.

This week has raised some interesting questions about the Tory party

• Does Cameron control his northern MPs, PPCs, and Council leaders?
• Do the Tories see Islamic schools as political punching bags; batter them when funded by Labour councils, praise them when funded by Tory ones?
• While the national party publicly calls for the banning of Hizb ut-Tahrir, are Tory MPs/PPCs in marginal seats where Hizb ut-Tahrir have greater influence seeking their support?

The Thanksgiving season, and these next several months, are a special time of the year in the history of my family. My 9th great grandfather, William Bradford, came to America on the Mayflower in November of 1620.

Partial Mayflower Passenger List - click to enlarge

The ship left England in September and, after a grueling 66-day journey marked by disease, which claimed two lives, the ship dropped anchor inside the hook tip of Cape Cod. That first winter, half of the colonists perished. And then, in early spring, the colony’s first leader, John Carver, died. William was elected to succeed him as governor, and was subsequently re-elected thirty times, serving until he died in 1657. He had a reputation as a firm and fair leader. William was the second signer and primary architect of the Mayflower Compact.

William’s first wife, Dorothy, died on December 7, 1920 after falling overboard into the icy waters of Provincetown Harbor while the Mayflower was anchored. The Pilgrims had not yet made it to Plymouth. On August 14, 1623, he married my 9th great grandmother, Alice Carpenter Southworth. She came to Plymouth aboard the Anne in July 1623, following the death of her first husband. The description of their marriage sounds similar to that of the first Thanksgiving.

Thus began my English ancestry in America. Soon after, my Puritan ancestors arrived with the family names of Benjamin, Newcomb, Cleaveland, Ormsby, Harris, and many others.

I’m proud that my family has been in America for 389 years!

Bradford is a suitable location for an above ground art bunker to display pictures of the real bunker.

Hollowed out, the survivors fending for themselves – the back draft from the big bang took it out sometime time ago. But nobody in London bothered to man any kind of emergency control centre over that one.

Why? Why was someone allowed to photograph this major emergency response bunker? This isn’t Corsham with its dusty teleprinters out of date decades before its final decommissioning. Or any other cold war tourist attraction. This is the real thing. Where you really would go if you needed to be deep underground, with blast doors, decontamination chambers, a TV studio, map rooms, several months supplies of boot polish and toothpaste. The question of why the photographer was let in is not answered -because nobody really knows. Some gap in the Whitehall / military bureaucracy where someone left a door half ajar to the idea that this might be the ultimate in open government. Here we are – you see we really do at least have half a plan for the end. There really is a bunker. When it will be just us and Polaris. Some kind of message is being sent. Perhaps we all get bored at work. This is where we work. The last thing you will never see. Sharing the joke – just for a moment. A touch of mockery. Now you see it, now you don’t.

The catalogue furnishings, the studied banality. Hard to suppress the feeling that it’s a fake. Iain Sinclair and Tom Clancey next to each other on the bookshelf – too neat! Hard to suppress a feeling of giddiness. A determined resigned little incubus. Resting and not resting. Down there.

The most disturbing pictures were of the bedrooms – and the shelves full of pillows in the store rooms. Bedrooms with no windows. I could see the way you could live down there during your hours on duty. But in bed – the idea of respite and release – and of waking up again? The dreams of the suffocation of children.

Chris Petit on ‘The Last Things’

John Pevirolaris on ‘The Last Things’

This week I’ve joined the Bradford Chamber of Commerce.  I was keen to be part of an extended local business directory. As well as providing me with networking opportunities, the Chamber can give support with training, business information, legal aid and trade solutions.

In what appears to be a victory for temporary staff employed throughout the region, the plans outlined in the recent Queens Speech could actually prove detrimental to the thousands of agency workers currently employed in Yorkshire.

The speech included a pledge to provide agency workers with the same rights as a businesss permanent employees doing the same kind of work in the same place, ensuring more standardised rate of pay, holiday entitlement, breaks, rest periods and allocation of some bonuses.

Steve Willey, HR & Employment Law Consultant at Last Cawthra Feather comments: The most obvious effect of the changes will be to increase the cost of using an agency worker. It therefore seems likely that, although individual agency staff will gain, the bigger picture may be that local businesses have no choice but to reduce their reliance on agency staff because the cost advantages of using them are so dramatically reduced, which is, in turn, very bad news for agencies.

As the largest user of agency staff in the EU, estimates suggest that over one million people work in the temporary labour market in the UK. The CBI has estimated that up to a quarter of those posts could disappear if the differences between agency staff and employees were to be abolished.

Steve continues: Our Regional economy makes extensive use of agency workers with local councils, NHS trusts, and thousands of private companies relying on temporary workers to fill gaps in staffing. We have hundreds of small agencies in the region and, whichever side of the argument you are on, it is undeniable that a reduction in the availability and use of agency staff will have a significant impact.

With a general consensus that the Government will be forced to introduce the legislation because it originates from an EU Directive, it is essential that both companies and agencies assess the full extent the changes will have on their business and what can be done to manage the changes in the most effective way possible.

It may well be that local businesses will try and evade the regulations. As the main rights will only apply after an agency worker has been in an assignment for 12 weeks, an attempt will be made to move workers around so they never accrue 12 weeks within one role, adds Steve.

However, with efficiency of agency staff driven by the level of knowledge they have of a role, and bringing new staff in every few weeks often proving disruptive and costly, end users may find avoidance of the regulations a more expensive alternative in the long run. This approach will also expose the agency and business to the risk of a claim from a temporary worker who thinks they are not experiencing equality.

To find out more about the implications of proposals highlighted in the Queens Speech have on your business, contact Last Cawthra Feather on 01274 848800 or visit www.lcf.co.uk.

My trusty accomplice Elisa and I went to the red carpet gala for “Once Upon a Time in Manhattan” to benefit Ronald McDonald House. HUGE SPORTS AND FILM MEMORABILIA

Click the picture to view more!

Click to see more pictures!

Click to see more pictures!

Once Upon A Time in Manhattan is a charity gala to benefit Ronald McDonald House, hosted by Fox 5’s Dari Alexander with a live performance by Bradford. Guests will enjoy a strolling black tie dinner catered by Cipriani, cocktails by Diageo Spirits, and music by celebrity DJ Catherine Oullette (a.k.a. “SynCity”). Following dinner, a large silent auction will be held.

Held at NYC hotspot Marquee, “Once Upon A Time In Manhattan” includes a celebrity-studded red carpet, speakers, food catered by Cipriani and cocktails by Diageo Spirits, entertainment, silent auction by the Autograph Store, Winspire Travel, Judith Ripka and Steiner Sports, VIP gift bags, and music by our celebrity DJ Catherine Oulette (a.k.a. “SynCity”).

RMDH serves to comfortably house cancer patients and their families while receiving treatments for life-threatening diseases.

Jaimie Dobson recently re-branded his company from iNetengineers to iNetinsights.  He invited me along to the ProNet meeting (a networking group) held at the Park Lane Centre in Bradford.   Although the ProNet group is new, it has a lot of potential, already attracting a number of local businesses to the fortnightly meetings.  For more information about the group check out the Linkedin and Twitter pages:

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2312663

http://twitter.com/joinpronet

November marks the launch of the 2009 Archive Awareness campaign. The theme this year is “take flight!”

On the theme of flight here is a short article by Tish at our Bradford office about some interesting entertainments in Peel Park, Bradford. The images are from Bradford Borough Council, Town Clerk, papers regarding Peel Park, 1D82.

Advertisement for acrobatic entertainer Signor Farinelli enclosed with letter dated 31 May 1856 from Charles Henry Brown explaining that Mr Coxwell will not be able to make an ascent from Bradford and that William Stewart could make the ascent with a new balloon, and suggesting an ascent by Madame Rossini or Signor Farinelli. West Yorkshire Archive Service, Bradford: 1D82/3/4

Peel Park was the first publicly owned park in Bradford. Sir Robert Peel died in 1850 and a meeting was held in Bradford to discuss how he could be commemorated; it was agreed that a park would be a fitting memorial. A Central Committee of the Bradford Public Park Movement was set up which in turn organised District Committees. Land for the park was purchased during the 1850s but it took twelve years to pay off the debts incurred in buying the land and laying it out as a park. A donation of £1,500 was made by the Government and donations of £1,000 were received from Milligan, Forbes and Company and from Titus Salt. There were also numerous private subscriptions and some of the documents in this collection refer to the need to canvass for subscriptions.

In addition galas were held at the Park to raise money for the Park Fund; various attractions were ‘hired’ by the Committee and some of the letters and agreements in this collection refer to entertainers and to a proposed balloon ascent by Mr Coxwell. The agreements also made provision for indoor venues in case of inclement weather (poor summers are obviously nothing new!).

Newspaper advertisement for Madam Rossini’s act enclosed with a letter from Charles H Brown dated 2 Jun 1856 regarding Madam Rossini's performance at Peel Park. West Yorkshire Archive Service, Bradford: 1D82/3/5

Firework displays were also a feature of the galas; unfortunately in 1863 the promised “Eruption of Mount Vesuvius and Fall of Herculaneum” was a great disappointment and produced very little light. As the park had a lake there were also aquatic displays and one entertainer was pulled across the lake in a washtub drawn by geese. He also arranged for some nymphs to be pulled across the lake by swans but apparently the accompanying fireworks smoked so much that the nymphs could not be seen (one of the letter books in this collection contains a reference to a request for two swans).

The profits from the gala held in 1863 finally wiped out all the debts and the park was handed over to the Bradford Corporation. However the galas continued to be held (profits were given to Bradford Hospitals) and some of the letters in this collection refer to negotiations with railway companies for excursion trains and special fares for visitors to the galas. The final gala was held in1936; by that time people were able to travel further afield for their entertainment.

You can find out more about the archive awareness campaign at http://www.archiveawareness.com/

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Philip Davie’s favourite propaganda rag, the already ironically titled “Community Pride” has described the progress of Bradford’s regeneration as “steady”. I would have to assume that this “steady” progress is the slow and certain atrophying kind of progress, more commonly associated with an old dog with stomach cancer, as opposed to the steady kind of progress one usually finds with, well, progress.

Interestingly the article doesn’t really cover much of this steady progress, instead it concentrates it’s reporting on a meeting that was held to discuss what has not been happening, saying:

“The conference last month was an opportunity for us to get together with leading businesses in the district, update them on the progress of key regeneration projects, share ideas and find solutions to the challenges ahead.

It followed three quarterly summits held throughout the year looking at specific regeneration issues.

Coun Adrian Naylor, Executive Member for Regeneration and Economy, said: “The conference was a good opportunity for challenging and influencing the regeneration policy for the district and identifying our plans and priorities for the coming months, as we continue to support the local economy.”

Key organisations which attended the conference included Yorkshire Forward, the Homes and Communities Agency, as well as members of Bradford Property Forum, Bradford Professionals Network and the Bradford District Partnership.

Developers Westfield also attended the conference and reaffirmed their commitment to delivering a shopping centre in the heart of Bradford once the economic climate improves.”

Then at the end they tacked on the line:

“There have been no discussions with the Council about buying back the site.”

Obviously this was in no way a political response to last months Inside Out report on the failure of Bradford Council to get developers to commit to the city, and was, of course, just Bradford Council doing it’s duty “to communicate information to residents in the district.”

So, is Community Pride nothing more than a quarter of a million pound propaganda rag after all?

Shit, apparently I live in a world where Philip Davies is right.

Hold me, I’m scared.

No one was injured in the collision

Rail commuters faced a second day of disruption after a crash led to a train derailment in Leeds.

The collision, between two empty East Midlands trains at the Neville Hill maintenance depot, took place in the early hours of Tuesday.

Northern Rail said services between Leeds and York were affected and bus services were running on some routes while the carriages were removed.

Passengers are advised to check with National Rail Enquiries before travel.

Network Rail said engineers worked through Tuesday night to remove overhead line electrification and allow a lifting crane to come on site and remove the crashed carriages.

Investigation started

The disruption was expected to continue until at least 2200 GMT, the company said.

A spokeswoman for Network Rail said: “Services will resume as quickly as possible but depend upon the lifting operation and weather conditions.

“Passengers are advised to check with National Rail Enquiries or their rail operator to check individual service details.”

A spokeswoman for East Midlands Trains said nobody was injured as a result of the collision.

“We are carrying out an investigation into the incident and would like to apologise to passengers whose journeys are affected,” she said.

Elsewhere, Northern Rail services are delayed between Leeds and Manchester Victoria due to flooding at Smithy Bridge.

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No one was injured in the collision

Rail commuters faced a second day of disruption after a crash led to a train derailment in Leeds.

The collision, between two empty East Midlands trains at the Neville Hill maintenance depot, took place in the early hours of Tuesday.

Northern Rail said services between Leeds and York were affected and bus services were running on some routes while the carriages were removed.

Passengers are advised to check with National Rail Enquiries before travel.

Network Rail said engineers worked through Tuesday night to remove overhead line electrification and allow a lifting crane to come on site and remove the crashed carriages.

Investigation started

The disruption was expected to continue until at least 2200 GMT, the company said.

A spokeswoman for Network Rail said: “Services will resume as quickly as possible but depend upon the lifting operation and weather conditions.

“Passengers are advised to check with National Rail Enquiries or their rail operator to check individual service details.”

A spokeswoman for East Midlands Trains said nobody was injured as a result of the collision.

“We are carrying out an investigation into the incident and would like to apologise to passengers whose journeys are affected,” she said.

Elsewhere, Northern Rail services are delayed between Leeds and Manchester Victoria due to flooding at Smithy Bridge.

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Foreverliving India Foreverliving India Blog
Join ForeverLIving India
Foreverliving All India Distributor

Head north of Toronto for  fresh home town Santa Claus Parades. Many of the lighting ceremonies are tied into Christmas events and activities and continue into the new year along with Santa Claus Parades.   Parades the weekend of  November 20, 2009 include Haliburton, Barrie, Bradford,  Granvenhurst, Owen Sound, Prescott, Sault Sainte Marie, Kingston and more….

Meet Santa North of Toronto

I’m starting a blog written by Bradford, my WASP alter-ego.

Leading academic criticises Tory proposals (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus).

Prof Alan Townsend has written to senior Conservatives to alert them to “mounting concern” over their plans to axe regional development agencies.

He has warned Caroline Spelman (communities) and Theresa Villiers (transport) that their plans for a high-speed rail line would bite the dust if councils held the whip hand.

Prof Townsend wrote: “Regional machinery has made good strides on implementation and co-ordination of infrastructure between warring London departments.”

According to the T&A “Professor Alan Townsend said Tory proposals to axe regional development agencies – and hand power to town and city halls – would lead to “balkanisation”.

He warned that local councils were simply too small to take key decisions over planning, housing and infrastructure and would run into growing opposition from local people to development plans.

He said: “A law of the jungle would leave disadvantaged communities further behind – Bradford behind Leeds, or deprived ex-coalfield areas behind those with motorway junction – and would serve in the end to deny the very sense of responsibly which looks after ‘broken Britain’.

“Present local authorities are inappropriately small to embrace concrete strategic issues.”

The fierce criticisms follow Tory pledges to scrap regional development agencies (RDAs), such as Yorkshire Forward, and create council-led ‘local enterprise boards’, charged with winning investment and jobs.

Under the party’s “localism” agenda, regional spatial strategies (RSSs) – through which unelected regional assemblies decide 15 to 20-year housing, development and transport strategies – would also disappear.”

In response Kris Hopkins Tory Leader of Bradford Council admitted “I am not sure how much it costs to administer RDAs”, but went on to reinforce his desire to scrap them.

 As I reflect on the meaning of Thanksgiving and its beginnings, I cannot help but think of the heart of those faithful men and women who risked all for the love of God; many of them leaving their homes and families to endure hardship and death for many of them. What was their motivation and why was it so important that they would take such great risks? As the writer to the Hebrews puts it;

But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. (Hebrews 11:16)

Although the writing was speaking of the patriarchs and not pilgrims, I want very much for God to say to me what he said about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, “I am not ashamed to be called your God.”

Now consider the reason he gives: “They desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God.” The reason is their desire. They desire a better country—that is, a better country than the earthly one they live in, namely a heavenly one. This is the same as saying they desire heaven, or they desire the city God has made for them.

So two things make God unashamed to be called our God: he has prepared something great for us, and we desire it above all that is on the earth. So why is he proud to be the God of people who desire his city more than all the world? Because their desire calls attention to the superior worth of what God offers over what the world offers.

This was the strong desire and motivation of the Puritan Separatists – those pilgrims who traveled from England in search of a better place where they may worship their God. The Reformation was an age of unprecedented religious violence and martyrdom. Many who resisted the King and the established Catholic Church would face certain persecution and martyrdom by fire.

But Daniel 11:32 says, “And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.”

And great were the exploits of the Puritan Separatists. William Brewster, was a founder of the Plymouth Colony in New England. He helped lead the Separatist movement in England, 1606, allowing the nonconformists to meet for worship at his home in Scrooby, England. He escaped religious persecution by fleeing with the Separatists to Holland, 1608.

William Bradford, was a Pilgrim leader who helped establish the Plymouth Colony. Sailing in the Mayflower, he was chosen as governor of the colony in 1621, and was reelected 30 times until his death. In 1650, William Bradford wrote a history Of Plymouth Plantation. In it, he traced the events which led to the Pilgrims’ departure from England, and from it is where we derive most or our information about the early pilgrims and the Plymouth Colonies:

Governor William Bradford stated: They shook off this yoke of antichristian bondage, and as the Lord’s free people, joined themselves by a covenant of the Lord into a church estate in the fellowship of the gospel, to walk in all His ways, made known unto them, according to their best endeavors, whatsoever it should cost them, the Lord assisting them.¹⁹⁶

In 1607, as a result of religious persecution upon their persons, reputations, families, and livelihood, the “Separatists,” or Pilgrims, departed from England for Holland. Governor Bradford recorded:

Being thus constrained to leave their native soyle and countrie, their lands and livings, and all their friends and famillier acquantance. … to goe into a countrie they knew not (but by hearsay) where they must learne a new language, and get their livings they knew not how, it being a dear place, and subject to the miseries of war, it was by many thought an adventure almost desperate, a case intolerable, and a miserie worse than death. …

But these things did not dismay them (though they did sometimes trouble them) for their desires were sett on ye ways of God and to enjoye His ordinances; but they rested in His providence, and knew whom they had believed.¹⁹⁵

They lived in Holland 12 years, but little did they realize that out of the 103 Pilgrims who departed, 51 would die in the first winter in the New World. On September 6, 1620, after two attempts which were canceled due to the ship, the Speedwell, developing a leak, the Pilgrims finally set out for America in the Mayflower, just as the stormy season began in the North Atlantic. On November 11, 1620, having been blown off course by violent winds from their intended destination of Virginia, the Pilgrims landed at Cape Cod, Massachusetts. They found the area deserted, as the Patuxet tribe which lived there, one of the fiercest Indian tribes on the New England coast, had been destroyed by a great plague just two years prior. Had the Pilgrims landed there earlier, they would most likely have been massacred as the survivors of a French vessel were in 1617, as recounted by Bradford:

About three years before, a French ship was wrecked at Cape Cod, but the men got ashore and saved their lives and a large part of their provisions. When the Indians heard of it, they surrounded them and never left watching and dogging them till they got the advantage and killed them, all but three or four, whom they kept, and sent from one Sachem to another, making sport with them and using them worse than slaves.²⁰⁰

On November 12, 1620, the first full day in the New World, Bradford described the Pilgrims’ thankfulness: Being thus arrived in a good harbor, and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of Heaven who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean, and delivered them from all the perils and miseries thereof, again to set their feet on the firm and stable earth, their proper element.²⁰²

Later he would write; what could now sustain them but the spirit of God and His grace? May not and ought not the children of these fathers rightly say: Our fathers were Englishmen which came over this great ocean, and were ready to perish in this wilderness; (Deuteronomy 26:5, 7) but they cried unto the Lord, and He heard their voice, and looked on their adversity. Let them therefore praise ye Lord, because He is good, and His mercies endure for ever. (107 Psalm: v. 1, 2, 4, 5, Yea let them which have been redeemed of the Lord, show how He has delivered them from the hand of the oppressor. When they wandered in the desert wilderness out of ye way, and found no city to dwell in, both hungry, and thirsty, their soul was overwhelmed in them. Let them confess before the Lord His loving kindness, and His wonderful works before the sons of men.²⁰³

Three years after the Pilgrims’ arrival and two years after the first Thanksgiving, Governor William Bradford made an official proclamation for a Day of Thanksgiving, to all the Pilgrims he said: Last and not least, they cherished a great hope and inward zeal of laying good foundations, or at least making some ways toward it, for the propagation and advance of the gospel of the kingdom of Christ in the remote parts of the world, even though they should be but stepping stones to others in the performance of so great a work.²¹¹

Thus out of small beginnings greater things have been produced by His hand that made all things of nothing, and gives being to all things that are (Romans 4:17); and, as one small candle may light a thousand, so the light here kindled hath shone unto many, yea in some sort to our whole na[i]tion; let the glorious name of Jehovah have all the praise.²¹²

The great and rich spiritual heritage of those who would dare go against the powers of this world and do exploits by the grace of God because of the future hope of a promised possession – a city made by God, eternal in the heavens. And for this, the same future possession, the Lord has called you and me to as well, as the apostle Peter tells us, “To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fades not away, reserved in heaven for you, (1 Peter 1:4).

¹⁹⁵ Bradford, William. 1607, in his work entitled, 4 (Boston, Massachusetts: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1856; Boston, Massachusetts: Wright and Potter Printing Company, 1898, 1901, from the Original Manuscript, Library of Congress Rare Book Collection, Washington, D.C.; rendered in Modern English, Harold Paget, 1909; NY: Russell and Russell, 1968; NY: Random House, Inc., Modern Library College edition, 1981; San Antonio, TX: American Heritage Classics, Mantle Ministries, 228 Still Ridge, Bulverde, Texas, 1988). Verna M. Hall, comp., Christian History of the Constitution of the United States of America (San Francisco: Foundation for American Christian Education, 1976), p. 186.Marshall Foster and Mary-Elaine Swanson, The American Covenant—The Untold Story (Roseburg, OR: Foundation for Christian Self-Government, 1981; Thousand Oaks, CA: The Mayflower Institute, 1983, 1992), p. 32.

¹⁹⁶ Bradford, William. 1650, in his work entitled, 4 (Boston, Massachusetts: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1856; Boston, Massachusetts: Wright and Potter Printing Company, 1898, 1901, from the Original Manuscript, Library of Congress Rare Book Collection, Washington, D.C.; rendered in Modern English, Harold Paget, 1909; NY: Russell and Russell, 1968; NY: Random House, Inc., Christian History of the Constitution of the United States of America (San Francisco: Foundation for American Christian Education, 1976), p. 185. Marshall Foster and Mary-Elaine Swanson, The American Covenant—The Untold Story (Roseburg, OR: Foundation for Christian Self-Government, 1981; Thousand Oaks, CA: The Mayflower Institute, 1983, 1992), p. 62.

²⁰⁰ Bradford, William. 1617, describing the fate of a French ship wrecked off Cape Cod. William Bradford (Governor of Plymouth Colony), 2 (Boston, Massachusetts: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1856; Boston, Massachusetts: Wright and Potter Printing Company, 1898, from the original manuscript; rendered in Modern English, Harold Paget, 1909; NY: Russell and Russell, 1968; San Antonio, TX: American Heritage Classics, Mantle Ministries, 228 Still Ridge, Bulverde, Texas, 1988), p. 82.

²⁰² Bradford, William. November 12, 1620, in recounting the Pilgrims’ first full day in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in his work entitled, 2 (Boston, Massachusetts: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1856; Boston, Massachusetts: Wright and Potter Printing Company, 1898, 1901, from the Original Manuscript, Library of Congress Rare Book Collection, Washington, D.C.; rendered in Modern English, Harold Paget, 1909; NY: Russell and Russell, 1968; NY: Random House, Inc., Modern Library College edition, 1981; San Antonio, TX: American Heritage Classics, Mantle Ministries, 228 Still Ridge, Bulverde, Texas, 1988), ch. 9, p. 64. John Bartlett, Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1855, 1980), p. 265.

²⁰³ Bradford, William. November 11, 1620, in his record of the Pilgrims’ landing at Cape Cod, Massachusetts. William Bradford (Governor of Plymouth Colony), 2 (Boston, Massachusetts: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1856; Boston, Massachusetts: Wright and Potter Printing Company, 1898, 1901, from the Original Manuscript, Library of Congress Rare Book Collection, Washington, D.C.; rendered in Modern English, Harold Paget, 1909; NY: Russell and Russell, 1968; NY: Random House, Inc., Modern Library College edition, 1981; San Antonio, TX: American Heritage Classics, Mantle Ministries, 228 Still Ridge, Bulverde, Texas, 1988), p. 66. Sacvan Bercovitch, ed., Typology and Early American Literature (Cambridge: University of Massachusetts Press, 1972), p. 104. Peter Marshall and David Manuel, The Glory of America (Bloomington, MN: Garborg’s Heart’N Home, Inc., 1991), 11.28. (note: reference to these first settlers as “pilgrims” is owed to this passage.)

²¹¹ Bradford, William. 1650, in his work entitled, 6 (Boston, Massachusetts: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1856; Boston, Massachusetts: Wright and Potter Printing Company, 1898, 1901, from the Original Manuscript, Library of Congress Rare Book Collection, Washington, D.C.; rendered in Modern English, Harold Paget, 1909; NY: Russell and Russell, 1968; NY: Random House, Inc., Modern Library College edition, 1981; San Antonio, TX: American Heritage Classics, Mantle Ministries, 228 Still Ridge, Bulverde, Texas, 1988), p. 21. Jordan D. Fiore, ed., Mourt’s Relation: A Journal of the Pilgrims of Plymouth (Plymouth, MA: Plymouth Rock Foundation, 1841, 1865, 1985), pp. 10-11. William T. Davis, ed., History of Plymouth Plantation (NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1908), p. 46. The Annals of America  20 vols. (Chicago, IL: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1968), Vol. 1, p. 66. Verna M. Hall, comp., Christian History of the Constitution of the United States of America (San Francisco: Foundation for American Christian Education, 1976), p. 193. Marshall Foster and Mary-Elaine Swanson, The American Covenant—The Untold Story (Roseburg, OR: Foundation for Christian Self-Government, 1981; Thousand Oaks, CA: The Mayflower Institute, 1983, 1992), p. 11. Gary DeMar, America’s Christian History: The Untold Story (Atlanta, GA: American Vision Publishers, Inc., 1993), pp. 34-35.,

²¹² Bradford, William. 1650, in his work entitled, 2 (Boston, Massachusetts: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1856; Boston, Massachusetts: Wright and Potter Printing Company, 1898, 1901, from the Original Manuscript, Library of Congress Rare Book Collection, Washington, D.C.; rendered in Modern English, Harold Paget, 1909; NY: Russell and Russell, 1968; NY: Random House, Inc., Modern Library College edition, 1981; San Antonio, TX: American Heritage Classics, Mantle Ministries, 228 Still Ridge, Bulverde, Texas, 1988), p. 236. John Bartlett, Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1855, 1980), p. 265. Fleming, One Small Candle: The Pilgrim’s First Year in America, p. 218. Peter Marshall and David Manuel, The Glory of America (Bloomington, MN: Garborg’s Heart’N Home, Inc., 1991), 11.25. D.P. Diffine, Ph.D., One Nation Under God—How Close a Separation? (Searcy, Arkansas: Harding University, Belden Center for Private Enterprise Education, 6th edition, 1992), p. 4.

[i]

Gail Smith is one of our People and the DALES Community Workers. The People and the DALES project, which is run by Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust, aims to enable all sorts of community groups – lots of which are from deprived inner-city areas – to come to the Dales and enjoy days out doing a whole range of things. Gail and Judy (another of our Community Worker) are usually the envy of us office-bound types with their tales of kite flying, lambing, nature walks, conservation work and charcoal-making. They do, however, have the Yorkshire elements to contend with, as Gail explains below!      

“The forecast was appauling, but the group from Assisi House Project – a hostel and housing support charity for homeless men in Bradford – were undeterred. After a quick change of venue they arrived raring to go at Bolton Abbey. Togged up in project waterproofs, boots, spare hats and gloves, we set off along the riverside path into Strid Wood.

We’d planned to reach the Strid by lunchtime but the group were storming ahead, stopping only briefly to watch the Bodger at work making ‘Spurtles’ and look at the Strid in full flow after recent rain. About 5 miles later – having taken in both sides of the river, the Priory (where our arrival coincided with a wedding party!) we arrived back at their minibus, tired but happy.

This was the groups first visit out with People and the DALES and for most of the group their first visit to the Yorkshire Dales National Park. One of the group commented to me half way round

‘This is great, its beautiful here. Being out here makes you forget all your problems back home. I’d like to come back and do more.’

That to me is what people and the DALES is all about.

Thanks guys for being so great and for making it a great day out here’s looking forward to that visit to Malham in the Spring.”

People and the DALES not only gives many disadvantaged groups the opportunity to experience the Dales – the project also aims to inspire people to come back to the Dales off their own steam. Gail, Judy and Dave have had lots of success with their Walk Leader training, which is giving community group members the skills and knowledge to organise their own trips to the Dales – and so potentially passing on the benefits to thousands more people.

For more information about how you can get involved with People and the DALES you can contact Gail by email on Gail.Smith@ydmt.org

As anyone who is friends with me knows, I have been reading a LOT of colonial  history over the course of the last few months. 

So on the eve of that most colonial of American holidays, Thanksgiving, I thought I would write something about it on this blog. 

William Bradford wonders for all eternity: "Who ate all the stuffing?"

One thing that has always been a mild source of rhetorical confusion for me is the difference between the term “Pilgrim” and “Puritan”.  Were Pilgrims coming over on the Mayflower Puritans? Or did Pilgrims have a separate, nuanced identity apart from Puritans?  Or were Pilgrims the non-religious people coming over with the Puritans?  I wasn’t quite a 100 percent sure. 

To answer this question, I turned to the distinctly non-American online version of the Oxford English Dictionary.   According to the OED, a common U.S. usage of the term Pilgrim refers to the settlers of the Plymouth Colony.:

 1630, William Bradford (the second governor of Plymouth) uses pilgrim of the settlers figuratively, alluding to Hebrews 11:13 (cf. sense 3). The same phraseology was repeated by Cotton Mather and others, and became familiar in New England. By the late 18th cent. commemorative toasts were often given to ‘the Pilgrims’ or ‘the Sons of the Pilgrims’, and through such celebration Pilgrim and Pilgrim Father eventually passed into use as historical designation

So then I looked up the definition of Puritan in the OED.  According to them, a Puritan was:

A member of a group of English Protestants of the late 16th and 17th centuries, who regarded the reformation of the Church under Elizabeth I as incomplete and sought to remove any remaining elements of church practice (such as ceremonies, church ornaments, the use of musical instruments, and in some cases episcopal authority) which they considered corrupt, idolatrous, or unscriptural.

So in essence, the term Pilgrim seems to become a term to separate Puritans in America with those Puritans left behind in England. 

However, the Pilgrim Hall Museum (yes, there is one), suggests that the Puritans that came over on the Mayflower in 1620 and founded the Plymouth Colony were different than the Puritans who came in 1630 on ships such as the Arbella to start the Massachussetts Bay Colony.  In a piece on their Web site called Pilgrim and Puritan: A Delicate Distinction, Richard Howard Maxwell writes:

In other words, the Pilgrims who settled Plymouth were puritans seeking to reform their church [in England], and the Puritans who settled Massachusetts Bay were pilgrims (with that lower-case “p”) who moved to a whole new land because of their religious convictions. Now you know why I call it a “delicate distinction!”

That should clear everything up (he said sarcastically).   

As far as the first Thanksgiving goes, below is an account of the first Thanksgiving in August 1621 from William Bradford’s History Of Plimoth Plantation (FYI—he’s a terrible speller).  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

They begane now to gather in ye small harvest they  had, and to fitte up their houses and dwellings against winter, being all well recovered in health & strenght, and had all things in good plenty; for as some were thus imployed in affairs abroad, others were excersised in fishing, aboute codd, & bass, & other fish, of which y ey tooke good store, of which every family had their portion. All y e somer ther was no wante.  And now begane to come in store of foule, as winter aproached, of which this place did abound when they came first (but afterward decreased by degrees). And besids  water foule, ther was great store of wild Turkies, of which they tooke many, besids venison, &c. Besids they had aboute a peck a meale a weeke to a person, or now since harvest, Indean corne to y* proportion. Which made many afterwards write so largly of their plenty hear to their freinds in England, which were not fained, but true reports.

The Nolan Insignia website is named after a former relative, Johannah Nolan. We are keen genealogists and we also believe in ancestor worship and ancestor spirits, in the Shaman sense. One of our direct relatives was a man called William Makepeace who worked as a Footman for Lady Olivia Bernard Sparrow at Brampton Park in Huntingdon, in the 1830’s. Some relatives were wealthy and others were poor but they always had a good sense of self and were proud of their abilities, whether they were serving others or serving themselves. Some were farmers, some were teachers and others had a trade. Many were interested in the arts.

Sir Harrison Birtwistle, the composer is related to us via Caroline Makepeace Harrison, one of the daughters of William Makepeace and Mary Cragg. he is a distant cousin, (hence his name, Harrison). We are also related to science fiction writer and novelist Stanley Makepeace-Lott, from a time when some of the family lived at 75, 99 and 105 Brunswick Road in Liverpool, Merseyside, now possibly demolished.

A very intrepid distant cousin (with a lot of time on his hands and presumably a lot of hobby money to spare!) has actually traced one branch of our family back to the 15th Century. Some of the Makepeaces were cousins of the Washington family and both families held on to Sulgrave Manor in Oxfordshire until about 1659, where apparently there is a statue of George Washington, so presumably we are all distantly related to him too!

The reason for this post is that we’d like to think that we are also carrying on some of the Makepeace art at Nolan Insignia, as we take our Theater of the Streets very seriously as a ‘Street’ art-form.

Sir Harrison Birtwistle

Sulgrave Manor

Nolan Insignia

BRADFORD, Pa A husband, wife and their 9-year-old son have been found after spending the night lost in the Allegheny National Forest in northwestern Pennsylvania.

State police say the three weren’t injured. Their names weren’t released, but police say they’re from Corry in nearby Erie County.

Relatives alerted police after the family didn’t return from hiking. They were last seen about 2 p.m. Sunday and were located about 1:45 p.m. Monday, though police and forest officials didn’t say how they were found.

The forest covers 802 square miles in four counties, Elk, Forest, McKean and Warren.

The National Weather Service says the low temperature overnight was 30 degrees. Temperatures were in the mid-40s Monday afternoon.

The family had been hiking on a trail near the Kinzua Dam off Route 59.