BARNOLDSWICK HERITAGE WEEKEND 2014

[Thomo]

I believe that it is time to inject new blood into the original topic as this is scheduled to become one of the major events in Barlick this year. The original idea was first suggested in October 2013, and was to be one of the towns contributions to mark the Centenary of WW1. This event was set to take place on the 6th and 7th of September 2014 and based around the theme of a "Wartime Weekend". It was not long before it was discovered that other groups had their own agenda's, and so the idea was modified in a bid to encompass other parties wishes. The loss of the Rohilla on the 30th of October 1914 was without doubt something that had a major impact on this town, and it was decided that this should be the main feature of the event, I will return to what is happening in respect of the Rohilla shortly. As a part of the work being done it is intended that although the weekend event will be possibly the largest part of this project, there will be "spin offs" at other times, the work on these is ongoing and will be promulgated when clarity is achieved. When last years re dedication was being planned several problems arose, these were eventually overcome but cast a shadow right up to the last minute, we can already assume that this will be the case this year. Probably the greatest problem is getting all interested parties together to discuss the intended plan and put forward their own suggestions, a lack of communication can be hard to overcome. Given that this planned event is to take place in the centre of the town, the major part in the town square, it is clear that the bulk of the effort will come from the Town Council and to a degree from Pendle Council, I have found both to be approachable and good to work with, and getting in touch with them is not difficult at all, there is no valid reason for anyone to wait until the eleventh hour.
There have been several issues already that could cause concern but with luck and good management can be sorted out. Two weeks ago I had a late call from someone telling me that I had got the dates wrong and that the Heritage Weekend was to be on the following week, the 13th and 14th of September, mild panic ensued as we already had three major features planned for the original. this was quickly sorted out but caused a sleepless night. Barnoldswick Heritage Weekend is the week before the National Heritage Weekend which comes on the latter dates. It is also clear that the heading "A Wartime Weekend" causes concern, this from my aspect will now be dropped. In the 1980s I was asked by a member of staff at a local school as to how they could adopt a Warship, at that time this could still be done and came with benefits, the ship could raise funds for the school and the children could go on arranged visits to the ship. After enquiries the staff member put the idea to the Headmistress who was so appalled by the idea of her precious charges becoming involved with a Warship and its crew, albeit a British one that she became so ill she had to go home. Sensitivities have to be addressed in order to attempt to please everyone, and this is not easy.

As things stand at present in regard to the Barnoldswick Heritage Weekend, and given that the Rohilla is to be the main feature, I am in the course of putting together a display of which the loss of the Rohilla will be the centrepiece. I have re-worked the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Certificates for each of the 12 Men lost on that day and yesterday I was given the loan of an art print that portrays the wreck, at 27" by 21" this could be the centrepiece with the certificates displayed around it. The 12 Men who were lost were not the only Sailors to die in WW1, there were another 4, these will also be included in the display as will the 17 from WW2. It is to be a Maritime display with the Rohilla at its core. If this is done on a display board, the artefacts coming from the Lifeboat Museum at Whitby could be on a bench below it, and of course there is the Lifeboat "William Riley", possibly in the Town Square or by the War Memorial. The display that I am working on will be the most up to date at the time given. The other Services will we hope not be left out, we have the Lancaster Bomber on the 6th courtesy of the RAF, 4Yorks are going to see what they can do as are the Men and Women of the Royal Naval Reserve of Ceres Division at Leeds. Here now is the picture of the Wreck of the Rohilla and the Certificate for Arthur Petty:-

[plaques]

In the 1980s I was asked by a member of staff at a local school as to how they could adopt a Warship, at that time this could still be done and came with benefits, the ship could raise funds for the school and the children could go on arranged visits to the ship.

In 1989 Burnley adopted "HMS Active" a type 21 frigate, and named the newly built road parallel to Bankhouse St. "Active Way".
An anchor was presented to Burnley which is still on display on Active Way. To my mind this was an excellent bit of PR and did nobody any harm.

[Thomo]

Quite so Plaques. The picture of the wreck of the Rohilla has been loaned to me by Mrs. Doris Haworth who lives just a few doors away. Doris, who lost her Husband on Christmas Eve last year has always shown a keen interest in the Rohilla and with good reason, she is related by descent from no less than three of the victims. She will be invited to attend the Centenary event at Whitby in October but in three weeks time she is off to Australia and will not return until late in July, not bad for someone aged about 90. In the book the Rohilla tragedy comes under the heading of "Barlicks Worst Day" and fills over 20 pages, there were however similar losses in a single day on three occasions in 1917. The greatest number of losses from this Town are recorded on the Memorials at Thiepval, the Menin Gate and Ploegsteert.

[Thomo]

From here on in, I am going to include the work on the book as a part of this topic as it is hoped that its launch will be a part of this event. I started converting it to PDF yesterday which is also the ideal time for a final check of its contents, each page being done individually. Slow but sure, ten pages per session, the name index being built in the process.

[Thomo]

Multiple projects being worked in tandem do not come without problems, and can give rise to sleepless nights. The most recent concerns the book, a fellow member whom I hold in high regard, and who is also involved in the Heritage Weekend asked yesterday, Would not the printers prefer the PDFs as a single file? 400 pages as one file as opposed to 400 individual files. This has caused a bit of worry already. The Word to PDF Converter that I am using is Easy PDF, a freebie but only does one page at a time, other more extensive freebies tend to come with a large amount of addons, after trying Cute PDF it took two hours to remove it and its associated 2.5 gigs of unwanted crap! I have spoken with the printers this morning, and yes they can work with what I am producing helped by the arrangement that will given to them on a DVD which will be self explanatory. One other thing that now concerns me is the Civil Aviation Authority, the original request was sent last year by the preferred e/mail, and I have not heard from them, if this persists I will be sending them the hard copy next week. I need this before going onto the next stage with the BBMF.

[PanBiker]

If it helps at all Peter, when I organised the BBMF Dakota a few years back, all correspondence with the BBMF and the CAA was done via hard copy and the normal postal mail. It was only nearer the event that my mobile phone number (which is asked for) was used to liaise with the BBMF flight director in the run up to the event and on the day itself to update flypast schedules and give the latest in information on the flight plan for the aircraft.

[Thomo]

Both the BBMF and CAA stated that the e/mail applications were preferred. In desperation I sent a hard copy to the BBMF, this finally worked, I will now do the same for the CAA. If people prefer e/mails, they should damn well open them. I have just reached page 160 in the book conversion process. Now its time for dinner, and thank you Ian, every little helps.

[PanBiker]

Have you had to send the annotated OS maps to the BBMF and CAA? I ask as that would rather difficult via email.

[Thomo]

Not yet Ian, but if I cannot resolve this issue shortly I may be asking for your help. I have just arrived at the half way point in converting the files to PDF at page 200. The available information has also been passed to another printer at Nelson, there has been nil response from Lamberts at Settle.

[Thomo]

I have had a response from Printoff at Nelson and have spoken again with the receptionist of Lamberts at Settle, I am still awaiting a reply. Conversion to PDF has just arrived at 75%, time for a break whilst "marbles" are still in place!

[Thomo]

A price quote has just arrived from Nelson and has been passed to the appropriate Town and Borough Council Officials, it is now time for Lamberts to get their finger out!

[Thomo]

1400 on Friday and the conversion to PDF is complete, time for a sigh of relief and a celebratory tot of rum.

[Thomo]

Welcome back to Barlick. This may be rather more mundane than the plethora of political idealism on other topics, but here it is anyway. The book is now complete and all converted to PDF. Lamberts have finally come back with a price, and a fourth printer at Earby has promised one before the end of this day. The main work is now done and it is up to others to decide what happens next. This morning I received an invitation to attend the Rohilla events at Whitby in November, below is a copy of the cover.

[Thomo]

I have been a bit busy since my last post, the onset of a little decent weather enabled outside overdue work to be done. During this time I have had two visits from a true Gentleman, Mr. Bob Abel of the Earby History Society. This relates to their invitation to speak at the launch of their new book on Saturday next. This I consider to be an unexpected honour, and I am looking forward to it. On his first visit, he brought the hard copy of their book for me to have a read, I gave him the hard copy of my book, the first 200 pages only as I gave over printing it due to the rapidly changing nature of the work, it is now clear that their research and mine have a parallel course. In regard to my own work, in these past weeks I have re done all of the 400 pages and converted the lot to PDF for the benefit of printers. Work on the weekend event has been halted during this but will be resumed shortly. A recent idea for something that may interest old and young alike came today when I was considering the possible future re instalment of my Flight Simulator, given a suitable power supply this could be moved to the marquee for the event and under my supervision give others a chance to "have a go" I have the option of loading it with both civilian and military scenarios, everything from a microlight to a 797, or, a Sopwith Pup to a Eurofighter Typhoon or Lancaster bomber.

[Thomo]

At Bob's last visit, and having seen the original title for the book, he suggested that "A small Town's contribution to conflict" may imply that we were in some way responsible for it. Comments of this nature are valuable, and I respect Bob's opinion. It is now re worked as "A small Town's part in conflicts", further comments are welcome. Something else has changed as well, the White Ensign that flew out front was damaged in the bad weather and has been replaced by a Union Flag, apt because this is the flag that was draped over the WW1 panel on re dedication day last year.

[Thomo]

This morning I had a response to a mail sent to the Lancashire Regiment six months ago inviting them to take part in our event, this is the belated reply:-

"Mr Thompson,

I apologise for my delay in not getting back to you, but as you might appreciate we are very busy. We have looked at your request, but we are not able to assist due to our busy commitments and we have had to decline invitations from Towns where that we already have the Freedom.
For your information, bands are a separate issue and are centrally controlled by the Army, including our Regimental band, and with the exception of direct Army support tasks, for example to specific Regimental events, there is a charge made. I have coped in the Band WO1 in case you want to investigate further with him availability and cost.

All best wishes for your weekend.

Chris Owen"

Thomo; "This is of no consequence now as I was advised ages ago to forget them. maybe they are still smarting a little. Another point here is that there was never any mention of a fee for the involvement of 4Yorks last year".

The book "Barnoldswick, a small Town's part in conflicts, 1800-2014" is now complete and converted to PDF for printing when the go ahead is given.

[Thomo]

Having had nil response from the CAA ref the Lancaster flypast, I was about to despatch a hard copy, but rang them first. The application has been received and is in a queue. It was ever thus!

[Thomo]

So what else is happening in regard to this topic? Annotated maps and aerial pics. are now ready to go the the BBMF Events Team. The book is complete and ready for the printers. The Heritage Lottery fund have acknowledged the Town's application which will be considered by the end of this month, and the result given to the Town Council ASAP by letter. Ceres Division of the Royal Naval Reserve at Leeds are keen to take a part and have asked how they can do this. Suggestions for this are an informal guard on the William Riley, assisting in the manning of the Rohilla/maritime display. Work on this display has now resumed, the 16 Men who lost their lives at sea in WW1, each will have an A4 re worked CWGC Certificate including family details and pictures, these are ready for printing. The centrepiece for this part of the display is in my care and is a large print of the painting of the wreck of the Rohilla. Peripheral to this will be similar certificates for the 16 Royal and Merchant Navy Men from WW2. If approved I would also like to add one for a 10 year old boy originally from here who was lost in the sinking of the City of Benares in September 1940, my cousin Gordon Walsh. I will shortly be asking what is happening in respect of Wilfred Anker's headstone. HRH the Duke of York asked for information on last years re dedication with pictures, this I can now get on with. The hoped for message for last years event did not happen as he was unaware of the request until after that event, and he has offered to do something similar for the future. If I can get this underway it could be added to the front of the book in place of a foreword. That just about sums it all up, but there is still time for suggestions and comments.

[Thomo]

A letter has gone to HRH the Duke of York via his Equerry Lt Cdr Michael Hutchinson, also enclosed are the requested details and pictures of the re dedication. The letter outlines this years event with an invitation to send a message for display etc. Talking with the owner of the Morris Commercial Radio truck yesterday and one of friends revealed that there is a preserved WW1 Crossley Army Wagon and Panther motor bike at a farm in the Gisburn area, I now have contact details for the owner. It also transpired that an old schoolmate of mine from Kelbrook has a good collection cars from that era. The time from now to the event is rapidly diminishing but there is still enough left for useful suggestions and comments.

[plaques]

Thomo. Mentioning vintage war vehicles have you considered contacting the Rotary Club of Burnley Vintage Cars Link. also some of the Towneley activities look interesting.Towneley Link

[Thomo]

Thanks for that "P" they could be of help here. One of the main objects of this exercise has been to gain as much impact as possible, with minimum outlay. It is not a case of being "stingy" or anything like that, but the current local financial situation does not need to be overworked.

[Thomo]

The letter to the Duke of York's Equerry, posted 1st class recorded on the 10th of June, finally arrived on his desk last Friday afternoon, it will be presented to HRH later today. The Equerry, Lt Cdr. Michael Hutchinson RN, suggested that the best way to approach the book foreword issue would be to produce a draft copy and mail it to him for the Dukes endorsement. In the past as a Marine Engineer Officers Writer I have produced letters, CVs etc. for various high ranking Officers, but this will be a first!! fortunately I have a fair number of books that I can crib from. All else is quiet at present, the next major event will be the decision good or bad from the Heritage Lottery Fund, due at the end of this month, fingers crossed.

[Thomo]

Late yesterday afternoon I mailed the annotated maps etc. to the BBMF Events team. This morning I received this:-


All received thanks. Will firm up timings around 30 days before
Regards

Antony Parkinson / Parky

FLT LT A F PARKINSON MBE RAF
BBMF Ops Officer & BBMF Fighter Pilot
RAF Coningsby, Lincs, LN4 4SY

[David Whipp]

The Town Council are expecting a letter about the Heritage Lottery grant application any day... fingers crossed!

[Thomo]

Everything crossed! Mail received this morning from the Ceres Division of the Royal Naval Reserve at Leeds asking for an update as they have to make their application for deployment 6 weeks pre event.