WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Stanley]

Funny how the accusations of paedophilia against George Thomas, late Speaker of the Commons, surfaced and then vanished.... (LINK) I supposed investigations are ongoing and we will eventually have a new flood of prosecutions....
No sooner had I posted that when THIS popped up in the news. One good thing which came out of the Savile affair was that the dam was broken and people felt able to divulge episodes of abuse to which they had been exposed. There must be some very worried man about out there.... Good!

[David Whipp]

On a lighter note...

This morning; short stretch of Albert Road well and truly closed.



The closure is just the section from the Town Square to Newtown.

Probably best not turning down Frank Street off Rainhall Road when the closures are in place (Thursdays and Saturdays) as you'd need to turn at the bottom.

Traffic coming off Fernlea Avenue onto Albert Road will need to turn left on Frank Street and go onto Rainhall Road.

Otherwise, traffic is unaffected.

[Tizer]

Reading the newspaper article about Dawkins I was amused to see the author writing "Sure, he wrote some pop science books back in the day, but why do we keep having him on TV and in the newspapers?" Well, the answer is that it's because people like you madam keep on writing about him in newspapers and it makes money for you and the publishers!

[Tizer]

BBC News, 31 July 2014, Last updated at 16:38
Ferrybridge power station Castleford on fire
"A fire has broken out at Ferrybridge C power station, near Castleford, West Yorkshire. Plumes of black smoke coming from the coal-fired plant have caused problems on nearby motorways and other roads. West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service sent about 75 firefighters to the site at about 14:00 BST. Yorkshire Ambulance Service said it had sent a hazardous area response team. There have been no reports of injuries on the site. National Grid said the power station was currently on "summer shutdown" and had not been generating electricity."
More here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-28588714

[Stanley]

My mate Geoff was the manager there for many years.... I saw the cooling towers falling November 1st 1965, weirdest sight I have ever seen. No dust clouds unlike explosive demolition, they just rotated and vanished.

[David Whipp]

Yorkshire Day today!

Flying the flag on the Town Square; Ken Hartley is worried he may have flown it upside down...

[Thomo]

One petal at the top, two at the bottom.

[David Whipp]

Ken assures me he's got it the right way round.

[Stanley]

Obama coming clean about rendition and torture used by the US.
The Ebola epidemic. The WHO says it is spreading faster than the precautions being put in place.

[David Whipp]

Barlick Beach late last night.

Some finishing touches and clearing up to do, but we'll be ready for opening at 10am.

[Tizer]

How about this for showing off the Yorkshire flag?
http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php ... #msg455072

[Marilyn]

David, ( forgive my ignorance), but why a beach?
If I need to read back and find why, just tell me to...

[David Whipp]

Why a beach?

When trying to think of events that would attract visitors into Barnoldswick, with the aim of increasing the trade in the town centre and helping keep Barlick a vibrant place, I came across the beach created each summer in Paris. I thought we could do something similar.

I think this is the fifth year of Barnoldswick Beach. The initiative was a huge success from the start and we were staggered by the flood of folk who surged onto our beach the first year. Helped in no small way by the decision to enclose the whole thing in a large marquee; Barlick generally has wetter summers than Paris!

The event attracts a mixture of local families, especially grandparents with summer childcare commitments, and visitors, sometimes from very surprising distances away. The numbers of people coming are stunning; last year, over 3,000 individual children were registered as Beach users and total visits were well over 10,000 people.

Once the Beach is up and running, my main job is 'meeting and greeting'. I hear how for many people this is their first visit to Barnoldswick and people tell me how impressed they are with the town.

The Beach has become such a feature of Barnoldswick's summer that we would probably be lynched if we didn't hold it.

Paid for by Barnoldswick Town Council (it costs about £10,000 to stage), the event is run entirely by volunteers and is FREE family friendly fun for beach goers.There's now a whole host of volunteers helping to put the Beach on, including quite a few teenagers. The event is helping grow and develop the increasing band of civic minded Barlickers willing to put time and effort in to providing activities for the wider community.

The event has stimulated many ancillary activities that take place in conjunction with the beach. This time, Barnoldswick in Bloom are holding a series of four, weekly Duck Races to raise money towards work in the Sensory Garden at the Memorial Gardens.

In the last couple of years, we have developed a fundraising angle to the Beach (and the other town council run activities). Each year, the chairman chooses charities to support during their year of office. Last year, Ken Hartley raised almost £3,000 for RNLI, Mountain Rescue and local Hospital Minibus funds. This year, Claire Teall has chosen Yorkshire and North West Air Ambulances as the beneficiaries of her fundraising efforts and we're hoping that donations at the Beach will help see last year's total surpassed.

I hope that gives a flavour of some of the reasons we have Barnoldswick Beach; I'd just like to add a personal reason, seeing so many children and families getting so much enjoyment and social interaction out of the event gives me a great deal of satisfaction!

Here are a couple of photos from the opening day.

[Marilyn]

Looks like a huge success.

I remember my firstvisit to Barlick about 10 years ago whilst on my Ancestry trail ( having left Barlick as a child) and I called in at the council offices to see if they perhaps sold a picture CD or DVD of the town. The lovely lady, who was extremely helpful, laughed. "Who would want pictures of Barlick?" she asked in amazement.
Obviously there has been a bit of a campaign to promote Barlick since then and generate life into the square. I remember they day we sat there, it was just us and the birds.

So I wonder if anyone has put pictures together to sell...

[Stanley]

I think you have another project David!
A long call from an old friend at English Heritage.

[David Whipp]

Don't know about selling pictures, but there are plenty for free on different websites?

We have talked about producing a Barnoldswick in Bloom calendar; not sure that we have the extra special shots that a calendar merits though. Maybe we could do a Visit Barnoldswick calendar?

We currently have a professional photographer commissioned to produce new stock photos for web use (and hopefully a new Visit Barnoldswick glossy brochure if people agree to it).

[Tizer]

David, you might also consider a calendar or booklet of pictures of `old Barlick'. The local history group in our village do a calendar based on old black & white photos - and this is a tiny place of only about 200 houses with no town square and didn't have any factories etc. The calendar sells well locally and to ex-pats.

[Tripps]

With wonderful timing, and after several postponements, the first batch of Libyan troops have arrived at out local barracks for 24 weeks training. Signs around the place have been bilingual English / Arabic for some time now.

"A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said: “These recruits have been carefully vetted by the Libyan Government and Home Office officials to ensure that security and immigration controls are maintained and that those selected are representative of all of Libya."

What could possibly go wrong?

That was less than two months ago -
Just about everything it seems. British embassy closed and relocated to Tunisia - a 'gunboat ' on the way to rescue passport holders. Fuel depot ablaze, airport closed. Freedom and democracy indeed.

From the Guardian
Libya is in the grip of its worst violence since the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Islamist militias from the coastal city of Misrata have led the assault on airport, seeking to seize it from militias from the mountain town of Zintan. The fighters are mainly former rebels who toppled Gaddafi with the aid of Nato air strikes

[Thomo]

Islamic extremists at their best again. Gaza, Libya, Iraq, Egypt,The Sudan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Chad, Nigeria, China, Thailand and many other places. But we have to love them or we could become Islamophobic !!!! Or so we are often told.

[Nolic]

The sight and sound of steam engines on the mid Norfolk railway which is about 6 metres from our holiday cottage. Misty flew into a rage when she heard an old GCR engine blowing off steam and whistle. This GWR 94xx pannier tank is a bit far away from home.

[Stanley]

Comrade, nothing does it for me quite as well as steam trains. But there you are, I'm a dinosaur!

[Bruff]

'Yorkshire Day today!'

Why is Yorkshire Day 1 August? As a Lancastrian (born in Christiana Hartley in Colne), is there a Lancashire Day? Indeed, do all counties have their day, so to speak. I have to say I didn't know there was a 'Yorkshire Flag' until I watched the Tour de France - who designed that?

Having a Swiss mother-in-law, I know 1 August as Switzerland's National Day.

Richard Broughton

[Nolic]

A holiday cottage with windows set low in the eaves - just the right height for a lurcher to peep through and respond to the sights and sounds of local wildlife stirring means getting up at the crack of dawn to take Misty out for a walk. Failure to respond to her gentle attempts to get me from under the duvet produces a more extreme response of a running jump and landing on me. The walk just allows her to have a good sniff and explore down the lane before turning round and heading back to the cottage for her breakfast. Ten minutes later she's fast asleep in the garden and I'm thinking who's the leader of this household and is it worth one of her minions going back to bed???? Nolic

[Julie in Norfolk]

'Yorkshire Day today!'

Why is Yorkshire Day 1 August? As a Lancastrian (born in Christiana Hartley in Colne), is there a Lancashire Day? Indeed, do all counties have their day, so to speak. I have to say I didn't know there was a 'Yorkshire Flag' until I watched the Tour de France - who designed that?

Having a Swiss mother-in-law, I know 1 August as Switzerland's National Day.

Richard Broughton

I ollus assumed the Yorkshire flag would just be a white flag! (tee hee)

[Julie in Norfolk]

The sight and sound of steam engines on the mid Norfolk railway which is about 6 metres from our holiday cottage. Misty flew into a rage when she heard an old GCR engine blowing off steam and whistle. This GWR 94xx pannier tank is a bit far away from home.

Where are you Nolic? Enjoy your stay in the flatlands! If you miss the hills, there is one in Norwich and another (man-made) in Thetford.