1 F OOTNOTE S Issue No. 74 Summer 2014 News from Ramblers City of Birmingham Group Editor David Sutton Contact: 194 Station Road Kings Heath Birmingham B14 7TE 0121 444 6188 Email: david.sutton986 @btinternet.com Muddy Meanderings By David Sutton T here’s impor- tant news about the Birming- ham Group’s AGM in November. For a number of years we have held our annual general meetings at St. Chad’s Cathedral in the city centre. This year we are moving to a new location on the Hagley Road, a very accessible, modern venue. The full details may be found on page 2. Don’t forget to put the date in your diary! And don’t forget too, that our website keeps members fully up to date on our activities, and you can follow us on Facebook and Twitter. AGM (New venue!) 2 Social Report 3 Book review 5 Taskforce volunteers 6 Frank Holland obituary 9 Inside this issue: New venue for our AGM See page 2 for details!
Transcript
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Issue 74
F O O T N O T E S
Issue No. 74 Summer 2014
News from Ramblers City of Birmingham Group
Editor David Sutton
Contact: 194 Station Road
Kings Heath Birmingham
B14 7TE
0121 444 6188 Email:
david.sutton986 @btinternet.com
Muddy Meanderings
By David Sutton
T here’s impor-tant news
about the Birming-ham Group’s AGM in November. For a number of years we have held our annual general
meetings at St. Chad’s Cathedral in the city centre. This year we are moving to a new location on the Hagley Road, a very accessible, modern venue. The full details may be found on page 2. Don’t forget to put the date in your diary!
And don’t forget too, that our website keeps members fully up to date on our activities, and you can follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
AGM (New venue!)
2
Social Report 3
Book review 5
Taskforce volunteers
6
Frank Holland obituary
9
Inside this issue:
New venue for our AGM
See page 2 for details!
2
Footnotes
THE CITY OF BIRMINGHAM GROUP ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Friday 14th November 2014
Guest Speaker Naseem Akhtar Vice-Chair Ramblers Board of Trustees
We hereby give notice to members that the Annual General Meeting of the City of Birmingham Group of the
formal proceedings. Hagley Road Village has its own licensed bar where you may
purchase beverages.
(Car parking will be available at the Village)
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Social Report
By Derek Garfield
I t was good to see so many friends at our Annual Dinner on 7th March,
some of whom we don’t see very often these days. A chance to meet and have a chat in the bar before the main event. The Eaton Hotel has been our venue for the last few years and they have served us well. This year, as usual, the ambience, service and food were as good as ever and I think we
are likely to remain with them for the foreseeable future! Our after dinner entertainment was ‘The Singing Vicar’, whose
versatility in popular music from many decades, gave us a memora-ble evening’s entertainment in song.
The annual dinner this year was as popular as ever, with a good crowd of Ramblers, family and friends, who I hope will be able to join in again next year. And there’s always room for any of you who haven’t attended—watch out for booking forms next year!
I am stepping down from the committee as social secretary later this year, but I will look forward to joining you at the next annual dinner, where you can treat me simply as a guest, instead of your Master of Ceremonies!
Socially yours, Derek Garfield.
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Footnotes
RAMBLER OF THE YEAR
2014
Saying “Thank you” - a little job for you!
For the fifth year running we would like to recognise the important role that our volunteers play
in making our Group so special.
Our 5th annual award for the
R a m b l e r o f t h e Y e a r
will be presented at the AGM in November 2014.
This is your chance to reward a fellow member for their efforts. Please could you play your part by nominating
the volunteer who you think deserves the award this year? Send or give your nominations in writing, to any Committee
member before October, so that the winner can be
announced in November ~~~
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Book Review
Walking Home by Simon Armitage
Walking Home : Travels with a Troubadour on the Pennine Way, by Simon Armitage. Faber & Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-24989-3.
I was recently given this by a friend, also a rambler, who now lives near the Pennine Way.
Simon Armitage is Professor of Poetry at Sheffield University but this is not a book of poetry though it contains a little. It is also not a detailed guide-book. Instead it is his account of his walk from north to south on the Way (he lives near the southern end) and describes the people he met
en route, the very mixed weather and the varying terrain. He funded his project by giving poetry readings at his overnight
stops and passing around the hat, or in his case it was a sock. He treats the various eccentrics and characters he met gently and describes the many kindnesses and usually free accommodation which he enjoyed. He gives a good feel for the countryside, using pub snugs, village halls, living rooms etc for his readings and is accompanied on some stretches by friends, Rangers, locals, people who found out about his enterprise on the internet and family.
This is not heavy literature though he writes very fluently, as one would expect. His descriptions of meadows are very inviting but peat bog shrouded in mist and rain and with invisible views, even in the summer convinced me that now I’ve read his account I don’t need to copy his example. What do you mean, you’ve never tried clumping through peat bog in horizontal rain? ... Oh! happy memo-ries of the Offa’s Dyke Path along the Black Mountains...
This is a gentle and amusing read and a good gift for a rambler.
Reviewed by Ceri Dittrich
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Footnotes
Our Taskforce Volunteers
By David Sutton
O ne of our charitable objectives is to protect and maintain public rights of way. And the Birmingham Group has its own
“taskforce” or Rights of Way Volunteers who help with the repair and maintenance of stiles and waymarking posts. Here are some photographs of our taskforce in action recently at Nether Whitacre. The work involved the installation of a kissing gate and waymarking posts, plus associated clearance of vegetation, repair to fencing etc.
On hand was a representative of Warwickshire County Council (who provide the materials for the job) and our volunteers, leader Roger Gibbs, plus Janet Gibbs, Peter Leadbetter, Andy Bates, Bernard
James and Phil Barnes. Pictures by Andy Bates.
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Opposite page: Shiny and new, the completed kissing gate and
waymarker posts!
Right: Tired old stile, about to be retired!
Left: Peter and Phil make a find—
a bit of the “Warwickshire
Hoard” perhaps! Or maybe just a lost nut found...
Right: Four of the team show their
mettle...
The other two must be on tea break!
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Footnotes
Frank Holland – 1933-2014
A t the end of March it was with sadness that we learnt of Frank’s death. Frank spent all of his life in Birmingham, attending St.
Philip’s Grammar School and eventually helping to run the family firm in Sheldon. Frank discovered group rambling via the Birming-ham Catholic Rambling Club when he was middle-aged, but enthu-siastically set about making up for lost time. He regularly led local rambles for the BCRC and RA particularly favouring, on his side of the city, Fillongley, Hampton-in-Arden and Berkswell, where he was often accompanied on the recces by his pet Papillon dog named Candy. However for rambles further afield Frank’s heart was in Scotland and he introduced many of us to the Trossachs area which he knew well from earlier family visits.
On his 50th birthday Frank walked 50 miles, starting out at around 4am. In the late 1980’s Frank, Johanna Gaskin and I completed the West Highland Way, the Coast-to-Coast, the Pennine Way and the Cleveland Way together. Frank’s lovely nature, quick wit, excellent map-reading skills plus his knowledge of wild flowers and butterflies enhanced these holidays for us. I remember him returning from an RA flora holiday to Austria and describing it as a little bit of paradise. Frank even named the canal narrowboat that he bought, Heligan, after the Lost Gardens. Our final trip abroad with Frank was to north-west Spain where he walked the last 10kms of the Santiago de Compostela.
So Frank from those of us who shared your love of the great out-
doors, thank you for our happy holidays and may you rest in peace.
BIRMINGHAM GROUP ON-LINE PRESENCE: Our WEB address is www.birminghamramblers.org.uk
On FACEBOOK we are at https://www.facebook.com/cobramblers And look us up on TWITTER too!
By Mary Gibbons
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Footnotes
The Map Library
T he Birmingham Group’s Map Library has been ably managed
for a number of years by Bernard Horton, to allow walk leaders to borrow maps for planning and leading walks. Bernard recently handed over the reins to our new map library administrator, Roger “Dixie” Dean.
The group holds hundreds of maps, both Explorer and Landranger and Dixie will be bringing out the catalogue of holdings on the Sunday coach rambles for anyone to browse. The library offers an excellent way to plan walks without the need for you to buy a map. If you’re not out on Sundays, contact him for details/requests to 0121 476 1361.
SOCIAL SECRETARY/EVENT PLANNER JOB.
Our present social secretary, Derek Garfield, will be standing down from the group committee this coming November and we are looking for someone to take on the role of planning events, either as a "full time" social secretary for the group or on an ad hoc basis, organising the occasional event. We usually have one or two Walk Days Out during the year, plus one Annual Day Out and we also hold occasional Social Events locally. Derek and the rest of the
committee will offer support for anyone wishing to take on the organisation of an event. If you are interested in having a stab at this rewarding job, as a one-off, or with a view to taking it on as a Birmingham Group committee post, please reply to this email or speak to any committee member on our walks.
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Please Note: Any discounts shown in this publication are wholly at the discretion of the retailer and are not an entitlement to Ramblers members.
The Ramblers’ Association is a registered charity (England & Wales no 1093577, Scotland no SC039799) and a company limited by guarantee, registered in England & Wales (no 4458492). Registered office: 2nd floor, Camelford House, 87-90 Albert Em-bankment, London SE1 7TW
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