Clothworker Winter 2014 • No 12
The
www.clothworkers.co.uk
Master’s Welcome The first half of my year has been busy, but most enjoyable. Clothworker functions The three major social events, two Livery Dinners and the St Thomas’ Eve Lunch, have all been very successful. The speakers at the dinners have been particularly thought provoking – Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles in October giving his assessment of the outlook for Afghanistan and the need for vocational education, and Sir Ronald Cohen speaking in December on impact philanthropy. External events I have represented the Company at a large number of events, several accompanied by my wife, Susan. It is invidious to pick out particular events, but they have ranged from dinners with fellow Livery Companies and Guilds in London and Edinburgh to the Lord Mayor’s Charity Leadership Programme debate and the Garden of Remembrance Service at St Paul’s.
Front cover: © Ben Sparks : Maths Inspiration audience
New Freemen James du Boulay A distant cousin of the Master, James worked for several investment houses, including ABN AMRO, before joining P3P Partners in 2013. The company develops and operates efficient energy assets, particularly in natural gas/biomass to supply electrical and thermal energy.
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Affiliations It has also been a privilege to attend events with our affiliates. A small group of us were entertained to dinner at St James’s Palace when the Scots Guards were on Palace duty, and the Regimental Colonel, HRH the Duke of Kent, was present. I attended a most enjoyable dinner at Brize Norton as the guest of 47 Squadron and you can read an article on what they have been doing over recent months. Finally, a group of us were fortunate to be given a tour of HMS Dauntless in Portsmouth, and Alastair Mathewson has done a write-up of our visit. Property These are exciting times for the Company on the property front. You can read about the redevelopment at 120 Fenchurch Street on page 7. This is one of three major projects – 8-10
Moorgate was completed in mid 2014 and will be ING Bank’s UK head office, and 1 Angel Court is in the course of being partially demolished ahead of a redevelopment. These three transactions will have a significant impact on the Company’s finances over the long term. I wish you all the very best for 2015 and am looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible at forthcoming events. Michael Howell Master
Gareth Moore Son of Liveryman Loyd Moore, who lives in Toronto. The family connection goes back to 1877 when Gareth’s grandfather, William Withers Moore, was made Free of the Company by Redemption. He subsequently served as Master in 1918/19. Gareth is a retired veterinarian and lives in Virginia, USA. He is married with two grown up children. We were delighted to allow this
family connection to continue during a visit by the Moores to the UK.
Gareth and Loyd Moore with the Master and Senior Wardens
New Charter and Ordinances approved by the Lord Chief Justice in 1984, were couched in stilted language and contained a lot of detail which would be more appropriate for Standing Orders, which dictate how the Company is run on a day-to-day basis. The Court of Aldermen of the City Corporation have approved the new Ordinances and, in their response, commented that “the tidying up operation was very much in the spirit of what the Aldermen have been seeking to achieve with more modern charter provisions”. The oldest Charter we have is the one granted by Edward IV to The Fullers’ Company in 1480. Since then a number of Royal Charters have been granted to us, the most important of which was that granted by Henry VIII in 1528 to create The Clothworkers’ Company (pictured above). New Charter The Court decided recently to seek a new supplemental Charter which would retain the provisions of the 1528 Charter only in respect of incorporation, perpetual succession and the common seal. In all other respects, the new Charter would supersede and replace all provisions in any previous Charters. A meeting of the Commonalty (or membership) was convened on 24 June 2014 and approved the submission of a Petition and draft supplemental Charter to the Privy Council Office. The Petition was duly presented to Her Majesty in Council in midJuly, and Her Majesty referred the Petition to a committee of the Privy Council for consideration and report. In parallel, notice was placed in the London Gazette seeking petitions for or against the grant of a new Charter. On 8 October, at a meeting of the Privy Council held at Buckingham Palace, Her Majesty approved an Order granting the Supplemental Charter.
We have commissioned a leading heraldic calligrapher, Tim Noad, in conjunction with the College of Arms, to produce an illuminated version of the Charter on vellum to which the Great Seal will be affixed by the Crown Office in the House of Lords. It is only at this point that the Supplemental Charter will come into legal effect. We hope that this will happen in time for the Election Dinner. Ordinances Separately, the Company’s Ordinances (authoritative orders) have been rewritten. The existing Ordinances,
1639 Ordinances
Once the new Charter is formally granted, the Company will have governing documents which, whilst respecting its history and traditions, will serve it well in the modern world. Copies of the documents will shortly be available to view in the members’ area of the website.
Textiles Cockpit Arts
Nadia-Anne Ricketts
The first cohort of weavers supported by the Foundation has now completed its term in the studio at Cockpit Arts in Deptford, South East London. One of the weavers, Nadia-Anne Ricketts, has decided to stay on at Cockpit’s Holborn studio paying full fees. She comments below on the past two years and her plans for the future. Nadia-Anne Ricketts Imagine your favourite piece of music transposed into fabric – this is the work of visionary weaver Nadia-Anne Ricketts who combines innovative digital technology with traditional weaving skills to create luxury bespoke woven pieces. Nadia’s gorgeously rich fabrics offer a wide range of applications from largescale art installations and upholstery to fashion and home accessories. Two years after joining Cockpit, her registered business, BeatWoven®, is now producing fabric by the metre and one-off commissions for the V&A, Southbank Centre and Harrods. 4 | THE CLOTHWORKER | Winter 2014
Studio space Following a successful career as a professional dancer, Nadia studied a BA Hons Textiles Design, specialising in Weave, at Central St Martins. She arrived at Cockpit Arts in 2012 with a passion for dance and music and a fledgling business idea. She had been awarded a studio thanks to the Cockpit Arts/Clothworkers’ Foundation Award which provided a large dedicated studio space for six weavers at Cockpit’s Deptford incubator. This subsidised studio space has played a vital role during the formative years of Nadia’s business. ‘BeatWoven® has been extremely expensive to set up as there has been a lot of research and development in the early stages of the business,’ explains Nadia. ‘Initially I was not in a position to sell products or make any money back, so being able to keep my costs down with a subsidised studio space has helped me incredibly.’ Coaching and support During one-to-one coaching sessions with Cockpit’s Business Development Team, Nadia was helped to successfully apply for a School for Start-ups’ Launcher Loan and the UAL Seed Fund. Along with a further year’s funding from the Cockpit Arts/ Clothworkers’ Foundation Award 2013, this has enabled her to continue to develop and research her brand. Getting set up But the real breakthrough came when Cockpit Arts’ CEO, Vanessa Swann, introduced Nadia to Creativeworks London’s Voucher scheme, enabling her to team up with two researchers from Queen Mary University of London to explore the legal and technological challenges of the business. ‘I’m really grateful to Vanessa for helping
me to successfully apply for this voucher,’ says Nadia. ‘The result of this collaboration will allow absolute assurance that I, and future businesses exploring these areas, will have a commercial concept to take forward and grow into a viable business.’ During her time at Cockpit, Nadia has also benefitted from a raft of business support which has included group sessions with the other weavers looking into the business planning process, developing a brand story, pricing and costing, and launching a new website. Nadia now has a new website and brand identity in keeping with the high-end luxury market her product is aimed at. Community support Nadia says the Cockpit community provides support in so many other ways too. ‘I’ve become good friends with the other cloth workers. We share knowledge and contacts and experiences. It’s a really nice environment to work in. ‘Being at Cockpit has given me structure, guidance and a level of
professionalism. It’s a fabulous platform for me in terms of PR and marketing, plus it has allowed me to have a reputable hub from which to deal with suppliers, manufacturers and clients.’ Commercial success BeatWoven® goes from strength to strength. Having launched her fabric by the metre at Designer’s Block in Milan last year she was asked to design an exclusive fabric for Harrods, which was showcased during the London Design Festival. The Southbank Centre has commissioned work as part of its
Festival of Love. Nadia is weaving a large-scale art installation which will hang permanently in the Royal Festival Hall’s members’ bar. A viable business The support and access to funding that Nadia has received through the Foundation and Cockpit Arts has taken her on a journey from initial idea to a viable business. ‘It has been a busy second year for me involving huge amounts of research, development and submission of funding applications. I am now at a turning point when I can start shouting about what I am doing with a product and production line I am confident
with,’ says Nadia proudly.
Texprint We are one of the major supporters of Texprint and each year sponsor the Space prize for the best fabric for interiors.
Christopher McLean May and Georgia Fisher
The winner this year was Georgia Fisher who recently graduated from the Royal College of Art with an MA in Weave, having done her BA at Central St Martins. She now works as a freelance textile designer, mostly for fashion houses. We were pleased to welcome Georgia to the Hall for our annual Alumni Dinner in September, along with 28 other former recipients of Clothworker student bursaries. Winter 2014 | THE CLOTHWORKER | 5
My experience as a Trustee I joined the Livery in 2010; my father, John, is a first generation Clothworker having being nominated by his godfather, Brigadier Kenneth Hargreaves, due to his involvement in the wool trade in Bradford. The Harrow Club, W10 The Harrow Mission was founded in 1883 by philanthropists associated with Harrow School in an area described as a ‘forlorn, neglected and desolate’ part of North Kensington. Whilst it might be difficult to imagine this today as its building lies in the shadow of Westfield, the Club still provides much needed programmes and activities for young people and the extended community. How I got involved I was approached in 2012 by the Chairman of the Trustees, as they were looking for a Chartered Surveyor to join the building committee. The role The committee was tasked with undertaking a review of the Club’s
building and to make recommendations to the Trustees regarding remedial works required to bring the property into a proper state of repair. A firm of Chartered Surveyors was appointed to undertake a formal review and to formulate a five year preventative maintenance strategy. At the same time, a grant of £50,000 was secured from Sport England to refurbish some of the facilities. A big challenge of the Trustee role is time; it is easy to be drawn into the day today running of the charity and premises rather than focusing on strategy and the delivery of first class youth work. As a Trustee responsible for the
building, it is important to recognise the responsibilities of sorting out the problems encountered to date. What next? We aim to undertake a major refurbishment of the Club in 2015/2016. This will include the replacement of the dance studio, sports hall floors, boilers and lift, and upgrade of changing rooms, lighting and fire alarm systems. Accordingly, we will shortly be making applications to various grantmaking foundations, as well as launching an appeal within the Club. Tom Stoddart-Scott Liveryman
Helping young people into work In a climate of increasing anxieties about jobs and financial security, it was a privilege to work with youngsters from the City of London Academy in Southwark in an engaging initiative to help them develop the skill sets required in working life. Speed interviewing On 2 December nine Clothworkers took part in a speed interviewing event to enable Year 12 students to gain a greater understanding of a range of professions and differing career paths. The Academy has over 1,100 students of which around 60% are eligible for free school meals and for 25% English is not their first language. Despite such socioeconomic disadvantages the school speaks with pride of how 35% of its last sixth form cohort went on to university. 6 | THE CLOTHWORKER | Winter 2014
Clothworkers’ support The Clothworkers fielded professions from actuaries and insurance through to property and IT. Other professions included the armed forces, engineers, solicitors, teachers and many more, with around 50 professionals showing their support for the event. The students were very keen to ask as many questions as possible and absorb as much knowledge as they could within the short six minute window. Once their time was up, an alarm would sound and they moved to the next table. We were also
asked to pose one or two questions to the students towards the end. The event, organised by Livery Schools Link, was deemed an instant success due to the students’ fantastic interactions and the mentors’ enthusiasm. The Academy is already looking to hold more of these events in the future to ensure more students get the opportunity to gain an insight into working life. Simon Mays-Smith, Liveryman, commented “What a great event. I really enjoyed it and would certainly do it again.” Jeremy Lloyd Freeman
Architect’s impression of 120 Fenchurch Street
120 Fenchurch Street The Company has for many years owned property on the north side of Fenchurch Street and on Fenchurch Avenue. Almost ten years ago, the major Italian insurance company investor Generali started to put together plans to assemble a site on which to build a major new development, to include the land in our ownership. It has been a complex process, involving negotiations with a number of different parties. It is thus pleasing to be able to report that there is planning permission to construct a 450,000 square-foot 15 storey building and that M & G, the fund management arm of Prudential, have signed a lease to take the space as their new head office. Demolition of the existing buildings started in August and
completion is expected by 2016. The Company’s land accounted for 40% of the total site. The transaction executed in August gives us freehold ownership of the entire site; in return, we have granted a 200year head lease to Generali under which we will receive a 5.34% share of the rent paid by M & G.
Once the new building is completed and M & G are paying the full rent, our income from the site will increase from £100,000 to over £1 million per year.
Bookbinding The Company takes a keen interest in supporting bookbinding, an endangered craft, including the provision of prizes at Designer Bookbinders’ Annual Competition. We provide the prizes in the Open Choice category, where binders select a book of their own choosing to bind. The category consistently attracts high quality designs and this year first prize went to Miranda Kemp for her binding of Four Hedges by Ann Leighton (right top), and second prize to Ann Tout for A Midsummer Night’s Dream (right bottom). We also have a relationship with QEST, the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust, whereby we cofund a scholar in bookbinding each year. This year, our funding has
enabled Alison Heath to attend fine bookbinding courses at City Lit and organise 1:1 tuition with master craftswomen. This scholarship will enable Alison to take the step from amateur binder to making bookbinding her full time job. Winter 2014 | THE CLOTHWORKER | 7
Archives and Collections Online We are delighted to announce that the Company’s catalogue of its archives, library and heritage collections is now available online. Online catalogue Together, these Court minutes, charters, registers, title deeds, photographs, architectural plans, publications, press cuttings, letters, books and works of art chronicle the history of the Company over time, shedding light on key events and personalities from times past. The catalogue comprises brief descriptions of over 20,000 archival documents, books from our members’ library and catalogue information regarding the paintings, plate, bookbindings, tapestries and other pieces in our collections. Many records are also complemented by accompanying photographs in order to highlight particular treasures in our collections. Search capability The catalogue can be searched by keyword such as ‘Samuel Pepys’ or ‘Victorian Hall’ for example but searches can also be refined to search by date, reference number, title and description. The catalogue is a finding aid to our archives and collections: by searching its contents students, academics and researchers, not to mention Clothworkers, wherever they are in the world, can establish whether they need to visit us in person to access the originals for their research. To begin your research, please visit: www.clothworkers.co.uk/History/ Archive/Online-catalogue.aspx. A decade’s work The online catalogue is the result of over a decade’s worth of cataloguing work undertaken by successive archivists to the
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Company and, whilst broad in scope, it is a live and growing resource; new records will be added on an ongoing basis as our archives and collections grow. Future updates will include the full catalogue of our extensive plate collection for example. Access The Company is committed to preserving and making accessible
to the public its collections for research, and our online catalogue is one of a number of recent projects we have engaged in to open up our collections and the information they contain to the wider public. Our Freedom and Apprenticeship registers were the first to be hosted online on the successful ROLLCO initiative, which will shortly include the records of its tenth partner Livery Company (www.londonroll.org) and a recent research project with the Centre for Metropolitan History, Institute of Historical Research, provides detailed biographies of key benefactors to the Company and histories of our main property holdings online for the first time. The Company is also providing additional funding to enable the project database to be made available online to a wider audience. Comprising transcriptions of all Company Court Orders relating to property, charity and people, be they benefactors, almsmen, or tenants of the Company for the period 1500-1688, the database represents a very valuable potential research resource and will go live on the project website, www.clothworkersproperty.org, in 2015.
Notable Clothworkers – John West John West was the son of Simon West, Citizen and Stationer. He was baptised on 1 November 1641 at St Mary’s, Twickenham, and at the age of nearly seventeen, was apprenticed to John Parrey, a Freeman of The Clothworkers’ Company and a scrivener (or writer of legal documents) by profession. Controversy West was married on 21 February 1666 to a young widow Frances Mickell, the daughter of a Clothworker Freeman. Controversially, West was still an apprentice at the time – his Freedom did not take place until 6 March that year. West must have had an understanding master in Parrey – apprentices were subject to the absolute authority of their master and by the terms of his indenture, West had sworn he would not ‘play at Cards, Dice, Tables or other unlawful Games ... shall not haunt Taverns or Play-houses.... and shall not commit Fornication, nor contract Matrimony, within the said term.’ Scrivener of note The new couple lived in Walbrook, near the Stocks Market – very close to the site of the present day Mansion House and West became an eminent City scrivener. He received the Livery of the Company on 23 July 1673 and became Master for the year 1707-1708. He was a member of Court of Common Council and Deputy Alderman of the Ward of Walbrook.
Pepys connection His friends included Sir John Moore, President of Christ’s Hospital and Samuel Pepys. West in fact held a retainer as a scrivener from the diarist and was one of the four witnesses to Pepys’ will and two codicils in 1703. He apparently attended Pepys’ funeral, receiving a ring to mark the occasion in addition to the following verbal bequest made by Pepys: ‘In plate – to Mr West, some small piece’ which was ‘made good to him by (a) large pair of tumblers weighing 23
View of church of St Christopher le Stocks oz. 10 dwt.’ Sadly, the present day whereabouts of the ring and tumblers are not known.
West pension ticket
Philanthropy John West died on 29 November 1723, aged 82, and was buried in the church of St Christopher-leStocks, to which he had been a benefactor. His wife passed away in January 1725. The couple were childless and it is perhaps
Memorial to John and Frances West at Christ’s Hospital this fact that encouraged their philanthropy. Both John and Frances West made numerous gifts for charitable purposes, by their wills and under indentures executed during their lifetimes. The Clothworkers’ came to administer a total of nine charitable trusts in the couple’s name, which included notable provision for the blind and poor, with a preference for the couple’s kindred. Administration of these pensions was subsequently transferred to Christ’s Hospital, who already administered a separate but larger charity benefitting West kin in 1984. The legacy of this generous couple lives on through the John and Frances West Family Group which is dedicated to preserving the history of the Wests and their descendants and recently visited Clothworkers’ Hall for a tour, during which they presented a cheque to the Foundation in memory of their common ancestor and his connection to the Company.
View of Stocks Market in 1700
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Ladies and Gentlemen, Dinner is Served! early in the morning. The in-house cleaning team will ensure all the rooms are spotless, and the maintenance team will test all the equipment.
Dinners have been an important feature of Livery Companies’ activities since their early days. Most Liverymen who come to a dinner have little inkling of what is involved in pulling all the elements together to ensure that all the guests have the best possible experience on the night. Thinking well ahead Before even the start of a Master’s year, some actions need to be taken. The Master must select the guest speakers for each of the dinners over which he presides. He will also give thought to the entertainment to be provided. The Master (and generally his Lady) sit down with the catering team to plan the menus for the major events of the year. In tandem, the Wine Sub Committee, advised by our Master of Wine, will select the wines to be served. This will be determined by what is available in the cellar and, critically, which vintages are at their peak for drinking. Detailed planning About six weeks ahead of the dinner, the Events Team at the Hall send out the invitations by email. A few weeks prior to the event, the Master, Clerk and Beadle do a tasting of the dinner over lunch which can often lead to changes in the composition or presentation of individual dishes or indeed more radical revisions to the menu.
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Once acceptances for the event are received, the Events Team produce a draft table plan, using a customised software package, which is then vetted by the Beadle. We put a lot of thought into our seating plans, but do not always get it totally right! The Clerk and Master than review the table plan and make any final revisions.
The florist will arrive and instal her displays in the Entrance Hall, on the staircase and in the Livery Hall itself. In the office, the Events Team will be preparing the place cards and individual programmes for the guests, putting their name on the cover and marking with a teasle where they are seated on the table plan.
The menu programme is produced, including any topical information it would be helpful to communicate to members and guests through this medium, and sent off to the printers. The day before the event, the ceremonial rooms are configured for the dinner, which can often mean moving tables and chairs to and from the storage space beneath the floor of the Reception Room. Wines are brought up by the Steward from the cellar in the basement to the wine bin just off the main Livery Hall. The plate which will be used on the tables and on display is cleaned and brought up from the Plate Vault. On the day On the day of the dinner itself, the Hall is a flurry of activity from very
They will also deal with last minute cancellations, amending the programmes of those seated in the immediate vicinity. The programmes will then be laid out in alphabetical order on a table in the Entrance Hall. The catering team will set the tables, putting out Clothworker table mats, together with the cutlery and glasses. The Beadle and his team ensure they are prepared for any eventuality, from the appearance of an unexpected guest, to any actions required in the event of an emergency.
Into dinner At 7.15pm the Toastmaster announces dinner and encourages the guests to move swiftly into the Livery hall. The Beadle assembles those who will be processing into the Hall and the photographer, who has been taking informal pictures throughout the reception, takes a few more formal shots of the Master and his guest. A hive of activity Meanwhile, below stairs the banqueting kitchen is a hive of activity. Some food preparation will have been done on site in advance, but most is prepared on the day of the dinner. The Head Chef will have planned the meal down to the last detail, knowing that up to 220 guests will all need to have each of their courses served in a timely and consistent fashion to the highest standard. The waiting staff are given a detailed briefing on their duties for the evening as the pianist rehearses in the background, and the Master and guest speaker do a sound check. The main doors are opened at 6.00pm and a number of the guests will arrive and mingle before the allotted time of 6.45pm when the Toastmaster asks all guests to make their way upstairs to be received by the Master and Wardens or his Lady. A Master of Wine or student will be in the wine bin, tasting each bottle of wine which is to be served, to ensure that any bottles which are corked are identified and removed. The Steward prepares the Loving Cup, made from a special combination of ingredients. At this point, last minute tasks are carried out, including lighting of the candles at the tables and the allocutions are placed before the Master and guest speaker.
Upon a signal from the Beadle, the pianist strikes up the Clothworker processional march and, led by the macebearer, the group enters the Hall and makes its way to the top table. The Chaplain says grace and all the guests sit down for dinner. The evening is carefully orchestrated with a detailed order of proceedings specifying what should happen when. This ensures we keep to the timings, or that remedial action can be taken to catch up. Each dinner follows broadly the same format – French wines are generally served, starting with a white Burgundy, followed by a Claret, dessert wine and port. During the second course, the traditional question of ‘Do you dine with Alderman or Lady Cooper?’ is posed to each guest, with the offer of a glass of Dutch gin or cognac. Generally, rosewater dishes are passed down the table for guests to mop their brows, and the ancient City custom of the Loving Cup shared.
the Company, to which the Master replies. At the end of the dinner, the Master and his guest process out of the Livery Hall, to the tune of the recessional march, and are joined by the rest of the guests for an after dinner drink or stirrup cup. The guests drift away to their trains or taxis and by 11.00pm the bar is closed and the Hall can be secured. By this time, the catering staff will have cleared the Hall of all signs of dinner, although the basement will be bustling as all the cleaning and washing up is done. In tandem, the Hall staff will clear away and secure the plate and wines not consumed. If there is an event the next day, they will reconfigure the tables and chairs in the ceremonial rooms to what is required. The morning after The following morning at 7.00am the cleaners work their magic on all the ceremonial rooms, and Floral Angels, a charity which delivers bouquets to hospices and refuges, collects all the flower arrangements. Finally, the Beadle and Clerk will have a ‘wash up’ of any issues which arose during the evening to ensure these are raised with the caterers or factored into the planning of future events.
Following the loyal toasts, the entertainers perform and then the guest speaker rises to propose a toast to Winter 2014 | THE CLOTHWORKER | 11
Clothworkers’ Theatre Award The last edition featured a piece on the new £1.25m five-year programme in the dramatic arts, including an annual Clothworkers’ Theatre Award of £150,000.
Lesley Joseph, Michael Jarvis and Victoria Allen of the Theatre Royal
Although the judging panel of Clothworkers working in the theatre profession and Foundation Trustees had already selected the winner as far back as June, we were unable to disclose the result in the autumn edition since all involved were sworn to secrecy until after 19 October when the winner was announced at the glamorous annual UK Theatre Awards ceremony at Guildhall. 2014 winner We are now able to reveal that the inaugural Clothworkers’ Theatre Award went to the Theatre Royal Plymouth to support the transfer of five of their productions to London theatres over three years. On receiving the award the theatre’s Chief Executive, Adrian Vinken, said “our delight at receiving the award was matched only by our surprise. Our request for support was not straightforward and, I suspect, 12 | THE CLOTHWORKER | Winter 2014
rather unusual in that the objective which we were pursuing was somewhat intangible, namely building greater critical recognition and reputation for our produced work at a national level in order to support our long term economic and creative sustainability. This is not something that one would expect people outside of the theatre sector to readily recognise.” Guildhall event The Clothworkers’ award, the only one with any monetary value, was one of the highlights of the hugely enjoyable Guildhall event which (alongside a host of theatre professionals, including a number of well-known celebrities) was attended by the Master, the Chairman of the Foundation and some of the award judges. It received excellent coverage in the theatre sector press and was mentioned on the BBC News website.
Theatre Royal, Plymouth
2015 will see our attention shift from the South West to Yorkshire, and six producing theatres from that region will be invited to apply for the 2015 Clothworkers’ Theatre Award. Impact The Award has been welcomed by the industry as extremely important at a time when regional theatre has suffered swingeing public sector funding cuts. Rachel Tackley, President of UK Theatre, said: “With so much pressure on regional producing theatres, it is wonderful that The Clothworkers’ Foundation are choosing to target their funds on venues that mean so much to their local communities and play such an enormously valuable role in the overall ecology of UK Theatre. We look forward to working with them over the next five years to help spotlight the incredible work being done all around the country.”
.Lesley Joseph_Pamela Raith Photography
The South West of England was selected as the region to benefit for the 2014 award, and four producing theatres were invited to apply: Bristol Old Vic, Everyman Cheltenham, Salisbury Playhouse and Plymouth Theatre Royal.
Maths Inspiration We started supporting Maths Inspiration as part of the Foundation’s proactive grants programme in mathematics education. Our support now totals £237,000 and we continue to make a grant each year. If there is one thing that government, employers and universities agree on, it is that the UK desperately needs more teenagers to study maths to ‘A Level’ at school. As technology advances, traditional skills and professions are becoming redundant. What the world increasingly needs is people who are numerate, and who are versatile thinkers that are good at problemsolving – something for which maths provides excellent training. Ten year record So it’s good to know that for ten years there has been a successful national programme called ‘Maths Inspiration’ aimed at encouraging 14-17 year olds to pursue mathematical subjects to a higher level – and The Clothworkers’ Foundation has been involved right from the start. It was 2004 when maths author and speaker Rob Eastaway had the idea of running interactive maths lecture shows aimed at Year 11 and Year 12 students (that’s fifth form and lower sixth in old-language). The idea was for teenagers to discover that the maths they study at school is actually useful and relevant in the real world, in professions as diverse as designing rollercoasters and creating gameshows for television. Theatre events There are two things that make Maths Inspiration very different from regular school lectures. The first is location. The shows are held in theatres, to take students away from the idea that maths is something you only do in classrooms. The very first shows were held at the Royal Exchange
Theatre in Manchester, and since then there have been shows in nearly 40 prestigious venues across the country, including the Bristol Hippodrome, London’s Palace Theatre and Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre. Using humour The second thing that makes Maths Inspiration shows unique is the humour. Each show has three speakers, and the roster includes a number of women mathematicians. They give talks around 40 minutes long, but the compere is always a comedian who is also a mathematician (the two professions are surprisingly closely connected). The humour ensures that the serious messages that the shows want to deliver are memorable for an audience who tend to think of maths as dry and abstract. Clothworker support Although any school is able to attend, Maths Inspiration shows are
particularly aimed at state schools where there is not a strong maths tradition. Schools pay for tickets (this partly funds the programme) but the prices are heavily subsidised to ensure that shows are affordable to as wide a range of schools as possible. This is where the Clothworkers come in. Grants from The Clothworkers’ Foundation since 2006, as well as sponsorship from a number of employers, has ensured that ticket prices have been kept down to around £7 per person. 100,000 attendees It is thanks largely to the Clothworkers that Maths Inspiration has been able to grow from one venue in 2004 to nineteen in 2014. And in its ten years, an astonishing 100,000 teenagers have attended a Maths Inspiration show. Many of those attendees have gone on to study maths at university, some are now maths teachers themselves, but everyone who has attended a show has had a chance to enjoy a memorable outing to discover the exciting side of maths. Find more information about Maths Inspiration at www.MathsInspiration.com
Affiliations 47 Squadron “The 100th anniversary of World War One has made Remembrance Day all the more poignant this year. Having lost an aircraft and crew to enemy action in Iraq in 2005, this has been a sombre time for everyone at 47 Squadron. On a visit to the Squadron’s permanent detachment at Mount Pleasant Airfield in the Falkland Islands, I was particularly honoured to participate in a Remembrance Ceremony to remember our fallen comrades.” Wing Commander Graeme Gault, CO, 47 Squadron
47 Squadron crew was part of an international package of aircraft delivering vital aid to those in need. This mission was repeated almost
As reported in the media, the past year has been a busy period for 47 Squadron across a number of fronts with aircraft and crews permanently deployed in at least three locations globally, as well as supporting much of the routine world-wide logistics movements required for UK defence. Humanitarian aid The most visible mission was perhaps the Humanitarian Aid Operation in Iraq at the start of August. Reacting to the rapid advance of the Islamic State militants, the crews were tasked to conduct airdrops of relief stores of temporary accommodation, food and water to a large number of refugees left isolated on Mount Sinjar in Northern Iraq.
nightly for a full week, advancing in complexity to include a two-aircraft formation and incorporating the first operational air-to-air refuelling sortie from the RAF’s new Voyager aircraft. As a result, nearly 100 tonnes of assistance were delivered by the Squadron. A similar relief effort was subsequently carried out to the small town of Amerli, further south in Iraq.
Approximately 40 hours after being given the order to support, a
These dangerous missions took place in contested airspace and
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with the constant threat of enemy action against the aircraft. Clothworker visit Despite their busy schedule, the Squadron found time to welcome the Master and a small group of Clothworkers to Brize Norton on a wet Saturday back in May. Guests were treated to a tour of the facilities on the ground including a session in a flight simulator. Unfortunately, operational issues precluded a much hoped-for flight in a Hercules, but it is anticipated there will be a further opportunity for this in the not too distant future. New Commanding Officer Wing Commander Graeme Gault, whose great enthusiasm has enabled our affiliation to build such momentum, completed his term as Commanding Officer of the Squadron at the end of 2014. We wish him every success for the future. He has been succeeded by Wing Commander Dave Stewart who we look forward to welcoming to the Hall in due course.
to be discharged through the feet rather than build up and risk setting off a weapon. We were glad we had done so when we came face to face with a bank of Sea Viper anti-aircraft missiles, each one the height of a house.
HMS Dauntless Visit by the Master and others on 7 November 2014, Portsmouth Alastair Mathewson, Liveryman As one approaches the destroyer, HMS Dauntless, at her berth in Portsmouth Naval Base, a short distance from HMS Victory, HMS Warrior and the Mary Rose, her size is out of all proportion to the frigate moored beside her. The superstructure holding up her radar dome towers 100 feet above the water, extending the ship’s horizon and at the same time enabling her to look down at closer threats. That need for height has influenced all the other dimensions of the vessel and caused her in all to be 2,000 tons heavier than her predecessors, in the Type 42 destroyer class. Her flight deck does not look especially large in proportion to the rest of her, yet can accommodate a Chinook helicopter. But despite her size, Dauntless is far from ponderous. Her wind resistance reduced by the sheer, unbroken, sloping grey sides of a profile designed to minimize her radar signature, the nearly 70,000 horsepower of her gas turbine engines can take her to 30 knots in 70 seconds.
two guests (Andrew and Madeleine McClintock and Alastair Mathewson, with Michael Thurston and James Tregear). Informative tour We were treated to a detailed and highly informative tour of the ship, put together by Lt Cdr Iain Wallace, Weapons Engineer Officer, and conducted by him and several of his colleagues, which took us into areas normally inaccessible to touring groups, such as the magazines and the engine deck, as well as the noticeably spacious ship’s control centre and operations room. To tour the magazines the party was first required to hand in all electronic devices and don special boots that allowed static electricity
Lunch with the Captain Over lunch in the Captain’s day cabin (a classically British and remarkably good sequence of vegetable broth, fish and chips and syrup sponge with custard), Commander Adrian Fryer shared with us something of the experience of being personally responsible for a billion-pound warship so advanced that on joint exercises it can play the same part as four US destroyers of a comparable class. As we examined the Chetwynd Cup on the Captain’s table, presented by the Company to commemorate the ship’s commissioning in June 2010, we reflected on how fortunate we are to be affiliated to one of the most powerful warships ever to have sailed and the most advanced design in the world today. On departure, we wished both Captain and crew all good fortune as they prepare to set off, before Christmas, for a half-year tour of duty in the Arabian Gulf.
A warm welcome The crew were warmly welcoming of the Master, his two accompanying Liverymen, one Freewoman and Winter 2014 | THE CLOTHWORKER | 15
Social Events events where we Remember that all the pictures from are available to have had a photographer present bers’ Area of the download free of charge in the Mem The Clothworker | Design by Chris Monk | Printing by Trident Printing | www.tridentprinting.co.uk
website. email address Please ensure we have your current send event invitations by email only
as we
k if you have any Contact events@clothworkers.co.u ts. even our t abou queries
Staff We are delighted to welcome Emma Temple as PA to the Master and Clerk. Emma was previously PA and Operations Support Manager working for the
Deaths We regret to report the following deaths: Albert Barwick in August 2014 Ronald Anderson in October 2014 Ellen Gregoire (née Hands) in October 2014 Patrick Walsh in November 2014 Elsie Frost in November 2014
Dates for your Diary Young Livery Supper Wednesday 25 February
Charities Luncheon Wednesday 25 March
Masters and Clerks Dinner Thursday 5 March
Civic Dinner Thursday 16 April
United Guilds Service and Luncheon Friday 20 March 16 | THE CLOTHWORKER | Winter 2014
Emma Temple
Deputy Serjeant at Arms and Assistant Serjeant at Arms at the House of Commons.
Jo Allen
We are also pleased to welcome Jo Allen as Chester Boyd’s new General Manager.
Royal Geographical Society Lectures at the Hall Somalia: the world’s most failed state? James Fergusson Tuesday 17 February at 7pm London: the information capital James Cheshire and Oliver Uberti Wednesday 4 March at 7pm