The NeneQuirer June/July 2017

NEWS, CULTURE & SPORT FOR NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, FREE AT THE POINT OF NEED

The

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June/July 2017

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Issue 003

It’s time to change the fabric of society NQ looks at the stunning Uni designs on show at Graduate Fashion Week

Julie Teckman on how to shop for clothes in Northampton Picture by Steve Scoles

The Twelfth Player: interactive theatre walks you behind the scenes at Sixfields Stadium

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Find out the story behind Elsie’s Cafe and how the project has expanded into a war on waste Alan Moore reviews what he is calling one of the most important fantasy novels of the young century - an immersive tale straight from the heart of the jungle

Top tournaments: How Harlestone Firs became the centre for medieval sport

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YES it’s that time already! Summer barely seems to have started and the dancers of Northampton’s Caribbean Carnival would not have left you in any doubt. The event started from The Racecourse on June 10, heading round the town and returning for an evening of celebration and good times. The Caribbean style costumes on show are prepared in workshops before the event with help from veterans of other carnivals like Notting Hill.

Photo: Dave Ikin

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Contents

CO TENTS

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NEWS Showtime for fashion students

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NEWS So cool it hurts

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NEWS Buy into Noho

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CULTURE Alan Moore reviews...

NEWS Topping it off

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NEWS Cheers CULTURE 12th Player

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NEWS Elsie’s

St Giles Cheese

All cheeses are not the same

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CULTURE Joustabout CULTURE Review

01604 622271 www.stgilescheese.com 77 St Giles Street, Northampton

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The Team Steve Scoles Editor

nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 01604 550037

Adam Alexander Designer

nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 01604 550037

Alex Stockton Cricket writer

nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 01604 550037

Helen Blaby Broadcaster

Twitter: @blabers

Alan Moore

Dangerous thinker nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 01604 550037

Richard Hollingum Captain of the fields

nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 01604 550037

Hilary Scott On secatuers

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Whatever it is you do, do it different

T

he June/July edition of The NeneQuirer is where we invite you to change the fabric of society in honour of the General Election and Graduate Fashion Week being only days apart.

Change your clothes! Change the government! All right don’t…

You might change your opinion about shopping in Northampton if you are used to writing the town off as a destination for clothes buying. There are boutiques tucked away that are worth trying out.

In the spirit of trying something different and to better understand the work of our fashion students I took myself along to

It certainly wasn’t a world I understood before I arrived achingly cool Shoreditch to see my first ever catwalk show.

It certainly wasn’t a world I understood before I arrived but I gave it my best shot once I was there.

The General Election a couple of days later was much more familiar territory and The NeneQuirer live blogged from the Northamptonshire election counts.

I’ll leave you to decide for yourself whether you are happy with the politics but it was certainly one of the most unexpectedly interesting elections of recent times.

It was a week that was top and tailed with Northampton Beer Festival and Northampton Carnival, and we have pictures from both in the magazine.

Summer in medieval Northamptonshire might well have meant a tournament. Don’t think about knights jousting with ladies’ hankies round their lances – do think about miles of countryside filled with armed gangs slugging it out in a kind of soft war.

Our county was one of the best places to come for a tournament with Harlestone Firs a particularly important spot, although development work in the area may bury a lot of archaeological evidence.

We also catch up with Elsie’s Café and the fantastic work it does reclaiming doomed supermarket food and turning it into value eating in their community café.

Oh and The NeneQuirer is looking for a sales rep. Could it be you?

Don’t forget our website updates with these stories and more so visit nenequirer. com.

Steve Scoles, NQ Editor

Mike Ingram Historian

nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 01604 550037 Follow us on twitter @TheNeneQuirer Printed by: CKN, 2 North Portway Close Round Spinney Northampton NN3 8RQ Tel: 01604 645555 Gary Blunt 07764 220978 gary.blunt@cknprint.co.uk

The paper used within this publication has been sourced from chain of custody certified manufacturers, operating within international environmental standards, to ensure sustainable sourcing of the raw materials, sustainable production and to minimise our carbon footprint.

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NORTHAMPTON Fashion students’ work on the catwalk at Graduate Fashion Week in London. Dress by Elena Hristova

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Fast fashion’s global challenge starts with us Hilary Scott

She’s not in fashion nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 01604 550037

T

HE word ‘fashion’ will probably prompt one of two pretty polarised responses: a frivolous, superficial obsession of (mainly) women, or a crucial, confidence-boosting, creative reflection of the individual.

Or maybe it’s just clothes.

But as Mark Twain famously stated: “Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.”

Influence is something the fashion industry has in spades. Fashion makes over £28billion direct contribution to the economy in the UK alone. Take that influence global, and the figures are staggering: $2.5 trillion, according the World Economic Forum.

What we might forget as consumers flicking through the rails of generic High Street stores is what gets that shirt on the shelves; that fashion provides over 900,000 UK jobs, the largest employer of all the UK’s creative industries, according to the British Fashion Council. The supply chain is fragmented and global; you may find that your £15 cardigan has been across the world and back before it made it into your wardrobe: designed in the UK, patterns sent electronically to China, cut from chemicallytreated fabric sourced in India, sewn together in Turkey and shipped back to the UK aboard a huge container ship processed through our ever-growing commercial ports. Then there’s the lorry haulage to distribution warehouses before it gets to the shelves.

“Fashion might be the 4th biggest industry worldwide, but it also has a major issue:

The figures on clothing waste are as eye-watering as the cost of a Birkin handbag

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EMMELINE Child, above, researches sustainability in the fashion industry.

that global fashion just isn’t sustainable,” says Emmeline Child, Programme Leader for Fashion and Textiles at The University of Northampton.

“You buy a ‘fast fashion’ item that costs a few pounds, wear it a few times and send it to the charity shop or waste recycling bin.

A small percentage of items are resold but the rest is bailed and sent abroad, mainly to Africa where it is sold on markets.

“Quite a considerable amount of western clothing that is sold in countries within Africa, gets a second life. However if it is not resold on the markets out there, then western clothing is ending up in African landfill sites. Often this product takes a long time to decompose, if at all due to the synthetic materials it is made from.”

And Emmeline knows this from experience. Apart from helping dozens of bright new designers and technicians graduate each year, including at this year’s

Graduate Fashion Show, she also contributes to research into sustainable fashion, having had her own rapid rise to fashion fame in her early 20s.

“You might imagine that fashion graduates just go into high-end design houses – but my career was slightly less glamorous: I started on a project working with the Salvation Army’s redundant stock.

I made ‘up-cycled’ clothes and got a line in Topshop at 24 and was showing in Paris by the age of 26. It was an amazing whirlwind.”

When the markets crashed in 2008, Emmeline decided to continue her work on tackling the growing problem of waste clothing, returning to Northampton to do a PhD in up-scaling and up-cycling with large manufacturers like H&M. The figures on clothing waste are as eyeas the cost of a Birkin handbag: According to research published in The Ecologist, approximately two-thirds of clothing

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Fashion Samples: selected works from UoN

ALEKSANDRA Kukula

BETHANY Martin

VENUKA Wickramaarachchi, above, prepares for Graduate Fashion Week MOLLIE Crabtree

LEAH Wanjugu

SUMAIYA Neher

COURTNEY Allen

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materials are sent to landfills, making it the fastest growing component in the household waste stream.

Within the last five years, textiles disposed of in landfill sites have risen from 7% to 30%.

But Emmeline says that despite the frightening rise in waste fabrics, all is not lost for the world of ‘fast fashion’ and we won’t all be forced to invest in expensive wool and silks – there are new alternative fabrics being developed.

Interviewing an expert in fabric recycling brought some guilt at my own clothing choices – and not just because of my lack of style. I was wearing a thin navy cardie during our interview: bought from a high street retailer and made of a synthetic fabric.

“The processes used to make fabrics usable can be chemically harsh, many man-made fibres are derived from plastics and are therefore petroleum based. Then the dying process requires huge amounts of water, and emit chemicals that if not handled correctly can end up in our global waterways,” said Emmeline, “but it’s from M&S and they’re one of the High street retailers working hard

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ALEKSANDRA Kukula, top, and Louise Gunn in the machine room at the University of Northampton fashion department

at reducing their overall carbon footprint.”

But does this mean we’re all going to have to wear identical, itchy, dye-free eco-clothes of offwhite hemp?

“No, the UK is leading the way in sustainability research and that means new materials are going to start to replace the plastic and oil-based manmade fibres that don’t break down, this will all eventually be on the High Street,” Emmeline says.

There are already plant-based fabrics like those made of soya and bamboo, as well as some which sound even weirder, like some made from pineapple or by-products from the wine industry.

Designer Suzanne Lee makes clothes out of a culture made from yeast and green tea, which you can literally put on your compost heap once you’ve discarded it from your wardrobe.

But don’t go chucking your cast-offs in the compost just yet.

“The best thing you can do with your used clothing is to give it to charities such as the Salvation Army when you no longer need it. They will make sure your product is dealt with ethically

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DR Julie King, Subject Leader for Fashion, with third year Sumaiya Neher at the University of Northampton

as well as raising money for fantastic causes,” says Emmeline.

The sustainability message is firmly embedded in all the fashion teaching at the University of Northampton, whose final year students featured at Graduate Fashion Week 2017. Previous graduates have gone on to work in famous fashion houses like McQueen and Vivienne Westwood.

“Northampton is unique for those wanting careers in fashion because of its leather heritage, and we are the only university with a working tannery, as well as having

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state of the art pattern-cutting equipment. We teach a broad range of skills as well as theory and have a fantastic range of resources, which will all come with us when we move to the new Waterside Campus.”

I might not be rushing out to buy a coat made of pineapple just yet, but researching fashion a little more deeply than whether ra-ra skirts are making a comeback has made me look twice at what I’m wearing, and not just with the usual sigh after catching sight of my outfit choice in the mirror.

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ELEVENTEEN

(If they ask where you heard it, this page doesn’t exist)

Governed by pixie science Steve Scoles Editor

I

nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 01604 550037

suffer from a sadly all too common condition – a form of clothing dyslexia, or fashion blindness if you will.

I laboured under the misapprehension for a long time that you got dressed to stay warm and dry and to cover up your body.

That’s three simple tick boxes checked and then I was off to school (and then work) with my flappy shapeless flared trousers, side parting and billowing oversized Harry Hill shirt.

It’s not that I wasn’t aware that the concepts of image and fashion existed but it was like a language belonging to another place.

Over the years I have needed the dedicated support of occasionally male but overwhelmingly female expertise just to make it possible for me to leave the front door without looking like I was trying to win a bet.

It was this level of instinctive ignorance I took to Graduate Fashion Week 2017 to see the work of the University of Northampton students.

For a number of years as a journalist in Northampton I had heard about their brilliant catwalk shows and bemoaned the lack of editorial resources that meant we never saw it for ourselves.

Now I’m my own boss there were no excuses. #GFW17 or #GFW2017 (whichever you prefer) was taking place at The Old Truman Brewery in Brick Lane, Shoreditch.

A couple of years ago estate agents struck an unexpected well of cool under the streets of Shoreditch and ever since the area has been spattered with chic graffiti and literary novels. You cannot walk ten yards from the overground station without stepping in a puddle of Zeitgeist.

As a Midlander I expect graffiti to be

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obscene, incoherent and illiterate - maybe funny in an outrageous way, like an infant who swears like a navvy. In Shoreditch graffiti is witty, thought provoking and dangerously articulate. It is ridiculous. It sounds like it should be good, and if there was just one piece of wit standing out against the raging filth of the streets then that one bit of graffiti would be good. But all the graffiti looks too good, so it becomes ridiculous: like a wolfpack with fantastic perms.

I was already out of my comfort zone when I arrived at the event security desk (I had to walk around three sides of the building to get there). I was allocated a wrist band which conferred me certain freedoms and certain restrictions. It’s main power seemed to be to allow me into the press area but this was counterbalanced by an inability to walk past rope barriers that everyone else was moving through freely.

There was a big map but it did not provide a useful amount of information, it provided a stylish amount of information. I pretty much accidentally saw every stand at GFW17 until I finally stumbled across the University of Northampton’s outpost. The map had actually been correct but you only realised that once you arrived where you needed to be. It was like a metaphor for the concept of cool. I was in a place governed by pixie science.

The UoN students at the stand patiently posed and reposed for me once I had worked out my camera settings and then we all seemed to be moving towards the Northampton catwalk show in a human tide.

A complicated maze of ropes held us at bay until we had generated sufficient buzz - VIPs were in one area (which I could enter via the press area but not via the public area) and everyone else was in another area (near the press area which they could not enter but I could). In the press area were loads of young people trying to look like the thing that is coming after hipsters. I disturbed them because my natural look actually has some natural bits in it, like flown away hair arranged in bald patches and messenger bags jauntily slung under my eyes.

Fortunately the queue decanted into the catwalk arena before the frosty young bloggers could have me decycled.

In the shadows surrounding the pristine white runway two people told me three times I couldn’t stand where I was standing.

They showed me to a seat. A moment later I popped up again in the first place they had moved me from. Then they gave up and the music started.

In a try anything once kind of way, I would definitely say, go to a fashion show.

I realised as the blood, sweat and tears of 15 Northampton students was paraded in front of me that this was their moment.

These clothes - draped off catwalk models without the visual or actual noise of reality around them, slinking along nonchalantly to their own soundtrack - would never look better. That was the one-shot-at-it drama playing out in front of me. Every step taken on the catwalk was defining the best something could be.

The freedom I have to buy cycling Lycra and novelty T-shirts means I will never be free of the danger of a fashion catastrophe.

The quest for sartorial perfection is not mine but a little bit like my first game of rugby many years ago... I don’t understand the rules but I get what the fuss is about now.

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THE Dressing Room is a definite stop-off if you are looking for something a bit special

BERTIES like all of the independent boutique shops puts customer care at the centre of their philosophy

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How to go shopping in Northampton Julie Teckman Style Councillor

I

nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 01604 550037

have a confession to make. Like many other women, my idea of a good Saturday is one spent shopping; exploring a town for interesting clothes, enjoying a sociable lunch somewhere where we can people-watch and coming home with carrier bags of shopping (even if we do have to pay for the carrier bags these days). But, like many other Northampton women, we don’t shop in Northampton, and we use the same excuse that so many other women use: there are not enough enticing women’s clothes shops if we don’t want to end up with the same as so many others, buying from chain stores where rack upon rack of the same item makes for a rather bland experience unless one’s simply trying to buy plain items for work (and who wears plain items for work these days anyway?).

On that basis, I admit to feeling worried when NeneQuirer’s editor asked me to write a feature on edgy fashion in Northampton using local independent women’s clothes shops as my source. And my fears weren’t allayed at all when I found that two of the first shops I chose to visit in the town centre, Rococo in St Giles Street and The Wardrobe in the Co-op arcade, had recently closed up and gone out of business. The reason was to become apparent as I delved further into what Northampton has to offer women over thirty who want to spend a day shopping for clothes.

And so here is my experience.

I set off into the town centre down the Wellingborough Rd and spotted a ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ shop called Ama Seka in whose window I noticed both day and eveningwear that was both unusual and edgy (meeting my brief), and I pulled over to park immediately outside the shop (an advantage not normally experienced outside an American TV show) to find out more. Shop owner Amanda is an experienced dressmaker and she explained to me that the shop is full of one-off samples for customers to try on with a view to either buying or having made up in the correct size or in another fabric. I tried on a beautiful sixties style, bracelet-sleeved shift dress in

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a dog-tooth check but found the wool fabric too harsh for my skin. Amanda immediately brought out a range of fabrics that would be suitable for the style but more comfortable for me. I fell in love with a maxi dress in a different check that would suit day or evening and asked Amanda to put a zip in the side to make it easier to get on and off.

Not even in town yet and I was already making a purchase!

In town I went first to Rococo and finding it closed up, moved on to The Dressing Room, a shop which has been selling Italian linen and evening wear for over 16 years.

I’ve used this shop for party and casual clothes in the past but its customers consider it to be a hidden gem because only the initiated think to come and riffle through the colour co-ordinated rails to find loose, one size daywear with matching accessories that cost significantly more in other boutiques. John Dowrick, owner and charming sales assistant when I visited, knows the stock inside out and has an eye for finding items that will suit the individual, including stunning beaded throws that turn any little black dress into a bejewelled eye-catcher.

John talked about the difficulties of keeping

one’s head above water in a town which is not considered to be a first choice for fashion and smart occasion wear. His customers are loyal to him but talk Market Harborough, Milton Keynes and Olney as their preferred shopping destinations, and he told me that he was not surprised that other clothing shops are failing to survive. He was the first of my visits to talk about the personal service that independent boutiques offer customers, a theme I was to hear continuously throughout the day. I left his shop with two purchases, a dress and a top, both linen and both free size, flattering when you’re no longer the size ten which seems prevalent in high street fashion stores.

From The Dressing Room I made my way to Guildhall Rd and visited Berties and 32 The Guild. With John’s comments about times being difficult for clothes shops in Northampton in mind I asked Leonie Howe, owner of Berties, how she had carved a place for herself with a loyal customer base in Northampton and further afield.

Leonie’s view is that women’s wear shops like hers thrive because of the relationship they develop with customers, particularly those who are too busy or uninterested in shopping to mooch around a range of shops.

Many of Bertie’s customers book time with Leonie or one of her team and arrive for a session in which a variety of clothes have already been selected for trying on. I was surprised to hear that there are women who don’t like looking through racks of clothes but I’ve discovered that, actually, there are loads of them! Leonie’s team offer customers a look for a lifestyle through capsule collections and their understanding of what works for the individual means that customers feel that they have spent time and money wisely even when they have been offered items to try that they wouldn’t have selected for themselves. Again the concept of customer knowledge and the building of trust between customer and sales team was coming through as a feature that separates the independent boutique from the chain store. And Bertie’s client base ranges from pre-teen to octogenarians, evidence, as Leonie points out, that a love of clothes doesn’t end at 29 and women want clothes that flatter and forgive the exigencies of age in an environment in which they can feel comfortable. It was clear that the owners of these shops

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are passionate about what they do and they build teams of like-minded staff, but talking about clothes, as great as it is, was taking up too much time.

I reluctantly left without trying anything on but with a mental list of items I would come back for in the future.

Two doors away, the achingly cool 32 The Guild is like stepping into a shop along the Columbia Rd in London’s Shoreditch area.

Here again there’s no danger of spending good money on an item that every other woman is likely to be wearing, and owner, Zoie Walker, a shoe designer by trade, has introduced Grenson’s women’s range to her shoe collection alongside fragrance and accessories not normally seen outside Selfridges and Harvey Nichols. Her ethos is that it is the overall experience of shopping that is so important: the ambience of the shop and the quality of the service that leaves a lasting impression on visitors that encourages them to return.

In Castilian Street, Yvonne Spence’s Voni Blu is another independent clothes store that is innovative and consistent in its approach to customers. Yvonne stocks labels that are edgy and multi-functional and experiments with fabric and design in her collection, showing me how one item can be worn in a number of ways for a range of occasions.

She regularly organises fashion shows and workshops to help women build confidence in their choice of clothes and, over the

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BOHEMIAN Finds in Market Walk

VONI Blu is worth exploring

last 9 years, has worked hard to dispel the idea that clothes in independent shops are likely to be more expensive than in their high street counterparts or that their shop assistants are intimidating and uninterested in customers.

The busiest shop I visited on my day in town is slightly different to the others in terms of stock but no different in its approach to customers. With a beautiful and exciting frontage, Bohemian Finds in Market Walk, appeals to shoppers looking for a more vintage feel to their outfits. The shop is like a jewellery box, full of gorgeous dresses in bright colours and with accessories to hand, and the customers in the shop when I visited ranged from young teenagers to a couple in their sixties who were clearly regular and valued visitors to the boutique.

Owned by Gretchen Larkin, Bohemian Finds encourages a sense of community within its customer base (who are often heavily into the vintage lifestyle) with

birthdays celebrated, events promoted and a team that is very conscious of their responsibility to promote positive body image. The dresses are beautifully cut to enhance the voluptuous figure as well as the petite and, once again, customer care is solicitous but not intrusive. You could spend hours in this shop and still not see everything but the chances are you’ll leave with a full outfit selected with help from experts!

I finished my shopping trip by moving out of the town centre and visiting Story, a clothes shop in the St Crispin’s retail village opened last November by Katie Chapman a clothing and jewellery designer who spotted a gap in the market for a boutique amongst the beauty salon, cafe and dental surgery in the new retail area just ten minutes from the town centre. In this small but inclusive shop, Katie sells clothes and accessories that suit all body sizes and shapes and work extremely well together to appeal to women of all ages. After a period of self-imposed restraint, Story’s blend of fashionable, well-priced and unusual clothing had made me forget I was on a serious journalistic mission and had me practically pulling clothes out of the arms of fellow customers so keen was I to nab oneoff items!

Again the free parking helps to make this little shop attractive but the main attraction has to be Katie’s policy of changing stock regularly and remembering customers’ previous purchases with unnerving accuracy (she remembered my December visit, although my locust-like shopping style might have helped to make me memorable I guess…). Ultimately, I came home with an excellent haul, and a renewed faith that, yes, one can spend a good day shopping in Northampton and its immediate surround. I didn’t even get to Circus, Thackeray’s, Cloud 8 in College Street Mews or the Wootton Boutique (for which I apologise) but I strongly suspect that in all of these, as in the shops I visited, I’d find an emphasis on customer care (I was offered coffee in at least two shops), exciting brands and a range of styles.

All the shops I visited had beautiful jewellery, bags and footwear to complement the clothes, and clothes prices started much lower than one might expect for exclusive stores. And with new eating places and coffee shops opening up in Northampton all the time, I can recommend the town as a place for fashion lovers to spend an enjoyable and productive day’s shopping. And as for the people-watching? Well this is Northampton, the home of the eccentric…

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Ladies Fashion Boutique

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Spring Summer 2017

Airfield Indies Gershon Bram Lauren Vidal Myrine Masai Oblique Xenia Elisa Cavaletti Patrizia Pepe Rosemunde Hispanitas Item M6 Patrizia Bonfanti AndiaForna Bjorn Borg @VoniBluFashion Voni Blu Fashion

14 Castilian Street, St. Giles Quarter, Northampton NN1 1JX Tel: 01604 636847 www.voniblu.com

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Mon-Fri: 10.00-5.30 Sat: 9.30-5.30

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Hats the way to do it for the college N

orthampton College students are busy preparing for their annual fashion show which, this year, takes place on Wednesday 21st June with two shows, one at 4pm and a second at 8pm. This year’s catwalk presentation is showcasing the range of work both first and second year level 3 students have completed throughout this term, writes Julie Teckman.

The first year collection is a fully accessorised printed separates collection, designed to the theme of ‘Colouring Book’. The screen printed fabric has been designed and produced in-house by the stu-

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dents themselves, as have the slogan totes and oversized clutches. The project has elements of the oversized theme, so prevalent at this year’s Graduate fashion Week.

Second years have produced a range of outerwear inspired by the local shoe company Grenson. The grey wool and red scuba combination offers a heritage-sport hybrid flavour to the garments. The second year capsule collections are inspired by a vast and diverse range of research including African influences, Contemporary Film, Italian Architecture and Japan.

Northampton College fashion students have once again been successful in the annual international millinery competition run by the Worshipful Company of Feltmakers of London and competing against undergraduates and professional milliners across Europe. Jude Mander won the award for Craftsmanship and Sarra Haji won the award for Artwork and Presentation. Both students will receive cash prizes and continue with the highly successful tradition of high quality hat design and production that has become a trademark of the course.

Northampton College has a number of routes into fashion, including the level 3 Diploma in Fashion and Clothing and the HND in Digital Fashion which focuses on developing skills in trend forecasting, styling, blogging and working in the sustainable fashion industry. Rachel Maughan, Head of Fashion at Northampton College says “The fashion industry is a valuable part of the creative and cultural industries in this country, and the development of digital technology means that one can be based anywhere in the world and work with clients in any other country.” Students on the course are encouraged to be creative, entrepreneurial and forward thinking and further information about the courses or the fashion show can be found at www.northamptoncollege.ac.uk/ courses/.

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‘Sup Northampton?

It’s the beer festival

Steve Scoles Editor

A

nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 01604 550037

small piece of history was made when the first horse drawn beer delivery in Northampton since 1908 ended its round at the beer festival in Becket’s Park.

Phipps Brewery, which organises the festival along with Northants CAMRA, sent out the dray pulled by Ozzy and Bobby to drop supplies off at various Northampton pubs before pulling up at the festival site by the tennis courts.

And once it had arrived on its plot amid 3,000 festival goers on Saturday afternoon the picture was complete: a glimpse of a near perfect English summer scene - something that visits us as rarely as Brigadoon but we cherish in our national identity as though it happens all the time.

The atmosphere was like your favourite pub garden overgrown in every sense: more music, more food, more people and more varieties of local beer.

I met Jeremy Phipps, sixth great grandson of Pickering Phipps, on his way to the bar with festival organiser and the leader of the modern day Phipps project Alaric Neville.

Jeremy said: “It is a great event, the beer’s great and the sun is out, music is playing. I’ll be trying some Midsummer Meadow which is a really light beautiful summer ale that we

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started brewing three years ago.”

The beer festival has been running since the 1970s and passed through the hands of different organisers on the way. Phipps, with its heritage inspired approach, was a natural fit to run it but it’s not simply a matter of throwing some tents up in a field.

Alaric Neville of Phipps Brewery said: “I think we were naturally worried when we were told we had to move from Delapre, because even though we had only been running it for two years the festival had been there for years so there was a formula to build on.

“It’s a new site, although many years ago in the 70s it was on Nonsuch Island, but I think this is actually better. It is nearer to town and nearer to our brewery when we have to restock, and being near water is always spiritually uplifting... being near the university is financially uplifting!

“Jeremy rode in on the dray like Boudicca.

It is the first real delivery of ale by horse drawn dray since 1908. We have been around Northampton today to some of the wonderful pubs we supply. The stable yard at the Albion Brewery had horses in it, how fantastic is that? Maybe we’ll do it every year. I will be having a pint of Lacon later. They are brother brewers like us. There is this subsection of brewers who value history so I’m going to go for one of Lacon’s ales.”

A queue extended up the hill in Becket’s Park during Saturday afternoon as festival goers were searched on the way in. All public

events are operating in an atmosphere of heightened security since the Manchester bombing incident but there was a good natured approach at the gate.

Nishi Patel and Chris Cooper were delighted with what they found inside.

“It’s a hot day so I went for a cold lager.

This is a Brooklyn lager. It’s quite good, there’s a good selection of beers and the weather is good. It could be even bigger, it’s intimate but we’re having a good time it was well worth the queue,” said Nishi.

Chairman of the Northampton branch of the British Legion Phil York was also enjoying the weather.

“The weather has been fantastic. Maybe not the best weather to be in uniform but there is a nice atmosphere here. We expect to do well because the people of Northampton understand and support our causes here,” he said.

Writer Tom Jordan was also enjoying himself: “I’m here with some friends. We are having a great time.”

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JULIE Small (pictured with Tom Eastman Thoy at Althorp Food Festival) began volunteering for Elsie’s by chance. “I’d been meaning to have a look at Elsie’s Café for a while when bumped into a friend in town. She was looking for someone to cover her shift the following day. I went along, loved it, and haven’t stopped since” That was 18 months ago. “It can be hard work, but it’s a lot of fun. I normally work one day each week as waitress, and it’s my favourite day of the week. I’ve also served Lord Woolton’s Pie to Masterchef judge William Sitwell, and spent a wonderful day at the Althorp Food Festival, enjoying the scenery, explaining Elsie’s food rescue work and the forthcoming Binquet, and exchanging pleasantries with Earl Spencer”

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Elsie’s Cafe and the story of how the waste was won Kate Wills

Community correspondent

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nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 01604 550037

t was a conversation that has been shared across the land.

On this occasion, it took place at the NN Café in Guildhall Road, where keen foodies Shena Cooper, Sheila Cox and Jan Willetts found themselves sharing tables, and opinions on food waste. Why, they wondered, couldn’t there be some kind of food exchange?

In the space of a few decades Britain’s food supply has gone from famine to feast. Rationing finally ended in 1954, and food became cheaper and more plentiful, continuing to decline in price, and as percentage of the weekly family budget. So far, so good, but the rise of the supermarkets, and their stranglehold on food production, transformed our diets and our buying habits.

As an example, vegetables that do not meet the supermarkets’ strict requirements for shape and size are routinely ploughed back into the land. Less than half of any one crop might be taken for sale, with consequent financial loss for the farmer. Many have gone out of business due to the supermarkets’ insistence that housewives demand such standards, when of course the demand is the supermarkets’ own for a continuous beauty parade on the vegetable shelves.

Things might have stopped there with much tutting and shaking of heads, but that idea of a food exchange began to take flight.

Shena became aware of the pioneering work of chef Adam Smith and the Real Junk Food Project in Leeds, whose mission was to reduce the astonishing amount of food waste across the western world. One third of the world’s food is lost or wasted in any typical year, amounting to around 1.3 billion tonnes.

In the meantime around 800 million people go hungry, that’s approximately one ninth of the Earth’s population. The Real Junk Food’s motto is simple: ‘Feed bellies, not bins’.

Matters are not helped by the tyranny of sell-by dates. Shena cites the example of a tray of green beans languishing in the bin at the back of her local Co Op: “Those beans had been planted and nurtured in Kenya, prepared, and flown all the way to the UK to be thrown away”.

The original threesome was joined by experienced caterer Simon Poon, and they

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AFTERNOON tea at Elsie’s Cafe. Elsie’s Real Junk Food Cafe is housed in the Market Street Community Room in Exeter Place.

formed Fruitful Abundance, a non-profit Community Interest Company that raises awareness of the food system, promotes local produce, and tackles food waste. Fruitful Abundance has revived the much-loved Northampton Town Show as part of the Umbrella Fair, and created ‘Seedy Saturday’ a new gardening event held in February, and Elsie’s Real Junk Food Café, now housed in the Market Street Community Room in Exeter Place.

Within the space of two years Elsie’s Café has become one of the best-loved and most revered eateries in town. Elsie’s team rescue food, cook, and serve it to a growing clientele on a Pay as You Feel basis, allowing customer to pay according to ability, and to consider the broader value of their meal in terms of the energy and voluntary effort

from rescue to plate. In addition to meals Elsie’s has a ‘food boutique’ offering the latest surplus rescues for a donation. Every Saturday morning the café opens its doors to food bargain hunters. So, you may ask, if the food is free, why the need for donations?

Put simply, without donations Elsie’s would cease to exist. There are costs in transporting the rescued food, fitting the kitchen and paying rent and energy bills, insurance, Health & Safety requirements, catering equipment, crockery and breakages, and buying ingredients to complete recipes.

“Some things are never donated but always needed, such as cooking oil and sugar” explains Shena; “and an ever-increasing expense is storage. The more we rescue, the more fridges, freezers and storage space we need. We have several stores around

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CAKES from Barbara Everest (top), Wendi Buchanan (above), Seedy Saturday in full swing (middle) and Shena hard at work transforming supermarket waste into hearty meals for Elsie’s

town, such as garages, and we are hoping to acquire a shipping container.”

Elsie’s statistics are impressive. Here are the numbers for the third week of May 2017: Food rescued - 880 kg Plates of food served: 174 People fed in cafe: 100 Volunteer hours worked - 178 hours, 47 minutes Elsie’s also depends on volunteers, who do everything from driving around town at unsocial hours to designing posters. Meals are created on site, though some cooks prefer to make dishes at home, such as former teacher and professional cake and pasta-maker Barbara Everest “Thanks to Morrison’s, Sainsbury’s and other donations we can produce a varied and tasty menu during the week. It’s so rewarding seeing customers eating my food, made from ingredients otherwise going to landfill.

What made it more rewarding was when a regular volunteer shook me by the hand and thanked me for my mixed fruit crumble saying it was a cherished memory of his childhood. I’m pleased he enjoyed eating it as much as I enjoyed making it”.

Julia Sironi is another professional cook who now plies her craft for Elsie’s Café. Julia had the task of cooking for food writer and BBC Masterchef judge William Sitwell at last year’s Northampton Food Festival at the County Ground. Sitwell was promoting his book Eggs and Anarchy, about food on the home front in WW2. It included mention of Lord Woolton’s Pie, created as

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nourishing everyday meal during rationing by the head chef of The Savoy. Julia’s historic creation was served free to attendees, and proved a popular success; it was also the first time William Sitwell had tasted the dish he had recounted in his book.

Elsie’s has come a long way since it first opened in April 2015. One early comment in the visitor’s book admires the way “Elsie’s has come on in leaps and bounds in a few months from sausage sandwich to haute cuisine”.

Little wonder then that Elsie’s has won several major awards. Shena Cooper became Northampton’s Inspirational Woman 2016, and Elsie’s won the Food Heroes Award in the Northamptonshire Food & Drinks Awards, held at a glitzy ceremony earlier this year.

All sorts of weird and wonderful foods have been rescued, everything from chewing gum to venison and caviar. Is there a culinary use for chewing gum? If you know of one, please tell Elsie’s. The gum didn’t go to waste though, but was offered for a donation. The venison came from a local butcher, and made a hearty Hunter’s Stew. The caviar became an entrée at a binner. A binner?

That’s a dinner destined for the bin, and another of Elsie’s imaginative ways of using the food to perpetuate the project. Guest chefs from around the county produce a high-class four course meal, with entertainment, at a local pub, often The Albion in Kingswell Street. Diners pay a reservation fee. At the time of writing, preparations are in full swing for Elsie’s latest venture, a Binquet. This is binned food transformed into a

banquet by the county’s foremost chefs working with catering students from Northampton College. The ratio of chefs to diners will be similar to Michelin-starred restaurants. Elsie’s practices what it preaches regarding waste, which is kept to an absolute minimum. Bread, fruit and vegetables are taken to a local farm for pig feed, and compostables are taken to Elsie’s allotment in Kingsthorpe, which produces organic vegetables for the café.

In an age of snatched meals, there is something nostalgic about Elsie’s Café. Diners linger and converse, and often sing along with Chris Stobart and his guitar, usually to favourite Beatles songs. Shena Cooper and the team can be proud that they are changing the food system, and should you want Elsie’s to come to you, it is worth getting in touch, as several brides have done to request wedding buffets. So, from the bin to the happy ever after, it’s bon appetit from Elsie’s Real Junk Food Project.

Elsie’s wants to back you

Have you ever fancied donning a contestant’s apron on TV’s Masterchef or Great British Bake-Off? Elsie’s Cafe would love to support a local cook wishing to pit their skills and creativity in one of television’s popular amateur culinary challenges.

Could you create winning dishes from Elsie’s ever-changing mix of rescued ingredients? contact@elsiescaftrjfp.org.uk or message us on our Facebook page

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Nominate your Local Food Hero of the Year Anna Murby

The Mallows Company

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anna@rachelmallows.com @foodawardsHQ 01933 664437

revious winners include a village shop staffed by the local community, a dairy farmer whose early alarm clock had been ringing for forty years and a café which serves food which would otherwise go to waste – and now, with the search on for this year’s ‘Local Food Hero’, it’s your chance to help decide who takes home the prestigious title!

The ‘Weetabix Local Food Hero of the Year’ is just one of the categories in the Carlsberg UK Northamptonshire Food and Drink Awards which were set up nine years ago to celebrate all that is great about local food and drink, to recognise excellence within the county’s dining venues and to give a public pat on the back to all those who work so hard within the culinary sector.

It is sponsored by the Burton Latimer-based breakfast cereal company and supported by Northamptonshire CPRE and invites nominations from the public for those individuals or businesses which go further than most in promoting local food or keeping down food miles.

Indeed the category is the only one of those in the competition operated by public nomination and, as such, Northamptonshire CPRE’s Education and Development Manager Sally Hanrahan, says it holds a special place in the Awards; “What make this award so important is that there are some wonderful people and businesses right across the county doing what they can to maintain the value of local food in our rural communities, but often they’re too modest to put themselves forward for such an accolade” explained Sally.

“So for members of the public to ensure that those great stories are heard and celebrated is really important and I’d like to urge everyone to submit a simple nomination and help ensure that our local food heroes get the recognition that they deserve!” she enthused.

To nominate a business or an individual whom you believe deserves a public pat on the back for their efforts, whether it’s your local butcher, a community food project or

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perhaps your favourite farm shop or delicatessen, please download a nomination form from the Awards’ website – www.northamptonshirefoodanddrinkawards.co.uk - or simply call the Awards team on 01933 664437. The closing date for nominations is 24th July.

All nominations go forward to a judging session later in the year and the winner is announced at the prestigious Awards Dinner in November.

For more information, including details of the other categories in the competition, please call 01933 664437 or email rachel@ themallowscompany.com while you can also follow the Awards on twitter at @ foodawardsHQ and on Facebook at www. facebook.com/foodawards

SHENA Cooper of Elsie’s Cafe receives the Weetabix LFH trophy

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THE TO DO LIST

JUNE NQ Sky Dive 1-30 June

The Twelfth Player

Hinton Air Field Brackley

17-May-12 July Sixfields Football Stadium

Old Scouts Rugby Field

Northampton Music Festival 18 June (Sunday) Northampton Town Centre

Giovanni Pernice - Il Ballo E Vita (Dance is Life)

14-16 July

Olifest

Kelmarsh Hall, Northampton

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Grimethorpe Colliery Band 25 June Lighthouse Theatre, Kettering

Flashpoint Music Festival

28 June Corby Cube, Corby

Kelmarsh Hall Food Festival 8-9 July

Northampton Sausage and Cider Festival 24-25 June

Rockingham Castle, Corby

8-9 July St.Andrew’s Mill Northampton

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Bug Jam VW Festival 21-23 July Santa Pod Raceway, Wellingborough

Silverstone Grand Prix 14-16 July Rockingham Castle, Corby

Blisworth Canal Festival 12-13 August Blisworth, South Northamptonshire

Singing Sticks Festival 21-23 July Northampton Fun Colour Rush

Overstone Scout Activity Centre

July 23 Abington Park Northampton

Tribal Hearts Festival 11-14 August Whittlebury Park, Towcester

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Brackley Festival of Motorcycling

Northampton Balloon Festival

ATOMIC Festival 19-20 August

18-20 August

Sywell Aerodrome, Northampton

Billing Aquadrome, Northampton

13 August Brackley

Shambala Festival 24-27 August TBA - see www. shambalafestival.org

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The best seat in the ground Steve Scoles Editor

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nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 01604 550037

et me start with a disclaimer. It was a beautiful day at Sixfields Stadium when I arrived for the preview of The Twelfth Player.

(And if you haven’t already heard, yes, it does sound like they are staging a play at a football ground because that is precisely what Royal & Derngate is doing).

Thanks to the narcotically glorious weather I am going to remember The Twelfth Player as one of the great afternoons of the summer but without doubt the play/ tour of the stadium/ interactive virtual reality experience anchored that in place.

I’m not a Cobblers fan by birth but I’ve been in the town long enough for the club to matter to me and for me to know some of its stories.

Even for a casual supporter though, there is something of a thrill about the vicarious journey you take through the club and through the lives of its fans in The Twelfth Player.

You are handed an Ipod and earphones at the start, and you set off with the device acting as a guide and ‘second screen’ as you travel through the stands, the changing rooms and out on to the pitch via the players’ tunnel (a moment at which I defy the little boy in all of us not to smile – even for the ladies).

Your journey is sprinkled with vignettes that tell the story of what appears to be a typical football supporting family, although one family member turns out to have unexpected talent. The records and achievements of the club also ring in your ears as you go and there is a sense of not just being in the club but going beyond the bricks and mortar to its real beating heart – the fans.

It would be remiss not to mention Cobblers mascot Clarence the Dragon who skips into view at various points helping to make this an engaging family experience. You even get a rare insight into Clarence’s personal life which I won’t spoil with too much information.

Having said that Billy, 13, and Bonnie, nine, were both gripped by the Ipod

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enhanced journey of discovery and the emerging story, told through dance, had them asking questions about the history of women’s football.

It’s spookily effective to watch something on the Ipod that is happening at the very spot you are standing in; the characters become a kind of ghostly presence in your hand and you get the sense you are in a special place that is both home and fairytale castle at the same time.

The legal and political repercussions of that incredible promotion season at the Cobblers are still playing out and this production is a smart theatrical response if not to the actual events themselves then certainly to the passion of the fans.

Hardcore supporters might come away feeling that other stories could have been told in this performance but it’s a brilliant overall experience and you’ll finish with a smile on your face.

The Twelfth Player is a collaboration between Seven Sisters Theatre Group, Fermyn Contemporary Art and the Royal & Derngate and runs at Sixfields Stadium from Thursday 22 June to Wednesday 12 July (no performances on Mondays). For a full schedule of dates and times visit www.royalandderngate.co.uk or call Royal & Derngate Box Office on 01604 624811. Tickets are £5 each.

This production has received funding support from Arts Council England and is part of Made In Northampton.

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Animation and stories straight from the heart at the Errol Flynn cinema With previous weather making me ponder whether to build my ark or not a simpler solution may be to retreat to the shelter of the Errol Flynn Filmhouse.

Studio Ghibli the Japanese production company has produced animation films for over thirty years. The studio has produced films such as ‘Spirited Away’ (2001) the highest grossing film ever in Japan and ‘Kiki’s Delivery Service’ (1989).

Their animated films appeal to a mass International audience but also have a real following of hard-core Ghibli fans. These fans should welcome the latest Ghibli animated offering, ‘The Red Turtle’ directed by Michaël Dudok de Wit, a Dutch animator based in the UK. The story told with no dialogue, follows the journey of a man shipwrecked on a tropical island. His plans to escape on a log raft are scuppered by a big red turtle. The film simply drawn, lures you in to the island with soft browns, oranges and blues. You are taken on a journey of the main milestones in a man’s life. This touching film crosses many cultural boundaries and deals with Universal themes – something that Ghibli is great at.

If you fancy something a bit more Hollywood try ‘Gifted’ directed by Marc Webb who directed ‘500 Days of Summer’.

‘Gifted’ is a drama about a young Uncle (Chris Evans) left with the responsibility of bringing up his 7-year-old niece. It’s all going well until her teacher notices that she is a 7-year-old capable of some pretty advanced maths - think calculus.

For a feel-good romance, British style there is ‘Hampstead’ directed by Joel Hopkins. It has a kind of Richard Curtis ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral’ feel. A middle aging widow (Diane Keaton) lives an idyllic life in a house near Hamstead Heath. She has everything but not the one thing that makes a woman happy – some women happy. She comes across a growly recluse Donald (Brendan Gleeson) who lives in a shack on the Heath. Trouble is he is at threat of being evicted so she has to join the likes of Lesley Manville to help ‘Save the Shack’. This film is definitely aimed at the more silver haired amongst us. Sit back and enjoy this with a rhubarb gin and tonic.

The Red Turtle Mon 19 June 8:45pm Tue 20 June 6:15pm Gifted Fri 23rd June – Thur 29th June Hamstead Fri 30th June – Thur 6th July

NQ Karin Johnstone

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When our county was the n battles s Mike Ingram Historian

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nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 01604 550037

lthough very little of Northamptonshire’s medieval past remains today, it is still there, oozing out the ground, and if you look hard enough, it is easy to walk in the footsteps of kings and queens and stand in places where history was made. One important connection with the past is that Northamptonshire was the leading centre for tournaments in England throughout the medieval period (possibly because of its central location). The county had three, possibly four tournament grounds, the main two being situated just outside Brackley and Northampton with another at Yardley Hastings and possibly another near Collyweston.

The realities of medieval tournaments were however, far different from the popular perception of two heavily armoured knights charging at each other with lances either side of a fence (which was not common until the end of the fourteenth century). For most of the period it was simply a massed brawl of knights, without any of the ceremony that featured in later jousts, taking place over many acres of countryside.

The tournament has its origins in the military tactics of heavy cavalry during the Middle Ages and was originally training for war. Tournaments were the best means of teaching and refining the skills and abilities necessary within a more controlled environment than actual warfare.

They were held throughout the year except the penitential season of Lent generally on Mondays and Tuesdays, though any day except Friday and Sunday might be used.

The site of the tournament was customarily announced two weeks before it was to be held. These announcements would also provide the composition of the two parties involved. Those notified would then gather a group of knights who might come from their own households or be men who would be interested in participating in the tournament with that lord. All participants would arrive at the set place either the date of the tournament or perhaps the day before if the group participating came from a greater distance. Some great tournaments could last

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he national tournament hotspot es sprawled across countryside several days, and on the eve preceding the actual tournament, the young knights might show their skill with weapons and horse without having to compete against the more experienced knights. Knights arrived individually or in companies to stay at one or other of the two settlements designated as their lodgings. The tournament began on a field outside the principal settlement, where stands were erected for spectators. On the day of the tournament one side was formed of those ‘within’ the principal settlement, and another of those ‘outside’.

At some time in mid-morning the knights would line up for the charge (estor). At a signal, a bugle or herald’s cry, the lines would ride at each other and meet with levelled lances. The warhorses galloped in extended lines so that any knight toppled by a lance would not be severely injured by falling into the path of others. Foot soldiers known as ‘Kippers’ (from the Scandinavian word ‘Kippa‘ which means to snatch or to seize) followed their knights into combat to retrieve arms, armour and horses from fallen adversaries. If the adversary was not completely subdued and ready to surrender these, the kipper would bang on the armour-clad opponent with various blunt non-lethal instruments, like heavy sticks or clubs, to knock him unconscious for the purpose of gathering the spoils without further protest. Those remaining on horseback would turn quickly (the action which gave the tournament its name) and single out knights to attack. Those riders that were unhorsed and uninjured knights would continue fighting on foot. It was a violent and dangerous sport, even though most of the time their swords were blunt, their lances un-pointed, and they wore heavy armour, casualties and deaths were common. For example, Duke Geoffrey, the son of King Henry II, was trampled to death at a tourney near Paris. There is evidence that squires were also present at the lists (the staked and embanked line in front of the stands) to offer their knight up to three replacement lances.

The mêlée would frequently degenerate into running battles between parties of knights seeking to take ransoms, and would spread over several square miles between the two settlements which defined the tournament area.

Most tournaments continued till both

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sides were exhausted, or till the light faded.

Following the tournament the patron of the day would offer lavish banquets and entertainments. Prizes were offered to the best knight on either side, and awarded during the meals. They were also the opportunity for great ceremony and during the great tournament of 1265, Northampton Geoffrey le Scrope and three more men were knighted by Edward II. There are few detailed accounts of tournaments in England, but one held in Dunstable in 1309 lists a total of 231 knights. It has been estimated that each knight would also bring an average of ten assistants with them.

With this in mind, the total at Dunstable was probably in excess of 2,300 men.

That many men were the equivalent to an average or large sized medieval town and therefore the site of the tournament would necessarily encompass several square miles of territory normally between two villages or outside towns and cities. David Crouch, in his book “Tournament”, describes one mêlée (as tournaments were often called) in 1179, when the tourneyers spread across meadows and woodland and how the fight continued across ditches and through woods, with barns acting as temporary forts. The best identifiable example of an English tournament site is at Langwith Common, near York, and in 1270 this covered 500 acres.

Northamptonshire Tournaments Northamptonshire had three, or possibly four tournament sites during the medieval period. Situated at the centre of the country, Northampton’s was one of the most important in England. The very first record of a tournament being held anywhere in England, is in a charter of Osbert of Arden, a Warwickshire knight of English descent, which reveals that he travelled to Northampton and London and also crossed the Channel to join in events in France.

The actual site of the Northampton ground is currently unknown. As we have seen, tournament grounds were outside towns, typically a mile and a half away (in the case of York) and close to water. Evidence suggests that tournament sites were often later used for horse racing and in the early seventeenth century. Northampton had a racecourse on Harlestone Heath with the earliest race being recorded in 1632. The History of The British Turf, by James

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June-July, 2017 Rice also states that the site was previously the scene of many sporting events.

The site continued to be used as a race track until in December 1733, when the races were discontinued.

It is now in Harlestone Firs but could still be seen in the 1860’s. By the 1880’s only a single track was not covered with fir trees.

There are however, a number of uninvestigated tumuli that are visible on the exposed heath (although they too are about to disappear under housing). And adjacent to it is King’s Heath also suggesting its royal connections. Other possibilities include Hardingstone and the modern racecourse.

Another tournament site is near Yardley Hastings. There are also specific references to it during the reign of Henry III, and although it could be the Northampton ground, it is unlikely as Henry also frequently mentions the other by name too. Yardley was the home of the earl of Huntingdon sometimes also earl of Northampton, and the brother of the King of Scotland. So, he may have had the ground for his exclusive use. In 1201, during the reign of King John, David, earl of Huntingdon paid 25 marks to hold a tournament. Henry III forbade tournaments which had been arranged to take place there in 1234 and 1235 when John le Scot was Earl of Huntingdon.

In 1194, Richard I, ever eager to raise funds for his forthcoming crusade, licensed five new sites as places for tournaments.

These were: between Salisbury and Wilton in Wiltshire; between Warwick and Kenilworth in Warwickshire; between Blyth and Tickhill in Nottinghamshire; between Stamford (Lincs) and an unknown place called Warinford. The last was between Brackley and Mixbury in Northamptonshire.

The History and Antiquities of the County of Northampton by George Baker gives the location of the Brackley tournament ground as “Bayards’ Green, also called Bear’s Green, an elevated spot of table-land on the south bank of the Ouse, near the mill in the parish of Evenley. It retained its name, which is synonymous with Horses’ Green.” In later times, this was also where the once famous Brackley Horse-races were held.

The Stamford site also remains unknown and is a bit more difficult to pinpoint. The difficulty being the location of Warinford.

Some have suggested this in in Suffolk however, the Suffolk border alone is a considerable distance from Stamford and we have already seen that sites were not that far from the named site of the town. It therefore probably refers to Wansford, six miles south of Stamford. As we have seen, a number of tournament sites possibly became horse racing tracks in the early 1600’s and between

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Stamford and Wansford at the beginning of the 1600’s was a well-known horse racing track two miles to the south-west of Stamford, on Easton Heath near Collyweston. If this theory is correct then this site in Northamptonshire too.

We generally only know about the counties tournaments from royal proclamations by successive kings banning them, or by the deaths of those taking part. For example, there is a description of a tournament held in Brackley in 1249 which became badly out of control. Matthew Paris wrote: “Many of the soldiers from all over the kingdom, who wanted to be called ‘the bachelors’, were asked to take part. In fact, on this occasion, even Count Richard of Gloucester who always arranged tournaments between strangers and the local people, whom he supported, enrolled a stranger on his side.

In doing so he caused confusion by having the different parts of England represented on the same side, causing enormous damage to his reputation and honour. William de Valence, brother of the king, beat up William

de Odinges, a very strong soldier, who had joined ‘the bachelors’ many of whom were badly wounded. At another held at Northampton in 1293, two of John Duke of Brabant’s horses were injured and it cost 15 shillings to treat them. In, April 1342, during the reign of Edward III, it is recorded that “fifty days after Easter, the king held hastiludes at Northampton, where many nobles were seriously wounded and some mutilated, and many horses were lost, and John, Lord Beaumont, was killed.”

William, Earl of Salisbury hoped to hold a tournament at Northampton on 8 Aug 1218, but it was postponed at the last minute by William Marshall as being liable to cause a breach of Kings peace. In 1328, another tourny was banned because a parliament was being held in the castle at the same time and there was concern that men might prefer to go to the tournament instead.

Penalties for taking part in tournaments could be severe and the earl of Aumale was excommunicated by Papal Legate Pandulf for taking part in one at Brackley in 1219.

Despite threats and punishments, they seem to have still taken place. In July 1233 Henry III issued a mandate to the mayor and bailiffs

Culture NQ of Northampton banning those taking part in an illegal tournament from entering the town so they could not get supplies. William de Valence, King Henry III’s half-brother planned to hold another on Ash Wednesday 1249, despite a ban. In the end a two-day snowstorm forced its cancellation.

The year after the defeat of the Royalists at the Battle of Lewes in 1264, where both King Henry III and his son Edward were captured, Northampton played host to Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester and his council.

Their arrival was due to the Easter tournament, proposed by the earl’s sons, Henry and Simon, to which all the nobles had been summoned. However, it was cancelled at the last minute because Gilbert de Clare’s (who had changed sides) refused to come. The attendance of Montfort’s council can however be proven by the thirteen letters Close and the eight letters Patent sealed at Northampton between the 21 and 24 April. When the earl left on the 25th, he would be heading towards his final defeat and death less than a month later at Evesham.

Although not actually tournaments, one of the most important events in English history took place upon the Northants tournament grounds.

As discontent with King John’s rule grew disaffected Barons assembled at the Stamford tournament ground on 19 April 1215. Five earls and forty barons are mentioned by name as present at the muster, with many others they all came with horses and arms, and brought with them” a countless host,” estimated to comprise about two thousand knights, besides other horsemen, sergeants-at-arms, and foot soldiers. On 26 April, the Barons reached Northampton’s ground where they were due to meet King John. However, he did not show up and so the following day they moved to the Brackley tournament ground where they meet William Marshall and the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Barons send John a list of demands which becomes the basis of the Magna Carta. John refused to listen. On 5 May, the Barons renounce their oaths of allegiance, proclaim Robert Fitzwalter their leader. They then marched on Northampton, laying siege to the town. Fitzwalter’s standard bearer was killed and numerous others.

However, after two weeks, lacking siege equipment they moved on to Bedford which was given up by William de Beauchamp.

They then marched on London at which point John agreed to their demands which became known as the Magna Carta, and which he seals at Runnymede. So, what this also showed was that tournament grounds could be gathering places for rebel armies, and in times of threatened rebellion they were frequently banned.

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Culture

May, 2017

Culture

June-July, 2017

THE WWW.WMTH.TV

WE MAKE THINGS HAPPEN GIG GUIDE

xx 31

Get your teeth into identity

T

he final vent in the Transition project was themed around Identity with exhibition of works from Steve Godfrey & Roy Wallace. Steve Godfrey explored Vampiric Presence where he describes the existence of the Vampire subculture as prevalent now as it was 15 years ago when he first did a series of picture for The London Vampire group. Vampire members are a gathering of darkened souls who bear an interest in all things Vampiric, whether it’s the love for the literature or the movies or those who prefer to delve deeper.

His series of images were shot of traditional black and white film to recall the atmosphere associated with all thing dark. The photographs on display at the event were traditionally hand printed in the darkroom

by Steve himself which looked stunning when exhibited. Steve will be exhibiting more of his work at the Monad Symposium and Transition event late Aug/September (dates tbc) all are most welcome to join the children of the night.

Roy Wallace’s Expanded Documentary exhibition, used still images from his documentary work Modern Angels as part of his PhD research into practice. elcome to documentary the first edition of Northampton’s new his entertainment guide, The images portrayed documentary brought to youbody

by Changemaker through ‘We subjects through art forms including Make Things Happen’. tattooing, scarification and body manipulaOur aim is to help your of find cultural tion. The underlying theme theyour exhibition people aware of gigs, thewashotspots ‘body asand themake last bastion of individual

resistance’ which was also explored through the screening of his 40min documentary work.

Modern Angels: A documentary exploration of how individuals use their bodies as sites of resistance to dominant cultural forces through tattooing, the transdermal, body art and body modification in the Kingdom of Belgium.

Wallace’s work examines aspects of ‘body ritual’ as a means of expression and resistance to prevailing dominant cultural and how ancient ritualistic practices have Shoetown, as well as putting on some of our evolved into mainstream art forms and own and supporting those who help make anti-religious symbolic resistance at the things happen. second millenniumband of Christ.

TheDogs workcertainly will Northampton Robbing explore of identity andthe religious/ foundissues their hotspot when video for their spiritual beliefSorry, associated suchwas body art new single Not Inwith Service filmed

Find your cultural hotspots

W

atre, exhibitions and other activities here in

June 2017.indd 31

in the Croatian desert (pictured). Robbing

practices and their symbolDogs is an awesome foursome with a sound ic meaning influenced

by Artic Monkeys, Panic at the across different Disco and Imagine Dragons. ritualistic activiAlso look out for Blitz: DJ’s Alex Novak + ties including, tattoo, Gareth Clarke at The Lamplighter on May 13. piercing, branding, scarifiDoors open at 9pm cation, performance and within Remember: #supportthelocalscene

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June-July 2017 these particular elements to further explore the nuance of practice between different approaches.

The implicit theme underlying this work embraces practice as performance as seen through the eyes of a number of key participants active in the Belgian Underground scenes which cross-over and interconnect with a range of complimentary subcultural movements including, punk, goth, rockabilly and various sexually explicit transdermal groups who engage in ‘performance’ as both ritual and practice involving the ‘spectator’ and in my case the ‘documenter’ which poses a range of ethical and moral considerations when documenting and recording such activities, as acknowledged or unacknowledged participant.

The screening of the documentary work was then followed by a live acoustic performance by Tom & Nicole. Two of Northampton’s up and coming musicians and students on the University of Northampton’s popular music degree programme. They delivered a stunning performance of acoustic guitar and vocals which captivated and engaged the audience throughout.

Next to the stage was Sefanie Elrick who’s stunning performance ‘reinState’ hinges on the idea of two people meeting, fusing and then ‘reinstating’ themselves through dance. She felt that, performing the work alone would have been impossible and so she conceived a way of doubling herself, keeping the ‘restoration of an identity’ idea key.

The mirrors she uses were clearly markers of the four directions with the mirror in the centre represented herself and in Stefanie’s own words, It became clear that before something could be reinstated it first needs to be changed or broken down in some way.

The verb itself indicates a shift of power, something that has been removed or disrupted, being given back.

She started to play with the idea of a person who has never seen their reflection in a mirror before, like a child or an animal or someone stepping back into consciousness after a long period of mental disorientation.

She liked the idea of enacting the mirror stage, treating her reflection as something alien and then explored what it would be like to fall in love with this reflection and even to be rejected by it.

She performs to all kinds of tracks from Public Image Ltd’s ‘Death Disco’ and ‘Fodderstompf’ to Tom Waits ‘Hell Broke Luce’.

Through this musical collage a story started to emerge; of awakening, of ‘coming back into’ my body, dancing, encountering the other, trying to befriend it, falling in love, becoming more and more frustrated as it remained cold and aloof and eventually destroying it. The audience watched in silence as she performed her work and I for one was in awe when she finally walked through the broken glass and off the stage. In her own words, The answer then became clear. I could reinstate my identity by reshaping the broken fragments in anyway I liked. I rebuilt a third entity, unlike myself or my reflec-

June 2017.indd 32

Culture

tion, a third person, an abstract deity and a consciousness beyond myself.

Not to be missed at the Monad/Transition event later this year!

MUSIC: 25/6/2017 Abington Park Bandstand Bands In The Park: Northampton Music & Performing Arts Trust Free 30/6/2017 The Charles Bradlaugh Cureheads + Venus Fly Trap £8 or £10 @ door

NQ

2/7/2017 Abington Park Bandstand Bands In The Park: Bisham Concert Band Free 14:00pm - 17:00pm 9/7/2017 Abington Park Bandstand Bands In The Park: Corby Silver Band Free 14:00pm - 17:00pm

NQ We Make Things Happen

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June-July 2017

Culture

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Virulent ideas and a root system of interwoven tales Alan Moore

Dangerous thinker

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nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 01604 550037

t was some few years ago, just after I’d emerged from reading Brian Catling’s mesmerising tour de force The Vorrh, that the obliging author sent an early version of the trilogy’s next episode, its blizzard of loose pages in a big black box-file like a cinder block. Where they remained: having by then embarked upon a worryingly overgrown book of my own, I was reluctant to expose myself to more of Catling’s haunting and immersive territory lest there be some shadow of unconscious influence, some colouration inadvertently picked up from his malarial Arcadia with its abundance of invasive species. Only recently, with my own novel put to bed, have I embarked upon The Erstwhile and discovered that my prophylactic measures were entirely useless. Evidently, even having this work under the same roof as mine has spread a fungus of angels and Blake and simultaneous time and Bedlam across both. Perhaps a box-file made of lead would have afforded more protection.

Although then again, perhaps not. There’s a virulence about The Erstwhile against which there may be no effective barrier.

The visionary vegetation propagates and seeds itself within the reader’s psyche, and you’ll never get its mulch of dream out of your mental shoes. Infectious characters, ideas and images abound as in The Vorrh, its predecessor, but if anything the way those elements are handled here only increases the conceptual nettle-rash.

Most noticeably, the exotic figures and Ernst-collage vistas of the earlier book are granted an alarming animation in the sequel.

While the eerie dioramas and the dramatis personae of The Vorrh were limned in phosphorous and burned themselves onto the retina of the imagination, there remained the sense that these were immobile and intricately sculpted forms, motionless symbols, archetypes from an alternate-history tarot there only to be interpreted. The sense of an immense narrative mechanism in repose, like an industrially-scaled version of those penny-driven clockwork tableaux to be found in the amusement arcades of

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the 1950s, glass box purgatories in miniature where tiny misers, phantoms, devils and condemned men whirred and juddered to their blackout destinies, made psoriatic by their peeling Humbrol paint jobs. With The Erstwhile, Catling drops a coin into the slot of the arcane machinery he’s spent the whole of the first volume in constructing, whereupon the marvellous assembly comes to dreadful life and we discover that the lyric Raymond Roussel undergrowth is even more unnerving when it’s rustling and moving; when it’s coughing miracles.

From the spine-tingling opening conversation between a South London artist and his model to the gory public spectacle of the cliffhanging season two finale, we are caught in a fast-growing root system of interweaving stories with their nerve-hair tendrils burrowing into incongruous geographies, boarded-up centuries and secret lives. The dead, the living and the never-were cohabit riotously and cross contaminate, released from the conditions of their quarantine and free to follow their cryptic and terrible agendas. Sometimes, from the first book’s sympathetic studies there arise the second volume’s fiends while other members of the cast affect an opposite trajectory in a

surrounding as amoral as mythology, where gods and natural forces have no concept of consent, have no more boundaries than does the sempiternal wilderness wherein the players variously enact their savage dramas.

The clue being in the title, the commencement of the trilogy concerned the Vorrh itself, taking its time to introduce the stupefying concept of a sylvan multiverse to its disoriented audience. In this continuation, just as aptly titled, focus shifts from wood to trees and we are offered an examination of the titular abandoned angels, the redundant workforce and security contractors for the compromised and walked-away-from Eden project, a celestial enterprise derailed by primordial scrumping. Whereas in the first book we’re permitted only glimpses of the Erstwhile in their more-than-natural habitat, sightings through leaf-cover of their unfathomable pack behaviour – witness their fear-stricken self-interment at the least approach of the fate-guided huntsman Williams and his longbow bride – in this new chapter we’re allowed to see them toppled from their violent mythic context, fallen into no less bruising historicity and an unwelcoming material world, unearthed from peat bogs, dredged from filthy rivers or

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June-July 2017

(cont.) among the shell-shocked soldiers convalescing in First World War sanatoriums.

Their strange imperatives come gradually to seem more lucid and clear-sighted than those of the endless forest’s human interlopers – human, or at least less than divine.

In the colonial city Essenwald, literally eating forest with its logging operations situated on the Vorrh’s delimited perimeter, the first novel’s theatrical ensemble now perform the melancholias and machinations that were formerly only implied. Troubled young cyclops Ishmael, having two eyes following cosmetic reconstructive surgery and therefore physically less monstrous, becomes involved in a disastrously misjudged incursion into the interior of the Vorrh’s repurposed Paradise and in the process drifts towards a new emotional and psychological monstrosity. Ishmael’s abandoned lover Ghertrude – name perhaps a nod in the direction of Peake’s Gormenghast – gives birth to what may be his child, attended by differently-moral Bakelite automata, while his neglected current paramour the previously blind Cyrena finds that her Ishmael-restored sight, gifted by a one-eyed man, is a mixed blessing. Catling’s narrative, a landscape out of Odillon Redon or Georges Bataille, drips eyes, while Essenwald and the primordial wilderness upon which it encroaches gradually emerge as the evolving trilogy’s two principal antagonists, opposed environments with unexpected agency.

Although this conflict between habitat and heavy industry is central to the intricate emergent story, it would be an error to mistake this forest-centred triple-decker for an ecological allegory, unless we are referring to a personal interior ecology of the imagination; a conservation policy for what is thinkable. Upon consideration this may be Catling’s agenda, staging a reckless safari into the uncharted reaches of dream and derangement, sending back amazed despatches, photos, documentary footage, native artefacts, glimpses of unspoiled territory to inspire a new environmentalism of the psyche. And let us be clear on this: the verbal landscape of the Vorrh is not a place that Catling made, but rather is a place he found. Jungles are not constructed; they’re discovered.

William Burroughs came up with his formulation of ‘the word vine’, the phenomenon by which one written word inevitably shapes the next, and so on. One common misapprehension with regard to writers is the notion that they have ideas and then write them down, whereas in actuality ideas tend to grow out of the natural progression of the words, as unanticipated fruit on Burroughs’ vine. The implication, surely, is that writers are reduced in stature from omnipotent creators and become instead the vehicles by which ideas have themselves.

From this unusual perspective the arboreal eternity just beyond Essenwald takes on a different status ontologically, construed as almost an immense self-seeding organism

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Culture of the mind, not biomass but psychomass, and less imaginary than imaginal. The space-and-time-transcending undergrowth becomes a real locale in our conceptual geography, a place, a state that pre-exists authorial discovery, description, husbandry, craft or cartography. The Vorrh, then, is what happens when the word vines are encouraged, flourishing in a rich loam to run completely out of hand, an ineradicable kudzu of idea and imagery.

Elsewhere in the word-thicket’s vast coterminous expanse we are afforded an almost forensic inquest into The Erstwhile’s eponymous lost Kherubim, retrieved from their auto-entombment by bewildered mortals and now resident in 20th century London madhouses, disinterred mysteries that are impervious to experts, analysts, and all contemporary measures of examination. One such specimen, its abject, partially-regenerated form the inspiration for William Blake’s penitent Nebuchadnezzar, has in the intervening century apparently not even managed to get out of Lambeth, being presently incarcerated in the Bethlehem asylum just a stone’s throw from the visionary’s Hercules Buildings home address. Here, in this second volume’s most astounding sequence, we behold eternal beings unrestrained by what can only be a temporary confinement, and encounter cat-obsessive Louis Wain, with Wain’s hallucinatory feared-and-beloved felines merging effortlessly into the phantasmagoric swirl of unearthed angels and premonitory crystal radios. It is a testament to the hypnotic power of Catling’s literary voice that even a deliberately anachronistic reference to Just a Minute only adds to the pervasive creepiness; does nothing to dispel the timeless vegetable trance.

Meanwhile, in the brainforest, vengeance-consumed shamans are made implacable torturers and steam leviathans are thundering between the ancient trees in search of Essenwald’s absconded catatonic labourers, the Limboia. At 4 Kühler Brunnen an insidious illusion-weaving gas forces itself upon a child, while somewhere in the virid distance the unnatural granddaughter of photographer Eadweard Muybridge is instructing a bewitched priest in the manufacture of clear sugar ink required for a calligraphy of ants. Babies are born that grow into unnerving prodigies. Babies are born that disappear. A foliage of unprecedented notions and conceits spills past the flowerbed borders of the page to overgrow the book, the library, the fenced constraints of genre, in a great reforesting of our capacity for wonder; a re-wilding of our colonised and concrete-covered inner space.

The Erstwhile extends Brian Catling’s march on the interior far past the point where maps give up in hearsay, speculation and teratological mirage, the bearers having long since fled. This is the wilderness of us, the echoing cloud-forest clamouring and teeming in each skull, in every human nervous system. Welcome to the jungle.

NQ

SUBIKA Anwar-Khan in her one-woman show Divided, at London’s Camden People’s Theatre. Photo by Jamie Drew OPPOSITE: Lebedek, due to play at the Artists’ Shindig at Foodies Rocks, Northampton

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Culture

June-July 2017

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Ready for Scuff Night?

Christopher Elmer-Gorry Drama chameleon

J

hello@wartsandalltheatre. co.uk

une always brings with it so much excitement as we head towards our traditionally busier time of year.

Whether that’s as a director or a writer, the nature of working in the theatre industry and specialising in making work with or for young people is that the majority of the performances are at the end of the academic year. We’re launching into that period now!

In the last month I’ve had a show performed that was commissioned by the Almeida Theatre in London.

Warts and All Theatre have also worked in association with Subika Anwar- Khan (a Northamptonshire artist) and presented her onewoman play Divided at Camden People’s Theatre in London ahead of Northamptonshire performances in the Autumn.

I’ve been auditioning Actors for a show that I made last Summer for Almeida Theatre and is being revived this year for the Edinburgh Festival, which is called From The Ground Up. We’ve had ongoing rehearsals for our Scuff Night at Foodies.rocks, plus rehearsals for Hansel and Gretel and Little Criminals, our Young Actors performance projects at Delapre Abbey and programming our July Sunday Artist Shindig where band Lebedek will perform. It’s been a busy time!

But now to focus on the craft of that

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work- I enjoy this period because it’s about bringing life to the ideas that you’ve been working on for so long.

Our next project In Northampton is our Scuff Night at Foodies.rocks which is presented by Warts and All Theatre’s The Collective, (a theatre group for adults who want to develop their craft in theatre making).

Alongside the performers, we have been working with four Northamptonshire writers who have developed ideas for oneact plays.

The group functions as a collective which means it’s important that there is an element of reflection within our process. So we are holding our first ever Scuff Night on Sunday 1st July at Foodies.rocks.

This will be an interactive event where our audience will experience extracts of these four plays. The audience then decides which two plays the company will develop next year into fully realised productions. This is a really exciting project for us. It’s about taking your own ego as an artist out of the equation. It’s about giving the ideas back to the community to see what interests them. It’s about creating new plays by Northamptonshire writers in collaboration with Northamptonshire audiences, and fundamentally it’s about sharing the process of making work -demystifying the world of theatre! We want to encourage that dialogue. A dialogue where people have a voice in the work that is presented.

Hopefully you will be able to join us at the Scuff Night and help steer the work you think we should be creating.

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Food

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Red Lion still worth its salt S

OMEONE flashing their knickers at you for two hours might sound like an ideal night out for some. But when you’re out for an anniversary meal with your beloved at The Red Lion at East Haddon, it’s a little awkward.

We’d been looking forward to this midweek meal at one of the county’s best rated posh pubs, just the two of us, no kids in tow, chance for at least one decent drink. We started with a rhubarb and ginger gin from local heroes Warner Edwards, and what I hoped would be something fancy - a Elderflower fizz, described as elderflower topped up with prosecco. A very average flute of fizz arrived - and cost nine flippin’ quid.

Our waitress was a very chirpy teen who explained that a few things were off the menu, which seemed surprising for a Wednesday. However there’s a reasonable choice of starters, steaks, more gastro-pubby, locally-sourced mains and burgers. We chose a salmon salad starter with a poached egg, and a bacon hash with a fried egg and orange tomato sauce. The hash was declared a resounding success but unfortunately the salmon salad came soused in a salty vinegar dressing which hadn’t been in the description. Vinegar is my nemesis, so I tried to pick round and just eat the egg and fish. The egg was still a little snotty for my taste.

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Distracted though we’d been by the business of menu perusing, it became obvious that the late-teens/early 20s girl on the next table was apparently so relaxed in her surroundings that she didn’t attempt to pull down her very short skirt and was manspreading throughout her meal, knickers on full show. And it wasn’t like we were accidental witnesses to some racy young couple’s exhibitionism. She was with a very proper elderly lady, presumably her gran.

We therefore gave full and undivided attention to our mains: confit of pork belly with crackling, on a bed of crushed peas and a 10oz rump steak. Again, my steak was far too salty, and came with flat mushroom, asparagus and a few limp rocket leaves.

The pork meanwhile, was declared a total winner.

Determined to get at least one un-salty dish, I ordered a panna cotta with fresh raspberries while Penda’s Partner chose a strawberry Arctic roll. This time they were both good - generous portions and with sharp fruit balancing the sweetness.

The pub, which seats about 45, wasn’t busy but there was a steady stream of couples of all ages coming in, and flasher girl left early, presumably feeling chilly. Another couple were overhead mentioning too much salt on their starter, which by this time I’d raised with the waitress. “I’ll let the kitchen know,” she replied, with no offer of amends. A week later we were told The bill came to £85, adding in the coffees (one which was replaced because of floating coffee grounds) and a focaccia and oil side.

We left wondering if the pub’s good reputation has led to a too casual approach to basics like seasoning. But we’d go again, because the whole experience was far from pants...

NQ Penda

14/06/2017 00:19:04

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Gardens

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June-July 2017

Yellow garden gold

OPEN this month: Above, The Croft, Flore (17-18 June); Vicarage Rise, Weedon Lois (25 June); Bottom: Wigley Cottage, Ravensthorpe (9 July).

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here’s a masochistic pleasure in visiting the gardens of strangers. You get to poke around gardens that are usually much nicer than yours, attached to homes that are probably bigger than yours, eat piles of home-made cakes and then go home to feel guilty about your own neglected patch of wilderness and all that cake you ate.

Garden owners who throw open their garden gates for the National open Garden Scheme, or NGS, to raise money for charity, may have lovely plots, but they have to put up with more than just a strict admissions criteria. The NGS publishes a guide to the gardens, known as the ‘yellow book’ and this has a reputation for attracting bus loads of pensioners, hell bent on pinching cuttings, trampling the tradescantia and loudly critiquing the quality of refreshments. But there is a resolute dedication to the cause from both sides. Last year the NGS raised £2.7 million which went to charities including Macmillan, Marie Curie, Parkinson’s Uk and the MS Society. Northamptonshire, now in its 90th year of supporting the NGS, has some of the best gardens; private ones you’d never usually get to see and those who open regularly but donate a weekend’s takings to the NGS cause.

It really is a lovely day out. Pick up a free yellow county leaflet and you’ll see details on where is open, whether it’s wheelchair and buggy accessible, some background on

Hilary Scott On secatuers

nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 01604 550037

the garden development and where to get the famous refreshments. Some larger gardens open on their own, others often band together in village groups. Some will sell you plants to take home (so you really don’t need to steal cuttings).

I was introduced to the garden scheme some 15 years ago by county snowdrop expert Jim Leatherland from Hollowell, who, I only recently learned, died last year. Jim and his wife Joan were passionate about the scheme and opened their own, modest little garden twice a year and it would be a fitting legacy for the NGS to raise more money than ever in 2017.

Gardens open over the next few weeks include: June 17-18 - Flore Gardens. Ten village gardens open 11am-6pm.

June 18 - Foxtail Lily and Jericho, Oundle; Harpole, six gardens open 1-6pm, Sulgrave, 11 gardens open 2-6pm; the Old Rectory at Sudborough, 11-5pm; Turweston, two gardens open 2-5.30.

June 25 - Arthingworth, Finedon, Weedon Lois and Weston Gardens all open in the afternoon.

Visit www.ngs.org.uk to search for more.

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NQ

Counting on nature

Richard Hollingum Captain of the fields

I

nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 01604 550037

n Richard Jefferies 1879 book Wildlife in A Southern County he recounts how, being unsure as to whether the unusual bird singing was a fieldfare – it being the breeding season and usually these birds are long gone – he shot one to see if he was correct.

To our modern sensibilities this rather harsh act in order to carry out an identification is not only out of date but also unnecessary.

Even though the telescope and binoculars have been around since the 17th century, Jefferies was of an era that to catch, kill and display was an important part of studying nature. Nowadays, high-powered binoculars and monoculars and super-telephoto lenses allow us to watch what is going on and to record whilst leaving nature intact.

In fact, recording what we see around us is becoming more and more important and we are all being recruited into looking for birds, butterflies and bumble bees. This year’s RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch involved about 500,000 people. Birdwatch is possibly the longest running high-profile nature recording activity that involves the general public. Over 36,000 people also got involved in last years Big Butterfly Count and 15,000

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took part in the Great British Bee Count.

Such public involvement is great and is a good opportunity to involve all the family in something that is interesting and important. However, it does not have to stop there. These three counts take place at specific times of the year but there is lots to see and to record all year round, and in Northamptonshire there are lots of opportunities to get involved.

The RSPB results for Northamptonshire show the House Sparrow, Starling and Blackbird occupying the top three top places. Probably no great surprise and whilst it is important to monitor these species there are others that need to be recorded to give a bigger picture of the county’s birds.

As I write this, Twitter is showing sightings of Ospreys on Welford reservoir, a Glossy Ibis at Summer Leys and Nightingales have been heard near Titchmarsh. In most parts of the county you will now see Red Kite and Buzzard and in many places farmers are taking much more care in maintaining hedgerows and field margins offering more space for Linnet, finches, tits and Yellowhammer. In fact there are far more birds out of the garden to be seen than you may see in it.

Other species being recorded in Northamptonshire include dragonflies, amphibians and wild flowers, as well as butterflies, bees and birds.

The essential thing is that monitoring the state of our flora and fauna is not only

important for now, but also for tomorrow.

Counting the number of damselflies in a few places last year, and then going back this year to count again, will start to give a picture of the state of health, not only of that insect population, but also the habitat.

So, go out and look, and then record what you have seen. And it is not that difficult.

The first thing you will need is a camera but even a smartphone will do. You do not need to have pictures that could grace the centre pages of National Geographic, as long as the subject can be seen clearly enough for identification. Secondly, make a note of where you saw it. This needs to be done as a 6-figure grid reference and again an app on the ubiquitous smart phone will easily provide you with the necessary coordinates.

A good starting point this time of year are butterflies and bees. Bees are in the news as their importance as pollinators in the food chain is becoming better known.

The Bumblebee Conservation Trust’s BeeWalk is a national scheme to see how the populations of the native bumble bees are faring and Friends of the Earth’s Great British Bee Count, which started on May 19, runs until the end of June.

As climate change creates more of an impact on our seasonal temperatures, more butterflies are seen earlier and earlier. This year the Small Tortoiseshell and the Red Admiral were first recorded in January in Northants. Another common early riser, the Peacock, was seen in February. In the fields,

14/06/2017 00:19:08

NQ

Culture

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June-July, 2017

DO YOU WANT TO WORK FOR The NQ?

as well as in the garden, there have been lots of Orange Tips around since early April and the occasional Holly Blue has fluttered over our flower beds during the first few weeks of May. The Big Butterfly Count is organised

by Butterfly Conservation and runs from July 14 to August 6 and there is free app to help record your findings. But you do not need to restrict your sightings to that period. Any records of butterflies seen can be sent to the Northants Butterfly Recorder any time of the year.

As well as butterflies, there are local

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recorders for birds, amphibians, dragonflies, bats and wild flowers. A simple search in the Internet should show if there is a county recorder for your findings. Look at the Northamptonshire Biodiversity Records Centre (NBRC). On their website you can enter details and pictures of any of your sightings, irrespective of whether it be insect, animal, bird or plant.

The NBRC is also running the WILDside Project which aims to encourage new recorders for the county. The project gives people the chance to learn about the flora and fauna of the county both through talks given by specialists and through training days held in nature reserves. To find out more about this search Facebook for WILDside Project.

Even the trigger-happy Richard Jefferies knew the importance of a varied flora and fauna, and bemoaned the loss of birds and animals from the land. I would like to think that he would be pleased with the recording methods of today – and hopefully regret his use of the shotgun.

Part-time advertising sales rep position at The Nenequirer THE NeneQuirer is a rapidly expanding magazine and website business for Northamptonshire and we are seeking a part-time advertising sales rep to join our small team based in Northampton town centre.

The position has the option for flexible working hours and the successful applicant will have their own transport and will be expected to talk to clients both in person and on the phone.

To find out more, please email the editor at nenequirer@gmail.com with Sales Rep Job in the subject line.

14/06/2017 00:19:09

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June- July, 2017

Culture

NQ

Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be James Sheppard Digital daydreamer

nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 01604 550037

I

have a beard and wear thick framed scaffolding for glasses. I yearn for classic 80’s beats and parade around in T-shirts depicting fringe bands, or geek references only a true nerd would get. I set geek vogues before those pesky hipsters came along and ruined it all; following a trend by not following a trend? That makes no sense! Next, you’ll tell me you can get cereal at a café in London at any time of day!

Ignoring the fact that the ‘trends’ I set were social awkwardness, blank stares at my geek comments, or just a general sense of weird, then I’m definitely claiming it.

Getting your head flushed down a toilet at school was definitely all me. I patented it.

Honest. But despite the obvious connotations of bullying, those flushers were soon my friends when it came to knowing about the latest computer game, or how to code their ZX Spectrum to play Super Asteroid Flappy Bird Solar ZX Bros. Those years were a joy of bright flashing colours, coding in BASIC, and the evolution of games that moulded my life. To hipsters, they are retro.

To me, they are the lifeblood of everything I hold dear.

The other week I was trawling through the internet (watching cat videos), and came across a geek auction. Advertised as a haven for nerds, with objects of nostalgia from the 80’s and 90’s, I stumbled upon a seller reluctantly offering his classic Nintendo, with a plethora of games, in full working order and original box. My interest was piqued, but I went into full geek overload over a small throwaway sentence, something the seller probably thought was as inconsequential as every nerdy reference I make at social occasions.

“Comes with working NES Zapper.”

My jaw hit my keyboard, my heart was beating faster than a happy hardcore remix of the Super Mario theme, and a cold sweat trickled down my face. A working NES Zapper, a light gun that had burned memories into my childhood, and been a part of my life for years. I had to have a lie down. The shock of possibly holding it again had given me

June 2017.indd 40

palpitations, the excitement of playing those classic games again made me shiver.

Days later, I channelled the spirit of Usain Bolt sprinting home with my prize, holding the box aloft like the Holy Grail. I had worked out prior how to connect old consoles to modern TVs, so nothing could prevent me reliving all those memories I cherished so dearly. I settled down for a day and night of nostalgia, a geek festival of flashy lights and classic games, and two shining titles that defined the NES console; Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt. Both games came on one cartridge, which was a technical marvel in and of itself, but when combined with synth sounds and psychedelic colours, blew your mind.

As it was the light gun that got me into this mess, Duck Hunt would be the first step along the nostalgia road for me. Simply turning it on and seeing the intro was worth it, but when I started a game and the dog appeared sniffing for ducks along to the classic jingle, my smile went to my ears. I shot a couple of ducks, and the dogs happy face appeared, proud of my achievement. I shot a few more ducks, and my dog heaped on the praise. At this stage, he became my dog. We had a connection him and I; we were surviving in a virtual landscape, hunting our food and living off the land. One man and his dog had never been a more fitting term. We were facing the world together. We were one.

Then I missed some ducks.

My best friend in the world stood up from behind the virtual grass and laughed at me.

He guffawed, he giggled and sniggered at my failure. Why would he do that? We were in this together, dammit! I wouldn’t let him down again. I craved his approval more desperately than a besotted belieber fanboy.

I needed him to love me.

I missed again.

And again.

And again.

I vaguely remembered all this from my youth, but it cut so savagely this time, that I must have blanked all of it out. How could a computer sprite of a dog hate me so much?

How could “Doug the dog” discard me so easily when we had both been through so much? He stared out of the screen into my soul, but he was not truly angry, just disappointed, and that made it all the worse.

I decided to switch to Mario. The discontent from Doug was simply too much to bear.

I would help a plumber rescue a princess from the devious Bowser, avoiding evil Goombas and angry Koopa Troopas along the way. Again, the music hit a nerve with me, and I hummed along to all the tunes inanely, losing myself amongst smashing blocks and jumping down pipes until sprinting to a levels flagpole. The memories flooded back, and I was happy once again. A break was called for, a celebratory tea and cake to reminisce to.

I opened up my computer and decided to see if anyone else in the world was enjoying trips down nostalgia lane, if any other geeks of my generation were sharing their memories.

I came across a kid on YouTube completing Super Mario in under five minutes. Some random on the internet, half the age of this classic game, had filmed himself completing this jewel of the NES console in less time than loading up a dishwasher. He had single-handedly not only ruined my childhood, but that of millions of his elders, with a simple internet video upload.

In my minds’ eye, Doug was chuckling again, rolling around his artificial space clutching his sides trying to hold all the laughter in.

I went to bed.

14/06/2017 00:19:10

NQ

Two Point Four

June-July, 2017

41

Dads - we aren’t afraid of what the mirror says Adam Alexander Designer

W

nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 01604 550037

hen the editor gleefully mentioned this month’s topic would be on fashion my heart crumbled a little inside. I may have made an infinitesimal note, as Steve then asked if that was ok. “Of course, dear boy, why wouldn’t it?” while maintaining a cool and calm exterior.

I was already playing out the scenario in my head when I announced this fact at home. Once everyone had stopped rolling around on the floor and had pick themselves up I was going to quietly hold my head high, spin on the spot and meander out of the kitchen, pausing at the last moment to look back over my shoulder for perhaps longer than comfortably possible. That’ll show them.

This did however spark a need to rush home, get to the gym – who upon arrival did say ‘ah so you do know where we are’. I burst in, no that’s not right, I marched in, or was it stormed…nah I meekly entered the weights room, saw all the usual residents of the gym and promptly side stepped towards the cardio equipment. Hoping that they didn’t see my failed attempt to pick up the nearest dumbbell, but cleverly masked this with the ‘oh is that a speck of dust on there’ routine, and then moved on.

June 2017.indd 41

Clearly the heavy pressure of fashion, health and fitness magazine images is having a marked impression on me. I think it is fair to say this is perhaps long overdue for chaps, but obviously nowhere near to the same extent for women. My ideal fashion is what makes me feel comfortable. And there it is, all summed up in that one sentence. I have no sense what so ever and I should stop

there and then. However we men believe that trying to replicate the latest look in a magazine or poster advert somehow masks the fact that we haven’t got the six pack that compliments the David Beckham sponsored underwear or the non-existent thighs that affords the application of those pipe-cleaner thin trousers with the excessive arse space where you mustn’t actually pull up over to cover the aforementioned under crackers….

You can see where I’m not quite getting the trend. I’m with you Miranda Hart – run after them and pull them up.

Ok ok so I’m not the fashion ‘A type’, as I am sure those men who are reading this and have hit or passed that big 40 point will understand. We all still believe that by owning said items we are buying into that feeling or moment of being slightly fashionable, no matter what the mirror throws back at us.

I’ve had that light bulb moment, realising that those adverts aren’t directed at me, but at the generation I still think I’m a part of. I have what is now termed the ‘dad bod’, which in some respects I am slightly relieved to understand. Things spread a little, and now it is perfectly acceptable to make that long low exhaling noise when reaching down to pick the radio times up (that says it all) or driving the car round to the corner shop to pick up the latest NQ copy in your slippers still.

Bring on the old music band T-shirts, large jumpers and comfortable shoes, I am proud, I am Dad.

14/06/2017 00:19:12

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June-July, 2017

Culture

NQ

14/06/2017 00:19:16

NQ

Culture

43

June-Juy 2017

QUIZZER Step up step up Quizzer wonders if you can change this word into the one at the bottom of this ladder, just changing one single letter in each step.

Each step in the ladder must still be a valid word.Can you make to the bottom. Use this scribble zone below if you need to work things out.

NQQuizzer

clock

clown

Welcome to the NQ Quizzer page, all set up and resourced by our grand Nene Quizzer. We’re not trying to be too serious nor do we think we can compete with the Mensa members among you. However its been medically proven, if you set a little time out for some mental exercise, not only does this enhance your cognitive capacities but actually burns calories. Yes burns calories! Thus cancelling out the coffee/ tea and bun break we’ve just recommended you take, - may not be be exactly trueresult.

be true. Each month we will furnish you with some light and some not so light mental challenges for a little fun, or something you can try out on your colleagues or family members.

Enjoy.

Nene Quizzer Mensa Reject

nenequirer@gmail.com @TheNeneQuirer tel No. 01604 550037

Word Search This months theme is FASHION See if you can find the following hiddened in all directions:

NQ IQ

Catwalk Paris Neckline Creative Paparazzi Runway Coco Wintour Marino Vogue

How high is your IQ, think you’re pretty smart? In this section we open the page to your conumdrums. Drop the NQ Quizzer your best mind bender or riddle and we will feature the best top three - don’t forget to help us out though - answers too please.

Here’s one from one our readers from Creaton.

IQ2 - if

A + B = 76 A - B = 38 A / B = ??

Sudoku 6

8 1 5

2 9

8 7

6

7 4

1 4

3 9

2

1 2 8

FINE RIG AND SHOES

3

8

6 1

7

Fill in the numbers 1-9 exactly once in every row, column, and 3x3 region. Note every row, column and 3x3 region contain every number from 1-9 exactly once - Best of luck.

June 2017.indd 43

TOE STILTS

8 3

AH ONE FINDS NEW LOOK

See if you can flex your mental muscles and unscrammble NQ Quizzers words of the month - CAN YOU GUESS THE TOPIC THAT LINKS THEM? _ _ _ _ _ _ _ (7).

OH RARE THIN TEEN

14/06/2017 00:19:18

44

June-July, 2017

Culture

NQ

Musings on a mural lead to a documentary Helen Blaby Broadcaster

Twitter: @blabers

I

sn’t it funny how your mind can play tricks on you, or you only have selective memory? I was absolutely convinced that the mural which used to be in place outside Beatties in the Grosvenor Centre only covered the Great Fire of Northampton.

You may remember me talking about it last month. Well, it turns out my memory is only of the bit I used to find a bit frightening as a young ‘un, because the mural is actually a pictorial history of our fair town.

Thank you to everyone who got in touch with us to try and track down its whereabouts, it’s actually been fascinating to learn more about it. Some listeners to my programme suggested that it had been taken in by “The College” when it was put in to storage in 1999, so my producer, Sarah-Jane, duly put in a call to Northampton College who knew nothing about it.

Of course they didn’t, Thomas Osborne Robinson’s mural was

taken in by the University, when it was still UCN – hence “The College” and it’s currently in storage awaiting a move to the new Waterside Campus later this year.

I’m hoping I might be able to get to see it, but I’m told it’s very large and actually too heavy to hang anywhere practical. When it was on display in the Grosvenor Centre it was behind Perspex and propped up such as a fire screen would be. That won’t stop me trying to convince someone it should be on display somewhere! Any thoughts as to where that should be?!

I’ve also learnt a little more about the artist behind it, Thomas Osborne Robinson. His association with the Northampton School of Art began as a student in the 1920s, and in the ‘70s his entire lifetime collection of posters was donated to the University.

He began work on the 11 panels of the mural in 1973, and the eleventh panel was unfinished at the time of his death. That was completed by Alan Miller-Bunford.

Quite the character, it seems, Osborne Robinson in his days as designer at the Royal Theatre could quite often be seen walking between

his house and the theatre wearing flowing clothes, often with bold checks, and sometimes carrying a cane. He came to work in Northampton after WJ Bassett-Lowke, he of 78 Derngate, recruited him from his job at the Bonaventure Press to take over as scenic artist at the Royal.

He worked at the Royal for half a century, with occasional work at Stratford, and in 1937 he designed the costumes for Hamlet at the Old Vic, with Laurence Olivier in the main role.

This is the kind of thing I love finding out about, and as I said last month it’s fun when we can do this kind of thing together.

Being able to talk about something on the air opens up a vast pot of knowledge, and an answer is usually swiftly forthcoming.

I’m hoping to put together a documentary about this fascinating local character, interviewing some of the people who knew him. If you can help with information, then please do get in touch!

A rare image of the Grosvenor Centre mural courtesy of the Northampton Past Facebook group

June 2017.indd 44

14/06/2017 00:19:19

NQ

June-July 2017

Sport

45

DAY

T ES TI M

8 7/1 O NIA L 1

1st July 2017 - 14:00 - 18:00

Northamptonshire County Cricket Club

u F n y D l i ay! m a Celebrity 20/20 Cricket!

F Adults £10, U16’s Free Pay on the gate

Christian Day’s Saints XV vs

Chairman’s Steelbacks XV • Fun Fair & Games • Bouncy Castle • Face Painting • • Half Time Jamie Gibson Players BBQ and Beer Stall • • Cake Stall • Fitness Challenge • Day5T Merchandise Stall • • Charity Raffles • On Pitch Games • Celebrity Guests • Team Mascots •

www.day5testimonial.com

June 2017.indd 45

14/06/2017 00:19:22

46

June-July, 2017

Sport

NQ

NCL Hevey Cup Review: a shift in focus?

Alex Stockton Cricket writer

nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 01604 550037

T

he last Tuesday in May witnessed the introduction of the county’s premier teams into the NCL Hevey Cup. This tournament, while not as long-lasting as its corresponding league competition, culminates in the hugely popular club finals day, held at the county ground.

Last year saw ONs, Stony Stratford, Brixworth, and Rushden compete for the title, with the former coming out on top. Teams donned their coloured clothing and the pink balls were brought out. For those in the stands, it’s always a relaxed day out with the bonus of some outstanding cricket on offer.

For those competing, it’s a chance to test yourself against some of the county’s finest players on a stage unlike any you’ll find on a Saturday. Launching a six into the stands has to be one of the finest feelings for your average club cricketer, and the competition gives you every chance to do exactly that.

This year’s campaign got fully underway for the county’s seeded teams a fortnight ago. While none of the premier league’s teams were eliminated at the hands of any lower-ranked sides, Saints’ match against Horton House provided, perhaps, the most surprising outcome. Saints were bowled out for just 40, with Andrew Neate taking 6 for 9 from his four overs. Horton chased the total down with ease.

Next on the list for notable mentions is Stony Stratford’s game against Overstone.

For the second time, Overstone fell afoul of their hosts thanks, in no small part, to Ben Duckett. The England batsman made an extremely successful return to Northants club cricket on Tuesday, smashing an unbeaten hundred from 44 balls, including six maximums. Stony won by nine wickets, and will be hoping, no doubt, that Duckett turns out a few more times over the course of the campaign.

Elsewhere, Kislingbury put in an extremely impressive display against Isham. The Division Three side notched up 221-2 off their 20 overs; Byron Wyngard was eventually dismissed for 106, but the damage had

June 2017.indd 46

been done, as Isham managed just 101-9 in reply. Elsewhere, giants Finedon and ONs also made it through, and will be joined by the majority of the prem’s sides in the next round.

Generally, the clubs of Northants are less well-versed in the game’s shortest format.

Speaking for myself, my only real experience of Twenty 20 comes from the days of age group cricket. Back then, it was standard practice, though. Switching from playing 50 overs to T20 mode requires a definite change of tact. Not only do the batsmen have to attack a lot more from the off, but bowlers are required to get their yorkers in and try the odd slower ball. Add in a different coloured ball, and the competition represents an entirely different game to the one played out on a Saturday afternoon.

These differences not only make it harder for certain teams to compete, but also give more clubs the chance of success. Granted, established premier league sides have, by and large, dominated the competition. They have the best players around and, thus, have the best chances of winning. If, however, a club were to target the competition, focusing heavily on making it through to finals day, they could give themselves a chance of success.

As fewer teams are well-versed in the appropriate skills, a club who shift their focus to T20 games would, surely, be able to capitalise on that. A side cemented in Division 1, for example, could target the competition for a shot at some silverware. Perhaps it’s been tried throughout the county already, but I’d say it’s definitely worth a go if not. St

Crispin, for example, currently sit second in Division Two. One would think, therefore, that they’re unlikely to go down; a shift in focus from them for the next few weeks could see them well-placed to challenge some of the county’s big boys.

Overall, clubs do tend to focus more on league success. It makes sense; every Saturday we compete to push ourselves up the leagues, while the T20 competition only runs for six or seven matches a year. There’s a much higher risk that all your hard work will only see you come up against semi-professional players (or even, in some cases, England ones!).

Essentially, clubs have to decide whether they’d like a shot at some T20 glory, or whether they should concentrate on climbing up the table. Personally, I can see the attraction of both. For clubs who tend to finish in the middle of the pack, though, the short stuff might be worth a go. If you’re rarely threatened by relegation, but doubt that you’ll push the league leaders, at least consider practising your ramp shots and wide Yorkers; if it all goes up in smoke, you’ll have plenty of time to return to normality!

With all of this in mind, Northants get underway in this year’s T20 blast next month. The season so far has been somewhat unspectacular, with glimpses that have promised much, but not too much to show for it. As we all know, though, the blast is our speciality as a county, and we can expect a strong showing this time out, too.

In next month’s edition, we’ll take an indepth look at the county’s chances, and at some of this year’s T20 talking points.

14/06/2017 00:19:22

NQ

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47

June-July, 2017

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