The NeneQuirer Oct/Nov 2017

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Oct/Nov 2017

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Issue 007

Feeding the tastemakers Chef Lee Scott talks about where good food comes from

The Gunpowder Plot and the part Northants played

FOODIES.Rocks reviewed

Backstage at the Althorpe Literary Festival

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Every breath you take...

AT Parklands Community Centre in Northampton Singing 4 Breathing has been transforming the lives of people suffering from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. The sessions help with lung exercise and all round confidence and now organiser James Wyatt has launched a COPD harmonica group immediately after the class at 2.30pm on Wednesdays. The groups are so successful that people with other lung complaints such as asthma are joining.

To find out more contact James@singing4breathing.co.uk

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CO TENTS

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NEWS Looking who’s coming to dinner

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Picture by Alistair Briggs

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NEWS Northamptonshire terror plot

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KIT And caboodle

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SPORT On me ‘ed son

CULTURE FOODIES reviewed

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PARENTING Growing up CULTURE Festival launch

St Giles Cheese

All cheeses are not the same

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

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CULTURE Rock legend SPORT Five point plan

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Feasting season is almost upon us

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elcome to Issue 7 of The NeneQuirer and you can probably tell with feasting season almost upon us, food and drink is at the forefront of our minds.

The Carlsberg Food and Drink Awards is an annual foodie highlight and with Lee Scott both masterminding the menu and opening a new fine dining experience in Northampton, we thought it was time for a chat.

There is also news from the awards about the special guest for the evening, following in the footsteps of Michel Roux last year comes Antonio Carlucci to find out what Northamptonshire is all about.

Food and drink is a hugely important

The awards play an important role in highlighting good work

sector for the county with a vast array of producers at all levels, from giants such as Weetabix to hip young gunslingers like Warners Gin. It’s a thankless task trying to pick winners amongst such excellence but the awards play an important role in highlighting good work going on in Northamptonshire, as well as being a handy guide to some of the best places to eat.

Meanwhile Mike Ingram has turned out another historical epic, unveiling the extent of Northamptonshire’s role in one of the most famous terrorist incidents of all time.

Guy Fawkes’ name is known around the world but it was Robert Catesby of Ashby St Ledgers who was the mastermind...

We’ve also got Colin Richardson revealing some family history and Uncle Eric with a magical tale. Enjoy.

Steve Scoles

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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 @alexjstockton 01604 550037

Helen Blaby Broadcaster

Twitter: @blabers

Julie Teckman Wordsmith

nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 01604 550037

Richard Hollingum Captain of the fields

nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 01604 550037

Hilary Scott

On secatuers nenequirer@gmail.com @nosylocaljourno 01604 550037

Mike Ingram

Historian nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 01604 550037

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Pictures by Dave Ikin

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Lee is putting food centre stage at the theatre Steve Scoles Editor

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nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 01604 550037

hef Lee Scott cuts a relaxed, no-nonsense , figure as he greets me in the dining room of Hibiscus, his new fine dining restaurant at Royal & Derngate in Northampton.

He’s in a white T-shirt, apron over the top and plods about in a pair of crocs which I notice because mine are black too.

“Yes, so comfortable,” he smiles as I point them out.

He’s on his feet far too much to worry about what is in vogue footwear-wise and these are busy times.

Lee is emerging as the food industry equivalent of Director of Football for Tom Hewer Catering - the rapidly expanding Northampton company behind Frank’s Hamburgers and a number of concessions including the tricky Delapre Abbey coffee shop contract.

I take him to task over the Frank’s burger recipe - we’ve all got our opinions over what the perfect burger should be but he’s ready for me.

“When did you last try one?”

I begin to um and erm. I’m not sure.

“We’ve given the recipe a little refresh, about four months ago. We have made the texture of the burger more... crumbly,” he says pausing to pick out precisely the right word.

I get the impression that if we were in a kitchen he would just get a pan out and show me what he meant.

He’s got ideas for Delapre Abbey as well.

“It’s obviously not going to be about fine dining. It’s more of a cafe type experience.

I would really like to put together a nice cream tea to serve there but it’s a beautiful place, an incredible building.

“The possibilities for it are so exciting. It’s

Picture by Hibiscus

a great venue for weddings. You can have all kinds of events there.”

Lee’s style is about rolling his sleeves up and getting on with it - in fact he is rarely pictured out of a white t-shirt, sleeves in effect pre rolled-up and displaying a hint of upper arm tattoos.

There is a down to earth quality in his approach to his work which belies his skill.

Anyone who has attended the Carlsberg Food and Drink Awards in recent years can attest to the quality of his cooking. He masterminds the menu and leads a kitchen in the production of nearly 600 meals for the most discerning palates in the county and beyond.

This year’s special guest is Antonio Carlucci - a name which makes Lee break into a grin.

“Antonio is a great guy. He’s a fantastic character but he’s also a good businessman.

He is very financially astute. It will be great to see him,” says Lee whose career has seen him rubbing shoulders with celebrities from the culinary world and beyond.

Lee was the chef on “The Claridges Of The Sea,” the world’s smallest and most exclu

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sive cruise ship, with only 65 passengers, each spending £10,000 per week.

Jim Carey was among his customers although the film star and his retinue made Lee’s job easy with their preference for hot dogs and burgers.

For the moment the Michelin starred restaurants and megastars of his past are taking a back seat to the subtler charms of Northamptonshire, a county that is something of a sleeping giant in food and drink terms.

The unheralded good work in the sector in the county was partly the inspiration for the Carlsberg Food and Drink Awards, now in its 14th year.

It has already impacted Lee’s career as it was at the awards that he met the man he now works hand in glove with.

“I met Tom Hewer through the Carlsberg Food and Drink Awards and we just hit it off.

You know we both care passionately about the food and drink world and we seemed to think the same things. It just clicked.

“We’re trying to do something different here for Northampton. There is no fine dining in the area and what better location could you have, here in the cultural quarter in Royal & Derngate Theatre.

“There are people travelling over an hour from the town just to go out and eat. At His-

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biscus we will do three courses for £30 which is pretty reasonable for fine dining.

“We are an option for pre-theatre dining you need to allow about-an-hour-and-a -half for three courses. But you can also come here for a nice evening out.

“We make everything ourselves, we bake our own bread and we are always looking for good local produce to bring into the menu. I am out and about sourcing food every day.

“It’s modern but it’s not off-putting. We did all the decor ourselves. We are very proud of the crockery we are using. It’s modern but familiar, beautifully made, it has a beaten metal look, but it’s pottery.”

It doesn’t take long to pick up on what Lee thinks is the key to good cooking - good quality ingredients, whenever possible locally sourced. Northamptonshire’s embarrassment of riches in terms of food and drink producers must have been an attraction fresh fish is the only real challenge.

The food doesn’t need to be exotic to be good either.

I try to wheadle out of him what he has got in mind for the Carlsberg Food and Drink Awards menu.

“It’s going to be beef. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a nice sticky rib in there with the meat just falling off the bone,” he

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says with a twinkle in his eye.

Lee doesn’t just pay lip service to the awards.

Last year’s Young Chef of the Year now works for him and one of the contenders for this year’s award is also an employee.

“Getting the right staff is so important.

Waiters need to be attentive but not so much that people feel uncomfortable.

“We have got a finishing kitchen upstairs and the main kitchens downstairs in Royal & Derngate. And I’m right there, people can see me working. I’m the first thing you see when you come in. I’m talking to people if I’ve got time.”

Lee wouldn’t talk in such grandiose terms but at Tom Hewer Catering he is uniquely placed to effect something of a culinary revolution across the area and beyond, adding his special touch to everything from a burger you eat at a cricket match to the banquet you would enjoy on a special night out.

It begs an obvious question about what happens when his email is set to out of office.

“My wife does the cooking. You know, I get home from a 16 hour day, but if I’m there I’ll do some. At home I like good simple hearty stuff like a lasagne. My wife’s a good cook...”

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The Godfather of Italian cooking notices Northants M

aster chef Antonio Carluccio OBE will be performing the prize-giving honours at this month’s celebration, writes Anna Murby.

The event being held at Northampton’s Royal & Derngate is considered one of the highlights of the county’s social calendar as chefs, restaurants, pubs and producers come together to celebrate the culmination of this prestigious competition.

Antonio, who has more than 20 books as well as numerous TV appearances to his name, was awarded the OBE for his services to the catering industry by HM The Queen in 2007. Some nine years earlier he was similarly recognized in his home country with the title of Commendatore, the equivalent of a knighthood, while in 2012 his longstanding commitment to the sector saw his receiving the AA Hospitality Lifetime Achievement Award.

The chef, who lives by his motto ‘MOF MOF’ – minimum of fuss, maximum of flavour - says he’s thrilled to be coming to the county: “I’m very excited to be joining this special night and getting to know Northamptonshire’s wonderful food and drink sector.

“It’s an honour to be presenting the awards to people who obviously deserve them and it will be lovely to see the happiness behind it. It means something has been done well and somebody has noticed it” Antonio added.

For Awards Director Rachel Mallows MBE DL, welcoming the man known as the Godfather of Italian food is set to be the icing on the cake of another great year of the competition: “We were absolutely delighted that Antonio accepted our invitation to be with us, following as he does a trio of culinary greats, because we know having someone of such stature means so much to our finalists” explained Rachel.

“Of course, while Antonio knows everything there is to know about Italian food, we’re looking forward to ensuring that, by the end of the night, he is fully aware that Northamptonshire is a food and drink county that’s worthy of its place on the culinary map!” she enthused.

Among those waiting to learn if they will be picking up an award from the great man are those shortlisted in the new ‘One To

Pictures by Laura Edwards Watch’ category. The four are (in alphabetical order): Ganders Goat, Cottingham Gluten-free Artisan Foods Ltd (t/a The Happy Little Cake Company/Most Marvellous Baking), N’ton I’m Real Ice Cream, Northampton Towcester Mill Brewery, Towcester As the category title suggests, this award was established to recognize those businesses younger than five years old, which, while already enjoying early success, are set to make a further impact on the sector and thereby raise the county’s profile at a regional or national level.

It was instigated thanks to Wellingborough-based sponsor Whitworth Bros Ltd Flour Millers in demonstration of their support and encouragement of the county’s entrepreneurs and increasing number of food and drink start-ups.

The last month has also seen the judging of the county’s finest eateries as they vie for the three prestigious venue titles. The first, ‘Restaurant of the Year’ (sponsored

by Whitco Catering and Bakery Equipment) saw the following six finalists selected (in alphabetical order): Brasserie 23 at The Kings Head, Spratton Fawsley Hall Hotel, Fawsley Karmana, Northampton Nuovo, Northampton Tap and Kitchen, Oundle The Folly, Towcester Meanwhile the quartet of venues now

bidding for the title of ‘Spice Restaurant of the Year’ (sponsored by British Pepper & Spice) title are: Royal Tandoori, Corby Saffron, Northampton Taste of Spice, Northampton The Exotic Dining, Kettering Finally the ‘Booker Food Pub of the Year’ title (sponsored by Booker) is set to go to one of the following six finalists: Fox & Hounds, Charwelton The Hopping Hare, Northampton The Swan, Braybrooke The Three Cranes, Great Cransley The Wheatsheaf Pub & Dining Room, Northampton Tollemache Arms, Harrington In addition The Red Lion Pub and Dining at Cranford, while not making the final ‘Booker Food Pub’ shortlist, was awarded a ‘Highly Commended’.

The finalists, along with those in the categories whose judging has been completed, are listed on the Awards’ website – www.northamptonshirefoodanddrink. co.uk – while the winners and runners-up in all of the categories will be announced at the Awards Dinner taking place at Royal & Derngate in Northampton on Wednesday 15th November. For more details, please call Rachel on 01933 664437 or email rachel@ themallowscompany.com Meanwhile you can also follow the competition on twitter at @foodawardsHQ or on Facebook at facebook.com/foodawards

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The plot to blow the king and all his men to hell

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Mike Ingram

Historian nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 01604 550037

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veryone knows Bonfire night, but just who and what are we remembering? We all know the name Guy Fawkes, however he was just the man that was given the task of lighting the fuse. The mastermind of the plot (called at the time ‘The Spanish Treason’) was actually Robert Catesby, of Ashby St. Ledger in Northants, a man of “ancient, historic and distinguished lineage” and a direct descendant of Richard III’s leading supporter, executed after Bosworth.

On his mother’s side he was descended from Sir Robert Throckmorton of Coughton, and his second wife, Elizabeth Hussey. His parents were prominent recusant Catholics; his father had suffered years of imprisonment for his faith, and in 1581 had been tried in Star Chamber alongside William Vaux, 3rd Baron Vaux of Harrowden, and his brotherin-law Sir Thomas Tresham, for harbouring the Jesuit priest Edmund Campion. The head of the Throckmortons, Sir Thomas Throckmorton, was also fined for his recusancy, and spent years in prison. Another relation, Sir Francis Throckmorton, had been executed in 1584 for his involvement in a plot to free Mary, Queen of Scots.

The Gunpowder plot was not the first time Catesby had rebelled, as he took part

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in the Earl of Essex’s rebellion in 1601, where he was wounded and taken prisoner. Queen Elizabeth allowed him to escape with his life after fining him 4,000 marks (equivalent to more than £10 million today).

After the death of Queen Elizabeth, Catholics hoped that the new King James would not only be more tolerant but may even convert to Catholicism. These hopes were quickly dashed when, on 19 February 1604, James denounced the Catholic Church.

Three days later, he ordered all Jesuits and all other Catholic priests to leave the country, and reimposed the collection of fines for recusancy. It was this that prompted Catesby to act.

He invited Thomas Wintour and John Wright to his house in Lambeth, where they discussed Catesby’s plan to re-establish Catholicism in England by blowing up the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament. Wintour then travelled to Flanders to enquire about Spanish support and sought out Guy Fawkes, a committed Catholic who had served as a soldier, engineer and gunpowder expert in the Southern Netherlands. He later recruited Thomas Percy, Robert Keyes, Thomas Bates, Robert Wintour, Christopher Wright, John Grant, Ambrose Rookwood, and Sir Everard Digby. On 14 October, Catesby invited his cousin and childhood friend, Francis Tresham of

RUSHTON Triangular Lodge under a blood moon

Picture by John Robertson

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Rushton Hall into the conspiracy. Tresham’s father, Thomas, born near the end of Henry VIII’s reign, was regarded by the Catholic community as one of its leaders. He was considered to be clever and well-educated, and was a correspondent of William Cecil, the Secretary of State to Queen Elizabeth, and Sir Christopher Hatton, the Lord Chancellor (also both living in Northamptonshire at Burghley and Holdenby Houses respectively). He left three notable buildings in Northamptonshire, Rushton Hall, the extraordinary Rushton Triangular Lodge and the unfinished Lyveden New Bield, both of the latter embodying the strength of his faith. The Triangular Lodge bears witness to Tresham’s fidelity to the doctrine of the Trinity. There was also a more personal connection: above the door we find the inscription ‘Tres testimonium dant’ (‘the three bear witness’). It may be a play on his name as ‘Tres’ was his wife’s pet name for him. In Rushton Hall (now a hotel) he built a priest hole – a secret chamber where he could hide Jesuit priests from the government. Thomas was friends with the Jesuit Priest Nicholas Owen, the infamous builder of Priest holes.

Owen spent two years at Rushton Hall and whilst he was there he constructed a secret escape tunnel for Priests. The tunnel went from the church of St Peter at the front of the Hall, under the house and all the way up to Triangular Lodge. His sense of civic responsibility in local society also led him to begin building Rothwell’s Market House in 1577. Thomas died just weeks before his son launched his treason, however by this time his fortune had been heavily depleted by recusant fines, expensive tastes, and by his son Francis, and Catesby’s involvement in the Essex revolt and whose fines he probably paid.

Francis also had two sisters, Mary who married Thomas Brudenell, 1st Earl of Cardigan from Deene Park and Elizabeth who had married William Parker, 4th Baron Monteagle whose principal residence was at Great Hallingbury, near Bishop Stortford in Essex. Both important Catholic families, although Monteagle had written a letter to his new King with a promise to follow the state religion.

Catesby and Tresham met at the home of Tresham’s brother-in-law and cousin, Lord Stourton. In his confession, Tresham claimed that he had asked Catesby if the plot would damn their souls, to which Catesby had replied it would not, and that the plight of England’s Catholics required that it be done.

Catesby also apparently asked for £2,000, and the use of Rushton Hall in Northamptonshire. Tresham declined both offers (although he did give £100 to Thomas Wintour), and told his interrogators that he had moved his family from Rushton to London in advance of the plot.

The details of the plot were finalised in October, in a series of taverns across London in Daventry and the gatehouse of Ashby St. Ledger manor house. A small house was leased in the centre of Westminster where

News Fawkes lived under the alias “John Johnson” as Thomas Perry’s servant while gathering the gunpowder necessary. By March 1605, 36 barrels of gunpowder were moved to the newly leased out cellar directly under the House of Lords. Fawkes would be left to light the fuse and then escape across the Thames, while simultaneously a revolt in the Midlands would help to ensure the capture of Princess Elizabeth. Fawkes would leave for the continent, to explain events in England to the European Catholic powers.

The Vaux’s were another important Catholic family in Northamptonshire, living at Harrowden Hall near Wellingborough (now a golf club). The third Baron Vaux was convicted of recusancy several times during the reign of Elizabeth I. His second wife was Mary, daughter of John Tresham of Rushton, son of Sir Thomas Tresham I. The third Baron’s son Henry was by May 1585, running England’s priest-smuggling network. Lord Vaux’s eldest two children, Henry and Eleanore, proved to be prodigious learners and in 1568 their father hired Edmund Campion, the future Jesuit martyr but at the time of Oxford University. On 4 November 1586, the chief magistrate of London, Richard Young, led a search of Vaux’s London house before arresting him. He was brought before the Privy Council and committed to the Marshalsea Prison. He contracted pulmonary tuberculosis soon after and was given leave to recuperate in Leicestershire where he was cared for by his sisters, Anne and Eleanore.

However, he died suddenly on 19 November 1587.

His daughter Eleanor (later to become the well-known priest-smuggler and recusant, Mrs Brooksby) and her sister Anne (who assisted Eleanore’s recusant work under the pseudonym of ‘Mrs Perkins’) had supported Catholic priests by renting houses where priests could hide. Among these houses was White Webbs in Enfield Chase, which was visited by several of the Gunpowder Plotters.

Anne was particularly devoted to Father Henry Garnet, the Jesuit priest who was later executed for his role in the Gunpowder Plot.

Another sister, Elizabeth was sent to Caen, in Normandy where she became a nun.

On his grandfather’s death in August 1595, just before his seventh birthday, Edward Vaux became a ward of the queen as a minor heir to the barony. His widowed mother, Elizabeth, known as the ‘Dowager of Harrowden’ remodelled the family estate at Great Harrowden in young Edward’s name, she incorporated hidden rooms for the harbouring of Catholic priests including her confessor, the Jesuit John Gerard.

The wives of those involved became increasingly concerned by what they suspected was about to happen. Several of the conspirators expressed worries about the safety of fellow Catholics who would be present in Parliament on the day of the planned explosion. Percy was concerned for his patron, the Earl of Northumberland, and the young Earl of Arundel’s name was brought up; Catesby suggested that a minor

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wound might keep him from the chamber on that day. The Lords Vaux, Montague (also from Northants), Monteagle, and Stourton were also mentioned. Keyes suggested warning Lord Mordaunt, his wife’s employer, to derision from Catesby.

On Saturday 26 October, Lord Monteagle (Tresham’s brother-in-law) received an anonymous letter. Monteagle promptly rode to Whitehall and handed it to Cecil (then Earl of Salisbury). Salisbury informed the Earl of Worcester, considered to have recusant sympathies, and the suspected papist Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, but kept news of the plot from the King, who was busy hunting in Cambridgeshire and not expected back for several days. Monteagle’s servant, Thomas Ward, had family connections with the Wright brothers, and sent a message to Catesby about the betrayal.

Catesby, who had been due to go hunting with the King, suspected that Tresham was responsible for the letter, and with Thomas Wintour confronted the recently recruited conspirator. Tresham managed to convince the pair that he had not written the letter, but urged them to abandon the plot.

The letter was shown to the King on Friday 1 November, following his arrival back in London. Upon reading it, James immediately seized upon the word “blow” and felt that it hinted at ‘some strategem of fire and powder’. This led to two searches of the cellars below Parliament. Around midnight on 4/5 November Guy Fawkes was discov-

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UNFINISHED House at Lyveden

ered in an undercroft, dressed in a cloak and hat, and wearing boots and spurs. He was arrested, whereupon he gave his name as John Johnson. He was carrying a lantern and a search of his person revealed a pocket watch, several slow matches and touchwood.

The 36 barrels of gunpowder were discovered hidden under piles of faggots and coal.

As news of “John Johnson’s” arrest spread among the plotters still in London, most fled northwest, along Watling Street. Christopher Wright and Thomas Percy left together.

Rookwood left soon after, and managed to cover 30 miles in two hours on one horse.

The conspirators stopped at Ashby St Ledgers at about 6 pm, where they met Robert Wintour and updated him on their situation.

They then continued on to Dunchurch, and met with Digby. Catesby convinced him that despite the plot’s failure, an armed struggle was still a real possibility. He announced to Digby’s “hunting party” that the King and Salisbury were dead, before the fugitives moved west to Warwick. They continued on to Holbeche House on the border of Staffordshire, the home of Stephen Littleton, a member of their ever-decreasing band of followers. Tired and desperate, they spread out some of the now-soaked gunpowder in front of the fire, to dry out. Although gunpowder does not explode unless physically contained, a spark from the fire landed on the powder and the resultant flames engulfed Catesby, Rookwood, Grant, and a man named Morgan. The authorities soon caught up

with them and 200 men besieged Holbeche House at about 11:00 am on 8 November.

Catesby and Percy were reportedly both dropped by a single lucky shot, while standing near the door. Catesby managed to crawl inside the house, where his body was later found, clutching a picture of the Virgin Mary. Although buried close by, the Earl of Northampton exhumed and decapitated them and their heads were put on display at Northampton.

Guy Fawkes was tortured and finally revealed his true identity on 7 November. He told his interrogators that there were five people involved in the plot to kill the King.

He began to reveal their names and how they intended to place Princess Elizabeth on the throne, the next day. His third confession, on 9 November, implicated Francis Tresham. Tresham was arrested on 12 November. He was transferred to the Tower three days later and died on 23 December 1605, probably of urinary tract infection, still protesting his innocence. Despite not being tried, his head joined those of Catesby and Percy on display at Northampton while his body was thrown into a hole at Tower Hill.

On 12 November, Edward Vaux returned to Harrowden Hall to find a three mile cordon around it. The hall was surrounded by one hundred armed men led by William Tate of Delapré Abbey. They were looking for Gerard. For three days they searched the house and interrogated both Edward and his mother. When Tate threatened to start

smashing down walls, Elizabeth’s butler told him where the priest hole was. A number of Catholic books were found inside, but no Gerard. Elizabeth was then taken to London for further interrogation but revealed nothing. Soon after, Edward fled to Europe and did not return until 1611.

Agnes, Viscountess Wenman, the eldest surviving daughter of Sir George Fermor of Easton Neston in Northamptonshire, and sister-in-law of Anne Vaux, was also arrested along with her husband Richard Wenman, 1st Viscount Wenman. They were questioned separately in December 1605. Sir Richard testified that he ‘disliked their intercourse, because Mrs. Vaux tried to pervert his wife.’

She was set at liberty after a short confinement in custody. Agnes was buried at Twyford on 4 July 1617.

Having been found guilty of all charges after a short trial, on 30 January 1606, Everard Digby, Robert Wintour, John Grant, and Thomas Bates, were tied to hurdles and dragged through the streets of London to St Paul’s Churchyard. Digby, the first to mount the scaffold, asked the spectators for forgiveness, and refused the attentions of a Protestant clergyman. He was stripped of his clothing, and wearing only a shirt, climbed the ladder to place his head through the noose. He was quickly cut down, and while still fully conscious was castrated, disembowelled, and then quartered, along with the three other prisoners. The following

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day, Thomas Wintour, Ambrose Rookwood, Robert Keyes, and Guy Fawkes were hanged, drawn and quartered, opposite the building they had planned to blow up, in the Old Palace Yard at Westminster. Keyes did not wait for the hangman’s command and jumped from the gallows, but he survived the drop and was led to the quartering block.

Although weakened by his torture, Fawkes managed to jump from the gallows and break his neck, thus avoiding the agony of the gruesome latter part of his execution.

James’s Council allowed the public to celebrate the king’s survival with bonfires, so long as they were “without any danger or disorder”.

The following January, days before the surviving conspirators were executed, Edward Montagu, 1st Baron Montagu of Boughton House and MP for Northamptonshire suggested that the king’s apparent deliverance by divine intervention deserved some measure of official recognition, and that 5 November should be kept free as a day of thanksgiving and making attendance at Church mandatory. Soon after, Parliament passed the Observance of 5th November Act, commonly known as the ‘Thanksgiving Act’. A new form of service was also added to the Church of England’s Book of Common Prayer, for use on that date.

Following Charles I’s execution in 1649, the day was still marked by bonfires and miniature explosives, but formal celebrations resumed only with the Restoration.

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When King Charles II’s brother, the Duke of York, converted to Catholicism a procession of about 1,000 people marched through London and the apprentices set fire to an effigy of the Whore of Babylon, bedecked with a range of papal symbols.

On 17 November 1677, anti-Catholic fervour saw the Accession Day tilt marked by the burning of a large effigy of the pope—his belly filled with live cats “who squalled most hideously as soon as they felt the fire”—and two effigies of devils “whispering in his ear”.

Two years later, an observer wrote that ‘the 5th at night, being gunpowder treason, there were many bonfires and burning of popes as has ever been seen’.

Violent scenes in 1682 forced London’s militia into action, and to prevent any repetition the following year a proclamation was issued, banning bonfires and fireworks.

William of Orange, who landed in England on 5 November, reintroduced the celebrations adding that events include thanks for his “happy arrival” and “the Deliverance of our Church and Nation”.

For the lower classes, the anniversary was an opportunity for violence and uncontrolled revelry.

At some point, for reasons that are unclear, it became customary to burn Guy Fawkes in effigy, rather than the pope.

Gradually, Gunpowder Treason Day became Guy Fawkes Day. In 1790 The Times reported instances of children “...begging for money for Guy Faux”

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ROBERT Catesby

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Gunpowder, treason and Kit Gunpowder begins on Saturday 21 October on BBC One. The full series will be available on BBC iPlayer, with all episodes available immediately after the broadcast of episode one. Developed by Ronan Bennett, Kit Harington and Daniel West, written by Ronan Bennett, directed by J Blakeson. Kit Harington, who plays Catesby, was interviewed by the BBC.

year at drama school and is a brilliant actor.

We also have Edward Holcroft, who I loved the work of in London Spy and other things, and Robert Emms, who I did my first job, War Horse, with.

Were there any production challenges in creating this 17th Century world in 21st Century Yorkshire? Was everything as you expected?

Why should we watch Gunpowder?

The story follows such a fascinating, dark and twisted piece of British history which is very close to being forgotten in the fog of time. You may know the name Guy Fawkes as it has been attached to all sorts of things, from Occupying Wall Street to V For Vendetta - but many won’t know the whole story.

It goes far beyond the name Fawkes and examines many fascinating characters and their desperate, tragedy-strewn lives.

Gunpowder is all about choices, and the reasons desperate men make such choices, and it makes for really great drama.

We think we know everything about the Gunpowder Plot… Guy Fawkes trying to blow up Parliament, right? Or is there more to it than that?

There really is - Guy Fawkes was the tip of the iceberg. Many people know he was working with plotters, but don’t know much more about who they were or what their motives were. And so little is known about the lead up to the night of November 5, or what happened after it. In Gunpowder, we show the whole story.

In so many dramas on TV today you see anonymous bad guys without a narrative, but what we’re trying to do is to tell the story from the plotters’ perspective as well, to try to understand what pushes people to do horribly violent things. We wanted to tell a story from both sides.

How important was Ronan Bennett (writer) to creating the series?

Ronan was the perfect person to write this.

Daniel West - who I developed the series with - and I knew that we wanted to do something about the Gunpowder Plot, but we didn’t know where to begin. Ollie Mad-

den at Kudos and then Ronan, the master creator and writer that he is, came in and crafted the whole narrative so beautifully and with such delicacy. I think what is particularly exciting is that Ronan decided to use the vernacular of the time and he did it with accuracy. He has a PhD in English 17th Century history so he has a very deep knowledge and sense of what this piece is about.

He couldn’t have been more excited about it.

I’m in such admiration of the man - he has penned an amazing story.

What has it been like working with your fellow cast members?

I am thrilled with the cast and the fact that they wanted to join this project with me. I’m working with actors across the board who I have admired for a long time. Peter Mullan is someone I have grown up watching and the sheer presence of what he brings on screen is brilliant. Liv Tyler is another actor whose work I know well. Mark Gatiss is known for bringing incredible characters to life. When I saw his audition tape I fully realised the artistry of the man - he created the character of Robert Cecil beautifully and with pin-point accuracy.

We also have some actors of my own generation who are really interesting young men. Tom Cullen, for example, was in my

I have really enjoyed creating this world.

I think our production designer, Grant Montgomery, is a really talented man. He built all the sets, including the streets of 17th Century London. It’s not easy to build a period piece and he did it incredibly. I’ve really enjoyed watching the set grow. I always said the day I walked onto the set would be a magical moment, and it really was.

Whenever I’m on another TV or film set I have to remind myself that what I’m seeing all came out of an idea and so many contributions in order to create the final product.

It has been an eye opening experience working as an executive producer, as I have been across that different side of things. As an actor you don’t usually get to meet the set designer or see the planning behind it, but I saw it all happen and that was kind of special.

What have been the highlights for you so far?

I have really loved watching Derek Riddell play King James. I knew he was a brilliant actor beforehand but I found it fascinating to be around the camera while he worked on this piece, watching him bring King James I to life in such a nuanced way. I also found the opening with Shaun Dooley (Sir William Wade) on the Baddesley Clinton set very exciting.

It’s a crash, bang, wallop of an opening and it sets the scene for a programme that will not just be a slow burn of a typical period or costume drama. We wanted the strange, old-fashioned vernacular to clash against viewers’ usual expectations of a slow, boring period piece, as they quickly find themselves in a very real, visceral, and violent world.

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The enduring appeal of the nation’s finest hour Troops rally for annual Village at War Weekend raising funds for the Stoke Bruerne Canal Museum Roger Hasdell, Mick Butler & Lynda Payton (Friends of the Canal Museum)

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nenequirer@gmail.com 01604 550037

ver the last 10 years, the annual Village at War weekend staged at the canalside village of Stoke Bruerne has established itself as one of the most popular and successful World War Two re-enactment events in Britain. This year’s event in mid-September (9th-10th) added easily to this reputation.

Not only did scores of re-enactors from all over the country flock to Stoke Bruerne, but the public did too – in their thousands.

Many visitors from overseas were also there in considerable numbers. The undoubted attraction is the waterways environment, with the Grand Union Canal running straight through the centre of the village – its main street, in other words – the focal point being the world-famous Canal Museum.

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ACTORS came from across the country in a range of war time costumes providing entertainment to the small canalside village

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So why are 1940s events such as these so popular? Certainly those years were no fun. For those who lived through them they meant shortages, rationing, sometimes evacuation, fear of being bombed, losing your home, and of course for many, personal tragedy.

Nothing to celebrate surely, but it was a period when people rallied round to support each other, a time of make do and mend, a strong sense of community prevailed and folk were determined to make the most of it whatever the odds. Keep calm and carry on meant exactly what it said and “up yours” Hitler was the mantra of the day.

So maybe part of the appeal lies in re-connecting with that wartime spirit in view of today’s austerity and funding shortfalls.

For the last ten years there has been an important wartime anniversary to commemorate and remember almost every year, this year Dunkirk of course, and these historic events feature on school curricula, which is possibly why reenactment events such as

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RE-ENACTORS created drama with war time props and role-play

NOBODY was too serious to enjoy the day

Village at War are so popular with families.

Indeed, the organisers of the event are the Friends of the Canal Museum. Founded in the mid 2000s when the museum faced a very uncertain future, the Friends rallied to its support and today all seems set fair for the its future under the aegis of the Canal and River Trust.

Most of the funds raised at the Village at War continue to support the ongoing success of the museum, with the present focus being on boosting the planned bid by the Canal and River Trust for a Heritage Lottery Fund grant which would enable a total overhaul of the museum. This would include the installation of a lift – at the moment the upper exhibition galleries cannot be accessed by wheelchair users – and a refurbishment of the schoolroom at the rear of the building.

Michael Butler, Chairman of the Friends as well as the Village at War organising committee, says: “It’s an exciting time for the museum. The money we have raised in recent years has been earmarked for Lottery

THE Stoke Bruerne War Weekend was fun for all of the family

Fund match-funding, which could amount to a significant sum. I am confident of a successful outcome.”

A feature of September’s event was the variety of entertainment and activity going on throughout the two days. This included the ever-popular glamorous Lola Lamour singing the songs of the 40s, and George Formby look-alike Paul Casper. They were supported by other entertainers presenting appropriate wartime performances. There were also traditional tea dances, with instruction how to do the Palais Glide and Lindy Hop, fashion shows in the parish church, while military vehicles were gathered in a nearby field together with stalls galore selling forties memorabilia.

On the canal, the trip boats were kept

busy. And always roaming around the site was an impressive Winston Churchill double, cigar clamped firmly in mouth, ever ready to pronounce in Churchillian tones. FieldMarshal Montgomery was there, too, with other World War Two veterans of all ranks, not forgetting a Dad’s Army presence and spivs with their Black Market offerings.

Mick Butler adds: “It’s all great fun and especially educational for youngsters, and I like to think it is presented with appropriate respect for the traumatic period recalled.

Already plans are being laid for the 2018 event next September. The re-enactors are rarin’ to go.”

For anyone wishing to be involved, please ring the Canal Museum on 01604 862229 or email stokebruerne@canalrivertrust.org.uk.

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SONS 2 and 1, and right, 1 and 2

You’ve completed parenting, now dry those tears and book a holiday Hilary Scott

Scary motha’ nenequirer@gmail.com @nosylocaljourno 01604 550037

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E had taken First Born on our longest journey on our own with him for over 18 years.

As we stopped to give him the last hug before leaving him at his new uni flat, now aged 20, a massive, guttural sob came out of me from nowhere.

A proper, big, breath-catching sob.

Followed by a few more. It caught us all by surprise, and there were fizzy noses all round, followed by awkward laughter. I’ve never felt so British.

It even affected his dad; previously immune from sentimental reminiscence. As we drove home to Northampton he began recalling an occasion we took Sons 1 and 2 to Pooh Bridge, (yes, the real one), to play Pooh sticks, just before the First Born started school. I cried intermittently all the way back.

Those who know me will testify I’m not one of life’s criers. I wasn’t the one standing in the playground weeping on their first day of nursery, or primary school. That’s not to say I’m cold, or that the crying mums are in any way to be derided. I’m too physically and mentally knackered to do much more than reconcile that they are growing up, as they should, and carry on with the business of

trying to ensure the rest of the family don’t maim themselves, or each other.

Just a week later we went through it all again, this time with !8-year-old Son 2, who was being moved in to another university, up north this time. By this stage, the solo heart-breaking sob had been replaced by lots of random sobs at lots of random times.

Second Born found it all highly amusing, and this time we had his adored younger sister with us who was devastated to be losing her ‘Big Bear.’ It was all, to use the parlance of teens, very ‘emosh’, but this time not unexpected. I was a wreck.

Four weeks on, and the random crying has died down a bit. There’s no time for empty nest syndrome when your nest isn’t even empty as are two more baby birds still in it.

But the crying thing – it really threw me. I couldn’t even talk about it without welling up, even doing a stint on live radio. I questioned whether it could just be hormonal. Turns out its actually just human.

My elder two were like twins but 19 months apart. Chalk and cheese but utterly the best of pals, doing everything together, and adding an often frustratingly funny structure to our family of six.

And then we were four. And I miss them.

There’s a lot of new 18-year-olds just starting their grown-up lives. And as the University of Northampton opens its doors to the 2017-18 cohort, an exodus of our own teens has scattered across the county in return. There will be plenty of parents

like me, feeling that big empty space in the family home. Some will not have the distraction of more kids coming up behind.

Some will be cracking open the fizz and planning their next, not in term time holiday, the lucky sods. Raise a glass everyone, we’ve completed the Parenting Level.

Welcoming new students, mostly 18-20 year-olds, has been my job for the past nine years. As I teach journalism, I’ve seen hundreds of other-people’s-children come through the doors. Most grow and develop significantly over their three years with us, and we academics take over the parenting – nagging, cajoling, comforting and encouraging them. The university here is pretty unique in its attitude to new students: my sons barely get to know their tutors, and are taught in massive lecture halls of hundreds of students. Meanwhile, we teach in much smaller lecture groups, and I already know most of my students’ names, where they come from, who is still at home missing them and how much support they are going to need.

Meanwhile in their new lives, our own two Freshers are having, as predicted, an amazing time. We’re blessed these days by having the ability to video call them rather than having to wait for them to queue at a phonebox. They seem to be spending more time playing sports and finding impressively complicated party outfits than studying, but hey, that’s their job to sort out now. Mine is done. . . until Christmas at least.

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Where did Jeremy Corbyn go to learn about Hope?

Robin Burgess

Hope Centre CEO nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 01604 550037

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n the 8th September the Hope Centre in Northampton welcomed the leader of the Labour party, Jeremy Corbyn, on a visit to see what Hope does.

Hope’s been working in Northampton for over forty years, so it’s no wonder that word has got around about the work Hope does, helping people who are poor, homeless or otherwise disadvantaged, and offering food, clothes, access to training and work experience to improve employability, leisure and volunteering opportunities. Every day we help up to 150 people to find a way out of poverty, building their confidence and self-esteem through support, activities and encouragement. We help people become employable through casework and training, helping build confidence and skills and make people believe they have something to offer. Many of the people who use the centre have confidence and self esteem at rock bottom levels, and we work to improve this. For some, we are able to offer training in catering and tool repair, and in 2018, horticulture, as part of our social enterprise, Hope Enterprise Welcoming visitors is vital to us, as although we are well known locally, given that well over 90% of our funding comes not from statutory sources (government, NHS etc) but directly from charity, community groups and the public, it’s important we get our message out there using any method we can, and famous visitors will always attract the media.

As a result we were very happy to welcome Jeremy Corbyn when a request came in via one of Hope’s patrons, Sally Keeble, former MP, to ask if we would host a visit when he was visiting the town. He was keen to see the work Hope did addressing very practically the needs of poor and homeless people.

Hope welcomes politicians of all parties and over the years we have met regularly with the town’s MPs, the Police and Crime Commissioner and hosted a fundraising event with Boris Johnson. We of course have

no political affiliations to any party, like all charities, but we will always accept a request from any politician to visit. Whilst we are aware they may use these kinds of opportunities for self-promotion and campaigning or positioning purposes, there is a benefit to us too. As can be seen from the photos of Mr Corbyn at the centre, these visits provide an opportunity for our clients and service users to speak directly to people in power and to influence policy responses to their issues.

Hope exists to help people who are disadvantaged to have a voice, either directly, as in this visit, or through us to speak on their behalf. Mr Corbyn, to his credit, went out of his way to talk to service users, staying over, despite his minders twitching over their mobiles, to talk to service users and hear directly from them. He was particularly taken by our art group, as it turns out he paints himself, and has asked for a loan of one of art group painters, Juris, to hang in his office. Juris is well known in the county for his magnificent paintings of service users and volunteers and he is an inspirational figure in his overcoming of a stroke to paint even better portraits in oils than he did before.

Some people question why we welcome politicians, and some complain when we feature their visits in our media. Yet although we do not support any party, we believe it is right for charities to campaign against the issues that affect our clients and these are political. Lack of services, ill-treatment, increasing poverty and much more are political issues, and charities have a legal right, and even a moral obligation to challenge the oppression of our clients and the causes of their problems.

Over the last year Hope has very much focused on campaigning for fair and decent treatment of our service users and the poverty, exclusion and poor treatment they receive. It’s easy for charities like us to concentrate on helping people, and not trying to change the causes of their exclusion, like poverty and inequality. We believe we have to do this as well, so gradually we have been speaking out more and more on Twitter, Facebook and through print and broadcast media, using every opportunity to point out that the current level of poverty in Northampton, is a scandal. If we can get the opportunity to bend any politician’s ear about it, and for our users to do so too, we will, whichever party they represent. We will lobby them all, regardless of their party colours, to give a better deal, through their policies, for our users. We make no apologies for this. This is part of what we should do.

In fact, we welcome people to join us in doing so. If anybody has the urge to help us work to challenge poverty and poor treatment of poor people, then we invite them to make contact, joining our social media gang, or in fact using any method we can to get the message across: poverty is blighting all our lives. It can include art events and media, drama, photography – whatever you can think of. Hope is a great place for budding artists and activists to hone and practice their skills, in journalism, social media, photography, music and artivist practice.

Give Hope a call if you are interested, or email us on office@northamptonhopecentre. org.uk. If you know a politician who wants to visit, tell them to get in touch. You listening Theresa and Vince?

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COMING SOON TO ROYAL & DERNGATE

FAR FAR AND AWAY ‘THE MOST FUN YOU’LL EVER HAVE!’ DAILY MIRROR

WED 14 - SUN 25 MAR 2018

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13/10/2017 10:55

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‘A triumphant Hedda for our times.’

‘Director Ivo van Hove’s thrilling new production.’

Radio Times

Mail on Sunday

Henrik Ibsen’s thrilling masterpiece in a bold new version by Patrick Marber

Tue 28 November – Sat 2 December

/royalandderngate

@royalderngate

Box Office 01604 624811 www.royalandderngate.co.uk

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COMING SOON TO ROYAL & DERNGATE

mamma-mia.com

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TUE 23 JAN SAT 3 FEB 2018

16/10/2017 09:43

TUE 27 FEBRUARY – SAT 3 MARCH

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what’s on

THE TO DO LIST

OCT NQ

Sunday Oct 22 Holdenby House 11am to 4pm Northamptonshire Day: Celebrating Northamptonshire’s heritage, culture and food. Entry to the event is free. Car parking costs £3 per car.

Oktoberfeste Fri, October 27, 6pm – Sat, October 28, 11pm in Midsummer Meadow Northampton.

Sunday October 29 from midday to 3pm Open Mic Sunday at Vintage Retreat Northampton Oct 31 to November 4 Hi-de-Hi at The Deco, is adapted from the original scripts by Jimmy Perry and David Croft. This show from White Cobra Productions runs from October 31st to November 4th 2017. There are matinee performances on Thurday 2 Nov at 13:30 and Saturday 4 Nov at 14:30.

Tickets on 01604 491005 November 11to 12 Masterchef finalist Giovanna Ryan will star on the chef demonstration stage of this year’s Northampton Winter Food Festival at The County Ground. There will be over 80 food, drink and foodie gift stalls and a street food market. There is free parking on Abington Park. Adult tickets are £6 in advance of £8 on the day.

Children over ten years are £3.

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Transition ‘Makers of Change’ Special Event Thu, November 9, 8pm – Fri, November 10, 1am At The Phoenix Bar, Tickets £15 Search for Makers of Change on Eventbrite

Sat, November 18, 10am – 4pm Vegan Fest at Vintage Retreat, Northampton November 15 Carlsberg Food and Drink Awards -Royal & Derngate

Rita, Sue and Bob Too, comes to Northampton’s Royal & Derngate this autumn, from Tuesday 31 October to Saturday 4 November.

Tickets – priced from £11 to £29* – from Box Office on 01604 624811 or online at www.royalandderngate.

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Beer of the Month: Review: FOODIES.Rocks Coffee Porter 19-21 Derngate, Northampton

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The Pomfret Arms

Beer of the month www.pomfretarms.co.uk 01604 555119

Coffee Porter, Cotton End Brew Co

It is a two time award winning beer at Northampton County Beer Festival for ‘Best Porter’.

Served at its beautiful and friendly home, The Pomfret Arms in Far Cotton, it is brewed using black and pale malt, British bittering hops and is infused with freshly ground and filtered Kenyan coffee beans.

Coffee Porter is dark and strong with big malty and treacle flavours accompanied by a hit of coffee.

Official NQ beer taster Andy Shaw said: “I’ve tried this a few times and you hear people say a beer is nice but this really is good.

“It has a full rich flavour, a really luxurious taste.” www.pomfretarms.co.uk

here were furrowed brows from the younger Penda friends as they looked at the menu at uber-trendy Foodies.Rocks (not my punctuation).

They were conflicted: they’d been given their own menus and a little tick-box order form each. They were being Grown-ups.

On the other hand, they couldn’t work out if there was anything they actually liked.

From Fish Tacos with Kiwi and Lime Sauce to Taiwanese Gua Bao, there wasn’t a chicken nugget in sight. Good.

They were encouraged to choose two dishes each. This is casual dining: street food - so the portions aren’t huge and arrive in paper-lined baskets as soon as each is cooked. Don’t wait for the whole lot to arrive before tucking in, the staff tick each item off the receipt on your table. You can’t be a food hogger here, your guests will be nicking your cassava chips before you can ask: What’s cassava? (since you ask, a starchy vegetable, also known as yuca root).

They chose carefully, going down the list of 12 savoury options discussing what they might not like. They settled on edamame hummus with crispy bread, miso soup, pork gyoza and Korean Sriracha fried chicken with some cassava chips to share too.

Penda has a penchant for Foodies’ Taiwanese Gua Bao, two strangely squidgy, doughy steamed buns with a tempura prawn in each, kimchi (a fermented vegetable relish that isn’t vinegary), sweet chilli mayo and lots of chopped spring onions.

I’ve had them a few times and they always satisfy, albeit with the indignity of eating something as it all falls inelegantly down your chin. You can get a BBQ pork version with cucumber, hoisin and crushed peanuts too.

The youngsters eyed their dishes with suspicion but were reassured by our excellent waitress that it was good to be a little adventurous. She was right, the miso soup was gobbled up with an extra little dish of crispy dippy bread after a minor argument between siblings about how the bread we already had should only be for the person who ordered the edamame hummus. The hummus scored well too, it looks and tastes just like normal chickpea hummus; maybe a little bit runnier and in this case served with a sprinkling of wakame seaweed, chilli flakes and sesame seeds.

The Korean chicken was also gone in a flash, and declared not too spicy at all by a now confident teen who also ate the hot saucy mooli (that’s a grated raw white rad-

GUA Bao buns, seaweed salad, miso soup, cassava chips and pork gyoza

ish by the way). We used the cassava chips as carriers for the hummus (they can be a bit bland without lots of salt and something dippy, and the red chutney it came with was rejected as ‘not ketchupy enough’). There was a side order of seaweed salad, a generous big pot of the stuff you get in posher sushi bento boxes. The kids turned their noses up at it, so Penda ate it all.

The pork gyoza dumplings (you get about five) have also been a previous purchase and sometimes are sometimes served a bit more steamed than grilled - this time they were a perfect combination of crispy on the outside and soft in the middle, and they come with a soy dip. We miss the previous Foodies favourite, which were sticky chicken skewers with a blob of rice, but then menus do need to change now and then.

We’d ordered a couple of pasel de nata for pud, those delicious Portugese tarts that so weirded out the cooks on this year’s Great British Bake Off. We were also brought two great big pots of ice cream, free for under

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Cheese of the Month: Curds & Croust Truffler

Kids rocked at Foodies 16s, sprinkled with coconut and with warm hazelnut chocolate sauce. Who’d have thought kids would not like grated coconut?

- Penda ended up with it while they pinched the tarts.

The decor in Foodies is very urban industrial, with old cameras as decoration, concrete walls and exposed pipes, rough wood doors and handles made of hammers.

But don’t go down the road of thinking all this fusion food and reclaimed setting sounds way too hipster for Northampton.

It’s undoubtedly arty-cool, with excellent graffiti in the loos (and a funky babychange station) and tables made from giant cotton reels. The venue also has regular art, theatre, music and spoken-word events downstairs, where there’s a bar, a footy table and a giant Tekken arcade game. They also have vegan options and craft beer. Hipster?

Tick, tick and tick again.

But Northampton needs a hipster hangout like this, and it’s perfectly placed for the theatres over the road. It’s hardly ever empty when we’ve visited and the service on this particular Friday at 7pm, when its 35 or so covers (there are bar stools too) were filling up, was excellent. Water and glasses arrived without us having to ask, and they’ve even relented and started stocking Diet Coke as well the more artisan bottles of pop.

One big no-no for Penda, however, and it may just be Penda’s weird problem, is the use of wooden cutlery. Just typing it makes

one’s teeth ache. Yes, of course it’s better for the environment but dear God, just give me some proper metal spoons.

Price-wise, it came in at about fifty quid for three of us; seven dishes and some pop.

All except the soup and salad are £5-6 each, and are reasonable except, perhaps, for the hummus which felt over-priced.

Overall, Foodies.Rocks offers a genuinely different dining experience, pushing us all out of our culinary comfort zones, especially those of us who haven’t travelled the world to taste these exotic foods in their native habitats. Penda may just have to take a metal spork next time.

NQ Penda

Steve & Caroline Ward

Bringing you choice fromage www.stgilescheese.com @stgilescheese 01604 622271

Curds & Croust Truffler

Autumn has well and truly arrived and there are few things more autumnal than mushrooms, hunting tasty ones is fast becoming my new hobby.

Sadly other than a few nice puffballs, most of my bounty has been inedible. I certainly haven’t found any prized truffles. I blame the dog and her obsession with rabbits.

Curds & Croust are a new Cornish cheese maker who share a production site with the famous clotted cream people, Roddas.

Using the same fabulous Roddas milk source they are creating a range of handmade bloomy white soft cheeses, a brie & camembert with the lovely character names ‘Miss Wenna’ and ‘Boy Laity’ but their finest creation must be the ‘Truffler’. A brie made with milk infused with truffle, so no truffly bits. It is earthy, gentle, yet somehow robust, with the delicious back notes of the truffle coming through at the end of a luscious creamy mouth experience. Too far? No, I don’t think so...

I asked Mrs Cheese what wine should be paired with this cheese as she was reading an article written by an ‘expert’(!) proclaiming that “red wine should never be served with cheese” .

In an instant she replied “ Beaujolais, are we having Beaujolais?” The experts know nothing. We had it with our favourite Madame Lagneau Beaujolais Villages.

It was perfect. It’s beginning to look a bit like Christmas. www.stgilescheese.com

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Go with the Flo for vegan treats Flo’s Kitchen

Cocktail of the Month: Burbajos Secos

This decadent bubbly cocktail blends sloe gin, pink gin and cava. Its simple to put together, and you’ll find it a delicious dry alternative to the usual sweeter cava and prosecco cocktails served everywhere at this time of year.

Ingredients (makes 2 cocktails): 25ml Sloe Gin 25ml Larios Rose Gin Cava or prosecco Frozen Strawberry (optional).

Method: Add the gin and sloe gin to a cocktail shaker.

Add a generous scoop of ice and shake well.

Empty into two chilled cava glasses, and top off the gin mixture with your favourite dry cava or prosecco.

If you’re a perfectionist, use a cocktail spoon to layer the cava onto the spirit mixture.

Finish with a frozen strawberry.

Its really important to use a full strength sloe gin for this recipe, (typically greater than 40% abv). Weaker liqueur based sloe gins carry sweetness into the end cocktail, which isn’t at all what this drink is about. Larios Rose gin is just perfect with its mediterranean citrus and strawberry tones, which work together with the dry berry sloe gin flavours better than Santa’s reindeer pulling his sleigh.

Watch a video of this recipe at: www.solylunatapas.co.uk/burbajos_secos Pop by and try one in person!

Sol Y Luna Tapas Bar 128 Kingsley Park Terrace, NN2 7HJ For reservations: 01604 456750 reservations@solylunatapas.co.uk www.solylunatapas.co.uk

Vegan Bakery nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 01604 550037

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ello! We are Ben and Jess and we own and run Flo’s Kitchen! Flo’s Kitchen is a fully vegan-friendly bakery in Northampton and it’s ‘Flo’s’ as Jess’ middle name is Florence and is affectionately called Flo by her family. For those less familiar with the word vegan, vegan food is food that contains no animal products.

This includes meat, dairy, eggs as well as various other ingredients that we may not typically associate with animals (some vitamin D is derived from sheep wool and is used to fortify various foods like cereal, and Shellac, a common ingredient in certain confectionary like Jelly Beans, is the excretion of an East Asian tree bug!). Veganism outside of food extends to not wearing leather and not using cosmetic products that have been tested on animals, amongst other things.

We decided to follow a vegan diet when Jess, who had been a vegetarian since the age of 12, began to learn more about the harsh reality of life for animals on largescale, factory farms where eggs and dairy are produced. We both felt that having a new perspective on these realities we could no longer justify our consumption of the products of these industries.

We chose to start a vegan bakery because, as vegans ourselves, we found there was a general lack of vegan food available in Northamptonshire, particularly sweet and desert-style foods. We wanted to use our experience of baking to help provide for this growing niche of people who want to live a life free from animal products. We started our business just over a year ago and it has quickly grown to support both of us full-time and shows no signs of slowing down. We are out to show that ‘vegan food’ is really just… food! And it can be just as delicious and indulgent as it’s non-vegan counterparts. We sell both to the public, who can order directly with us for collection or delivery around Northamptonshire, as well as to businesses who we offer local delivery to as well.

As for who we are, we met six years ago

at University and have been together ever since and we decided to follow a vegan diet and lifestyle around 2-3 years ago. Jess has had a passion for baking her whole life and with just a little experimenting and tweaking managed to ‘vegan-ise’ several classic recipes and these formed the first products of Flo’s Kitchen. Since then we’ve gained a lot of experience and built on our previous knowledge to develop more and more vegan-friendly products. Our bakery range consists mainly of tried and tested classics including cakes (of course!), brownies, fudge, lemon meringue pies, rocky road, ‘cheese’cakes and our award-nominated Tiramisu!

If you’re wondering where you can sample some of our vegan-frendly treats then you can of course order directly with us, or at any of the following shops and eateries: The Daily Bread Co-operative, Bedford Road, Northampton Caffe Morandi, Gold Street, Northampton The Magic Bean Emporium, St Giles Street, Northampton Dapper Sandwich Co, Wellingborough Road, Northampton The Garden Deli, Nene Court Retail Park, Wellingborough The Ten Hands Café, Watling Street West, Towcester Radmore Farm Shop, Victoria Avenue, Cambridge 07792 319798 / 07917846631 www.floskitchen.co.uk

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Music

LIANE Carroll

Oct/Nov

Gig kicks off planning for NMF 2018 John Richardson Jazz Paladin

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orthampton Music Festival was initiated ten years ago by a group of local businessmen who joined forces with the University of Northampton and a group of amateur and professional musicians. The mission was clear: to enhance the profile of the town, and in particular the town centre, through musical performance of all kinds.

Northampton has an exceptionally varied and prolific music culture and NMF’s objective is to showcase and celebrate that culture. Northampton Music and Performance Arts Trust, situated on the Kettering Road in the town, has 22,000 music students and 300 music teachers. Our schools constantly win national and international competitions, and there are performances in local Northampton venues 365 days of the year.

The poor profile of the town is affecting our University, big and small businesses, and also the well-being of local people who recognise the attributes of the town and are determined to see change.

This year’s Music Festival in June involved five stages in the town centre and over fifty performances, from rock to opera.

A dedicated group of volunteers is currently planning Northampton Music Festival for 2018 and anticipate that it will be bigger

with, once again, a focus on the Market Square.

Northampton Borough Council, the Northampton Town Centre Business Improvement District (BID) and Northampton Community Foundation have given full support to the project. A very effective public-private partnership.

Chairman of NMF, retired school teacher, Brian Harding, said: “The festival this year succeeded in bringing the town centre alive and in making a visit a truly exhilarating experience.The 2018 festival will see even

more music showcased from our town and county.”

On Thursday, 23rd November, NMF will present a special performance by multi award winning vocalist, Liane Carroll, following a gathering of interested parties keen to further the Northampton Music Festival’s aims: to be a showcase and greatly anticipated event for and in the ‘Teyn’ we love and live in.

We hope you will support us and this superb pre-festival event at the Picturedrome on November 23.

Vocalist one of the ‘greatest of any generation’ Liane Carroll is one of the greatest vocalists of her generation (or of any generation, for that matter) and has won enough awards to fill a rather large wall or, conversely, to expose the weakness of a cheap cabinet.

Although Liane, for the convenience of a music media keen to have artists neatly labelled, is best known as a jazz vocalist - and without doubt there are none better – she is much more than that. She is an astounding musician and, there is no other way to describe it, her profoundly beautiful, generous and open personality and total lack of affectation has allowed her to absorb a huge number of influences and idioms into her sensational performances - from Glastonbury (twice this year: in her own right and with mega Drum’n’Bass lu-

minaries ‘London Elektricity’ ), The Proms, Ronnie Scott’s, New York’s Lincoln Centre, and all points of the globe.

It’s been said many times before, and I feel confident that anyone reading this who has seen Liane perform will agree: she communicates with an audience in a way so natural that you are totally drawn in and left, at the end, knowing you have been a party to one of the most extraordinary musical experiences you’ll ever have.

November 23 at Northampton’s Picturedrome can’t come quickly enough and, if you also have an open mind and a love of artistry, you really should be there.

Andy Shaw n For tickets search for Liane Carroll on www.seetickets.com

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Oct/Nov

Rural

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Richard Hollingum Captain of the fields

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BARABARA Evans and John Blick at Walgrave Village Hall, opposite are Mike Doyle and Derek Taylor at Wilbarston Village Hall

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here are about 10,000 of them across England and most of the villages in Northamptonshire have one: village halls.

They can vary from the small to the large, from the old to the new and from the dilapidated to the pristine. They are an essential part of village life along with the pub, the school and the church. And, unfortunately as with all these other assets of rural living, they are under threat from lack of use, rising costs and an increasingly aged management team.

This last point had been the focus of an article in The Telegraph in January this year and serves to emphasise something that has become very apparent over the past twenty years or more: that our villages do not seem to be for the young.

Leaving that hanging for a moment, there are many examples of good village halls across the county and I visited two to see what problems they were having and how they were dealing with them.

The village of Walgrave has a population of 868 and has a number of assets that it can be rightly proud of. The village hall sits on the edge of a large green playing field looking across to the County Heritage Site of North Hall Manor. Walgrave village hall was opened in 1991 and is well used for a variety of activities including various keep-fit sessions, indoor bowls and a Mums & Tots group. These bookings mean that there is something happening most days, though there is a great reliance on individual private bookings which seem to average 5 or 6 a month. There is a cinema club that has recently bought its own equipment and films are shown alongside a theme-linked supper – which might prove interesting if they get to show Silence of the Lambs.

Wilbarston Village Hall has possibly an even better outlook, across the Welland Valley. The village is slightly smaller that Walgrave but still has a good quota of assets: pub, shop and Post Office, and school. The hall is an imposing building, built in 1978,

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Rural

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How can we protect the future of village halls? with a large space and a separate bar lounge area, the whole clearly having been designed as much a sports venue as anything. The addition of a bar means that there is someone in charge of that, a regular commitment for a small village, even if it is only open for events. Wilbarston seems to have even less regular bookings that Walgrave but they do a good line in weddings.

These buildings can be quite expensive to keep going. Wilbarston is suffering from a problem with its roof, of which there is quite a lot. When originally built, light-weight tiles were used which are now proving quite easy to fly off, leaving a host of problems, not least the ingress of rainwater and the subsequent collapse of the ceiling. The plan is to replace the existing tiles with more substantial ones. The Chair of the Village Hall Committee, Mike Doyle, says that this major project is going to cost £50,000. They have already secured some funding but have another £35,000 to go. This might sound a lot but Mike is not particularly fazed. Over the past three years £23,000 had been raised to replace windows and install an up-to-date fire system.

Mike says that it is all about balancing the needs of the community with keeping the hall afloat, something that Walgrave Village Hall Chair, John Blick agrees with.

They are looking to raise £100,000 to build an extension with the hope that a youth club can be started and that the existing but small corporate hires can be expanded.

Much of Walgrave’s fundraising is through events at the hall. A magic evening raised £1,000 and the latest annual Groove on the Green raised £2,500, though there is still a long way to go. Grants are very important too. Walgrave have won a payment from the Marks & Spencer Energy Fund to replace their lights with more efficient ones and received £50,000 from the Biffa Award for new play equipment.

Keeping village halls maintained and fit for purpose also calls for new and different ways of using the facilities in addition to badminton and cream teas. At Wilbarston, concerts are often on the listings and at Walgrave the village Post Office opens once a week. Since the shop closed, people found it difficult to get to the nearest Post Office

and now it comes to the village hall for two hours on a Thursday.

Whilst I may have expected these problems, I had not considered that ownership and responsibility can be a cause of difficulty. At Walgrave there are Management Trustees and Custodian Trustees. The Management Trustees are the management committee and have the responsibility for the management and upkeep of the building and grounds; the Custodian Trustees, who are, in this case, the Parish Council, hold the property on behalf of the community.

They have no power to make management decisions, but this is a situation that has been known to bring conflict between parish council and management committee. In some cases, the original documents setting out the terms may have been lost or mislaid which can complicate matters further.

At Wilbarston the same two sets of trustees exist, but the land is owned by the parish council yet the building is owned by the district council. Fine on paper perhaps but problems arise when trying to raise funding for a project and deciding whose responsibility is what.

Returning to the age issue, both Mike and John say that the age profile of the committee members is such that this could be the biggest threat for the future of village halls. It takes a team of ten or twelve people to look after a hall the size of Walgrave or Wilbarston, where the majority of com-

mittee members are between 60 and 80 years old. Not only does that mean attending management meetings but also being prepared to help raise money, and work on the building when necessary. When I visited Walgrave, two members of the management committee were busy painting the toilets.

So where are all the youngsters? There are at least two issues here. Firstly, many of our villages have priced them out of the rural communities. And secondly I suppose that there is a tradition that when you retire you start to pay back by taking on such responsibilities as village hall management and parish council membership. But this does rather restrict the outlook and can lead to the village hall being seen as somewhere only the old folks go.

Yet there are hopes that some younger people can be enlisted. Beer festivals, concerts and sports activities have a wider appeal and through these John and Mike and all the other village hall chairs hope to see the opportunity of passing the baton on.

Looking after a village asset is no easy task and trying to keep all parties – the user groups, the village, the councils, the land-owners - on side can be very difficult.

However it is also a rewarding job especially if approached in the right way. As Mike Doyle says, “it is all about being professional.

You have to run it as a business”. Let us hope that there are others willing to continue this business.

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Books

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We didn’t know the rules Lena Davis

Reviewing the Situation nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 01604 550037

Lena has been a music producer, writer and Personal Manager; a photographer and journalist and, over thirty years ago, got together with Caroline Scattergood to create the Caring & Sharing Trust to bring music, hope and love into the lives of people with learning disabilities and their families from throughout Northamptonshire.

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avid Bowie Made Me Gay by Darryl W Bullock (Published

by Duckworth Overlook £18.99) has the subtitle “100 Years of LGBT Music”. And that is the true description of this interesting volume. Darryl is also the author of “Florence Foster Jenkins” which was fairly recently made into a film starring Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant.

His latest book is very is very different in respect that it is a highly researched piece of schol-

arship which might well be the study book for degrees in LGBT studies of the future. As Darryl has to rely a tremendous amount on the printed word (there are pages and pages of end notes listing the various newspapers and magazines which are quoted as fact) this creates a problem of its own. Having been both a Journalist and Publicist in the music business for many years I have to confess that not everything that ends up in print is true – to say the least!

To get the truth you really need to have been there and we can’t expect Darryl to have “been there” for the 100 years the volume covers. However, I was there from the Sixties onwards and, we simply made it up as we went along. What we had in common in the Sixties was that most of us were very young and we didn’t set out to break the rules – we simply didn’t know what they were!

Everyone mixed together be you gay, straight, black, white, or, like some, a mixture of the lot. Nowadays being gay, like being anything else you might fancy, is less of a problem than ever.

The problem today is probably lack of freedom of speech and expression. As John Cleese says, there would have been no Monty Python today when comedy is not allowed to make fun of each and every one of us oddballs called the human race.

Everyone who loves American crime novels already lauds the name of Michael Connelly. His latest is “The Late Show” (Orion Books £19.99). Michael is a former police reporter for the Los Angeles Times and really knows what he is talking about regarding procedure. His Harry Bosch thrillers are currently being dramatized in the “Bosch” series on Amazon Prime which is now in its third season. In “The Late Show” we meet his newest detective, a young woman called Renee Ballard who is a fascinating creation.

I loved this book and am already a fan of Detective Ballard.

Julie Teckman

Wordsmith nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 01604 550037

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’m a simple soul at heart and can be kept happy with just a few annual events that punctuate the year for me. Christmas, birthdays, a bit of sun in the summer and the occasional trip to the seaside will top up my happiness tank, along with my annual culture-fest courtesy of the Althorpe Literary Festival which takes place almost on the (albeit, very grand) doorstep. And while I had to wait a little longer for it this year (the Festival moved from the end of June to early October) the 2017 celebration of the written word in all its literary forms did not disappoint. The weather held up, the line-up of writers was inspired and the atmosphere was the usual blend of excitement, warmth and conviviality with guest speakers ranging from the political (Lord Owen talking about his book on post-Brexit Britain) to the historical (A N Wilson discussing Charles Dickens), sporty (Judy Murray and Clare Balding) and hilarious (Pam Ayres reading her poetry as only she can do it and the newly evicted from Strictly Come Dancing – although we didn’t know it at the time – Reverend Richard Coles giving colour to his latest autobiographical volume, Bringing in the Sheaves).

The biggest problem with the Althorpe Literary Festival, hailed by many as the best of its kind, is knowing which talks to visit given the breadth of choice and variety of speakers. To hear historians and public commentators whose fingers are firmly on the pulse of why we live like we do and how political and social history impacts on our lives makes sessions rich in information and colourful hints about the things we don’t always get told! I like to laugh, learn and look which doesn’t narrow things down too much but the great selling point of this event is that you can wander around and experience so much even if you can’t visit all the talks you’d like to. And this year I noticed that there were more activities available outside of the talks: free poetry readings, exhibitions, marquees to wander around and

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Books

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Lette gets physical at the Althorpe Literary Festival a gorgeous double-decker bus dispensing champagne!

Like so many others, I get a real kick out of exploring the exquisite surroundings, peeking in windows to see the grandeur of rooms which aren’t open to the public during the event, although with talks and book signings taking place in various stately rooms inside the house this is always a chance to learn more about the home and the family that has contributed so much to the county’s story. There is something pretty surreal in walking past the huge library window and seeing people whose faces you’ve only ever seen in the newspapers or on television chatting together, totally relaxed over tea and cake!

And so to highlights of my own literary experience.

Novelist Kathy Lette is a joy both to watch and hear speak, with her delicious disregard for British reservation (she happily told us about offering to French Kiss Princes William and Harry, apparently oblivious to their Uncle sitting in her audience!) and her passion for the subject of bringing up children on the Autistic spectrum and the heartbreak of seeing your child bullied. She had female fans nodding enthusiastically and male audience members displaying a range of nervous body language when she talked about sex and the middle aged woman.

And her descriptions of how far she almost went to help her son experience the carnal desires that other boys his age were apparently enjoying had us gasping with shock and choking with laughter at the same time. Her interviewer, the highly experienced local broadcaster and funny man in his own right, Bernie Keith, had done his homework and made easy work of keeping her just on the right side of decency (but only just!). Together they produced a comedy double act equal to any you’ll see on the television, and Kathy was still singing Bernie’s praises as a love god, several hours after their encounter on stage.

Listening to master perfumier Jo Malone was an astonishing tale of a woman refusing ever to give up, in spite of poverty, dyslexia and, later, cancer conspiring to drag her down. From a nine year old managing the family finances to ensure there was food

on the table, to a wife, mother and entrepreneur having to start again after selling the company she’d grown into an internationally recognised brand and recovering from life-threatening illness. Like Kathy and so many of the other authors talking about their works at Althorpe, the theme that ran through her interview was that of Passion: passion for life, passion for people and passion for perfume. At one point the stately marquee in which she was speaking was alive with the scent of various perfume strains as Jo passed around samples of her products and talked about new ventures she’s exploring (how many other people could chat casually about their husband challenging them to change the way in which consumers experience scent and do so by inventing a new fragrance brush?) It was in this session that I felt the true spirit of the Festival become apparent when I found myself sitting next to the venerable Ken Hom (inventor of the wok most of us couldn’t live without, and owner of the best smile on any face ever) and watched as he made playful faces at a baby in the seat in front of us. When Jo Malone mentioned her dear friend Ken Hom who was sitting at the back of the marquee, the mother of the baby did a true double take when she realised who it was that had been entertaining her baby throughout Jo’s talk!

But for me, and I’m not sucking up here, believe me, the highlight of the event was listening to Charles Spencer talk about his new book, To Catch A King (William Collins)

published just a week previously and telling the incredible story of King Charles ll’s six weeks on the run for his life in 1651 after seeing his Scottish army wiped out by Cromwell’s troops.

The story itself is as dramatic as any action adventure movie, with a host of key characters whose loyalty to the prince put their own lives at risk and made for a compelling narrative written in a style that is as easy to read as any work of fiction.

Earl Spencer’s dedication to his research and his clear affection for the man about whose personal qualities he writes were “not always evident in an individual whose self-indulgence and sense of entitlement could infuriate even his most loyal devotees” shone through as he created for the audience a breath-taking story of bravery, near misses and luck which changed the face of British history.

His ability to bring his subject matter to life and make it both funny and incredibly moving at times kept the audience enraptured and, unsurprisingly, his book-signing queue after the session was a long one!

There are no airs and graces at the Althorpe Festival (or certainly none that I have witnessed in the years that I have attended).

From the Earl and Countess to the authors, celebrities and historians who mingle, attend one another’s sessions and talk to visitors as they sign books or wait for other sessions to start, the atmosphere is gentle, calm and respectful throughout.

And my goodness, you learn a lot.

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Music

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Driving a Jazz Colossus Miles Hancock He goes big

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he situation that sparked the idea of Jazz Colossus was quite a simple one really.

It was late 2014 and I was looking for a big band to play in. It seemed ludicrous to me that there wasn’t a big band already in the town, the place is full of musicians. Instead of travelling to play sax with a big band I realised I probably knew enough talented local players to form my own, so I decided to send the word out.

Surely assembling a band of 20 or so of Northampton’s finest players would be simple, right?... Well, we started off with a core band of around 10 or so and began rehearsing at The Black Bottom Club, who kindly lent us their room. It was a rocky start and took a while for the band to settle, some people came and went, however after around a year we arrived at the core band that has mostly remained since. It seems obvious, but a big band involves a LOT of people! As well as the 20 or so musicians we have on each gig, there are a long list of deps who can stand in when regulars can’t make it. Last time I counted we’ve had 85 people either rehearse or gig with the band and I’m sure there a few I’ve missed off that list!

Our first gig was really well received and we started to get a dedicated local following.

After securing a quarterly residency at The Picturedrome, things started to really propel forwards. The old saying ‘success breeds success’ started to come into play: the better we got, the more people wanted to join the band. Safe to say we now have a bit of a waiting list! The moment when we all felt like we’d really arrived as a band was when we

were invited to perform in the International Big Band Competition in Hoofddorp, The Netherlands. The competition was part of MeerJazz Festival and gave us the opportunity to perform alongside top big bands from across the globe. The band was well-received by judges and audience alike and the experience really boosted the confidence of the band.

My vision for Jazz Colossus has always been to take the big band format in a slightly different direction. When many people think of big bands, they imagine an outdated band, playing a wartime setlist in an archaic format. The truth is, the big band has always been more versatile than that, and I wanted to reflect this with my vision for the band.

We play a mixture of styles: funk, latin, jazz, soul as well as the some swing standards.

However, performing the original compositions and arrangements of band members is where we really get a buzz, and it allows us to use the versatility of the big band format to connect with the local music scene. Our latest gig ‘Made In Northampton’ is a really good example of how this can happen. It involved showcasing the original songs of local artists, arranging their songs for our 20-piece band and having them perform with us on the night. The gig really helped to broaden everyones horizons: singers who had never had a chance to sing with a big band before, audience members who may have never seen a big band before, traditional big band fans, all witnessed the versatility and accessibility that a big band can offer.

Today, after the demise of the classic big band era, people seem to have become accustomed to small bands, even horn sections are a rarity. However, many of the recordings of songs we listen to feature many more musicians than we ever see on the stage. For example, many Motown records

feature large string sections... when was the last time you saw one of those with your local Motown covers band? Covering these parts on keyboard, or with backing tracks has become the norm. However, people still crave real live performance, which is why I think what we are doing has really caught our audience’s imagination.

I got into big bands early on, as I was lucky enough to be involved in the school big band at Sponne. I started to get into music more seriously when I began having sax lessons with Alan Wakeman. As a teacher, player and all-round nice chap he really inspired me to take my first steps into thinking about music as a possible profession, I certainly owe him a lot! I subsequently studied music up to masters level and got involved with big bands at University. Since graduating, I mainly write music for film and TV. But as well as scoring I have been involved in a fair few band projects, all of which have involved large ensembles (I must be a glutton for punishment!) I also currently run an orchestra/DJ combo called Symphonica & Mr Switch (just the 17 musicians in that one!) It would take too long to list all the bands that have really inspired me, but I’ll try and list a few. I’ve always loved the work of big bands/large ensembles from the likes of Charles Mingus, Maynard Ferguson, Bob Mintzer, Michel Camilo, Bob Curnow, Quincy Jones and more recent ensembles like The Heritage Orchestra, One O’Clock Lab Band, Tommy Igoe and the WDR Big Band.

So, what does the future hold for Jazz Colossus? Well, we are in the process of recording an album, comprising of of our ‘Made In Northampton’ arrangements and original pieces by band members and featured local artists. Our next public gigs are our series of Christmas gigs at The Picturedrome on Sunday 10th and Thursday 14th December.

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Digital

Oct/Nov

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A whole new universe of science fiction detail James Sheppard Digital daydreamer

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nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 01604 550037

here is something about computer games that continues to amaze me. The level of detail and sheer hours of work that go into producing a title that we, as geeky consumers, choose to immerse ourselves in, is staggering. Sneak peeks at early alpha and beta builds are as sort after as the final game itself, as the hype train exhausts and excites me in equal measure. However, one wrong piece of code or a broken promise, and your game will not only be ridiculed and canned, but your studio will be blacklisted and hated until you redeem yourself.

I’m looking at you space bore fest NoMan’s Sky……

But still, I keep coming back in the hope that a developer will create something beautiful, something vast, and something that captures every last drop of Sci-Fi imagination left in me after being bullied as a geek for decades. I cry out for something thought-provoking. I shout my need to see attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.

I scream to re-enact every space opera I’ve ever seen.

But in space, no-one can hear you in space.

It may be the wrong quote, but it is much more fitting to the huge galaxy spanning world of Elite: Dangerous.

Published by Frontier Developments, Elite features space adventure, trading, piracy, mining and a plethora of things only limited by the physics of the galaxy and your own imagination. You can explore a realistic 1:1 scale galaxy based on our own Milky Way in a massively multiplayer persistent universe.

You take on trading missions or pirate bounties to earn credits to outfit your ship, or purchase a whole new one. The game has constant updates and listens to the community feedback incessantly. Never before have I been so excited to experience a Sci-Fi game, plug in my joystick, jump in my ship the: “Muddy Water Sparrow”, and pilot into the unknown…..

What’s that? There are key bindings just

to open the cargo bay doors of your ship?

And separate buttons to turn on ship lights and lower landing gear? And calibrating the joystick for horizontal, vertical and lateral flight just so you can safely take off from a planet without crashing in a ball of fire is recommended? I’m sure there can’t be that many buttons. This won’t take long.

Let’s fast forward to day number three.

Using a combination of grit, determination, YouTube guides, and a third party program called Voice Attack, I was ready to face the great unknown of the galaxy. Starting off in my little Sidewinder spacecraft, the mini metro of intergalactic travel, I was prepared to adventure across the stars. The game highly recommended doing the training missions first, but I had waited days for this opportunity; how hard can it be to fulfil my own space-venturing dreams?

After spending twenty minutes stuck in the orbit of the beginning planet, not knowing my hyperspace from my supercruise, my ship spinning around erratically, I decided that the training missions, though obviously only a recommendation, may have been a good idea. Being the bull-headed geek that I am, I spent a further twenty minutes flying back down to the planet’s surface with the intent of docking at a spaceport, determined not to be beaten by a mere game.

As my ship broke apart, flames and sparks blocking out my view of the uncaring vacuum around me, I realised that flying directly at a planet at 300mph may have been an error. I decided to do the training missions.

Though I hate myself for admitting defeat, they were a great help. I learnt how to dock

at space stations. I learnt how to mine and process ore. I learnt how to fly an intergalactic space ship slightly better than a troupe of overexcited chimpanzees. And, I learnt that there could be space pirates everywhere.

Jumping in the: “Muddy Water Sparrow V2”, I restarted and set off again. I received a space mail telling me to go to Dahan to receive a little bit of starting capital for my commercial empire, but had also picked up a trading mission to transport some bio-waste to the nearby system of Eranin. It may have made me an interstellar dustbin man, but it’s a small moneymaking step to galactic dominance. I planned my route, warmed up my FTL drive, and prepared to enter hyperspace.

It was beautiful.

From the background sounds, to the swirling madness of the hyperspace jump, everything was decidedly Sci-Fi, and distinctly unique. It was hypnotic in its tranquillity, and wondrous in its visionary inspiration. I felt like I could travel like this forever, safe in this little hyperspace tunnel taking me from one star-system to another.

Then, with a jolt, my ship slipped out of hyperspace and I almost crashed into a sun.

A yellow burning monstrosity had apparently come out of nowhere, unbeknownst to any of my onboard systems or computer A.I. Panicking wildly, I pulled my Sidewinder out of its roaring flames and headed to my destination.

Getting use to some of the quirks of interplanetary cruising, I overshot my target several times at faster than light speed, only to make a solar system spanning U-turn and try again. When I finally managed to slow down enough not to wildly miss my destination, I calmly requested landing permission, flew to my designated landing pad, and coolly touched down to make my delivery. My first space trucking escapade was complete, and my commercial success would soon be recognised.

What actually happened was that I forgot to lower my landing gear, bounced my hull off the landing pad and careened into a fellow interplanetary delivery boy. The knock-on effect led to me being declared a pirate, and vaporised by system police ships as I tried to make a run for it.

Time for the: “Muddy Water Sparrow V3”.

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Events

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Celebrating for a change: doing different differently Cavan McLaughlin He Makes Things Happen Tweets: @wmth2017

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n 2009 I came across YouTube videos from two street activists, Danny Shine and Charlie Veitch, later to refer to themselves and their micro-movement as ‘The Love Police’. These two incredibly infectious and wily tricksters recorded a number of instances of them taking to the streets of London wielding placards and megaphones to announce that: “Everything is OK”. In what is more sometimes more widely known as ‘The Change Movement’, protests are common. People are energised by righteous indignation. They see injustice in the world and they make a rallying cry for change. I have been one of those people. Hell, I am still one of those people. But I have seen often how antagonistic such protest and righteous indignation can be. People do not like to be made to face their responsibility in being complicit to an unjust social, political and cultural system. Faced with angry protest many simply entrench themselves further into an oppositional position. Sometimes it is right and proper to be angry about the injustices of this world, but it can’t be right to be angry, all of the time. Besides, anger begets anger, it can, and often is, counterproductive.

So when I first saw these two charming agitators taking such a novel approach as taking to the streets to announce, ‘everything is OK’ I was immediately intrigued. People were faced with something genuinely unexpected and new (and novelty is at the heart of change). These two poke fun at the system, and the mainstream media, by subverting messages of fear, doom and gloom. They are literally ‘being the change they want to see in the world’, by bringing messages of love, hope and contentment, and trying to hug everyone they meet. They have since gone their separate ways (due to ideological differences) and the story does not end as well for them (particularly Charlie) as it began, but their legacy remains. Their videos have millions of hits on YouTube and they still pack a punch nearly a decade later.

A huge takeaway from this for me was that although we need to spot problems in the world that need to be ‘fixed’, as it were, so we are judging those things negatively, we are judging them to be a problem. But we don’t always have to respond negatively.

Sometimes that is appropriate but there are other ways of being a social activists and making a change. At the centre of all of this is our humanity, and we need to show it. We have to inspire others with models of how things could be. And who wants to be angry all the time? I don’t. So maybe we can’t go as far as Charlie and Danny’s purposefully extreme position that everything is OK. Earlier this year my academic colleague, Roy Wallace, and I put on a series of community events under the name “Transition”.

These events were themed around a form of transitioning, or an area in which transition is needed. We aimed to bring innovative, independent and academic research, about methods of realising progressive change, to the wider community, while providing a safe, shared, creative, recreational space for everyone. These events were successful in building a sense of community amongst people that saw injustice and desired change, they provided a valuable forum for discussion amongst that community and helped bridge the barrier between the ivory tower of the academy and the more general public around these important issues.

Roy and I are also launching a new open access online academic journal called Monad: Journal of Transformative Practice. Our mission is to seek out, publish and share—

methods, models and makers of change. We aim to provide a digital publishing platform for practices, and practitioners that actively seek to combat hegemony, challenge normativity and contravene conformity. On Thursday 9th November 2017, we have also arranged a one-day academic symposium to launch the Monad project and journal at the Faculty of Arts, Science and Technology within the University of Northampton, with a selection of invited speakers addressing various forms of transformative practice in relation to progressive change. We are very excited about both the journal and the symposium, but we were also aware that this is once again inside the university and apart from the local community. We decided it was important to continue our attempts to bring these ideas back into the wider community and so we resolved to bring back the “Transition” event format one more time. This time as a celebration. A celebration of individuals, social movements and community groups that are already making change—making a difference—right now.

We have brought together an amazing array of performers, speakers and countercultural heroes who have trailblazed a different way of being successful. One that doesn’t leave others behind. They espouse all these ideas that I have been talking about and people love them for it. For those that align themselves with the wider ‘change movement’, these people are quite simply: our success stories. And that makes a nice change. A message of hope. We will have legendary Ska/Punk band Inner Terrestrials; world-renowned author Alan Moore; comedian, musician and writer Andrew O’Neill and writer-poet Sophie Sparham (pictured); along with academic musings, charities and one would expect, an entirely appropriate measure of good cheer. I hope some of you will join us in this celebration. Maybe everything is not OK yet, but if we don’t occasionally take stock of our successes and celebrate them—it never will be. So come along, “find the others” and help celebrate our differences and our diversity! n Transition is at The Phoenix Bar in Northampton Tickets: MAKERSOFCHANGE.EVENTBRITE.CO.UK

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History

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The many faces of a family business Colin Richardson

Bar raiser nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 01604 550037

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he Richardson Group is currently best known for The Charles Bradlaugh, The Picturedrome, The Church Restaurant, The Old White Hart in Far Cotton, and until recently, Auntie Ruth’s and The Black Bottom Club. It’s therefore interesting to know that this business all started from a small chemist shop on the Kettering Road.

Its life began in 1944 when Peter Richardson (father of Colin and John) bought the lease of the pharmacy at 193, Kettering Road (now a sari shop opposite Derby Road). As a qualified pharmacist, he’d been managing it for 7 years since 1937 for a Mr. Wolf.

This purchase was a bold decision because the war hadn’t yet finished and Peter was away on war service, leaving his wife and two sons living over the shop. The prescriptions were dispensed by an ageing locum, but the general business was managed by his wife, Hartie.

Peter funded the purchase of the lease by a number of informal loans from friends who had total confidence that he would honour the debts.

He returned to the pharmacy after the war and unleashed his energy to make his pharmacy an essential part of the community.

This philosophy of serving the community remains a strong influence with the business three generations later.

Running the pharmacy after the war was a big challenge because the whole country was faced with a period of great austerity. Goods were in short supply and people’s disposable incomes were very small.

Three years after the war had finished, in 1948, the NHS was introduced and the parameters of pharmacy were more clearly defined.

It was at about this time that Peter took a mortgage on a house so that he could get on the property ladder for the first time.

In the following years, he worked with amazing energy to build a strong reputation for his business, in which his wife played a very active part until she gave birth to a dis-

PETER Richardson, father of Colin and John, began the business by buying the lease on a pharmacy on Kettering Road in 1944

abled child in 1950. Their daughter Gill had a form of muscular dystrophy which was later to claim her life on Christmas day in 1972.

She was 22 years old.

In the meantime, Colin obtained his degree in pharmacy from Nottingham University and after a period of working in London, joined the family business with the opening of a second pharmacy on the Wellingborough Road.

It was on the 1st floor of this second pharmacy that John opened his first hair salon.

For the next 35 years, pharmacy and hairdressing were the main themes of the family business.

During this period, some 12 pharmacies and 10 hair salons were opened – with one of the salons being in Spain.

During this pharmacy era, Richardsons Chemists had one of the busiest dispensing businesses in the Midlands and were by far the biggest deliverers of domiciliary oxygen to NHS patients. The core activity however always remained the concentrated focus of looking after the community in which each pharmacy served. Peter Richardson’s influence was always present.

During the hairdressing era, the highest profile salon was in George Row which in the 1970s had specialised in Sassoon geometric cutting and had even had Vidal Sassoon appear at one of their hair shows. These lavish affairs also used Labi Siffre and George Melly as entertainers during these highly popular annual events.

Because of the salon’s reputation, our leading stylists were often invited during the 70s and 80s to European countries by Wella International, to demonstrate cutting techniques in particular.

In 1997, Richardsons effectively made an exit from retail pharmacy.

Time brings on a change, and it was decided that the pharmacies would have a healthier future and the staff a more secure future if they were sold to one of the big pharmacy chains. This big decision came as a shock to many, but was calculated to be the right one by those who had the ultimate responsibility.

As far back as 1981, the Black Bottom Club had been created as an occasional and notfor-profit music venue which was focussed on the passionate promotion of traditional New Orleans revival jazz. Ginger Pig, which was created by Colin and John, was the house-band at this exceptional venue.

From 1981 till 1990, The Black Bottom, even though slightly “underground”, was a great success and promoted some great music in its dedicated genre.

There were promotions of some very impressive national jazz bands, such as the Sammy Rimington Band, as well as famous international bands such as the Preservation Hall Band and the Kid Thomas Band from New Orleans.

In addition, there were quite a few individual musicians from America who were on European tours and who had heard of the fast-growing reputation of the BBC. They were keen to play there.

On the opening of Auntie Ruth’s in 1990, the flavour of the bands promoted widened considerably and included such acts as La Mar and Amy Winehouse.

Auntie’s became an institution during the ‘90s and played host to a phenomenal array of both locals and celebrities – particularly sporting celebrities. This was made possible by the adoption of Auntie’s by prominent Saints players such as Matt Dawson, Paul Grayson, Tim Rodber, Harvey Thorneycroft, Nick Beale, Ian Hunter, Gary Pagel, Freddie Mendez, Ali Hepher, Martin Bayfield et al.

The package of entertainment included Auntie’s as a great bar, the BBC as a live music venue, an impressive roof terrace for

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summer evenings and the Basement which was a DJ-led night club.

As previously stated, “time brings on a change” and the whole of this property has now morphed into the Student Union for the town’s university.

We wish them well and hope that their presence in our town centre has a positive impact.

In 1997, the Charles Bradlaugh was opened on the Mounts. It now specialises in a burger kitchen, a great selection of beers and the promotion of local bands which includes a jazz and blues session every Wednesday night.

The sunny garden and car park has helped the popularity of the pub which has just enjoyed a refit to celebrate its 20th anniversary.

1998 saw the opening of the Picturedrome on the Kettering Road. This property has the historic distinction of being the first purpose-built cinema in Northampton, opened in 1912.

The Picturedrome has also recently enjoyed a refit and still hosts live music, film nights and comedy shows The management take pride in offering a fine selection of food and drink and continue to provide an essential service to the community as well as those who travel to find a discerning offer.

The Thursday afternoon Tea-Dance is a great favourite with the older customers and

was started as a project to give something unusual to the community. After eight years it’s still going strong and has seen quite a number of older people start permanent relationships as well as marriage.

The Church Restaurant is a venue that the company has great pride in.

As a Grade 1 listed building, it has been beautifully restored and provides a wonderful historic setting for high quality value-for-money food.

This venue is also very popular for conducting weddings and providing impressive wedding receptions.

Although deconsecrated as a church, it is authorised to conduct weddings on site.

The Old White Hart just over South Bridge in Far Cotton is a wonderful Victorian building that provides a spacious interior, a private hire room, a great garden and goodsized car park.

It has gained great popularity over its 11-year life and very much looks forward to the opening of the very closely located new university campus.

Peter Richardson, the founder of the company would be proud to see that his grandson Jake Richardson, together with Emma Eyton-Jones, continue to focus on serving the community well, and that their efforts are an effective way of “bringing people together”.

Check them out on www.richardsonsevents.com

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THE Church restaurant is authorised to conduct weddings

JAKE Richardson now oversees the business

My life as a reluctant activist

Karin Johnstone

The Seeer nenequirer@gmail.com

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few months back I went to the cinema to see a film called Freeheld. The biographical film follows the battle of Laurel Hester a Police Officer who was dying, writes Karin Johnstone.

She wanted her pension and death benefits left to her female partner Stacie Andree.

The couple went to court to fight the state of Ocean County. In one scene Hester’s partner looked at the number of people in the court and said ‘wow I can’t believe what we are doing’. This comment was a bolt of realisation for me. I had been through something similar and never given a second thought to it.

This film took me back fifteen years to when I was a resident in South Africa.

Me and my partner Jo were fighting the Government to allow same sex partnerships to be recognised. Home Affairs had already stamped my passport declaring that I was a homosexual. When travelling I had to give my passport to an Australian bank cashier to change money. She said, ‘that was a bit more information than I needed’. It was more than I wanted to give.

This stamp was not what you needed when travelling to other African counties where homosexuality was illegal. The stakes for the outcome of the case were high. If we lost I would have to leave my partner, my job and my home. The stakes for the country were higher. Leading our fight was Zackie Achmat a film-maker and political activist.

The lawyer working on our behalf was the prosecutor in the Oscar Pistorius murder trial, Gerrie Nel. Our trial was held in the High Court of South Africa. On the day of the trial the heat was stifling. The judges were streaming with sweat under their wigs. It was like being in a movie, extremely surreal but hyperreal at the same time. Proceedings were in slow motion. Thanks to Advocate Gerrie Nell making Home Affairs look like a bunch of clowns, we won the case. I was deflated when declaring our victory to the press outside the High Court a journalist instantly said, ‘yes but Home Affairs will be appealing.’

The case went to the Constitutional Court, at which point I knew that we could not lose. South Africa had created one of the strongest constitutions for human rights in the world. 1st December (my birthday) 2005 Minister of Home Affairs v Fourie - it was ruled unconstitutional to discriminate against same sex couples.

Only recently did I realise the enormity and impact of what I had been through.

To celebrate wins like this and to consider discriminatory practices that still exist the Errol Flynn Filmhouse is having a three- day festival LGBTQ+ film festival. It will showcase LGBTQ+ stories from around the world. One film which is being previewed jumped out at me. A South African film called The Wound follows the initiation ceremony of a young man going from boyhood to manhood. In the South African culture, what goes on at this time is a closely guarded secret so it will be amazing to see part of this story. Young men who you may know in the community are clothed in a hoodie and jeans, then disappear for a short time. When you see them again they return in a suit, shirt and tie often adorning a trilby. They are men. I’ve just heard that an ex student of mine was the Producer on this film and has won a BFI award for best first feature film.

I’d have been happy with a positive role model like Norman in the animated feature film Paranorman growing up. Norman who happens to be gay has to battle zombies. If you do want to go and enjoy some of this film festival there are special deals on the tickets. Hopefully see you there – where I don’t have any more life changing realisations.

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Columnists

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That time a music legend joined the band Uncle Eric Whitehouse Bluesman nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 01604 550037

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’ve spent my entire adult life messing with music - live music - and that takes you to some strange and wondrous places, both mentally and physically. For me, it’s the joy of performance and meeting of minds and skills that produces a real fusion of talents that transcends the sum of the parts and, sometimes, sires a new greater whole beyond. I love bands.

I love the camaraderie, the rivalry, the egocentricity, the comradeship, the “us against the world” mentality of a travelling band. I love the gigs ( first there, last to leave), the van (broken down?), the dodgy managements, crazy people, mad cap japes, and, oh yes, the boring bits (usually waiting).

Just occasionally, something happens that is way beyond the everyday and bordering on the bizarre.

Thirty years ago, for a short time, I was privileged to know someone who was a musical hero to me, to have this guy play in my band as a rank-and-file member, to hear at first hand his modest stories of his part in musical history, and to realise his story was social as well as musical history. It was a bit like meeting The Beatles. His name was Wayne Jackson ( WHO?.... go on, GOOGLE IT!).

Wayne was the trumpet player with Otis Redding and all the 1960’s Soul Stars, a Stax session man, leader of the Markeys and Memphis Horns, Rufus Thomas, Aretha Franklin, ‘Dusty in Memphis’, James Taylor (Who he really hated), Robert Cray, he’s on U2’s ‘Angel of Harlem’ and, Peter Gabriel’s’ ‘Sledgehammer’, Oh, and a small matter of twenty eight tunes recorded with Elvis for his comeback in ‘68. MY GOD!!! THIS MAN KNEW ELVIS!!! He was also Jerry Lee Lewis’s cousin!

It happened like this. In the mid 80’s the Black Lion (now the Wig & Pen) was the hub of the local music scene and my band, The Backstairs Creepers, played a gig/jam night every Thursday. The band were all young men in their 20’s so I called them all

‘brother’, to emphasise the co-operative nature of the venture, but they were twenty years younger than me and so responded by christening me ‘Uncle’.

There was a regular crowd of hippies, punks, rockabillies and odd people in funny clothes who came to see us and one of them, an American girl called Kynde (Cindy!) asked Steve New, our bass player a favour. “My uncle’s coming over from The States next week, he’s a trumpet player and he’d like to play with your band”, she said. Steve said “OK”.

The next Thursday, on my way to the gig, I went to pick up Stan Bowles, our keyboardist, and when I got to his flat he was playing a tape of the ‘67 Stax/Volt Tour.

Although the stock in trade of our band was down home boogie, we also covered jump jive and even soul.

I looked at the personnel on the record and there he was - Wayne Jackson - my latest ‘soul brother’! Then it got surreal. At The Lion, we launched into our first number and I saw Cindy pushing through the crowd with a guy in a leather jacket, carrying a trumpet

in a sling. “Can I play?”, he asked in a southern drawl. “Sure” said I. “What key?” said he.

“A” said I .......”Cool, man...sooo cool!!!”

We got to the last number and I called ‘Can’t Turn You Lose’. The sax player asked Wayne if he knew the riff - “ I wrote it”, says Wayne. At the end of the gig, I introduced the band...”And from Memphis, Tennessee, on Trumpet, Wayne Jackson”.

The crowd roared their approval, although I realised no one knew that they were in the company of a rock’n’roll legend. I may have kissed his feet!

Afterwards we got to talk and have a pint and Wayne said he would like to play with us while he was in England doing some recording (it turned out to be ‘Sledgehammer’) and some radio shows. I eventually gave in and said “yes”.

He was staying at Cindy’s flat in Jimmy’s End, and I remember going round one night to pick hjm up for a gig, being invited in, and when he opened the wardrobe, seeing a row of immaculate mohair suits, just like Otis and the Stax Band wore! Also, one night

The sax player asked Wayne if he knew the riff “I wrote it” says Wayne

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we had a gig in St Albans and he flew back from a radio show in Paris, got a taxi from Heathrow, and was on stage on time for us in the pub. One day, Steve New went to see him recording in Peter Grbriel’s studio, outside Bath, and Wayne excused himself from the company (which included Kate Bush) “because Steve and I have a gig with our band tonight” (Uncle Eric’s Backstairs Creepers, Black Lion, Northampton).

This lasted about five weeks and Wayne did every gig and also played round town with Fred Chase and Rockin’ Roger Sayer. It was at this time that the social significance of who this man was began to dawn on me.

Like me, he treated all band mates as equals, and consequently all men as equals, regardless of ethnic origin. Steve Cropper said when you entered Stax Records you left your colour at the door. I frivolously inducted him as a ‘brother’, only to find out that he really was!

Of course, it couldn’t last, and Wayne announced he was going home next week.

Pete Bowles? took some pictures of us at the King Billy, and Wayne’s last gig was a Black Lion Thursday. At the end, we shook hands and agreed to have a last drink in the middle room. Wayne drank draught Guiness with vodka chasers (he liked a drink!) and he told me his story.

How his high school band, ‘The Royal Spades’, morphed into the ‘Markeys’ and then into the ‘Stax Band’. Playing the Chitlin’ Circuit in a segregated south where, not only could you get barred for having black musicians in the band, but also for having white men in black venues; about Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton, and about how he moved to Nashville in the 70’s for the studio work when the Memphis scene petered out.

He told me about Elvis and how he and Booker T. and Co. made the great comeback sessions and ‘In the Ghetto’, before being sidelined for Californian musicians. He gave me his address and phone number and said “Come and see me sometime”.

I’ve never been too good at forward planning and I have never been sycophant, but for the first time since I was six, I asked for his autograph on a old piece of card which happened to be at hand. He wrote: “Eric you keep right on rockin’ I love you - Wayne Jackson”. We said our goodbyes as the sun came up and I never saw him again.

Wayne Jackson died last year, but I am sure his memory must live on. His autograph hangs on the wall in my flat and sometimes, when it’s cold and dark or when I’m feeling low, I look at it and tell myself “Brother Wayne says I gotta keep right on rockin’...........That’s what I’m gonna do.

For this is the word!!

NQ “Uncle” Eric Whitehouse 13.10.17 Oh Yez!!!!

Culture

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You can still take art to next level T

here’s an old saying that goes “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” and it’s a saying that seems particularly apposite in the case of the Foundation Diploma in Art and Design, a course that has run successfully for several decades at the University of Northampton, writes Julie Teckman.

Even before it was a University there has been a tradition in the county for young art students, from almost every secondary school, to sign up for the year-long Foundation Diploma at St Georges Avenue to develop creative skills and choose a specialist medium to take forward to a degree at the University or other higher education institution. So there may be some consternation for those young people currently looking to apply to the University for the Foundation Diploma, only to find it isn’t there anymore.

Well, it does still exist, just not at the University any longer as the course has transferred in its entirety to neighbouring establishment, Northampton College, where it will run pretty much unchanged. Students will continue to progress to the University to complete specialist degrees and the strong relationship between the two education institutions will ensure that new students on

the Foundation Diploma in Art and Design will enjoy the same quality of provision and teaching as before.

The College has shown its commitment to the Foundation Diploma by creating a brand new studio and exhibition space in its state-of-the art Booth Lane Campus just for the Art and Design students who will also have access to ceramics, print, photographic and fine art studios where they will be able to experiment with a wide range of processes and techniques, supervised by highly experienced teaching staff from a variety of disciplines.

If you’re completing level three Art qualifications this year and hope to continue on to the Foundation Diploma in Art and Design in September 2018, contact Northampton College on 01604 734567 or through the website www.northamptoncollege.ac.uk and you will be invited in to look around and talk to the staff.

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Columnists

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There is nothing funny about feeling like a half-decent human being Chris Harris

Diary of a Stand Up nenequirer@gmail.com 01604 550035

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he past month has been a bit of a dry patch in the comedy element of my life, with only one gig, albeit one for a good cause. As this is “Diary of a Stand-Up”, that one gig really is the focus of the next fivehundred-ish words.

I don’t organise many gigs, as I don’t really have the patience or time to deal with people. However, with a dissertation deadline looming, and my uncanny knack for procrastination, I had to find a legitimate excuse not to be burying my head in mounds of literary theory.

I hunted around for excuses and, other than inventing the holiday month of Christember, I figured that charity work was my best option; it’s good for me, and its good for the community in general.

On a side-note, however, charity work is not always good for me. Covering the Breakfast Show on Nlive Radio one Monday, I realised I would be on air for six hours straight, given my own show Undiscovered Northampton would air straight after. Informing the station manager, Shelly Stevenson, she requested that I turn the six hour stint into a six hour (publicity/charity) stunt; I was

to run a half-marathon in the studio, while researching and presenting a radio show, as well as dealing with a technical fault with the news system.

This was to raise money for Nlive’s charity of September, Cynthia Spencer Hospice, and quite possibly as Shelly’s revenge for me taking the previous Wednesday off. Now, I haven’t run since secondary school. At all.

And I’m incredibly unfit – a fact I was unaware of before this.

After a morning of running on the spot in the studio, with the occasional wonder around the office for a change of scenery, I did it, and collapsed into a heap. Checked the justgiving page: £40 from two donations. Totally worth the sweat and leg cramps then...

That aside, I decided that the charity I would raise money for with a comedy night would be Q Space Northampton, an LGBT+ youth group that meets every Thursday evening. Knowing this, I used all my cunning – spoiler: not much cunning – to get an event booked on September twenty-third.

Why was this cunning, I don’t hear you ask?

Because that date was bi-visibility day, and it made sense.

Now, as I mentioned before, talking to and organising people is not my strong suit.

Luckily, I have friends who do both music and poetry nonsense, so the night was changed from a comedy night to an event which was imaginatively titled “Charity Comedy, Music and Poetry at The Black

Prince”. Soon, I had the line-up filled with little incident.

Or so I thought. *Cue dramatic music, possible thunder sounds* Three acts dropped out on the day of the event. All with good excuses, but it left me in a mad-dash to replace them. In the end, I replaced two out of three, which was fine.

The night itself went great, aside from an angry vaguely stabby man in the audience and someone I could only describe as a Scottish Joey Essex wanting to constantly chat. Nice bloke though, just very drunk.

Money was raised in a way I’d seen done

by Pete Prodge at a charity night called Kanned Komedy. The audience votes for the best act of the night by putting money in bowls corresponding to the acts, the most money in an act’s bowl means that they win that night. I stole that idea, and we raised just over £70 for Q Space. The winning act was acoustic musician Cameron Grace, raising just under £20 himself.

Since then, nothing has happened. I’m currently organising another Charity Comedy, Music and Poetry at The Black Prince night for October twenty-first. Looking forward to that, should be great, raising money for Q Space once again, as it is the start of asexual awareness week and end of hate crime awareness week.

All in all, not much funny has happened, but I feel like a half-decent human.

Wish I’d paid attention to mum and dad Helen Blaby Broadcaster

Twitter: @blabers

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really wish I’d paid more attention to things that Mum and Dad told me about their past, and the history of our home town.

Recently I was thinking about places that Dad had worked. I have a vivid memory of going to a shoe factory with him that made ballet shoes. No great surprise that we went to shoe factories here in Northamptonshire, but extensive internet research….well, putting “ballet shoes 1970s Northamptonshire” hadn’t come up with where we’d actually been.

I seemed to remember that this place had made shoes for some rather famous people, and that there was a shute in the reception area that we would shout up to get a man

to come down to see us. Please bear in mind that this was probably more than 30 years ago, so my memory isn’t that great! I talked about it on the air and a few people called to say they thought they knew the place I was talking about, but couldn’t remember exactly where it was. Now, I think it was called Fried’s – and I know that Fried’s are actually a London company, who have been making ballet shoes for the rich and famous for a long time. Does anyone remember a branch here in Northamptonshire? Someone has told me that they think it might have been somewhere over Wellingborough way.

Dad had a series of jobs when I was a little girl, and I seem to remember he also worked at a place called “Rushden’s” driving the minibus to pick up the ladies who worked there. Lots of lovely older ladies who spoiled me rotten (I was quite an angelic child, I have no idea what happened!) Again, extensive internet research hasn’t been

particularly helpful. I have no idea where this place was, or what it does…just that it had a minibus and a canteen with vending machines that I think Mum was in charge of cleaning!

The “wish I’d asked” has come to a head though after I find myself with a box full of photographs of people that I might be related to, but have no idea who they are.

Some of them have names written on them, and I’m sure Mum told me who they were at the time, but now I don’t know if they’re uncles, cousins…..you know what I mean.

I did recently find some new relatives, when I said to a lady at the bowls club that if she was related to the Harpole Frosts then she and I must be family. Turns out we are second cousins.

So, I might just start smiling at everyone I pass in the street, just in case it turns out we’re related!

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Spooktacular costumes are a tricky business Adam Alexander Designer

nenequirer@gmail.com @thenenequirer 01604 550037

“W

hy do pumpkins have silly smiles on their faces?”

This is met with blank expressions from the kids and no answer.

So not wishing to waste the perfectly timed silence, I reply with: “You’d have a silly smile too if you just had all your brains scooped out!”

Oddly enough my kids treat this comedy gold with the same disdain I had given my own uncles’ or father’s jokes. Alas enough of my tragic decent into, it’s ok to wear slippers to the shop and romancing about old spice and penny sweets, but to focus on the coming holidays...

Although the true emphasis on Halloween has perhaps waned since the invasion and influence of our American friends, it still amazes me how every year there appears to be one less parent who has managed to maintain the tradition of steering clear of the current trends.

In years past we have always been more likely to lock the door, draw the curtains and switch off the lights, rather than dishing out the treats. This wasn’t in fear of tricksters or pranks but an element of early humbug and what a load of stuff and nonsense.

However since the appearance of our own little ankle biters, we have to admit our own

slip into the fray.

However we can hold our heads up with complete dignity in the knowledge of at least managing to stick to traditional themes.

We’ve prepared witches, ghosts and quite an impressive skeleton. Our last encounter saw the production of our eldest as a Day of the Dead Mexican lady.

As the years have moved on we have seen at our door countless Power Rangers, Six Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, oddly enough all the Disney Princesses (including yes Jasmine), one Hobbit, enough Harry potters to put He Who Shouldn’t Be Named away for good and a Very Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Having brainwashed our children to go ‘trad’ they are now older so determining their own look, we turn our focus to how to receive these door dwellers.

I have thought that flipping the whole ‘trick or treat’ thing around. Call their bluff and shout trick by chucking a bucket of plastic spiders out the open door or perhaps just standing there with the garden hose poised ready. However the ever steady voice of reason from my better half steps in and places the kybosh on this flight of fancy.

So we wait for the hoards from the DC and Marvel worlds and not forgetting the odd herd of My Little Ponies to come knocking at Alexander towers. This has become our new Halloween tradition, handing out little treats and pranks which might be one of my jokes (if they are lucky enough), to the latest from Hollywood.

I’m confident we will not be seeing any Weinsteins or Trumps, but we can live in hope, we’ll be ready.

44

Oct/Nov

Sport

NQ

Day5 Testimonial releases limited edition bobble hat

H

e’s a beacon on the pitch thanks to his iconic headwear but for the cold winter nights ahead, Saints lock Christian Day will be switching his red scrum cap for something a little more snuggly - a warm, woollen, red bobble hat, writes Anna Murby.

The titfer, which is the latest fundraiser in the Franklin’s Gardens stalwart’s testimonial year, has been produced in collaboration with Christian’s official testimonial photographer – redhatphoto.com – whose pictures are sold in aid of his two chosen charities, Niamh’s Next Step and The Leon Barwell Foundation.

And Daysy, as Christian is affectionately known, is confident that his many supporters will generously dip into their pockets to show their support in this most colourful of ways, not least because his two biggest fans have already given them their thumbs up; “When the hats arrived, my daughters Emily and Anna couldn’t resist giving them a test run” explained proud Dad Christian, “and they absolutely loved them!”

“So I really hope that they prove to be fun way of fundraising for these two great causes and of course, with the big day round

the corner, I’m sure they’ll make for a great stocking filler alternative to a boring box of chocolates!” he enthused.

Christian’s limited edition bobble hat is now on sale priced at £15 via his fundraising website – www.dayt5testimonial.com - alongside tickets for the Carol Concert taking place at Franklin’s Gardens on Tuesday 19th December.

Tickets for the event, with festive favourites from the Northampton Male Voice Choir and piano maestro Lincoln Noel as well as communal carols and some surprise special

guests, are £10 for adults, £5 for under-16s and free for those under twelve.

Meanwhile the 2018 testimonial calendar, featuring monthly images of Daysy and his fellow players, will be on sale shortly.

For more details on the testimonial events to come or to show your support for Christian through a range of sponsorship opportunities, please visit www.day5testimonial.com You can also follow the special year on twitter at @Day5Testimonial and on Facebook at facebook.com/Day5Testimonialyear

NQ

Cricket

Oct/Nov

45

Where would we be now without those penalties?

Alex Stockton Cricket writer

D

nenequirer@gmail.com @alexjstockton 01604 550037

avid Ripley, the Northants head coach, has bemoaned their picking up penalty points this season. He’s right to, in many ways, as it could be argued that they’ve cost his side a place among the country’s elite next year. Penalty points aside, the Steelbacks would have finished in second place to Worcestershire, sealing their promotion to county cricket’s first tier.

Northants’ game at Trent Bridge, against the side who would eventually pip them to the post, saw them penalised for a slow over-rate. Those five points aside, the Steelbacks would have equalled Nottinghamshire’s point tally for the season, and been promoted as a result of their superior number of victories. It is difficult, therefore, to look past this frustration when assessing the season as a whole. As is so often the case in sport, the smallest of things made all the difference.

Although it’s easy (and sometimes equally therapeutic) to moan as a sports fan, there are a whole host of reasons for Ripley’s men to be extremely proud of the way they’ve performed this year. Despite not making it to T20 Finals Day, there has been a marked improvement in the red ball side of the game. Consistent displays from a number of seasoned campaigners ensured that the county asserted themselves as one of the division’s best teams, and had it not been for a slow over-rate at Trent Bridge, that would have been reflected in the league position.

Thankfully, Northants aren’t a side who change that much year in, year out. Three years ago, that might have seemed like somewhat of a curse. Now, however, it’s a positive; it means that almost the same group of players will likely take to the field next season, and they’re used to winning.

As is the case with the T20 side, the eleven players who take to the field on any given day know how to get results. Ben Duckett won’t come out and block his first 30 balls, and Azarullah won’t ask the captain if he can stand at short extra cover. To put that

simply, people understand their roles, and they fulfil them. I’d expect another pre-season of steady progress, and another season next summer of reliable, hard-working performances.

A quick word to the side’s white ball performances is, I feel, also necessary. Although Alex Wakely’s side fell a little short in the 50 over competition this season, Northants’ T20 campaign was hardly a disastrous one. Many felt that the result at Trent Bridge (losing on Duckworth-Lewis after Alex Hales had to go at a mere 10 an over inside the powerplay) was unfair. I agreed. I also believe that the rained-off tie at home to Yorkshire did us no favours, while the reverse fixture against the same side just happened to represent one of our worst days as a team. Those performances are arguably inevitable, and it was a season of fine margins in the game’s shortest

form. We’ll be up there competing again when the time comes next season, of that I have no doubt. The smaller the game, the smaller the margins should be, and that is often the case with T20 cricket.

At the start of the season, I wrote about how Northants should look to fight like underdogs. I wrote that they could expect to perform in the T20 competition again, and I was almost right. What I did not expect however, was such a consistent display in the County Championship. Perhaps next year the “underdog” tag might fall to someone else; teams know what they’re getting when they come to Wantage Road these days, and few would be surprised if we were to see another push for promotion. While the TV cameras might stay away for the evenings of T20, I’d expect the side to be given a little more credibility across the board.

46

Oct/Nov

Cobblers

NQ

Five things Jimmy must do to stop the rot Tom Reed Cobblers Correspondent nenequirer@gmail.com @tomreedwriting 01604 550037

S

adly we start this column with Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink going through a difficult early period as Cobblers boss. As of mid-October, Town sit second bottom of League 1 racking up a single draw and 5 defeats in the period.

It’s clear many Cobblers fans have got manager sacking fatigue so in lieu of dispensing with yet another gaffer what what can the Dutchman do to stop the rot?

1

Sign a striker. It seems obvious given Town’s goal shy statistics but the forward problem hasn’t been solved by successive managers. Alex Revell and Marc Richards were both fine forwards in their day but League 1 appears a step too far at a combined aged of 69. Shipping both of them out might be easier said then done but doing so would release a healthy chunk on the budget. Chris Long appeared a good fit up front but the talented Burnely loanee was played wide by Hasselbaink before disappearing injured. A technical, mobile striker must be top of the shopping list come January. It might well save Town from relegation.

2

Recall Leon Lobjoit and Joe Iaciofano. The two players with the most difficult names to pronounce in the Cobblers squad are also the most difficult to prevent from scoring.

On loan to Corby Town and Chesham United respectively the forward duo have been on lethal streak of goals and assists. Ok, it is at a lower level but the argument that they need ‘roughing up’ in mens’ football only goes so far. A goalscoring instinct is priceless and until we see the pair at Sixfields with a strong support behind them we’ll never know how much better pitches and better referees will help their progression. In any case, with Town goalless for a longer period than wars have been settled in there is really no argument not to.

3

Keep a settled side: Hasselbaink clearly puts a lot of work into adapting his team

in relation to the tactics of his opponents.

This can prove a tactical masterstroke or cause problems like as was the case when Alex Revell was shifted to the right flank despite his agility limitations. When the Cobblers have a fully fit squad it is the time to tinker with tactics but until then it may prove more fruitful to put round pegs in round holes.

4

Go wide: It’s no secret that Justin Edinburgh’s favoured wing back system has left Town short of chalk on your boots wingers and attacking midfielders to provide width and service to the forward players.

Hasselbaink experimented with using left-back George Smith as a winger to some success and this may be worth repeating.

Otherwise JFH will need to raid the contacts

book of ace scout and Cobblers Associate Director Graham Carr for a Ricky Holmes type to take the fight to the opposition and carry the ball.

5

Keep the faith: This is something the management staff, players and staff need to stick together on. Hasselbaink was never going to cure the ills of previous managers overnight and this season may well prove a write off altogether. Cobblers fans know through experience that you have to take the rough with the smooth so it might be a period of biting our lips at defeats before the sweet taste of victory comes around.

The Cobblers’ injury record is appalling in fairness to Hasselbaink and this is something that will have to be looked at too in terms of prevention.

NQ

Sport

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