AROUND THE SOCIETIES

round of the skittles knock out is eagerly anticipated and for those less keen to be ‘up and about’ the cinema group is off to see A Man Called Ove, of particular interest to those of us who were part of our first book group who unanimously loved the book. We are collecting for the local foodbank and spent some time discussing the upcoming resolutions from National WI. Members are encouraged to read the information about each prospective campaign on the MyWi website and let Veronica have their vote.

The speaker this month was Ian talking about SS Great Britain. It was an enthusiastic and fascinating talk which has encouraged us to plan a trip for later in the year. Not only did Ian tell us how Brunel’s pioneering approach enabled the ship to be longer and faster than any of its time, but he also regaled us with fascinating and horrifying tales.

As a liner the cargo included: 38 pigs; 133 sheep; 420 chickens; 30 turkeys; and 300 ducks (a total somewhat depleted by the time the ship arrived at its destination courtesy of the skills of the ship’s butcher during the voyage). We were horrified to hear about a passenger in first-class being woken by a rat nibbling on her toenails.

Ian told us how Covid shutdowns have provided an opportunity for the visitor experience to be enhanced – now visitors can climb the rigging for real and immerse themselves in new multisensory experiences, both on the ship and at the new Being Brunel experience next door. We are certainly looking forward to visiting.

Our next meeting will be on February 7.

Anne Wilson

Wells Civic Society

IS there anything more photogenic than a pure white swan gliding effortlessly across water which it scarcely disturbs, followed by its reflection in the clear, clean mirror of The Bishop’s Palace moat? Well, how about a pair of swans and all their cygnets in a row one behind the other making their way on foot across the Market Place, for all the world as if heading to The Crown for a drink?

These were just two of a remarkable miscellany of photos and video clips shown to the January audience of the Wells Civic Society by Moira Anderson, an administrator at the Palace, and one with special responsibility for the pair of swans, Grace and Gabriel, who live on the moat and in its environs. She is known as The Swan Whisperer.

It was in the late 1800s that swans were first taught to ring the famous bell for food, probably by a bishop’s daughter. This has become a considerable tourist attraction, but these are wild creatures, not tamed and trained to perform to order. This means that sometimes visitors can be very disappointed, having come many miles principally to see the bell ringing.

Indeed, the swans are independent. Evidence of this has been seen by Susan Calman, Fiona Bruce, Terry Wogan and Pam Ayres as they have presented TV shows from Wells and wanted to feature the swans. To get the shots of a few seconds that camera crews wanted may have taken 90 minutes in reality to persuade the swans to be where they were wanted, doing what was wanted. But at least Pam Ayres did jot down one of her poems about them and presented it to Moira.

Grace and Gabriel were brought to the moat in 2019 from a swan rescue centre. Gabriel, the cob, took only five days to learn to ring the bell, but Grace, the pen, does not ring it. Whenever Gabriel rings, food will be provided. And if Moira pulls the rope and rings the bell, they will come and, of course, receive food.

They are mute swans, although this is not literally the case, and they have mated every year. They are fiercely territorial in the protection of their young. But the time does come for the cygnets to fly the nest. Currently, only one has done so from last year’s brood, but the others are more and more being encouraged rather forcibly to depart by the parents. Moira would like to ring the departing cygnets so they could be tracked, but this is a very difficult job.

She does have visits from the swans into her office: some colleagues have ambivalent views about this. They do bring her their cygnets to show them off, and they allow her to sit with them. And they come when she calls them.

At the beginning g of the evening, Chris Winter, the society’s chair, had said that we all know of the swans, but we mostly actually know little about them. Moira had, in her lively and smiling way, certainly gone a long way to rectifying that situation, including dispelling the myth that a swan’s wing could break an arm, but adding the important caveat that it would certainly hurt, though. But there was more to the evening than that. Where had her title Swan Whisperer come from? It was a nickname given to her soon after she took up her post in the palace 12 years ago, but where had it really come from? Surely, it must have derived from the 1998 film, The Horse Whisperer, in which Robert Redford played the title role of a talented horse trainer with a remarkable gift for understanding horses. And this audience had witnessed in Moira someone who has achieved that rather wonderful thing of striking up a real and reciprocal relationship with wild creatures. The next meeting of the society is of a different hue. It is the launch by the Alliance of Historic Cathedral Cities and Towns of the results and recommendations, researched across 12 locations, with Wells being the pilot study, of their ‘Balancing Heritage and Growth’. It will deal with sympathetic ways to add to the housing stock in sensitive areas and will hope to educate and inform interested parties, to whom invitations have been sent. This is a meeting highly relevant to a civic society and all are welcome, starting at 7pm on Wednesday, February 8, in the lecture room of the Wells museum on Cathedral Green, with some refreshments available beforehand. For further details of this and any society matters, please see wellscivicsociety.org.uk or contact chair@wellscivicsociety. org.uk and Chris Winter will be pleased to respond.

Richard Hanks

Wells Floral Art Club

ON Tuesday, January 10, a very wet and windy afternoon, club members old and new as well as visitors met for our first meeting of 2023.

New chairman, Sylvia Ingham welcomed everyone before introducing our demonstrator Nick Heal. His demonstration was entitled Spring Inspirations.

n AROUND THE SOCIETIES

Nick’s first arrangement was a long, low design in white and pale caramel placed in a traditional white 1950s-style bowl with wire supports, thus reducing the need for floral foam. This was followed by a hand-tied arrangement of red parrot tulips. Blue irises were the central flowers in a long trough enhanced by yellow santini chrysanthemums and purple spray veronica.

Nick’s next design sat in a basket he had made of dog wood. Into this were arranged kangaroo paw, pincushion proteas and strelitzia all in complementing shades of orange. To complete his demonstration, Nick used an old garden chair as his container and using another of his skills, that of leaf weaving, he explained how he plaits the ferns before using them as part of his arrangement of bells of Ireland, green chrysanthemums, a cymbidium orchid and cream proteas. The result was a display to lighten the spirits on such a dark day.

Jenny Jones gave the vote of thanks and teas were served by Pat Ardron and Non Hobson.

Our February meeting will be on Tuesday, February 14, when we will have a speaker, Sarah Chouglay, whose talk will be Wonderful Weddings. It will take place at 2.15pm in St Thomas’ Church Hall, Wells, BA5 2UZ.

Everyone is welcome either as a new member or a visitor.

Annual subscription is £35 or visitors £5 each meeting.

Jenny Jones

Wells Railway Fraternity

THE January meeting of the Wells Railway Fraternity featured two talks each given by members of the Fraternity. Malcolm Dowson’s presentation was entitled Wanderin’ in Wisconsin and David Mace as a follow up to his previous talk on The Horses That Made the Railway gave part two, Mechanical Horses.

Malcolm started by explaining that his interest in American railways was ignited in boyhood by the Triang model railway catalogue of the 1960s which featured several American styled, now classic, locos and wagons, and that now his interest is in the old railway rather than the modern day. An opportunity to make a family visit to Wisconsin allowed him to explore and research the railways of Wisconsin and their old vehicles particularly Cabooses, what in Britain are called Brake Vans. After explaining about the streamlined era of the 1930s and the subsequent demise of the long-distance passenger railway, the talk moved on to the National Railroad Museum at Green Bay where the stars of the show included a Shay Logging Locomotive, a ‘Big Boy Mallet’, one of the largest steam locos in the world, and a Streamlined GG1 electric locomotive.

David explained the development of the Mechanical Horse, a small three-wheeled road tractor, from the 1930s through to their demise in the late 1960s. These vehicles were the precursor to the large articulated lorries of today. They were designed to reduce the costs of horse-drawn delivery cartage while retaining the ability to operate with a small turning circle in small yards, and on narrow roads with poor surfaces. The early models produced by Karrier were largely supplanted by the Scammel Scarab which became a very familiar sight in the urban environment. Early designs fitted on to the existing horse-drawn trailers which following the development of the Scammell coupling were later supplanted by more modern ones.

Wells Railway Fraternity meets on the second Tuesday of the month in Wells Town Hall at 7.30pm when talks covering a wide variety of railway subjects are given. New members and guests are always welcome.

February’s meeting will be a presentation given by Jimmy James on the Bodmin and Wenford Railway.

For further information about Wells Railway Fraternity see the website Railwells.com

Wells U3a

WELLS u3a had a great start to 2023 with the first of the monthly talks, which is open to all members and held in the Museum, entitled Feting the Finns, by Christopher Massy-

Beresford. It was about Finland’s geography, history and its exceptionally individualistic language and culture. During the 20th century it emerged on the world stage, led by a handful of remarkable artistic and political personalities. Christopher’s talk highlighted the outstanding achievements of this remote country, with its vast terrain, terrible winters, and relatively small population – along with some of its loveable oddities.

The following week members of the Local History group also enjoyed a talk at the museum on Church Bells and the English Style of Change Ringing given by Bernard North. Bernard is a life-long bell ringer and campanologist. He started to learn at about the age of ten at St Peter’s Parish Church in Brighton, Sussex, where his father was also a ringer. Currently, he is Ringing Master at St Mary the Virgin, Yatton, and also one of the Bells Advisors for the Bath & Wells Diocesan Association of Change Ringers. Over the years, he has taught many people to ring and he is also a mentor of the Association of Ringing Teachers.

Church bells have been around for centuries, and their sound is familiar to us as a call to worship, usually, or sometimes to herald important events. The English style of change ringing evolved in the 17th century in post-Reformation England when church bells were starting to be put back into towers following the restrictions of the Cromwell era. In this talk members took a look at how bells are made and how they are hung in towers for what we call full circle ringing. They then took a look at change ringing and the music of the bells using some simple examples right up to how bell ringing is organised today. So, like all good lesson plans, this talk contained a bit of history, some science and technology, some very elementary maths and a touch of geography, wrapped up in a bit of music.

In the second week in January, the Wine group saw in the new year with a talk and tasting with Yapp Brothers, from Mere, Wiltshire, who specialise in French wines. On completely another subject the Chemistry group started the new year with a talk on Methane, Friend or

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