Stow Maries WWI aerodrome saved by £1.5m grant

An aerodrome thought to be the last intact World War I airfield in Europe is to be restored thanks to a campaign by volunteers and a £1.5m grant.

Stow Maries in Essex, built in 1916, was a base for the new 37 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps, who helped defend London from German bombing raids.

It closed in 1919 and remained overgrown until 2009 when it was rediscovered by a group of enthusiasts.

Now the National Heritage Memorial Fund grant means its future is secured.

Of the 250 aerodromes built during World War I, Stow Maries is the only one to have remained in near-perfect condition of the 10 that still exist.

Continue reading the main story

• Stow Maries was home to 37 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps, led by 19-year-old Captain Claude Ridley
• The last Zeppelin shot down during the war was by the 37th Squadron in June 1917
• The first mid-air collision of the war was recorded at Stow Maries in 1917
• In 1918, it was the first British airfield to accept US squadrons

• Watch footage of the SE5A - the iconic aircraft of World War I

It was built as a direct response to increased attacks by German Zeppelin airships and later Gotha fixed-wing bombers on British mainland.

There are more than 24 original Grade II listed Royal Flying Corps operation buildings remaining, including the original officers' mess, other ranks' mess, blacksmith's, ambulance station and morgue.

The site had been in danger of being sold for redevelopment.

The Stow Maries Great War Aerodrome Trust will now restore the airfield to its wartime condition and open a museum commemorating the men who flew here.

It will also host workshops, teaching the old skills of aircraft construction.

Russell Savory, from the Friends of Stow Maries Aerodrome, said: "There's much spoken about the land warfare and how terrible that was... but there's not so much known about the aviators who were writing the books on how to fly for when WWII came along.

"Such a sacrifice was paid by those guys and I think it's my duty with this little aerodrome to keep that recorded."

Mr Savory's ambition is for the museum to be one that "smells and works and [is] not just a display."

The chairman of the trust, Jeremy Lucas, said he hoped the next five years would see "a sustained commemoration" of "extraordinary human exploits and stories".

He said: "By opening up this site, the public and particularly young people will gain a greater understanding of how as a nation we overcame it."

The site was bought from a private vendor with backing from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, Essex County Council, Maldon District Council and English Heritage.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-24526314

WW1 beyond the mud and trenches: BBC’s plans for the centenary of World War One

BBC chief says the First World War programmes lined up for 2014 will consider both the wider conflict and its impact on Britain

It would be “utterly inappropriate” if the BBC’s treatment of the centenary of the First World War adopted a tone of “celebration”, according to the senior executive in charge of the corporation’s four years of coverage.

Adrian Van Klaveren told The Independent that he was equally determined that the BBC’s output would not be trapped in the sombre mood of the annual Remembrance Day service but would explore the impact of the conflict on Britain’s economy, its class system and its place in the world.

He said the BBC had a duty to look beyond the popular idea that the Great War was a story of “mud and trenches” and to impress on British audiences the pain suffered by Australia and New Zealand over the Gallipoli campaign of 1915. Unveiling details of the BBC’s coverage, the former controller of Radio 5 Live revealed that the BBC would be screening My Great War, a version of the classic 1964 television series The Great War, which was originally voiced by Michael Redgrave. “There is a lot of material in that series that wasn’t used; interviews that never saw the light of day,” Mr Van Klaveren said. “We are re-exploring that and making a programme specifically around that archive.”

The BBC’s coverage will begin early next year with a four-part BBC 1 series presented by Jeremy Paxman. On 28 June, the BBC will broadcast live from Sarajevo, where the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand – which prompted the outbreak of war – is being marked by events including a concert performed by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. The moment will be examined in a real-time documentary on Radio 2 hosted by Jeremy Vine.

Day by Day, a Radio 4 documentary series presented by the historian Margaret MacMillan, will then trace the 37 days between the Sarajevo attack and Britain’s declaration of war on 4 August. The same period will also be covered in a three-part BBC 2 drama called 37 Days.

Mr Van Klaveren compared his role to that of a “conductor” and said he was determined that “the different perspectives” of the war were understood. “There is a danger that the WW1 is seen purely in terms of the Western Front, in terms of mud and trenches and barbed wire and through the perspective of what the poets wrote,” he said. “There is much more than that.”

The BBC’s output will include coverage of the Easter Rising in Ireland in 1916 and the participation in the war of a million troops from India. No programmes have been commissioned from German sources, although Mr Van Klaveren said German perspectives would be represented in shows such as The Passing Bells, a five-part drama series from Tony Jordan which tells the stories of two young soldiers from opposing sides.

The other key centenary anniversaries that are likely to be the subjects of live broadcast are Remembrance Week 2014, Gallipoli in April 2015, the battle of the Somme and the battle of Jutland in 2016, the battle of Passchendaele in 2017 and the declaration of peace in 2018.

Mr Van Klaveren is anxious that the coverage of the conflict, which cost 37 million lives around the world, strikes the right mood. “What we can’t do for four years is something which feels like the tone adopted throughout Remembrance Day because you won’t be able to get into the more difficult and uncomfortable questions,” he said. “Equally what it can’t be about is about celebration either – that would be utterly inappropriate. It’s about a tone which is poignant but not mawkish and which is serious but not over sombre.”

Mr Van Klaveren was given the role following his involvement in the BBC’s Lord McAlpine fiasco last year. In the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal, he was seconded from Radio 5 Live into a temporary role as head of news – only for Newsnight to promptly make false allegations of sex abuse against the former Conservative Party treasurer.

Following publication of the critical Pollard report into BBC News, Mr Van Klaveren was given a new role. He expressed pride in his record at 5 Live,  “successfully moving the station from London to Salford” and giving it “a sense of purpose”. He denied that some BBC colleagues were resentful of his new role after an episode that damaged the organisation’s reputation. “I’ve really not picked that up at all,” he said. “My sense of this project is that people see how important it is and are keen to be involved and supporting me in my role of trying to make [the BBC] do everything it possibly can.”

He admitted feeling “great responsibility” for overseeing a project which will have an important part in underscoring the BBC’s public service role as it prepares to negotiate its licence fees beyond 2016. “This is a wonderful opportunity to show this is what the BBC is worth and what it can contribute.”

100 years on: Highlights of the BBC's centenary coverage

Britain’s Great War

The opening series in the BBC’s four years of First World War coverage, Jeremy Paxman’s four-part documentary for BBC 1 will draw upon his expertise of British history and examine how the conflict changed the country and the lives of the people.

The Passing Bells

Drama writer Tony Jordan (creator of the BBC’s Life on Mars and leading writer for EastEnders) is writing a five-part BBC 1 series following two young soldiers, one British and one German, as they adapt to life on the front.

37 Days

Three-part BBC 2 drama, written by Mark Hayhurst and starring Sinead Cusack (pictured), Ian McDiarmid and Tim Pigott-Smith, which questions assumptions that the Sarajevo shooting made the conflict inevitable.

My Great War

Film made from the unseen archive of the classic 26-part 1964 series The Great War, which recorded hundreds of hours of interview footage. BBC 4 Collections will also publish a selection of the original interview recordings in their entirety on BBC iPlayer.

source: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/ww1-beyond-the-mud-and-trenches-bbcs-plans-for-the-centenary-of-world-war-one-8877564.html

Selling Trench Art at the London Markets

I have been really busy recently, and been remiss in posting on this site due to the fact that I have been doing a stall selling items at local Antiques Markets. 

There used to only be one 4 o'clock in my day, and it surely was not AM!! lol

Early mornings and long days are part and parcel of the Antique Market Trade, and it is something that I will just have to get used to. In this dire ecconomic climate, we have to do everything that we can to keep the wolf from the door, this includes selling all of my cherished Trench Art collection.

Our merchandise is eclectic (to say the least!) ranging from vintage and antique French and African items, to antique English Prints, various electrical lights and pices of stained glass. We have a superb pair of lamps custom made from ceramic electrical insulators at the moment that make quite a statement.

Tomorrow (Monday 13th October) we are in Covent Garden Antiques Market in London (details above) from 5am to 5pm if you would like to call in and say hello.

Having just aquired a car, we hope to be off to France soon to refresh our stock from the Vide Greniers, Marche aux puces, and Brocantes. Should things go well, we would look to do this at least monthly (any excuse for a trip across the Channel)! lol

We will be offering local deliveries and an international postal service for our items, and a warm welcome to all callers, from the casual browser to the serious collector.

To support this endevour, I have set up another blog through which I hope to bring news, photographs and stories from the markets that we attend, and can be viewed at: http://vintageandantiquesmarket.blogspot.co.uk/ I will also add snippets on here to keep all informed of what I am up to.

Malala Yousafzai warns Barack Obama against Pakistan drone attacks

Malala Yousafzai, the girl who defied Taliban orders not to go to school which resulted in her being retributively shot by the group, has met with  US president Barack Obama.

The inspiring 16-year-old from Pakistan has been lauded for her education and women’s rights activism, leading her to be hotly-tipped for the Nobel Peace Prize which was issued on Friday.

Arriving in Washington to speak at two events, the teenager said that she asked the president to engage in greater co-operation with the Pakistani government.

‘I thanked president Obama for the United States’ work in supporting education in Pakistan and Afghanistan and for Syrian refugees,’ she said.

‘I also expressed my concerns that drone attacks are fuelling terrorism. Innocent victims are killed in these acts, and they lead to resentment among the Pakistani people. If we refocus efforts on education it will make a big impact.’

Malala missed out on the coveted Nobel prize, which was given to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for its work in destroying Syria’s arsenal.

President Obama – who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 – met Malala on Friday alongside his wife, Michelle, and their daughter Malia.

Their meeting had even more significance because it coincided with the International Day of the Girl, which was declared as such by the United Nations at the end of 2011.

Malala has been in the public eye since she was attacked by members of the Taliban as she travelled home from school in October 2012.

She received medical treatment in the UK and is currently residing in Birmingham with her family.

Militants have vowed that they will kill the schoolgirl if the chance arises, because they believe she ‘targeted and criticised Islam.’

Her continued campaigning on the importance of education for young girls has been heralded across the globe.

A memoir entitled I am Malala was released on Tuesday, while she was awarded a Pride of Britain award a few days earlier and received an invite to visit the Queen at Buckingham Palace.

This week she also made The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart speechless with her moving reply to a question he had posed to her.

source: http://metro.co.uk/2013/10/12/malala-yousafzai-warns-us-president-against-pakistani-drone-attacks-4143608/

Malala says she's no Western puppet

Malala Yousafzai hit back at claims that she has become a figure of the West, insisting she was proud to be a Pakistani.

The 16-year-old, who was shot by the Taliban for championing girls' right to an education, claimed she retained the support of people in her homeland, and reiterated her desire to enter Pakistani politics.

The activist was shot in the head on her school bus on October 9 last year for speaking out against the Taliban.

She was flown for specialist care in Britain, where she has continued her education, while she has been feted and honoured in the West.

On Thursday, she won the European Union's prestigious Sakharov human rights prize, while US President Barack Obama welcomed her to the White House on Friday.

Asked in a BBC television interview broadcast Sunday about some people in Pakistan thinking she was a "figure of the West" and "a Westerner now", she said: "My father says that education is neither Eastern or Western. Education is education: it's the right of everyone.

"The thing is that the people of Pakistan have supported me. They don't think of me as Western. I am a daughter of Pakistan and I am proud that I am a Pakistani.

"On the day when I was shot, and on the next day, people raised the banners of 'I am Malala'. They did not say 'I am Taliban'.

"They support me and they are encouraging me to move forward and to continue my campaign for girls' education."

She highlighted the problem of education in the midst of the Syrian conflict.

"We want to help every child in every country that we can," she said.

"We will start from Pakistan and Afghanistan and Syria now, especially because they are suffering the most and they are on the top that need our help.

"Later on in my life I want to do politics and I want to become a leader and to bring the change in Pakistan.

"I want to be a politician in Pakistan because I don't want to be a politician in a country which is already developed."

Source: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/malala-says-shes-no-western-puppet-101442256.html#XvSXJVn

Syria-we don't know who did it!

We don't know quite who made the atrocity in Syria, do we really need to?

Hundreds if not thousands of people are dead because of one action and all we can do in the West is make polotic about it.

These are PEOPLE. Young and old, these are our reflections as Citizens of whichever our nation or country might be..

This is you and me in other circumstances.

I dont know how to challenge this, only to mention it.

Today I wish to be a Syrian Civilian. I wish to stand with those brothers and sisters (however, I do not need a gas mask)!! May God be with them and with us for our ignorance and inactivity!

Poem of the Week: Lament by F S Flint

Lament

The young me of the world

Are condemned to death.

They have been called up to die

For the crime of their fathers.

The young men of the world,

The growing, the ripening fruit,

Have been torn from their branches,

While the memory of the blossom

Is sweet in women's hearts;

They have been cast for a cruel purpose

Into the mashing-press and furnace.

The young men of the world

Look into each other's eyes,

And read there the same words:

Not yet! Not yet!

But soon perhaps, and perhaps certain.

The young men of the world

No longer possess the road:

The road possesses them.

They no longer inherit the earth:

The earth inherits them.

They are no longer the masters of fire:

Fire is their master;

They serve him, he destroys them.

They no longer rule the waters:

The genius of  the seas

Has invented a new monster,

Andy they fly from its teeth.

They no longer breathe freely:

The genius of the air

Has contrived a new terror

That rends them to pieces.

The young men of the world

Are encompassed with death

He is all about them

In a circle of fire and bayonets.

Weep, weep, o women,

And old men break your hearts.