Monthly Archives: January 2016

The History of Meccano

Before the start of the Forum’s meeting on the 20th of January the members stood in silent memory of Albert Storey who recently passed away.

Our guest speaker was David Dalton from Bedale whose talk was titled The History of Meccano.  Since inheriting his father’s old Meccano set as a boy David has been an enthusiastic collector of Meccano model kits and literature dealing with them.

The system was invented by Frank Hornby in his garden shed in Liverpool to amuse his sons.  He patented the system in 1901 with the name Mechanics Made Easy and it gained great commercial success, eventually being renamed Meccano in 1907.  David related the history of the company which continuously produced Meccano at its factory in Liverpool until the factory closed in 1979 except for during World War II.

Meccano is still available although its production has been owned by a number of organisations over the years since 1979.  David had brought with him examples of the various model kits and loose parts, most obtained from car boot sales and auctions and refurbished by him if necessary.  He also brought examples of models he has made, many to his own design.

At the end of the talk members showed great interest in David’s hobby, particularly in how he manages his large collection of construction kits and spares.  Forum Chairman Mike Earle proposed a vote of thanks for a most interesting talk.

Death Row in Florida

At the Forum’s meeting on the 13th of January we welcomed as our guest speaker Rosemary Cheshire from Collingham.

Rosemary became interested in the US justice system after reading an advertisement for an organisation called Lifeline which arranged pen friends for prisoners on Death Row. Through Lifeline she became the pen friend to a prisoner called Mark who has been on Death Row in a prison in Florida since 2004 and this relationship formed the basis of her talk entitled Death Row in Florida.

Rosemary began her talk with a string of statistics which highlighted the nature of the US justice system particularly where it related to the use of the death penalty – the US being the only country in the industrialised west which retains the death penalty.

She also referred to the racial bias within the system which results in a black man being six times more likely to be in prison than a white man.

Rosemary and her husband arranged to visit Mark during a holiday in Florida and we learnt of the complicated security measures involved before the meeting, which lasted six hours!
She completed her talk by quoting from a poignant letter she received from Mark after the visit.

During questioning at the end of the talk Rosemary revealed that she had no reason to believe that Mark was innocent of the crimes involved but her opposition to the death penalty and the inhumane conditions imposed by the justice system are the motives behind her actions.

Mike Earle thanked Rosemary for raising interesting ethical issues in her serious presentation.

1000 miles around England on a pony!!

On the sixth of January the Forum resumed its meetings after the Christmas break.

Our first speaker of the New Year was Janet Neipokojczcka who had travelled from Hemsworth.  Janet previously lived in Kendal where she became a tourist guide specialising in walking tours in both the Lake District and Scotland and had undertaken a number of long distance walks around the Lake District.

In 1991 she decided to walk 1,000 miles around England accompanied by a pack horse in aid of the Winged Fellowship, a charity which organises holidays for the physically handicapped.

Her talk entitled Beyond the Far Fells described this journey.  Accompanied by a Lakeland pony called Roy she started out from Kendal and in ten weeks visited, among many places, Nottingham, Cambridge, London and Snowdonia using, where possible, ancient bridleways and pack horse trails.  Janet’s talk was illustrated by some excellent colour slides showing places and people of interest and the varied conditions which she and Roy experienced.  The Forum members were delighted to hear that Roy, at 28 years old is still going strong living at Addingham near Ilkley.  Mike Earle proposed a vote of thanks which the members supported with warm applause.