A Dam’ Heroic Venture

Posted on May 20, 2013 by Veronica & James

Anniversary Flyover Derwent Dam – from Huffington Post Blog

The 70th anniversary of the Bomber Command raid on the German dams, Eder, Möhne and Sorpe in 1943 has just passed. The details of the raid have been recounted endlessly during the last week or so, accompanied by documentaries and a showing of the classic black and white film ‘The Dambusters’. Talking of which, some time ago it was rumoured that a remake was on the way, but there were likely to be several problems – firstly there are only 2 flying Lancaster bombers left in the world (although the RAF Battle of Britain’s Lancaster has been repainted as a 617 Squadron aircraft I think for this year at least) and so most of the action scenes would have been Computer Generated Interface (CGI) graphics (but what’s new in modern films); and the fact that Wing Commander Guy Gibson’s dog’s name would have been changed for the sake of political correctness! It was a black Labrador called ‘Nigger’ – a word that can only be used it seems by black comedians or in historical films made by Hollywood and in which the black men are always shown in a favourable light, like ‘Lincoln’. As an aside, there has been a literary argument that books should not be changed to reflect modern mores, but should instead represent the customs, habits, beliefs and speech patterns of the people of the day, another recent example being that of Enid Blyton’s childrens’ stories which could in some cases be construed as racist.

A 617 Squadron Lancaster

Cheltenham’s connection is, of course, through ‘Bomber’ Harris, whose birthplace is nearby and whose father taught at Cheltenham College. Personally I have a few, although admittedly obscure, connections too. First; regarding aircraft, our recently relocated neighbour Robert’s father was ground crew on Lancaster bombers in the war and last year, as a birthday treat, bought him a visit to a Lancaster and a taxi along a runway inside it, which must have been a thrilling experience, as anyone who has been close up to a taxiing or low-flying Avro Lancaster could aver. As a boy, I flew from Nigeria in an Avro York airliner, a conversion of the Lancaster, which was flown by several international airlines for about ten years post World War II. A slow and noisy experience in which my baby brother’s eardrums were partially perforated through the noise within the cabin.

Second; regarding the location of the bombing raid, in the mid 1950′s my father was stationed with the army in Germany, and one day we took an excursion to the Eder dam, which in those days still sported a large concrete patch in its centre, showing where the bouncing bombs had struck and severely damaged it, helping to flood industrial areas and boosting civilian (and military) morale. He told us the story at the time, which to a 6 year old was quite exciting and stuck in my mind. Years later, as an officer cadet at Sandhurst, Barnes Wallis, then in his late 80s or early 90s came as a guest lecturer and gave an enthralling and informative lecture on ‘modern’ technology and the way ahead. His earlier designs had included the geodesic Vickers Wellington bomber structure, as well as airship designs, the bouncing bomb and post-war the first ‘swing-wing’ designs for jet aircraft. He was employed by the Americans for a while while they developed the F1-11 swing wing bomber (a design he claims they ‘stole’ from him, then ruined by adding a vertical rear tailplane!). He was still in the process of futuristic designs and showed us pictures of the structure of huge cargo carrying submarines which due to the hull design could go very deep, beneath detection from the air (this was during the Cold War, when in the event of hostilities, secure maritime cargo transport would have been vital), and a supersonic airliner which could fly in the outer limits of the atmosphere to Australia without stopping or refuelling, and being loaded at terminals with either passenger or cargo modules.

Richard Todd as Wing Commander Guy Gibson

A further connection was through my parents. My father had served in the Parachute Regiment during and after the war, at one time being co-located with Richard Todd the actor, also a member of the Parachute Regiment at that time. At one regimental ball, my mother danced with Richard, proclaiming him later to be a little short for her, but a very nice man. It was Richard Todd of course who portrayed Guy Gibson in ‘The Dambusters’. The squadron, formed specifically for the Dams Raid, and later called 617 Squadron, ‘the Dambusters’ (motto ‘Après moi le deluge’) was used for other special missions including bombing the Tirpitz battleship and German secret weapon installations later in the war with ‘Tallboy’ ground penetrating bombs and is still functioning as, I think, a Tornado or Eurofighter squadron in the RAF. Almost coincidentally, my mother served in the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), forerunner of the Women’s Royal Army Corps (WRAC) and now defunct, during the war, and was stationed with an anti-aircraft airfield defence unit in Exeter, where 616 Squadron operated, originally Mosquito’s and later Meteor jet aircraft at the end of the war.

RAF Exeter 1943

It is apposite perhaps, with all the publicity, that now the new Bomber Command memorial has been erected in Green Park, London, and that discussion still rages concerning a ‘Bomber Command’ bar for the campaign stars awarded to servicemen 1939-45. After all, a new medal has at last been struck for the few survivors of the Atlantic convoys, and considering the number of bomber crews who failed to return home, something in the order of 55,000, it would be well-deserved despite the political furore by certain segments of the hoi-poloi against area or indiscriminate bombing. (I’ve blogged previously on Bomber Harris’ policy and whether it was justified or not. Interestingly, some of the same people who condemn area bombing also condemn the Atom bomb attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki which without doubt shortened the war significantly and saved untold Allied and overall, Japanese lives. My father’s regiment was earmarked for the first wave airborne attack on Japan and had already been issued early with the new 1944 Pattern webbing in preparation. If it had gone ahead, his chances of survival and therefore of my existence would have been low – so you might say I have a vested interest!).

Looking at the Dams’ raid alone, more than half the Lancaster crews that took part did not return and those that did, were nearly all awarded medals, including Guy Gibson himself who was given a well-deserved Victoria Cross.

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Alice in Cheltenham

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Veronica & James

Carroll’s Characters

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, aka Lewis Carroll, author of the world-renowned children’s stories ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and ‘Alice Through the Looking Glass’, was a regular visitor to Cheltenham while the parents of his friend and acquaintance the Very Revd Henry George Liddell lived in Charlton Kings. The Very Revd Henry was Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, where Charles was a mathematics lecturer, and although himself a Deacon had never gone into the full priesthood. The Liddell parents were the Revd Henry George Liddell (not to be confused with his son) and his wife Charlotte who had retired to Cheltenham in 1861 from their lucrative parish in Easington, County Durham.

The Very Revd Henry’s children, including Alice Pleasance Liddell, her siblings and governess regularly stayed with their grandparents, and while there, Charles visited, staying at the Belle Vue Hotel in Cheltenham, and taking the children and their governess out on expeditions, not dissimilar to those he had conducted around Oxford. From these excursions, it is thought he concocted many of the elements of his children’s books, including the chessboard pattern espied from the top of Leckhampton Hill of the fields below, and encounters with people in a train journey from Cheltenham Lansdown Road station to Oxford, and illusions (i.e. the Cheshire Cat) seen during a show at the Cheltenham Assembly Rooms (now Lloyds Bank on the High Street) conducted by a famous illusionist, Herr Dobler.

Charles Dodgson was also connected to Cheltenham as he was a geometry examiner for the Cheltenham Ladies’ College, then located at Cambray House in Cambray Place, through the Very Revd Henry who was a member of the Cheltenham (Gentleman’s) College Council and as assistant to the senior examiner, Revd James Owen, another Christ Church Oxford graduate. [It is clear that patrimony was alive and well then, in a not dissimilar way to the current Conservative/Liberal Democrat university 'mafia' that exists in government].

Holy Trinity Church, Long Melford, Suffolk

Before we moved to Hanover House www.hanoverhouse.org in Cheltenham, we lived in Suffolk close to Long Melford – an attractive former wool centre with typical wattle and daub, thatched cottages and a beautiful church, Holy Trinity. The church contains a range of superb stained monuments and stained glass windows, one of the latter representing Elizabeth de Mowbray, Duchess of Norfolk. This particular representation is said to be the inspiration for the Alice in Wonderland illustration of the Duchess, who played a memorable part the story.

Alice’s Duchess?

Almost as a postscript and linking the above connections with Lewis Carroll and Cheltenham, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson appears on the very outer fringes of my family tree!

As a post postscript, as a total coincidence, just after having published the above comments on Elizabeth de Mowbray, BBC Radio 4 covered in a history programme, the discovery some years ago by workmen of a ‘lost’ grave of a royal personage from the medieval period. Following the recent coverage of the discovery of Richard III’s remains under a carpark in Leicester, the link was made with the earlier discovery of the earlier find, which was a lead coffin with inscription showing that the remains it contained were of the young Anne Mowbray, daughter and heiress of the Duke of Norfolk. She was the wife of Richard Duke of York, the Richard III to-be and had been betrothed to Richard when she was only 2 and he 4, so that Edward IV’s line could gain the riches of the Dukes of Norfolk, which were very considerable at that time. This was despite the rulings of the Catholic Church concerning on age of betrothal and marriage and of the marriage of close relatives. Dispensations had to be obtained for both, but in the event, Anne died young from reasons unknown, possibly either disease or childbirth.

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Bulldog Drummond and the Cheltenham Circle

Posted on May 4, 2013 by Veronica & James

Ronald Colman’s Bulldog Drummond

Events and occurrences can be circular in character and sometimes a chain of coincidences brings a chain back to its source. One such happened recently connecting the post First World War British adventure hero, the dashing ex-Army Captain ‘Bulldog’ Drummond, the subject of many books, films, TV series and the theatre. He was the precursor of other ‘gentleman’ adventurers such as Paul Temple and even Commander James Bond.

Gerald Fairlie’s Bulldog Drummond

Bulldog Drummond as a character, was the brainchild of Herman Cargil McNeile, otherwise known in the 1920′s under the pseudonym or pen-name of Sapper. He wrote a very successful series of adventure books all featuring his hero, with the quintessential name ‘Bulldog (an English icon) and Drummond, a good Scottish name, perhaps representing McNeile’s own characteristics. The first Bulldog Drummond book appeared in 1920 but McNeile died in 1937. His good friend Gerard Fairlie then took over the pen and continued the Bulldog Drummond series from 1938 until 1954. During its run of publications, there had been offshoots from the books, including a film in 1929 starring Ronald Colman, a TV film in 1957 starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr, and a 1930′s stage adaptation by Gerald du Maurier and McNeile. More recently in 2012 a film starring John Barrymore has been produced.

2013 Cheltenham Local History Journal

Closer to home, the most recent volume of the Cheltenham Local History Society (CLHS) Journal has an article about the first ever screened ‘Talkie’ film in Cheltenham by John Elliott. It turned out to be Ronald Colman’s ‘Bulldog Drummond’ shown at the Theatre and Opera House in Cheltenham in 1929 shortly after its release, covered fully in a review in the Gloucestershire Echo of 1 October. The review stated that the previous day (30 September) had ‘witnessed the opening of a new chapter in the history of Cheltenham Theatre, for it was the first day of the talking pictures and the various changes that have marked their advent, including continuous performances and the disappearance of the orchestra’.

Interestingly, and as a ‘bye the bye’, there had been some competition in the town regarding the first screening of a ‘talking movie’ when the rival cinema owner Shakspear Shenton, proprietor of the Winter Garden New Kinema, and the Palace Cinema on the High Street, having installed two of the finest British-built talking machines in competition to the American machines in the Theatre and Opera House, and ‘as a pioneer of cinematography in Cheltenham he was not going to sit down and see a London syndicate cutting the ground from under his feet’. He showed ‘Mother’s Boy’ a full talking and singing film, starring a well-known recording artist Morton Downey, starting at 2.30 pm on 30 September, but Bulldog Drummond had begun at 2 pm, thereby capturing the cachet of Cheltenham’s ‘first talkie’.

On a more personal level, Veronica and I attended our grandson Jack’s christening in Sussex about 5 years ago and stayed in a local Alastair Sawday B&B. A charming house near Midhurst, it was run by a tall character called Jock Fairlie, who it turned out, was the son of Gerald Fairlie who had written the second tranche of Bulldog Drummond adventure stories. Jock himself, was a real character, who had served as a junior officer in the Parachute Regiment in Palestine in 1947 – at the same time as my own father, also a young officer in the Regiment – and who afterwards went to Canada and became a lumberjack, writing an interesting book ‘Lumberjack’ published in 1954. Following that, he had turned to the professions and became an English teacher, teaching at Cheltenham Ladies’ College for about 10 years.

Jock Fairlie ‘Lumberjack’

When we met Jock in Sussex, he proved to be a very interesting character, coping with recent loss of his wife. Veronica helped him with a casserole and when we came down for breakfast after our night’s stay, we found him in his sitting room weaving a rug on a loom, wearing a ‘wee willie winkie’ cap and nightgown – quite eccentric! He told us about his father and the Bulldog Drummond connection and of his time in Palestine, with my own father’s connection. He also said that some of his happiest times had been while living in Cheltenham and that he was still in regular touch with some of his ex-pupils, who came to see him from time to time and were generally girls who had become successful as doctors, lawyers, judges etc. He was helped out in running his B&B by his daughter who lived nearby with her husband.

The last we heard was that he had given up the B&B and had moved back to Cheltenham, the place he seems to have remembered with pleasure.

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One for the Birds

Posted on February 19, 2013 by Veronica & James

Mila Judge-Furstova, an excellent resident artist in Cheltenham, who was the artist in residence at the Cheltenham Ladies’ College (CLC) for some years and is a friend of daughter Rachael’s, is launching a new etching. We have admired her work for some years and attended local exhibitions of her work in Berkeley Castle and Cheltenham, although not her Birmingham or London outings. She specialises in etchings and compositions using various techniques and materials. In the breakfast room of Hanover House B&B www.hanoverhouse.org we have a large work of hers, one of her ‘Celeste’ series, produced to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Ladies’ College, which is wonderfully detailed. A similar Celeste example is illustrated below.

Celeste II – CLC Version

However, she has just posted us an invitation to her latest exhibition, her website can be viewed at… http://www.furstova.com/ and one of her latest pieces of work, shown here, includes a number of birds.

Although lovely, this is a sore point or subject for Veronica who is a ornithophobe, i.e. suffering from ornithophobia – a fear of birds, which extends to feathers, fluttering motions or anything remotely resembling being birdlike. There is one major exception and that is she loves hens and ducks – which is the sort of contrariness that is part of her character.

As a ‘trick’ present, her son Damien sent her the DVD of Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds’ one year, but needless to say it hasn’t been unboxed yet. In the same vein, we recently saw the TV assassination of Alfred Hitchcock’s character which focused on his treatment of Tippi Hedren, the actress who’d starred in The Birds, and who had herself had a fear of birds, having been assured by Hitchcock that all would be special effects or models, then releasing a flock of live birds at her in a confined space. She survived, but I doubt whether Veronica would. More recently we saw the new release of ‘Hitchcock’ starring Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren, which concentrated on the making of ‘Psycho’ and was fascinating and very well done. The final scene was Hitchcock standing on a lawn talking to camera, and as a forerunner of his making of The Birds, a large black raven suddenly descended from off picture and landed on his arm – at which point Veronica nearly disappeared under her seat.

Fortunately however, her night had not been ruined, as it was a fleeting/fluttering image and the bird quickly flew off again.

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The Falkland’s ‘Newspaper’ War

Posted on January 10, 2013 by Veronica & James

It would be amusing if it were not so sad in the modern world that grown-up nations have to revert to tit-for-tat spats in their respective national presses to make serious points, that could potentially affect a lot of people’s lives. Argentina currently has internal problems and in the mode of many leaders of nations with similar problems, Her president has tried to divert attention from her own difficulties by trying to unite the nation against an external, real or invented, threats or perceived unfair treatment. Perhaps following last year’s 30th anniversary of the invasion of 1982 and in the light of rounds of recent British defence cuts, including crucially to our long range air and carrier capabilities, a good time to strike!

Cristina Kirchner of Argentina is doing exactly that. She has published as an advert, an open letter to the UK in two of our major newspapers, demanding that we open negotiations with them over the future of the Falkland Islands, which they claim we dispossessed them of in the early 1800s. In response, David Cameron has quite rightly said that it is entirely up to the inhabitants as to their future and allegiances. There will be referendum on the subject held in the islands within the next two or three months on the determination of the islander’s future. The Falkland Islands representatives have pointed out that the British had much earlier claimed the Islands and removed an invading garrison force from Spain in about 1733, well before the foundation of the state of Argentina, so Kirchner’s claim is totally inaccurate. The population, although primarily of British stock was not a colonial implant as part of imperial colonisation measures by Britain, but were all voluntary settlers who had come for personal and financial reasons. Some had been related to the fishing and whaling industries and others for farming and escape from troubles at home. There were also a number of nationalities represented in the population, many of whom are descended directly from immigrants of over 200 years ago. Argentina itself is far more a nation of imperial colonists implanted originally by Spain, who had dominated and enslaved the native populations before winning independence (with some British help) from their Spanish masters.

In terms of the tit-for-tat journalism, The Sun newspaper has published a letter in the Buenos Aires national paper refuting the Argentinian president’s claims and telling her to keep her hands off the Falklands. Her government has refused to talk to the Falkland islanders directly over mutual matters and has tried to cripple the islands by harrassing fishermen, oil exploration companies and restricting flights and cruise ships to the area. Economic sanctions are a reality of life of the aggressive Argentinian government, who have absolutely no rights over sovereignty or anything else in the immediate area.

I visited the islands a couple of times during my military service and found them to be delightful – if somewhat windswept – havens of wildlife, beautiful in the mode of the Orkneys and Shetlands, and populated by a hardy but very British people who work hard for their incomes and have many hardships to put up with. A country and a principle well worth defending!

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Gunning for Trouble!

Posted on January 4, 2013 by Veronica & James

I have recently been reading some excellent fact and fiction on the American War of Independence – or the Rebellion of the British Colonies or the War of Liberation, depending on your personal viewpoint. Consequently some important points concerning the recent massacre of the innocents at the school in Connecticut in light of the ’right’ of all US citizens to carry (and use) a gun need some consideration.

Incidentally, the books I refer to and which I can highly recommmend, are first; the fictionalised but true account of the siege of a makeshift British fort by the American insurgents towards the end of the rebellion (you can see where I stand!) by Bernard Cornwell, called ‘The Fort’ and secondly an excellent and very readable summary of the war contained in ‘All the King’s Men’ by Saul David.

Bernard Cornwell’s ‘The Fort’

During the latter stages of, and resulting from, the war, the Americans, having fought for and gained their ‘liberty’ from the yoke of central government in London located thousands of miles away (reminiscent of the demise of the Roman Empire), they drew up their historic constitution. The Constitution, amongst other things stated that man was created equal – although that didn’t prevent them from espousing slavery for at least another 150 years – but also the Second Amendment ‘appeared’ to give all the ex-colonists the right to bear arms. This has been interpreted in different ways over the years, the most recent being that nearly every individual was entitled to have, and to be able to use, a gun (non-specified). In fact, apparently, the wording of the Second Amendment referred to the right of all Americans to bear arms as a result of them being in the militia, in other words in defence of their country (against initially the imperialist, colonising British) and not as individuals against their fellow Americans.

The very strong right-wing (predominantly Republican) gun lobby in the USA, the National Rifle Association – and very nationalistic it appears to be – advocates the most recent interpretation of the gun laws. Some US states, particularly those where gun crimes were particularly rife, such as New York and Chicago, had managed to ban semi-automatic weapons, but those sensible laws were overturned in the mid 1990′s by the Supreme Court. Hence the gun ownership in the USA is astronomical and gun-induced deaths run into the thousands annually, compared to say the UK, which is well below 100, even allowing for the difference in population size, so clearly the USA’s death rate is exceptionally high (perhaps comparable to Columbia and some south american countries, although probably not Africa or war zones like Afghanistan.

It is rather difficult to understand why law-abiding non-military citizens need to own semi-automatic weapons, multi-round ammunition magazines, or indeed any guns at all, unless they happen to live in particularly lawless areas. An American professor, providing his opinion on BBC Radio 4 the other night, while deprecating the ownership of such powerful weapons by American civilians (or indeed any citizen), provided the widely held belief of most Americans that theirs is a God-given right to carry a gun because of their history, their constitution and because of the insecurity engendered by the fairly recently ended Cold War with the former USSR, and the threat of terrorism. It may have escaped their attention that apart from the two outrages against the World Trade Centre, first the bombing then later the destruction of the Twin Towers in 2001, continental USA has had virtually no external terrorist attacks in the past, whereas European countries, particularly the UK during the many IRA and Moslem extremist campaigns, have.

Despite these events in Europe and the UK, no requirement for arming the civilian population has ever been mooted or is seen as being in the least bit desirable. Some people who are farmers or belong to gun clubs do require weapons, but they are a tiny minority. In Britain there is also a lot of resistance to arming the police, even during periods of heightened tension, apart from the highly trained armed response teams. Inevitably, when a shooting does occur involving any of these people there are long drawn-out, detailed enquiries into the exact circumstances, despite the legitimate, instant responses required, which have sometimes resulted in premature or mistaken identity deaths.

Following the Connecticut murders, the first two 6-year old victims being buried only yesterday, America is still debating the means of preventing more cases. Some say, ‘it isn’t the gun, it’s the man’, which is not entirely accurate as without the gun the man wouldn’t be able to massacre so many people in such a short time. Others say ‘arm the teachers’, somewhat overkill, literally, but many in the USA take it seriously. Even Obama in his speech following the deaths wouldn’t or couldn’t mention more gun controls and at least the banning of anything larger than a handgun! In some ways, although we lost the war with the Colonies, at least we didn’t inherit the love of the gun by the common people, that perhaps being a rather corrosive inheritance of their war for freedom to kill each other with relative ease….

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Hanover House’s Winter Newsletter

Posted on December 18, 2012 by Veronica & James

We have decided to publish and distribute to many of our original visitors, a newsletter, circulated electronically, which might just keep friends up to date and encourage some to come back to the delights of Cheltenham.

Vol 1 December 2012

THE HANOVARIAN

The HANOVER HOUSE newsletter

WINTER 2012

Dear Guests,

This is only the second newsletter we’ve put out, partly due to having had a busy year, but also regrettably, to ennui! However I’ve been reminded that it’s time for us to provide an update on activities and what is going on in Cheltenham over the winter and into the Spring.

Even in the winter, the Cotswolds are a lovely place to visit, particularly when it’s cold and frosty or even snowy. There are many pretty places with good places to eat and roaring fires to warm the intrepid tourist. In Cheltenham itself there are plenty of things to do and places to eat well. Entertainments vary from seasonal pantomimes at several venues including the Playhouse and Everyman Theatres, both only 3-4 minutes’ walk from Hanover House to live opera screened at Cineworld in the Brewery, together with The Nutcracker from the Royal Opera House. Even more live is the traditional Christmas time Messiah, to be staged in the Town Hall by the Oxford Philomusica orchestra, Oxford University’s resident professional symphony orchestra.

After Christmas and the New Year, there will of course be the sales in the fabulous Cheltenham shops, particularly those in Montpellier, the ‘Paris of England’ and a season of concerts, both classical and contemporary in the Town Hall, together with a wide range of theatrical productions at the Everyman, many either on tour from the West End or on their way there.

So, if you want to recover from the rigours of a hectic festive season or conversely want to come to a lively venue, as a focus for more wide-ranging visits through the region, come to Cheltenham for a good deal and revitalisation – fresh country air and a soothing local spa followed by excellent food.

HANOVER HOUSE UPDATE

Our website at www.hanoverhouse.org has now been updated and the video marginally enhanced with a new view of our wisteria-clad frontage. Note at the end of the video Sophie (the golden retriever)’s synchronised head movement to the music! The new webpage looks like this, and the online booking system is active through the site.

Since this screenshot was taken, we are up at No 2 now on TripAdvisor and our EnjoyEngland awards have been annotated as being as at ‘2011’ This is because, having been consistently awarded 5 Star Gold awards over the past 5 years, we have come out of the scheme, which we consider expensive for a small business such as ourselves to belong to, with limited payback. This is particularly so as most of our guests are now returning guests or come directly through Alastair Sawdays, Michelin, Good Hotel Guide, Fodors, Lonely Planet, Trip Advisor or from the principal web browsers such as Google. We will keep our last-awarded EnjoyEngland logos just as an easily recognisable illustration of our quality standard.

During the last 6 months, some internal changes have been made, in that we have upgraded the bedsize in the Rossetti (double ensuite room with the dual aspect over the walled garden) from standard double to Kingsize to cater for our taller guests, and now serve our organic, locally sourced breakfasts in the dining/breakfast room. The table is now oval with a set of refurbished and upholstered Victorian dining room chairs providing comfort and elegance.

Since affixing our Blue Plaque commemorating Caroline Alice Roberts’ (better known as Lady Alice Elgar) sojourn in the house between 1859 and 1861 amongst the rapidly developing Wisteria we have been planning an official unveiling by the Elgar Society, which will probably be early in 2013, hopefully coinciding with an Elgar anniversary date.

Recently we had a periodic Health and Hygiene inspection which followed an anonymous complaint to the local authorities concerning a photograph on our blogsite in which Veronica was bathing her baby granddaughter in the kitchen sink during a period when we were closed to guests and had the family staying. The inspectors were more than happy with the setup and gave us the rarely-awarded 5 Hygiene stars after Veronica had demonstrated that everything on the food handling side was ship-shape and that we followed commonsense procedures.

FEATURING HANOVER HOUSE…

Veronica is a Lady Ambassador for The Lady magazine, and during her time promoting this quality excellent and informative magazine has seen some huge changes in its format and appearance. Initiated by Boris Johnson’s sister Rachel, it has been carried on by Matt, the new editor, whose covers have regularly gone back to the elegance of bygone days, making it once again very stylish compared to the other rather brash, glossy ‘in your face’ minor showbiz celebrity-driven magazine covers that inundate the magazine racks in the shops. The new style well suits our own at Hanover House. In an earlier edition, Veronica was highlighted as an Ambassador, which drew some complimentary comments at the time. More recently however…

The Times and Telegraph readers may have noticed recent offers in those publications of discounts at a selection of Bed and Breakfasts around the country in conjunction with Alastair Sawdays. 50 establishments country-wide were selected to be featured and we were lucky enough to be amongst them, for both newspapers separately. Times readers had to collect code words over a period of time to qualify for 2 nights for the price of 1, and Telegraph Readers who are members of the Telegraph Readers club, can get a 10% discount for any stay.

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

The winter offers lots of things to do in and around Cheltenham culminating in the spring with the Cheltenham Festival and the eponymous Cheltenham Gold Cup. ranging from festivals covering various topics, and concerts and plays. Space doesn’t permit covering everything, so we just highlight some of the events and activities that particularly appeal to us personally…

For a full list of what’s on for the foreseeable future, take a look at this link:

http://www.soglos.com/cheltenham-events

Spring/Early Summer Cheltenham Festivals

Cheltenham Gold Cup 12-15 March (however note that we are fully booked for this period!)

Jazz 01-06 May

Other events include art exhibitions at Martin’s Gallery (the main town Museum and Art Gallery remains closed until about April while building a substantial extension continues), performances of plays such as Agatha Christie’s ‘Go Back for Murder’ and John Buchan’s ‘The 39 Steps’, ‘Yes, Prime Minister’ and ‘Goodnight Mr Tom’ as well as local boy Laurie Lee’s ‘Cider with Rosie’ at the recently beautifully renovated Victorian Everyman Theatre interleaved with live performances of Puccini’s ‘Madam Butterfly’ and ‘La Bohème’ performed by the Grand Opera of Belarus.

LOCAL ATTRACTIONS

Local and easily reachable attractions abound, ranging from lovely Cotswold villages and towns, castles, National Trust sites and gardens, historic locations including cathedrals, abbeys and Roman villas and historic battlefields. We are within an hour’s drive of all-day-out locations including Bath, Oxford, Stratford, Bristol, Worcester, Malvern, Ross and Hay-on-Wye and the Severn valley including Symonds Yat.

Very locally, we could strongly recommend Winchcombe and Sudeley Castle Gloucester Cathedral and historic docks, Tewkesbury Abbey and battlefield and the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire heritage railway which runs from Cheltenham Racecourse through Winchcombe and out to Gotherington.

We hope this newsletter rekindles some interest in the beautiful English Cotswolds, and helps to bring you back for another memorable stay.

FINALLY… SPECIAL OFFERS!

As it’s the wintertime, we would like to encourage you into coming to see us again – and of course to sample the culinary and shopping delights of Cheltenham as well as the beautiful all-season Cotswold countryside, by offering a discount or ‘thank you’. All previous guests and/or friends will be given a 25% discount on any booking for a minimum of 3 nights between 2 Jan and 31^st March 2013, including a complimentary bottle of wine.

We hope you all have a lovely Christmas or midwinter festival and a Happy New Year. We are closed over this period to accommodate an extending, and rapidly extending-even-further family, and so will need a rest when our guests return in the New Year!!

Veronica, James and Sophie (The Retriever)

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Thought-Annoys Complaint

Posted on December 18, 2012 by Veronica & James

Sorry about the title – a pun based on ‘Portnoy’s Complaint’, the well-known novel by the American Philip Roth on the subject of excessive sexuality – which doesn’t apply to the subject of this blog fortunately… The only connection is the ‘complaint’ bit that we made to the Cheltenham Borough Council recently on the subject of a ‘difficult’ food hygiene inspection. The circumstances were described in my earlier blog ‘Bureaucracy – Guilty as Charged!’

One of the problems often ascribed to the bulk of the British people is that as much as we love to complain, it is mostly amongst ourselves or in private, or about the weather, government, politics, bankers, newspaper miscreants etc. etc. and rarely to the faces of those about whom we wish most to complain. Legitimate grounds often those against services and service. Many people are afraid to complain in case of ‘repercussions’, hence the bad treatment of those brave souls who are the Whistleblowers and who do a public service on the whole. (One exception is possibly Julian Assange of WikiLeaks who has threatened the security of the Western World by exposing a whole range of classified secrets – some of which may well be shameful but the majority in defence of freedom in general).

However, when a complaint is laid on strong grounds and pursued, it often produces beneficial results. Frequently the service provider is not fully aware of their shortcomings and a complaint brings important points to their attention, which they can then address and rectify. An improved service provides better results all round, an enhanced reputation, more business, improved customer relationships and outcomes and happier, more productive staff.

Following the investigation into an anonymous complaint made against Hanover House B&B www.hanoverhouse.org concerning the photograph on the blog of our grandaughter being washed in the kitchen sink while the dog looked on, and the accompanying food hygiene inspection, we laid a letter of formal complaint about the circumstances to the Council. There was a fast response, the concerned Director replying quickly, and promising a resolution. The inspector concerned also responded more positively and promised a prompt return to look at the few minor issues that had been raised. The visit duly occurred and he and Veronica quickly established a mutual understanding and culminated in a 5 Star rating. So in this case, the formal complaint worked well, especially as in a telephone discussion Veronica had frankly discussed the impressions of the department on other Cheltenham Hospitality Association members who had had not particularly pleasant experiences but had never complained about them.

The ‘incriminating’ photograph

Hopefully the long-term outcome of this particular complaint, once thought and common sense has been applied on both sides, will culminate in a better relationship between the small businesses caught up in the nightmare of bureaucratic red tape really designed for much larger enterprises with multitudes of staff, and not one or two-person operations and the regulating authorities. The latter, to be fair, are charged with ensuring that health and safety practices are followed for the public good, although some practitioners have gone too far and not exercised common sense. Our own experience up to now, however, has been positive, in that the various inspections we have received, from Fire Advisor to EnjoyEngland have on the whole been extremely pragmatic and sensible, with allowances being made for our particular circumstances. And long may it be so…..

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The Cheltenham Connection

Posted on December 6, 2012 by Veronica & James

A couple of things have appeared in various newspapers and periodicals which struck a chord with me, and although at first glance there appears to be absolutely nothing in common between them, on reflection, there was.

Robert Falcon Scott

The two subjects were first, a statue of Scott of the Antarctic, up for auction in London and second, various accounts in the press of the appointment of the new Governor of the Bank of England, the Canadian Mark ‘Canuck’ Carney, photographed with his ‘firebrand’ wife Diana Fox Carney.

Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney and Diana Carney at the second annual Distinguished Patrons Soiree held in May at the National Gallery of Canada.

Mark and Diana ‘Fox’ Carney

The first item was a photograph on the back of the Art Fund magazine ‘Art Quarterly’ showing a statuette of Robert Falcon Scott dressed in his Antarctic clothing and standing full length, sculpted by his widow Kathleen Scott as a model for a statue commissioned by Christchurch City Council in New Zealand. The 26″ high plaster and wood marquette figure is up for auction by Christie’s auctioneers as a contribution in lieu of inheritance tax for some unknown estate. It was Lady Kathleen Scott who also sculpted the well-known statue of Dr Edward Wilson, one of Scott’s last companions in his doomed race for the Pole 100 years ago, also in Antarctic clothing, standing on the Promenade in his home town of Cheltenham.

Cheltenham, coincidentally, is also the home town of Diana Fox Carney, who lived here for a while before going up to Oxford to obtain a first in Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE) [must-do degrees for aspiring politicians] as well as a Masters in Agriculture [she is now an eco-warrior!], and meeting her husband who was doing a post-graduate scholarship there from Canada. She first came to his attention when scoring a number of goals during a hockey match, although he was more into ice hockey. Her maiden name was Fox and she still calls herself ‘Miss Fox’ despite 20 years of marriage.

18th Century Election Skit

Fox, it seems, has been a potent local political name, a local Cheltenham flyer from an active late 18th century or early 19th election campaign having come into my hands a year or two ago – possibly referring to the radical politician Charles James Fox. I have not been able to track down the specific ‘Fox’ although it may well have to do with this one who opposed the war against America, slavery and King George III and his prime minister, Pitt. Somehow I don’t think Diana Fox will be quite as revolutionary, but her eco credentials are strong.

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Periodical and Paper Promotions

Posted on December 4, 2012 by Veronica & James

Back in the news(paper(s)) after a bit of a break, Hanover House B&B ( www.hanoverhouse.org ) features at the moment as part of a promotion of Alastair Sawdays with The Times where 50 of the top B&Bs featured by Sawdays around the country are providing rooms at two nights for the price of one, available during the winter months. We have also been selected by Sawdays to feature in a Daily Telegraph promotion but there is no sign of that materialising at the moment. A number of other publications offer us space, although these have probably more limited value in terms of exposure. Some of them originate in Country Life or Country Style types of publications, promoting regions or counties, but frequently with fairly limited circulations. Although it is always pleasant to see one’s business in a glossy magazine in technicolour, if it doesn’t bring in business then it is a false vanity and economy.

To date there has been a fair bit of interest in The Times offer and we have taken a number of bookings, but I would guess that it will be a relatively short-lived affair and the limited period collection of tokens will have expired with no further take-up. The Telegraph offer has also just materialised and we are included amongst a number of select Alastair Sawday establishments giving a discount to registered Telegraph readers, so there may be another small burst. However our best bet for exposure is still electronically, and hopefully, given some breathing space, our winter circular will be written and sent out to our mailing list quite soon.

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