Saturday 16th May. Today the DG’s general Council
meeting gets under way at RIBI Headquarters in Kinwarton Road. It starts at
12.30 and in the intervening time this morning the DG wanted to visit the Food
Festival in Alcester town centre. The Food Festival is a twice-yearly event in
this old market town, and is held in the main streets of the town centre, which
are closed to traffic on Saturday and Sunday.
Alcester has many delightful Tudor buildings, like this one
We were accordingly down to breakfast at the Hotel early, so
we could make the most of the rest of the day. So at 10 o’clock the DG and I
parked up at Kinwarton Road and walked the couple of hundred yards back to the
town centre, which was a bustling hive of activity as stallholders put the
finishing touches to their stalls, although there were not many visitors at
this time of day.
I can't keep up with the DG
We bought some beautiful-looking asparagus from a local
farmer’s stall, and then walked past a stall selling Pimms, as we had no need
for alcoholic beverages at this time of day. We walked on and had just stopped
at a butchers stall, when a lady came over and said she had recognised the DG’s
distinctive wheels as we walked past. She was from the Rotary Club of Alcester
Alauna, who are a breakfast meeting club, and it was their club running the
Pimms stall. We went over for a chat, and it transpires that DG John Crawford
is a member of Alcester Alauna, and he was there. The DG reprimanded John for
not having any Rotary signage on the stall, and he went off to Kinwarton Road
to find something at HQ. Other club members explained that one of their number
was a funeral director, and was away for the weekend. Unfortunately their banner
was in his shop and nobody else had a key. They were a friendly group and I’m
sure their meetings are very lively.
With members of Alcester Alauna Rotary Club
There were some excellent food stalls at the festival, and
we spent the rest of the morning grazing on all the samples on offer. Offering
a taster to passers-by is always a good marketing ploy, I think. We bought
cheeses, beers, honey, sauces and snacks that we would never have considered if
we hadn’t first had a taste. I had a long chat with a young farmer who was
promoting a citrus salad dressing (called Granny Tiggs) that he and his brother
made from an original recipe of their grandmothers. We spoke about various
rural matters, including the price of milk and the fact that he saw himself,
being a farmer, as a guardian of the land, which I though was a refreshing
approach. I think I managed to hold my own in the conversation by trying to
sound knowledgeable about the countryside. The secret in these conversations is
to do a lot of nodding and agreeing, without volunteering too much information
yourself, which could expose your ignorance.
We bought some of his cheese
As we progressed around the Food Festival, we came across a
group of gentlemen wearing medieval-looking red and black costumes. It
transpired that they were members of the Alcester Court Leet. My understanding is that a Court Leet was once part of a powerful feudal court
system whereby Lords of the Manor could take the law into their own hands
within their estates. Among other duties, they ensured standards were met in
such matters as food, drink and agriculture. The Alcester Court Leet is one of
only 30 in the country.
The Alcester town crier has a quick fag before doing his job
At first I
thought they were all town criers, until I realised that only one had a bell.
One of them was a town crier, and there
were also Ale Tasters, a Bread Weigher, an Affearor (who apparently sets the
level of fines) among others. It’s all a bit archaic, but seems good fun, and I
started wondering, what qualifications you need to get the job of Ale Taster.
Members of the Court leet meet the public
As 12.30
approached, I needed to get the DG back to
Kinwarton Road for a sandwich lunch before the General Council got under way.
Having dropped her off, I headed back to the Kings Court Hotel, where I had
promised to meet up with Linda Cowling and transport her to the Food Festival.
She and Tim arrived at the Hotel quite late in the day, and Tim had to drop
Linda off, leaving her to check in whilst he continued to the General Council
meeting.
The DG meets the Court Leet
When I got back
to the Hotel I found not only Linda, but also Rosemary, Sheila and Jan, who
were all looking for a lift in to Alcester. Some wanted to go to the Food
Festival, some wanted to go to the nearby national Trust Property at Coughton
Court. We decided that we would all go to the Food festival, and then those
that wanted to could go to Coughton Court.
It was a particularly selfless act on my part, as I had already been to
the Food Festival that day, as I was careful to point out once or
twice.
Not many customers yet
So off we went,
parking again at RIBI headquarters in Kinwarton Road. However, as the
Consortium headed out of the car park towards the High Street, a young lady
came out of the building and challenged us, fearing that we were members of the
public taking advantage of the parking opportunities at Kinwartion Road to go
shopping. With all the dignity I could muster, I confirmed that we were indeed
Consorts, at which point she said she recognised us. She explained that they
are normally quite happy for people to use their car park, but on this weekend
it was full up because of General council attendees. I congratulated her for
doing her job diligently and politely.
The car park at RIBI HQ
The Food Festival
was now in full swing, and every stall was crowded, unlike my earlier visit. I
found that this presented more grazing opportunities, as I could help myself to
samples being offered and disappear without engaging in conversation with the
stallholders unless I wanted to. I was pleased to see that the Rotary stall now
had a pop-up banner advertising the fact that it was being run by Rotary.
Whilst at the stall we bumped into two other Consorts , Ron Marshall and Philip
Watson, who were enjoying a Pimms. We all had lunch in the shape of a burger
from a stall that I had identified earlier, and what a fine beefburger it was,
nearly all meat. After an ice cream for dessert, it was time to move on. We
dropped Jan and Linda back at the Hotel, then myself, Rosemary and Sheila
headed off to Coughton Court. Fortunately
all three of us are National Trust members, and had our cards with us, so paid
nothing to go in.
The consortium mingle at the Pimm's stall
This property is only a mile down the road from the
Hotel and is a beautiful Tudor mansion with extensive landscaped grounds. It
has been owned by the catholic Throckmorton family for 600 years, and they
still live there today. The family were linked to the Gunpowder Plot of 1605,
as fleeing plotters hid for a while at the House. Entry to the actual house was
by a timed ticket, and we had an hour to spare before our allotted time to view
the house, and spent it wandering in the gardens, where there are some ancient
looking yew hedges, beautifully pruned to create ‘rooms’ within the
grounds. When we got into the house, a
couple of particularly amazing things caught my eye.
Coughton Court
Firstly, at the
top of the house there was a ‘Priest Hole’. This was a hiding place created to conceal priests during a time when
Catholics were persecuted. Under Queen Elizabeth I, priests were often
imprisoned, tortured and even killed. Priest holes were specially disguised
within a house to baffle search-parties. At Coughton House the priest would hide in a claustrophobic little space,
ingeniously hidden beneath two lots of
floor boards, until the coast was clear.
Beautifully trimmed yew trees
The second
extraordinary thing I saw at Coughton House was an embroidered white garment
(called a chemise), which was allegedly worn by Mary, Queen of Scots when she
was beheaded. I say ‘allegedly’, as it has not been proved, but there is a
brown stain on the shoulder of the garment which could be blood. If the story
is true, it is a fascinating historic relic.
Worn by Mary Queen of Scots?
After a cup of
tea in the café, it was time for us to leave. I dropped off my companions at
the Hotel, and drove back to RIBI Headquarters to fetch the DG, who should have
finished by now (it was gone 5.30). As often happens, the General Council
meeting was over-running, so I retired to the Harris Room, joining about 20
other Consorts waiting for their respective DGs. I had a chat with Joyce
Waddell. It was driving her car the last time we came to Alcester (a Renault
Grand Scenic) that helped me to decide that my next car would be a Grand
Scenic, and in March I bought one. Since then I literally haven’t looked back
(I have no need to, because I have rear parking sensors).
Renault Grand Scenic
I also spoke to
Pat O’Keeffe. Her husband Peter will be the first DG of the new District 1145,
which is being created through merging District 1140 (my District) with 1250.
She and Peter are looking forward to his year as DG, which starts in July. He
will have an enlarged District (103 clubs rather than the 47 in our District),
but is planning to persuade neighbouring clubs to hold joint meetings, so that
he can see more than one club in a visit. Apparently five clubs in Brighton are
already planning a joint meeting, so that he can see them all in one go.
Brighton
Eventually the
DGs emerged, looking tired after a tough afternoon legislating, and I whisked
the DG off to the Hotel, to prepare for a big dinner this evening. There were
93 people sitting down to dine, and looking around the room, it was a ‘Who’s
who’ of RIBI. There were this year’s President (Peter King), next year’s
President, (Peter Davey) and the year after that (Eve Conway) For some reason I
didn’t make it on to the top table tonight, but I enjoyed sitting next to Fred
King, DGE for District 1090 (Tim Cowling’s District), a larger than life
character who has some interesting ideas for his District in the coming year.
Dinner was Smoked Mackerel, roast lamb and cheesecake. The DG didn’t fancy
smoked mackerel, so I got two of them
.
Smoked Mackerel
Speeches were
mercifully short, and one of the highlights was the presentation of a limited
edition piece of pottery, made in Lyn Marshall’s District, to Peter and Di
King. It was a gift from all this year’s DGs in recognition of the esteem in
which Peter and Di are held. This was accompanied by a poem written and read by
Stan Keller (I hadn’t realised he had a talent for poetry) praising Peter for his year as RIBI President.
Di gave an emotional speech of thanks, and that was it. We retired to the bar
until rather late, in the company of Keith and Mary Hopkins, among others. It
had been an enjoyable evening, and I was conscious that it was probably the
last such evening I would attend in Alcester, as I probably won’t have reason
to come here again from July 1st.
An example of Staffordshire Pottery (picture from web)
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