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Saturday 19 February 2011
Gritting
Nice to see the gritters out in Haworth. The speed they were going at I should imagine most of the salt landed in Oakworth. No doubt they'll slow down outside the clown hall.
Friday 18 February 2011
Central Park
Nice to see that work has begun on the new media bandstand in Haworth's Central Park, but what a waste for all the shrubs in the centre of the area to be torn up along with recently added plants. And why has an enormous section of wall near Butt Lane been demolished to make way for bulldozers when all they had to do was unlock and remove the metal post in the middle of the entrance?
I'll give it 24 hours before some clown is joy riding around the park in a car.
I'll give it 24 hours before some clown is joy riding around the park in a car.
Wednesday 9 February 2011
Harsh words
Juliet Barker, perhaps the Bronte's most respected biographer, doesn't seem to like modern Haworth. In her book The Brontes she doesn't mince her words:
"Haworth itself has become a monument to the grosser excesses of the tourism industry: the village, surrounded by a sea of car parks, is choked with coaches and cars; the shops, with a few honourable exceptions serving the people who live there, are full of tat, prostituting the Bronte name. It is the power of the legend, not the reality that continues to lure visitors to Haworth".
Usage of the Bronte name hasn't done her so bad though!
"Haworth itself has become a monument to the grosser excesses of the tourism industry: the village, surrounded by a sea of car parks, is choked with coaches and cars; the shops, with a few honourable exceptions serving the people who live there, are full of tat, prostituting the Bronte name. It is the power of the legend, not the reality that continues to lure visitors to Haworth".
Usage of the Bronte name hasn't done her so bad though!
Thursday 3 February 2011
When will they ever learn?
Despite a lifetime in the media this was one story I was never going to tell-I thought. Now it seems appropriate.
Today young Martin Bell, a West Yorkshire soldier has been repatriated to the UK after being killed in Afghanistan. He disobeyed a direct order not to help a comrade who had been fatally injured by an explosive device and in doing so lost his own life.
He was two years older than a young soldier who on September 25th 1944, as a proud Yorkshire sergeant, carefully led his men through a minefield in Venlo, Holland. Part of the Allies thrust forward to defeat Hitler during The Second World War.
In those days there were not the sophisticated devices of today to help detect these lethal weapons of war, still used today, 77 years later.
You prodded carefully with your foot or your bayonet and prayed. Or you prayed first and then carefully prodded with your foot or your bayonet.
A Welsh sergeant sensed danger and ordered the men to stop. The Yorkshire sergeant went a few steps further, hoping to get the troops through this potential field of death. The Welsh sergeant went in front of him and trod on a land mine. He died instantly. The Yorkshire sergeant was partially shielded from the blast and lost his lower left leg and was peppered with shrapnel. He had married in the March of the same year and the next time his wife saw him he was critically wounded and lying in a Worcester hospital.
The parallels between that incident and the one which claimed the life of Martin Bell have haunted me since Martin died. Martin once walked the hills and streets of Haworth as a police community support officer. In his life as a soldier he made a selfless gesture which cost his life. The same could so easily have happened to the Yorkshire soldier of 77 years ago, who lived on until he was just 77.
His son now walks the streets and hills of Haworth with memories of how he could so easily have never been here but for a soldier's bravery.
Thanks Dad, and rest in peace Martin.
Today young Martin Bell, a West Yorkshire soldier has been repatriated to the UK after being killed in Afghanistan. He disobeyed a direct order not to help a comrade who had been fatally injured by an explosive device and in doing so lost his own life.
He was two years older than a young soldier who on September 25th 1944, as a proud Yorkshire sergeant, carefully led his men through a minefield in Venlo, Holland. Part of the Allies thrust forward to defeat Hitler during The Second World War.
In those days there were not the sophisticated devices of today to help detect these lethal weapons of war, still used today, 77 years later.
You prodded carefully with your foot or your bayonet and prayed. Or you prayed first and then carefully prodded with your foot or your bayonet.
A Welsh sergeant sensed danger and ordered the men to stop. The Yorkshire sergeant went a few steps further, hoping to get the troops through this potential field of death. The Welsh sergeant went in front of him and trod on a land mine. He died instantly. The Yorkshire sergeant was partially shielded from the blast and lost his lower left leg and was peppered with shrapnel. He had married in the March of the same year and the next time his wife saw him he was critically wounded and lying in a Worcester hospital.
The parallels between that incident and the one which claimed the life of Martin Bell have haunted me since Martin died. Martin once walked the hills and streets of Haworth as a police community support officer. In his life as a soldier he made a selfless gesture which cost his life. The same could so easily have happened to the Yorkshire soldier of 77 years ago, who lived on until he was just 77.
His son now walks the streets and hills of Haworth with memories of how he could so easily have never been here but for a soldier's bravery.
Thanks Dad, and rest in peace Martin.
Martin Bell comes home today
Bradford soldier Martin Bell comes home today...for the last time.
BBC coverage of the event is HERE
BBC coverage of the event is HERE
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