Cherie's Place

The chapel is on the first floor and is not open to the public. Like first-floor chapels at other priories it is dedicated to St Michael and would have been used by the prior for private worship.  The chapel is above the remains of the church which can be seen in the last photo.

In the nineteenth century a garden was created to enhance the ruins.  Part of the garden can still be seen in the cloister.

I have been rushed off my feet in the past couple of days and eating at the strangest times so now I need to chill out.  Looking through my photos of my recent visit to Wenlock Priory is just the thing because the ruin is beautiful and peaceful.  When you stand amongst the ruins you can imagine how big and impressive it must have been before fell into decline.  The Abbey has an interesting history:

A religious house was first founded on this site in around AD 680, When the Saxon king, Merewalh, of Mercia, built a monastery for men and women.  Merewalh’s daughter, Milburge, was its second abbess, and soon became famous for the miracles she was said to have performed.  After her death she was recognised as a saint.

The monastery was replaced, shortly before 1040, with a college of priests, built by Earl Leofric of Mercia and his wife, Godgifu.  This survived until the Norman Conquest, when monks were sent to Wenlock from the abbey of Cluny in France, at the request of Roger of Montgomery whose lands included the abbey site.  This meant that Wenlock was now a priory – a house of monks subject to a founding abbey.

Soon after 1100 it was alleged that St Milburge’s bones had been found at Wenlock, which brought the priory some fame and made it a place of pilgrimage.  Wenlock’s first English Prior was appointed in 1376, and in 1395 a charter was obtained declaring the priory English.

Wenlock met the same fate as the other abbey’s during Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries.  In 1540 the valuables were stripped and the building sold.  The infirmary and prior’s lodge were converted into a private residence and are still used as such today.

He who cannot forgive breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass.

George Herbert

Today saw the  launch of Christopher Lloyd’s latest book in the What on Earth series, it is called What on Earth? Wallbook. You might recall my recent Blog post on one of his previous books.

The new book is an interesting concept because you can read it like a book or display it on a wall.  It contains 13.7 billion years of history in timeline which is just over 7 feet long and features over 1000 pictures.  Chris sees the timeline as a visual way of taking in the enormous, but compelling story of planet, life and people over the last 13.7 billion years.

TWELVE streams of colour provide the backdrops along a timeline on which all the major events of natural and human history unfold. Space, Earth, Sky, Sea, Land and Humanity account for the story of evolution while Asia, the Middle East, Europe, the Americas, Africa and Australasia convey the rise and fall of human civilisations.

At the top of the timeline is a series of globes. To begin with they track the movement of the world’s continental plates which collide into a single supercontinent, and then prise apart again, a geological cycle that repeats over millions of years.

Later on, these globes reflect a similar rhythm with the rise and fall of human civilisations. Empires, like the Earth’s crust, erupt, collide and crumple, but their converging and splitting happens on a far tighter scale where centimetres measure centuries not millions of years…

On the back is a 7,000 narrative guide that tells the story in words, cross referring the most seismic moments in global history with the timeline overleaf…

You can find out more about the book and the concept behind it on the newly launched dedicated web site.

In conjunction with the book launch Chris launched an appeal for people to help him compile a dossier of strategies that could and should be employed to engage our nation’s young minds with a thirst for learning:

Please send me your best and worst memories of education.

Perhaps you are being educated now or maybe you are an educator? If so, what engages you in learning? What do you find motivating and inspiring? What in your experience makes an effective learning environment – at home or school? How should the curriculum be organised? What is the right balance between learning and testing?

I am committed to collating and presenting these ideas, along with a copy of the What on Earth? Wallbook, to Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Education, at the Conservative Party Conference in early October. I shall also post a copy here at www.whatonearthbooks.com for you to download.Tell your friends about it – involve anyone you know who has an interest in eradicating the cancer of boredom from our schools. Who knows? Perhaps officials at the Department of Education will then turn their heads to making sense of our blue-sky thinking and convert at least some of our creative ideas into practical policy.

Please email your ideas to chris@whatonearthbooks.com

I really wanted to post a photograph of the sun but I seem to have shared them all with you already. Candles do however fit the theme as well and I know I haven’t posted this photo before.

For more of this weeks PhotoHunt pictures check out tnchick.

This week I managed to lose the 1.5lb that I put on last week. *Phew*

I have had a bit of a hassely day with my brother who was trying to set up some new technology for me.  It should have been fairly simple but there was a need to call customer services and those call centres don’t work very well when the person calling them (my brother) knows more than they do! Anyway the new technology seems terminally ill and will have to be returned. Why is nothing ever simple?

My brother visiting also led to a meal out and another weight loss challenge. I decided to go back to The Gate which I visited recently.  This time I was able to choose a very healthy option; chicken breast with spring onion mash accompanied by seasonal vegetables, it was delicious.

At this years annual conference the Public & Commercial Services Union (PCS) launched a booklet that provides information on the threats and consequences of privatising public services.  The document builds on  a series of forums that took place during 2009/10.

These forums examined and exposed many past failures of the privatisation of public services and made a case for well funded public services delivered by the public sector.  Although taking this stance the booklet is primarily a discussion document designed to be thought provoking and challenging, seeking to provide further debate on the topics covered.

PCS National Vice President John McInally speaking in his keynote speech:

Those who advocate privatisation forget history:  We must not.  The public services were won, in some cases, by generations of trade union and working class struggle in an effort to establish the basis of civilised existence in a society run for profit not people.  The private sector either could not or would not, or simply failed to provide effective and efficient public sector provision.  The broad mass of people in society, particularly working people, need the public services – generally speaking, the rich don’t.

The establishment of public services represent reforms that the profiteers despise and which they want to destroy or exploit for profit, yet the record of the private sector in delivering privatised services is lamentable.  The presentations by our Research Officers strip bare the political agendas and the performance failures of privatisation in health, transport, justice and other sectors.

The profiteers and the government have created what they shamelessly described as a “public services industry”, currently estimated at £79 bn per annum.  Big business have used the so-called Third Sector, i.e., the charitable and voluntary sectors as a Trojan horse, their words not mine, in order to gain access to government contracts.

John then goes on to say:

The reconfiguration or “reform”, as it is misnamed, of public service is about preparing for eventual privatisation.  Face-to-face contact is discouraged:  it is old-fashioned apparently.  consultants have sold to ministers ans senior civil servants the idea that call centres, telephony and electronic communication can deliver it all.

Of course there is a place for these new methods and technologies, but they can never be a replacement or substitute for the public service ethos of well-trained committed staff dealing with and resolving the complex problems of real people.  Poorly paid and trained staff working from a “one-size-fits-all” script simply cannot deliver an effective service to those who require them.

The proliferation of call centres in recent years has been based on an attempt to establish regimented, factory-style conditions, a remorseless target driven environment, preferably with a transient workforce that is young, inexperienced, non-unionised and compliant.  The strategic aim is to establish as few discrete units as possible to “deliver” the service at the lowest possible cost in order to hand over for privatisation so that profits can be maximised.

The booklet traces the history and origins of privatisation right back to the rise of industrial power:

The roots of privatisations also go back to the early 20th century and ruling class fears that universal suffrage in western societies would mean the erosion of their power and wealth.  As trade unions and mass labour parties looked like achieving the power to place control of natural resources and the “commanding heights” of the economy under democratic control, the business elite mobilised on several fronts to protect themselves.

They responded in two ways – organisationally and ideologically.  Organisationally, employers’ associations such as Aims of Industry combined to counter the rise of democratic socialism.  The goal of Aims of Industry was to “defend private interest against democratic reform with the explicit aim of countering the emerging pressure for nationalisation of industry”.  these days, powerful and influential bodies such as the Bilderburg Group and the Trilateral Commission bring together business and political leaders to develop long-term strategic plans to protect corporate power, destroy trade union influence, liberalise markets, privatise public services and to remove social protections created by national governments and labour movements.

After addressing the history of privatisation the booklet moves on to the application of the privatisation model in the UK and the use of Private Finance Initiative (PFI).

Why PFI?  After the big State Owned Enterprises were sold off by the Tories in the 1980s and 90s, New Labour needed a different method to transfer public services and utilities to the private sector, even thought there was little evidence of better private sector performance.  In thrall to a “private-good, public-bad” mythology, and (more importantly) eager to direct lucrative public sector work to their friends in business and the city, Labour decided to enlarge the fledging PFI scheme.

PFI has many short-term advantages to government, but many disadvantages to wider society:

The public deficit is now £165 billion and the major political parties and most commentators consider this requires huge spending cuts:

Yet this deficit does not include over £200 billion of PFI debt repayment. Thus even where the government(s) speak of “ring fenced” budgets in health and education, this will still mean savage cuts in those areas as massive and mandatory PFI repayments are hidden within that ring-fence.  the media seldom reports this as it does not conform to their propaganda about feather-bedded public servants needing to tighten their belts, and raises awkward questions about private sector provision of public services.

Surprisingly the 1997-2008 labour governments privatised more civil service jobs than the Thatcher and Major governments combined.  In 2004 labour announced 100,000 job cuts in the civil service leading to increased outsourcing to fill in the gaps that had been left in service delivery:

Initially it was delivered through a massive programme of outsourcing government department’s facilities, IT and security functions, through which staff were TUPE transferred to private firms.  Much of this went on under the radar, usually only registering with the media when, for example, a national institution like the British Museum had so few security guards that it had to close important galleries to visitors.

The privatisation of the Ministry of Defence’s Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) is perhaps the most glaring example of dubious privatisation.  although DERA was performing will, in 2003 the government decided to privatise part of it, and Private-Public partnership called “QinetiQ” was created, after which the 10 senior civil servants responsible for taking the company into the private sector saw their total personal investment of £540,000 transformed into £107 million.  Graham Love, the company’s CEO, saw his £110,000 investment turn into £21 million.  Mark Serwotka, PCS General Secretary, called this “obscene”, but the UK Minister for Defence Procurement described it as “a model for future privatisations“.

The booklet then moves on to privatisation and the media:

The modern idea of objective reporting is little more than a century old.  There was little concern that newspapers were partisan so long as the public was free to choose from a side range of opinions.  Newspapers dependent on advertisers for 75% of their revenues, such as the Guardian and Independent, would not have been regarded as independent by previous generations of radicals, trade unionists and socialists.  Balance was instead provided by a thriving working class-based press.  Early last century, however, the industrialisation of the press, and the associated higher cost of newspaper production, meant that wealthy private industrialist backed by advertisers achieved dominance in the mass media.  Unable to compete on price and outreach, the previously flourishing working class press was brushed to the margins.

Finally the booklet moves onto  Trade Unions and the media:

Trade Unions and the public sector do not enjoy good media coverage.  This makes it much easier to dismiss our arguments against the outsourcing and privatisation of public services.

The media’s subservience to power is demonstrated through the manner in which it selects headline stories, frames the order of discussion, and chooses (or excludes) specific interviewees.  Viewers of Sky, CNN and most other channels receive the latest data fro the Stock Markets with their breakfast – the FTSE 100’s statistics will scroll past on ticker tape keeping viewers up to date on industrial accidents, or the daily devastation of the rain forest.

The media’s response to the 2008 financial crash and the credit crunch is a case in point.  The very people who caused the disaster – bankers, stock brokers and hedge-fund managers – where wheeled into studios to explain it.  Trade Unionist, and those who long predicted that financial deregulation would produce this result, were excluded.  this media consensus made it much easier to forge a political consensus whereby, token noises aside, City bankers are left unmolested to reap huge bonuses from taxpayer funded banks whilst ordinary people relying on public services will suffer for many years to come.

As public services come under increasing attack from spending cuts and increased privatisation it is important to challenge the view that privatisation and cuts are the only way forward and to take every opportunity to promote the alternatives.

• The complete booklet can be viewed here.

The 6th Duke collected sculptures, which were modern art at the time he collected them. Last year all his sculptures were returned from their various resting places around Chatsworth and placed back in their original positions within his commissioned top-lit sculpture gallery.

He was a compulsive collector of sculptures and during his visits to Italy he met some of the best artists of the time and befriended the famous sculptor Antonio Canova. These two lions are copies of sculptures that Canova had made for the tomb of Pope Clement XIII at St peter’s in Rome. Unusually Canova carved his own sculptures rather than employing teams of other carvers to work on the stone. *

*Information taken from Chatsworth guidebook 2010

The heirlooms and treasures  of Chatsworth are currently on display for the first time and I couldn’t resist taking a photo of this beautiful bejewelled Hawk.  It is a ceremonial drinking cup that was made in Germany in 1697 and bought by the 6th Duke in 1819.  It stands over 1ft tall and is covered with hundreds of precious and semi-precious stones.

I still don’t know where all those years went…

But today family and friends  celebrated with a birthday tea (absent friends were fondly missed) (no alcohol honest )

The future?  Big D got the right grades to get into the University of his choice, so he will be embarking on a great journey of discovery…

Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf and take an insect view of its plain.
Henry David Thoreau

Sometimes visiting ruins can be a bit of an adventure! Especially when a church service is about to start and cars are arriving and blocking your exit from the car park.

A Bit of an Adventure, originally uploaded by KirscheTortschen.

Enjoying some peace and quiet in a lovely setting.

The guidebook tells me that the first dinner to be held in ‘The Great Dining Room’ at Chatsworth was for the 13-year old Princess Victoria:

It was her first adult dinner and there was a cooked rehearsal the day before. The 6th Duke wrote, “it is like dining in a giant trunk and you expect the lid to open”.

He brought portraits by van Dyck from his other houses to hang on the walls. In 1996-2001, Chatsworth’s textile team replaced the damaged silk on the walls and made new window curtains, exact copies of the 6th Duke’s.

The current Duke and Duchess still use the room to  host dinners on very special occasions.

As you can see there are several frames in the dining room.

For more of this weeks PhotoHunt pictures check out tnchick.

I thought it would be a nice change to pop up to the local town centre during lunchtime today so that I could get something interesting for my lunch and also dinner this evening.  I specifically remembered not to take the route where the roadworks were so that I didn’t get delayed.  I was able to park easily and make my way to M&S where I chose my lunch quite quickly.  It took me a little longer to choose and evening meal but that is because I was trying to combine healthy with interesting and the meals were in two separate places.  Eventually I plumped, made my way to the till and paid.

I was doing quite well for time until I got to the ticket machine.  I was struggling with my bags and purse and the ticket didn’t go in the machine properly the first time.  I tried again and the machine gobbled the ticket just as I looked up and noticed on the visual display ‘machine out of order please use another machine‘.  The ticket was stuck and the intercom line engaged!  Eventually I got to talk to someone  who told me that the machine was jammed and that someone was already on the way to sort it out.  I waited and told several other shoppers who came to use the machine what was going on.  I was also able to direct them to the nearest ticket machine, which is actually right back by the shops.  I waited a little more and told more shoppers what was going on…

Suddenly the intercom buzzed at me, I was told that the person who was coming to assist had got delayed and that I should get into my car and make my way to the exit, then ring the intercom from there!  Which I did and was let out of the car park.

Phew I had escaped eventually.  Perhaps the moral of the story is I should have stayed at work and read my book as usual?

The title is a bit of a misnomer this week, the scales tell me I have put on 1.5lb although I am not quite sure where. Perhaps all that eating out is catching up with me… I am not to worried though and I have warned the scales to be on their best behaviour next week.