CITY OF DERBY RETIRED TEACHERS

NEWSLETTERISSUE NO 95

February2020

CONTACTS

Chairman: Mr. R. Horth (01332 551624Secretary: Mrs. B R Ward (01332) 550383

Treasurer: Mr. F. P. Wilson (01332) 771658

1. In Our Thoughts- Biddy Robinson

2. The Plant Hunters- Bill Grange

6. Various articles onour Sinah WarrenExtended Visit- Rick Horth, BillGrange, BarbaraNetherwood andDorothy Fearnside

11. From Russia withLove - Val Holmes

The Newsletter is edited anddesigned by Bill Grange

For future issues send material tohim at :19 Elm Grove, Allestree, DerbyDE22 2HB01332 551403billgrange@btinternet.com

Visit our website:www.codretts.co.uk

Compiled by Bert Mason

Main Items in This Issue

Subs Reminder

Please not that yoursubscription (£10) toCoDRTs is now due.

Please send toFrank Wilson,15 Willson Rd.,Littleover, DerbyDE23 1BY

Newsletter February 2020

We were all very  sad to  hear  that BrianBonsall passed away  suddenly  lastNovember.    He was  an active  andpopular member of  our  group  for  manyyears and  will be  missed. He  taughtHistory  both  in Belper  and Derby  andwas a talented  musician. Many  of usattended the  service  of  remembrance  inSt  Edmunds  church  in Allestree  andwere moved by  the  tributes paid to  himand  the  large   number  of people whofilled the  church  .

We were also sad to learn of the  deathof  two of our members, Alma Sheardand Hilary Kirkbride,.

Ann Salt one of our committee membershas been in   hospital  but is now  homeand  on the mend.  We  send  her  ourgood  wishes for a  speedy recovery.

Apart from  coughs and colds,  which  arerife at present, the rest of us  seem to bekeeping  well.  Have a good  2020.

Biddy Robinson

Contact Biddy on 01773-823954or Ann on 01332-513412

To report illness and bereavement

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In Our Thoughts

For Your Diary

Spring Outing to Stoke-on-Trent and Trentham Gardens

Coffee Morning(at Mickleover Golf Club) Guest Speaker isIan Rogerson: ‘Smile - please say cheese’ -A talk with sample-tasting.

Extendedvisit to ‘English Riviera’ (Dartmouth andTorquay).

Theatre Visit to RegentTheatre, Stoke - Booking form in this issue.

Outing to Whitby andNorth York Moors Railway - Booking form inthis issue.

Newsletter February 2020

The Plant HuntersBy Bill Grange

At our coffee morning of 12th November,John Hawkins gave an interesting illus-trated talk about the several intrepid men(yes, they were all men) from Europewho, over the last twohundred years or sotravelled to then re-mote parts of theworld in search ofplant species hithertounknown to science.John explained that,following the last gla-cial period 9000 yearsago, Britain lost theland bridge with theContinent before manyof the plants from thecontinent were able tocolonise, with the re-sult that comparativelyvery few indigenousplants are found here.Most of the familiarplants in our gardenswere brought here bybrave individuals

John is from Alfreton but has lived inFindern for the last 50 years. Although hewas a mechanical engineer, working atRolls-Royce on the Trent engine, he hasbeen, from the age of ten, unusually for ayoung boy, been interested in gardeningand was given a patch in his parent’sgarden to cultivate.

This is mirrored by John’s first mentionedplant hunter, the great Swedish botanist,

Carl Linnaeus (1707 – 1778), who wasgiven such a plot at the much earlier ageof five. Linnaeus is famous for devisingthe binomial system for the scientificnames of plants and animals, where thegenus comes first, followed by the spe-cies, as in Homo sapiens. Linnaeus himselfdidn’t travel too widely, the most intrepid

plant expedition he un-dertook himself beingto Swedish Lapland inthe far north of hiscountry. However, hesent several ‘disciples’all over the world tolook for plants. In theeighteenth century, es-pecially, this was a dan-gerous undertakingand therefore, the peo-ple he sent had no fam-ilies or were from poorbackgrounds! As ithappened, nine menout of his nineteenplant hunters, diedfrom accidents and dis-ease. Linnaeus namedmany of the plants af-ter them, so some com-pensation, I suppose?

John then talked about other plant hunt-ers, in chronological order, from the 18th

century to the early 19th . One of the moreinteresting was Capt. William Bligh of‘Mutiny on the Bounty’ fame. In 1787,Bligh and crew set sail from England toTahiti on a mission to collect breadfruittrees (which had been known to Europe-an explorers since the 1500s). The planwas to take them to the Caribbean Islands

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Carl Linnaeus in his Swedish Lapland Explo-ration garb. He is holding a Twinflower plantfrom that region, to which he gave scientificname of .

Newsletter February 20204where breadfruit was wanted for experi-ments to see whether it would be a suc-cessful food crop for  African  slaves onthe British colonial plantations there.However, mutiny broke out on boardsoon after the ship left Tahiti and Blighand some of his crew were set adrift in alaunch, eventually reachingsafety in Timor, over 3.600miles away!

An interesting interlude en-sued when our member, SueChristian, revealed that shewas a descendent of the chiefmutineer, Fletcher Christian!

After he returned to England,in 1791, Bligh set off againfor Tahiti on boardthe  Providence. This time hecollected 2,126 breadfruitseedlings, of which 678 sur-vived the voyage to the Car-ibbean. Alas, the highlynutritious fruit was not pop-ular with the slaves, who fedthem to their pigs!

There is a connection between Bligh andthe next plant hunter, Joseph Banks(1743 – 1820), as it he that suggested thebreadfruit project to George III. Banksfrom a wealthy family was born in Lon-don, but had Derbyshire connections inthat he inherited Overton Hall, nearAshover, where he frequently stayed. Hisgreatest claim to fame was being the chiefscientist, at the age of 24, on James’Cook’s first voyage to the other side ofthe world on the Endeavour, having con-tributed £10.000 to the expedition. InAustralia alone he found 3,600 plant spe-

cies, mainly at a location near present-daySydney, which he appropriately named‘Botany Bay’, later to become notorious asa penal colony. The plants closely associ-ated with Banks is the genus of showyplants, some of which he found at BotanyBay, and named Banksia in his honour. He

later became director of theRoyal Botanical Gardens atKew and greatly expanded therange of plant species there bysending out other plant hunt-ers, just as Linnaeus had donebefore him.

David Douglas (1799 –1834) was a Scot who, at aged11, was a gardener at SconePalace near Perth. He was aclose associate of JosephBanks, who sent Douglas toNorth America on several ex-peditions between 1823 and1834. Douglas introducedseveral conifers from Ameri-ca to Britain, many of whichare prominent features of our

gardens and general landscape, includingthe Monterey Pine and Douglas Fir.Among the herbaceous plants he discov-ered were the Russel Lupin and Califor-nian Poppy.

Just to point out the dangers that planthunters faced, Douglas met his death inHawaii by falling into a pit-trap and thenhaving a bull fall on top of him! Murderwas suspected but never proved.

A fellow Scott, Robert Fortune (1812–1880) is best known for introducingaround 250 new ornamental plants, main-ly from China and Japan into the gardens

John HawkinsBy Frank Wilson

Newsletter February 2020 5Castle Howardof Britain. These included the Japanese

Anemone, the shrubs, Weigela florida,Forsythia and winter-flowering Jasmine.He was sent by the Royal HorticulturalSociety which didn’t provide him with afirearm, even though he was travelling insome very dangerous territories. Theytold him that a ‘stout stick’ would suffice!He also employed some horticulturalespionage in smuggling tea plants out ofChina, on behalf of the East India Com-pany, to the British colony of Assam, inorder to make tea available at a low priceto the ‘masses’ in Britain.

George Forrest (1873 –1932) was anoth-er Scot who became one of the first west-ern explorers of  China's then remotesouthwestern province of Yunnan, gener-ally regarded as the most biodiverse prov-ince of that country. Forrest wassponsored by Arthur K Bulley, founder ofthe famous Ness Gardens near Liverpool.Among the plants that Forrest discovered

was the striking candelabra primula,which he called Primula bulleyana after hissponsor but many others among the nu-merous plants that he discovered bear hisown name. Forrest almost died when hisencampment in Yunnan was attacked byTibetans, during the rebellion of 1905,Forrest being the only person in his partyto survive. He was to die following a heartattack while on a game hunting trip inChina 27 years later.

The Englishman, Ernest Wilson (1876-1930), known as ‘Chinese Wilson’ discov-ered about a thousand plants in that coun-try, including several Rhododendrons. Healso ‘discovered’ the handkerchief tree,Davidia involucrata and the splendid RegalLily. The latter he found in a ravine, wherehe was badly injured in a rock-fall. There-after, Wilson had an awkward gait whichhe called his ‘lily limp’. He was to die in amotor accident in the U.S.A.

The Cover Picture…

…is of Forsythia, in full flower inspring, seen through our kitchen windowin Allestree, Derby.

As mentioned above, John Hawkin’s toldus that Forsysthia, named after WilliamForsyth, a royal head gardener and afounding member of the Royal Horticul-tural Society, was brought to Britain byplant-hunter Robert Fortune from Chinain the 19th century. It has become a pop-ular garden shrub here, especially as itprovides a splash of colour in earlyspring, when little else is in flower.

Well, it isn’t popular with everyone!Diana, my wife, although liking the flow-ers in spring isn’t too fond of the shrubduring the summer, after the flowershave finished and we are left with a ratherboring-looking bush which partiallyblocks the view of the garden from thehouse.

I have cut it back to please her, but itsoon re-grows with great vigour, neces-sitating further frequent pruning's.

Mr. Hawkins is of the same mind asDiana and doesn't have Forsythia in hisgarden for the same reason!

Newsletter February 2020

A Southern IslandRetreat?By Rick Horth

Perhaps a tropical, palm covered, breezecaressed island comes to mind ? WellHayling Island, near Portsmouth, in No-vember has some similarities to that im-age. It is connected to the mainland by acauseway across which our intrepid groupof adventurers from CODRTs travelledby coach from Derby to stay at Warner'sSinah Warren Hotel for a long weekendfrom the 22nd to 25th November.

Sinah Warren started life as a "healthfarm", run by Monks, in the late 15thCentury. The origin of the name ‘Sinah’has raised much debate. One proposedtheory suggests Sinah was the name of aherb used to cure a wide range of ail-ments. The other says that Sinah was oncea breed of long-tailed rabbit, hence SinahWarren. Which is correct? - your choice.

The hotel makes a point of welcomingpeople 'of a certain age'. Our party quali-fied, with some room to spare, and weregreeted on arrival by hotel staff who cameto the coach with room keys and offers totake our luggage to the rooms.

The hotel offered four-star accommoda-tion with bed, breakfast and evening mealin a garden setting. Activities offered in-cluded quizzes during the day, a gym andswimming pool. The entertainment in-cluded films in the evening, musicians inthe bars but the main event was the caba-ret theatre for you to be entertained ordance as the fancy took you.

If that was not enough, an invigoratingdip in the sea was there for the taking !

Portsmouth1. The Mary RoseBy Bill Grange

There were two outings arranged for usduring the weekend by Viking Travel. Onthe first full day we were taken by ourcoach to nearby Portsmouth, now a ratherbrash high-rise city, but where much ofthe the old naval dockyard is still as it was.

Until recently, Nelson’s flagship, Victory,was the reason most people visited therebut now it has a rival in the shape of heremains of The Mary Rose, the pride ofHenry VIII’s navy, which keeled over andsank in Portsmouth Harbour during abattle with French ships, in 1542, withabout 500 men on board. It lay in the mudof the harbour until 1982, when an ambi-tious operation was mounted to raise it, asmany of you will remember from thedramatic television coverage of the time.

Actually, only half of the ship survived,the part not buried by the mud havingrotted away. It was a long and arduousconservation operation, involving replac-ing the water in the timbers with wax,taking many years. Now, the ship is opento public view, housed in a boat-shapedmuseum, right next to the Victory.

Diana and I had long wanted to visit theMary Rose and we weren’t disappointed.The remains, mounted in an upright posi-tion are overwhelmingly impressive. Themuseum is cleverly designed in severalstories, platforms at the various levels,

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Newsletter February 2020 7

- The coast and marshes seen from the hotel;The hotel frontage; The Mary Rose - Model of the ship; the preserved survivingpart; various artefacts and a cannon; Reconstructed skeleton of one of the sailors;Bust of Margaret Rule, Project Leader of the Mary Rose excavation,1982.Photos by Bill Grange

Newsletter February 2020

giving different views of the inside of theship.

Displays of the many thousands of theartefacts recovered from the wreck, to-gether with excellent audiovisuals makefor an unforgettable experience. Amongthe objects are weapons, including someof the cannons, bows and arrows, etc.,also drinking and eating vessels and evena fiddle - all beautifully preserved.

There is a reconstruction of the skeletonof one of the sailors but also one of theship’s dog - especially poignant. A displayshowing the various medical conditionsof some of the crew (ascertained by fo-rensic examination of their bones) wasespecially fascinating.

Portsmouth2. The Overlord EmbroideryBy Barbara Netherwoodand Dorothy Fearnside

We spent overtwo hours fol-lowing the epicstory of D Day,which is housedIn the D-DayMuseum inSouthsea.

We chose firstto visit the Overlord Embroidery, a mod-ern counterpart to the Bayeux Tapestry.

In the 1960s, Lord Dulverton felt a per-manent record was needed to mark thehistoric D Day events and all those in-volved in them. A young artist, Sandra

Laurence, was commissioned to designthe work, using wartime photographs forreference. The finished piece, comprising34 panels, each eight feet long and threefeet high, was then worked by the RoyalSchool of Needlework and took over fiveyears to complete. The technique usedwas applique, using a variety of fabrics,cords and threads, sympathetic to thetheme of each panel. Some of the faces,e.g. King George V1, Churchill andEisenhower were very clearly identifiable.They had been worked by one lady, in avariety of flesh toned embroidery threadsin long and short stitch.

One Interesting point: when the pipershown on the panel saw himself wearinga helmet, he complained that he had beenwearing a beret! The embroidered headwas sent back to the Royal School ofNeedlework and the helmet was replacedby green fabric made from a genuinecommando beret.

Perhaps themost poignantmoment oc-curred as weleft the build-ing. An elderlygentleman,walking slow-ly, asked us tohold open theautomatic

door, as it took him so long to getthrough. He said he was 95 years old anda veteran of D Day. He opened his coatto show us his medals and he said that hehad also been awarded the Legiond'Honneur. He goes once a week to talkto visitors, What an inspiration!

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The Overlord Embroidery

Newsletter February 2020

ChichesterBy Bill Grange

On the Sunday some of us visited Chich-ester, just over the border in West Sussex.Chichester is a pleasant old town, laiddown in a rough grid pattern, reflecting itsRoman origins.

After a cursorylook at the out-side of the cathe-dral, Diana and Ihad a coffee in anold coaching innacross the road,now a Wether-spoon. We thenenjoyed a slowwalk through the town, at first in sun-shine, before the weather reverted to thedull dampish weather which was thenorm for the weekend. We passed thefocal point of the town, its rather splendidmarket cross, dating from 1501, standingat the main crossroads. Unfortunately, avery unsuitable modern building standsbehind it. Alas, Derby isn’t the only oldtown which has suffered from unfortu-nate planning decisions!

We saw two more notable features in thetown, a substantial part of the Roman walland a dominant neoclassical buildingalong the main street, looking like a Greektemple, formerly the Corn Exchange andnow a shopping centre.

We returned to the cathedral. It is amongof the smaller of English cathedrals andnot overwhelmingly impressive. Therehas been much restoration over the years,so its exterior lacks the patina of age of

many others. The beautiful central towerand spire are, in fact, wholly Victorian.The medieval ones completely collapsedin 1861 and were rebuilt in imitation ofthe originals by the acclaimed architect,George Gilbert Scott (of St. Pancras Sta-tion fame).

A unique featureis the detached15th century belltower, now look-ing rather for-lorn, as it isswathed in net-ting to containthe flakes of ma-sonry which areregularly fallingoff it!

Inside, the cathedral is rather plain and, tome, doesn’t have the ‘wow factor’ ofmany others. It is of interest to architec-tural historians, though, as much of itdates from the late 12th century, when theround arches of the Norman period weregiving way to the pointed ones of theEarly English. Behind the high altar is ahighly coloured semi-abstract tapestry byJohn Piper, done in 1966. I had first seenthis not long after it was installed anddidn’t much like it then. I liked it a bitbetter on my second viewing!

However, I was really impressed by twopieces of sculpture, on the wall of thesouth choir aisle. These are in the form ofpanels, dating from the Norman period,representing two episodes in the life ofChrist. They are very sophisticated in de-sign and among the finest examples oftheir kind and date in Britain.

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‘The Chichester Canal’ by W. M. TurnerThe cathedral in the distance on the right

Newsletter February 202010

- The Market Cross; Part of the Romanwall; The main Street; The Cathedral exterior; The detached bell tower; TheCathedral interior from the choir; Main window in the south transept; The JohnPiper altar screen; Various sculpture, including the Norman panel depicting theRaising of Lazarus, and a modern one of a young Elizabeth II on the west front.Photos by Bill Grange

Newsletter February 2020

From Russia with LoveBy Val Holmes

On Monday, 6th, January, some 54 re-tired teachers and friends sat down atMickleover Golf Club to enjoy an excel-lent meal followed by anexcellent talk by Dr. CathyMcAteer, making a returnvisit. Her topic was on herfavourite theme, Russia, en-titled ‘From Russia withLove’.  She had brought anarray of objects relating toher talk, from a Russiandoll to a temptingly warmfur hat.  Cathy is not Russiabut for 30 years has im-mersed herself in all thingsRussian and appropriatelytwelfth night here is Christ-mas Eve in the Russian cal-endar.

Introducing her Russiandisplay, she noted that thefur hat was necessary forminus 40 degrees in Mos-cow, whilst in Uzbekistanon the other side of the country it couldbe plus 40 degrees.  She said that Russiais a land of colour and not the bleak,dismal image people imagine.

She feels Russia is part of her DNA andis passionate in all things Russianbut many Britons have given muchthought to Russia. For example, WinstonChurchill said “Russia is a riddle inside anenigma.” And this is exemplified by thelayers of a Russian Doll.

In order to understand Russia, saidCathy, just look at their rulers from theVikings, then  Ivan the Terrible (wholoved to drop puppies, one by one froma high point and was responsible forthousands of murders);  to Peter the

Great who brought Europeinto Russia (but who tor-tured and murdered hisown son.).  Then of coursethere was Catherine theGreat who was born inGermany but who carriedon where Peter left off andwho introduced French at-titudes, until the FrenchRevolution put a stop tothat. And all the time serf-dom existed for hundredsof years;  serfs who lived insqualor and laboured for norewards and whose childrenwere sold off to createmore serfs.

Then, in 1917, came Leninand Stalin and there fol-lowed the bad times in Rus-sian history:  21 millionspeople purged and millions

dead in WW1.  It was Stalin and thehorror of WW2 that created the Terror.But Cathy noted on her visits to Russiathat roses still appear on Stalin’s grave tothis day.  But this period also providedmore food, electricity and accommoda-tion.  Previously, the average family livedin one room, sharing bathroom, toiletand kitchen with four or five other fami-lies.

The present leader, Vladimir Putin, isvery popular because he has introduced

Cathy McAteerFrank Wilson

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Newsletter February 2020

mortgages so people can buy more spaceand privacy.  Russia now has a new faceafter the collapse of communism andnow many Western companies have setup businesses in Russia and WIFI isavailable everywhere. It must be realisedthat Russia is a huge country with around143 million people and over one hundredethnicities.

Another aspect that Cathy emphasisedwas the love of Russians for culture andrefinement: their poetry, their art, balletand music.  But it is also the third mostdangerous country for journalists whospeak the truth.  So Russia is a country ofcontrasts and contradictions...ugly high-rise blocks and glorious beautifulchurches. It produces brilliant engineersand scientists but at the same time full ofsuperstitions such as carrying rock salt toavoid bad luck....and never put a bag onthe floor...and black cats bring bad luck.They celebrate New Year with a specialmeal of a thick, sticky substance whenyou take a spoon-full and throw a dollopat the ceiling for good luck.

Behind closed doors Russians love goodhumour and they enjoy Britishhumour. They also have the impressionthat all English people take afternoon tea!Cathy told us she had first visited Russiaat a time of transition:  once there hadbeen bread queues and nothing to buy atthe end.  Now much has changed sincethose bad times. But if you are invitedinto someone’s home, be careful whatyou admire as they will want to give it toyou.  So Cathy said she was always careful

not to admire their sofa!   She was alwaystreated with enormous hospitality;  herhosts often spending nearly all their mon-ey to feed her as their guest. Cathy ad-mired their wonderful undergroundmetro stations full of art, murals andsparkling chandeliers and spotlessly clean.

But she spoke of another aspect of Rus-sian life.   After a while of living there yourealise the effect of drinking too muchvodka!  (Vodka means “little water”).Over 40% of  Russians make their own.She attended a Cossack wedding  onceand drank 96% strength vodka!   Thosewho drink too much in the cold wintermonths collapse when the snow meltsand are found dead.

St. Petersburg, founded in 1703 is full ofso much history;  So many palaces, parksand cathedrals. In the parks you see Rus-sians at their best:  they dance, they playchess, they skate in winter.   In the sum-mer they stay out late in the long eve-nings, enjoying  the light nights. Cathywas there when the Britannia arrived tothe excitement of this Czarist city.   Withothers, Cathy had a tour, never met theQueen but was given a task on the ship’sswitchboard.    She wasn’t very good atthis and when it rang, to her confusionshe received a full pizza order from‘OLGA’!

A wonderful talk and much appreciatedby us all, as Rick said in his elegant thank-you speech.

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