A red letter day here in Frampton! Having returned from my hunter gatherer role the door bell rang (I had braved the supermarket!) There was my Beer delivery from a local brewery, just as I was carrying it in inside the postman came with a parcel! This was our lockdown treat-it contained for me this year’s Wisden and for Clare The Mirror and Light. (by the way it was not an Amazon delivery we try avoid them!) I’ve already started to read the Wisden (2019 was a special year for cricket!) It is probably the nearest I will get to any cricket this summer-ironically I had been to several net sessions in February and early March.
I promised some more on St Helena and the Saints(Napoleon will appear in a later blog not literally!)
I was going out with a Headteacher colleague to work with the island’s education service and schools with a remit to help develop literacy work in schools (there was one secondary school and a number of first and middle schools.)
The first Saints I met were on Ascension Island. They were the main labour force on the island (including the air base)and spent years on Ascension before going home. Many of them were interested in us and knew about us going out to St Helena.
“There were no indigenous people on St Helena when the first European landed in 1502. So the Saints are a mix of the people who have visited the island over the last 500 years and they are from all around the world. Much of the island’s fortifications were built by Chinese Labour, obviously many European sailors and soldiers have ended up on the island. When Britain outlawed the Slave Trade in the 19th century many slave ships were intercepted by the Royal Navy and the slaves were taken to St Helena. Boer prisoners ended up on the island at the beginning of the 20th century as well.
The Saints were cheerful and welcoming. The population at that time was just over 5,000. I was invited to many houses for generous meals. When we were running training days we heard much about their anxieties one was they did not have full British citizenship (but shamefully the British armed forces recruited from the island-so you could die for Britain but not be welcomed in Britain). I was incensed by this and vowed I would take up their cause when I got home. Lucky for them the new Blair Government was aware of this injustice. I did write to my MP David Drew and was delighted when he sent me a copy of Hansard when full citizenship was granted it had a lovely quote from the end of the debate “…… there will be dancing in the streets of Jamestown tonight…….”
Many were obsessed by football and the Premier League and couldn’t understand why I supported Luton “……yes but Bill who is your Premier League team?” Later back in the UK I did take two young Saints to a Premier League game at Villa Park they were amazed they were in a crowd 7 times the island’s population! The picture below is Harford Primary School St Helena that I found on the internet I did visit this school a few times while I was there.
Yesterday’s answers on speed.
a) The sailfish is the fastest fish b) 9.58 seconds and 10.49 are the male and female world records for the 100 metres c) The fastest goal was 2.4 seconds by Nawaf Al Abed (there is some dispute on this) d) 54 balls for the fastest Test Century e) Mallard holds the record for the fastest steam train at 126 mph
Today’s Quiz is on Books as they featured in my blog today
a) Up to how many books can be made from one tree? b) What charity did J.M. Barrie give the rights of Peter Pan to? c) The three most read books in the world are The Bible, The words of Mao tse-Tung and???????? d) What is John Le Carre’s real name? e) Who printed the first published book?