Withernwick Village Website

Withernwick Village Website
The Website for Withernwick people and anyone else

Hobbies, Activities and Interests

The idea of this section is that people can share their interests with other people. Maybe you just want people to know a bit about you or possibly you might just find someone who shares your interest. Don't be shy, let us know what you get up to or got up to in the past - anything (almost) that you want.

Mysterium Ingenii - by Deborah Sutcliffe

Happy who can spend time out of mind weaving the empty air into peculiar beauties so that people, who see enough daily uniformity, can escape for a half-hour.

For more information vist our website - click here

                                                                              To right the whole cast

The Escape

The Plague

1960's and 1970's Rock Music - by Paul Boyle

As you can see from the highly embarrassing photo, I was a teenager in the 1970's. The photo is actually taken in 1976, hence the hair, the flares and the car. Music was a big thing to most youngsters in those days, indeed it was a very central part of most young people's lives - I was no exception.
Taste was very cliquey and I was into rock music in particular a brand called Prog Rock. My heroes were King Crimson, Yes, Jethro Tull and many others. Of course the only real format was vinyl, and my friends and I were often seen carrying an HMV bag with the latest album, it was almost like a badge of belonging. The record sleeves were always a big part of the experience a piece of art 12 inches square is world more exciting than a CD cover.

Well I still love the music of this era, although I have now widened my interests to other areas of rock music but still mostly restricted to the late 1960's and early 1970's. I still have my original 1976 Technics record deck which still works brilliantly, and still about 300 vinyl albums to play on it. I can now, of course, play CDs, and although the

sleeve art is no where near as exciting, they are very convenient. Also the modern world of the internet as turned out to be a real boon - I can find all of my heroes on YouTube - I have not caught it out yet. Occasionally I get to see my heroes live, last year I got to see Van Der Graf Generator, Focus, Wishbone Ash and Groundhogs - of course most of the artists and now picking up their pensions and the audience is 99% 50+ male. Well I will unashamedly carry on in my own particular time-warp - I don't possess the hair, the flares or the 1969 Ford Escort anymore - but the music will live forever if I have my way!

For any more geeks out there, here are my 10 desert island discs, in no particular order (and, yes, I have cheated by having albums rather than songs, but we never bought singles).

Lark's Tongues in Aspic - King Crimson (1973) (Pictured right)
Close to the Edge - Yes (1972)
Stand Up - Jethro Tull (1969)
Who's Next - The Who (1971)
Pawn Hearts - Van Der Graf Generator (1971)
For You Pleasure - Roxy Music (1973)
Selling England by the Pound - Genesis (1973)
Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti (1975)
John Barleycorn Must Die - Traffic (1970)
Moving Waves - Focus (1971)

Pat and The Beatles - by Pat Pye

It was 1963 and I was aged 20, I still lived in the town where I was born - Wolverhampton (hence the strange accent which I have in common with Paul Boyle!).
At the time I worked for a company called Midland Aluminium making Swan brand teapots (does anyone have one of those lurking in a cupboard, just think I may have made it! - see below). I earned £4 12s a week at the time.
Like 99.9% of other young people of the time my life had been changed by the appearance of the Beatles. In November I heard that they were coming to play at the Gaumont Cinema (picture on the left, inevitably it is now the site of a Wilkinson's store).
The concert was to be on the 19th November 1963 and in order to get a ticket I queued from 7pm the night before (I may well be in

the photo on the right which is of the queue outside the Gaumont). I had been at work in the afternoon and my boss had threaten to sack anyone who did not turn up for work the next day, but they would have had to sack every youngster, so never carried out the threat. I got to the concert and did indeed see The Beatles but I did not hear much due to the deafening hysterical screaming. It seems The Beatles had appeared at the Gaumont on 14th March that year before they were really famous, they were indeed supporting Tommy Roe and Chris Montez and people listened attentively and applauded appreciatively. In

the mean time The Beatles had had two number ones, From Me to You (April) and She Loves You (Aug), hence their fame had shot up exponentially and so consequently the behaviour of the audience changed by the time I saw them, but hardly heard them above the screaming.
Well I guess most people have been to some concert or other, but I suspect seeing The Beatles is a bit special, has anyone else seen them?

A Swan brand teapot with an actual spout put on by me!

Indeed The Beatles did play Hull on three occasions:
12th Feb 1963 The Majestic
24th Nov 1963 The Rialto
16th Oct 1964 The ABC

So I am sure some local people of a "certain age" might well have seen them also - let us know.

My Musical Interests - by John Witty

The other main interest I have is music, an interest which started many years ago. On the 8th May 1964 I was lucky enough to see the Rolling Stones, who'd just had a hit with Let's Spend the Night Together, at Bridlington Spa. The photo on the left is of the Stones just before they went on stage on this actual occasion. If I remember correctly it cost me the princely sum of £1.
ightly later I did see Elton John before he was especially famous and before hair-implants - there was just him and his black Yamaha piano.

More recently I have got to see many of my newer heroes such as Katherine Jenkins, Hayley Westenra and Faryl Smith.

On 29th November 2007 I was at the Viva La Diva show at the O2 Arena. The show combined the talents of Katherine Jenkins and Darcy Bussell.
After the show I was lucky enough, after the show, to get to meet Katherine Jenkins - such a lovely person as well as a superb singer.

Then again, on Saturday 27th June I followed the instructions of his trusty SATNAV all the way to Gloucestershire. Indeed to Gatcombe Park the home of HRH Princess Anne (once a frequent visitor to our humble village).

The reason for this trek was to see his great heroine Katherine Jenkins.

Needless to say he was not disappointed, beautiful weather, a beautiful place, a beautiful looking woman and, of course, a beautiful singer.

My K4 Racing Bike - by John

Well as you can see by the photo on the right, it requires a fair bit of imagination to picture what my Honda CB350K4 racer would look like in its original pristine condition.

I got this pile of 'junk' as spare parts to another K4 racer I bought back in 1990 - the other I have long since sold on. Anyway, in effect I got this lot for free.

It was originally made in 1971. I do hope to have it up and running by April 2010, and by then it should be worth about £3000-£4000. I'll keep you up with how the restoration is going but on the left is a photo of something like it will be when finished. I hope it will be up and running by April 2010.

Well it's very nearly April 2010 (March 2010) and the bike isn't quite finished. I have got somewhere with it and below are some new photos to prove I haven't spent all of my spare time in the Falcon. Okay it's not quite finished but at least it does look less like a heap of bits and bit more like the photo top left.

Terry Ireland - Withernwick Born Poet

I'm sure many of you remeber Terry, as he was born and brought up in
Withernwick. He certainly recalls many of you such as John Witty, Doreen
and Mid and John.

He is now a keen poet and I would still like to think of Terry as belonging
to Withernwick even though he no longer lives here. I do wonder if he the
only Withernwick poet or maybe there are more of you out there, you
should let me know.

Anyway Click here for a more detailed article on Terry and some links to
his poetry. There is a link to his general poetry but now there are links to
9 poems particularly about Withernwick.

Bempton Cliffs - RSPB site - John Witty

My main interest nowadays is helping out at the RSPB site at Bempton Cliffs (Click here for information).
From March to September I help visitors at the Cliffs and describe the many birds they are looking at - sea birds such as gannets, puffins, razorbills, kittiwakes, guillemots and herring gulls etc. You might also see unusual summer migrants such as stonechat, whinchat and white throat along with predators like kestrels, sparrowhawks and peregrine falcons.
It is certainly worth a visit if you've never been there.
You can also visit Flamborough Head and Bridlington which are both nearby - well worth a day out.

Click here to see John's Bempton Scrapbook.