General Interest - Regular features and spotlights on organisations

Winter 2000

A country tale - Caring for others - Busy time at the Leisure Club - THE WIND - The Wildlife Garden - Life behind bars - Post Box - Boom industry - In the jungle with the Mau Mau


A country tale

Once upon a time there was a shepherd looking after his sheep on the edge of a Derbyshire country road. Suddenly a brand new Jeep Cherokee screeches to a halt next to him. The driver, a young man dressed in an expensive suit, posh shoes, Ray‑Ban glasses, and a flashy tie gets out and asks the shepherd: “If I guess how many sheep you have, will you give me one of them?”

The shepherd looks at the young man, then looks at his grazing sheep and says: “All right”.

The young man parks the car, connects his notebook computer to his mobile phone, enters a NASA site, scans the ground using his GPS, opens a data base and 60 Excel tables filled with algorithms, then prints a 150‑pages report on his high‑tech mini‑printer. He then turns to the shepherd and says: “You have exactly 1,586 sheep here”.

Impressed, the shepherd answers that this is correct, and that he can have his sheep. The young man takes the sheep and puts it into the back of his jeep.

But the shepherd then looks at him and asks: “If I guess your profession, will you return my sheep to me?” The young man answers confidently: “Yes, why not”.

The shepherd says: “Well I guess you are a business consultant!” “How did you know?” asks the young man. “Very simple”, answers the shepherd:

“First, you come here without being asked; second, you charge me a sheep to tell me something I already knew; third, you do not understand anything about what I do, because you took my dog!

Ed. With apologies to the original author, whoever they were.


Caring for others

Could you care for others in your home?

Carers are needed for an adult family placement service which provides family based care to people who need support in the community. It gives adults the opportunity to be looked after in the home of a carer for long or short stays, and provides an alternative to residential care.

What type of care is provided?

The adult family placement service provides a range of care: long term care; short term and respite care; day care in the carer’s home; sitting - the carer coming to your home; befriending; escorting.

Who benefits?

The service is available to the following groups of people, e.g: older people (over 65);  adults with learning difficulties, physical disabilities or mental health problems; adults with HIV/AIDS; adults with drug related problems; adults with a stroke or head injury.

They may have difficulty managing on their own or need extra help and support during a difficult time or period of convalescence. Some may need somewhere permanent to live where there is someone to lend a hand. The adult family placement service also benefits their families, giving them a break from their daily routine.

People of all ages and backgrounds can become carers. Some are single and some have families of their own. No formal qualifications are required and you will be provided with full preparation and support. The work is demanding, but very rewarding, and you will be paid an allowance.

If you would like to know more, please contact the: Adult Family Placement Service, Social Services Directorate, Castle Markets, Exchange Street, Sheffield S1 2AH. Or telephone 273 4601.


Busy time at the Leisure Club

A complete list of monthly meeting dates for next year has been prepared, by the new Bradway Agewell Leisure Club, formed for people with time to spare and who like the idea of social meetings in daylight hours. The first meetings were held in the Bradway Scout Centre, but future events will be taking place in the comfortable dining room at The Castle Inn on Twentywell Road.

The club programme will include talks by local and visiting speakers, games and activities, and outings, with the emphasis on creating a meeting place where people can make friends and chat over a cup of tea or coffee, and if they wish, go on to enjoy a special pub lunch.

Club chairman is Mr Barrie Clark, Twentywell Road, with his wife, Mrs Janet Clark as secretary; treasurer Mr Peter Spooner, Longford Road; programme co-ordinator Mr Harry Hibbert, Ladybower Court; and refreshments organiser Miss Doris Pain, Moorview Court.

Talks have already been given by a representative of the Agewell organisation, which is providing initial assistance to the club, and by Harry Hibbert on his experiences of sailing on the war-time Arctic convoys to Russia and life in the Fire Service (see the August edition of the Bugle). At the October meeting, members also agreed unanimously to support the campaign launched by the Parents Association at Sir Harold Jackson Schoo for a Pelican Crossing on Bradway Road.

Membership enquiries can be made to me at 2361327

Roger Davis


THE WIND

Trees bending in subservience
To a greater power
Leaves hurrying away -
Now fast - now slow - but
Moving as if to a will
Stronger than theirs.
Some things silent in
Their going, others noisy
As they pass, but all
Displaced by a source
Unseen - yet felt
The Wind.

K.L.Mettam


The Wildlife Garden

Many gardeners regard berry-bearing plants as simply another means of bringing autumn and winter colour into their gardens, and look for plants offering berries that are ‘long-lasting’ i.e. unpalatable to birds. To achieve this, plants which have sickly coloured berries - anaemic whites, jaundiced yellows, lacklustre pinks and even lurid mauves are grown. Whether it is the flavour or the colour of these fruits that the birds dislike is not known, but whatever the reason, these lifeless berries have no place in the wildlife garden; birds prefer red, purple and black fruits. In the ‘premier league’ of shrubs are those with berries that birds find most palatable and include bramble, Cotoneaster horizontalis, Cotoneaster x watereri; elder, hawthorn, rowan, holly and yew. (Yew has poisonous berries, so any trees should be sited with care and children taught not to eat these, or indeed to sample any berries in general.)

There are, of course, literally thousands of other berry-bearing shrubs and trees and those in the ‘second division’ have fruits which the birds will eat, but only after all the other more choice ones have been taken. These include berberis, other cotoneaster species, honeysuckles, viburnums, crab apples, such as the red fruited ‘John Downie’ and Rosa canina, R. glauca and R. rugosa. Some gardeners may look down their noses at these ‘common’ roses, but as soon as the hips are ripe, they become an irresistible lure to greenfinches, and that alone is surely a good enough reason to grow them.

Although most apples have probably been collected by now and put into storage, any windfalls will provide food for the redwings, thrushes and blackbirds. Even starlings are not adverse to tucking into the soft flesh of these fallen fruits.

So why is it that berries may be eaten by birds in one garden, but totally ignored in another? For instance, blackbirds will literally strip every berry off my Cotoneaster horizontalis bushes by the end of December, while only a few houses away, the same berries may last well into spring. The reasons are complex, but the severity of the weather, the position of the plant, competition for food and just how much disturbance the birds have when feeding may control exactly what is eaten.

Recent work on seed and nut holders has shown how something as trivial as their colour can influence bird behaviour. Researchers have noticed that some species of finches prefer feeding from certain coloured seed-holders, for example goldfinches choose dark green colours, whilst siskins go for red ones. Birds even have seasonal preferences, with most choosing silver coloured feeders in winter and blue ones in summer. I bet the grey squirrels aren’t quite so particular and are only interested in those they can chew their way through, regardless of colour.

Nevertheless, with wild bird numbers declining so rapidly, all of us should try and make an effort to grow one or more of these useful and however, ephemeral, colourful shrubs. Look on the bright side, with red, blue, green and silver coloured bird-feeders hanging on trees in the garden, who needs outdoor Christmas decorations and lights?

No, fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds,-November!

[Thomas Hood]            Maggie Pie


Life behind bars

Batten down the hatches and prepare for a long winter. Business is booming at the Castle for the moment and we look forward to its continuation during the build up to Christmas.

It’s amazing what a difference autumn makes and to see the colours of the trees change and the leaves blowing around puts memories of summer and holidays in the background.

We have decided to operate winter opening hours to coincide with the daylight saving hours (did you all remember to put your clocks back) with slight and almost unnoticeable changes to food availability and bar opening hours. The most noticeable change being Sunday hours which sees us finishing serving food at 7 pm rather than 8pm. (Still no news on the governments plan to change licensing laws)

Not much movement in the area at the moment but we bid a sad farewell to Craig who has moved on to pastures new and we wish him well for the future as we do to Richard who takes on the mantle and the crown of Head Chef.

In the livestock department mention must be made of two of our regular customers in Jake and Holly who have been dying to see their name in print. They are owners of Lindsay and Margaret and they bring them quite regularly to drink at the Castle. Their favourite spot (Jake and Holly’s) not Lindsay and Margaret, is in front of the fire in the Public bar and right homely they make the place look too (Jake and Holly not Lindsay and Margaret). We may even be able to afford to light the fire this year.

David and Beth recently celebrated the birth of their granddaughter in Heckmondwyke and David was seen returning from the christening in his nightshirt!!!! (Don’t know if it’s a Heckmondwyke custom but they can be a funny lot in that part of the world).

More news on the history of the Castle, apparently the Kelham Island brewery has information that the Castle was one of several Beer Houses that were built to supply the workers of the Bradway and Totley tunnels. But we are still not sure of the origin of the name. Watch this space.

Following our rip roaring success in our “POST A TOASTIE” campaign I have been persuaded to develop an initiative that is close to the heart of our present government. To be launched in early January (Government funding permitted) will be the Castle Inn “E – MAIL A MEAL” service which will obviously be aimed primarily at our younger customers but will hopefully prove a good enough incentive for the more mature and computer unfriendly such as myself to dabble with the internet.

I figure that if Argos and the like can send televisions and furniture down a telephone wire then fresh fish and mushy peas will be no obstacle for a fibre optic from the Castle. Watch this space for feedback (and blowback).

Ken Cottrell

Post Box

Dear Sir,

Sparrows are in deep trouble, according to regional surveys and starlings too are in decline. The shrinkage in numbers goes back seven years or so. Strangely, other European countries have thriving populations, city as well as countryside.

Numbers are down by 75%, a steep and worrying fall. In some parts of central London, Birmingham and Glasgow the figure is 95 to 100%, a total goodbye. Inner city Sheffield is thought to be as badly hit.

The “Independent” has offered a £5,000 prize to anyone producing a theory for the reduction that is scientifically feasible. Radio One was besieged on its phone line. The government is to launch a major inquiry into the reasons for the decline. Magpies? Pollution? Fewer insects?

So how about Bradway? I cannot remember what numbers were like ten years ago, but over the last two years we seem to have become an oasis for Sheffield sparrows. Certainly they breed on Rosamund and Everard, and the first young appear on my lawn in late May or early June. Two more broods follow. Mothers and fathers feed the wing fluttering young.

The flock arrives in my garden from the Everards, and surprisingly fast and agile fliers they are too. From early August into autumn we have 20 to 40 birds in the bushes, on the lawn, drinking from the roof gutter and pushing the tits off the nut-holder.

Numbers are good, despite the density of magpies and the local sparrowhawk pair. Nest sites must abound in the district, under roofs. There is lots of shelter in all the shrubbery found in most gardens. Pollution is lower than in the inner city.

Perhaps the key is that there are plenty of insects, which are the food of the young for the first few days, and there are fruits and seeds a plenty to feed the juveniles and adults in Bradway’s gardens. Feeding certainly does no harm at all: bread, scraps, mixed seed, black and striped sunflower seeds.

Nevertheless, whoever would have thought that such a bird would go into the red alert list and have to be written about in terms of protection! All very sad, but our suburb is possibly (so far) one of the most friendly to wildlife in Western Europe. We all, however, need to work hard to keep it that way, which does not just happen naturally!

The Tinker’s Corner swallows had a good year, raising at least two families. At the end of September, a huge mob was swarming round the fields beyond Hall Farm Mews, on either side of the road, around the sheep and horses. There were probably 150, a gathering of all the district’s swallows to feed up and socialise as the hormones to migrate gathered strength. They leave weeks before the supply of airborne insects fails. Sad to say, 1999's successful breeding in the Annexe’s bike-shed was not repeated.

John Kirkman


Boom industry

In Britain rubbish is booming - the amount we produce is doubling every 20 years and we currently landfill more waste than any other European Union country. Britain will be forced by an EU directive  to eventually reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill sites, but it is going to be hard-pressed to meet this target.

In some parts of the country the situation is particularly critical with all the holes in the ground, quarries, sand & gravel pits etc soon to be filled up. Burning more of our rubbish may be one answer but it is notoriously difficult to get planning permission for new incinerators.

After all, would you really want one in your back garden? And then, to make an incinerator economically  viable you have to have a guaranteed input bringing in waste from a wide area leading to increased pollution, more traffic and more fumes.

The Government has now decided to get tough on waste. It has come up with a strategy that sets targets for recycling. Every year we produce 28 million tonnes of household waste - that’s half a tonne per person. Currently 82% of our household waste goes to landfill sites but by 2010 at least a third of all rubbish must be recycled or turned into compost. The amount of biodegradable waste put into landfill sites must also be halved by 2020.

Incinerators can be used to produce energy which saves burning fossil fuels but they also stifle innovation. By  simply burning rubbish we avoid having to find other ways to tackle the problem. In the long run, waste reduction and recycling will prove to be the only acceptable solutions.

We need to see more effort being put into waste reduction rather than disposal but not enough resources are going into finding ways to do this. We need to took at ways of making things out of materials that can be re-used and reducing the amount of packaging. People should be encouraged to recycle and throw less of their rubbish in the bin.

We could all do more Consumers have the choice of buying goods which use recycled materials and many products come in concentrated form to save on packaging. Businesses could also design products that can he recycled more easily and inform  consumers about the recycled content of their products. Supermarkets could offer loyalty points if shoppers recycle glass, paper and cans and if they re-use plastic carrier bags. Local councils could run doorstep collections of recyclable domestic waste. Essex county council is keen to increase recycling and has supported pilot schemes aimed at recycling up to 60% of household waste.

In some other countries householders are charged according to the weight of rubbish collected or by the size of rubbish bin that is used. Even fines for not recycling are commonplace elsewhere in Europe.

If we don’t want the countryside filled up with rubbish and incineration plants, then we need to jump on the recycling bandwagon fast.

Ed. The Council is keen to encourage recycling of green waste ‑ grass cuttings and soft green garden waste, green kitchen waste including vegetable and fruit peel, tea bags and droppings from pets like rabbits and guineapigs. To this end composting bins are available for purchase at a discounted price.

A 220 litre capacity bin is available for £11.75 (including VAT) if collected from the Bernard Road Depot (open Monday to Friday, 9.00 am to 5.00 pm), or for home delivery for an additional £3.75. Further information from the Recycling Office on 273 5506 or 273 5916.


In the jungle with the Mau Mau

During the past year, the wartime adventures of present day Bradway residents who served in the Army, Navy and Airforce have been described in The Bugle by Roger Davis.

In this issue, he writes about a local man who was still at school during the Second World War but has vivid memories of dealing with an ugly riot in Aden, and coming under hostile fire from the Mau Mau rebels in Kenya as a young National Serviceman with the RAF Regiment.

Born in Chesterfield, Graham Cresswell, of Longford Road, Bradway, was called up for two years military service in 1953, as were more than five million youngsters after the end of the war in 1945. Many served overseas, in Germany, the Middle East and the Far East, with 395  killed in such places as Palestine, Cyprus, the Canal Zone, Malaya, Borneo, and Korea.

After basic training at Padgate and Dumfries, Graham was flown out to join an RAF Regiment unit  in Aden, by way of Malta and the Canal Zone. Formed in 1942 to provide ground security on forward RAF bases and landing strips, the Regiment has earned a reputation as a tough and highly trained infantry force.

A recent television programme had some early wartime film of recruits practising with old fashioned but deadly wooden pikes to provide a daunting reception for enemy parachutists, while more up to date coverage from Belfast showed young, blue berreted men of the RAF Regiment on street patrol during the ‘marching season’ disturbances.

Security in the then Aden Protectorate (now The Yemen) was mainly the responsibility of the RAF, with the Regiment providing many of the officers for  the Aden Protectorate Levies. Graham recalls one occasion when he was in a riot squad rushed into the harbour area when fighting broke out between the Somalis and Arabs over jobs at the new oil refinery plants that were then being built.

“The police used tear gas first of all, and then we went in with fixed bayonets and got involved in face-to-face confrontations” he said.

When the Mau Mau rebellion broke out in Kenya, the Army was at full stretch. The farms of isolated settlers were attacked and grim atrocities committed. Graham was with an RAF Regiment detachment defending an airstrip 100 miles north of Nairobi, from where the RAF were flying Harvards on reconnaissance and bombing missions.

The rebels, led by Jomo Kenyata, were operating from bases in the jungle, and Graham and his colleagues went in after them, fully armed with rifles and Sten guns when called in to back up the Army.

With loaded magazines and bullets ‘up the spout’, they were ready for instant action and often came under fire.

“We  did not know who were the Mau Mau members in the towns and villages we visited. The Mau Mau were armed with a motley collection of weapons, things they could steal, and home made guns which worried us. They were made from pieces of steel tubing ,a wooden butt, and a piece of nail to detonate the bullet. Because the guns did not have proper rifle barrels, the bullets often came out sideways when they were fired, and were effective over only a few yards. If anyone was hit, it was like being wounded with a dum-dum bullet. Very nasty!”

“We went out on jungle patrols for a full day at a time. Shots were often fired at us and we fired back. I will always remember being on guard duty at the air strip and watching the sun rise over snow-capped Mount Kenya. I can understand the feelings of two Italian prisoners of war who escaped from their camp in the area during the war for the sole purpose of climbing the mountain. With their mission accomplished, they returned to camp”.

Demobbed with the rank of Senior Aircraftsman, Graham spent two years with the Derbyshire  Police, stationed at Ilkeston, and then moved south to become road safety officer for Harlow New Town. He was then appointed road safety officer for Sheffield, and three years later took up a similar position with South Yorkshire County Council, working in Doncaster, Barnsley and Rotherham. With the end of the county council, Graham took early retirement.

A Scout Leader for 20 years with the Bradway Group, starting in 1973, he became District Scout Leader for Sheaf District, and later Group Scout Leader at St James, Norton.. He was awarded the movement’s Wood Badge, the Long  Service Award, and the Medal of Merit.

Now 65, Graham has camped and caravanned extensively in this country and on the Continent, and has a great interest in the First World War battlefields in France. He also enjoys walking in North Derbyshire, and playing badminton, and until recently was a well known dog walking figure in the Bradway community, having owned two successive King Charles Spaniels, both of which were naturally called ‘Charlie’.

Roger Davis


Go to Bradway Bugle Past Issues


Opinions expressed in articles & services offered by advertisers are not necessarily endorsed by the publishers.

Text  © Copyright
Village Publications 2000

Web site maintenance by
Stratton & English Software Ltd.