Looking out from the inside
We share with you a collection of She And The Cat’s Mother, most popular content published within the first one-hundred days of our MONTHLY Recollections eMagazines, true-life stories that spotlight innovation, invigoration, even celebration, they include:
(2) Refurbishment of The Playhouse Theatre, Pateley Bridge, North Yorkshire
(3) Keith Mothersdale’s lightning FAST fibre broadband from a garden shed in Yorkshire Dales
(4) BOOK REVIEW of Jeremy Clarkson’s Diddly Squat: A Year on the Farm
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“Radio Witham, one of my proudest missions” by instigator and founder, Gwen Barker (nee Hullah); as featured within, She And The Cat’s Mother Monthly Recollections eMagazine (January 2022 | issue 003);
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“Being the instigator of Radio Witham, Grantham Hospital’s Radio Station, which took two years of research to gaining support of Matron, Mrs Hutchinson and the League of Friends; thereafter, three months trial, leading officially to the opening by-way of intercepting into the BBC; British Broadcasting Corporation (approved in 1976);
“as interviewer and broadcaster, later station manager, my favourite well-known people who visited Grantham were Quintin Hogg QC waspishly witty; Ken Dodd comedian and singer/songwriter a little vulgar to start with; Willie Rushton writer/actor droll, easy to talk to; and last but not least, Margaret Thatcher then the Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party when she did a flying visit back to her home town after many, many years;
“the lady kindly gave me three minutes to interview her (reel to reel recorder); she had Bank Holiday blue eyes, small manoeuvring hands, glamorous legs with well turned ankles her voice, I also remember was a trifle high. Denis, meanwhile, looked at me as though I was a damp baby!”
– Gwen Barker (nee Hullah), instigator and founder of Radio Witham; and station manager from 1978 to 1987
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EXTRAS (from this Radio Witham feature) published within, She And The Cat’s Mother MONTHLY Recollections eMagazine; January 2022 (issue 003) include:
🔹 Gwen’s 4 paged document, title: FRAME-WORK OF HOSPITAL INTERNAL RADIO SYSTEM outlined in 1981;
🔹 Radio Witham programme leaflet from 1977 introducing hospital patients to the broadcasting team;
🔹 a “Request Form” kindly printed for free by the Grantham Journal for Radio Witham listeners;
NOTE: black and white photograph of Radio Witham members from 1977, courtesy of Grantham Matters at granthammatters.co.uk
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Refurbishment of The Playhouse theatre, Pateley Bridge
Here’s a brief visual LOOK-BACK at, She And The Cat’s Mother first special feature within our MONTHLY Recollections eMagazine (November 2021 | issue 001);
visiting, The Playhouse theatre in Pateley Bridge, North Yorkshire during its on-going refurbishment project
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Keith Mothersdale’s lightning FAST fibre broadband from a garden shed in Yorkshire Dales
Here is the typed text by Gwen Hullah, titled, “Leaving a scorch mark 9,421 megabits per second all from a garden shed in the Yorkshire Dales”; as featured within, She And The Cat’s Mother Monthly Recollections eMagazine (January 2022 | issue 003);
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Frustrated by the slow internet connection in the Ribble Valley, Keith Mothersdale (KM) a resident a semi-retired telecommunications expert, vowed to drag Rathmell villagers (population 305) into the 21st century;
The innovation came about when KM upgraded his own home connection making it 194 times faster than the national average, and more than 83,000 times speedier than the slowest in the country KM’s connection is so powerful that when he first tired it out in his home office, his desktop computer started smoking, leaving a scorch mark on the wooden table; motivating him to move his office into the garden shed;
Many rural areas are reliant on broadband coming down copper phone lines, and the village people felt strongly, they were ignored and abandoned by the major broadband providers; to such a degree, KM and a neighbour contacted not-for-profit provider Broadband 4, The Rural North (B4RN) based in nearby Melling; they offered to bring speeds of 1,000 megabits to Rathmell if villagers could raise £85,000 which took two weeks to raise;
Whereupon, a fibre optic cable was brought to the boundary of each home via a box placed opposite the village reading room; stipulation to get the connection, the house-holders had to take on the job of getting it into their homes;
A source said: “KM and other villagers dug trenches for well over two years, digging under dry stonewalls and across the countryside” no job for anyone with a glass back!
The connection costs the villagers of Rathmell £30 a month;
Keith Mothersdale said: “… all the broadband advertising describing lightning fast fibre broadband then you see at the bottom of the screen speeds up 65Mb. Well after a bit more testing of my home broadband and thanks to my amazing internet service provider (B4RN) here in the rural North I managed 9,421Mb download and 7,278Mb upload. See below speed test. Now that is lightning fast fibre broadband.”
– facebook.com/keith.mothersdale
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NOTE: photograph of Rathmell village from a Hot Air Balloon courtesy of Airborne Adventures based in Skipton; pictured: Keith Mothersdale courtesy of fb.com/keith.mothersdale
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Book Review: “Jeremy Clarkson’s Diddly Squat: A Year on the Farm”
As published within, She And The Cat’s Mother MONTHLY Recollections eMagazine (December 2021 | issue 002); reviewer: Gwen Hullah;
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My interest had only been casual towards the notorious motor-manic-man, until Ida, on the day of my birthday, presented me with Jeremy Clarkson’s latest book, (displayed on ASDA’s bookshelf), headed and titled:
Jeremy Clarkson Diddly Squat
Apparently, it was the subtitle, “A Year on the Farm” that had caught her eye – myself coming from farming-stock – consequently, either because of that, or inspite of that, Ida knew I wasn’t a “Top Gear” viewer; to my mind, at that time, JC appeared to be too much of a show-off. A man with interested eyes, who didn’t like to be edged into the background, and like many Yorkshire men, they can never suck … they always crunch a boiled sweet! I know. I was married to one for many years.
Unwrapping, seeing the nature of my present, I tried to find words to match my feelings. It was impossible. My mind’s eye recaptured the image of JC rounding-up a flock of sheep – not with a trained border collie but with an amplified “barking” drone! Which scared them half to death; causing them to stampede towards the stonewall and wildly attempt to climb-up jump-up and over as a route of escape.
Had Jeremy Clarkson looked over his shoulder, he would have seen the daughters and sons of Adam awakening, leaning in as ghosts …
— Gwen Hullah
Pulling myself together, not wanting to put the damper across – I asked myself, where would a fresh moneyed man smelling of motor oil see his future prospects in farming; when even family-tree country-hardihoods still find it hard to wrestle with, one way or another?
So while my splendid daughter, Ida, laid the tea-table – plated ham sandwiches laced with peppery leaves, portioned the sherry trifle, decorated the chocolate cake with a lit candle before she went off to brew a pot of tea, this book had to be read!
And, the more pages I turned over, the more I recognised JC as a showman. A stylist with quizzical attention towards many walks of life, although prone to having a disposition to exaggeration – particularly numbers, where as real farmers are always reticent where numbers are concerned. It’s to do with not tempting providence or the weather; nevertheless, JC’s written words are well worth reading, they’re full of good, solid reasoning, and, his grasp of farming is coming on …
JC will do well, no doubt about that.
In his own words, the man states:
Quote, “I’ve learned over the previous twelve months and know – that I am going to stick around.” Unquote.
— Jeremy Clarkson
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🔴 NEWS: the above articles are due to be re-published in full within a paperback book by She And The Cat’s Mother (scheduled release date is September 2027).
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