Eye- 04 February 2011

From Snowdrops to Senate House

Snowdrop Sunday

The photograph of their snowdrops on our front cover has prompted Eye to congratulate Ettington Meeting, near Stratford-Upon-Avon, on their creative outreach work.

The meeting has a beautiful garden and ex-burial ground which is covered in snowdrops at this time of year. Our Friend Jill Boucher tells Eye that in early February they open for ‘Snowdrop Sunday’ as a form of outreach, making the Meeting house accessible and welcoming and inviting people from the village to visit.It has become an annual event.

This year ‘Snowdrop Sunday’ is 6 February.

The single-roomed Meeting House has a flagstone floor and was built between 1681 and 1684 on land bequeathed by Samuel Lucas. The rush matting insulation on the walls has been there for 200 years. Members of the meeting have recently learned how to do the weaving to repair it.

The Ministry of Truth
Our Friend Bill Chadkirk enjoyed the feature on architect Charles Holden (28 January) and has reminded Eye that Holden’s Senate House building, in Bloomsbury, was the inspiration for a very famous fictional location.

It is believed that George Orwell used the Art Deco building, constructed between 1932 and 1937, as the model for the sinister ‘Ministry of Truth’ in his novel Nineteen Eighty – Four.

During the second world war Orwell worked for the government Ministry of Information, which was based at Senate House. His wife was also based in the building. She worked for the censorship department of the ministry.

Orwell writes of the Ministry of Truth in Nineteen Eighty-Four: ‘It was an enormous pyramidal structure of glittering white concrete, soaring up, terrace after terrace, 300 metres into the air.’

Holden may have enjoyed the irony in this. He would have been very familiar, from attending Quaker meetings, with the phrase ‘speak truth to power’.
Orwell knew, more than most people, how those in power do not always speak the truth.

Birthday greetings
Eye sends good wishes to Mary Bradley, who celebrates her 100th birthday on 8 February.

Her daughter Ruth Bentley reminds Eye that in 1955 Mary, with her late husband Allen and their three youngest children, Peter, Paul and Ruth, left the UK for Kenya, where they founded Friends School Kamusinga, a secondary school in western Kenya.

Ruth writes: ‘The school had to be built from scratch as there was only a cornfield and an old mud-walled, thatched church when they arrived. Secondary education was in such demand that there were 200 applicants for every place when the school opened. Today the school is recognised as one of the best schools in Kenya. Mary still chuckles about the challenges of moving to Kenya in the 1950s and frequently reverts to Swahili phrases when faced with perplexity!’

The family later moved to Rothwell in Northamptonshire where, in 1978, Mary became its first female mayor.

Peace making initiative rewarded
Eye’s attention was drawn this week to a school in Leicester where the practice of giving stickers to encourage good behaviour took a notably Quaker turn.

Rachel Carmichael of Leicester Meeting reports that her nine-year-old grandson, Connor, was awarded a gold star for peacemaking in the playground. When he noticed a fight taking place he promptly sought help to bring about a peaceful resolution. He was rewarded with a sticker later that day.

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Comments

Photographs of the interior of Ettington Meeting House which show the probably unique rush matting are at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/qmh/5054078268/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/qmh/5053461609/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/qmh/5054084064/

By John H on 4th February 2011 - 10:32

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