The picture ….. the school …… and a forest

So, when two of your kids own and run a school in a forest outside Warsaw, there are always pictures.

“Pines is a British Forest School based on the Scandinavian all weather school model and pioneered by British OCN trained Forest School practitioners. 

Our ethos is bred from the belief that risk taking and independent led learning are necessary to successfully support the development of young people. 

Our core principle places community at the centre of everything we do. 

We focus on the relationship between our learners and the natural world whilst promoting holistic learning. 

This approach guides our learners toward becoming knowledgeable, creative, intelligent, independent, confident, resilient and compassionate individuals who care for the world around them.

Pines offers learners the opportunity to take supported risks appropriate to themselves and the environment, safely at our inclusive Forest site. 

We use a range of learner centred processes to create a base for development and learning. 

We spend 100% of our time outside, working closely with individuals across a range of abilities and age groups, creating a community that cares for environment as well as each other.”.*

Location;  Gmina Żabia Wola, Poland  

Picture; Fire, 2023, courtesy of Pines Forest School

*Pines Forest School, https://www.pinesforestschool.pl/

**Pines Forest School, https://www.facebook.com/pinesforestschool/

The Warsaw Ghetto: History as Survival ....part 1...Oyneg Shabes ... one to listen to

Yesterday, today and all week.

"The extraordinary archive that secretly recorded daily Jewish existence in the Warsaw Ghetto – brought to life 80 years on from the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.

Umschlagplatz Memorial on Stawki Street, Warsaw, 2006

Through the Warsaw Ghetto's short, terrible life, historian Emanuel Ringelblum led a group of writers to secretly chronicle life for its inhabitants. 

The project became history as survival. Anton Lesser narrates this new 10 part series. Episode 1-Oyneg Shabes. How the archive began. With Elliot Levey as Emanuel Ringeblum.

In the middle of Europe, in the middle of the 20th Century, a half million Jewish men, women & children were herded into a prison city within a city. Walled off & surrounded by the German occupiers. 

How do you tell the world about your life and fate? Historian and activist Emanuel Ringelblum devised & directed a clandestine archive- codename Oyneg Shabes (Joy of the Sabbath) chronicling every aspect of existence. 

He recruited over 60 'zamlers' or gatherers to write, collect & compile thousands of pages-diaries, essays, poems, photographs, statistical studies, art, ephemera -a historical treasure that was buried even as the Ghetto was being extinguished so that the world might read and understand. Listen to their stories

Episode 1-Oyneg Shabes. In 1943, with most of the ghetto's inhabitants already murdered historian, Emanuel Ringelblum looked back on the history of the history.

And Markers in remembrance of where the Warsaw Ghetto wall used to stand 2018

Narration by Anton Lesser with Elliot Levey. Featuring the voices of Lily Fair, Leah Marks, Alfred Molina, Andy Nyman, Carl Prekopp & Tracy-Ann Oberman Translation by Elinor Robinson. Historical adviser Samuel Kassow. Written & produced by Mark Burman.

For more information on the Oyneg Shabes/Ringeblum archive go to the website of the Jewish Historical Institute,  https://cbj.jhi.pl/ *

Pictures; Umschlagplatz Memorial on Stawki Street, Warsaw, Cezary Piwowarski, I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following licenses: GNU head Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled GNU Free Documentation License. 

And Markers in remembrance of where the Warsaw Ghetto wall used to stand in German-occupied Poland, 2018, Samotny Wędrowiec, I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following license: w:en:Creative Commons attribution share alike. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

*The Warsaw Ghetto: History as Survival ....part 1...Oyneg Shabes, BBC Radio 4  https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001l94l

Standing "on the threshold which leads into the palace of justice”

It was a slow day on Beech Road yesterday, and with little interest in sitting in the garden or watching yet another box set I took to reading a collection of historic speeches.*

Liverpool, 1980

Now, if you want to get out of a low mood, brought on by a combination of the virus, and the political scene, a couple of hours with Dr King, J.F. Kennedy, Betty Friedman, Abraham Lincoln, and Dolores Ibarruri Gomez, [La Pasionaria] and countless others, is guaranteed to set you up.

Of course, you have to be aware of the context in which the speeches were made, and if I am honest I gravitated at first to those whose politics I shared, and remember  watching.

Added to which some of those speeches were made by people who whose political record on certain issues might at times be a little flawed.

And finally, I take the possible criticism that sitting reading a speech is just armchair politics and the real test is going out and making a difference.

But at 70 with a lifetime of political activity which began when I was 16, I think I might be allowed to take the armchair.

What surprised  me were the speeches by politicians who I have always regarded as pariahs, like Enoch Powell who made that infamous “rivers of blood” speech made in Birmingham in 1968, but nine years earlier had condemned the treatment of Mau Mau detainees in the Kenyan detention camp at Hola, insisting that prisoners wherever they were held under British jurisdiction were entitled to the same rights of treatment.

Birmingham, 1983

The beatings of many of the prisoners and the deaths of ten of the men he argued was the responsibility of the Secretary of State, brushing aside the alleged crimes and their place of confinement as not relevant to  justice, concluding “We cannot, we dare not, in Africa of all places fall below our own highest standards in the acceptance of responsibility”.

That said, the speeches which I enjoyed rereading were those of Lincoln, Kennedy and Dr King, and staring with Colonel Rainsborough who in 1647, uttered, the powerful, statement of democratic principle “I think that the poorest he that is in England hath a life to live, as the greatest he; and therefore truly, Sir, I think it's clear, that every man that is to live under a government ought first by his own consent to put himself under that government; and I do think that the poorest man in England is not bound in a strict sense to that government that he hath not had a voice to put himself under”.

His was a contribution to the Putney Debates when the victorious Parliamentarian army sat down to discuss the future.

Manchester, 1984

And while that democratic statement was defeated by the Army Grandees and the forces of the establishment it still rings out.

As does the speech of Gideon Hausner, the Attorney General of the State of Israel at the trial Adolf Eichmann, responsible for the management of the Final Solution.

In a speech which lasted ten hours Mr. Hausner, opened by saying, “When I stand before you O Judges of Israel, to lead the prosecution of Adolf Eichmann, I do not stand alone.  

With me here are six million accusers.  But they cannot rise too their feet and point their finger at the man in the dock with the cry of ‘J’ Accuse on their lips.  For they are only ashes- ashes piled high on the hills of Auschwitz, and the fields of Treblinka and strewn in the forests of Poland. Their graves are scattered throughout Europe.  Their blood cries out but their voice is stilled.  Therefore, will I be their spokesman”.

What marks out many of these speeches is the power of the rhetoric, which makes us remember, the memorable lines, like those  from J.F. Kennedy’s  “The torch has passed to a new generation of Americans", “ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man”. “Ich bin ein Berliner”.

Birmingham, 1983

But sleek phrases are themselves not enough, they must arise from a very real need for change which Betty Friedman encapsulated in a speech on women’s rights in 1969 at the first national conference for repeal of abortion rules, when she talked about women being invisible and having to have “a full say in the decisions of their lives and their society”.

And of all the countless ones I read yesterday, and which still sit with me, it must be Dr King’s address on the centenary of Abraham’s Lincoln’s emancipation proclamation, made at a gathering of 210, 000 people at the Lincoln Memorial.

It is a powerfully written speech drawing on the language of the bible, shot through with the injustices of Black Americans and calling for action.

I  tried to pick out key sections, but in truth the whole speech is a mastery of rhetoric, leaving me to fall back on the oft quoted lines,

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

Birmingham, 1983

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with".

Pictures from the collection of Andrew Simpson, 1981-87

*The Penguin Book of Twentieth Century Speeches. Edited by Brian MacArthur, 1992, & The Penguin Book of Historic Speeches, edited by Brian MacArthur, 1996

In Trafalgar Square in the summer of 1950

Now before someone accuses me of nostalgia I will just point out that my fascination for the past takes me in many different directions.

And yes I have been reflecting on the London of my youth over the last few days.

So here is Trafalgar Square in 1950 just a year or so after I was born and while I have no memory of the place when the picture was taken I don’t suppose it changed much during the next few years when I was regularly taken there.

It is one of those things that if you grew up in London sooner or later you would be taken to the sights by out of town relatives.

My uncle George took me every year to see the Christmas lights and I have photographs of me and my grandparents doing the tourist trail when I was very little.

All that said, I have never really liked Trafalgar Square.  

It always strikes me as a crowded restless space which had the added danger of receiving unfortunate presents from passing pigeons.

To my great disappointment the fountains were not always on and I never lost that sense that you were on an island surrounded by noisy and smelly cars buses and lorries.

But that is rather churlish for somewhere which many people enjoy, so instead I shall concentrate on the photo from the collection of Tuck and Son who marketed picture postcards.

In 1950 there were still horse drawn wagons and carts on our roads, enough for people not to even give them a second glance.

The fountains were full on that summer’s day and just like today the traffic was busy.

Picture; Trafalgar Square, 1950 from the collection of Tuck & Sons, courtesy of Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/

Young Helen Taylor….. an embroidered sampler …. and heaps of twists and turns

I am looking at the embroidered sampler made by Helen Taylor in 1834.

The sampler 1834

It is a beautiful piece of work, and she was sufficiently proud of her accomplishment to add her name and age.

As befitted a work which also carries an image of the village church in Dore it is heavy with religious messages.

It belongs to Ron Marsden whose direct ancestor was Helen, and it has been handed down through the female side of his family.

It is a treasured possession taking him back 189 years to that young girl and the small village of Dore which was in Derbyshire but is now a suburb of Sheffield.

And what particularly stands out for Ron is the verse, “This world is a city full of crooked streets

Death is the marketplace were all men meets

If life was a merchandise that sold would buy

The rich would live and the poor must die”.

Like the other verses there is that emphasis on the purity of the world to come but perhaps also a challenge to the existing social order.

And that got me looking for it’s origins.  It appears on at least one other sampler from the North of England just four years earlier,* and appears on an 17th century gravestone.**

But the first two lines are from The Two Noble Kinsmen written in 1634 by William Shakespeare in collaboration with John Fletcher.  It is described as a tragicomedy but reading the plot summary along with the first scene I think we are into heavy nastiness, but we shall see.**

Baptism, 1822

So far, I know very little about Helen.  She was born in 1822 and baptised in the church for which she made the sampler.  

Her parents were Isaac and Sarah and she had four siblings.  Mr. Taylor described himself as a “saw grinder” on the 1841 census and the absence of Sara on the same census suggest she may have died.  And given that the youngest of the children had been born in 1830 it may well be that if Sarah had died it will have been after that date.

As for Helen apart from the record of her baptism and her appearance on the 1841 census there is as yet no more official records of her existence.

The family in 1841

But Ron thinks she may have been married and may have died in child birth, and there isa reference to a Helen/Ellen Taylor dying in Ecclesall Bierlow in 1854.

As yet I can't find exactly where the Taylor's lived in Dore, but I know that the siblings continue to turn up in the historic records.

So the twist and turns continue.

Location, Dore, Derbyshire

Picture; Helen Taylor's sampler, 1834, from the collection of Ron Marsden

*Ann Carbutt, https://scarlet-letter.com/product/ann-carbutt/

**James Handley's Grave Stone, James Handley's, http://www.redmilearchive.freeuk.com/handley.html

***The Two Noble Kinsmen, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Two_Noble_Kinsmen

Women of Steel ........... the memorial and a chance encounter with Martin Jenkins .... revisiting a story

Now I had been following the project to commemorate the women who had worked in the Sheffield steel works during the last world war.

In Sheffield at the unveiling, 2016

The project culminated in the unveiling of a statute at Barker's Pool in the city centre when over  100 surviving Women of Steel came along to the unveiling ceremony and lunch in the City Hall Ballroom.

The story had featured on several radio programmes and so I was more than pleased that last night purely by chance I met Martin Jenkins who designed and made the statue.

He was here at the invitation of Andrew Simock who launched a campaign to identify a Manchester “woman of significance” who would be remembered by a statute.

The vote chose Emmeline Pankhurst and Mr Jenkins was here with 18 other sculptors to take the project forward.

Margaret Ashton ....... nne of the contenders for "Women of significance

All of which was exciting stuff but for now I shall close by quoting from Sheffield City Council’s story on the unveiling of that other statue.

“During both World Wars, thousands of women were conscripted to work in the factories and steel mills to keep them running whilst the men were away fighting.

The women took on these roles, which were often dangerous and physically demanding, alongside looking after their families.

The Sheffield statue

The Women of Steel are an important part of Sheffield's history and an inspiration to young people today.

A public appeal has raised over £160,000 for a stunning bronze statue as a permanent memorial to the Women of Steel.

The statue is designed by sculptor Martin Jennings who worked closely with a group of Women of Steel to come up with the design. About the project.

Martin Jennings is a highly renowned designer and sculpture, many of his statues and sculptures are now world famous.

Perhaps his most celebrated piece is the statue of John Betjeman at St Pancras station which is now recognised as an iconic London landmark.

Other works include figures from the world of politics, military, royalty, academia, the arts, industry, medicine and the law. 

Women of Steel

Martin Jennings has been commissioned to design and craft the sculpture due his creative vision, and his signature aesthetic of bronze or silver sculpture which we believe will be a credit to Sheffield, its famous industry and our Women of Steel.

The statue will be bronze in colour and human scale, celebrating the work and lives of Sheffield’s Women of Steel.”*

Back in 2013 Martin Jenkins said “I want the statue to represent both the camaraderie that helped these young women triumph over the exceptionally difficult task allotted to them and the pride they felt in achieving expertise in an industry that was traditionally the preserve of men.”

All of which leaves with giving the last word to my facebook chum Margaret Nash who commented, "a lovely statue. I love the way they appear to be walking along with ones' arm resting on the others shoulder beautiful."  

Location; Sheffield and Manchester

Pictures; Women of Street statute courtesy of Sheffield City Council

*Women of Street, https://www.sheffield.gov.uk/planning-and-city-development/urban-design--conservation/public-art/women-of-steel.html

Mr. Shevloff’s superior warehouse on Cannon Street ………..revealed

Now for obvious reasons, descriptions of the interiors of our 19th century city centre warehouses are thin on the ground.

Mr. Shevloff's warehouse, 1967

The architectural plans will have long ago been thrown away, while professional photographers preferred recording the exterior of buildings, along with street views, leaving only those who toiled in the properties, and they were far too busy to have set down their thoughts.

And now most of those warehouses have gone, some because they reached the end of their useful life, others succumbed to Mr. Hitler’s bombs, leaving what was left at the mercy of the planners and their grandiose redevelopment schemes.

And so, it was with Mr. Shevloff’s warehouse which will date back to at least the middle of the 19th century.

It finally went with the clearance of that maze of streets, squares and courts which were bounded by Cannon Street to the north, High Street to the east, and Market to the south with Corporation Street on the west.

It was a victim of the desire for a modern looking commercial and retail area, which was to become the Arndale Centre.

Streets, squares, and courts, 1951

Of all those buildings across that area, I have become interested in just one, which was no. 44 Cannon Street.

In its final days, it was home to the Shevloff family's textile business.

They had been trading in various locations since the early 1920s.

I was first drawn to them while researching their family home in Chorlton, and as you do, I adopted them, which led to a series of blog stories.

These sparked off memories from people who bought materials from Mr. Shevloff, and yesterday from someone who worked there.

Stephen Davis, “worked at Shevloffs in 1966 as a school holiday job. [and]  well remember Mr. Shevloff Sr whose son Mr. Lander was by then the MD.

I remember the unmodernised warehouses in the Victorian court behind the building that we used for storage. 

It also housed a small business making watch glasses or something like that. 

The main wholesale warehouse had four floors with a manager on each. 

Mr. Lander’s son, who was at school with me, became a successful restauranteur in Soho”. 

Stephen’s description complements the records from Goad’s Fire Insurance maps, which are an invaluable source for the details of buildings across the city.

No. 44 Cannon Street, circa 1900

They were compiled  during the last decades of the 19th century and revised during the early years of the next century.

The buildings are coloured coded as to use, show the materials used in the construction, as well as the number of floors and features like skylights, windows and doorways, as well as hoist and crane doors.

And because the emphasis was on security from fire, party walls were highlighted as were the materials used in the construction of roofs, with reference to slate, tile, metal, cement and felt with tar.

44 and 50, Cannon Street, 1967

The detail is quite striking, extending to the width of streets, reflecting  concerns about how a fire could spread.

So, we can see that nu. 44 was a given over to wholesale and factory  use, with glass skylights, and backed on to Marsden Court.

All of which fits the historical records which shows that it was a shirt manufactures  at the start of the 20th century, and continued the link with textiles during its occupation by Mr. Shevloff’s business.


Together they offer up a wonderful insight into one building which was typical of the area and which vanished with the Arndale.

But that is not quite the end because the area was also home to a collection of pubs and clubs some of which feature in police reports.

The Wishing Well, 1967

Happily, the Wishing Well which was two doors down was bit more reputable and popular, and according to Stephen a place he visited, along with the legendary Twisted Wheel, Oasis ad Time and Place.

And I shall leave the last word to Stephen who reflected that the year he worked at Shevloff’s was “the year we won the World Cup and I think the Brazilian team trained in the Manchester area. 

One of the managers managed to get a Brazilian team sticker for his car (no merchandising in those days) which he felt set him apart somehow. 

The destruction of the whole area for the Arndale upset me considerably and influenced me to become very involved in conservation for the rest of my life”*

Location Cannon Street, Manchester

Pictures; Cannon Street, 1951, from the OS map of Manchester, 1951, the three properties, 1967, "Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection",
https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR35NR9v6lzJfkiSsHgHdQyL2CCuQUHuCuVr8xnd403q534MNgY5g1nAZfY, and no. 44 Cannon Street, circa 1900, from Goad’s Fire Insurance Map, circa 1900, Courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/

*With thanks to Stephen Davis