Sit Down (next to me): Why men need a shed.

Over the past three years, I have found myself heavily involved in my local community in a manner which has occupied my time and my mind, suiting very well this stage of my life: retired from a busy and all-consuming job, yet still with the energy both physical and mental to commit to voluntary work. Perhaps the best of several aspects of community life in which I am involved has been my part in helping to set up and run a Men’s Shed.

Never heard of a Men’s Shed? Neither had I until just over a year ago. Bear with me while I tell the story - How Kirkham got its shed.

Kirkham, the town which I have lived in or near for towards 40 years, has since 2020 been the fortunate beneficiary of some significant government funding to help regenerate it in both physical and social terms.

Kirkham is a small (population approximately 8000) market town in the Fylde district of Lancashire. If you are unsure of the geography of this part of the world, the Fylde is the name for the largely flat, rectangular area which lies between the Lune estuary in the North, the Ribble Estuary in the South, the M6 motorway in the East and the seaside towns of Fleetwood, Blackpool and Lytham St Anne’s in the West. Historically, it was called Amounderness and was one of the hundreds (an archaic term for an administrative subdivision of a larger region) of Lancashire.

Kirkham is an ancient town, established on the site of a 1^st century Roman cavalry hill fort, and named before 1066, after the church which is said to date from 684AD.  For much of its history Kirkham was a town of some importance, an administrative and ecclesiastical capital of the Amounderness Hundred, and a market town serving a wide and prosperous agricultural hinterland. In the 18^th and 19^th centuries, it prospered as a centre for the manufacture of flax and rope, with the golden age of sailing ships providing a ready market for such products: it is said that at the time of the Napoleonic Wars, very much a highpoint of British naval power, much of the Royal Navy was powered by sails made in or near Kirkham. When cotton superseded flax, Kirkham’s mills adapted to that trade, but by the 20^th century, the town was in long-term decline, and found itself the poor relation to the might of industrial Preston to the East and bright and breezy Blackpool to the West.

It nevertheless retained a level of prosperity through the turbulence of the 20^th century, boosted by the nearby defence industry (BAE Systems has a vast military aircraft factory at nearby Warton, on the site of a wartime American Air Force base) and also by the desirability of semi-rural life which has made market towns so popular for lifestyle reasons in the later 20^th and early 21^st centuries.

Nevertheless by the early 2000s Kirkham was beginning to look and feel down on its luck, its high street shops and businesses unable to compete with the double threat of the online world and the giant retail parks of nearby towns.

When, just before the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020-2022, small towns across the UK were invited to bid for funds to regenerate their high streets, Kirkham was an ideal candidate, and was awarded significant government funding aimed at enhancing its town centre as a hub for small businesses and niche retail and leisure whilst also developing community spirit, pride and a greater sense of wellbeing among residents.

It is fair to say the programme has not been plain sailing: the double whammy of the Pandemic followed by the inflationary spike sparked by the Ukraine War caused delays and a big hit to the spending power of the original funding, such that the physical regeneration plans had to be significantly scaled back. The redevelopment of the Market Square into a traffic free events space, and the remodelling of the main street into a more pedestrian-friendly thoroughfare are both projects which will, I believe, greatly enhance the townscape, but in the short term the road works have proved to be lengthy, disruptive and riddled with unforeseen snags and delays, such that the whole project has been an easy target for those who object to it. The loss of what was perceived as a car park - the Market Square - has provoked anger among those who cannot see the bigger picture of how small town centres must evolve if they are to survive and prosper.

So much for the negatives - how about the positives?

Well, the less tangible, but equally important, strands of the regeneration project have been much more successful, and have very much served their purpose of enhancing pride, community spirit and an awareness of local history and heritage.

Moreover, it has been my good fortune to find myself a key player in these aspects. My accidental involvement in local history has caused me to be a de facto curator of the Town’s Local History and Heritage Collection, the remnants of what was once a town museum. This happened because when the owner of that collection, an eminent local historian, died in 2021, his family asked the Parish Church, through me, if they could house and exhibit it. I offered to oversee this project, and set up a small Local History and Heritage Collection in a redeveloped gallery in the church building.  By so doing, I found myself wrongly cast as a local history expert - I always stress that I am an enthusiast, not an expert. I was nevertheless happy to be drawn into various cultural and heritage projects which were being run in the town, funded by the regeneration monies.

These have been pretty successful, providing activities and camaraderie for local people, uncovering some previously hidden talents, creating lasting heirlooms for the town which I am only too glad to help display and care for in the Church’s community rooms.

A tapestry depicting Kirkham’s industrial heritage, created by one of the craft groups

However, early in these projects, a glaringly obvious thing became apparent: virtually all participants were female. Not at all unusual or unexpected, but in this conservative (small ‘c’) community a pretty extreme case: groups involved in things like exercise, local history, gardening, cooking, arts and crafts and so on all flourished thanks to the expertise of facilitators and yet largely failed to attract any male participants. The women participants all reported that their involvement had improved their sense of belonging, made them new connections and friendships, and had generally improved their mental health and sense of wellbeing. A great outcome, indeed a valid return on the investment of public funds, yet one which was only reaching around 50% of the population.

One day, in late 2022, as virtually the only male with any level of involvement in these wellbeing projects - and that only because of my own perceived expertise as an events organiser - I was discussing this issue with one of the (female) facilitators, in the presence of my son (a science teacher at the local high school) and another male friend. My son mentioned what all teachers know, that virtually all voluntary projects attract more girls than boys, and that such reticence on the part of most men is an engrained and lifelong trait, and a potentially harmful thing. Girls and women readily form close friendship ties which engender self-care and mutual support, whereas men and boys tend to do things like sports and hobbies yet without the self-care.

My son mentioned that he had heard of a movement which orginated in Australia called “Men’s Sheds”, whereby a hub is set up in a shed where men can gather and undertake traditionally “male” activities - DIY, model-making etc. - and in so doing they are gently drawn into sharing their concerns, worries, stories and everything in a way that men generally don’t do. At that point, a visitor from Australia overheard us and chipped in with confirmation that Men’s Sheds were indeed very much a thing in her homeland, regarded as a common and effective tool for improving social cohesion and wellbeing. 

A serendipitous overhearing by a visitor to our town, but things have a habit of turning out well if they are meant to be, and so it has proved with Kirkham’s Men’s Shed: following some rather theoretical chat that we could maybe set up a shed locally, we realised that our church possessed a highly suitable brick built shed, well over a hundred years in age, which was used to house gardening equipment for the churchyard and also as a store for anything that the church didn’t dare throw away.  We started to speculate as to whether we could set up our metaphorical shed in this physical shed. 

The Shed: a familiar feature of the churchyard for decades

Then, another stroke of serendipitous good fortune: the Practice Manager at my GP Practice, who knew that I was involved in various community groups, messaged me to say that she had identified a source of NHS funding for new wellbeing projects and wondered whether I was aware of any deserving projects which might be interested in applying. Literally off the top of my head during a phone chat with her, I mentioned our Men's Shed idea, and she was immediately struck by the plan. In healthcare circles, social prescribing is very much in vogue, and with the well-known reticence of men to ask for help and the consequential high prevalence of mental illness, even suicide, among men of all ages, there is a growing feeling that low-key, low cost solutions based in the community have a role to play in addressing this problem. The Practice Manager urged me to apply for funding and promised her strong support. 

It had started to look like an idea worth pursuing, and without anyone actually ever deciding it or appointing us, two individuals emerged with the time, the enthusiasm and the expertise to make it happen: one was me, the other a longstanding friend and associate of mine, a few years younger than me but in fact an ex-pupil from my first year in teaching. His and my paths had crossed in several areas over the years, notably as fellow churchgoers and as committee members of our school’s alumni association, and he is a freelance management consultant and project manager by profession, so a great fit for getting a project up and running.

So, we applied for funds and were duly awarded the full amount on offer. The shed was in a way ready and waiting, although it required a good de-clutter, and we decided to launch the project without delay. This was in June 2023.

Six months on, its success has been remarkable.

The first stage was easy, almost too easy: a number of individuals came forward who were either members of the church congregation or men already known to the church community. Among these were my son, who is one of the churchwardens and was the instigator of the idea and the Vicar, a new incumbent keen to grow and develop the church’s community outreach work. Another was a community “good egg” who was loosely associated with the church and keen to do his bit for the good of others.

However, the real challenge was to reach out to men in the community who were not connected to the church, and who might be beneficiaries in terms of wellbeing, rather than just men wanting to help run a worthy project. A key challenge was to balance the very real involvement and support of the church - we were, after all, using their shed - without people feeling that this was a church group as such. Men are relatively thin on the ground in most church congregations, and are often indifferent or even hostile to the church either as a place of religious acts of worship or as a doer of good works.

So we made it known through various channels, including local GP practices, the Town Council, the town’s football club’s community foundation and so on, and within a very short time, men emerged - some known to us, many entirely new to us. Among them were an elderly widower who had been coming to the church literally every day since losing his wife some six years previously, and who had hitherto kept himself to himself, lighting a candle and spending time alone with his thoughts then returning to his home in nearby Blackpool; a man whose young adult daughter had died suddenly and unexpectedly; a man who had lost most of his sight and been forced to retire early from a job as a DT teacher; several others who had simply lost the confidence to engage with others in later life; and indeed a prisoner from the nearby Open Prison who had been on work placement at the church and was looking to reintegrate himself into more normal social circles as he neared release at the end of a long sentence. We requested and were granted permission for him to attend the Shed meetings on condition that he was back at the prison by a specified time, under our supervision.

A planning meeting in the shed with advisors from local councils,
NHS and AFC Fylde Football Club

Planting wildflowers, June 2024

Tasks started to come our way: a project to transform parts of the churchyard into a wildflower meadow in areas where ancient graves were no longer actively tended by grieving families; another to build some wooden benches to replace damaged and worn out ones in the churchyard; another to carry out a full assessment of the stability of gravestones, a statutary requirement of all churches; another to paint hi-vis strips on some steps around the churchyard which presented a real trip hazard; then perhaps best of all, we were commissioned by the Town Council to design and build a new stable in which to place the Town’s nativity figures in the town centre’s Christmas display.

This latter project was a joy to watch unfold: one man took the lead, designed something, literally on the back of an envelope, and bought the wood. With a tight deadline, others helped out when possible, under his direction, eventually completing it with minutes to spare until the deadline that we had agreed with the Council. 

A beautiful, traditional Crib scene was duly installed in the town centre gardens, unveiled by the Mayor and blessed by the Vicar at a simple ceremony with children from local primary schools, and subsequently admired and appreciated by all.

"All our own work": Kirkham's brand new Nativity Scene

Blessing the crib, December 2023

But best of all, amongst all this busy-ness, are the times through this bleakest of winters when frankly it has been too cold and too dark to do any work and the men have just sat and chatted, exchanging anecdotes and gems of wisdom, chewing the fat over what’s going on in the town or in the world outside - all over a warming cup of tea. No banter, no laddishness, no dirty jokes, none of that dreadful thing which Donald Trump called “locker room talk” in a pathetic attempt to explain away his loathsome misogyny - just a group of men sitting with an unspoken but very real sense of belonging and of camaraderie. One of the original members, a busy family man with no apparent “need” for such a wellbeing project, put it perfectly when he recently said “This was the thing I didn’t even know I needed in my life”

So yes, it’s great to get things done, and the sense of achievement from a shared task or project is enormous, but above all, as the cliché goes: “it’s good to talk”. And if it takes a shed to make men feel able to talk, so be it. Never did simply sitting down feel more productive.

Men at work

For my blog posts, there is always a song to provide a title, and what better than these words from Sit Down, an anthemic hit by forgotten 90s Madchester band James:

Those who feel the breath of sadness

Sit down next to me

Those who find they're touched by madness

Sit down next to me

Those who find themselves ridiculous

Sit down next to me

After all, over these winter months, all we've done is sit down and chat. 

For anyone reading this who works in healthcare, especially in general practice, I cannot overstate the value of Men’s Sheds based on my thoroughly positive, albeit limited experience. Social prescribing may sound like a passing fad, but from what I’ve seen it really can achieve a great deal of good at very little cost.

Keep taking the tablets? Maybe, but why not just Sit down next to me?

 

In case this post seems somewhat self-congratulatory in tone, I must acknowledge many individuals and organisations who have helped or supported this project:

My son, Nick Long for making me aware of Men's Sheds; project leader Chris Malings; Sue Flowers and her Phoenix Rising Wellbeing Group; Helen Leece from the Gathering Fields Retreats; Ash Tree House GP Practice; the Vicar and PCC of St Michael's Parish Church Kirkham; Kirkham Town Council; Fylde Borough Council; Lancashire County Council; AFC Fylde Community Foundation; and perhaps above all the men who have attended and participated in our activities.

Speech to Twin Towns gathering in Bad Bruckenau

Here is the text of a speech that I delivered on Sunday 10th July in Bad Bruckenau, Germany, to the gathering of people from three small towns in Europe who enjoy warm relationships through an unusual three-way twinning arrangement. I am Chairman of the Kirkham Twinning Association, which oversees our link with the French and German twin towns.

I make no apologies for the strongly partisan pro-European tone.

"Honoured guests, fellow Europeans, friends,

It is with great pleasure and some embarrassment that we British meet you here today in the heart of Europe, as a temporary escape from our bruised and deeply divided country.

Town twinning is a powerful symbolic representation of the unified Europe that had been so painstakingly built in the wake of centuries of conflict and suffering, and the triangular relationship between three small towns such as ours is a living expression of our friendship and of our shared cultural, social and political values.

Those who dismiss the European project as the unwanted and irrelevant creation of bureaucrats and politicians would do well to witness the yearly gatherings of our three communities and the friendship and cooperation that drives it. I am always very proud of the fact that those from all three communities who take part in our twinning events are not politicians or business people seeking personal gain from their involvement, but just ordinary citizens who enjoy meeting people of a different nationality but a shared cultural, linguistic and political heritage. 

The lasting friendships and connections between our three communities stand as living proof of the true values of international cooperation and understanding which are so tragically lacking in many other parts of our world, and it is to many of us in the United Kingdom nothing short of a tragedy that the selfish and divisive voices of the so-called Brexiteers prevailed in our recent referendum.

I wish to take this opportunity to reaffirm the commitment of many millions of us in Britain to the maintenance and strengthening of our European links, not least among those of us who derive so much pleasure from our twinning links with the wonderful towns of Bad Brückenau and Ancenis. I was somewhat comforted by the fact that the younger generation were 75% in favour of remaining in the EU, and therefore that the small-minded mentality which has driven the success of the Brexiteers is, perhaps, on the way out.

May I thank our friends in Bad Brückenau for the hospitality and entertainment that we have enjoyed this weekend and conclude by warmly inviting the people of the two towns to join us in Kirkham in 2017. You can be assured of a warm welcome - and you will not need a visa!

May we continue to enjoy the differences between our countries, but more importantly to celebrate what unites us. Long live twinning, long live Europe!"

Kirkham and its twin towns

Kirkham is sometimes thought of as a bit of a backwater, an insular place where people know little and care even less for the world beyond this part of rural Lancashire. Not fair, not true.

Kirkham is the oldest town on the Fylde, long pre-dating Lytham, Blackpool, Poulton, Cleveleys and Fleetwood, and was most certainly a key place of strategic importance in Roman times. The Roman fort on Carr Hill, the highest point on the low-lying Fylde, to the East of the town centre, was an important staging post on a spur of road, a Roman M55 if you like, leading from Ribchester to a port somewhere around Stalmine.

In more recent history, Kirkham was the de facto capital of the area, with its huge Parish covering much of what we now call the Fylde, and the enduring presence of a preeminent Parish church and an ancient grammar school stand as evidence of the town's historic importance. The flax mills gave the town a period of relative prosperity, and agriculture has always flourished thanks to the mild, relatively sunny climate and fertile soils. However, social and economic change has left Kirkham as a more humble and anonymous town, yet one which has strong appeal as a small community within easy reach of centres of employment in Lancashire and beyond.

Kirkham, along with its neighbour Wesham, has much to be proud of: the aforementioned Parish Church and Grammar School; five vibrant primary schools each of distinct character; a much-loved and successful special school; a large, genuinely comprehensive school which serves young people from a wide catchment area; a prison whose inmates do good works in and for the community; a resilient high street with a number of small independent businesses well used by locals; manufacturing industry providing jobs in food, pharmaceuticals and light engineering; a football team rapidly ascending the leagues as it prepares to move to a state-of-the-art stadium; a holiday park attracting visitors from far and wide; a small railway station from which you can catch a direct train to London; a motorway near enough to be convenient but far enough to be hidden; and a variety of residential areas, reflecting a community which is diverse but well-integrated.

And then there's our twin towns. For a community which is reputed to be insular (I once overheard a conversation about a couple from Kirkham who had "moved away" but then came back because they couldn't settle…...the move was to Wesham!), Kirkham boasts a flourishing friendship with two towns in the most beautiful parts of France (Ancenis) and Germany (Bad Brückenau). This three-way reciprocal twinning arrangement is not unique, but certainly unusual, and has given the people of three small towns the opportunity to get to know each other, sharing what unites them and enjoying what makes them different.

Kirkham first twinned with Ancenis back in 1973, thanks to a Lancashire businessman, Gordon Himsworth, who had met and married a young woman from Ancenis when she was studying in Manchester. They still live in Ancenis. Twinning was fashionable in those early days of the European Community, and Ancenis and Kirkham were a good match: similar sized market towns in rural areas, with an economy dependent on agriculture and mixed light industry. The initial twinning was of Rotary Clubs, but that limited relationship led to a full and formal agreement between the two towns, backed by the civic authorities of both towns.

Ancenis subsequently twinned with Bad Brückenau, and in 1995 Kirkham formally twinned with Bad Brückenau, completing a triangular relationship between three towns of similar size and approximately equal geographical separation.

Ancenis is an attractive town on the River Loire, with an iconic bridge which forms a crossing point between the historic provinces of Brittany and Anjou. Ancenis is in Brittany, although does not have the distinctive celtic atmosphere of the ports on the Breton peninsula. 

Ancenis  - the famous bridge

In many ways, it feels like an archetypal French town, and as such it is a perfect place to absorb the culture, gastronomy and way of life which makes our nearest neighbours such an enviable place to visit or live. It is a fast and easy half-day’s drive from the Channel ports of St Malo or Caen.

Bad Brückenau is also a very attractive town, set in gently forested hills of North Bavaria, in the province of Franken, with an economy based on its fame as a spa town, to which Germans have traditionally flocked to take the waters. 

Bad Bruckenau - the main street

It is a neat, clean and well-ordered place, with the influence of Bavarian culture very apparent in, for example, the willingness of even younger people to dress in national costume as a sort of "Sunday best". Like Ancenis, it seems somehow archetypal of its country, meaning that people from Kirkham visiting either town have a real insight into the lives of our European friends.

Both towns have a wonderful musical tradition, with thriving bands of amateur musicians who provide spontaneous and enjoyable musical accompaniment at our get-togethers, which are always convivial and involve much good food and drink.

A typical twinning meal - this one was in France, but the people are from all three towns

Perhaps the best thing about Kirkham's twinning is that on all three sides, it is used by ordinary townsfolk, who in the main have no linguistic expertise, but who just enjoy meeting others in a friendly and welcoming atmosphere. We meet every year in one of the towns, on a three-year cycle.

Our recent meet-ups have been as vibrant and successful as ever, most recently when 85 visitors, a coachload from each of the two towns visited Kirkham in August 2017.

You will see more information and photos on our website at www.kirkhamtwinning.org and we are also on Twitter as @Kirkancenau.

Club Day: what on earth is that?

Twenty nine years ago, on June 12th 1986, I moved to my present home, on the edge of the small market town of Kirkham, in the Fylde District of Lancashire. I had been working at the town's historic grammar school for five years, so I knew a bit about the town but only as a workplace and the end of a long daily commute from Southport.

Having decided I liked the school and secured a promotion to Head of Department, we had decided that it was a good moment to move closer to my work, with my wife having chosen to be a full-time mother to our one-year old daughter and new additions to the family planned.

We moved in on a scorching summer Thursday (the day after Gary Lineker's life-changing hat-trick in England's 3-0 win over Poland in the Mexico World Cup), and I had to return to work the next day, leaving my poor wife to start sorting out the chaos of our possessions dumped in a new house. 

Mid morning, she went to the shops to get a few essentials, accompanied by her Aunt, who had driven over from her home near Wigan to see our new house and lend a hand with settling in. With baby Felicity in her buggy, it was a chance for a bit of fresh air and a change of scenery.

On the short walk into town, they met an old gentleman in a flat cap leaning on his garden gate. "Ready for tomorrow are thee?", he enquired of the harassed young mother, curious Aunt and fretful child. My wife politely smiled and said yes, she was indeed ready for tomorrow, wondering why a complete stranger wanted to know of her readiness for the morrow. Was he mistaking her for someone else? Was he a fundamentalist zealot believing the next day, June 14th 1986 to be the dreadful day of judgement? She smiled politely, confirmed that she was indeed ready, and went on her way, wondering what manner of salutation this could have been.

The next day was Saturday, and we had arranged to return to our old house in Southport to pick up some plants in pots from the garden and to collect our cats, Buster and Bandit, from the boarding kennels where they had stayed during the move. So with baby Felicity dressed, ready and strapped into the child seat, we set off to Southport, but were startled to find our route blocked by an officious-looking policeman, who informed us that the road would be closed until midday at least - "for th'parade". The parade? What parade? We turned tail and went to Southport by another route.

That evening, on our return, we were again held up by the police while a parade went past, this time with a now tired and screaming baby and two howling cats who had pooed in their basket. We waited for almost an hour, and cursed this wretched thing called "Club Day", for it was indeed Kirkham Club Day which had caused all these mysterious and inconvenient goings-on. We were far from impressed, to say the least.

So why is it that, 29 years later, I think that Club Day is one of the best things about Kirkham? Well, I suppose it's because after 29 years (or actually after only a couple of years), I have realised that this quaint and apparently anachronistic event is in fact a unique and precious feature of this unpretentious little town. 

The year after we moved in, friends who had lived in the town for many years invited us to watch the morning "Procession of Witness" from outside their home which lies on the route of the procession. We were by then members of the congregation of St Michael's Parish Church, but we had been wary of invitations to join the procession, fearing that it was perhaps some sort of evangelistic attempt to draw more people into the church. But we watched, intrigued, as a huge and impressive parade of people of all ages and classes, some dressed in their finery, others not, took over an hour to walk past, accompanied by several marching brass bands, with splendid banners held aloft by burly men, the strings held by girls and women in matching dress. It was the scene so lovingly described in Blue Mink's 1971 hit Bannerman, and it reminded me of similar events that I had experienced as a child in Bolton, but which had long since died out.

What we did not yet fully understand was that the Club Day Procession of Witness  is in fact nothing more than a chance for the men, women and children of the five Christian Churches of the towns of Kirkham and Wesham to dress up and walk round the town, led by their clergy, watched by literally thousands of others who line the streets in warm-hearted support. The rest of the day is spent eating, drinking and being merry in the invariably fine June sunshine, with the town's park hosting a traditional travelling funfair, the pubs doing a roaring trade and the suburbs pervaded by the aroma of barbecues as families and friends come together in a manner repeated only at Christmas.

As our children grew, they were involved in the Procession in a variety of roles and guises: as brownies, guides, beaver scouts, cubs, flower-girls, Rose Queen attendants, Rose Queens and choristers. For my part, I have carried banners, supervised children, marshalled the route and now act as marshal for the St Michael's Church part of the procession, responsible for ensuring that everyone finds their right place in the order, that nobody gets hurt or left behind, and that we take our allotted place in the overall order amongst the other churches.

Walking the 3 mile route is a truly uplifting and life-affirming experience. Just consider this: over in Northern Ireland, now thankfully largely free of the sectarian violence which scarred that community, it is still the case that when different denominations of the Christian Church parade, they must do so out of sight of others and with due sensitivity to the religious affiliation of the neighbourhood, for fear of sparking violence. Here in Kirkham, as the Anglicans pass the Catholics, we greet each other with friendly banter about dresses, sore feet, and secret stashes of alcohol (the Catholics allegedly secrete suitable liquid refreshment amidst the flowers at the feet of their portable statue of the blessed virgin Mary), whilst the rival bands attempt to out-blast each other as the sound of hymn tunes echos off the walls of the Lancashire terraced houses that line the streets. To watch this procession is truly to see the church as a unifying force for good in a diverse and friendly community, many of whom are proud working-class folk whose families have lived in the town for generations.

 "Club Day" has a long and interesting history, unique to the Fylde district of Lancashire. It is rooted in the 18th century "friendly societies", or "clubs", which were set up to support the needy in these poor communities in the days before the state could do so. Once a year, the societies would parade through the towns in celebration of their existence and work, and the day evolved into a community carnival, with the churches becoming involved, it is believed, to moderate a tendency towards excessive drinking.

The friendly societies have long gone, but far from dwindling or even dying out, as religious processions such as the Whit Walks in other Northern towns have done, Kirkham's Club Day has prospered and if anything grown in size and scope over recent years. The day used to feature a secular evening Carnival procession (the one which held us up on our return home that evening in 1986), but this died out some years ago through lack of support for the groups who organised it. Meanwhile, the religious "Procession of Witness" continues to attract hundreds to walk the streets in unashamed support for their churches, and thousands more to stand, watch and support their friends and neighbours. It is Christian witness worn easily, unselfconsciously and joyfully in a manner that reminds the towns that the church is still a strong cohesive presence in the busy life of the communities it serves. More importantly, it reminds those who walk under the banners of different shades of the Christian faith that what unites them is far more important than the minor differences of emphasis which divide them.

Long may it continue!

Speech at 2015 twin towns gathering in Ancenis

This is the text of the speech I gave to  the gathering of people from our three twinned towns on Saturday 16th May 2015. It speaks of the precious thing that is friendship across borders.

"Mr Mayor of Ancenis, Madam Mayor of Bad Brückenau, ladies and gentlemen,

It is with great pleasure and pride that I speak for the first time as President of the Kirkham Twinning Association at a visit to one of our twin towns. I also have the pleasure of bringing greetings from the Mayor of Kirkham and the Town Council: you will be aware that we in Britain are in the midst of our electoral process at both local and national level, and so our council representatives are unable to be present here in Ancenis on this occasion. We are delighted to have with us Mrs Sheila Hardy, whose husband Councillor Peter Hardy has just been elected as Mayor of Fylde Borough, our municipality. It is a great honour for Kirkham that one of our Councillors has been elected to this role, and Peter will be formally installed as Mayor at a civic ceremony on this coming Wednesday. It is particularly pleasing for those gathered here today to know that Peter is a loyal and enthusiastic member of the Kirkham Twinning Association. May I ask the people of our three twin towns to join me in wishing Peter a successful year as Mayor of Fylde Borough Council.

We meet here in Ancenis at a time of poignant anniversaries: a hundred years since the First World War and 70 years since the end of the Second World War. All of us gathered here now are too young to remember those two conflicts between European neighbours, but the legacy and memories of those dark times for our continent are still very much with us, not least as we mark these anniversaries.

Let us therefore rejoice in the fact that we meet every year in one of our towns as friends and partners. I have recently been editing my grandfather’s autobiography, and reading with sadness how almost exactly a hundred years ago, he travelled to France as a young man to fight in that futile conflict. He survived, where thousands of English, French and German young men did not, but he, like so many of his generation, was saddened to find Europe at war again just twenty years later.

How lucky we are, and how precious it is, that in our generation, the peoples of our three towns meet not to fight, but to share fellowship, food, drink and culture. How sad it is that there are those in our three countries who seek to undermine the European project, but we must not let those voices prevail.

So it is with great pride, passion and enthusiasm that I say “Long Live Twinning!”

Nothing's gonna stop me #DBlogWeek

Just wanted to add my own quick post for #DBlogWeek. I haven't got much time to write at length or in a considered manner, but I just wanted to add my bit to this week and an obvious title is "Nothing's gonna stop me"

Not a very original title, in fact partly plagiarised from the title of an 80's power ballad classic by Jefferson Starship: Nothing's Gonna Stop us Now. Now there's an uplifting, mood-enhancing song. I defy anyone not to feel a bit better after hearing that!

But why that title now? Well, this time tomorrow (it's now Tuesday 12th May) I will be on board a ferry to St Malo, France, having driven down from Lancashire to Portsmouth. I am headed for Ancenis, the French twin town  of my home town.  As President of the Kirkham Twinning Association, I am leading a delegation from Kirkham attending a meet-up for Ascension Day weekend (a public holiday in France) together with our friends from Bad Bruckenau, the German town which is the third partner in our unusual three-way twinning arrangement.

Twinning is the subject for another blog, but for today, I just think it's a good moment to point out that Type One diabetes hasn't stopped me doing what I want to do in life - like driving to the Loire Valley in France and back as leader of a twin town delegation.

Of course, it's much more hassle travelling with diabetes. Packing and preparation for this or any journey involves planning and checking, since to forget insulin or blood testing equipment would be pretty disastrous.

But beyond that, it's perfectly possible. Over the coming three days, I will be attending events involving food and drink, possibly unpredictable and irregular, as well as helping translate and liaise between the peoples of these three towns. I will even be making a speech which I have had to write in three languages.

Plenty of opportunities there for diabetes to trip me up, but with sensible planning, good supplies of jelly babies and biscuits, as well as all the necessary medical stuff, I should be fine. I will also be accompanied by my faithful travelling companion for such trips, my (adult) daughter Rosie.

In other words, nothing's gonna stop me. Twitter followers will probably see some highlights of the weekend on my Twitter or a new one I've set up for the Kirkham Twinning Association 

So, for now, "Goodbye, Au Revoir, Auf Wiedersehen"