It’s been a quiet year in South Bridlington.
Everyone seemed to be a bit shell shocked after the restrictions imposed by the pandemic. Not all of them unwelcome. People rediscovered the delights of not having to do things, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to resume old responsibilities with joy and determination. Age had taken its toll on many.
So it was with a certain weariness that I resumed the responsibility of showing visitors around not Bridlington Priory once a week. And then I remembered the pleasure of subversion, and all was well. Bridlington Priory was destroyed in 1537. The way they talk many people don’t seem to realise this nearly 500 years later. My own resume of the history of the building includes its foundation in 1117, its completion 200 years later, the successful petition to Rome for recognition of the sanctity of Prior John in the 14th Century, based on claims of his being able to work miracles alive or dead. Then the interesting bit when the Prior was hanged, and the Priory was destroyed to the accompaniment of dancing in the street. Many simple souls were upset.In the 17th Century the Royalists used the building as an arsenal in order to cart food and armaments to York which was held by the King. 20 years later the Quakers, anarchists to a man and presumably woman, disrupted the services with the cry “a load of old nonsense”. The Republican vicar was ejected, and spent the rest of his life being objectionable and being fined for being a Non-conformist.
Following all that excitement, Bridlington settled down to letting things not happen. Which is where we are today. Almost. Just wait for May 14th.
Following last year’s highly successful tour from Calais to Basel, in late March I decided to go on a mini tour to the island of Texel off the N Holland coast. At that time of year sufficient is not happening on the allotment for it to be possible to leave it for 10 days. Mid-March was positively vernal. Warm sun and not a hint of rain. Unlike late March when more seasonably the weather turned to driving rain and strong wind. There is an account of it in “Blow. Blow, thou Winter wind” which may be supplied on request. The highlight of the journey was a visit to the tomb of Jan Komenský at Naarden outside Amsterdam. He was a 17th Century lesson to us all. He believed in free education for all children (All children? Yes, all children. Including girls? Yes. Ridiculous). He was a Moravian Bishop hounded out of his own country by religious fanatics, and spent his life wandering around Europe. He washed up in Amsterdam, being sold down the river by Romanists, Calvinists, and Lutherans. To the end he believed that if only children received a sound practical education, all intolerance would be washed away by the sweet light of reason. He is my hero.
Back in Bridlington the trivial round and common task set in again. However, up in North Bridlington, life was getting more exciting as Chad Chadwick died. County Councillor Chad Chadwick.
On May 14th Phil received the following email:
Subject: A surprise career move:
At an inquorate meeting, this morning I was unanimously elected as Labour Party candidate for North Bridlington in the next local Council elections.
But you live in South Bridlington. Quite correct.
And you don’t have a car. I’ve got a bike
And you cannot recognise faces. I will be the “disability specialist”
And you would be a rubbish Councillor. But I enjoy a fight
And it’s a Tory stronghold. Satan fear and tremble now
But you’re an old man. I think you mean “experienced”.
The sequence of events was as follows. At the meeting we needed to find a suitable candidate. There weren’t any. No one was prepared to join the ranks of the forlorn hope. No one else. They proposed, seconded and unanimously carried the motion to adopt me and quickly moved on to the next item on the agenda. I thoroughly enjoyed writing the campaign message which was distributed to all 6000 voters in North Bridlington. It included an offer you cannot refuse to push someone around all the streets in North Bridlington in a wheel chair on Sundays to identify all the wheelchair unfriendly streets. Over 180 of them were persuaded – considerably more than the 150 voters who voted for their Labour candidate last time, but considerably fewer than the 1,700 voters who voted for the Liberal Democrat candidate. The Tories were nowhere.
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The rest of this report is unaccountablty missing.
You will have to wait until it is found
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jbrip 