New interpretation panel to commemorate the the First Battle of Newbury Options

[Andy Capp]

Newbury information panel unveiling
Saturday 23rd June 2012

On Saturday 23rd June at 11.00am Richard Benyon MP will unveil a new interpretation panel to commemorate the First Battle of Newbury. The battle, which was fought on September 1643, saw a Parliamentarian army under the Earl of Essex fight off a Royalist attempt to prevent them from returning to London. Funds for the panel, which is the first information board to be erected on the site of this major civil war battle, were raised by local Newbury residents with the assistance of the Battlefields Trust and Newbury Town Council.

After the ceremony, which will take place on the Recreation Ground, Wash Common, Newbury RG14 6QU, there will be a short talk about the battle by historian and guide Chris Scott.

http://www.battlefieldstrust.com/event.asp?EventID=438

[dannyboy]

Newbury information panel unveiling
Saturday 23rd June 2012

On Saturday 23rd June at 11.00am Richard Benyon MP will unveil a new interpretation panel to commemorate the First Battle of Newbury. The battle, which was fought on September 1643, saw a Parliamentarian army under the Earl of Essex fight off a Royalist attempt to prevent them from returning to London. Funds for the panel, which is the first information board to be erected on the site of this major civil war battle, were raised by local Newbury residents with the assistance of the Battlefields Trust and Newbury Town Council.

After the ceremony, which will take place on the Recreation Ground, Wash Common, Newbury RG14 6QU, there will be a short talk about the battle by historian and guide Chris Scott.

http://www.battlefieldstrust.com/event.asp?EventID=438

How much did this one cost & how long before it is trashed??

[Exhausted]

I think this must be one of the new 'Vision' efforts to make Newbury a tourist spot.

[Andy Capp]

How much did this one cost & how long before it is trashed??

The other one up there seems to have survived.

[Simon Kirby]

Haven't actually seen the panel yet but I went along the the unveiling though I couldn't stay for the history talk.

An interpretation panel is good and certainly better than nothing, but there was hardly anyone under fifty there today, and that's not good - it is a park after all, so where were all the kids and the dog walkers? Panels like this get vandalised because they're put up in public places without involving the people who use the space, and that disenfranchisement generates hostility. More than that, our history is important because there are lessons we need to learn and because understanding our history anchors us to our present and gives it meaning. I would like to see a lot more done to involve the whole community in our heritage.

[Andy Capp]

Haven't actually seen the panel yet but I went along the the unveiling though I couldn't stay for the history talk.

An interpretation panel is good and certainly better than nothing, but there was hardly anyone under fifty there today, and that's not good - it is a park after all, so where were all the kids and the dog walkers? Panels like this get vandalised because they're put up in public places without involving the people who use the space, and that disenfranchisement generates hostility. More than that, our history is important because there are lessons we need to learn and because understanding our history anchors us to our present and gives it meaning. I would like to see a lot more done to involve the whole community in our heritage.

I think your movements for the day possibly demonstrates why others weren't there. Besides Saturday morning is the time when kids get their shut-eye!

The other thing of course is: little publicity.

[Simon Kirby]

I think your movements for the day possibly demonstrates why others weren't there. Besides Saturday morning is the time when kids get their shut-eye!

The other thing of course is: little publicity.

It's not so much that people didn't know, more that it's nothing to do with them - this is the challenge for the Big Society. People are accostomed to being uninvolved and it will take a significant social change to reverse that.

[On the edge]

Second that. A massive challenge; not only for the laity, but also the powers that be.

[Simon Kirby]

Second that. A massive challenge; not only for the laity, but also the powers that be.

I see the challenge as being almost entirely one for the powers that be. We're naturally social creatures so social involvement comes naturally, but it suits the business plans of the Big State establishment to keep us all in our veal crates, and they're not about to let us out.

[dannyboy]

People don't go to this kind of thing for one reason & one reason alone - they are not interested. Nothing to do with 'Big State establishment'

[On the edge]

People don't go to this kind of thing for one reason & one reason alone - they are not interested. Nothing to do with 'Big State establishment'

Give them bread and circuses

[dannyboy]

Give them bread and circuses

Don't give them anything - let them make their own minds up.

[Andy Capp]

People don't go to this kind of thing for one reason & one reason alone - they are not interested. Nothing to do with 'Big State establishment'

That's not true. Other reasons will be not knowing it was on, and not being available, although I conceded that the biggest reason will be a lack of interest.

[Simon Kirby]

People don't go to this kind of thing for one reason & one reason alone - they are not interested. Nothing to do with 'Big State establishment'

People don't get involved because they're not involved, but that's not a natural state of affairs. We're inquisitive social creatures and are naturally curious about our environment, so a demonstrable lack of interest in social and civic activities in public places is a sign of the absence of a Big Society in its fullest sense, and the Big Society can't happen until the Big State creates an exit strategy. That takes much more than just inviting people because those people have to be given back their interest and ownership of their society first.

[dannyboy]

People don't get involved because they're not involved, but that's not a natural state of affairs. We're inquisitive social creatures and are naturally curious about our environment, so a demonstrable lack of interest in social and civic activities in public places is a sign of the absence of a Big Society in its fullest sense, and the Big Society can't happen until the Big State creates an exit strategy. That takes much more than just inviting people because those people have to be given back their interest and ownership of their society first.

No - People don't get involved because they are not interested.

[Andy Capp]

No - People don't get involved because they are not interested.

If that were true, then this thing wouldn't have happened.

[dannyboy]

If that were true, then this thing wouldn't have happened.

Obvoiusly a few are. But not many.

I would like to see a lot more done to involve the whole community in our heritage.

The whole community does not care. A few do & they get these kind of things done.

[On the edge]

Obvoiusly a few are. But not many.

I would like to see a lot more done to involve the whole community in our heritage.

The whole community does not care. A few do & they get these kind of things done.

Amazing what we can do if we all get together. Trouble is, that horrid 'we' - so subsumed by 'me' over recent years. One key reason why the present establishment don't want and don't encourage involvement is simply because they don't want 'my' idea and 'my' view changed. So today's leadership is tell / threat rather than hear / deliver.

If, on the other hand, you are right Dannyboy - then the advertising industry wastes a huge amount of money!

[Simon Kirby]

Amazing what we can do if we all get together. Trouble is, that horrid 'we' - so subsumed by 'me' over recent years. One key reason why the present establishment don't want and don't encourage involvement is simply because they don't want 'my' idea and 'my' view changed. So today's leadership is tell / threat rather than hear / deliver.

So true.

And dannyboy is of course right, people aren't interested. But why. Everyone has a natural interest in where they live - both in things that are happening, and things that happened a long time ago - and a community in which that natural interest has been suppressed is an unhealthy community.

[On the edge]

So true.

And dannyboy is of course right, people aren't interested. But why. Everyone has a natural interest in where they live - both in things that are happening, and things that happened a long time ago - and a community in which that natural interest has been suppressed is an unhealthy community.

People have to be enthused, remember school, an enthusiastic teacher could bring life to the dullest subjects. Another example, I didn't think I'd like opera - until a few years back my better half presented me with tickets to the racecourse! She sold on the basis of a family picnic and look how much you'd be paying at Highclere. Go most years now. Great evening and even enjoyed the music. Thanks Greenham Trust!