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ueens Park Living July 2014 Edition I 01273 551021 I www.queensparkliving.co.uk
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Electoral Services, Brighton & Hove City Council Phone: 01273 291999 Email: electors@brighton-hove.gov.uk Web: www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/vote 9510 Register to vote adverts.indd 1
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Welcome...
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Welcome to the July edition of Queens Park Living!
Contents
Well, at the time of writing England are still in the World Cup and Wimbledon hasn’t even started, so Andy Murray is still in with a chance of retaining his title and it’s all looking good! By the time you read this however, I fear a different story!!
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Many thanks for everyone who contributed to the magazine this month. We have a really interesting report on the swifts arriving back in the park. We also have had an article sent in with some interesting local history…we hope it will be the first in a series of articles featuring previous and notable residents of Queen’s Park. There are a few other items that we hope may be of interest. Have a great July!! The Queen’s Park Living Team info@queensparkliving.co.uk www.queensparkliving.co.uk Cover photo: Simon Dack
Page 4/5 Old Photo Waiting for the Swifts Page 9 Local Campaign Page 10/11 George Charles Beresford (1864-1938) Page 13 Team Up Page 14 List of Advertisers
Publisher: Sussex Magazines 10 Hollingbury Road, Brighton BN1 7JA info@queensparkliving.co.uk Printer: Gemini printers Distributors: Mandy Distribution
The views expressed by individuals in any letter or article included at the discretion of the publishers are not necessarily the views of the Editor. Whilst every care has been taken in compiling this magazine and the statements contained herein are believed to be correct, the publishers of this publication will not hold themselves responsible for any inaccuracies. Inclusion of advertisers in this magazine is not necessarily a recommendation but we do hope they give a good quality service. No part of the publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior permission of the publishers and contributors We take complaints you make about our advertisers seriously. We have the following policy on this: First complaint about an advertiser is logged here in our offices, if we receive another complaint we write to the advertiser concerned and notify them we have had two complaints and if we receive another complaint we will no longer accept their adverts. If and when a third complaint arrives we will verify that all complaints received were genuine and inform the advertiser that we will no longer be promoting their business and inform them why.
Free estimates 01273 686404 (workshop) 07756 893950 / 07754 112425
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Old Photo...
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The Clock Tower
The clock tower in Queen’s Park photographed soon after its erection. It was officially handed over to the town on June 24, 1915.
In the rear are houses of East Drive, left to right, 15, 14 and 13. These were erected about 1900, but 12 to 8, on the empty ground in the photograph, were not built until 1926/1927.
Thanks to the Regency Society for this image from their photographic archives, The James Gray Collection. You can see thousands of more historic pictures of Brighton and Hove at www.regencysociety-jamesgray.com
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TENNIS LESSONS Just starting Out ? Maybe Rusty ?
Want to Improve your game ? Individual lessons from £15 and Group Tuition £10 Friendly Coaching at two clubs in Kemp Town
Pets, Portraits and Profile pics.
Call Mel on 07850 717352 bowdenmel@hotmail.com
The Royal Pavilion is our City’s greatest treasure. But did you know that you could become a member and visit for FREE all year round! Membership offers great benefits: FREE entry to the Royal Pavilion & Preston Manor FREE entry to exhibitions at Brighton Museum Invitations to Private Views, Exclusive Events 20% discount in our shops throughout November & December Discounts on events & the Royal Pavilion Ice Rink Accompanying children and grandchildren go free!
Prices start at £23 (concessions available) Call Abigail on 01273 292789 for more information. Membership is a great way to support the Royal Pavilion, helping to conserve and protect our City’s unique cultural heritage. Registered charity No. 275242
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Park News...
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Waiting For The Swifts Take a visit to the Clock Tower in Queen’s Park. Admire its noble form and elegant brickwork, then close your eyes and use your ears.
‘Fifteenth of May. Cherry blossom. The swifts
You will hear birdsong, specifically the unmistakable sound of the swift. Why? Because high up in the belfry of the tower is a suite of six deluxe handmade swift boxes, equipped with speakers wired to an MP3 player transmitting a recording of swift calls at 15 minute intervals in the early morning and late evening. Swifts can access the boxes via the bell tower louvres and swift-sized half-moon holes giving birds access to the boxes. The aim is to attract these fine but delicate birds to breed in our park.
Of needle. ‘Look! They’re back!’
The Clock Tower initiative is led by Chris Lowe, of the Friends of Queen’s Park. A keen local historian and naturalist - you don’t really know Queen’s Park until you’ve walked round it with Chris - he is currently directing his passion towards swift conservation. These small birds come to our island for 90 days in May to August each year, but not in great volume: just 87,000 pairs, down 50 per cent from 1995. The swift boxes were funded jointly by a council grant and the Friends of Queen’s Park in 2009. The swift - Apus apus - is a key feature of summer. “Swifts nest in holes - often inside old buildings or sometimes in specially-designed swift nest boxes - so you’ll never see them building a nest outside,” says the RSPB. “In fact, if you can see an obvious nest, it’s definitely not a swift! You’ll see swifts flying low and fast around buildings, screaming loudly, or perhaps swooping fast into a little crevice in a building to their nests. They also hunt for food (insects) over water or sometimes farmland.” Swift enthusiasts include Sir David Attenborough and the war poet Wilfred Owen, but Chris’s favourite ‘swift’ poet is Ted Hughes:
Materialize at the tip of a long scream A thriving swift community started to use the manmade bird boxes built into the high walls of the General Hospital last year: a success story Chris would like to see repeated in Queen’s Park.
Photo by Chris Lowe, taken May 2014, using a tripod mounted Fuji S5 with 70 - 300mm lens, focussed on the nest area. “The nest hole was watched for an hour with my finger on the shutter release to catch the arrival and departure, using a shutter speed of 1/2000th second.”
“Swifts eat, mate and collect nesting material on the wing. With no opposing claw they cannot perch or stand,” explains Chris. “They are extremely loyal to their chosen nest sites, returning to the same nest-hole for their life-time. This means that each year only about 10 per cent will be out house hunting. Playing sound recordings of swifts has been shown to be the best way to attract them. The process of attracting swifts may take years, but once a pair takes up residence, others will follow. They like neighbours. Chris has captured several striking photographs of birds in the park, including the grey heron, greater spotted woodpecker, grey wagtail, redwing and wheatear. To spot a swift family in the Clock Tower would make him a very happy man. ”They are the most exhilarating of birds, expressing the joy of summer yet to come.” Conrad Brunner
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Holiday HEALTH!! Top Tips for going abroad and at home SUNSCREEN - ensure it has BOTH UVA and UVB filters and apply after sun lotion. Use a block for children/babies. Keep them out of the sun and lightly clothed - why not keep sun block/aftersun in the fridge for an extra special cooling effect AVOID wearing perfume/hairspray to keep bugs away. Use a good insect repellent with DEET AVOID 'Delhi belly' by not eating anything washed in tap water. Avoid ice made with tap
water. Always wash hands before and after eating and dry with a clean towel. Carry wipes DRINK lots of fluid to avoid dehydration and heat stroke especially with children/babies and if you are a diabetic CONDOMS are still the best way to avoid bringing back Sexually Transmitted Infection or pregnancy. Carry your own condoms with a British standard kite mark Ensure you carry all your prescription medication. Put in a prescription request early.
O’FLINN pharmacy 77-78 Islingword Road, Brighton. BN2 9SL
01273 681630
info@oflinnpharmacy.co.uk www.oflinnpharmacy.co.uk To advertise e-mail info@queensparkliving.co.uk or call 01273 551021
Do you need Malaria prophylaxis or Vaccinations? Medicines are best bought at home before you go on holiday as you may not understand the patient information leaflets abroad and may end up with something unsuitable. And don't forget to pack basic holiday meds like antihistamines , anti diarrhoeals, paracetamol. Come and see us and we will help you put a pack together. FOR TRAVEL ADVICE, INFORMATION AND NEEDS COME AND SEE US
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Local Campaign..
Here we feature a local campaign that started locally and is spreading across the city...
Time for a “living rent” When a private tenant in Sandown Road got a leaflet about the council bringing in a living wage, her first thought was...great, providing you can afford the rent!!
She contacted the Green candidate, David Gibson, in the Hanover and Elm Grove by-election, with the idea of having a living rent as well. Months later she joined with him, other private tenants and supporters, to set up the Living Rent Campaign. The campaign started in Hanover and Elm Grove and is now spreading across the city. The situation in the private rented sector in Brighton and Hove is getting desperate. Rents increased by 27% last year. Some renters pay more than half of their income in rent; many face constant insecurity having to move on every six months. Others sense unfairness, like one campaign member living off Elm Grove, who has paid nearly £200,000 in rent for a house her landlord bought for £28,000 and has been so neglected that it was condemned by Environmental Health. She works part-time and volunteers, and relies on the food bank. Despite having a more secure
tenancy she is now facing eviction on the day her daughter starts secondary school! The Living Rent Campaign wants: • National controls on rent rises • Legislation for longer, more secure, tenancies • Local action to set up ethical landlord and ethical lettings schemes • Longer-term action to achieve fairer rents. A petition has been launched to achieve a debate at council and a public meeting called with our MP and chair of housing. If you want to help the campaign in any way, please email David Gibson at davidsg@ntlworld.com
CO P Y D E A D L IN E ON FO R AU G U S T E D IT 15 T H JU LY
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Local History...
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If you have an open fire, as much as 80% of the heat goes straight up the chimney. With a wood burning stove you’ll benefit from at least three times more heat. So you’ll just be burning wood - the original carbon neutral fuel - not money. Be part of the renewable revolution. Energy Wake Up specialises in the supply and installation of energy-efficient wood burning stoves. From consultation to installation.
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George Charles Beresford (1864 -1938) 21 West Drive was built in 1895. Typical of the villas around Queen’s Park, it faces onto the park and is on the corner of Albion Hill. George Charles Beresford was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, and was the third son of Major Henry Marcus Beresford of the 9th Foot and his wife Julia Ellen Maunsell, daughter of the Revd Francis Richard Maunsell. He lived at West Drive from 1908 until his death in 1938. He was educated at the United Services College at Westward Ho! in Devon where he became a good friend of Rudyard Kipling. When Kipling wrote ‘Stalky & Co.’, he based it on their school-days together; Beresford featured as M’Turk and Lionel Charles Dunsterville as Stalky. Beresford trained in engineering and worked for a short time in India, returning to England in 1888, and attended the Slade School of Art. He became a very successful portrait photographer and had a studio in Chelsea between 1902 and 1932. His portraits of artists, writers and politicians of the day appeared regularly in the Illustrated News and other periodicals. Over a hundred of his portraits are held in the National Portrait Gallery. His portrait of Virginia Woolf as a young woman is well known, as are the names of some of his sitters - Sir James Barrie, Keir Hardie, Herbert Asquith, Lloyd George, Yeats, Nancy Astor and Jacob Epstein to name a few.
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21 West Drive is the house on the left. The two children may be Vernon & Manfred Wilson.
He was interested in social reform and became a member of the Fabian Society and supported the emancipation of women. During the 1st World War he donated the profits from his business to the Red Cross. Whilst keeping his business in London, Beresford set up a ménage in Brighton with a Jessica Wilson, née Hawkins (though they did not marry), by whom he had two sons, Vernon and Manfred. It was said by Vernon that his father took the name Wilson from nearby Wilson Avenue, Brighton. Sir Alexander Waldemar Lawrence, Baronet, and a cousin, was mentioned in the deeds of the house as a trustee. Beresford appears twice on the 1911 census: once as himself in London, and in Brighton as George Alfred Wilson. He kept his studio off the Brompton Road and eventually came to live at the house in West Drive on his retirement in 1932. Kipling described him as having a ‘nonchalant manner’ and a ‘seeming appearance of indifference, concealing a brain with an edge like that of a good razor’, ‘a man of parts capable of generous praise and appraisal of others’. Beresford helped in setting up the Kipling Society in 1927 and was an active member for some years. He died suddenly in 1938 at his home in West Drive and is buried
in Woodvale Cemetery, Brighton. Jessie stayed on at the house with the boys, until her death. The two brothers, Manfred and Vernon Wilson, ran a gravel business from the house and eventually Vernon left to live, it is thought, on the Isle of Man. Manfred remained at the house until his death in the early 1990s. He well remembered, as a boy, Kipling coming to the house and pointing out all the places to which he had travelled on the large globe that stood in the window of the living-room on West Drive. Manfred became an alcoholic and a recluse; his partner Jacqueline died a few years after him in 1993. A couple who owned the house between 1974-2002 found various objects whilst renovating it: a small pair of thin brandy glasses under the floor, a tin of humbugs under the bath, and six tins of Tate & Lyle Golden Syrup with a newspaper of 1918 were found under the floorboards in the loft, presumably kept and forgotten when sugar was rationed. A small wooden boat was found in the loft, no doubt belonging to one of the boys, which perhaps sailed on Queen’s Park pond. Several clay marbles and two double-headed pennies were also found in the garden. An old Bramley apple tree, planted by George Beresford in the large rear garden, produced a good crop. The garden is now covered by a bungalow.
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Local news Terre à Terre Restaurant working with Stanmer Community Garden Group to offer a menu celebrating the best of Sussex Allotments
Terre a Terre - Celebrating the best in Sussex Allotments Terre à Terre has just released the Great Growers Menu – a two course menu working in partnership with Stanmer Community Garden Group. The menu has been developed and inspired by produce from the allotment and the local area and will be available for the next 4 weeks only. The volunteers welcomed the opportunity to barter with Terre a Terre, produce for restaurant vouchers, acknowledging that it was a great way to ensure they had no surplus produce. However unfortunately this community garden has suffered terribly from theft and some of their cherished produce including all their edible flowers have been vanishing overnight. They have started recording the site with cameras but are disappointed by the lack of respect and hope that working with Terre à Terre and raising the profile of the group may help for the future. "Our tiny charity, Stanmer Community Garden Group, supporting people with physical and mild mental health difficulties, now has the distinction of supporting one of the best restaurants in Brighton. Our members are very excited at the prospect of growing and supplying Terre a Terre, which everyone in the group knows about and most have eaten at. Growing in beautiful surroundings of South Downs, our complimentary growing techniques don't always yield the most crop but has the tastiest crops of salad and fruit we've ever tasted, even getting some confirmed nonsalad eaters trying it. We hope that the many people who enjoy Terre à Terre will enjoy our crops too." Jeanne James, Stanmer Community Garden Group BBQ · Tea & Cakes · Scones Cold Drinks · Lemonade · Ice-Lollies Lion Dance · Kung Fu Demo Bouncy Castle · Hula Hooping Raffle with amazing prizes Adult Clothes & Books · Plants · Bric-a-Brac Children’s Clothes, Books & Toys
The main course ‘HopScotch Ploughman’s’ is a platter of Sussex tastes and surprises from cheesy thyme bread and butter pudding to Harveys hops dressed Stanmer leaves, pickles and herbs, onion puree, beer gel, pickled onion and sorrel jelly and a little Sussex ale with a cheese top on the side. Followed by a meringue based pudding filled with gooseberry ice cream and served with elderberry and gooseberry compote. Available now Monday to Friday £19.95 for two courses.
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Local Charity
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Please read about a great scheme that has been set up by Macmillian Cancer Support...
Team Up from Macmillan Cancer Support Team Up from Macmillan Cancer Support is a new service for anyone affected by cancer in Brighton and Hove. We noticed that there are plenty of willing people who want to volunteer their time, but they don’t have a lot of it to spare. Macmillan research also showed that some people with cancer and the people who look after them could do with an extra pair of hands around the house from time to time. Sometimes treatment knocks you for six and you’re just too tired or unable to do housework. Sometimes you’d just rather invite people round for a cup of tea and a chat than a dusting session. Sometimes there just isn’t anyone around to ask for help with the small stuff. We wanted to find a way to squeeze some good deeds into the diaries of busy Brightonians, whilst also helping out over-stretched people living with cancer, and carers in the community. Team Up connects people with a bit of spare time with people who could use a hand with housework and gardening. Whether you want to volunteer or get some support, you register online where you can then post or search for tasks in your neighbourhood. As a helper, you can pick up a task whenever you’ve got five minutes spare, there’s no regular commitment or obligation at all and none of them should take longer than an hour. All our helpers are security checked and we meet them all personally. People signing up can be at any stage in their cancer journey, or looking after someone who is, and you don’t need to have received any support from Macmillan in the past.
Find out more and register at www.goteamup.org.uk and tell anyone who you think would like to know about this fab free service. You can also find us on www.facebook. com/teamupmacmillan and www.twitter.com/ teamupmacmillan
So if you’ve got a bit of space in your life to help your neighbours out, then we’d love to hear from you. If you’re looking around at a growing pile of washing up and an empty fridge then Team Up can help. Let us start ticking those annoying little jobs off your to-do list so you can focus on what’s important.
Videostar 229 Queens Park Rd Brighton • • • • •
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At your service...
After School Club Tarnerland..............................................................................6 Blacksmiths Anvil Ironworks.....................................................................3 Building Services Hanover Building Solutions................................................6 JL Property...........................................................................14 Team Super.............................................................................3 Carpentry Richly Carpentry....................................................................4 Children’s Activities Tarnerland............................................................................11 Damp Treatments Brighton Damp Solutions...................................................8 Estate Agent Bonett’s...........................................................................Cover Funerals Sussex Funerals....................................................................9 Handyman Dean Cheslin..........................................................................4 Local Attraction The Royal Pavillion..............................................................6 Locksmiths Thomas Locksmiths...........................................................15
Newsagents Videostar...............................................................................13 Nursery Royal Spa Nursery..............................................................12 Oven Cleaner Dirty Ovens..........................................................................10 Pet Services Taylor’s Pet Services............................................................4 Pharmacy O’Flinns...................................................................................8 Photographer Brighton & Hove Photography.........................................6 Public House The Round Georges...........................................................14 Tennis Tennis Coaching....................................................................6 Transport Brighton and Hove Buses..................................................16 Vegetable Shop Hilly Laine..............................................................................4 Voter registration Brighton and Hove Council................................................2 Woodburners Energy Wake Up................................................................10
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p u e z e bre to the Downs...
Kids go
E! FRE eeze’
r – see ‘B r details fo leaflets
For times, fares, leaflets and walk ideas: Visit www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/breezebuses Phone (01273) 292480 Or visit www.traveline.info to plan any bus or train journey – anywhere! To advertise e-mail info@queensparkliving.co.uk or call 01273 551021
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...at Devil’s Dyke, Ditchling Beacon and Stanmer Park by bus.