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4 Clitheroe Advertiser and Times, February 1st, 1979


A bed for Brock


A COUPLE of days ago I had an interest­ ing conversation with a gamekeeper who, to my knowledge, over the past few years has shown a profound con­ cern for the general harmony of his ter­ ritory. He is alert, very active


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and conversant with those signs of the countryside which at all seasons “speak louder than words.” He drew my attention to the call of a lapwing which had, on several occasions, w a rn ed him of the activities of the human tre sp a s se r intent on


poaching. Those sen t in els of


nature such as the Lapw­ ing and Curlew, fully understood by country people, convey in their tones either threat or plea­ sure. The gamekeeper is at all times ready to make his interpretations. He recalled a similar


instance in March, which to my surprise was linked with the badger, a crea­ ture we both agreed is now holding its own in our reg­ ion. This man seldom fails to impress me with his practical experience and iiis badger story was no exception.


Most people are sym­ pathetic to “Brock,” for it


people


is a very courageous crea­ ture, extremely powerful, with a fine sense of com­ munity spirit and excep­ tionally clean in its domes­ tic affairs.


Unfortunately, due no


doubt to constant persecu­ tion over the years, it attempts to stay clear of man, but my friend’s encounter came as a shock because of the strange meeting place. As he said “I am used to seeing them near the set, but this was entirely different.


Just imagine what your


reaction would be on removing an inspection cover in a country lane to find that a badger had made the chamber into a very comfortable nest. What could be better than such a dry chamber lined with dry bedding? The badger obtained


entrance via the drain in the adjacent field and com­ ing to the man-made com­ partment settled in despite


Medical man’s 30-year


service ends


AFTER 30 years at Calderstones Hospital, Dr Edward Hutton, the Deputy Medical Director, is


retiring at the end of March. He and his wife Daisy


are returning to Ireland to live in the Vale of Avoca, Co. Wicklow. They met when he was studying medicine at University College, Dublin, and she was at the Abbey Theatre.


A youthful Dr Hutton


explained that in the Health Service early retirement is open to those who have done 30 years’ psychiatric work.


ment and they now have


much more freedom and enjoy a better relationship with'the staff.


Opportunity for them to


move more freely in public has brought occasional


problems, but in general the people of Whalley and the Ribble Valley have been understanding and kind. This said Dr Hutton, had no doubt contributed to the recovery of some p a t ie n t s and to an improvement in the condi­


tion of others. Dr Hutton, who since


1959 has had clinical responsibility for the female patients, said the standard set by the nurs­ ing staf f had always impressed him. In the past their conditions had been difficult, but always they had performed duties and kindnesses to the patients beyond their contract


Other members of staff


had also sought to human­ ise the service and the Cal- derstones League of Friends had played a valu­


able part. The distance which so


I)It HUTTON — back to Ireland.


I n retirement hejdans to


continue in psychiatric medicine and, in his leisure to fish and go racing.


During Dr Hutton’s time


at the hosp ita l, the p a t ie n t s ’ lives have changed “beyond recogni­ tion. Introduction of the Mental Health Act in 1959 encouraged a much less restrictive attitude to their treatment and manage­


often separates patients from relatives represents a weakness of the service in Dr Hutton’s view. He would like to see each town developing its own ser­ vices for the mentally handicapped so that more could live at home.


Dr Hutton will leave


Calderstones with happy memories, for his two sons and two daughters were born there. One still lives at home, one is a doctor, one is married to a doctor, and the other is a dentist.


Mrs Hutton used to be


associated with Accrington Arts Club and is now a member of the Highcliffe Players, Burnley.


the area's farmers. With some 200 sheep


Semprini sound


CLITHEROE music lov­ ers have a great treat lined up for them tomorrow night at the Girls Grammar School.


T h e M i d - P e n n i n e Association for the Arts is presenting a piano recital by Alberto Semprini, world renowned concert pianist.


The evening begins at 7-


30 p.m. with tickets priced at £1 for adults and 50p for students and senior citi­ zens.


Semprini was born in


Bath of an Italian father and an English mother.


His musical s t u d i e s


began there before be moved to Milan at the age of ten where his work con­ tinued.


After graduating in his


final exams as composer, conductor and concert


pianist, Semprini gained experience conducting in Italian opera houses and making records of opera music and ballads.


Shortly before the last


war he formed his Sym­ phonic Rhythm Orchestra for Italian radio.


Since his return to Eng­


land in 1940 he has been involved in many radio and television programmes and in concerts of classical and light music all over the country.


tjrazing on frozen, snow- covered ground above Wis- well, farme r Mr John Moran has to make sure they receive their daily fod­ der, and rather than strug­ gle on a tractor over rulted fields, his best friend has become an eight-wheel buggy which can do every­ thing but fly.


The machine which can


carry two people and six to eight bales of hay, takes everything from frozen


BUGGY TO THE RESCUE


hillsides to marshes in its


stride. And that is a big help to


Mr Moran’s son Temp (left), and helper Henry


Davies, who set off early every morning for the top of Pendle with those essen­ tial bales of hay. The 15 h.p. buggy is


powered by a throttle and steered by two levers, which are pulled back to stop the machine.


Jane’s jaunt is a prize from Thwaites


HEAD girl at Ribblesdale School, Clitheroe, IS year-old Jane Roberts has won a Thwaites scho­ larship to Czechoslovakia in July. Jane, of Hayhurst Road, results are released, she


Whalley, was thrilled when she was told that she would he one of the party visiting the country. I’m looking forward to


the trip as Czechoslovakia is an Iron Curtain country, and I don’t know what to


expect," she said. She will be staying with


a family near Prague. Jane, who has seven ‘O'


levels, is currently study­ ing hard for her ‘A’ level examinations in History, English Literature and Mathematics. However, when the


Jane hopes to study his­


I HAVE written previ­ ously of the people who come to my door from time to time — chiefly Americans or Cana­ dians over here on a visit, who are anxious to trace their roots in this district.


Usually they are people


called Whalley, but the man who came one after­


noon was rather different. For a start his name wasn’t Whalley, and he, person­ ally, didn’t appear particu­ larly interested in his ancestry.


He was an American


and, “Before I flew out,” he told me, “I promised my mother I’d come up here to see what I. could find.”


It appeared that, rather


more than a couple of hundred years ago, certain of his forebears had lived in Wiswell and, early in the iist century, others had


made their home in the Little Harwood area of Blackburn. I questioned him closely


trying to find clues that might be helpful. But he was a trifle vague and I


POSING FOR A KEEPSAKE Whalley Window


felt unable to give him much help or encourage­ ment. After a couple of hours’


chat and a couple of cups of coffee, I said, “Well, look here. ‘ I’m pretty tied up tonight, but I’m free all day tomorrow. If we can arrange to meet I’ll take you up to Wiswell and we’ll see what information we can dig up.” “Oh, gee, no,” he ans­


wered. “I guess I can’t do that. I’ve been on the Con­ tinent and flew in from Vienna this morning. I came right up here and I’m flying home from Heath­ row at midnight. I guess a trip to Wiswell is quite impossible.” Naturally I agreed. We


shook hands and off the went, but I couldn’t help but wonder at the amazing optimism of a man who could turn up out of the blue and expect to ferret out a couple of hundred years of his family history


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in a few brief hours. Another visitor unc


afternoon was a Clitheroe lady. She had called on behalf of an elderly rela­ tive (or it could have been an old friend) who had emi­ grated to Canada many years before and who was born in Church Lane in our village — probably our old­ est street. The lady had read some


of my articles and appa­ rently liked them (she had the “Advertiser” posted out to her regularly) and for some strange reason I am still not completely clear about, wanted a photograph of me standing in the doorway of the house where she was born. A simpl e en o u gh


renuest, and as her friend had come along armed with an excellent camera, unshaven and somewhat dishevelled though I was, we went down to Church Lane together. “She was born in the end


tory at Hull or Lampeter if the results are favourable, and to do archive work. Jane’s parents, Mr and


house,” said my visitor and so I posed there in an eleg- ant attitude and tried desperately hard to look reasonably respectable. . “Click,” went the cam­


era and “That's fine," said the lady. Then a thought struck me. “You say your friend


was born in the end house." I said. “Was it this end of the lane or the


other?" “ Oh dear, I never


thought about that. I really don’t know!” said the visitor and so we were left with only one alterna­ tive. Together we set off down the street and I tried to look handsome in the doorway at the other end. How the photographs


turned out and what the reaction was in Canada when eventually they reached there, I have never heard. Perhaps if her eyesight


wasn’t too good and she was unable to see me clearly, the old lady mught have been able to survive


the shock. I do hope so — the


houses at either end of the street are equally attrac­ tive. _


J.F.


Mrs Hugh Roberts, were also pleased she was cho­ sen. Jane has a sister, Helen (16), who also attends Ribblesdale.


Back to classes


RIBBLE Valley branch of the Workers’ Education Association hopes to make a start to the next session of its evening classes on


Monday. The classes have been


held up due to the weather conditions preventing people attending, and the caretakers’ recent indust­ rial action. T h r e e cours e s at Ribblesdale Adult Centre, Clitheroe, will be picking up where they left off. These are world polities, genealogy and man and the land. New topics will be art,


at either Whalley Adult Centre or St Augustine’s School, Billington, and geology for beginners, at


Whalley. Anyone interested in


more details about the courses or venues should contact branch secretary Nora Wood (W h al ley 3257).


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Foxes a r e t h e


gamekeeper’s greatest threat and as we talked of this animal’s wonderful powers of adaptation — which he claimed were the main reason b e h i n d Reynard’s prosperity — he recalled being drawn to witness a most unusual encounter between fox and badger. Once again his attention


was first drawn to the drama by the antics of the lapwings, o b v iou s ly alarmed by the serious fight.


It is well-known that a


fox will lie up in a badger set with the two contrast­ ing characters living together amicably. It is my opinion that the fox is sim­ ply tolerated, for after all the badger is basically friendly, its main purpose in life being based on ease and comfort. Obviously the pair my


COUNTRY BIARY


friend surprised were actually fighting “like two dogs,” tearing away at each other in mortal com­ bat. My own reaction can be expressed in the words “Oh, to have been present with a camera” — a picture in a million, without doubt.


Thank goodness the


enlightened approach of this particular keeper to the badger is in direct con­ trast to the action of others I have known down the years, when badgers were hunted, dug, tormented and persecuted by those who in their mistaken zeal and thirst for “pleasure”, sought to exterminate any beast or bird daring to establish themselves on their ground. However, once again we


must admit that the spread of knowledge concerning Brock has brought about a re-think among many of its former enemies. At the same time we


must not forget there are still those who consider badger digging a “sport.” Since the Radgor Bill became law, penalties and improved propaganda have served as a deterrent. S o -ca l le d sporting


activities are difficult to abolish and while there is every reason to suppose such activities are on the decline, with various pro­ tection societies keeping a watchful eye, there is


much to keep us on the alert. Few of our native ani­


mals have been subject to such revolting cruelty, all, mark you, in the name of “sport.” Witness a report of a gentleman — a Master of the Fox Hounds — cut­ ting off the tail of a badger and “after slashing the ani­ mal open with his knife, tossing the mortally wounded creature to the hounds.” We must not overlook a


host of similar atrocities concerning the training of young terriers to partici­ pate in badger digging. In one gentleman's sport­


ing memoirs we read: “Before young terriers are set upon him (the badger), it is well to cut away the badger's lower jaw, so that they may see the fury of him without permanent injury to the terriers.” Of course such a task is


extremely difficult with the badger, because of the


peculiar bone formation which interlocks upper and


I o wer j a w s . So the “sportsman” suggested —


“it is as well to break off all the badger's teeth or to cut out the tongue.” As 1 recently said, con­


cerning the otter, these so- called sportsmen have much to answer for, both in regard to moral and physical suffering.


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